7040 Dwarves’ Mine Defender - Review

[pedro]

Hello all,

As a birthday bonus last week my wife bought me the Dwarves’ Mine Defender… what a star!

Anyway, it’s a great little set with a good price point, so I’ve decided to do my second review on it... chaaaaarge!

Set name: Dwarves’ Mine Defender

Set number: 7040

Price GBP: £6.99

Pieces: 86

The Model

Here's a shot of the complete set:

The Dwarven war machine - note the elastic band from wheel to blades:

"It's comin' right at us, Snotlick! Ruuuuun!"

Features

The machine is a basic build but looks good. As seen above the front of the Dwarves' machine boasts several circular blades of death. These are attached by an elastic band to a tile with pin mounted on the front right wheel: the idea being that when the wheel turns, the blades spin. Unfortunately this doesn't quite work as well as it should as the wheels sometimes can't get enough friction to turn at all - laminate floors and soft carpets are a definite no-no! Certain surfaces it works just fine and the action is great when it does.

As a suggestion, if you really want to get those blades working when moving the machine across your glass table, kitchen worktop, etc. try putting an elastic band around the front wheel for extra friction. That should gets those blades spinnning!

Here's the back of the Mine Defender with catapult and chain:

Pulling on the chain launches the catapult forward, deploying it's armament onto some unlucky Orc's head. That'll hurt in the morning!

The Minifigures

Three minifigures in all, one Dwarf and two Orcs: a warrior and a standard bearer.

The Dwarf minifigures are pretty special, so it's nice to be able to get one cheap. He comes with a really nice metallic silver winged helmet and a great dark-orange beard neck-piece. Under that beard is one of the Crown Knights printed chain-mail torsos, which doesn't really add or take anything from the minifigure as you can't see it. All in all he's a smashing wee character!

I've included a rear view of the minifigs so you can see the back of the Dwarf's ace little neck/hair-piece:

Overview

For being such a small set, Lego have managed to include some great minifigures and tried to pack in as much playability with some interesting features. The war machine can be a little temperamental but looks pretty cool from a display point of view. I like the concept of fantastic medieval war machines and it's great to see Lego developing these for the fantasy Castle theme.

The only real niggle I have with this set is the lack of weapons. You get an iron sword for one of the Orcs and that's it really. The Orcish standard is built using an ornate spear but it'd be a shame to disassemble that as it looks really nice. And what about an axe for the Dwarf? Sure he's got a hulking big machine, but what happens when the Orcs creep up behind him?! It would've been great if they could have included a golden axe for the Dwarf like the ones seen in the Dwarves' mine set.

This isn't too big a deal though and fortunately I have enough weapons to arm my Dwarf in a way that befits him!

Overall this set is really great value. For £6.99 you get three great minifigures including a fantastic Dwarf and a great little war machine with some nice new parts. At that price how can you say no?

Hope you enjoyed my review!

[Shoc]

I got this set quite a while ago, in January or February this year, so I know all about it. But I still think this is a great review of the set, covering everything that one needs to know about it. It really is a very nice set, I still have it together, which is strange for me to keep a set together that long!

:skull:

Edited July 29, 2008 by Shoc

[Inertia]

Great review, like Shoc I have this set, I think I got it in March, along with the entire 2008 Castle line up on teh day it came out here,

Awesome set with some excellent playability. The catapult actually works for this set IMO.

Thanks!

[Tenorikuma]

Nice review. I do like how this is a machine, and the Dwarf operator stands behind a control panel. I do think the controls could have used a little more detail, and I do think it's a big drawback that the dwarf has no weapon or shield. They'd better give us some more small sets with dwarves next year so we can make a decent army of them.

[Shoc]

They'd better give us some more small sets with dwarves next year so we can make a decent army of them.

Yes, I only have the one from this set, and a modified keyring!

I'm hoping for a dwarf Impulse set.

:skull:

Edited July 29, 2008 by Shoc

[Nikola Bathory]

hehe, Pedro, your wife is cool!

[WhiteFang]

Pedro, thanks for doing up this review by forking out your time and effort to do the write up. The pictures are very clear and good. Personally, I love this set very much, until I bought 12 of these, just to build on my Dwarves and Orcs armies. I love this set very much even though the price is a little bit steep.

I like the flow of your review. Keep it up, I will look forward to your next Castle review, if your wife happened to buy any.

[Bonaparte]

Fantastic review Pedro! (Same is true for your Tower Raid review)

These pics are as good as they can get (white background and very clear).

You've got a talent for this. I hope to see more reviews from you in the future

[I Scream Clone]

Another nice review with excellent photography too! Well Done!

Cool Wife On!

hehe, Pedro, your wife is cool!

Mine too, she surprised me today with a Knight and Fireman impulse sets! Woohoo!

[tin7_creations]

I hate that wheel-rubberband-blade contraption. It doesn't work period. I like the chain-catapult part though. It actually shoots pretty far.

[Wily Manc]

Nice review Pedro. (Great name too).

This is such a great set - brilliant for building up armies or just picking up a couple of great minifigs. Plus it goes really well with the Troll Assault Wagon.

[pedro]

Thanks very much for the positive comments!

I find set reviews to be one of the many highlights of EB and I'm more than happy to be able to contribute. If you enjoy reading them, I'll do my best to post more!

hehe, Pedro, your wife is cool!

She's a sweetheart. Best birthday ever!

[WhiteFang]

I find set reviews to be one of the many highlights of EB and I'm more than happy to be able to contribute. If you enjoy reading them, I'll do my best to post more!

Pedro, you are correct. One of Eurobricks' highlights is Reviews. I will be most glad to see reviews from you and I do enjoy reading them. Do post more when you have the time.

[Fatespuppet]

This is definitely a nice set, and for the price the figure selection is excellent. I agree that the rubberband mechanism is weak, but I've found that to be pretty universal when Lego tries to use rubber bands to turn things. For wings and catapults and spring mecanisms they are great, but on wheels they are too slick to work perfectly.

I think the lack of weapons is a bit sad as well. Even one more sword and a single headed axe for the dwarf would've been perfect.

[Manta]

Thanks for the review and a lot of pictures, this makes me want this set. Wish there were more dwarves though.

[ClubNinja]

I wanted to love this set (and it is still good for the figures and most of the design), but the rubberband thing just drives me crazy. It not only doesn't function very well, but also just looks bad. Why would the earthy brown and gray machine randomly have a bright blue band and red piece on the side of it? The intended function could have been achieved with a pair of small gears - and I think it would've looked better, too. This set is nice otherwise, but it's perfect if you're willing to make some slight modification.

[pedro]

This set is nice otherwise, but it's perfect if you're willing to make some slight modification.

And thats the beauty of Lego! I've got to say I mod about 80% of the Lego sets I purchase - most of the time just the tiniest alteration. A little brick here or there can make them just perfect

[Norro]

Nice review. I picked up two for the figs and then discovered the real gem of the set. 1 x 4 dk brown slopes... MMMMmmm... Some more weapons would definitely have been appreciated.

God Bless,

Nathan