LEGO Monster Fighters Vampire Castle (9468)

Prior to picking up this set a few weeks ago, I hadn't purchased any Lego sets since Star Wars: Episode 1 was in theatres (the first time). Maybe a minifigure here and there or one of the excellent boardgames, but Lego at large was pretty much off my rider. I paid attention to the licensed properties and the video games, but that was just part of my general nerdery. Long story short, it really wasn't much of a surprise that a non-licensed Lego theme managed to avoid my attention. However, on a trip with my wife to check out the Lego aisle just to scope out the Lord of the Rings sets (which I had no intention of purchasing) I happened to stumble upon the Monster Fighters theme. Then I saw the Vampyre Castle and I knew I would be purchasing the set before I left the store.

As a theme, Monster Fighers pulled me back into Lego by combining everything I like into one terrifying package: Spooky castles? Classic monsters? Glow in the dark pieces? Cool, modified early 20th century vehicles? Zombies? Heroic battlers of the occult with some steampunk sensibilities? Check yes to all of these. I love this theme and I love the Vampyre Castle.

While it is an expensive set (MRSP seems to run between $99.99 and $109.99) it definitely includes quite a few pieces (949) which assemble into 7 minifigures (Lord Vampyre, Vampyre Bride, 2 Bat Monsters, Dr. Rodney Rathebone, Jack McHammer, and a Skeleton), 6 Moonstones, a net launching roadster, a gaggle of fun accessories, the vampire's coffin, and the castle which is pretty large and has a number of rooms and features. As always, here are my thoughts, both positive and negative:

Positive:
*The minifigures are all top notch. The vampires' faces glow in the dark. The Bat Monsters have some cool wing pieces. Both Rathebone and McHammer have a bionic limb of some kind (McHammer's robotic arm is very cool). Most fiugres have printed details on the front and rear of the torsos.

* The castle has some great design details. I especially love the bookshelves, the bed, and the organ in the highest turret. While someone could potentially rebuild the castle to make it "non-spooky" it certainly has plenty of atmospheric elements.

*Besides just good design elements, there are lots of fun play features as well. I especially love the trap drawer that drops a minifigure into a pit of spikes, the spikes that can pop out when someone walks through the maingate, and the blank wall that turns into a spiral staircase.

*Plenty of cool accessories are included. A sword, lots of guns, a cauldron with ingredients, a hammer, a fencing foil/ rapier, manacles, and a glow in the dark spider.

*I was skeptical about how well the net launching device on the roadster wuld work, but was pleasantly surprised to find it works very well. Not only does it work well, but the roadster is one of the most appealing vehicles in this theme.

*There are some little offshoots that hang off of a few of the towers. These are perches for the Bat Monsters to hang from. It isn't explained in the instructions, but is a very fun little feature.

Negatives:
*So far only the Bat Monsters are exclusive to this set (the Bride will come with the "Haunted House" this Fall and Mchammer will come with "The Zombies" later this summer. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning.

*The Moonstone device looks cool, and is integral to the plot of the theme, but it doesn't really do much. I can imagine much cooler ways to integrate the moonstones into the castle.

Conclusion:
I love this castle. It has so many cool features and rooms that I can't stop staring at it and exploring it. While kids will surely have a blast with it, adult collectors will love the ambience of the set and how it playfully implements many of the popular elements of classic horror films. As always seems to be the case with Lego products, the quality is exceptional. If you're interested in the castle and are able to pick it up, you definitely shouldn't be displeased. It is a superb, imaginative set.

Why I rated this set 5 stars for educational value: Transylvania is not just a fictional setting in Vampire lore: It is a real region in central Romania. A region rich in mineral resources, Transylvania accounts for 35% of Romania's GDP.

I almost always rate legos with 4 star education since you need to assemble it from bricks varying from 30 to 5000 pieces and 4 star durability, since most the time once assembled they can be moved easily without falling apart. However this kit get 3 star durability. Dont get me wrong, its a great monster theme kit and all, but it is really a continuous wall design that will fold in half for storage/ display. But any little knock to key areas, something will let go. Plus once its assembled, it is pretty difficult to move, or in my case box up till display time, due to this folding rickety design. I am already looking forward to having to rebuild little odds and ends here when I unbox it each year for Halloween display.

Another con in my book is the prefabbed walls/ roofs. I like detail, unique detail. Thus why I own all the modular buildings since they do not repeat designs between any of the kits. However this kit is $50 cheaper than most modular builds, I think more attention to detail was placed in "Harry Potter Diagon Alley" since they also used multipiece brick walls/ roofs.

On to the good. Nice selection of minifigures. I like the batmen being unique to the set. Some think $100 to stomach is alot for legos (which it could be) but for collectors of minifigures. Its cheaper to buy this kit and get the 2 batmen, vampire/ bride, and 2 hunters than to buy them separate, which is usually the case. Infact some kits I buy just for minifigs, and give the lego bricks to my daughter for her bucket of bricks. There are alot of little details on the interior pieces like the book case with books, skeleton in shackles, trap door/ spike pit, organ, door that turns to stairs, treasure chest with jewels, and a wall that can pop out for hidden entrance. The ivy and some of the other decals also glow. I picked this set up the day it came out (direct from Lego like almost always) since there are some perks to doing this.

Overall this is a great kit, but I really dislike the prefabbed walls/ roofs, if it were not for this, it would have been an outstanding kit but lego still pulled it off by adding decals to the prefab wall sections and creating a spooky castle. I will attach photos here in a bit and compare it size wise to the new haunted house which I also own/ just built. If your looking at diving into the brick world and want a more complicated set, this is a good choice to test the waters.

We have three boys and have built over $1500 worth of large sets in the last several years. These include Star Wars, Harry Potter, Alien Conquests, Dinosaurs and Lord of the Rings....I have to say, as beautiful and interesting as these Monster Fighters sets are, they are poorly designed. We spent hours rebuilding the same tower over and over again as it was held together by such shoddy construction. We began to reinforce with our own legos but it still would not stay put together. We finally got out the Super Glue! As I was finding good spots to use the super glue, it fell apart AGAIN. Me, my husband, my 13-year-old and my 9-year-old (our lego guru) all came to the same conclusion after our turns rebuilding it -- this set is CRAP. We set the tower aside and told him (our 7-year-old who has played with and put his own sets together since he was 5) to play with the other parts. Within 15 minutes another tower disintegrated. We have never had this problem with any other Lego series. Our kids have even had difficulty pulling some sets apart!! The Lord of the Rings set my 9-yr-old put together the same day is designed well, constructed securely and very play worthy. We have built two of the Monster Fighters sets (Vampyre Castle -- $100 and The Werewolf -- $20) and had the same problem with both of them. Much to my dismay, my husband went out and bought a third last night! My son was crying for much of the day because he had spent $100 of his OWN SAVED money on the vampyre one. So "we" (hubby) got him The Crazy Scientist and His Monster (frankenstein) for $50! We haven't put it together but after looking at the instruction book, I can see the same exact design problems. I will probably be super gluing -- horror of horrors. I can't imagine putting super glue on a lego but this is what it has come to. I hope he finally decides that this series just isn't worth it. Stay tuned for my review of the frankenstein one.... The vehicle construction on all of them is solid and like I said the sets are incredibly imaginative. Someone in engineering was just giving too much creative reign without the balance of sensible construction. I have also written lego on this and will let everyone know what, if anything they respond with. Happy Lego-ing fellow Lego-ers!