Reviews of LEGO 10228-1: Haunted House

Monster Fighters is a theme introduced in May 2012. To date, ten sets have been released. Seven of the sets contain at least one Moon Stone, and in the background story, the monsters attempt to collect them to unleash doom on the Earth by eclipsing the Sun forever, allowing the land of monsters into the minifigure's realm. The stones are based on the monster contained in its respective set. A band of Monster Fighters, led by Dr. Rodney Rathbone, tries to find the stones before the evil Lord Vampyre uses them to eclipse the sun forever.

The theme was discontinued in 2012 making it a very limited one, but until recently (Belgium) The Haunted House was still available. Expected is that it will be officially EOL soon.

The Haunted House is a bit of an exception in the theme. It doesn't have a moonstone, Monster Figthers or MF vehicle while most of the rest of the theme has these. It also is the largest set of the entire theme with the Vampyre Castle as second with 949 pieces so it's about two times as big.

I don't think people really look at the Haunted House as a part of the Monster Fighters theme, but more like a modular building that could fit well in a MOC town (perhaps with some adaptations). It is how I look at it anyways. I had read some reviews, watched pictures of it and had very high expectations for this set. I already had the Pet Shop, Town Hall and Grand Emporium in my inventory but it was this one that I was waiting for a price drop to build. 

It has about the same pieces (2064) as other modulars and above is what those 2k pieces look like when you pour them over the table for the first time. For me personally, I like the colors green and  gray, the entrance gate is cool, it's a standalone building (I dont do MOCS yet) and the attic of the building I saw in a review was the deciding factor to build it. I had high anticipation for this one.

Minifigs:

• Lord Vampyre: He makes an apearance in 2 other sets of the MF series. Vampyre Castle and Vampyre Hearse. It has a glow in the dark face, double printing. The torso has some nice details and the pants is printed. The hairpiece is a recently brought out one and suits the minifigure well. Of course it also has a cape. Applying the cape can be tricky. In all a great minifigure. One of the few figures I encountered so far that has a double printed face AND a glow in the dark AND printed pants.
• Vampyre's Bride: Again the same as above. A glow in the dark, double printed head. A beautifully designed torso. The legs are printed but are put on a 2*3 block instead of normal legs. The colors, dark red and purple, are very well picked. I really looked at this minifg in awe. This one can also be found in Vampyre Castle.
• Zombie Chef: My least favourite minifig of the pack but that doesn't make it less special. This one can only be found in this set. The head is a normal zombie one, no dual face nor glow in the dark. The pants are not printed. What makes this one special is the torso. It looks like an ordinary cook one, but it's torn and stained with blood and other gore. The back is also printed. 
• The Butler: LURCH LURCH LURCHHHHH!!!! Who would not want this little minifig in their collection. He can only be found in the haunted house. Has a single printed head, not glow in the dark. What makes it special is the added part on the head. I think it was already used before for a minifig but it is very cool addition. He wears a nice black suit with black not printed legs. His torso is nice, but nothing special. This is my favourite one of the set.
• Ghosts: Two of them. Glow in the dark. They can be found in a variety of others sets. It's a redesigned minifig but still resembles in some way the ghost I found in some old castle set. Nice addition but nothing special

Unique Parts:

Brickset says there are 225 unique parts/colors in this set. and the one that stands out for me are

• Stickers: Fortunately not too many.
• The little cone with the heart printed on it.
• The little boat in a bottle is probably my favourite.
• The parts making the gramophone. Love it.
• The green parts... lots of them!

This build was interesting. Bag 1 held the minifigures. Nothing exceptional of course, but it also makes you build all little trinkets you will find in the haunted house. It also makes you apply all stickers (except for the windows) so the rest of the build will be pretty straightforward and focussed on the structure itself. I did have an issue with Dracula's cape. It took me a while (must have had a blonde moment) to find out exactly how I needed to fold it. Don't ask me how I did it, because I forgot already.

