Scooby-Doo 2015 Rumours & Discussion

[greenalfonzo]

I'm kinda of the opposite! I wish the mansion had more rooms and no greenhouse! I wish it had multiple rooms and levels for the gang to explore, and chase and be chased by the monsters and set traps like the show had. Kitchen, laundry room, basement, spooky staircase w/picture portraits, bedrooms...the mansion needed each of the two wings to have two floors for proper play, more like the MF Haunted House.

[lanesteele240]

The sets do not have scooby snacks. Scooby snacks are a part of just about every episode. They have the crabby pattys. But those ain't no stinking scooby snacks

[kelceycoe]

It's not that the mansion is lacking in features, it's that the only universally iconic set is the Mystery Machine.

I explained why that's losing idea in my post.

Actually your idea is flawed logic to the value-conscious LEGO consumer who just wants the iconic Mystery Machine, since it is the most like the cartoon version and here is why:

Their idea of thinking is the theme only needed the van. That's it. The van should have been a $50 set so all te gang could be included and actually the 4 humans could sit in the front without hassle (it can likely happen if you put the gang's torsos on a brick and take off their arms for that effect).

So, I'll break it down to describe their line of thinking:

The whole theme, if all 5 sets are bought, is roughly $200. You MUST spend at least $120 to get the entire gang (Machine and Mansion). You will have 2 extra Shags and Scoobs which can be sold to get back profit, assuming someone does that, which would make buying these two sets still expensive after Ebay and Paypal fees. (You'd basically be spending $112 after you sell Scooby and Shag, which sell for $10 each free shipping but the fees will dock this down some and it is quite the hassle, trust me I used to sell alot on Ebay).

Or...

You can spend the $30 for the van and the 3 gang members. Then buy only 2. Velma is going for $20 right now from Mexico, the parts are genuine I can tell from their photos. Daphne is going for $20 as well right now (on Ebay BTW, free shipping). That's $70. Assuming the person has a credit card and can use points to buy the Van off of Amazon or a 5% Target Red card or LEGO VIP points, they can get these below $70.

So compare $112 to $70.

Now you say... But for $42 more they're getting a haunted mansion with all kinds of monsters and cool pieces.

Yes, yes they are. But not everyone is collecting LEGO Halloween and monster pieces. In fact, the holiday still gets lackluster attention compared to Christmas. This is the first year the Club magazine dedicated more than one page to Halloween (and successfully done so in all 3 editions of the magazine) but also the first year that TLC has decided not to release a MMB that is Halloween centered. Cool, we get a scary angler fish, but whoopy. There is still a skull or mummy that TLC could have done aside from the, at least 2 witches, 2 vampires, sveeral pumpkins, ghosts, and bats, and tons of monsters they have given us. Not to mention PAB won't even touch Halloween. The closest thing is Legoland and Discovery Centers who seem to not put their ideas online, except for maybe an occasional Youtube video where they have shown us how to make a mummy or in this month's club magazine where we can make another ghost :)

And frankly, not everyone wants a purple house. Sure, that's a great house for the Wacky Witch but everything in it makes no sense for the witch (BTW - since the Wacky Witch's bio eludes to Hanzel and Gretel, maybe someone will be dark enough to make their version with the new gingerbread house coming this Christmas).

If somebody doesn't want it, from a conservative style of looking at money, especially as adults, $42 could be well spent elsewhere.

So $70 for the van and whole gang is quite affordable to some people who maybe care more about Star Wars or are waiting for Doctor Who or whatever.

For me, the Scooby Doo Collection for $135.00 (the kit TLC sells at S@H) would be just suitable if I wanted only the sets from SDWAY. I'd get many monsters from the first series, a haunted mansion, and the mystery van.

BTW: Has anyone watched any episode of Scooby Doo these sets are loosely based from? What are your thoughts there? According to the interview wit the designer, the sets were "inspired" by the cartoon series. As we know that includes a couple different Scooby series. And that he felt each episode could be given a whole set (though the episode with the witch and zombie can honestly be a theme to itself with a general store, riverboat, and witch shack, not to mention the mystery machine).

Are you mad that many liberties were taken? Like the Mystery Mansion is very loosely based on the Kingston Mansion but notice the moving bookcase isn't in the set? The mansion seems to have the kitchen that Scoob/Shaggy ate from in the episode with the Phantom yet the Mansion eludes to the castles in the first series by adding a clock tower (the vampire never came out of a clock in the series). The greenhouse is from another mansion and I haven't read if the spike ball trap is from anything yet.

