Review:75904 Mystery Mansion/Berrybrick
Berrybrick
Country: America the Beautiful Gender: Male
Joined: February 2010 
№ of Reviews: 46 
№ of Featured reviews: 1
Building Experience: Enough is enough
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- Set: 75904 Mystery Mansion
- Theme: Scooby-Doo
- Pieces: 860
- Price: $89.99 USD / £89.99 GBP / €89.99 EUR
- Brickipedia / Brickset
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I have vague memories of wanting a Scooby-Doo theme back in the day. This was back when Star Wars and Harry Potter were the only licensed themes I recall clearly enough, but I think that some of those weird "The Making of Jurassic Park" sets may have been around under the Studios banner. I remember trying to figure out how LEGO would make Scooby. My sketch model was something like this: It is missing prints, of course.
Though it is missing prints, you can see that even at a young age I showed great promise in the field of minifigure design. I was skeptical when I heard rumors that LEGO would be releasing a Scooby-Doo theme, mostly because if they copied my design, I would be standing at the sides with a pen in my hand and a lawyer in my belt, ready to sew. Of course, their solution was a little bit different and the entire theme, actually, came out as a pleasant surprise; a sort of marriage between Monster Fighters and Friends, and here we have the flagship, the most loveliest magicalis magnificenticus lovechild.*
A special thanks to the LEGO CEE team for allowing us to do this review, and Soupperson1 pressuring me into doing it. All it took was a Scooby Snack, and what a Scooby Snack this set is....
*For a show with teenagers on an endless road trip in a psychadelic van and a dog with the munchies, I am surprised how few lovechildren there really are associated with the franchise.
The Build[edit | edit source]
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We have three instruction manuals, which are placed in shrink wrap with the sticker sheet, something that made me cry tears joy when I saw it. Each manual is dedicated to one of the three sections of the Mansion so, if you wish, you can easily divide up the set between three builders. Similarly, three bags are each dedicated to one of the three sections, starting with the Greenhouse.
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Our first bag gives us Scooby, Shaggy, their motorcycle, the Black Knight, and Flytrap Lily. Constructing the Greenhouse itself does not begin until the second bag, and then the third tops it off with a glass roof. Make sure that the "glass," being flat and transparent, makes its way out of the bag and into the brick pile. Daphne is also thrown into the minifigure mix with the second bag.
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The Greenhouse is finished quite quickly, compared to the next section, the Clock Tower, as the Tower's bags are noticeably fuller. Bag four grafts us Velma for keeping us company when we build the first floor of the tower. Bag five constructs the second floor, with its swinging ball. That leaves bag six (and the purple turret, which was loose in the box) to finish up the tower. This is probably the most frustrating part of the build, including the clock and the Vampire's apparition feature. It's not particularly difficult, just make sure that the gears are lined up right and, well, take note that the clock hand is not quite pointing at the twelve (and not just because I did a shoddy job at applying the stickers), which is disappointing, but more on that later. After the clock face is built, the tower is only missing the turret, and that is quickly completed.
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Next is the kitchen which, momentarily, made me think that I was building a Friends set (which is a good thing) with the way that the floor is tiled. We are given our last minifigure, the Ghost, here. Like the Clock Tower, each bag builds a different layer. The first is the kitchen, then the saferoom (I guess), and, finally, the purple roof.
The build is, while straightforward, fun, if not lengthy. I could see some builders getting bored while building it. Despite being large and long, it isn't the most inventive build, with minimal TECHNIC and not a whole lot of creative part uses. It's not exactly a modular building. There are nearly twenty stickers, and I didn't do such a great job at applying them, myself.
Parts[edit | edit source]
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The standout parts are, hands down and heads off, the Jack-o-Lanterns. There are two of them, and so far the only other set which they appear in is 75901 Mystery Plane Adventures, which uses one for the Headless Horseman. Other things which stood out to me were the azure motorcycle piece (which only comes in a Friends set), the silver chassis, plenty of purple cheese slopes, even more little black horns, the sandwich bun, padlock, a lot of windows, the Phantom's ball and chain, and then, of course, the purple steeple and octagon plate. There are 25 1x2 purple slopes and the only other set with them (right now) only has two, so that's also a useful bonus. Exclusive parts that I noticed are the purple doors (which are a cool color for that piece), 2x10 and 4x4 purple plates, blank transparent orange heads, the 6x6 round piece used for the clock face, and the sand green cabinet door. That's more than I would have suspected at first glance.
