Hidden Side VS Monster Fighters

[Lego David]

So yeah, I have heard a lot of people say that Hidden Side is  a successor to Monster Fighters, and there are definitely a lot of similarities. But which one of them do you personally prefer? Share your thoughts!

[Lyichir]

Personally I'm more fond of the modern, grounded setting of Hidden Side and prefer the sets in that theme as a result. It reminds me of series like Danny Phantom or the webcomic Paranatural.

[Oky]

While HS is cool in its own way, I much prefer MF. It has a much bigger variety in monsters, giving it a strong Halloween vibe, and I love the ragtag steam/dieselpunk aesthetic of the Fighters. Comparatively, HS is just City with ghosts, which has its own charm, but just doesn’t feel as halloweeny. I prefer the more fantastical approach of MF. I like that it has bigger stakes (the whole world versus just one town), and a larger, more experienced group of heroes to handle such a large threat. 

Or maybe I’m just a curmudgeon who doesn’t like seeing a theme catering towards the smartphone-obsessed kids these days where the heroes are a couple of teens who save the day by playing on their phones, idk. 

[dr_spock]

7 hours ago, Lego David said:

So yeah, I have heard a lot of people say that Hidden Side is  a successor to Monster Fighters, and there are definitely a lot of similarities. But which one of them do you personally prefer? Share your thoughts!

What do you prefer and why?

 

[Fuppylodders]

Have to say, I fully agree with Oky. 

Absolutely loved the full on spooky theme of monster fighters, and the variation of monsters etc, supplemented by an absolutely awesome series of cmf minifigs! 

Hidden side, has a different approach. I do like the ghost side of the minifigs, and the dog too! More ghosts would be cool, I guess more in the likeness of the app versions. I also like the transformation of the buildings/vehicles as though they are possessed, that's a cool feature carried out very well. 

My favourite is MF for outright going all in. I do however feel they both compliment each other very well too, and as I just realised when I built it last night, the juice bar would make an awesome addition to any lego theme park set up, that becomes possessed at night times! 

[Darnok]

Interesting question.

I was in my Dark Ages during the Monster Fighters lifetime, and could still kick myself for it. So many awesome sets! If these were around today - I would buy it all! Sadly that's not the case.

I do love the Hidden side line from start to finish though. The app is of no interest to me, but the sets on their own are just great. I hope the line sells well and sees many more waves in the future!

So comparing both - which do I prefer? Hidden Side I guess. Not only is it on sale right now, but the sets are excellent as well. The line has lots of potential for the future. On top of it all it is "downward compatible" with Monster Fighters: you can easily combine the lines if you have sets or minifigs from both.

[Lego David]

9 hours ago, dr_spock said:

What do you prefer and why?

While I think HS is a good line in it's own right, I personally prefer MF. 

With Hidden Side, while it's supposed to be a spooky line, the color schemes are kinda too bright and colorful, which isn't all that spooky. With MF, on the other side, the color schemes are mostly black, grey and glow-in-dark white, which makes it look actually pretty spooky, fitting incredibly well with it's setting.  But that's just my preference.

 

[Digger of Bricks]

19 hours ago, Lego David said:

So yeah, I have heard a lot of people say that Hidden Side is  a successor to Monster Fighters, and there are definitely a lot of similarities. But which one of them do you personally prefer? Share your thoughts!

In premise, I definitely prefer Monster Fighters, as not only did it have broader potential if it had continued, but it was the closest a Lego playtheme has ever strayed towards Steampunk and/or Dieselpunk. But, having said that though, I still found the theme's protagonists a bit underwhelming in both their figure and vehicular designs, thereby leaving the antagonists to be the theme's more interesting offerings unfortunately. In a way, Pharaoh's Quest kinda had the same dynamic for me: Awesome-looking antagonists and protagonists that just left much to be desired.

[Another Brick In The Wall]

Monster Fighters is timeless, whereas Hidden Side will not age as gracefully. Also, I highly doubt Hidden Side will produce a set the same caliber as Haunted House or Vampyre Castle.