What about the Mummy Mystery Adventures, which is already a clustermess because in "A Mummy Too" the setting wasn't a museum but "Department of Archaeology" at an University. The first episode the Black Knight was in a museum and in a box.

What about the robotic tree controlled by the zombie? Where was there ever a robotic tree in Scooby lore?

Edited September 23, 2015 by kelceycoe

[kelceycoe]

I think most everyone in the discussion saw it. Not sure why you felt a need to add another wall of text.

And LEGO practically did a Scooby Doo CMF series in the Monsters wave. Not technically but for anyone who's not a die-hard fan of the show, it might as well be.

Care to explain here? I only see the Witch being joined with the zombie, and the wolfman and monster rocker be added with the vampire. If people wanted to use their imagine, yea I suppose. Then again, they might as well add this year's Trick or Treat set as a cemetary for their Scooby mansion or to any past graveyard set to make it have meaning, since it's color scheme somewhat matches the mystery mansion and the Kingston Mansion did have a cemetary around it.

[fred67]

@kelceycoe, I understand I could get away cheaper buying Velma and Daphne separately, but using your own logic it would be cheaper to buy the mansion and sell it (minus Daphne and Velma) for, say, $60 (if that were possible); in fact, it seems a lot of S.D. fans would love to max-out their mansions with some expansion, but wouldn't need figure duplicates. Some people who missed the MF Haunted Mansion and just want something fun for a Halloween display would be more than happy with it - I know I would.

Going further along my lines of thought, consider this - Daphne is actually selling for only around $11 on bricklink; Velma for less than $20. No need to buy from Mexico or anywhere else. I missed the Haunted Mansion (and will not pay the going price for one), so I get a mansion and a bunch of other figures for $60 - a bargain (and, as you point out, can still sell Shaggy and Scooby).

If I want to go as cheap as possible, I can get both for $31 on bricklink - but you get a LOT of extra value for $60 more. If you're looking for value, and not just "what's the least expensive way to do this," it's clear it's better to buy the set than paying $20 for a single figure. It's doubly true if the mansion is appealing. I never said it wasn't appealing, just that it's not an iconic Scooby Doo set - that if you want something to reminisce about Scooby Doo, or something someone like me would put in their office (I actually work for Turner Broadcasting - which includes Cartoon Network, so a LOT of people have stuff like this in their offices), the Mystery Machine is the only set that is iconically Scooby Doo.

EDIT: I guess, in a nutshell, I'm saying that I think you're conflating economy with value. I'm not necessarily looking for economy, I'm looking for value.

Edited September 23, 2015 by fred67

[strangely]

Are you mad that many liberties were taken?

I've seen the episodes and I'm not bothered by the liberties taken. The reality is that there's a lot of fan favorite monsters and locations so combining different episodes together helped to include more of what fans wanted. I'm not bothered by combining several mansions into one but admittedly I do find it strange that they didn't include a single villain who actually haunted a mansion (Vasquez castle, Franken castle and the county museum).

The Mummy set doesn't bother me either. The Department of Archaeology as presented in the episode had many museum style displays, in fact the building was presented as a campus museum at least visually. The set gets that feeling right, they just make it too ornate, the gold elements are probably too much in comparison to how the display actually looked. Really though the only thing this set should have changed is the inclusion of the coin that the Mummy was after and the treasure should have been a diamond scarab.

I'm not overly sure there's been a mobile robotic tree in the cartoon. There have been plenty of monster trees depicted in the Scooby universe. Going on looks alone this looks like a combination of the Dryad (Batman and Robin episode) and the enchanted tree's (From Witches ghost) with a robot function added. Really I do love this build and even if it's not directly based on any existing monster in the Scooby lore it's still looks good and fills all my monster tree needs.

The only set that truly bothers me is the lighthouse. I love the build but the swamp monster doesn't fit for a seaside mystery. They should have included Captain Cutler (His episode even featured a lighthouse). I don't mind them only loosely using inspiration from the episodes, but including a random villain who's never even appeared in any Scooby Doo series was just a poor decision and a waste of a minifigure slot. I mean I can take reusing old designs (The Mummy's torso) and cheaping out and including pieces that don't match source (The Black Knights helmet), but completely making up a character that's not even that interesting or new is just wasteful. Even worse there's still no explanation on who this really is, that's just maddening.

