REVIEW | Creator Expert 10273 Haunted House

[VBBN]

 

Name: 10273 Haunted House
Theme: Fairground Collection (Creator Expert)
Year: 2020
Pieces: 3231
Price: £209.99 / $249.99 / 229.99€

Resources: Brickset | Lego | Bricklink

Hello and welcome to the next addition to the Fairgrounds- the Haunted House! This is the next entry following the massive Roller Coaster (which I did a review of as well, by the way ), and once again Lego is looking to make a large structure to add to your city- this time, a tall, vertical tower with a tower-drop ride hidden inside. Inspired by rides the likes of the Tower Of Terror, and with a nostalgic twist in the Adventurers/Orient Expedition theming, this has certainly been an interesting addition to 2020. Is this worthy of adding to your collection? Let's find out

And a big thank you to Lego for providing us with this set- as they begin to change their branding to target more of an adult audience, it's only appropriate that we take a look at it here  in our AFOL community.

The Box:

Normally I don't go into much detail on the boxes in my reviews, since, well, you can see them in a store pretty easily. And in my case, boxes tend to end up in the recycling bin. But this time around, Lego is making a big deal out of the new packaging. You'll notice the distinct lack of Creator Expert branding, the bright background; now we have this more "collector focused" look, something that we started seeing with the newest UCS Falcon. It's...okay, though to be honest it doesn't really look any more professional to me. It looks more "fake," like some kind of rendering done to sell a MOC as a set. A clean background looks good on certain sets, but I feel for a set like this, the lack of life around the house really ruins the effect. 

 

Rear:

The rear showcases some of the sets features, the "dollhouse" opening feature, as well as a blueprint of the set. Again, the focus here is very much on the set

Side:

The side of the box of features a nice image of the set as well, certainly with store-displays in mind.

Minifigures:

Here's the first round of figures. We get the "creepy twins" who run the house, and five park-goers. The two on the right are from the Hidden Side universe, and from what I ave heard, the right-most figure is also a reference to a Lego designer. And yes, Lego seems to have given us a "Karen" minifigure 

Rear and alternate faces:

Each figure has back printing, though only three have reverse faces.

 

Ghosts:

Oh boy. The ghosts. I don't know what Lego was thinking with these ones...we have gotten two really decent ghost molds in the past, these are a step backward down the stairs- are they supposed to look more like people dressed as ghosts? Because that's what the old ones looked like already. Both feature a reversible face, with one side a smile and one a frown.

Bonus Figures:

Here we have the "bonus" figures included in the set- a skeleton that is used as decoration in the house, and a box of junk that can be built into a figure resembling Junkbot, a character from an old Lego game of the same name. While slightly different colors and unprinted, I LOVE having this obscure reference tossed in here.

 

Bag 1:

 

Graveyard:

Bag 1 begins with the first walls of the structure- get used to this build here because you're going to be repeating it, a lot.

We then build this little graveyard outside. The one reference of this set I wasn't too certain on was this gravestone, any idea what that is in reference to? The pumpkin, I think, would have been better served with a duller stem color, as currently it seems out of place here. 

 

 

Bag 2:

Bag 2 begins the construction of the middle segment to the house. From here, we begin to see some of the gearing mounted, which will be used for the tower drop feature. The little rubber 1x2 units are used to prevent the cart from slamming into the ground

 

Bag 3:

Bag three continues the build of the center section- we can see here the operators desk for controlling the ride.

Dropper mechanism:

The next element of the functionality we build is a unit that will disengage and power to the gears. When you rotate the red piece at the top, the gray cylinder will disengage from the gear cranks. To be honest I don;'t know what the point of this is, as the ride already drops on its own?

Combined

Here we have the two sections of the center merged together. More will be added to the functional elements at the end of the build.

 

Bag 4:

Bag 4's focus is on the entrance to the house, which features both stairs as well as a wheelchair ramp. 

 

Finished entrance:

We continue to finish of the roofing to the entrance as well as some little lamps (using the paintbrush roller handles.) Doors will be added soon.

Floorplan

Here's a detail I appreciate- the floorplan of this does make logical sense. The entrance opens up to the ticket booth, you can then walk in to the ride (Which is adjacent to the control unit) or wait over by where some artifacts will eventually be placed.

