Just about everybody likes Zombies, the Collectable Minifigure from Series 1 was very popular and is now a highly sort after figure. Therefore this set, creatively entitled, The Zombies, is a must have for any Lego Zombies fan. Apart from those three Minifigures, the rest of the set is also very interesting and has far surpassed my expectations. The Monster Fighters theme is a real triumph in my opinion, and this set is one of the best of all of them. Read on to find out why...

Box/Instructions

The box is very nicely designed, with plenty of action going on. Jack McHammer is arriving in his truck to annihilate the marauding Zombies and retrieve the pink Zombie Moonstone. The Chauffeur Zombie has been whacked by one of the hammers on the dark red truck and is flying through the air, while the Bride Zombie wanders towards the vehicle and the Groom Zombie emerges from his tomb. The main building in the set, a creepy crypt, is placed between the two graves and has an eerie green mist rising from it which can be seen all over the artwork. The set is displayed in a grave yard with tombstones dispersed all over the field and a huge full moon is visible. Bats flying over head form the black background for the Monster Fighters logo and the three Zombies are displayed in the bottom right corner of the box as are the Monsters in every Monster Fighters set.

The set is also shown on the back of the box and the various features are demonstrated. These include the opening tombs, the exploding cauldron, and the flick fire missiles on Jack McHammer's unique truck. A comic strip shows Lord Vampyre stealing the Zombie's Moonstone to add to his diabolical machine and there is also a shot of the five Monster Fighters and six of the Monsters going head to head.

The single instruction manual for this set has the same design as the box cover and I was not able to find any mistakes, nor did I have any missing pieces. In the back of the booklet there are a few advertisements for other sets in the Monster Fighters theme.

Parts

There are quite a few nice parts in this set, including several light and dark grey plates which are useful, lots of light bluish grey cylinder pieces, and some black roof slopes. There is a black cauldron piece included, which is fairly uncommon, and you get a fair slice of dark red for the truck as well. A black cow catcher piece is included along with a glow in the dark spider and a bat. Four dark tan brick work pieces are included.

The translucent pink Moonstone is printed and is of course very nice and exclusive to this set. However the best parts of all are the three different Zombie heads included, a must have for any Zombie fan out there.

Minifigures

There are four Minifigures included in this set, one Monster Fighter, who is outnumbered by three Monsters. I will begin with the hero.

The ex-lumberjack, Jack McHammer is a highly detailed Minifigure, and an interesting character to have. He wears a dark grey beanie hat which suits him nicely and really contributes to his tough appearance. His head is extremely detailed with a ragged ginger beard and big bushy eyebrows of the same colour. He has an angry expression and a few wrinkles printed on his face which set him apart from most of the other figures from this theme. He has not got a double sided head.

His torso is equally detailed with a chequered green shirt with buttons and an open collar, leaving some yellow flesh exposed. Over this shirt he is wearing a grey and brown jacket with pockets. This is an ideal torso design for this Minifigure in my opinion. The back of his torso is also printed, mostly with the rest of his jacket, but also a bit of his shirt. On his jacket a bit of creasing is printed which is a nice extra detail which makes him look a bit more realistic. His left arm is a standard Minifigure arm in green with a yellow hand, but his right arm is mechanical. This mechanical arm was on a few of the villains from the Agents theme and has also been featured on a couple of Collectable Minifigures recently. He has a dark grey claw fitted onto this arm, but you could swap this out for just about anything, from another hammer to a bunch of flowers!

His legs and hips are also printed very well indeed. His hips have a brown belt with a silver buckle on them which looks superb. His legs each have a brown lined pocket printed on them with some stitching around them, and some brown and silver knee pads. His legs are predominantly medium blue however so he is presumably wearing jeans. Appropriately for this character he brandishes just one accessory, a large bluish grey hammer. This is the same one as Thor holds which is excellent and has a few moulded details, but no printing.

The villains of this kit consist of three Zombies. The first of these is the Zombie Driver, a figure also seen in set 9464, the Vampyre Hearse. He wears a black peaked cap which is suited to a chauffeur, alive or dead. His head is my favourite piece however is the fantastic Zombie head. It is cast in light bluish grey and features some soulless sunken eyes, black eyebrows and and open mouth with yellowing teeth. Around his face are a few scars and wrinkles printed in dark grey, and he has an angry expression.