[Lyichir]

58 minutes ago, Another Brick In The Wall said:

Monster Fighters is timeless, whereas Hidden Side will not age as gracefully. Also, I highly doubt Hidden Side will produce a set the same caliber as Haunted House or Vampyre Castle.

I'd argue it has already. The Haunted House and Vampyre Castle are good but never "wowed" me to the extent that sets like the high school and shrimp shack already have. A part of that is just that set design has come an awful long way in the past decade—the level of detail and the dynamism of functions are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were in the heyday of themes like Monster Fighters and Atlantis, as much of a fan of those as I was then.

Also, the flip side of "timeless" is things sometimes feeling a bit generic. The Haunted House could be rereleased today and feel just as suited for a Halloween display as it was back then (albeit perhaps a bit more basic than if they designed a new haunted house set from scratch), but part of that is because the characters in the Monster Fighters theme were largely very basic monster archetypes. Personally, as a fan of story themes, I feel much more drawn in to the characters and setting of Hidden Side, which trades the universal timelessness of Monster Fighters' spooky characters and settings for a more unique and engaging cast and story framework.

[Robert8]

Monster Fighters!

[Cut the Kragle]

6 hours ago, Darnok said:

Interesting question.

I was in my Dark Ages during the Monster Fighters lifetime, and could still kick myself for it. So many awesome sets! If these were around today - I would buy it all! Sadly that's not the case.

Yeah, exactly the same here!

I really love Hidden Side but the Monster Fighters train was a lot better than the Hidden Side one.

[Lego David]

4 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

But, having said that though, I still found the theme's protagonists a bit underwhelming in both their figure and vehicular designs, thereby leaving the antagonists to be the theme's more interesting offerings unfortunately. In a way, Pharaoh's Quest kinda had the same dynamic for me: Awesome-looking antagonists and protagonists that just left much to be desired.

I personally love both the antagonists and protagonists on both Monster Fighters and Pharaoh's Quest. I don't see any issue with either of them, personally.

[Digger of Bricks]

8 hours ago, Lego David said:

I personally love both the antagonists and protagonists on both Monster Fighters and Pharaoh's Quest. I don't see any issue with either of them, personally.

You know, perhaps I've just been spoiled by the quality of detail today's minifigures have compared to 2011's/2012's, hence possibly judging them unfairly (or maybe I've just seen too much original character art that makes me wish their designs were instead like such). 

[Darnok]

I think the Hidden Side protagonists won't age that well, if only for the fact that they are very clearly depicting current youth fashion. Hoodies might still be a thing in ten years, but those dreadful woolen caps will go out of fashion soon. It doesn't really help that the same two characters are in almost the same outfits are in every* set of the line. Their look instantly dates the whole theme, for better or worse.

 

* ... Jack is in every set, Parker is in all but two (plus featuring in the Juice Bar)

Edited October 2, 2019 by Darnok

[Lego David]

21 hours ago, Darnok said:

I think the Hidden Side protagonists won't age that well, if only for the fact that they are very clearly depicting current youth fashion. Hoodies might still be a thing in ten years, but those dreadful woolen caps will go out of fashion soon. It doesn't really help that the same two characters are in almost the same outfits are in every* set of the line. Their look instantly dates the whole theme, for better or worse.

 

* ... Jack is in every set, Parker is in all but two (plus featuring in the Juice Bar)

I absolutely agree. Monster Fighters is timeless, but I don't know if Hidden Side is going to age very well (especially with the app gimmick that would be completely useless as soon as the theme retires).

[Oky]

On 9/30/2019 at 6:05 PM, Fuppylodders said:

Have to say, I fully agree with Oky. 

Absolutely loved the full on spooky theme of monster fighters, and the variation of monsters etc, supplemented by an absolutely awesome series of cmf minifigs! 

Hidden side, has a different approach. I do like the ghost side of the minifigs, and the dog too! More ghosts would be cool, I guess more in the likeness of the app versions.

That's a good point. Due to the inclusion of all kinds of monsters makes MF much more open to expansions, mods, and MOCs, especially when it comes to the antagonists. While there are dozens of minifigs in the CMFs alone that you can add to MF, there are so few options for more ghosts to add to HS that people had to create a thread to find them.