 

Bag 5:

Bag 5's focus is on os the rubber wheels on the inside of the ride. As far as I can tell, the only purpose to these wheels really is to "slow" the ride down, though as we will see later that sort of depends on how you operate the ride. 

 

Bag 6:

Bag 6 begins the detailing around the main tower on the inside, mostly. mix of black, white, and gold detailing.

Organ:

 

 

Next up we build this fantastic organ. There's some wonderful SNOT techniques utilized here, and it's really one of the most intricate parts of this build. 

 

Bag 7:

Bag 7 begins by continuing the wall structure above the entrance- some very familiar techniques being used here.

Doors

The doors are mounted to a simple gear, by turned the knob on the outside of the house, the dogs can swing open or closed. Though they do look a little wary from the inside. 

 

Bag 8:

Here's where we begin to really dive into the nostalgia and the Adventurers themes- these are representative of the Heads of Anubis, found in set #5988.

The walls continue

And of course, we continue to the build up the structure. Note that the Organ was placed on the other side of the graveyard,

 

Bag 9:

Bag 8 continues the nostalgia with the Sphinx head from set #7412. 

Completed 

While a more modern build, this really still maintains a "classic" look. 

Sphinx head mounted:

I do like how it integrates to the wall here. Also not the TNT to the left side. 

 

Bag 10:

v

Bag 10 begins the "attic" spaces, while will be underneath the roof.

 

Roof

These get somewhat repetitive so I'll just show one- here's how the ref panels are built for the most part. Will secured, and they have two connection points for mounting to the house.

 

 

Bag 11:

Bag 11 continues the tower build- nothing too exciting to comment on just yet.

 

Bag 12:

Bag 12 has this nice little roof construct, again I appreciate how well this all tabs together here.

Finished roof construct

One thing I'll comment on with the roof segments, I do appreciate how well they all intersect one another.

 

Bag 13:

Bag 13 begins this stained glass build. which will also house the light brick assembly.

Portrait build:

Another feature of the set is the light-up portrait of Samuel von Barron- the effect, is that when you light up the picture, you see the cursed mummy behind him. Here we can see the mummy is a separate printed element that is mounted behind the main portrait piece.

Portrait mounted

Due to the light brick assembly and the "dual picture" build, this does tend to be very bulky unfortunately. 

 

Bag 14, 15, 16

Okay, I've skipped ahead a bit here. These next parts of the build focus on the main tower. Most fairground sets thus far have had elements that tend to feel...dull or repetitive. The carts on a Ferris wheel or carousel, the pillars of the roller coaster... in this set, the walls tend to get a little on the dull side. It's not modular where the textures change on each floor. The little contrasts you see above are done 20 times or more throughout this build, certainly easy enough to do with closed eyes. 

Chains

Snd, for those of you well versed with the roller coaster, the task of putting together 150 chain links is certainly going to be a dreaded task. Though, a nice change of pace form the way construction. 

Chain mounted

We can see here the numerous doors that have been added with the usual wall builds. The chain is then mounted, this can be a little tricky since you have to feed it through the tower and out the bottom. NOTE: the chain is very taught, at first it'll feel like you are stretching something. Unlike the roller coaster which tended to have a little leeway in the amount of links used, it is absolutely necessary to use exactly the 150 here. Otherwise, the chain is not pulling in a vertical direction.

 

Bag 17:

Bag 17 begins the main rooftop build. As you can see above, this is an extremely solid construction.

Finished roof

While simple, it's shape works will with he other roof components we've built so far.

 

Bag 18:

 

 

Bag 18 is the final bag, and focuses on the actual riding cart itself. The other portion of the cart is meant to represent an elevator cart

Finished cart

Though as we can see here, the riders themselves are inside a smaller, more secure riding car (which uses an old-school cockpit piece, commonly used during the Adventurers times). This clips in the the back of the elevator car, so removing it is easy. Good for posing minifies easily.

 

Completed set:

Let's get one thing out of the way- this set is really tall. Certainly it doesn't beat out the old Eiffel Tower set, but it does tower over my Voltron set. I also love that it opens up dollhouse style, similar to the Ghostbusters HQ set. 

