Review: 9473 The Mines of Moria

[sologuy369]

33 stickers ! Nice review. The troll Might be good for HP fans aka the troll dungeon scene from the 1st movie/book.

[Angeli]

more detailed and "makro" pictures of the minifigs and their equipment would a nice touch....

[Lynx]

If I counted right, the longest section of the Mines of Moria is 34 studs long. Bummer! I was hoping to fit the whole set onto a 32x32 baseplate. I think it would add to the feel of a chamber instead of having "floating" pieces. The bigger base plate is 48x48 studs and thus too large.

[KyleJohnson11]

If I counted right, the longest section of the Mines of Moria is 34 studs long. Bummer! I was hoping to fit the whole set onto a 32x32 baseplate. I think it would add to the feel of a chamber instead of having "floating" pieces. The bigger base plate is 48x48 studs and thus too large.

You could attach two 8x16 baseplates along the 32x32 to get a smaller size. It would put you at 40x32.

[Lynx]

I got the set yesterday and really like it. I don't have much to add to the excellent review and won't start a new threat for my own. I think it's nice to keep all opinions in one place. However, I took some photos. "Lego Otaku", fell free to take any if you like to add them to your review.

For what it's worth, I'd rate The Mines of Moria as follows (out of 5).

Build - rather simple, and application of stickers annoying

:thumbup:

Movie accuracy - greatly recognisable, main features of fight captures in LEGO, lacks important characters

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Minifigures - love the Moria orcs, heroes and cave troll. Only downside Legolas' inability to wear a quiver

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Play features - aside from the well, it's all about destruction. Plenty, but not a lot of diversity.

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Overall

:thumbup: :thumbup:

A friend of mine never applies stickers. So these photo is for him and other people to see what the sets looks like without...

And to compare to the look after sticker application.

In case you were wondering if the Moria orcs can wear armour and quiver. Both fit perfectly!

Another view.

Following are some movie scenes I tried to fit into LEGO. Some characters are used from other sets (Aragorn, Frodo, Merry, Gandalf)

Gimli finding out about his cousin Balin...

"Drums. Drums in the deep."

Curious young hobbit. Skeleton, chain and bucket. Deep well. Recipe for disaster!

"Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!"

"Let them come. There is one dwarf left yet in Moria who still draws breath."

"They have a cave troll."

This Moria orc will regret his eagerness.

They have broken through!

The hobbits joining the fray (I don't have Sam).

Decapitation LEGO style.

Balin's tomb about to get smashed. Note the Moria orc expertly keeping the troll on a leash.

Aragorn and Boromir saving Sam from getting clobbered.

Boromir about to get tossed. Too bad his movie expression in this scene is missing.

Frodo trying to hide from the troll...

... to no avail.

Aragorn trying to protect the hobbit.

Poor Frodo.

Merry and Pippin lost any hesitation after Frodo was stabbed

Legolas doing his chain-dodging, locking and climbing trick...

... before firing some arrows into the troll's skull

Cave troll about to go down

You could attach two 8x16 baseplates along the 32x32 to get a smaller size. It would put you at 40x32.

Thanks! I'll see if I find those.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Lynx

[Multiverse]

Is this set worth getting just for the figures? I don't want to resell the rest of the set, but I won't be building it either; I'll just keep the pieces. The thing is, I really want Legolas' hair, that hobbit's torso (the blue one with the scarf) and Gimli's helmet, and the orcs look nice, too. Still, there's a lot of sets on my list, and I'm in doubt as to whether this is worth getting.

[Knapen]

Is this set worth getting just for the figures? I don't want to resell the rest of the set, but I won't be building it either; I'll just keep the pieces. The thing is, I really want Legolas' hair, that hobbit's torso (the blue one with the scarf) and Gimli's helmet, and the orcs look nice, too. Still, there's a lot of sets on my list, and I'm in doubt as to whether this is worth getting.

Why not buy those few minifigs/pieces through Bricklink?

About the set. I like the design of this one, but a really don't like the 33 stickers

For me three or four stickers are max if there is no other solution. But 33?

Nice review btw.

[Ferrik]

Great review. 33stickers?! That's a lot.

Anyway, what do you think is the best LOTR set?

[Canada_7]

First of all Lego Otaku, thanks for the review.

To me, the excess amount of stickers is one thing that's a turnoff (I rarely if ever put stickers on these days). What I'm getting for $100 Canadian, or if I were to get it from B&N at about the American MSRP, is underwhelming IMHO. I'm paying strictly for the minifigures, which is the only thing that would get me to buy this set.

