LEGO 7090 Crossbow Attack

Toys R Us recently had a sale which brought the prices of the Castle LEGO kits down to almost what you pay at full retail in the US. I took advantage of this sale to procure a few little kits. The first is the 7090 Crossbow Attack.
This kit is the smallest of the new line and is about $8 Canadian or $5.99 US. At the US price it's reasonable for a kit of this size, which comes with 3 minifigs, a ballista, and a skeletal horse. I don't really like the skeletal horse but it's actually much better in person than I expected. Still I find it looks a little odd, but then I've never seen a horse skeleton so maybe they DO look like that.

The ballista is decent-looking but it doesn't fire well. Unlike the Viking heavy artillery, this little artillery piece can barely lob the bolt more than 8 inches. I think it would have been better if the ballista didn't attempt to fire and instead looked better, but anyway its parts are useful and can be incorporated into new creations fairly easily.

Anyway the real reason for buying this set is to build up your army. The set comes with two human soldiers and one undead skeleton, so it's pretty good in that regard. The skeleton is fully armed with the great new scimitar and round skull shield, but the humans are poorly armed. They can be outfitted with the crossbows that are attached to the ballista, and one human has an axe, but there are no shields to be seen. The lack of sheilds and swords is what keeps this set from being perfect.
Overall I rate this set as good, not excellent, but still a nice fun set that (in some countries) is available at a reasonable price.