Jump to content

Akano's Blog

  • entries
    296
  • comments
    724
  • views
    196,453

Set Review: 9473 Mines Of Moria


Akano

1,249 views

Today, we take a journey to Middle Earth and take a look at the LEGO reimagining of the Mines of Moria.

 

Presentation

From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

 

boxfront.png_thumb.jpg boxback.png_thumb.jpg

 

I really like the LEGO LOTR logo with the one ring on Sauron's finger in the upper right corner along with the map of Middle Earth in the background. The back highlights various parts of the set. I do like their cave-like choice of background for the front picture.

 

Building

Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

 

pieces1.png_thumb.jpg pieces2.png_thumb.jpg pieces3.png_thumb.jpg pieces4.png_thumb.jpg

 

This set comes with four bags of pieces which build the well & Balin's tomb, the wooden doors, the center of the wall, and the outsides of the wall. The build took me about 2-3 hours or so (not counting distractions). I must admit that at times I jumped the gun with some of the smaller pieces and thought I had run out of pieces, meaning that I was frantically searching my pile of pieces for I piece I simply misplaced during the build, so follow instructions carefully. :P

 

progress.png_thumb.jpg

 

Again, this set does come with stickers (grr!) for some of the detail, such as the dwarves' record and Balin's tomb.

 

Set Design

Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

 

set.png_thumb.jpg

I totally forgot the cave troll in this pic, sorry.

 

The set consists of three main parts: the wall, the door, and the tomb and well.

 

door.png_thumb.jpg doorback.png_thumb.jpg

 

The door has some pretty good detail, but some of that is provided by stickers with the wood plank patterns. They also included the axe that locks the doors shut for about 10 seconds from the movie, and this axe has a metallic copper blade, which I thought was cool. I also like the use of spyglass pieces as torches. Looking from the back, the wall on the right has a lever that makes it fall.

 

trollfront.png_thumb.jpg trollside.png_thumb.jpg trollback.png_thumb.jpg

 

I like the detail of the cave troll; however, he has absolutely awful balance while holding his hammer, so the number of poses he can have while wielding it are limited. He has a tendency of falling forward, since his mold is rather forward-heavy, even when not wielding the hammer. If you have studs beneath his feet, then he should be fine, but he's rather unstable just standing on a table.

 

wallfront.png_thumb.jpg wallback.png_thumb.jpg

 

The wall consists of bookshelves with some of the oldest books stickers can convey. There is also some of the dwarves' treasure underneath the floor in its own little nook. For some reason the treasure chest moves in and out.

 

books.png_thumb.jpg

 

The sides of the wall have towers that can be toppled using levers underneath them. The box shows one of these landing on the troll.

 

well.png_thumb.jpg grieving.png_thumb.jpg

 

These are my favorite parts of this set. I don't know if it's the fact that they're small and simple or if it's because these are the parts most focused on in the movie, but I love the well and the tomb. The tomb actually opens to reveal Balin's skeletal remains.

 

balin.png_thumb.jpg

Shouldn't Balin's skeleton be dwarf-sized?

 

My only qualm with the well would be that the skeleton does not have any armor/helmet on it unlike the movie. Otherwise, I love this part of the set. :)

 

Now, onto the minifigures:

 

boromir.png_thumb.jpg pippin.png_thumb.jpg gimli.png_thumb.jpg legolas.png_thumb.jpg

 

The heroes are very true to their movie selves save probably for Pippin; I don't really see Billy Boyd when I look at him; in fact, Pippin's face isn't too different from Shire Frodo's face. My favorite is probably Gimli,since the detail in his face, beard, and helmet are amazing. Boromir's appearance is probably second in terms of movie accuracy.

 

orcs.png_thumb.jpg

 

the goblins are pretty creepy looking, and while I'd say their faces are pretty good, they seem to have too much hair (but maybe I'm remembering the movie wrong). I do like the shield that the one carries, as it's very jagged and looks goblin-made.

 

backs.png_thumb.jpg

 

faces.png_thumb.jpg facesflip.png_thumb.jpg

 

All the characters have back printing on their torsos, which is more impressive on some than others. They also all have flip faces, which is amusing for Gimli, since all that changes when his beard is on is that his eyebrows go from neutral to angry. Also, they tried to make Legolas look intimidating, which just never happens in the movies. :P

 

headgear.png_thumb.jpg

 

The hair/helmets of the characters all seem to be new molds to match the movies. I particularly like Gimli's helmet, which again has a lot of detail put into it (including printing).

 

gems.png_thumb.jpg weapons.png_thumb.jpg

 

As far as interesting pieces go, there are quite a few jewels in this set. You also get a set of weapons that came originally in the Heroica games which I found interesting. They're mainly there to litter the ground of the tomb, probably to serve as the weapons of the dwarves who once populated the halls. You also get a bone and a rum bottle that originated the Pirates of the Carribean sets.

 

Playability

The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

 

fight.png_thumb.jpg

For the Shire!

 

This set has quite a bit of play to get out of it, since you can basically reenact the battle in the tomb with it. It's also makes for good scenery for any type of underground adventure you'd like your characters to embark on, so there's a good deal of potential. Any Lord of the Rings fan, of course, will just want to spend hours having our heroes take out that cave troll. :P

 

Final Thoughts

Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

 

skulltorch.png_thumb.jpg books.png_thumb.jpg

 

For any fan of the movies this set is a good pick, since it is, I think, one of the more accurate depictions of one of the movie scenes. All the minifigures in this set, save for the skeletons and Gimli, are exclusives, so it's a must-have for those who want, well, at least half of the Fellowship. :P

 

Pros

What's to like?

  • Great detail
  • Very true to the film
  • The minifigures
  • Cool pieces

Cons

What's not to like?

  • The price tag
  • Cave troll is a bit unbalanced

I hope all the LOTR fans who are reading enjoy this review. For the gallery, go here when it becomes public. :)

 

akanosigdarkgold.png

1 Comment


Recommended Comments

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...