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Subject | Monsters, Ghosts, Vampires and Zombies |
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Licensed from | The Lego Group |
Availability | 22 May 2012–31 December 2014 |
Total sets | 13 (or 14) [1] |
Characters | Dr. Rodney Rathbone, Frank Rock, Ann Lee, Major Quinton Steele and Jack McHammer |
Official website |
Lego Monster Fighters (stylized as LEGO Monster Fighters) was a Lego theme based on Universal Studios Monsters from the horror fiction genre. The Monster Fighters fight against the Lord Vampyre's monsters while collecting the moonstones. The story takes place in the Monster Realm and it's similar to The Monster Squad film. The theme was first introduced in May 2012. [2] [3] It was eventually discontinued by the end of December 2014. The theme also produced a range of associated media, including theme park attractions, several shorts, video game, app and publications.
The product line focuses on the Dr. Rodney Rathbone finds out that Lord Vampyre, the ruler of the Monster Realm, wants to turn day into night forever and unleash his army of monsters into the world of mortal minifigures. To accomplish his plan, Lord Vampyre must gather six magic moonstones and use them in a machine of his own creation, which can direct the magic of the gems and begin an eternal eclipse of the Sun. He and his team of Monster Fighters embark on a mission to prevent the monsters from completing their evil plot. [4] [5]
In October 2012, The Lego Group build a 10-foot model of Lord Vampyre near Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
In 2017, The Lego Group Vice President of Design Matthew Ashton discussed the concept of the Lego Monster Fighters theme and explained, “Younger kids look up to older kids and want to be part of what they are engaging in,” and continued, “We have dabbled with a few monster-based products in the past, but we really wanted to dedicate a whole line to this theme so kids could play out multiple adventures with a deeper story.” The Lego Group found that Lego Monster Fighters and its characters were quite similar to the instantly recognizable Universal Studios Monsters from classic cinematic horrors, which appealed to both kids and adults alike. [5]
According to BrickLink, The Lego Group released 13 playsets with some promotional polybags as part of the Lego Monster Fighters theme. [1] The product line was eventually discontinued by the end of December 2014. [29]
In 2012, The Lego Group announced that the seven sets was released on 22 May 2012. The seven sets were The Swamp Creature (set number: 9461), The Mummy (set number: 9462), The Werewolf (set number: 9463), The Vampyre Hearse (set number: 9464), The Crazy Scientist & His Monster (set number: 9466), The Ghost Train (set number: 9467) and Vampyre Castle (set number: 9468). [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] Later, The Zombies (set number: 9465) was released on 23 July 2012. [35] [36] Another set, namely Haunted House (set number: 10228) was released on 4 September 2012. [37] [38] [39] [40] In addition, four polybag sets were released as promotions, which were Zombie Chauffeur Coffin Car (set number: 30200), Ghost (set number: 30201), Zombie Car (set number: 40076) [41] and Monster Fighter promotional pack (set number: 5000644). [42] [43] These included three key chains with a key chain attached to the minifigures of Lord Vampyre, Ghost and The Monster. The two giant minifigure Lego Alarm Clocks of Zombie and Lord Vampyre was released October 2012. [44] The sets were designed primarily for children aged 7–14.
The Swamp Creature (set number: 9461) was released on 22 May 2012. The set consists of 70 pieces with 2 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of Frank Rock and Swamp Creature with green moonstone. It also included small speed boat for Frank Rock with some guns and missiles, as well as a small seaweed area in the swamp for the yellowy-green Moonstone. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
The Mummy (set number: 9462) was released on 22 May 2012. The set consists of 90 pieces with 2 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of Ann Lee and Mummy with purple moonstone. It had a small helicopter for Ann Lee, and also, the Mummy's chariot with a glow in the Dark Skeleton Ghost Horse. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
The Werewolf (set number: 9463) was released on 22 May 2012. The set consists of 243 pieces with 2 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of Major Quinton Steele and Werewolf with orange moonstone. It also included a small vehicle for Quinton and a large tree, which could launch the werewolf as a play feature. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
The Vampyre Hearse (set number: 9464) was released on 22 May 2012. The set consists of 314 pieces with 3 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of Dr. Rodney Rathbone, Vampyre with red moonstone and the Zombie Driver. The hearse could lift the coffin as a play feature. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
The Zombies (set number: 9465) was released on 23 July 2012. The set consists of 447 pieces with 4 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of Jack McHammer, Zombie Bride, Zombie Driver and Zombie Groom. Jack's large truck could smash the zombies with heavy hammers, and shoot missiles. The mausoleum could rotate the pink zombie moonstone to awaken the zombies and shoot a boiling bowl of bones. [35] [36]
The Crazy Scientist & His Monster (set number: 9466) was released on 22 May 2012. The set consists of 422 pieces with 4 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of Rodney Rathbone, Quinton Steele, the Crazy Scientist with green moonstone and Monster. It included the lab of the scientist with jail cell, monster spot with moonstone play feature, and glow in the dark parts. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