Admittedly I don't like the spike ball trap in the mansion either. It's not from any episode I've seen and I'm not sure it fits that well. Most monsters in the series only want to scare the gang away. The spike ball trap feels more like it would kill them rather than plainly scare them away.

Edited September 23, 2015 by strangely

[greenalfonzo]

I would have loved more traps and hiding places - cabinets, closets, trapdoors, hidden doors, etc. And yeah, how about a net trap instead of that medieval spiky thing? It doesn't fit the theme at all!

[strangely]

I would have loved more traps and hiding places - cabinets, closets, trapdoors, hidden doors, etc. And yeah, how about a net trap instead of that medieval spiky thing? It doesn't fit the theme at all!

A net trap would have been perfect. And I couldn't agree more about hidden doors and trap doors. I would have loved a sliding bookcase especially.

[gedren_y]

What we need is a hallway with doors on both sides (6-8) for those chase sequences.

There is so much that Lego could do with the gang, and hopefully the new series will provide alternate looks for the gang on some of the mysteries. Disguises and situational wear are some things that Lego could do to make more sets (giving us more monsters ): scuba gear, workout apparel, black 'sneaking around' clothing, law enforcement costumes, when Fred gets extreme (I think I remember him going skydiving), Fred and Velma in welding/engineering gear (him making traps and her building some scientific mechanism), Scooby in a dress (the amount of crossdressing he has done is considerable ), and when one of the gang stumbles into the place where the bad guy dresses up and gets partially costumed (usually Shaggy, but the others have done it too).

Then there are the ancillary characters: Scrappy and Scooby's other relatives, the parents of the gang, the various police who arrest the bad guy, and the creepy sub-plot characters that get mistaken for the bad guy.

We also need a 1x2x2 brick w/ a 1x2 tile printed for a box of 'Scooby Snax', not just the regular food that Shaggy and Scooby consume on a regular basis.

[Darkdragon]

Then there are the ancillary characters: Scrappy and Scooby's other relatives, the parents of the gang, the various police who arrest the bad guy, and the creepy sub-plot characters that get mistaken for the bad guy.

Please...no...

We also need a 1x2x2 brick w/ a 1x2 tile printed for a box of 'Scooby Snax', not just the regular food that Shaggy and Scooby consume on a regular basis.

The biggest mistake they made in the line is not including this. imho.

[Colossus]

2 glaring omissions from these sets are the lack of a box of Scooby Snacks and one of Fred's traps. Granted, I could build one of Fred's contraptions, but a printed tile representing a box of Snacks will be harder to come by.

Despite this, I love the Scooby sets. I'm having a blast helping my daughter build the mansion too.

[kelceycoe]

MODDING IDEAS:

Has anyone ever considered buying 2 mansions so we can have identical sides and double-up on the greenhouse to make one massive greenhouse attached in the middle or off to the side of the mansion? The extra spike ball can go to the arkaym aslyum like originally suggested at the beginning of this post as well as the extra venus flytrap for poison ivy.

I wished I bought 2 HHs. I did buy 2 Ecto-1s and all I got was a longer vehicle but at least the guys and the packs all fit just fine.

Also, even though the top of the mansion is a clock, it makes sense to take it off and just put one of the MF grandfather clock sets somewhere in the mansion. There are custom "expansion packs" of book cases that can be used to add to things like this. Another piano from the Vampyre Castle may help as well.

What should I do with the extra kitchen from the Mystery Machine? I kinda wanna take it out and mod it so the gang fits inside. I already put an extra kitchen in the Haunted House but I guess it wouldn't hurt to stack them or add it to the Vampyre or Frankenstein castles?

[kjm161]

I have done just that thing. I will post pictures of my creation shortly.

[kjm161]

Here is the greenhouse in the back of my MOC. I am including more pictures in a new topic I am starting in the Special Themes Forum if you want to see more.

hhback by Karen Metz, on Flickr

[Pulp Detective]

Love it!!Makes you wish Lego did the same.

[Darkdragon]

Love it!!Makes you wish Lego did the same.

But then it would have been $149+ and people would complain even more about the cost to finish the gang.

It does look good in the modular style though, and that's the same reason I bought two of that set.

[Pulp Detective]

But then it would have been $149+ and people would complain even more about the cost to finish the gang.

It does look good in the modular style though, and that's the same reason I bought two of that set.

