Two Lost Boys Blog

Scooby-Doo LEGO Review

Hello everyone,

LEGO just released five brand new sets based around the long running, and popular, TV/movie series 'Scooby-Doo'. Since 1969 Scooby and his friends Shaggy, Daphne, Fred and Velma have been solving mysteries and capturing criminals, whilst entertaining fans with their humour and unfaltering squeaky clean image.

Being a Scooby-Doo fan, I simply could not resist the urge to buy these new sets, and so after doing some hunting, we've managed to acquire all five! LEGO doesn't officially release them until the weekend, but some other stores don't always follow the rules!

As I said, there are five sets. These are (set number in brackets after each official name. Highlighted names take you to the LEGO Store online): Mystery Mansion (75904), Haunted Lighthouse (75903), The Mystery Machine (75902), Mystery Plane Adventures (75901) and Mummy Museum Mystery (75900).


Last night Jon and I sat and put them all together, and as we went through them we were really impressed with the quality, the colours, the look and impression of all of them. I took photos of each stage of construction, and thought it would be neat to be able to share the experience here, while giving you a close up look inside each set.

First up, let's look at the largest of the five sets, the Mystery Mansion. The Mystery Mansion contains 860 pieces, including seven mini-figures.



Here are the box contents:


Larger LEGO sets these days are organised by bag, and often have multiple instruction booklets. We will go through stage by stage in order to look closely at each step of the construction of the mansion.

After bag one, this is what we had:


After bag two, this is what we had:



After bag three, this is what we had:



After bag four, this is what we had:



After bag five, this is what we had:


After bag six, this is what we had:




After bag seven, this is what we had:



After bag eight, this is what we had:




And finally, after bag nine, this is the finished product:


I have to say, this is a really impressive set. There are a lot of things that move, or are hidden. I love the little kitchen and the greenhouse. The oven and the cupboard are cute ideas, and the random burger makes me chuckle. The rather menacing looking spinning pumpkin is a neat piece, too. The big spiked ball that drops down from the ceiling is pretty violent, and there is a hidden key under the floorboards. The clock face actually turns when you move a handle on the back, and Dracula can either hide inside his coffin, or reveal himself by spinning around on the platform under the clock face (same handle does both actions). What I really like about this set are the mini-figures. You get seven of them, and they all have some sort of accessory or moving part, or different expression. The only one of the main cast who is missing is Fred. When I say they have different expressions, I really mean, they have different expressions! Take a look below at how each hero figure comes with a "happy"/normal face and a scared face, and the villains come with their disguise face, and then their real face.

Mystery, Inc.:








Villains:







It's really neat how LEGO have acknowledged the fact that in the Scooby-Doo TV show, the ghosts and monsters were nearly always real people who were trying to commit some sort of crime. They didn't have to bother making two expressions on the heads, but they did, and that I really think is attention to detail. I also like how there is a sausage and a burger included, because as we all know, Shaggy and Scooby are junk food fanatics! Again, great attention to detail.

This set I would give five out of five. It has so many winning elements. Even if Fred isn't included, it's well worth it. It should be noted that this is the only set to include Velma, so if having all the main cast is important to you, buying this set is a good idea to be able to get her.

Next we come to the Haunted Lighthouse. This set is made up of 437 pieces, including five mini-figures. The mini-figures included are: Shaggy, Scooby-Doo, Daphne, the Lighthouse Keeper and the Swamp Creature.

Here are the front and back of the box:



And the contents of the box:


Again, there were multiple stages of construction, so we'll go through each stage to see what it looks like.

After bag one, we were here:




After bag two, this is what we had:




After bag three, this is what we had:


After bag four, this is what we had:




And finally, after bag five was finished, we were left with the final product:




Like the mansion set, this set has some nice details, such as the hidden treasure and the moving rock face. There is also a box with hidden diving gear, which is meant to be for the villains, because as before, they are real people, not really monsters - so they need equipment, right? Again, it's a nice touch. As with the mansion set, the figures come with different expressions and accessories, so let's take a closer look.

Mystery, Inc.:






Villains:





Interestingly, Shaggy has a different shirt in this set, which is nice so that you don't end up with duplicate figures, but again, he comes complete with a burger! Daphne is identical to the previous one in the mansion set. In case you didn't notice, Scooby-Doo is different, and is in a sitting down position in this set. So again, it's nice to have a variation.

I would give this set five out of five also. The fact that it comes with three different villains, and two of Mystery, Inc. characters are also different, it means you are getting something fresh that is worth your investment. Given that four figures are different, I just wish they had made Daphne a different expression or outfit (she's the same as the mansion set), but I guess you can't have it all!

Next up we have the Mystery Machine set. The number of pieces is 301, including four mini-figures. The mini-figures are Shaggy, Scooby-Doo, Fred and a zombie.