Lynx, your little series of pictures almost makes this set interesting. Almost .

Edited June 9, 2012 by Canada_7

[Huntleyfx]

Thanks for the review, but I am afraid I am going to have to pass on this one. The stickers and the multiple sub builds break my desire for the set.

[Orange Leader]

Thanks Lynx for posting this set without stickers, because I'm planning to not use them as well. Love your recreation of this fantastic scene from the movie, wich I recently watched.

[K-Nut]

I picked up this set yesterday and it came with two identical sticker sheets. Has this happened to anyone else?

[The_Chosen_1]

Nope, that's awesome though. It's always good to have extra stickers in case they decay someday.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very helpfull review!

The pit scene is my favorite!

[Stenly]

This is one of the best sets in LOTR! But... Too much stickers! I don't like them, and it's the big problem...

[lego_legis_legere]

Thanks for adding the videos : I was asking to myself how Balin's tomb works (even if I don't like stickers, I noticed a nice one used for the inscription)

[BrickPicker]

33 stickers?!?.... wow, that's disappointing. The price seems too high for what we get IMO, though the figs and accessories are really nice.

I hate stickers also. I never put them on correctly.

[dyntar]

After just finishing building this set I'd have to say its very bad. If you want to get the main characters from the movie Pippin, Legolas and Boromir they are only available in this set.

This is a cheap sell for Lego.. people are going to buy this just to get the main characters.

The sets play features are rubbish.. Has anyone actually managed to get the tomb lid to flip?

Theres alot of pieces in the set that are just randomly placed on the set without any purpose. a bone, the heroica weapons, a book and the 2 extra diamonds. I have never seen a set before that just has parts placed and not actually had a container or specific part to attach them.

They could have saved some of the extra price on the set just by having the goblin with a single sided face.. a slightly more open mouth is just pathetic.

The amount of stickers is ridiculous. Printing on the book would have been nice but they did accidentally give me 2 sheets of stickers.. so that is a bonus.

After they printed woodgrain 1x4 tiles on the LOTR set 9471 why do we have multiple stickers doing the same job on this set?

This set is overpriced and underwhelming.

[SheepEater]

If you are really THAT disappointed in the set, maybe you should ask Lego (or whoever you bought it from) to give your money back.

The rest of us enjoy the set the way it is just fine.

[fred67]

If I counted right, the longest section of the Mines of Moria is 34 studs long. Bummer! I was hoping to fit the whole set onto a 32x32 baseplate. I think it would add to the feel of a chamber instead of having "floating" pieces. The bigger base plate is 48x48 studs and thus too large.

You could attach two 8x16 baseplates along the 32x32 to get a smaller size. It would put you at 40x32.

That's exactly what I did... actually more, because then I put the large wall section along the lengthened side, and the doors on an adjacent "short" side. I used a blue baseplate (it's what I had handy), along with a couple of green 8x16 - but it's moot, because I covered the whole thing with a checkerboard pattern of light and dark gray 4x4 plates.. I got two extra studs on one side by over hanging (and filled in the opposite side with 2x plates that are hidden under the door anyway. I think it came out pretty good... more comments below...

Is this set worth getting just for the figures? I don't want to resell the rest of the set, but I won't be building it either; I'll just keep the pieces. The thing is, I really want Legolas' hair, that hobbit's torso (the blue one with the scarf) and Gimli's helmet, and the orcs look nice, too. Still, there's a lot of sets on my list, and I'm in doubt as to whether this is worth getting.

These figures are quite good - I disagree with the suggestion to buy the figures off of bricklink; by the time you add them all up, you're quite close (if not over) the price of the set... close enough that it makes sense to just get the set (IMO). I know that kind of sucks, but it's how it is right now.... especially for the cave troll (cheapest one around here is almost $12, not including S&H); Legolas is about the same price. The orcs, Gimli, Boromir, and Pippen are $5 to $6 each (and there's two orcs in the set). That's around $50 just for the main figures... for the extra $30 you get two skeletons, a bunch of weapons (and, oh yeah - most bricklink lots don't include the weapons), and over 700 pieces besides the figures.

Just my opinion... on top of all that, you'll likely have to buy the minifigures from several different stores, incurring double or triple S&H... and my prices are given the absolute cheapest on BL; if you tried to get them all from one place, it'd likely cost more for the figures.

OK, so now onto my opinion of the set - I just built it the other day, and wanted to add my two cents.