Though purple isn't such a terribly rare color anymore, I am still glad to see it show up. While this set doesn't have as much as I originally thought (for some reason, I thought that the walls and not the roofs were purple) it is still really nice to have more of it in standard pieces, though it might end up like that collection of orange bricks I've amassed and never used.
One of my fondest memories from building with LEGO as a child was taking apart my first castle and then rebuilding it into all sorts of other citadels and fortresses (and a boat, somehow). I could see myself doing that with this set.
Minifigures[edit | edit source]
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I am really impressed by the printing on Scooby's color. I just wanted to say that. The thin gold lettering es magnifique. Scooby's head is separate from his body (both came in those little China baggies), so it can rotate, but that's it for his possibility. He has two bodies in the different sets, one sitting, and one on his legs, and the latter is what we have here. It's a little disappointing because it isn't the most dynamic pose and I would like to display him running or in Shaggy's arms, but oh well. This set uses the "normal" Scooby head which also comes in 75900 Mummy Museum Mystery and (with the sitting body) in 75903 Haunted Lighthouse.
Shaggy, like Scooby, comes in every set in this line, which surprised me when we first saw images. He does have a couple of variations though, and this set includes the same head (with an open mouthed smile and a frown) as 75902 The Mystery Machine and 75903 Haunted Lighthouse (though the latter has seaweed and a starfish on his shirt). I quite like his hairpiece, even if it doesn't seem quite right for a 2D shape to be made 3D, it works much better here than with The Simpsons figures, in my opinion. Speaking of which, it is nice that he reuses the molded arms from those figures.
Daphne is the only member of the Gang, besides Scooby and Shaggy, who is not exclusive to a set, also appearing in 75903 Haunted Lighthouse. Her bright orange hair is really striking, and not necessarily in a good way. It seems bigger than it probably should be, and the way that the ends curl kind of feels off. The back kind of looks like a lump of Play-Doh, too. However, the printed headband is a really nice touch and I am glad that she at least gets a mold. Daphne's costume is translated pretty much perfectly (I know her with pink leggings, but it isn't a huge deal), but her face comes off as a little generic, kind of offsetting the super special hair mold, though I'm not sure how that could have been helped.
Velma's majesty has been well reported. Her hairpiece is excellent, her face is charmingly androgynous (no eyelashes or lipstick; I don't remember the last time this has happened on a character), and her skirt printing is cute. I'm not overly fond of her torso, since the curves seem unnaturally emphasized for a sweater which shouldn't be that tight. Still though, Velma is a great figure and it is unfortunate that her availability is limited (for all of you people, at least :P ).
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The Black Knight is all around a good figure with a gunmetal torso, some thick armor, and slit yellow eyes which should be useful. He has a face with askew glasses on the other side which will probably be less so. I really like Mr. Wickles' torso, with a brown suit and tie poking up underneath a metal vest. I'm not sure exactly what it would be good for, but it makes me want to write a story about a businessman who believes his biggest flaw is a terrible taste in suits, but unbeknownst to him, he is really a knight.... Believe it or not, that sounded even worse in my head. Okay, moving on....
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The Vampire's face is good and creepy and his two-sided cape is wonderful, but, unfortunately I find his torso very plain. It fits within the style of the show (actually, I'm sure it's lifted straight from it) but while that might excuse the design, it is still pretty boring. Big Bob Oakley's head on the other side might get more reuse than the Knight and Phantom's, since it is on a white head, so maybe it could be combined with the Mummy's bandages to make an "I've fallen and can't firmly grasp it in my hand!" figure.