Working this way has a good advantage. All stickers are already applied in this step (except windows). It  means that when your building the structure of the house, you're not bothered with the more little details. One can argue that building a small desk or table makes it less repetitive further on but I like the build to advance. Also after you finished the structure, it's nice to put in the details like a painting or desk.

The gramophone player was my favourite although putting the stickers on, right in the middle was not that easy. The ... skeleton from the deer is my least favorite. I don't know how, but it could have done different.

So the building of the actual house was a piece of cake. All went well togetther. There were no moments I had when I thought that my walls would collapse if I applied too much pressure or something. All fitted well, all semt logical.... it was a pure joy to build. I didn't see any color differences in the green that certain people semt to have. 

Only thing that I can say is that the floor is not tiled like eg. the Simpsons House. Wouldn't have mind some good old planché floor or some broken tiles (there are some tho but not entire floor) in the kitchen. But then again, does it really have so much extra value in a set like this?

So here is the front of the house with the beautiful roof. I did not apply the window stickers .... I noticed that the quality of the transparant windows are much better than the one that I had in the Malibu Mansion Attack. Note the nice fence in front of the house. I thought it would have been smaller but it's quite nice sizewise.

And of course the back. Left and right part. Note the many trinkets around the house.

On the left you have the stove that can fold outwards and the entrance where Lurch is keeping guard. Upstairs a nice wooden writing desk with a letter and the favourite part, the attic. You see a little ladder there and if you pull a lever, it will fall down and you can unfold it. You find some cool gadgets here, a hat and knight helmet in a tub, some jars. Nice nice.

The right is more spectacular. Here on the bottom the kitchen with a nicely designed stove. Some jars and our friend the cook. 1st floor is the master bedroom. The closet is nicely executed. Here you find the weird white thing that are the horns of a beast. And then the top floor with a gramophone, record, some newspapers, a dogbone in a stolp (?) and a skull.

The entire back of the house. When folded closed it's not that special. Basically a green wall with some windows. It has a side entrance to the kitchen as well.

Already as a standalone, it has great playability. So many things to do and explore and togetther with some other MF sets, it gets even better. The minifigures are gorgeous and a welcome change to the city, harry potter and other sci-fi themes. How cool is it to be able to play with zombies and vampires and and and...a LURCH!

The MSRP is 179.99€ with 2064 pieces bringing it under the 10c/piece level, 8.72c/piece to be exact with 6 minifigs. If you compare it to the Town Hall with 2766 and 8 minifigures it's not that great value for money. Still there is this little thing called "coolness" and on that scale, the Haunted House blows away Town Hall and any other modular for that matter.

So does this set has good value for money? Yes it does because it's simply cool. If you doubt between buying this and Town Hall, don't doubt. Buy Haunted House. Because of the price compared to other modulars, I only give it an 9 but catch this one with 10€ discount and it shoots straight to 10.

The Monster Fighters theme was a pretty popular theme but nowhere near as popular as eg. Star Wars or the Simpsons. It did have some pretty cool minifigures, a nice story behind so I'll rate it 8 but a  7 would be more appropriate in terms of popularity

Can be found in alot of B&M and webshops in Belgium. Or at least it was since now, supplies have dried up and the only place you can still get it is via s@h. It seems that in the US, the supplies are rapidly shrinking too. It is becoming more and more exclusive as I write this.

The packaging is as good as it gets. The front of the box shows the gorgeous house on a dark blue background with ghosts flying around and the moon on the top right. It sets the mood to build this sets pretty well. The dark stream of bats as background for the Monster Fighters and Lego logo is well done too. This box just screams "I'm not boring, open me and you'll find out!!!!". 

The back shows the opened construction showing everything there is to be seen in the house. Very detailed and it appetizes the buyer even more to rip it open and start building!

I believe this set has alot of potential as it speaks to many people.

• Monster Fighter collectors: Of course the largest set can't miss in the collection.
• Modular builders: It's strictly taken not really part of the rest of the Town-modulars but any Lego-loving modular builder will want one of these.
• Parters: Alot of nicely colored green pieces and so much other useful stuff combined with nice minifigures
• Displayers: It would stand well on any commode, desk or pedistal.
• MOC'ers: With all the nice pieces, you can build some pretty nice stuff. Especially the green bricks are attractive.

