#dragons initial theme

[megabloksdragons]

A very strange oddity from the Mega Bloks Dragons pseudo-“franchise”… an envelope? I have no idea what this is about or where you would acquire it, but I found it on Ebay, never saw it before and decided it deserved to be archived. My guess is that the enevelope was given away for free to spread awareness of the Dragons line, obviously since you were supposed to send it to your friend and it has an advertisement on the back showing every set.

The back says “contains 5 pieces; for ages 8+” There are obviously pieces in here. My guess is that it would be something like Padraig, a golden spear, and some other random piece like a stand or something. The envelope in the listing is sealed so it is a mystery. I can find nothing else about it.

This is pretty cool, honestly, but there is little to say about it. Next thing

Thanks for the submission.  It’s always interesting to see little bits of history like this.  Posts on Krystal Wars will begin sometime within the next couple weeks.

[megabloksdragons]

This is the webpage for the 2002 mega bloks dragons website. It gives a little bit of insight into the series, but not too much. The theory of the Warfang and Valtheran’s armor may have been debunked by this page, seeing as it describes their armor as “copper-hued” and “silver armor” Although it may be invalid evidence as seen later on.

It says about three times that dragons draw power from the krystals, interestingly enough. It does not explain how or what the powers are though. It also comments that dragons can only be rode by those with great courage and skill, which to me (objectively speaking) blurs if they are actually owned by them or not (which I still think they are)

What is the most interesting is the obviously not up to date descriptions of the sets.

It describes warriors fortress as the battle for control of the warriors fortress, in which the victor will gain the mask of ultimate power. The battle continues at Sorcerer’s lair. it mentions that not only does Sorcerer’s lair come with Yulmar, but it is the Valtheran stronghold, which judging by the actual set is very hard to believe. It says the set contains Cragfire instead of Stoneburner. It says sorcerer’s lair comes with hidden weapons, as opposed to a staff. It also says that battle gate contains a golden sword, which it does not, remember. (Swords were once a taboo in the dragons line, the first real sword was in fire and ice) and also it says it comes with Torchwing as opposed to Talonblaze. It says that the set dragonslayer has Stoneburner and a catapult, which is wrong because the final version comes with Torchwing and a crossbow. I am absolutely confused at how the stakes for each battle get unashamedly smaller as well as the scope and size each time, like they tried to make it that way. The very first battle is over the magical helmet of “ultimate power”, mind you, and the last is over a simple dragonstone, which is also involved with all the other battles anyway. Why did they do that? 

Of course, through all the ludicrous factual errors in this page, it can be concluded that this does not describe the final version of the sets (I actually have pictures for prototype sets from a later point that support this) and thus this page cannot be trusted fully. But it’s interesting and definitely worth archiving anyway.

I found this page using the internet wayback machine, which is a fabulous tool.

Excellent stuff!  Honestly, I think you’d do a better job of running this blog than I do.

How did you find the MBD website on the wayback machine?

[megabloksdragons]

And with that, I do believe we’re done with the original 2002 line!  Next time, we’ll be talking about Krystal Wars, the Dragons line’s second subtheme, which came out in 2003.  For now, I’ll leave you with the standard 2002 instruction booklet back cover, featuring images of all four major playsets and urging you to “Collect Them All!” and arrange them as a single scene as depicted in the center of the page.

[megabloksdragons]

9850 Dragon Battle

Oops, almost forgot this one!  9850 Dragon Battle is pretty simple: it consists of the copper-scaled dragon Darkwraith and a party of four Draigar warriors:  Ironspear, Alldread, Bitterwind, and Ravenstomb.  Hmmm, I wonder if the metallic coloration of the dragons featured in the Draigar sets of 2002 could have some in-universe significance?  Perhaps especially important dragons have metallic scales, and the Draigar, who are now making war on the dragons outright, have decided to target them specifically.

[megabloksdragons]

9897 Dragons Challenge

Once again, the Mega Bloks Dragons box designers don’t know how to use apostrophes.

So it’s pretty obvious what this set is: a chess set, with Warfang and Valtheran warriors in place of the pieces.  Which is supposed to be white and which is supposed to be black, I have no idea.  The instruction booklet asserts that “the light color pieces play first,” but is that the Warfang or the Valtheran?  Neither really seems lighter- or darker-colored than the other to me.