The Ghost isn't totally new, at least, not really. This shroud has been around since Monster Fighters, and the only change is that now we have a Bluestone the Great face which has an amazing mustache and, despite (or, possibly moreso because of) the head sock, makes me really want to find a use for that. Though there was a polybag back in the Monster Fighters days, I don't think that LEGO ghosts have been all that common, and this is my first. I like it. c: The ball and chain is a nice addition, and while you wouldn't (shouldn't) by the set for it, the inclusion is appreciated, though I do question why someone in a disguise would want to tug that thing around....
Completed Model[edit | edit source]
For some reason, I thought that this set would have a lot more purple than it does. That's okay though, because I didn't want to be swimming in purple. Not purple legos, anyway. If anyone in the crowd knows where I can swim in a sea of purple flowers, let me know, because that's on my bucket list. The purple adds a nice splash of color, but I don't like it with the grays so much. It's just strange to have the tiling be so bright, but the walls so dull. The set doesn't suffer much for it, but the colors and the shape are the first things people will notice. Thankfully though, the shape is good. The central tower is rather tall, but the set itself is not terribly wide, so we do get the sense of a cartoonish manor, because everyone knows that when ghouls move in to a castle, it becomes thin and leery.
Shaggy's motorbike isn't worth mentioning much. The azure is beautiful, naturally, so it is a nice addition, but it has little bearing on the set at all.
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I think that my favorite part of the manor is the greenhouse. There isn't much to do in there aside from rotate Flytrap Lily (who is gorgeous) some, but I like all of the glass windows and the new Jack-o-Lanterns. I think that its exterior also has the benefit of not relying on stickers so much as the other ones. The stickers are possibly the worse, other flytraps which exist only on the windows (the sort of annoying non-interactive detail often present in doll houses), but they don't do a whole lot of damage.
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The kitchen would be my second favorite, which is where the "girly" influence is most apparent with a sink, a stove, and a tiled floor with a design taken straight from the Friends line, which is beautiful. The room above is strange, with only a safe where the manor's secret treasure is "hidden." Why would anyone not expect that it is in the safe, and then a villain just take the safe and find a way to open it (without the key) away from meddling kids? It would have been nice if they had incorporated a secret room for the treasure, like some other sets. Anyway, despite that, the exterior of the building is pretty good. I don't like those stickered windows, but the steep roof is excellent.
Our central tower isn't really bad, and actually, from the outside it mostly looks quite good, aside from the distracting orange clock hand. The collapsing roof is done well, and the purple turret is gorgeous in that color. Really it is just the inside. The first floor is plain, which is acceptable, but it does have a key hidden under the floorboards (which would probably be a better place for the gold). There is a portrait of the prospector on the second floor, with a collapsing spike ball which will swing down above the hollow floor. This isn't a particularly good play feature, and what more, it is the only one in the set aside from the rotating clock, but that's a disappointment too. That (hideous) orange hand is not pointing to 12 when the vampire appears, but instead is closer to 11:58, which sounds like something out of a really bad horror movie parody.
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
Building Experience: The set is a rather simple build that young kids can easily follow, but it is still a pretty good, just not modular or D2C good.
4½ / 5
Parts: When I was younger, one of my favorite sets was Vladek's Dark Fortress (yeah, I am that young...or maybe old) because it was so much fun to use all of the castle parts to build other castles (and sometimes boats, because boats are buoyant and buoyant things are amazing). I can see some of the same potential here...oh, and the part selection is good too, so tadala.
5 / 5
Playability: I think that the manor's layout could have probably been considered better. It doesn't seem like there is much room for an investigation; once Mystery, inc., witnesses the vampire "transforming" at 11:58, finds the hidden key, and dodges the spikeball, there isn't much for them to do. Of course, the doll house nature of the set might help a bit, but there aren't as many countless play possibilities that I can see with this as I could with something like Olivia's House or Hogwarts Castle.
3 / 5
Minifigures: Rather lovely, for the most part. Daphne is a little off and the glowing tan of Mr. Wickles and Bluestone is a rather annoying, but it is a great selection nonetheless.
4 / 5
Value for Money: Well, LEGO gave it to me free for review purposes The manor is a little small for what I would expect for the price point...it doesn't seem much larger than the Batcave, yet it does have an exterior I suppose. Either way, despite being on the smaller side, it is a good value.
4½ / 5
Overall: .
4½ / 5
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian
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