At current writing, the Haunted House is no longer available in webshops and B&M in Belgium. They can only be had via S@H at the 179,99€ price (and there, it is temporary out of stock too). I suspect the price for this set in 2 years to be around 550€. That's alot of money but it has that something special surrounding it... something you won't find in eg. Grand Emporium or other similars. This set is destined to be a winner, and after building it, you will understand why. I think it might be the best investment I made. I bought 5 of them for invest and 1 to build and the ROI on this one will beat SSD... Of course, this is all guessing, noone knows exactly how much it will be worth, but you won't loose money and you SHOULD (!) have at least 2 to sell (!)(!)(!)

My favourite part, and the reason why I bought and built it. It is a building shrouded in darkness and mistery. In shrill contrast with the Simpsons house. I put it temporary next to it to take a picture. The comment of my girlfriend was: "Oh I thought it would be bigger" but nonetheless, in my opinion it is large enough.

As said, I bought it to display and that's what I will do... but not in the living room... as ordered.. Instead, it will have a nice place on the top of my desk, next to an old school red lavalamp (the thing that consumes a ton of energy and has that big blob floating in it). I think it will go well. I probably will also break open Lord Vampyre's hearse to put next to it.

Honestly, I love the Simpsons more, and in a popularity contest for people in my age category, they would pick the Simpsons above MF any time.... but just what would please me most if the themes were equally popular? I'd go for the perfect imperfection and darkness of the Haunted House to display.

I can put it in 1 word: Stunning!

When I first saw it, I just had to get it... and many share this opinion. It's a relatively good price, fun to build and has extraordinary minifigs. It certainly is my most favorite set so far and it will probably reflect in my scoring.

It is so perfect at being imperfect, its terryfying and that's why I love it so. It will keep me company during long dark nights when I'm up cleaning or building Lego.

It probably will be a good investment. Add some reduction to the initial price and see it skyrocket during the years to follow. Sure the Monsterfigher theme is discontinued, but the legacy of the Haunted Mansion will continue to live on.

This set looks amazing, inside and out.  All the small details add up to an impressive overall display. 

For a large set, 4 minifigures seems a little light, but the details on each make up for this. 

A detailed and varied build.  The only repetitive parts were the windows.  The Haunted House was fun to build, from the first bag.  Since the entire house opens vertically, it is ideal for play.  

One of the more expensive modular buildings from Lego (2nd to Town Hall).

Monster Fighters is a hit and this is the flagship set.  As of the time of this review (June 2014) it is the only set in the series on the market. 

Available online at Amazon and Lego Shop at Home.  No longer carried in brick and mortar Lego stores.  Hard to Find. 

Nice presentation of the set on front and back.  Large box. 

This set is unique and detailed.  It should always be popular around Halloween in America and to a lesser extent during Christmas.  Since it is the same scale as the Town modulars, AFOLs looking for new buildings to add to their Lego towns/cities will certainly seek this one out.  

As I have already stated, the set looks amazing.  I plan to keep it on display.  It definately stands out even among other modulars due to the color, size and details.  Only the Parisian Restaurant comes close to the Haunted Houses level of detail, in my opinion. 

Currently, The Haunted House is my favorite Lego set.  It was a great build, fun to play with, and looks great on display.  For those reasons, I believe this set will be popular for a long time.  

One of the most impressive and good looking sets LEGO has ever released. This very unique design is a mix of elements from the more traditional modulars and, obviously, the Monster Fighters theme. The set is very large and comes with six very cool minifigs.

Both the interior and exterior detailing are top notch, with a lot of display and play value as well. The outside of the house is amazingly done, with some nice details like the "crooked" feeling it has, broken windows and nice entrance. On the inside, it consists of six different rooms dvided on the two sides (it opens) that we will analyze more in detail in later sections.

The set will impress anyone who sees it. In fact, several people I know that have no interest in LEGO at all have commented about how good this set is designed and how it looks displayed. Considering that there are a lot of great sets out there, that has to mean something. This is definitely an iconic set, and I doubt we will see anything like it in the near future.

