"But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate. (Ah, let us mourn! - for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!)"

A month or so ago i wrote a post about the Lego Monster fighters range that were released earlier in the year. I really wanted them as they were really interesting kits and the minifigures are great, At the time of writing the post i couldn't warrant spending money on Lego for myself, but as with a lot of toys i started to obsess about having them and within a couple of days i had brought the three smaller kits from the range. I'm terrible once a really start wanting something.

I was lucky enough to receive £100 in Toys R Us vouchers recently and although i was planning on spending it on the boys Mrs M told me to spend it on myself as we had already brought all of their Christmas presents. So i treated myself to two of the larger Monster fighters kits as i also had a 20% off voucher for that weekend.

One of the kits i purchased was the Monster fighters vampyre castle kit. I had been wanting this from the moment i saw it, I'm always drawn in by the Minifigures but i loved some of the new pieces in the kit that i had never seen before. I built the kit the night after i brought it and ive got to be honest i was a little disappointed. This kit is a little flimsy and after i built it i carried it in the next room to put it on a shelf and dropped it. there's no large base plate for it because the walls move which makes it a 'nightmare' to move around (see what i did there? haha). I rebuilt it the following night and put it somewhere safe (very carefully). Seth has played with it since and he kept apologising because things kept falling off, so not really great for playing with, especially for children.

Despite the flimsyness this really is the only problem. To look at its great and there are some really great features to the building and kit on the whole. The minifigures as usual are amazing and to be fair they make the kit. The vampire kind of looks like my friend Craig which is handy for if i decide to make a minifigure of him for a post like the one i wrote about my friends Chris and Michelle. The Werewolf didn't come with the kit but i think Seth must have found him and added him to the team.

I'd say that my favourite part to the building is the door that changes into a winding staircase, i was pretty impressed by it. If i had the money and was building a haunted castle on grand designs i would definitely have the architect pencil in one if these as they would be a fantastic space saving idea. I think our Kev would have plenty to say about it too.

There are so many little touches to the kit which make it so much fun, there's a trap door, spikes that move in and out at the entrance, skeletons hanging in the tower, book cases, potion bottles, spell books, an organ in the highest tower, which is a great touch...

 

I wasn't to keen on the front feature with the coloured gems at first but it adds to the building and is really good for the story when your playing. The monster fighters have to race to the castle to stop the monsters from taking over. Although the monster fighter mini figures are great we all favour the monsters here so they always come out on top. They all make friends in the end though as most of our toys do after playing.

Obviously the kit had to come with a couple of 'monster fighters' otherwise it wouldn't be much of a fight. They are great and i especially love their robot arms and legs. ive got some of these limbs from other robot characters so i might make a monster fighter Pauly to go with them (I'm sure that will be a post tomorrow now ive said it). The car that came with this set is great too, since building this i have also built the hearse kit which is really fun and i will write about that very soon.

Overall the kit is great to look at but the fact that the castle is not very sturdy really lets it down. It hasn't put me off though. Ive managed to accumulate all of the sets apart from the haunted house and the ghost train (which Seth has asked for for Christmas) so when ive built the others I'm sure ill write about them too. I'm really tempted to take this apart though and build it a lot stronger.

any way until next time...