Review: 9473 The Mines of Moria

[HawkLord]

Great review and nice pics.

The stickers are a let-down, but not a deal-breaker, for me. It's such an iconic scene from the movies that I'll have to get it. I remember first seeing part of the Moria Battle on TV years back - some news show had it as an exclusive and it was one of the first scenes that we were able to see before the movie's release.

[Mr_Malfoy]

Nice review, Lego Otaku!

I love this set, despite the massive amount of stickers (33! ).

[Orange Leader]

While 33 stickers is a lot, I'm glad they're not all printed. I don't apply stickers myself for further building my own creations. I'm kind of doubting to get this after seeing this review, It's a matter of time that this set will grow on to me and what the price in Europe will be.

[Graysmith]

The 33 stickers are definitely a major buzzkill, especially since they seem to mostly be clear stickers.

Even more annoying is the fact that they're using a wood-like sticker on a 1x4 brown tile instead of using the new printed 1x4 brown tile that appears in other (CHEAPER!) sets. Surely that door isn't so distinct that they just had to use a different wood pattern than the one on the printed piece. Just stupid, really.

They could've easily dropped a few others too (from the pillars and such) by using the new brick brick instead. Sure, it wouldn't look the exact same but it would've look just as good. They could've easily cut the amount of stickers in half in this set with a bit of creative building.

Definitely going to hold off on this set until I can see what it looks like without (most of) the stickers.

[Lego Otaku]

Updated with few more pictures and another video. Video should be ready in an hour after I post this.

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for the extensive review. Before I read the review I voted outstanding. Afterwards, I switched it to good. The set itself looks great compared to the source material. The price to piece ratio is quite good, especially for a licensed set. Then add in all these great figures and I'd say the value is definitely there. If you want to measure by weight, then I have no idea how it compares to other sets of similar size.

The large amount of stickers is disappointing, but not a deal breaker. I sometimes use stickers, and sometimes I don't. I will have to wait and see with this one. I applied all of the 2010 HP stickers and I couldn't imagine Hogwarts without them, but I'll wait and see how the Mine would look without them.

The figures are the selling point for me, so I am excited for them. Legolas is brilliant. I'm still not sold on Boromir's face, but many others seem to like it, so I'll hold my judgment until I hold it in my hands.

I will probably try to wait for a sale on most of the sets, since I don't like buying anything (Lego included) for full price. But I just may buy these to have them instead of waiting for a sale. Who knows..

Edited May 19, 2012 by TheLegoDr

[Im a brickmaster.]

This set is probly my favorite out of the all the LOTR sets, its accurate to the book to!

[just2good]

Another nice LOTR review, 'Lego Otaku'!

This set is pretty cool, but I'm starting to wish it was $70. The figures are definitely cool, and the same goes for the pieces, but still. I also wish that skeleton play feature would work, as it's quite unique.

[Mencot]

Cool set. Thanks for the review. Although this has some cool parts and minifigs (Boromir and the huge cave troll) I don´t think I will get this set. And your review fo it gave me more reasons not to get it. Too pricey and you really don´t get much useful.

Oh well I think kids will love this set too

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

I like it, although I get the feel that it is incomplete. However, the details on the parts that are here are great.

Thanks for the review. This set is better than I expected.

[The_Chosen_1]

This is probably my favorite set from this wave. The only downside to me is the absolutely atrocious amount of stickers...

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks to receiving some of the LOTR sets in the mail from S@H, I decided to rewatch the movies. After reading the review initially, I wasn't blown away by the set. I thought the minifigures looked great, of course. After rewatching Fellowship, I think Lego hit this set spot on. The troll especially is nearly identical. The set-up is quite good too. Naturally the stickers are a let-down, but the figures detail more than make up for it in my book.

Thanks again for the review.

[The_Chosen_1]

Even more annoying is the fact that they're using a wood-like sticker on a 1x4 brown tile instead of using the new printed 1x4 brown tile that appears in other (CHEAPER!) sets. Surely that door isn't so distinct that they just had to use a different wood pattern than the one on the printed piece. Just stupid, really.

They could've easily dropped a few others too (from the pillars and such) by using the new brick brick instead. Sure, it wouldn't look the exact same but it would've look just as good. They could've easily cut the amount of stickers in half in this set with a bit of creative building.