Parts

This set comes with a little over two thousand pieces. As you would expect on a set this size, there are seval rare parts and a handful of exclusive ones, mostly in the somewhat rare sand green color. Even more, as you can easily see from the exterior of the house, most of the structure consists of precisely sand green colored pieces, so you will not only find rare and exclusive pieces in this tone, but you will have access to A LOT of them. Let's list some of the exclusive pieces now, for reference:

• Fifteen sand green 1x1x5 bricks 
• Fifty-six sand green 1x6 bricks
• Nine sand green 1x1 bricks with knob

There may be some other ones that I am missing, but these are for sure the most memorable. Most of the other sand green pieces available are very rare as well, appearing only in around three sets, as well as some reddish brown bricks that appear in a similar number of other sets. All of this may not be enough to give a huge increase in price to the set in the secondary market, but it will definitely be a positive aspect.

Minifigs

As far as minifigures goes, this set includes six of them. Most of the minifigs are not exclusive and of course form part of the overall theme's storyline, with the two most relevant being Lord Vampyre and Lord Vampyre's bride. Besides these two, the set also includes a couple of glow in the dark ghosts. Now, the two included minifigs that are exclusive to this set I do think might prove to be somewhat valuable upon retirement. One of them is the Monster Butler, that's basically a Frankenstein style figure with a nice suit. It is the other exclusive character that I find the most interesting, the Zombie Chef, given the proven popularity of zombie minifigs over the years and also the good performance of the Monster Figthers The Zombies set. Even more, this particular version is very unique, it is a chef after all, and I think it will become valuable on its own in the secondary market.

The Haunted House set really does not need any help to become a great performer once it retires, but having high quality minifigs and a bunch of exclusive parts in rare colors can make it even better!

With over two thousand pieces, you are sure to spend quite some hours of fun bulding this model. The build process is quite similar to the Modular line of sets, where you will be building floor after floor of great and varied features. There are really a lot of small details that look really fun to build, and as most of the modulars the build does not feel repetitive at all.

On the playability side of things, this set really shines. As said on a previous section, you get six different interior rooms where there are a handful of interesting play features going from a potion room with pots and ingredients, to levers that reveal new paths to different floors. The fact that you can keep the model both opened or closed at any given time really gives a lot of flexibility to the owner, as the house can be kept closed while playing on the outside, and then opened when some unfortunate soul finds itself inside the mostly green mansion.

In my opinion, this set is a perfect example of one that will benefit a lot from the playability features it offers. Coupled with a really cool build, this set rates an almost perfect 10 in this category.

Let's now take a look at the value for the money charts:

As you see from the table above, I included two completely different kind of sets to compare to the Haunted House. First, I selected the second largest set from its own theme, Monster Fighters, and then also included a couple of Modular sets that I actually consider more helpful in this case, once again seeing the similarities of 10228 to sets of that line.

First of all, comparing the price per piece based on retail pricing to the one of the Vampyre Castle, I would say that the Haunted House is fairly priced. We all know that usually the largest sets from a particular theme will present the best price per piece ratio, while the smaller the set the opposite is true.

The comparison to the Vampyre Castle will only take us so far, so we need to evaluate and compare relative to the Modular sets. Most of the modulars over the course of the years have presented a really good price per piece of around 7 cents based on their retail value. Based on the two sets I selected above, the Haunted House would be the most expensive of the three, with a difference with the other two of around $ 0.02 per piece, a difference that may be justified by the fact that 10228 forms part of a more exclusive theme with a shorter production run than the modulars and the inclusion of the respective themed minifigs. Even more, I think that the play features in the Haunted House are superior to most modulars as well. All of these factors allow me to say that the price of the Haunted House is fairly set when we base our analysis in the price per piece metric. It is important to distinguish "fair" from a bargain, as this set is not the latter by any means.

