One of the more sinister (but understandable, from a marketing perspective, I guess) things that LEGO does is spreading characters across multiple sets, so if you want to build an entire group, you need to buy every set in a series. In larger setups like Star Wars, I get that, or even in Super Hero sets… but for stuff like Scooby Doo and the Hobbit, where the group is the central focus of the story, it’s kind of annoying. I’m still not certain that all of the dwarves from the Hobbit were released, but there were like seventeen million different characters in that movie.
At least with Scooby Doo, you really only need to buy two sets to complete the gang, the fantastic Mystery Machine set, and this set. Of course, you’d miss some decent bad guys and you have to buy the most expensive set. I was rather indifferent to this set, initially. It looked interesting, but I didn’t know if it was $89.99 interesting. I figured I could grab Velma and Daphne on the aftermarket and be done with it. That plan was sort of dashed when my daughter went crazy for Halloween stuff last year (she’s three, so holidays are a big thing), and I wanted some decorations. So reviewing 75904 Mystery Mansion was suddenly on the docket.
It weighs in at a respectable 860 pieces and includes 6 (7 if you want to count Scooby) minifigs, which is frankly a lot better than some of the other sets in this price range. There are also a lot of things that stand out just glancing at it, like pumpkin heads, the clock, and plenty of windows and purple parts. So maybe $89.99 for a decoration and completing the Scooby Gang was going to end up as worth it.