The Ghost Train (set number: 9467) was released on 22 May 2012. The set consists of 740 pieces with 5 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of Frank Rock, Ann Lee and 3 ghosts with blue moonstone. It included a plane with missiles and a massive ghost train with jail, machine, small cars, and tons of glow in the dark parts. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
Vampyre Castle (set number: 9468) was released on 22 May 2012. The (second) biggest set consists of 949 pieces with 7 minifigures. It included Lego minifigures of Lord Vampyre, Vampyre's Bride, 2 Manbats, Dr. Rodney Rathbone, Jack McHammer and a Skeleton. The set also had all the moonstones except for the Zombie one. It has the second most parts, but it's bigger than the Haunted House (and most Modular Buildings). The set includes a car with a net launcher and a massive castle which measures over 18" (45 cm) high, 11" (28 cm) wide and 10" (26 cm) deep. The castle included a gate with spikes, shooting spider, glow in the dark parts, jail cell, skeleton, trap door, shooting rock and exit for the jail, stairs, map, living quarters, spots for the man-bats, moonstone device, piano, treasure, wall that turns into spinning stairs, coffin, spike pit, bowl with elements and very large walls with 4 towers. 3 small decoration towers also exist above the gate and next to the tallest of them all. The castle also features curtains and a room for the coffin of Lord Vampyre. It also has many play features like spikes in the gate, shooting glow in the dark spider, shooting rock in the jail cell and a pit with spikes and a trap door in the right tower, as traps. Other play features include a wall that turns into a staircase (as mentioned above), the Moonstone device in the tallest tower and torturing the dead skeleton in the jail cell. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
Haunted House (set number: 10228) was released on 4 September 2012. This set (the largest in the series) consists of 2064 pieces with 6 minifigures. The set included Lego minifigures of 2 ghosts,Lord Vampyre, Vampyre's Bride, Zombie chef and Zombie butler. Although more parts, not as big as the Vampyre Castle in dimensions. It's also probably the Phantom Manor. It has a gate, and the big mansion which measures 15.4" (39 cm) high, 9.4" (24 cm) wide and 7.5" (19 cm) deep. The first and second floor are the kitchen, an empty living room (possibly previous furniture was removed due to hauntings), writing area, and a bedroom with paintings, lamps and a skull of a deer on the walls, a human heart and a closet. The kitchen had ovens, stoves, and a very large table with bottles, jars and a large bowl cooking a snake. Also had a large grey old spider web, maybe there was a refrigerator where the spider web is. The third floor was the attic, which included many details like knight's helmet, gun, chest with top hat, music player, CDs, newspapers and more bottles and jars. Also included a crate for the cds and newspapers and a staircase leading from the second floor to the attic. The set also included a small gate as a sub-build. Also even though it's a little bit smaller than Vampyre Castle, its box is larger because of the higher piece count. [37] [38] [39] [40]
The product line was accompanied by a series of animated short films that was released on YouTube.
# | Title | Release date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Quest for the Moonstones Part 1 [45] | October 30, 2012 | LEGO Monster Fighters stop motion series. |
2 | Quest for the Moonstones Part 2 [46] | October 30, 2012 | |
3 | There's Monsters In the Room [47] | October 30, 2012 | |
4 | Monster Fighters Tryouts [48] | October 30, 2012 | |
5 | Villainy or Just Plain Viral [49] | October 30, 2012 | |
6 | A Place to Call His Own [50] | October 30, 2012 | |
7 | Ghost Mischief [51] | October 30, 2012 | |
8 | Flashlights & Shaky Cameras [52] | October 30, 2012 |
An app titled Lego Monster Fighters Race was developed by The Lego Group for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch and released on 30 September 2012. It includes the Monster Fighters and Lord Vampyre's monsters as playable characters. [6]
The crossover Lego-themed sandbox game Lego Worlds developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. [53] [54] [55] Lego Worlds was released on 7 March 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. [56] A version for Nintendo Switch [57] [58] [59] [60] was released on 5 September 2017 in North America and 8 September 2017 in Europe. It includes the Monster Fighters and Lord Vampyre's monsters as playable characters. [5] [61] [62]
In 2014, Ghost - The Haunted House was introduced to Legoland Billund. The attraction was located in the area between the Heartlake Express railway track and the footpath from the Coastguard HQ to Atlantis - Submarine Voyage. [63] [64]
In 2019, Haunted House Monster Party was launched at Legoland Windsor Resort on 13 April 2019. [65] The attraction was located in Adventure Land along the path between Lego City and Atlantis Submarine Voyage. [66] In addition, a huge haunted building based on Haunted House (set number: 10228) included oversized recreations of spider webs, wooden tiles, balloons and more adorning the outside. All around the exterior, fantastically frightful large scale brick built animals and monsters including a giant gargoyle and spider add to the supernatural setting. [67] [68] [69]
In August 2012, two books based on the Lego Monster Fighters theme were released. Lego Monster Fighters: Watch Out, Monsters About! and Lego Monster Fighters: Meet the Monsters were released on 20 August 2012 by DK. [70] [71]
In July 2012, The Ghost Train (set number: 9467) was listed as one of the Top Ten Toys for Christmas 2012 by the Argos. [72] In September 2012, Lego Monster Fighters theme was listed as one of the Top 10 toys list by John Lewis. [73] In November 2012, Vampyre Castle (set number: 9468) was listed as one of the Top 20 Toys for Christmas by Play.com. [74]
In 2012, The Ghost Train (set number: 9467) was awarded "DreamToys" in the Construction category by the Toy Retailers Association. [75]
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