 

Other Angles

Thanks to its dollhouse design, it does look pretty good from most angles. Obviously the back is the weakest, though it's mostly due to the large wheels. To be honest I really have no clue what the large wheels are supposed to actually do. 

 

Set details

 

"Welcome inside.."

Organ

Starting on the left side, bottom floor, we have the Organ, next to a create filled with a shovel and axe. The Anubis heads sit high above.

Portrait

Here we have the previously mentioned portrait of Barron himself. 

The "Manor Von Barron" sign acts as the button for the light brick hidden inside.

Cursed Mummy

 

The brick then illuminates the hidden Mummy image.

 

Obelisk

Here we have a sort of obelisk that resembles those seen in numerous Adventurers sets back in the day. I really appreciate how they recreated the print on the column. It's worth noting that this doesn't match any of the old ones exactly, due to color changes such as the gray top.

Gem-thing

 

I have no idea what this reference is supposed to be. The TNT block we saw earlier is hidden behind.

The ride

Moving to the center of the house, we see the ride itself. The figures are loaded into the cart..

The Sphinx head 

Of course we see another artifact here, the Sphinx head. 

Photo moment

This window here is the moment where a camera would take photo of the riders, to be sold at obnoxious prices later. The camera is situated opposite of this under one of the roof panels, another detail that makes sense mainly when the building is closed up.

Opening doors

Here we have the peek-a-boo doors. Meant to be the moment that the cart gets to it's highest point, it will open these doors..

 

Revealing the Minifigures about to experience the drop.It does work pretty smoothly overall. Also, take note of the small Fright Knights reference up above.

Skeleton thing

Moving to the ticket counter, we see another reference to adventurers in the form of this skeleton thing. Seems to harken back to set #7417.

Box of Junk

This shelf has some other interesting oddities: And orb of Ogel, the "Golden Dingus" from set #7412, and a box containing the needed elements to build Junk bot. 

Rear of the Door

Moving to the left, we have the back of the door we saw previously. One thing I'll add in here is the chandelier, I do like the build of that quite bit. 

Opening Doors

Here you can see the opening feature. 

Creepy Table

 

Not really sure what this represents here- we have a skeleton with a hat that is somehow staying on, some skull candles, a cup, hidden snake, and, well I'm not certain what the red lantern is supposed to be. A vase of liquid? It's a little random, but "spooky," I suppose.

Mechanism

Here we will talk about the mechanism, it's a bit strange. First, there is a lever to the left, that "drives" the ride. By turning the crank, the chain will pull the cart upwards. It's important to note that you can only rotate the crank one way, it will lock up if you try to turn it the opposite direction. As the chain rises, one of the two wider gray chain segments will catch on to the ride cart and pull it upwards. Once it reaches the top, the cart falls to the bottom.

Then we have the crank that's more on the center- if you are operating this ride manually, I'm not sure why you would ever need this. As discussed previously, this disengages the power to the chain, so by engaging this crank the ride will all. (But, it already falls by itself using only the crank on the left.) The only difference I can see is by using this, the ride slows down a little more on it's way down. Again, by operating this manually it's not really sensible to use, though It seems with Powered Up functions you might be able to do something more. As usual, Lego chose not to include the needed power elements here. 

Finally, you have the rubber wheels. Their purpose wasn't really clear to me, but other have pointed out that they help to counterbalance the wheels inside and assist with the braking feature. 

Here is a demonstration of said function:

 

Here we can see how the function works using ONLY the main crank (powered)

 

And here we can see what happens if we bring the ride to the top and then disengage the power.

 

I will make a disclaimer here, this function wasn't really easy to show off since I do not currently have Powered Up elements, only power functions (and do not yet have a speed controller or anything.) I will update this review if I do get those components. 

 

The Haunted House is big. With a height of 26 inches, it's sure to be a highlight of your Lego city. The ride takes full advantage of this height, and works about as well as any other Fairground set released so far. Visually, the set is solidly built, with a dollhouse-style that ensure's no "open back" construction, yet still allows for easy access to the inside. There are no stickers to be found whatsoever in this set, a welcome treat for those against sticker sheets, especially with the references hidden throughout. 

