#9896

Anyway, yes, Dragons Tower.  Some sources give its name as “Dragon’s Tower” or “Dragon Tower” (including the Mega Bloks website), but the box says “Dragons Tower” without an apostrophe, so that’s what we’re going to call it.  I assume that the dragons of Dragons Tower are the carved stone dragon heads that line the battlements.  Or maybe it was built at a spot where many dragons died—or maybe it was built by dragons, though I doubt it.

9896 Dragons Tower was a limited edition set, exclusive to Toys R Us and packaged in a box that at least appeared to be made of molded metal.  It features fourteen Draigar warriors along with a single-headed dragon, gold of scale, black of wing, and red of claw, spine, and tooth.  As can be seen in the lower leftmost image, the names of the warriors and dragon are listed on the interior of the packaging.  Unfortunately, I can’t find a higher resolution image of that part of the packaging, so I have no idea what those names are (and I’m not going to buy a set that would cost me at least $65 just so I can see the characters’ names—not immediately, anyway).  If any of you own this set, please message me with a high-resolution photograph of that part of the packaging, or at least a list of the names printed thereon.

The Dragons Tower seems to be a pretty standard example of Warfang-Valtheran (or early Draigar) architecture.  It features a dragon’s-head gate of molded gold, a typical blocky structure, and Valtheran-style protruding battlements.  Before the tower stands a symbolic “gate” of the kind seen in 9881 Battle Gate.  Does this indicate that the early Draigar did indeed have the architectural know-how to create such gates?  Or was this gate present long before the construction of the Dragons Tower—or were they both present long before the Warfang-Valtheran war?  Who knows?  Here’s my headcanon: the symbolic “gates” are ancient sacred sites, dating back to the time before the war, when dragons and humans coexisted peacefully on Terraurgen.  They were constructed by the dragons themselves, or else by humans working in conjunction with dragons.  The original Dragons Tower was constructed during this time as well, though not as long ago as the gate in front of it was constructed.  It fell into ruin long ago, but when the war ended, Padraig commanded that a new Dragons Tower be built in the same location, to serve as his fortress and the center of the new Draigar nation’s capital.

Here’s something I just noticed about Warfang-Valtheran/Draigar architecture:  There is a reoccurring jagged “stair-steps” motif.