Review:9464 The Vampyre Hearse/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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I was going to get a Marvel set, preferably the Spider-Man one since he's the most appealing of their heroes to me. I could already see the direction the review would take...I was going to complain about so many things. I didn't have my mind made up on the set. What I mean is The Ultimate Spider-Man TV series, the Marvel Universe, (probably DC too,) and go on a journey inside myself...and have some fun with Spider-Man. Well, something else obviously caught my eye. I don't like to make uninformed decisions, but I did. So, I bring to you, my review of 9464 The Vampyre Hearse.
As soon as I was old enough to realize that monsters weren't real, the only ones that ever scared me were vampires. I mean, the way the world is, how can I be so sure some illegal alien won't bite my neck and drink my blood? Maybe I should be afraid of zombies the way the world is too (you know, like a naked man eating another naked man's face off), but I never was. :P
Anyway, that said:
Box/Instructions[edit | edit source]
Artwork of a nighttime scene. Reinfield is driving the Hearse while Lord Vampyre looks out of the sunroof. Dr. Rathebone is driving his motorcycle without any hands, I'm sure that's how he lost his leg, he should have learned by now. Not much else to say here. I don't care about the box. Rather superficial thing to grade if you ask me.
The instructions have pretty much the same image, and seemed easy to follow. I didn't find any mistakes, not that I have an eye for that sort of stuff. I did end up with two extra 1x6 plates though, so it seems like I did make a mistake somewhere.
Parts[edit | edit source]
314 parts is okay for a set of this size I guess. It's better than 6863 Batwing Battle and even 4644 Marina though. What stood out to me were the motorcycle covering, Rodney's legs and bowler hat, the foil, Lord Vampyre's sword, the moonstone, both pieces of the coffin, the two transparent windows (the kind that doesn't slant), and the large black ramp. Nothing terribly new, other than the moonstone and Rodney's legs, everything else has been somewhere else at one point, though this is my first time getting all of these pieces in at least the color mentioned.
The pieces were a lot of plates and black bricks, and I'm sure you could expect, nothing terribly useless, but it wouldn't make a good parts pack. I can even think of a use for the moonstone. It might not be explained well, but it wouldn't look out of place in the Batcave.
Minifigures[edit | edit source]
Three minifigures is again a decent amount for this set. I won't ask for more, though I wouldn't mind a Manbat or another zombie. Anyway, in more detail now:
Dr. Rodney Rathbone gives me nostalgia. He looks a lot like Johnny Thunder to me, if only he didn't have the beard the face would be perfect for an updated version. Otherwise, it's good to have another bowler hat, and one without printing, and the torso is very well done. I really like getting torsos from this era, being and Adventurers fan. I don't like the legs as much, mostly because of the robotic leg. It's nice, but I don't like that it's there. I do like having it though, so I'm not taking points off. He has a foil, my first, it's a nice part, a revolver (the same old one), and dynamite (the same old newer one).
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I'm not particularly fond of zombies, I find this whole obsession with them trivial, but Reinfield is fine. That's a bit of an understatement, but compared to the Zombie Bride and Groom, he isn't as impressive. His rarity doesn't help either, since he comes in about four sets (and is reused in the Haunted House) making him the second most common figure in the line, topped by the Ghost, but I'd rather have more of those. Anyway, he's printed nicely and serves his purpose. I can think of a few uses for the face, even though I'm not a zombie person.
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Now, Lord Vampyre. I like the hair, but it doesn't feel as vampirific (new word :D) as his predecessor. Actually, let's compare him to his predecessor. Look at those demonic, red eyes and the cruel smile with his fangs sticking out of his mouth...I find it rather creepy and much prefer Lord's cartoony face. I also prefer Lord's costume, but this is 10 years after the other so that's a bit of a given. I don't really understand why his head glows in the dark, but it does and it still looks white so it's fine. I thought that vampires sparkled in the day...but even if it doesn't make sense, it explains his plan perfectly. He wants to shroud the monster realm in darkness so that he and is wife can glow 24/7. Yeah, that's it...
Back to the figure, my only real problem with him is the lack of his cape. I love the sword though.
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The figures themselves are just as good as the ones from the DC Universe theme and I'd assume The Lord of the Rings and better than Marvel (Black Widow and a few others bring it down). They don't seem to be as nice as the others in the only other MF set in my house, 9461 The Swamp Creature. Honestly, I'm not so sure I could recommend it for the figures though. Reinfield is easily skipable and Rodney and Lord both show up in 9468 The Vampyre Castle, though that's obviously more expensive.
The Build[edit | edit source]
You start off with the minifigures, then the motorbike, then the hearse. Nothing too challenging or new, appropriate for a set this size. Parts when it was black on black made it a bit harder though. The hearse was made a bit more interesting though since it's out of scale with most LEGO vehicles.
The Completed Model[edit | edit source]
Wow, the hearse is tilted much more than I thought. It's not really a bad thing, just strange. Anyway, it looks just like I guess it should: vampirific and stupid. The good kind of stupid though. Like Patrick stupid. Not really, actually. But it's still stupid and fun. I like the bones on the hood, and the moonstone makes an excellent hood ornament, I forget it's there at times. Another good thing is that the front of the car can comfortably seat Lord and Reinfield, which is what is good about this scale of vehicle. The coffin catapult (which I honestly didn't know about until I built this set) is a nice idea, at least better than flick-fire missiles (which were another thing I was going to make fun of in that Marvel review). It didn't always work well though, but when it did it was very entertaining. If you don't like it though, it's easy enough to remove and then another three or four minifigures could be seated comfortably in the back. Speaking of the back though, I don't like that it's wide open. There is a little fence, presumably to keep the coffin from falling out, but it's open. That would make Rodney's job so much easier (throwing a stick of dynamite in, that is). Oh, and that sticker on the roof glows. I actually don't like it and think it would look better without it, but whatever. Again, it's stupid. This time it actually is Patrick stupid too.
The car is much larger than usual as I already mentioned, at ten studs wide. Just like the Batmobile. What is it with Bat-people and their overly large, black cars anyway?
The motorcycle isn't special, but it's a motorcycle. Of all of the simple ones we have this year, it's probably my favorite. First of all, it actually fits the character and then it has some color. The rockets on the sides are kind of funny I thought. Good funny though. Campy.
And just one more small thing to touch on is Lord's coffin. It's so much better than the old Studios one, which was a bit disturbing and even scarier than the Vampire. Don't call it stupid though, it's totally normal for non-Egyptians to have their bodies carved into their coffin. At least that's how I'm getting mine.
Summary[edit | edit source]
Well, if I can recommend it for anything, it's the hearse. It's not a must buy, especially if you can afford the castle (unlike me), but if you're considering it, it has my recommendation otherwise.
Building Experience: Sorry what? It wasn't challenging at all, but it wasn't patronizing either.
3 / 5Parts: Well, there are those bones and a bunch of black pieces. Everything has some sort of reuse without too much imagination, except possibly the coffin lid and moonstone. This is not a parts pack though.
4 / 5Playability: Umm, well with cars and a motorbike there is always chasing. There is also the coffin catapult which as long as it works is good fun. Lord and Rodney can duel too, I suppose.
3½ / 5Minifigures: Rodney gives me nostalgia, Lord is the main baddie, and Reinfield serves his purpose. My only problem really is that Lord doesn't have his cape.
4½ / 5Value for Money: I didn't feel cheated at all and even looking at the price per piece ratio, it's hard to do much better these days.
4 / 5Overall: That would actually be more like a 3.8 I think, but it rounds up to 4. Anyway, see closing paragraph if you skipped to the ratings.
4 / 5