I was born in the mid 90s, and an Adventurers set was my very first Lego build- so of course I adore the nostalgia this set is crammed full with. As I was building the set, I saw the imagine in the instructions showing the "box of junk," (mind you this was before I knew Junkbot was in this set) - and my reaction was "omg I think that's Junkbot, OH MY IT IS." No other set had given me that kind of excitement lately. 

The only thing I don't entirely understand about this set is, what's haunted about it? Some classic Lego artifacts are cool, and you can call them "haunted" all you want, but visually this set lacks the punch of, say, the Monster Fighters or even Hidden side sets. It's very reserved, and certainly requires more work to make it truly feel haunted, even in an amusement park sense. Plus, I feel like for being a house, there isn't really much space inside the house itself- once you open it up, it feels more like "Adventurers Museum." 

At a price of $250, you do get a fair number of parts for the price, even with 150 of the pieces being the small tread pieces. You also get a slathering of olive green bricks and brown windows. Though, the build in my opinions leaves a little to be desired, as it tends to get repetitive like many other fairground sets, and the Minifigures selection is rather basic- plus you get two duplicate sets of figures, which cuts down on the variety a bit. 

-------------------------------------

If you are a fan of the fairground theme, this set is must have- it comes in at a much more affordable price than last year's Roller Coaster, but doesn't compensate on size, and still has an interesting functional element. If you're a fan of Adventurers, this set is also a must have, the way lego respects the old sets here is fantastic, and certainly worthy of supporting. However, if you are looking for a haunted house, this set is far, far too reserved- nothing about it really screams haunted, especially compared to themes like Monster fighters, and it lacks the "flare" that a true haunted ride would have. Think, the Joker's manor for example.

But of course my opinions are just that- opinions. What do you think of this set? 

 

Bonus Pic: Looks like this is a job for us!

[SylvainLS]

The big wheels are flywheels.  I think they are supposed to smooth the ride here.

[WhiteFang]

Outstanding job. It is truly amazing to see this review so fast. This set does indeed paying homage to Classic Adventurers. The playing mechanism and the various mechanics are very interesting. However, I will have height restrictions issue in my display cupboard which will make me reconsider. Other than that, this is a very solid set. Thanks VBBN. 

[Rockstaremcee]

GREAT REVIEW! 

You know what would make this set better?  Being able to buy it  


Bag 2:  Is that a sticker that is put on the shield 'gravestone' piece?

Bag 3:  Another 'callback' are those controller pieces from the late 80's.

Very nice to see all the details [grumble: especially since I will be waiting until they restock this]

14 minutes ago, WhiteFang said:

... However, I will have height restrictions issue in my display cupboard which will make me reconsider. ...

Same, I had the Monster Fighters Mansion in my display cabinet but had to put the castle on top as it was too tall.

[Friscorays]

No stickers.

[Vilhelm22]

Nice review!  Looking forward to placing this next to the roller coaster, carousel and Ferris wheel in my city.  Btw the wheels on the back are, I’m pretty sure, to absorb the energy of the drop.  They transfer the ‘gravitational potential energy’ of the dropping car to kinetic energy in the wheels, that use it up spinning, thus greatly decreasing the speed and preventing the drop car crashing to the ground.  Sorry to sound nerdy - I did physics in school and remembered really rather a lot...

[Karalora]

Okay, but I NEED this...

[VBBN]

3 hours ago, WhiteFang said:

Outstanding job. It is truly amazing to see this review so fast. This set does indeed paying homage to Classic Adventurers. The playing mechanism and the various mechanics are very interesting. However, I will have height restrictions issue in my display cupboard which will make me reconsider. Other than that, this is a very solid set. Thanks VBBN. 

Thanks Fangy! I do agree it's tough to display, not quite as bad as the UCS Star Destroyer, but a challenge in the other direction 

3 hours ago, Rockstaremcee said:

GREAT REVIEW! 

You know what would make this set better?  Being able to buy it  


Bag 2:  Is that a sticker that is put on the shield 'gravestone' piece?

Bag 3:  Another 'callback' are those controller pieces from the late 80's.

