CC Set Review: 9473 - Mines of Moria

[Bruce N H]

Join the Classic Castle set review discussion. Please post your opinions on the set play ability, piece selection, design, etc. Which sets stand up to our catapult of critique and which ones crumble in shame!

This week’s set is 9473 - Mines of Moria.



Another set from the 2012 run of Lord of the Rings sets. This set might have been more properly named The Chamber of Mazarbul as it is focused on the battle between the company of the Ring and the orcs of Moria that takes place around Balin's tomb. This set includes four of the nine heroes, two Moria orcs, and the cave troll. It also includes lots of pieces of the chamber, many weapons, and a few action features.

[Athos]

This set is my least favorite of the original line. I was very disappointed with it when I first got it, even at 30% off. I recently, however, picked up a 2nd copy (for 50% off) and found that after building it a second time I liked it better. It is a good source of regular dark bley bricks; I find that to be a nice feature, since so many sets rely on wedges, hinges and technic parts, which I don't particularly like. There are also a good number of masonry bricks in dark bley.

A lot of people don't like (what they call) Legolas' stage, but it doesn't bother me all that much. The door is a decent design too. The well and tomb are pretty meh, but they've got good basic parts.

The figures are pretty nice, particularly Boromir and Pippin. A few more Orcs are nice too. But the troll isn't all that great and you can get Gimli and Legolas in all kinds of sets.

Steve

[Lil_Curt]

This is also my least favorite set.

I bought 2 on clearance as parts sets. There are many good parts as athos mentioned. I also like the door design and I love the copper ax in this set. other then that It was overpriced at retail. yes you have a good set of minifigs, however gimli is in like every set an doesn't change at all. The troll is meh for me. Play-ability is ok. But for me this was a parts set. so for parts I give it a 4.5 out of 5. all others is a 2.5 out of 5. I wasn't going to get this set but I found it on sale and couldn't pass the parts up!

[Bruce N H]

Hey,

As I said above this probably shouldn't have been called "The Mines of Moria" - it was a bit of a disappointment at trying to represent that whole section of the book. IMO they should have had three sets, which they could have then bundled together as a Mines of Moria mini-subtheme.
Watcher in the Waters - secret door opened by Gandalf, attack by the big tentacle thingy in the lake
Chamber of Mazarbul - this set, or some variation
Bridge of Khazad-Dum - Gandalf and brick-built Balrog (essentially the one in the video game)

Given that they didn't do that, on to this set. I don't actually own it, but oh well. I've got a bit of a grumble about the cave troll - that was one of my complaints in the movie, and LEGO has gone and extended the issue by including it here. I'd rather they'd have included two more orcs. The other major grumble on this set is that IIRC those are all stickers instead of printed tiles, which are always preferable. Other than that this set looks pretty good to me. I don't think that Gimli is a problem - if you get the first three Fellowship sets you get almost the whole company (no Sam, but you get two Frodos - maybe they should have had Sam instead of Frodo in the Weathertop set, but I suppose Frodo is too integral to that scene).

Bruce

[Mr. Shiny & New]

I just recently put this set together for the first time, after having bought it on clearance and then set it aside for a rainy day.

I'd heard some bad reviews about the set; mainly people grumbling that they didn't like it, or were disappointed. Frankly, I'm not sure what's so bad about it.

Making a Lego set out of a movie set is always challenging. You need to essentially suggest the full scene using only a few cues. This set does that fairly well, in my opinion. It captures the angular architecture of the Dwarvish city. It has a shelf area where the hobbits hide from the trolls. The tomb is recognizable as Balin's tomb. The well, with the chained-up corpse, are also present. Everything you need for the scene is there.

I thought the part selection was pretty good as well. Lots of standard dark bley pieces and lots of tiles. Virtually no pieces in inappropriate colours. And for once I was glad of the stickers, because I preferred to leave them off and add the plain tiles to my collection.

What I didn't like:

• the doors only look good from one side
• The hidden treasure chest thingy is a little weird.
• The cave troll doesn't do it for me but I can see why it's in the set.

Redeeming features:

• At least there are no flick-fire missiles (*cough* weathertop *cough*)

[athronieth]

I am an oddball I guess insofar as I actually like this set for a few reasons, such as (1) the minifigures, (2) its playability, and (3) as a brick source for my own dwarfish creations. But I definitely think it needed to be bought on sale: not a set I was willingly to pay full price or an inflated price for. I think it captures the iconic aspects of that particular fight scene quite well and that is what they were going for.

[Purple Wolf]

I never got this set but I have seen one in person so as far as I can tell it's pretty nice set. Lots of good pieces and some really nice minifigs which two of the fellowship only come with this set. I know most may say the troll is terrible but I personally like it. The one major complaint is the random treasure. It just doesn't seem to fit in.

Purple Wolf