Lego could make a set similar to the Haunted House from MF,thought this time around they should give us a castle instead of a mansion.They could also include the whole gang in there but...nah that's wistful thinking.I'm happy with what we got. Edited September 24, 2015 by LOTR34

[Darkdragon]

Lego could make a set similar to the Haunted House from MF,thought this time around they should give us a castle instead of a mansion.They could also include the whole gang in there but...nah that's wistful thinking.I'm happy with what we got.

That would be great, only time will tell if something like that happens.

[Ultron]

If we're not gonna get a second wave it'd be nice if Lego at least did a D2C that included fan favorites that were left out and also a videogame. So much potential for this license but I guess we may not know for sure until rumors of the summer wave flood in

Edited September 24, 2015 by Ultron

[kelceycoe]

Mansion Review

Bought the Mansion last night, only the lighthouse left to go.

Didn't change my first impressions from its original reveal in the beginning of the year all that much. I am impressed of its size. The exterior is pretty awesome. The winners from this mansion are the pumpkin pieces, custom coffin print, and the safe. The greenhouse is very awesome. But lack a lot of people have been saying, the interior is lacking, especially where the spike ball trap is concerned.

Now I get a lot of people, adults like myself I imagine, feel that the spike ball trap would be the end of the Mystery Gang's adventure before it even got started. I'm not all too familiar with the Scooby cartoons past the episodes that inspired this theme. But wouldn't the gang be wary of a spooky mansion anyway and like Indiana Jones try to trick the trap? I mean, Shaggy can throw his sausage in their and the spike ball can come down and all they would have to do is walk around it. So in that respect I don't get why people feel they are doomed.

While the set is acceptable on its own, it really merits a second addition, which I may plan to sell all the figures from this set so I can have enough to buy another set. From there I would build a second greenhouse, I'm undecided if I would attached it to make it wider or longer. The would mod the set so it can be attached to the back of the entrace of the mansion, likely removing the key to maybe the second greenhouse (there is an extra key in the set so that could mean the original could stay there). I would have to remove the small gray piece that allows the floor to be removed to put the technic brick there, or simpler I could extend the mansion by extended the first floor to be enclosed, like the mansion. I would build another second floor and make it my third floor, attaching directly to the clocktower portion. With all the extra pieces I'd have from not building a second clock tower I can really do this mod very well. Finally I would build another right side so that the building looks identical on each side. I would have to buy a custom bookshelf from Ebay and simply not include another kitchen. The extra pieces I'd have from the second clocktower would allow the bookcase to be movable in some ways (I'm thinking just make it lift upwards like a fancy car door but to stay true to Scooby lore it should probably be built like the sliding jail door in the newer Arhkam Asylum set. I could even add a grandfather clock from the older MF line and add a vampire coffin to the second floor of this in place of a second safe (which could be placed behind the moving bookshelf). The extra flytrap and spike ball would likely be transferred to Arkaymn Asylum and the CMF14 Plant Monster would be in its place. There are just so many possibilities to make this better if you have two copies!

For now, again, the interior is definitely designed to house a monster in each room where it has extra, odd-looking space. The Phantom has been placed by the safe and the Black Knight in the kitchen to resemble the Knight in the kitchen in the episode with the Phantom, despite he's a black knight. I would probably extended the sidecar on the motorcycle so the whole gang could fit, including Scooby. The vampire is still where he's supposed to be.

For added kicks, I bought 4 extra CMF14 minifigures (I own all 16) randomly, on purpose. The trick-er-treat skeleton was added to the front of my door way; the wolf is in the tree on the right side of mansion; the spector haunts the entrance to the greenhouse, and the gargoyple stands on the round starirwell, blocking the vampire (I could remove the pieces on the round gray 2x1 brick on the roof but I plan to use argoyes in the Haunted House gate or not at all. Still I plan to feel out the bags for gargoyles and zombies and skeletons since that pumpkin pail is awesome. My Toys R Us (Vienna, WV) is pretty stocked in both Scooby and CMF14 figures (in fact the CMF14 display case was overfull).

Overall, the mansion is nice but its lacking of a more detailed interior (did we really need all the extra rooms if we couldn't detail what we needed); it's zany black/purple cartoon design, the goofy motorbike deal, stickers, a brick-built venus flytrap (that just isn't all that cool), and the whole set being open-back doesn't add wonders to it. The white/blue interior of the kitchen ruins any chance of believing that's a spooky kitchen - it looks new with that scheme. A gray kitchen would have sufficed. When I look at the set it shouldn't be a dilapidated mansion - only a few bricks are rotated to make it look so and the rest of the mansion looks in solid condition. I do find it funny TLC added outdoor lights since the Haunted House lacked this.