First, I'll eventually be getting all the sets, reviews be damned. I'm a big LEGO fan, I'm a big LOTR fan, so I'm "forced" to buy even crap sets. But I don't believe this is one of them. The minifigures, while lacking (*), are good choices and I'm not unhappy that, if they were going to pick 3 of the fellowship, they picked a good selection.

The second thing is my own personal slant on LEGO... I don't "play." So this set has a lot of play value, but it's not what I do - I build the scenes and display them, so I am inclined to think that maybe, at some point, I'll be going through a number of sets and removing the flick-fire missiles and falling columns and breaking walls, and just build things in the state I want them in for my displays.

Lastly, I don't get why the main wall section needed to be done in three pieces; even if you consider it one big wall piece, you have the wall, the doors, the tomb, and the well, all as separate parts. This again might be great for play, but it's not great for display. So I did use a baseplate and build up some light and dark gray plates on it to fix the scene on. I could throw a picture up if someone wants me to... it's nothing special, just a checkerboard pattern of light and dark gray. I also put 1x tiles around the base of the wall to make it easier to stick on (large tiles sticking on large tiles is a pain).

So... it's OK (that was my vote); it's not great. I bought a new set of tweezers to apply the decals, so that helped. I prefer printed parts, too, though. Overall: it could have been better, but it's LOTR, so I'm happy enough.

(*) How impossible these sets are... several scenes with so many characters, yet you don't want to pay for so many repeats, and yet if you buy one set you can't even make a complete scene. I have to give TLG credit for trying to spread them out in a reasonable way... it's unfortunate they never seem to get the ability to sell figures separately, but even if they could they wouldn't want to - they obviously want you to buy all the sets. Oh well...

[Balrog]

First off: Thanks Lego Otaku for the great review. You really pointed out some good things. Or bad things. Depends on how you consider it. What I found strange in the review pictures is on the pic with the spare parts. It seems you forgot to assemble Gimli's Short-Axe. I first thought what a lucky bastard you must be to have a extra axe-blade :D

I got the set yesterday, together with HD, but due to the lack of time only could build this. I think this is an overall good set. And if you get it with some discount, it's even better. I got it for roughly 10c/p. Which is ok.

What is not ok, as others have mentioned, is the amount of stickers. At least these 1x4 wood tiles could have been used as they are used in other sets, too. Though, I have to say, that the stickers do add a good portion of detail. But I don't want to discuss that.

What I really like about the set is the mini-figs. I really like the printings on the torsos and legs, like the design of the figures and so on. Only the Legolas head seems a bit strange to me. They didn't capture the look of him. The others are somewhat resembling their movie actors somehow. Oh and the helmet of Gimli is totally AWESOME. I really like those Heroica weapons, too. Though they are just scattered around. The sword somehow looks like the Zelda Mastersword. I didn't see those before. And I like the copper axe-blade for shutting the door. Cool piece. And there is a good selection of other pieces in this set I really like. Like the 2x1 Snotplate or 2x1 cheese-plate. Really nice. Did I mention, that the cave troll is really cool? And it is huge. But a little bad balanced. But that's what ground-plates are for, right?

What I found a bit strange is the extensive use of 1x1 Snot bricks in bag 3. They are used as regular bricks at some points. I guess it is cheaper to have these bricks in one variation instead of adding another bricks, just because the Snot is totally useless.

The play features are... ok. The well is somewhat odd, but works. The break parts are ok, even if the pillars just fall over. The tomb itself is very cool, but the flip function does not work out of the box, which makes it useless.

All in all, I really like this set, even if it has some drawbacks. And I hope, Lego makes another wave of LotR sets with another Moria set, like "The bridge of Khazad-Dûm". With Gandalf and a Balrog fighting. I'd really love to get that. Not just because of my name.

[SheepEater]

At first I found the 7 heroica weapons useless, but I put one of the 2 daggers in the well skeleton's ribcage (it fits perfectly!) and sometimes I give the small bow to Pippin, it makes for a cute little hobbit bow. To actual end of the bow fits into a minifig hand. The heroica axe, I give to Balin... surviving in Middle-Earth is no picnic; even dead minifigs need to defend themselves!

[Theduke]

2 orcs? There should at lezst be 5!

[SheepEater]

2 orcs? There should at lezst be 5!

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=M&catID=&itemYear=&searchName=Y&searchNo=Y&q=orc&catLike=W

[Alfadas]

I don't know why everybody is complaining about the stickers, yes, I do not like them either, but I just apply them and that's it.

Indeed, there are too few orcs. I do not have this set, and I do not think I am going to buy it.

Nice review!