It came with a coppery-scaled dragon with a red crystal.  I couldn’t find a photograph of it.

It also came out in 2002, which puts it three years ahead of LEGO’s first chess set (the Knight’s Kingdom chess set), if I’m not mistaken.

EDIT:  According to @thegreatgodofmineworld, the dragon’s name is Darkwraith.

[megabloksdragons]

An example of Valtheran architecture, taken from a very unlikely place; a store display, which appears to be built entirely from pieces of warrior’s fortress. I found this picture on ebay. the listing is still up for $100, here is the link; 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-MEGA-BLOKS-DRAGONS-STORE-DISPLAY-UNIT-FREE-SHIPPING-INCLUDED-/371594914448?hash=item5684c86a90:g:hDUAAOSw2XFUgQxT

It is indeed.  Thanks for the submission!  The blog should return to a regular posting schedule within the week, now that I’m home from college.

[megabloksdragons]

9882 Fire Mountain

I’m guessing that this set came out a little while after the sets I have previously covered, but I can’t be certain, as I was not aware of Mega Bloks Dragons at the time, and there are (obviously) precious few historical records.  Anyway, though this is a 2002 set and part of the initial Dragons theme, it differs from previous 2002 sets in two significant ways.  First, it features a dragon model not previously seen.  While, in previous sets, dragons were distinguished from each other only by the colors of their scales and the shapes of their cranial ornamentation, the dragon in 9882 Fire Mountain is distinguished from the others by an additional head!  Below the shoulders, however, he(?) is no different from previously released dragons.  His(?) name is Eironchard, and he is gold of scale and red of horn.

Second, the humans in this set are neither copper-armored Warfang nor silver-armored Valtheran.  Their armor is gold (or bronze), and they belong to the Draigar faction!  You see, Padraig from 9871 Dragon Slayer succeeded in his attempt at unifying the Warfang and Valtheran into a single people!  Now the Draigar make war against Eironchard, who I assume must be an especially significant dragon.

As you can see, some of the Draigar are wearing Warfang-style horns, while others are wearing Valtheran-style crests.  Some Draigar carry Warfang-style clubs, while others carry Valtheran-style axes.  Their weapons are black in color.

Speculation:  the silvery armor of the Valtheran was in fact tin (the most common metal in Valtheran territory), while the copper armor of the Warfang really was copper (the most common metal in Warfang territory).  When the Warfang and Valtheran merged and became the Draigar, they discovered that they could forge the copper and tin together to create much stronger bronze.  Thus the unity of the two related tribes was symbolized by an alloy of their metals.  I guess Padraig figured out how to do this first.

[megabloksdragons]

Hey, I came back to this blog!  Here we have the official guide to the human characters of the Warfang-Valtheran arc, conveniently included on the last page of each 2002 set’s instruction manual.

9890 Warriors Fortress includes the Warfang warriors Kriwarg, Harg, Vorlang, Simmurg, Malkin, and Morlack, and the Valtheran warriors Rythiel, Leith, Aprash, Ashul, Ramach, and Imrien.  9886 Sorcerer’s Lair includes the Warfang warriors Woljag, Akrif, Grosag, and Somyrk, and the Warfang wizard Vorlod; as well as the Valtheran warriors Gilnor, Tamoth, Ethyn, Shaldor, and Hulraith.  9881 Battle Gate contains the Warfang warriors Skolack, Wulluck, Kurg, and Morkusk, as well as the Valtheran wizard Yulmar, and the Valtheran warriors Harnash, Riel, and Durian.

It is implied that Morlack and Rythiel are the leaders of their respective factions, as each is shown wearing a unique cape in some other images.  Vorlod is located closer to Morlack than Yulmar is to Rythiel, which I take as a shaky confirmation of my theory that the Warfang have greater respect for wizards than do the Valtheran.

At the center of the image is Padraig, who wears golden armor and is not associated with either faction.

The Warfang names definitely share a unique “flavor” among them, as do the Valtheran names, and these two “flavors” are different enough that it makes me wonder if the Warfang and Valtheran speak different languages and are not closely related at all.  But then I remember that essentially all of these names are plausible English names.  I wonder if the difference between Warfang and Valtheran names is primarily a difference of dialect (i.e. certain sounds are more common in the Warfang dialect than the Valtheran and vice versa) or of naming convention (i.e. certain words are more popular as name elements in Warfang names than Valtheran names and vice versa).