LEGO The Hobbit Escape From Mirkwood Spiders (79001) Review

The LEGO The Hobbit Escape From Mirkwood Spiders (79001) is the second smallest set in the Hobbit line. It contains 298 pieces and retails for $29.99 which is $0.10/piece. This set is one of the two Special The Hobbit Trilogy Preview Sets along with the Barren Escape (79004). The reason is because the scenes in these particular sets are not in An Unexpected Journey, but in the next movie, The Desolation of Smaug. The set contains two numbered bags and one instruction booklet.

Minifigures

There are four exclusive minifigures in the set: Tauriel, Legolas Greenleaf, Fili the Dwarf, and Kili the Dwarf. Tauriel a warrior Silvan Elf and the head of the Elven guard of Mirkwood. The torso and leg printing shows here wearing a dark green and brown tunic which she uses to help her blend with the forest. She has a double-side head that shows her stern and angry faces. Also, her ears are attached to the hairpieces and lines up pretty well to the head. For Tauriel’s weapons, although she can use a bow and arrow as well as daggers, her weapons of choice in the set are the daggers. The are the same daggers as the Prince of Persia ones.

The next minifigure is the Elvan Prince, Legolas Greenleaf. His outfit is similar to Tauriel’s with the same dark green and brown color scheme on both sides of the minfig. Legolas also as the stern/angry double-sided head. Like Tauriel, Legolas’ ears are attached to his hair. His weapon is the longbow but it’s interesting that LEGO did not give him a quiver, but instead giving it to Fili, who uses swords.

Fili is one of the Dwarves in the set. He has both front and back printed, brown torso with brown short legs. He has a long and wavy brown hairpiece, which is a new mold. Fili has a double-side sided face that shows him being stern as well as angry. His accessories include two swords and the aforementioned questionable quiver.

Kili the Dwarf is the last minifigure in the set. He has brown printing on both sides of the torso and short, black legs. Like all the other characters, he has the stern/angry double-sided face. His hairpiece is similar to Fili’s and is the same as Thorin Oakenshield’s. Kili’s accessories include a short bow and arrow and a quiver.

Build

There are three parts to the build, two Mirkwood spiders and two trees of the Mirkwood Forest, one big and one smaller. The spiders are fairly simple to build and a little bit similar to Shelob. They have a mostly black color scheme with a little bit of brown for the legs. Both of the white studs glow in the dark.

The smaller tree is mostly black with a few brown and red pieces. Stuck on the inside part of the tree is one of the short bows. There is also a a skull and a bone right in front of the bow. On the other side of the tree is a hanging brown vine.

For the larger, main part of the Mirkwood forest, the color scheme is the same as the smaller tree, with most of it being black and red and brown accents. There are also a few play features. First is on the right side of the tree where you can push a Technic piece to make it seem that a spider is jumping out that the characters. At the opposite side of the tree, you can release another Technic pin to release the captured dwarves from the spider webs. For the decorative pieces, you get some a couple of painted, glow in the dark mushroom pieces, some more skulls and bones, a few smaller spiders, a big spider web, two spider web/net pieces, more brown vines, and a couple of red tree branches.

Results

Overall, I think this is a very good addition to the Hobbit theme. Each of the minifigures have some great detailing, from their outfits to their hairpieces. The Mirkwood spiders are simple but they do resemble some scary looking spiders. The Mirkwood forest sections do add to the set since they’re a bit on the small side and because more of the focus is on the characters themselves. The spider nets are a cool idea as well as the feature to release them. The price for the set is pretty good considering you get four exclusive minifigures. I would highly recommend getting the Escape From Mirkwood Spiders set.

Escape From Mirkwood Spiders (79001)

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