His torso is mostly dark blue but is printed with a torn chauffeur's outfit. This features lots of silver buttons, a few little scuffs, and some large tears where his decaying skin can be seen beneath. His back is also printed with rips and scuffs, as well as a few folds in the fabric. His arms are dark blue, his left hand is grey and his right hand is brown. His hips are printed with a continuation of his torso printing featuring silver buttons and his trousers too, which are printed on his legs, are ripped a bit as well. All in all a marvellous Minifigure!

Next up is the Zombie Groom. It is a truly fantastic Minifigure and he has plenty of detail like the rest of the figures. He wears a large black top hat which is nice, and has not been seen very often recently. His head is outstanding, it is mostly light grey but is printed with white eyes, like the other Zombies, and a grimace which shows some of his rotten teeth. Around his eyes there is some scarring and from his mouth he is drooling a little bit, which is a great little touch on the part of the designers which makes it a little more realistic.

The torso is mostly white as he is wearing a tattered white shirt, with a dark grey striped waistcoat and a bow tie. He also has a dark red cummerbund which is printed with some folds and creases. The shirt is torn just about everywhere as is his waistcoat and his red bow tie is undone and hanging around his neck. The jacket, cummerbund and shirt are all continued on the back of his torso, with a murky silver buckle holding the waistcoat to the right shape. I love how everything has been dirtied on these Zombies as it really makes them look much more withered and ravaged by time. One arm is light grey with a light grey hand where his sleeve has been torn off, the other sleeve is still intact so that arm is white with a bluish grey hand. His legs are plain dark grey with no printing, it would have been nice to see some damage on his legs, but the figure still looks great even without it.

The final Minifigure, and in my opinion the best one of all, is the Zombie Bride. She has a dirty blonde hair piece which is very nice, it has a long ponytail and the dirty blonde colour has been achieved by casting it in dark tan, an odd colour for hair, but it certainly makes her look a bit more corpse like! This is the only Minifigure to feature a double sided head in this set. On one side she has one white eye and one red eye, black eyebrows and eyelashes, various wrinkles, and some dark red lipstick which is somewhat worn away. On this face her expression is rather gormless and vacant with an open mouth. The other side shares all of the same printing, but this time she has a slightly evil looking smile and her eyes are a bit more closed as though she is focusing a little more on stopping the Monster Fighter from stealing the Zombie Moonstone.

The Minifigure is wearing a wedding dress which is severely weathered and torn. It is mostly white but with the many holes are rips in the gown, a fair amount of her light grey skin is visible. She wears a dark tan fabric belt with some creasing and has feminine curves like most female Minifigures. There are a few scuffs on her dress as well. On the back of the torso her dress and the belt is printed with yet more damage. Her arms and hands are plain light grey as either her dress was presumably originally sleeveless. A white slope forms the lower half of the dress and features some more large rips and plenty of layered fabric and creasing which looks very realistic indeed. At the bottom of this piece is some dirt where he dress has trailed on the ground which is a nice bit of extra detail. This is my favourite of the four Minifigures, mostly thanks to the lovely printing on both faces.

The build

The build does not take too long, only about forty-five minutes but is quite involved and is in fact a lot of fun. It is split between four bags, the first two of which build the truck, and then the two graves, before bags three and four build the grave yard itself. There is an interesting mechanism hidden beneath the steps up to the small building which allows you to uncover the two graves at once which is a lot of fun to make. Much of the build however consists of using fairly basic bricks and stacking them one on top of another. It is simple but actually rather refreshing as relatively few sets nowadays have a build quite as old fashioned as this one. The mechanism to move the hammers on the truck as you roll it around is actually much simpler than I expected, but the build is still quite entertaining.

The completed model

When the build is done, both components of the set look excellent, both the dark red truck, and the grave yard.