Here are the front and back of the box:



And the contents inside:


Here's what we had after bag one:


Here's what we had after bag two:



Here's what we had after bag three:



And finally the finished product:


I love this set! To have a LEGO Mystery Machine - how awesome is that?! The van looks really good, and has some great details, once again, with the various computers, tools and even a sandwich! The robo-tree, controlled by the zombie villain is pretty cool looking, if perhaps a little simple, but overall, they did an excellent job designing this set.

This is the only set of the five to include Fred, so like with the mansion and Velma, if you want all the main characters, you have to invest in this set. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo in this set are the same as seen in the mansion one. Interestingly, the zombie doesn't come with a different expression, but the back of his head does have, I guess what can be described as, "buttons", to imply he's a "real" person. Not to mention the fact the "haunted" tree is in fact computer controlled, which again is a nod to the real culprit being human, just like the TV show.

Mystery, Inc.:






Zombie:



I would give this set, again, five out of five. Most of that score comes from the fact I think the Mystery Machine is awesome. I just can't help but fall in love with these sets. The colours, the design, the details all make these sets visually appealing, and a really fun collector's item for fans like me.

The fourth set on our list is the Mystery Plane. This set contains 128 pieces, including three mini-figures and a horse.

Here are the front and back of the box:



And the contents:


There were two numbered bags for construction. Here is what we had after bag one:


Here is the finished product:





There are a couple of things I love about this set. First of all, the Headless Horseman is awesome! Then of course Scooby-Doo is wearing flying goggles. And the "burger bombs" are hilarious!

Let's take look at the mini-figures. First up, Mystery, Inc.:




Headless Horseman:



The Horse:



Interestingly the horse has a removable body piece where you can insert the saddle. I know there probably aren't many ways LEGO could design this, but I do think it's funny you have to take a chunk out of the horse every time the horseman wants to sit on him! I just love the fact that Scooby-Doo is wearing the flying goggles. Shaggy in this set has the same body, legs and hair as most of the previous sets (the lighthouse seaweed shirt excepted), except he has two new expressions not seen in the previous ones, which makes things a bit more interesting.

I would give this set four and a half out of five. The only real reason it doesn't get five is that I think given that we get Scooby-Doo and Shaggy again, Shaggy could have had something different, like Scooby-Doo has the flying goggles. Shaggy would have looked really cool in flying gear! With that said, I do love the Headless Horseman, and flying-goggles-Scooby is both funny and neat.

Finally we come to the Mummy Museum Mystery. I actually deliberately left this one until last because I didn't want to interrupt the momentum of four very consistent sets. This set contains a total of 110 pieces, including three mini-figures. The figures included are: Shaggy, Scooby-Doo and a mummy.

This set sticks out for two reasons, for me. One, It is significantly smaller than the others, and while that isn't really an issue, it just makes it not quite as exciting as the rest. Second, the theme and setting of it stands out more than the others. For some reason, in my head, a spooky lighthouse, a haunted manor, a creepy tree and even the plane all sort of fit together. They all encompass the good old fashioned spooky ghost story genre in a way that a museum doesn't, I think. Not to mention this museum set is actually really a "scene" from a museum, rather than a complete museum (wouldn't that have been epic?), whereas the other sets are whole, complete units - a house, a lighthouse, the Mystery Machine, etc. When I built this set, I wondered how it was going to fit with my big diorama I had in my mind once all sets were completed!

Anyway, let's take a look inside. Here are the front and the back of the box:



The contents of the box:


And finally the entire set completed (there are no separate bags for this one since it is so small):



To give this set credit, it has some fun features. There are hidden gems under the mummy's tomb, and the lid to the tomb itself lifts up, by pulling a burger on a chain no less! I like how they still tried to include the junk food element, even if it is a little odd to be tacked on to the back of a mummy's coffin!


The mummy is a unique figure to this set, but Scooby-Doo is exactly the same as the other sets that have the "walking" version of him. Shaggy looks more-or-less the same, with his body and hair being the same as most of the other sets, but his expressions are the "different" ones as seen in the plane set (above), which at least makes it a little more worthwhile getting Shaggy for a fifth time (since he's in every set. Scooby-Doo is also in all five sets, either walking or sitting).

Mystery, Inc.:




The Mummy:



I would give this set three out of five, which is the lowest I have given any of them so far. It's not that it's a bad set, but like I said, it doesn't really go with the rest, and to get Shaggy and Scooby-Doo again, well, it could be a little more special to make the double figures worthwhile.

For fun, I put the sets together, and took out the doubles of the various characters, to make one consistent scene. I took some close ups of the characters in various situations, too, which I thought would be neat to share.







Then after the mystery is solved, all the villains are rounded up and unmasked, the characters look more relieved (expressions have changed), and Shaggy even cleaned the seaweed from his shirt (wink, wink).




Finally, it's time to go home! Fred is driving the Mystery Machine, with Daphne by his side, and Shaggy peering through the back area window. Velma takes the bike and rides with Scooby-Doo, who in the side car!


I hope that you enjoyed this review. If you have any thoughts or comments, please leave them in the Disqus box below.

Have a great week everyone!

Dan.