I like that my birthday is in October. It’s when all the cool monster toys come out, but the last couple of years have been kinda lean for the Halloween toy market. Thank God that Lego went all out this year with the release of their Monster Fighters line. About a month ago I did a review on the Vampyre Hearse (SO FREAK’n AWESOME!), one of the seven kits in the series. Since then I’ve purchased 3 of the other kits:
The Swamp Creature:
The cheapest one out of the sets, this kit comes with Creature, Swamp Moonstone with Base, bounty hunter Frank Rock and his Airboat. This little set packs a lot of pieces, which add up to a lot of fun for very little money.
Other than the cool Swamp Creature (I’m naming mine Fred), I really like the Airboat. With its slick bottom pads, the Airboat is fun to slide across the kitchen table – totally worth the $7 that I paid for it!
10/10 Moons
The Mummy
I have mixed feelings about this one. Sure you get a Mummy (Larry) and his cool haunted Egyptian Chariot, but the biggest disappointment is the Skeleton Horse. Yeah it glows in the dark, but it’s only a single molded piece with no moving parts. What’s fun in that? The Monster Fighter is cool too but you wished for the Lego curved female torso and her odd flying machine looks like it was made out of spare parts with no thought into the design… well, at lest I got a Mummy out of it.
5/10 Moons
The Werewolf
Oh man I loved building Major Quinton Steele’s old timey Hot Rod and as figures go, these two kick so much ass! Then you get a weird catapult tree to build… yeah it comes with a lot of pieces, but who at Lego INC. though building a tree would be any fun? I would have packaged this set with either a Campfire/Campground or an old abandoned Gypsy Tent/Trailer Carriage. In conclusion, I say YES! to the Monster Hunter, Werewolf and Hot Rod… but a big fat F*CK YOU to the tree!
8/10 Moons
I’m still saving my pennies for the Zombie (#9465) and Mad Scientist/Monster (#9466) kits, which I will review later (ie. when I get them), but there are two of the Lego Monster Fighter kits that I’m going to have to take a pass on. The first is the Ghost Train. Why? I think that it’s just too silly, looks like a Fisher Price toddler toy, and not worth paying $80 for. Yeah, it comes with three glow in the dark ghosts but also 2 bounty hunters that are found in the other kits I’ve already purchased. Also, I’m just not that happy with the hillbilly air-a-mo-plane. Once again it’s another flying piece of crap that looks like it was a total “spare parts afterthought” just to up the price of the kit. No thank you! There’s another Monster Hunter Lego kit that I would rather crack open my piggy bank for and it’s not the Vampyre Castle…
Now, you’re thinking to yourself, “But Rube, don’t you want the Vampyre’s Castle? It’s the super-mega-ultra-deluxe castle kit packed with 6 figures and a car… and with 949 pieces, why would you say no?” My answer is very simple… have you checked the Lego Website recently? Believe it or not there’s a much cooler super-mega-ultra-deluxe Lego kit out there, but it’s only available as an exclusive at Lego.com or at their flagship stores. This kit is simply called THE HAUNTED HOUSE – stay tuned for the Rube’s full review in Part Two!
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This article is part of the Countdown to Halloween blogathon, a month-long blogging marathon dedicated to honoring the Halloween season. For more information and a full list of participating sites, please visit www.countdowntohalloween.com.