The truck is an odd looking vehicle but it is certainly very interesting. I will start at the front where we find a black cow catcher with a few dark grey panels placed on it to fend off any Zombies who dare to try and get on board the truck with the driver. There are some headlights and a large grille on the front of the engine, which sticks straight up out of the bonnet, and massively obscures the view of the driver. However with the various exhausts and grille, as well as a golden mascot, this is certainly visually appealing, even if it is not entirely practical. The cab has a small windscreen and space for two people to sit inside. Behind the seating is a translucent green cylinder which I believe is some kind of power source for the four flick fire missiles mounted on top of the vehicle. At the very back is an area for storing various equipment, or seating another Minifigure and some tail lights, as well as the two huge hammers. With the help of some Technic gears these rotate as the rear wheels turn meaning that any Zombies foolish enough to get too close to the truck while it is moving will be knocked away pretty quickly! This feature works very well indeed and the hammers really do send the Zombies flying.

The grave yard section is also very nice and has a few more features than the truck. These include the two opening graves which reveal the Zombies hidden beneath which are uncovered by twisting the pink Moonstone which is placed on a plinth between these two tombs. The Zombie Bride does not seem to fit very well and leaves the lid of the grave slightly ajar unfortunately, it is however very easy to remove a couple of pieces from inside the tomb which allow the feature to work perfectly. I am a little surprised that Lego would allow such an obvious flaw to be released in a set, but it is a quick fix so I am not too worried about this.

There is a torch held on either side of the ruined steps up to the small crypt area around which there are vines growing and a glow in the dark spider crawling up the wall. Inside is a cauldron filled with neon green pieces and a few bones which can be flung out of the building by pushing down on a lever at the rear of the model. There are two arch windows in the building and a stained glass section at the back which looks excellent when the light is on it and really shines. On the roof is a bat and a few gold pieces which provide some decoration.

Summary

Overall, this is definitely a set which I would recommend, it is among the best of the entire Monster Fighters theme in my opinion. Not only are the figures all great, but the model itself is also superb for play or display! With no issues (other than the easily fixed problem with the bride fitting in her tomb), this is a model which I am going to award with...

Overall - 10/10

The build

The car is really fun and easy to build and it is interesting to see how it turns out, the build isn't too repetitive but there are different techniques used to build this car which makes it even funner to build.

The graveyard is easy to build and it is interesting to see how the play features work in this set but it can get a bit repetitive in the build because most of the building is symmetrical.

All of the bags are numbered which makes it a whole lot easier to build and there are roughly 100 pieces in each bag so it kind of spreads it out between the 4 bags.

The figures

Jack mc hammer is a really cool looking figure and he has good details such as back printing and leg printing. His bionic arm is a nice little add on to this figures features, it is the same arm that is used in some of the Cmf series. His hammer is the same as thors in Lego superheroes. His head is printed on one side instead of two but he still has a good expression, his legs have good details such as a belt and pockets.

The zombie driver has a nice print on his face, back and front. The printing is very accurate and makes this figure even more special to own.

The zombie groom has nice back printing and front printing aswell as face printing. One of his arm is a different colour to show his tattered shirt.

The zombie bride is my favourite figure in this set aswell as out of my whole collection. She has a double sided face to show two different expressions which are just to die for, her back printing is very nice and detailed and her front printing is very nice aswell.

The graveyard

The graveyard has some amazing play features such as when you flick a switch down at the back of the graveyard it pushes up the cauldron to fire some pieces at the monster fighter who is trying to steel one of the moonstones. The other play feature it has is when you turn the zombie moonstone around the coffin lids lift up to reveal 2 zombies, the only downside of this feature is that the lids of the coffins don't close fully unless you take the zombies out of them and also you can't put the zombie bride into the coffin because she can't fit into it. The other thing that is very cool in this set is that it has a glow in the dark spider and I like the stained glass window in this set because it adds to the detailing and the lighting.

Jack mc hammers zombie smashing car

This car has very nice detailing and it would be the sort of car you would want for a zombie apocalypse. The coolest things on here are the flick fire missiles, the plough to shift zombies at the front and the 2 hammers to smash zombies to the sky. The hammers work when you push the car forwards and backwards and they swing backwards or forwards,it depends which way you push it, the faster you push the car the further the zombie goes when you crash into it.

Pros

The figures are to die for.

The detailing of the set and the play features of the set are really good.

No stickers.

Cons

The zombie coffin doesn't fit the bride in because of her sloped legs and also the lid doesn't shut entirely when you place a figure into it but not a big problem.