Finally...
This is less of a review, and more just a brief overview of a set I thought I would never actually own. I actually bought one of these from Aliexpress last year, but it never arrived. I've since found out this older bootleg by Lepin (RIP) isn't being produced by the successor brands and is sold out everywhere.
This is a copy of the Monster Fighters Haunted House which itself is long, long retired and incredibly expensive on the after market, Even for a loose, unboxed version.
This one was purchased from an ebay seller here in the UK, and was very reasonably priced for such a big set. And no long delivery times.. despite the current situation, the set arrived at my door 2 working days after I placed my order.
Being an older Lepin set, we don't get the luxury of numbered bags here.. parts are sorted by type into individual bags, so there is a lot of sorting to be done!
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| Never thought a bootleg would be 'retired' |
No build pictures on this one, I have waited long enough to get this set that I burned through the build in under 24 hours (2 long sessions) As I couldn't wait to see the finished building.
And what a building it is! Maybe it's because I'm so used to building the modulars from Lego (And their clones) but this was a breath of fresh air. Although it has no base plate included. It also has no connecting pin holes and is designed to stand alone rather than connect in a modular row.
This means that the Haunted house looks amazing from any angle. The sand green contrasting with the black and grey make this an absolute beauty and maybe my favourite build I own. When I finished I just sat there for a while admiring the finished article.
The chimney looks textured, and all the details around the boarded windows and hanging shutters make this one of the most detailed models I've built in a while.
Rather than removable modular floors, this house opens up dollhouse style. It is hinged at multiple points within the chimney build. There are 3 floors contained within and they are jam packed with mini builds and awesome details.
Starting with the pretty plain main entry way, other than some sparse tiling, the main feature of this room is of course the staircase to the next floor.
The other room on the ground floor is the kitchen, the spider web, stove and table are built individually at the beginning of the instructions and added in later. The side door can also be accessed from here.
At the top of the stairs, there is a writing desk with a letter already done, besides this is small table with a bottle and a glass. I'll point out the brown cross beams here (seen at the top and bottom of the pic), these give structural support and actually look like old wooden rafters. A nice touch.
The bedroom features a large wardrobe, a bed and lots of wall decor, including some lamps, and a structure that looks like bones or antlers. The 4 tiles on the walls are meant to be picture but the included sticker sheet is poor quality so I will be sourcing some better ones for the whole set.
The top floor is the attic and is accessed by a fantastically designed folding ladder on a trapdoor. More nice details here, the large basket contains a knights helmet, there is a jar, a loose rifle and the chest contains a mysterious top hat.
The opposing side of the attic area contains a gramophone, a skull and a crate with some stored items, a jar and a bottle adorn the shelves.
There are 6 minifigs included in the set, the first 3 here are Lord Vampyre, his bride (with the incorrect hair piece) and the monster Butler (with his mismatched forehead piece)
And lastly we have a zombie chef (who is actually pretty great) and 2 of the older type ghosts.
These minifigs are pretty poor to be honest and (apart from the zombie) will not be going into the city... Luckily I already collected a Whole bunch of the official Monster Fighters characters and this house and the surrounding area will be their new home. Incorporating the Hidden Side graveyard
I'll just say here that the brick quality here is fantastic, this was Lepin at the height if their brazenness and yes, it was a stolen design from LEGO. But even when this was on sale, the original was very hard to come by.
My copy was missing 2 very small pieces which i had in my spares (a black small bar and a trans clear dome) The brown bushes from the original (and shown on the front of the instructions) are not included in the lepin version.
Throught out the building process, I was aware that the bulk of the parts used to make this, I already have in my lego collection, the exceptions being the specialty pieces, all the sand green bricks, and the massive amount of tall roof slopes, I will be attempting to convert the majority of this building over to lego as I absolutely love this theme and the building, and think it's a worthwhile project.
Thanks for looking as always....
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