Scooby Snacks

I want to reiterate something I said when this theme was being heavily discussed. Yes, there are no apparent references to the real Scooby Doo boxed snacks in any of these sets. We get hamburgers, sandwiches, and bones. But, in almost every set that uses a 1x1 brown stud we get an extra one. In the few episodes I watched from the first series, all the snacks were round and brown, lighter brown but still brown and round. Alot of times two snacks were given. If you buy all of the sets you will have more than enough of these to have an abundant of Scooby Snacks which you can store in the Mystery Van.

Mystery Van mod

The biggest gripe I have about this, besides the fact you can't fit all 4 gang kids in the front of the van, is that the Mystery Van has an interior. In the first few episodes I seen from the first series, either the van had an interior of tools (first episode) or was completely empty. The LEGO set has an unnecessary kitchen which can be added to the mansion or somewhere else. The interior of the van could then be modded so that, at least the motorbike and boat could fit inside (I haven't tried these yet but it would give these two vehicles a logical purpose). Again, Scooby snacks can be added as well. This set can't really be modified to fit the gang - you would have to widen the set, which almost works except you need a longer windshield. I'm not sure if TLC has ever made a longer windshield and if it would match the logistics of a LEGO Scooby windshield. Nevertheless it would take very few pieces to extend the van so the gang can fit in, although it may make it look goofy and almost squar-ish in size.

[barneynedward]

What we need is a hallway with doors on both sides (6-8) for those chase sequences.

There is so much that Lego could do with the gang, and hopefully the new series will provide alternate looks for the gang on some of the mysteries. Disguises and situational wear are some things that Lego could do to make more sets (giving us more monsters ): scuba gear, workout apparel, black 'sneaking around' clothing, law enforcement costumes, when Fred gets extreme (I think I remember him going skydiving), Fred and Velma in welding/engineering gear (him making traps and her building some scientific mechanism), Scooby in a dress (the amount of crossdressing he has done is considerable ), and when one of the gang stumbles into the place where the bad guy dresses up and gets partially costumed (usually Shaggy, but the others have done it too).

Then there are the ancillary characters: Scrappy and Scooby's other relatives, the parents of the gang, the various police who arrest the bad guy, and the creepy sub-plot characters that get mistaken for the bad guy.

We also need a 1x2x2 brick w/ a 1x2 tile printed for a box of 'Scooby Snax', not just the regular food that Shaggy and Scooby consume on a regular basis.

I agree about the ancillary characters. We could use a Madelyn Dinkley or Scrappy Doo Minifig.

[barneynedward]

The biggest gripe I have about this, besides the fact you can't fit all 4 gang kids in the front of the van, is that the Mystery Van has an interior.

all you need to do is remove the sink and the stove. Edited September 30, 2015 by Rick
Please quote selectively. Post edited.

[kelceycoe]

all you need to do is remove the sink and the stove.

Not if you want the gang to sit in front. I made modifications and made a whole new thread about this and how I got all 4 kids and even Scooby to ride upfront with pieces from the set.

[BluePulse]

Not if you want the gang to sit in front. I made modifications and made a whole new thread about this and how I got all 4 kids and even Scooby to ride upfront with pieces from the set.

But scooby and shaggy never sat up front, i modded mine so that velma, daphne, and fred can sit in the front while shaggy and scooby sit in the back, dont have the mansion yet but i want to be prepared for the girls when i get it

[kelceycoe]

But scooby and shaggy never sat up front, i modded mine so that velma, daphne, and fred can sit in the front while shaggy and scooby sit in the back, dont have the mansion yet but i want to be prepared for the girls when i get it

Watch the original episodes. All 4 humans sat upfront. In fact, within the first 5 minutes of "Scooby Doo, Where Are You: 101 What a Night for a Knight" I even see, gasp, Scooby Doo sitting in the front seat with everyone else and they were seated in this order:

Right to left: Fred, Daphne, Scooby, Velma, Shaggy

And the first episode of the entire series of series is relevant because 3 out of the 5 sets are based on episodes from the first series (Mansion, Machine, Mummy).

Edited September 30, 2015 by kelceycoe