Very nice to see all the details [grumble: especially since I will be waiting until they restock this]

Thank you! I believe I mentioned at one point in the review that this set has no stickers at all, everything you see is a print! Good catch on the controller pieces

3 hours ago, SylvainLS said:

The big wheels are flywheels.  I think they are supposed to smooth the ride here.

 

1 hour ago, Vilhelm22 said:

Nice review!  Looking forward to placing this next to the roller coaster, carousel and Ferris wheel in my city.  Btw the wheels on the back are, I’m pretty sure, to absorb the energy of the drop.  They transfer the ‘gravitational potential energy’ of the dropping car to kinetic energy in the wheels, that use it up spinning, thus greatly decreasing the speed and preventing the drop car crashing to the ground.  Sorry to sound nerdy - I did physics in school and remembered really rather a lot...

Thanks to you both for clarifying on that! It's interesting too that the speed of the cart also depends on how you drop it- if you use only the one crank, the cart eventually freefalls more aggressively. If you utilize the other crank which disengages the gears, the entire chain pulls down with the cart, which also slows its fall. Though that crank is more difficult to use, I have a sense that the Powered Up functions likely offer the smoothest operation of the ride.

What I mean is, I feel like if you operate the ride "normally" the braking system doesn't seem to do anything, it's moreso if you use the secondary crank that the slowing effect is really noticeable. 

[The Reader]

Some of the easter-eggs are explained in this topic.

[Robert8]

Jesus that feature with Pharaoh Hotep is beyond perfection

 

By the way, the sphinx head is from set 5978. The set 7412 is Orient Expedition

As for the minifigures, I would rather have more "horror" characters. I think 3 park goers would have ok. And the othet 2 could have been a mummy and the Baron itself as a ghost/zombie

Thanks for the review! 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Robert8

[Vindicare]

I...never...want...to...see...another...window...again.  

Great review, you showed the build & set off brilliantly. One thing I would’ve noted, in the instructions, it has those little blurbs about each artifact as you came upon them in the build. That was pretty neat. 

Repetitiveness aside, the build was very enjoyable. The minifigs are fun, but a bit of a let down for the reason you said(although I don’t mind the creepy twins that much). As to the set name, it is an odd choice. Even as fair haunted houses go, this isn’t that. It should’ve been named with the ride in mind, 

Lastly...I’m not much for play features, but I’m getting a kick out of this drop ride.  

[jus1973]

Mine will arrive today.. soooo excited.  I don’t mind repetitive builds if the end product is worth it.  

Have read a few reviews of actual builds and there appears to be no real value in motorising it using the Powered Up functions as there is an issue with incremental errors in the app for this ride.  I was wondering if it could be something that might be better done with a sensor and 2 motors from one of the mindstorms range.  Dead simple programming i would have thought.

[Gorki247]

Thanks for the review; enjoyed reading it and reliving the build.

I love this set, but the minifigures are a bit of a letdown. The visitors are what they are; similar to the ones you get in the other fairground sets. I do like that they included a cross-over with Hidden Side. However, I was a bit disappointed with the characters that occupy the manor.

What's so creepy about those twins? They are just a very common city figure reused; twice. I don't mind them being the same figure, but make them actually look creepy and have them fit the theming of the house (dress them in some Adventurers style outfits maybe). On that note; can anyone recommend any existing heads that they think looks creepy. Looking to update the twins.

As for the ghosts; I understand that the mould for the old style ghosts is no longer available, but they still wanted to reference them, hence the face print. My issue with them is that they are meant to be real ghosts (see description of the Resonator), but look too much like people dressed up as ghosts. I wonder if there would have been a better way to incorporate the ghosts, Also, did we really need two of them as well. If anything, I would have preferred another guest, maybe referencing another classic theme.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Gorki247

[Joza Bezeg]

Tnx for review. The hanging skeleton is actually Slyboots(aka Sam Sinister), friend of Baron von Barron.

[dhc6twinotter]

My assumption is that the clutch gear and catch are there so that when the PU motor is connected, you can keep the motor running all the time and use the lever to disengage/engage the ride.  A nice feature.  

Perhaps I missed it, but how do the front doors open?  Is there a knob on the side of the building?