On 10/1/2019 at 6:18 AM, Another Brick In The Wall said:

Monster Fighters is timeless, whereas Hidden Side will not age as gracefully. Also, I highly doubt Hidden Side will produce a set the same caliber as Haunted House or Vampyre Castle.

Very true! Not only is the steampunk/monster realm setting more interesting, but it also makes it much less a product of its time like HS. And yes, that Haunted House is gonna be hard to beat.

On 10/1/2019 at 7:31 AM, Lyichir said:

The Haunted House could be rereleased today and feel just as suited for a Halloween display as it was back then

You say that as if it's a bad thing. Bring it back, I say!

[Darnok]

2 hours ago, Lego David said:

I absolutely agree. Monster Fighters is timeless, but I don't know if Hidden Side is going to age very well (especially with the app gimmick that would be completely useless as soon as the theme retires).

Note how I talked about the protagonists/minifigs only. Overall I disagree with you.

The MF sets are clearly early horror pulp, heavily leaning on 40s/50s aesthetics. There is also a strong "dial the comic up to the 11" aspect going on in most of the sets. Nothing bad about all that in my opinion, don't get me wrong! But it is literally not "timeless". The only set that can be considered timeless in my opinion is the fantastic Haunted House - because outside of the minifigs it features almost none of the points outlined before.

On the other hand the HS sets can mostly be used alongside the regular City sets without any work at all - in their unpossessed version of course. The bus and the trains carts are out obviously, but the rest are fine.

 

I think this is part of the HS appeal to me: the sets work both as part of their theme, as well as outside of it. MF sets are strictly part of their theme, with all the good and bad that comes with it.

[Another Brick In The Wall]

2 minutes ago, Oky said:

You say that as if it's a bad thing. Bring it back, I say!

Two different Haunted House/Mansion projects have reached the review stage recently.   I mean, if that's not a "Hello?" to TLG, I don't know what is. 

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, I believe the Monster Fighters Haunted House started as CuuSoo project. 

[MAB]

I prefer Monster Fighters as a theme and the builds in the sets. However, I think the building in HS are great for converting back to City style builds. I have no interest in the ghost side of the theme.

Edited October 3, 2019 by MAB

[Gomek]

10 hours ago, Lego David said:

Especially with the app gimmick that would be completely useless as soon as the theme retires.

I anticipate the app will likely work a good 2 to 3 months after the theme is retired, but that's more a criticism of Apple than it is of Lego

[Lego David]

28 minutes ago, Gomek said:

but that's more a criticism of Apple than it is of Lego

What do you mean? Since when does Apple have control over LEGO's apps?

[Gomek]

Just now, Lego David said:

What do you mean? Since when does Apple have control over LEGO's apps?

Since they run on iPads which update their operating systems on a regular basis. Apple's business model runs on something called 'built-in obsolescence' which means that two years after you buy an Apple product, that product will not be able to run anything because it can't handle the new IOS, and all the programs will require the new IOS, so you're forced to buy new product. Lego won't be keeping up with ISO updates at the end of the theme, and the app will simply stop working.

I will still enjoy my hidden Side sets in 7 years, and 10 year old Nintendo games and x-box games, but old apps will not be an option.

[Borex]

I prefer Hidden Side. While MF had better monsters and one of the best sets (haunted house), i wasn’t feeling the vibe of the haunters. I was never into steampunk, and so the good guys were just useless to me. With the HS i get that eerie feeling that some good story’s have about a possessed town/village. 

But the werewolf and creature of the lagoon, the vampire-bat with the wings from MF are still very high up in my favorite monsterfigs.

[MAB]

I'm hoping to see some massive discounts on Hidden Side sets. Rumours are that it is not selling at all well. I imagine a lot of this is down to the augmented reality side of it, and the limited number of devices that it works on. How many parents are going to buy their kids sets where one of the key selling points is an app, when the app doesn't run on anything but a very modern device. And how many parents will buy an expensive device so their 7+ kids can play a specific app? It is all very well LEGO saying you don't need the app to enjoy the sets, but as a buyer it feels like you are missing out on something you have paid in the set price for if you cannot use the app.