An Enigma To Me
Posted by
Paradosis
in United States
on
16 June 2009
This set is very popular in the Lego community, and to be quite honest I'm not exactly sure that I fully see the appeal. Don't get me wrong, I agree that it has overall a nice design, and has lots of play features, it just seems to be lacking something to me, though I can't put my finger on what exactly.
First, the positives. The set does have some larger pieces, but thankfully it's mostly brick built. It has a nice brown, light grey and dark grey color scheme, with green and black accents. I really like the brick-built mining carts, which have a very nice design. There are lots of nice little details, such as lots of mining elements, an anvil, helmets, armor and axes, a throne, a fire, torches, and a brick-built hammer. There is a contraption for pulling up mining materials to different levels, for transporting mining materials from the back to the front (and vice versa), and a place for sliding them down a shoot into mining cars. There are seven minifigures (4 dwarves, 2 orcs, 1 troll) in this set, which is a nice amount for a set this size and price. I think that the dwarves are especially nicely done. And one last positive is that there is lots of railing to push the mining carts along.
And then there are the shortcomings, in my opinion. The set uses ladders to get to some areas, but not all areas can be reached by ladders, leaving you with the need to make huge leaps while playing to access some areas. While I like the catapult from a design perspective, and not a big fan of it from a play perspective. The set isn't built on a baseplate, but rather on plates, which would be more acceptable if it were more easily able to be rearranged. The doors don't extend to the ground, which I'm not a fan of, though that's a minor gripe. And finally, while there is a nice variety of helmets and lots of axes, a few more shields wouldn't have hurt.
In the end I'd recommend this set, but not whole-heartedly. I would have liked to have seen a slightly better price point with this one, or... I dunno, just something else that I can't quite explain. I'd say it's a good set, just not a great or classic set. I'd give the set a 76/100.
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