I agree completely. It completely baffles me why Lego uses stickers as a crutch so often these days. It's actually getting really annoying.

Still, this is probably one of my favorite sets from the wave. I'll definitely be picking it up, maybe just not applying the stickers right away.

[Jack Bricker]

Great review and thank you for posting it. I have to say that this set is awesome and I am very impressed with it other than all of the stickers. I really like the cave troll and the minifigs included are spot on to their respective characters. I also really like how you include video in your reviews. I really appreciate seeing the features work and it gives me something else to go on besides just pictures alone, which are also very good.

Edited May 25, 2012 by Jack Bricker

[soccerkid6]

Thanks for the review, too bad about all the stickers

I must say I am impressed overall with the LOTR line, lots of new weapons and armor

[Natetrooper]

I like how Lego uses different textures to make the door look old and battered. I'm wondering if Lego is going to start making brick-built doors from now on, or just a feature of LOTR sets. I'm kinda "meh" on the cave troll' face, but if the arms have better reach than the big trolls from the Castle line than I'll be ok with it.

[drshih]

That is really a nice set. I do hope to see it sold in my country Taiwan.

[Aragorn8713]

Sweet!!!

[Aegis1984]

I just bought this set the other day and there IS a difference with the goblin heads. It's very subtle but one side has the mouth a bit wider than the other. The eyebrows are different and the eyes are sunk upwards and the other side downwards. Just takes a bit to see it.

[Tria]

Thanks for the detailed review!

Nice set but I wont pay 100$ for that. 70$ would be a fair price.

[gotoAndLego]

I agree completely. It completely baffles me why Lego uses stickers as a crutch so often these days. It's actually getting really annoying.

Why is it baffling? Printed pieces cost more than stickers. Keeping the price the same, here are some of the sacrifices Lego could have made to avoid stickers:

Mediocre figs -- No back printing, no leg printing, only a face on the troll, a troll that can't move its arms, no shield printing, no new axe piece, etc.

Not as many extras -- There are a lot of extra loose bits they could have removed.

Fewer pieces -- they could have reduced parts by using larger single bricks. Or they could have used single door pieces instead of the brick-built ones.

They had a price point they wanted to hit and I think stickers were the best sacrifice to make. Sure they could have raised the price to cover the cost of printed tiles, but then think how expensive it would be in Europe, let alone Australia and New Zeland.

Edited May 29, 2012 by gotoAndLego

[The_Chosen_1]

I'm aware of the cost of printing vs. stickers, but there's no denying that 30+ stickers in a single set is ridiculous. Do we really need that many? Lego is smart enough to avoid using them in the set designs if they want to.

Take the wood pieces for example- simply using the printed 1x4 tiles that are already found in other LotR sets would have cut down the sticker count. I don't understand their logic there.

[gotoAndLego]

I'm aware of the cost of printing vs. stickers, but there's no denying that 30+ stickers in a single set is ridiculous. Do we really need that many? Lego is smart enough to avoid using them in the set designs if they want to.

Nothing about "It completely baffles me why Lego uses stickers as a crutch so often these days." indicates a knowledge that stickers cost less than printed tiles, or that having printed parts would mean sacrifices in other aspects of the set.

As far as there being 30+ stickers, well if stickers don't bother you that much, then having 30+ is great. It means you have a lot of cool details as opposed to very few.

Take the wood pieces for example- simply using the printed 1x4 tiles that are already found in other LotR sets would have cut down the sticker count. I don't understand their logic there.

Its probably for consistency sake. The 2x4 wood sticker tile and 1x4 wood printed tile would look different and inconsistent. Then there would be complaints of why there were some printed and some stickered wooden planks. Would I prefer all printed parts? Yes, but not if the sacrifices I listed were made to afford them.

-----

Something else to consider is that not everyone has a massive pile of bricks to MOC with. Having all those parts printed can limit what you can build if your collection is small. This reminds me to hop on BrickLink so I can replace all the stickered wood in my Burrows set with printed pieces.

Edited May 29, 2012 by gotoAndLego

[Brickmamba]

Thanks for the review, the set itself is quite underwhelming, not a fan several little builds to make up a scene something that most super heroes sets are guilty of but the mini-figures makes this a must pick up, but as you said probably more worthwhile during a sale

[Aragorn8713]

This set is so cool!