Building the 7019 Viking Fortress

I was excited to discover most of the pieces to 7019 Viking Fortress against the Fafnir Dragon in a bulk purchase.  After brick-linking the missing parts, I was able to complete the set.

I do not have the instruction manuals or original box, so I used the PDF manual from Brickset.  

The Viking Fortress was the largest set LEGO produced from the Viking line 2005 and contains 1019 pieces.  The set retailed for $70 in the US and 50 pounds in the UK. 

The fortress is a large structure made to resemble an octagonal wooden fortress - it uses a lot of the "wood" wall palisades similar to Fort Legorado - and comes with 6 minifigures, a large dragon, and a small dragon.

MINIFIGURES

There are 6 Viking minifigures included in this set: 5 warriors and the Viking King.  Each figure has a different color scheme and printing, along with plenty of weapons, including many of the custom printed Viking "radar dish" shields.

DRAGONS

There are 2 dragons - a small, baby dragon that is a simple Technic-based build with red, translucent wings.  Both are custom builds and only available in this set.  The 2 small technic black bushings are rare and expensive, and since I was missing one, I actually substituted light bluish gray. 

The large Fafnir Dragon is also Technic-based, and while not nearly as detailed or cool as the newer Ninjago dragos, it is large and pretty formidable in dark green.  The large dragon head is rather rare, as it is only included in Viking sets and Mistlands Tower.

THE FORTRESS BUILD

The first part of the fortress is the main gate.  The gate is very tall and includes double doors that swing open.

The next part of the build is the large cage with a huge catapult on top.  The cage opens so you can put the small dragon inside, and the catapult shoots 3 large boulders.

Next, comes the rest of the walls - 2 identical sections that end up connecting to the gate and the catapult cage.  Each of these wall sections also include a smaller catapult on top.

Finally, all the wall sections are able to join up to make a HUGE structure:

A very impressive set - if anything, just for it's large footprint.  Of course, there's much more to be excited about...from the Viking minifigures to the dragons to the array of weapons and catapults.  

For investment purposes, latest Brickpicker pricing comes in at $215 new and $128 used with recent Ebay sales of 100% complete sets pushing up as high as $167 with box and manuals.  The Viking theme as a whole is viewed by some collectors as highly desirable due to its unique, hard-to-find sets.  Of course, if LEGO decides to reboot a Viking theme, I would imagine these older models may suffer if the newer ones improved on the designs.