[Friscorays]

Yes.  Knob on second floor in front of chimney.  

https://www.brothers-brick.com/2020/05/13/lego-reveals-10273-haunted-house-as-next-set-in-the-creator-expert-fairground-collection-news/lego-creator-expert-fairground-collection-10273-haunted-house-g7sx1-10/

 

[Gorki247]

5 hours ago, dhc6twinotter said:

My assumption is that the clutch gear and catch are there so that when the PU motor is connected, you can keep the motor running all the time and use the lever to disengage/engage the ride.  A nice feature.  

 Perhaps I missed it, but how do the front doors open?  Is there a knob on the side of the building?

Yes, in the app you basically have three option for the first motor. Have the lift do a normal run (all the way up until it drops normal), stop at the doors, or stop at the photo window. There is then also a lever that you can activate to drop the lift from any of those positions. This function uses the second motor and that second physical lever.

However, I have found this to be very unreliable and after a few runs it seems to get out of sync. Either the lift no longer stops in the right spot, or the second lever doesn't engage properly. I have given up with the app and gone back to manual controls for now, until they improve the app (if they ever do).

[VBBN]

On 5/26/2020 at 5:39 PM, Robert8 said:

 

As for the minifigures, I would rather have more "horror" characters. I think 3 park goers would have ok. And the othet 2 could have been a mummy and the Baron itself as a ghost/zombie

Thanks for the review! 

Yeah, honestly even a regular Baron would have been cool; it definitely wouldn't be out of the ordinary to have someone dressed as the Baron, the owner of this mansion. In fact, I feel like it would almost have made more sense than the twins they put in here

One way I wanted to spookify this place was to add in a Johnny Thunder with a skeleton face... Baron caught his ultimate prize, Johnny Thunder himself 

On 5/27/2020 at 3:13 AM, Vindicare said:

I...never...want...to...see...another...window...again.  

Great review, you showed the build & set off brilliantly. One thing I would’ve noted, in the instructions, it has those little blurbs about each artifact as you came upon them in the build. That was pretty neat. 

Thank you! The windows were definitely a chore, and I kept panicking every time I would be searching through a pile of parts for that last window, convinced it was going to be missing. I did leave out the blurbs, sometimes in easter egg filled sets like this, I like to leave a small thing or two out of the review so that someone who has read the review and purchased the set has a little surprise left in some way. (In my case, Junkbot and the little blurbs were unexpected).

Thanks for the comments everyone! As always with these reviews, I appreciate everyone sharing their thoughts and taking part in the poll. These reviews continue to be a great way to share your thoughts directly with Lego

[Jim]

Those rubber wheels will make their appearance in the 51515 Mindstorms set as well. They are already in the Spike Prime set, in Medium Azure.

Thanks for the review! Nice pics and I liked the fact that you included some videos.

[jimim]

its backordered again for anyone wanting it.  I really can't wait to get this set!  might be one of my favorite set done since I started back collecting.  

[Rockstaremcee]

On 7/24/2020 at 6:52 AM, jimim said:

its backordered again for anyone wanting it.  I really can't wait to get this set!  might be one of my favorite set done since I started back collecting.  

Yup, ordered mine!

[rollermonkey]

Just wondering: Is this the first ever handicap accessible building in LEGO history? 

[JamesT320]

I was not thrilled with this one.

 

There are a couple issues with it. The turret on the right..is VERY wonky. It is held together by 1 or 2 studs and and slight bump will knock it loose.

 

My biggest peeve is the elevator. Mine - and others - will NOT go above the 2nd floor. It keeps getting jammed and no amount of tugging and pulling will get it past the wheels. I even broke the chain trying to get it working. Someone had said that they had to take it apart and remove the wheels INSIDE the tower to get it to work .

 

I think this is a "keep it up till Halloween" and then put it away.

 

Very dissatisfied with this one.

[gotoAndLego]

I just built it and the elevator works fine; its a little sticky going up, but I think that's due to the tower assembly not being perfectly smooth on the inside.

 

The fix is to file the tips of those eight tan pins slightly; just enough so they don’t press tightly against the tower inside. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by gotoAndLego

[NZAndre]

Hi. I am building the Haunted House.  I have just finished the chain.  Is it supposed to have a little slack?  Many thanks.