 | |
Set Review: 9468 Vampyre Castle
 Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 at 12:35pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Sisen] Today we bring you another Monster Fighters set review. The set 9468 Vampyre Castle is one of the biggest in the wave, and Forum Assistant Sisen took his time to go through the whole thing. Read on to see if this is a set you should consider - I hear Twilight fans will love it, something about vampires that glow I guess. Presentation
Do not be afraid of the dark, this is not the monster from under your bed. This is Dracula's Castle, known as the Vampyre Castle! The front of this box of monsters is full of action. Jack McHammer is pursuing a Manbat, as Doctor Rodney Rathbone takes on the stormaggedon evil dark lord of all, Lord Vampyre. Lord Vampyre's bride (known as Vampira from hereon in) is brewing an evil potion, as the Moonstone device powers an eternal darkness for the entire world. With almost nine hundred and fifty pieces, and an age range of nine to fourteen this set is not for the faint of heart! The box of the back reveals the inner workings of the dreaded Vampyre Castle. There are some neat doodads and thingamabobs that whirl whirl twist and twirl.
Building
This set contains several bags, seven to be precise. Not contained within any bag are the two instruction manuals, two castle tower roof pieces, and the glow in the dark sticker set. The first of the bags includes all of the best elements: the minifigures! Doctor Rodney Rathbone, Lord Stormaggedon Vampyre, Jack McHammer, Vampira, and dastardly duo of Manbats are included alongside an unknown skeleton.
The Doctor's car is a pretty sweet and fun ride to build. When building it, the structure without its base wheels reminds you of a futuristic flying car and the big net launcher looks like a jet engine.
Dun dun dun. The castle-struction is about to begin. While only one bag contained the minifigures and car, six others make up the entirety of the Vampyre Castle. That's. A. Lot. Of. Castle. Assembling the castle at first was quite confusing, because it is not a brick and mortar construction. Individual towers and pieces are built and then interconnected for a complete montage. Naturally the build starts at the lowest place of ranking... the dungeon.
The next segment contains the evil imposing gates that keep unwanted guests out of the Dark Lord's Vampyre Castle. Putting the gate together is quite simple, but the layering of bricks can get confusing if the instructions are not paid close attention.
Blasted convening Dark Lord! The second tallest tower of Lord Vampyre's Castle is deceiving. The bottom level contains a spike pit to impale those brave enough to trespass and cross through this section of the castle. Beware unwanted guests, this trap will prick more than a finger or your neck!
Bag number five contains the most frightening part of the castle, Lord Vampyre's coffin bedchamber. If you see this and remain alive, consider yourself a lucky being... The bulk of this bag's build is to support the remainder of the castle though.
With the addition of bag six quite a few interesting and neat parts are added in! There's a bed? Hm. Must be for Lord Vampyre to pose as a normal human being... A work station with some questionable items... and of course an upstairs library.
This seventh and final bag concludes the most devilish contraption. The Moonstone Device! The final tip of the castle is added on and the powerful un-ending night array is assembled, with musical organ provided on top.
Set Design
Overall this is a wonderful set design and takes a fair amount of time to build, especially factoring in the photography and build as you go portions. As shown on the back of the box, the Castle actually does open up in a nice 'L' fashion to give more playability. The minifigures are perhaps one of my favorite parts of the design though. While, Doctor Rathbone, Jack McHammer, and Lord Vampyre do appear in other sets, they are well worth the duplicates and pieces. You get two awesome Manbats and Vampira to make up for that.
There are a lot of great structure elements and bricks included in this set, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to purchase it. It has a great assortment of bricks and various blocks to add to a newly growing system collection.
The glow in the dark pieces and Manbat portions really make it for me though. But that Sand Green mobile is really rocking it too. While there is not a breakdown of all the individual or new pieces, there are a lot of pieces included in here that occur very seldom over the years or only in newer sets. If that is not enough for you... you get a glow-in-the-dark spider and rat! Lord Vampyre's coffin and the black tower roof pieces are reason enough to buy this set awesome set. Playability
The possibilities for this set are endless, and by adding it to your collection you obtain a wonderful assortment of pieces. There are trap doors, hanging skeletons, hidden passages, giant net guns to capture Manbats, cool looking evil potions, Vampyre coffin, and what am I missing... Oh! The evil Moonstone device of doom and terror and and and stuff. Each of the details in this set really add to it. I fell in love with the stairway used to traverse the castle floors, and the organ in the tower was the proverbial cherry on top of it all. Final Thoughts
If you are a big fan of the Monster Fighter series you will definitely want to purchase this set. The playability factor, variety of pieces, and six minifigures are all a great unified collaboration. However, the new Haunted House drives a hard bargain and provides just as many great elements if not more! Thankfully I was not driven to choose between the two sets, as the Haunted House was not out when I purchased the Vampyre Castle alongside The Werewolf and The Zombies. Considering this is a $100 set it is well worth the buy, and I would buy it again even if I did not have the BrickFair promotion.
And our review is now done. Please thank Sisen for taking the time to review this massive set and ask any questions you might have in the Talkback. And remember to keep checking back for more LEGO news and reviews, right here on BZPower!
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