I really wanted to evaluate the price per gram statistic and compare the Haunted House to both modulars included above, but I could not find reliable information as to the weight of the built set alone. Having said that, it seems that the size and weight of the pieces is quite similar to the modulars as well, so my guess is that 10228 would end up being the most expensive one according to this as well.

I do think that you get your money's worth out of this set, and you will for sure get even more back if you decide to invest and wait for it to retire!

The Haunted House is a LEGO exclusive, meaning that it is only available in LEGO branded stores, S@H, and the online websites of some of the major retailers. Even though the Monsters Fighters theme is more than likely going away very soon, thus experiencing a shorter than average production run, all the information seems to suggest that the Haunted House will still be available once the rest of the theme retires. As it happens in most cases, this is mostly speculation and educated guesses, so you may want to hedge against the possibility of  an EOL date closer to the rest of the sets as well.

The box of this set is rather large, similar to that of some UCS sets or even Tower Bridge. That factor makes it stand out a lot more and also gives it a more "exclusive" or high end feel. The graphic of the big completed house in the front make it look really interesting and definitely stands out from the rest of the sets, even among its own theme.

For this particular set, I found it really hard to even find comparables set in which to base my prediction for future performance. After careful consideration, I did find one set that I think the Haunted House could follow: Data from Brickpicker

*HPR: Holding Period Return, assuming the set was purchased at retail on the day of released and sold today.

So, the famous Green Grocer. the reason that made me select that set is not so much similarities in piece count or price, but rather what the set meant to the modular line overall. Released after Cafe Corner and Market Street, I think that the Green Grocer was the first of the three that a lot of people bought with the intention to resell in the future, and despite all this it has produced a very nice return after only a few years of going end of line.

In my opinion, the Haunted House is iconic and unique enough to reach pretty much the same market value the Green Grocer has at this point. As I said on the theme popularity section, the Haunted House is currently featured on the Top 50, and it constantly sells for around $ 200 on eBay, pretty interesting considering that the set is currently in production. Even more, the set sold  A LOT of copies during the Halloween and holiday season of last year, so I think its popularity is quite remarkable.

This set is more than likely staying on the shelves at least for the rest of the year, but I really recommend you to get at least one, even at retail, just in case the set goes with the rest of the theme. You don't want to be one of the investors not holding any if it retires early.

Value Prediction: If one set has the chance of replicating the performance of a set like the Green Grocer, this is it. Before getting any of the new modulars that are still available expecting to see the same returns of the older sets, I would go ahead and pick up this set. I really don't think LEGO will be producing a set like this one in the near future, and I see a lot of demand for 10228 by people who missed out or who simply were not paying attention while the set was available at retail. Even more, the consensus in the LEGO investing community is that the set will probably be one of the top performers in only a couple of years. I see the set producing a CAGR of around 30 %, by the time it has been retired for around 3 years. (Assumes retirement by the end of this year)

Don't miss the chance with this set, it is really one of the few choices out there that seems pretty obvious will be producing an abnormal return, the kind of figures we see from some of the older sets.

The set shares a lot of similarities with some of the sets that are mostly designed as display sets, Modulars. The design of the Haunted House is almost exact to scale with the modulars, and thus fits really nicely in a modular town. Even more, the very unique exterior, as said before, really make the set to stand out in a collection and actually looks like a haunted house you would encounter in some remote US town, this is not a cartoonish or childish looking model.

Of course, the set displayed along the rest of the Monster Fighters theme will make for an even more impressive display overall, but even if you set it up on its own it will quickly garner the attention of anyone that happens to "stumble" upon your collection. Excellent value as a Halloween decoration!

To conclude, I would say that this set is one of the top investment choices currently available for purchase. A very unique set like that has the potential to become a really good performer in the secondary market, so now let's summarize the strenghts of this set before I let you go:

• One of a kind design and concept
• High number of pieces
• Large model
• Great play and display value
• Mix of rare and exclusive colors and elements
• Six top notch minifigs, with two exclusive ones
• Fits with other LEGO themes
• Exclusivity

These are just the most important ones we have talked about in this review, and the ones that make me confident this set will be quite a good surprise in the secondary market once it goes into retirement!