REVIEW: PART 1

Within the dreaded Palace of the Scorpion, located in Southern India, Johnny Thunder and Dr. Kilroy are in search of the mythical Golden Shield. Unfortunately, Lord Sinister and the Maharaja have ventured into the palace one step closer to the fabled treasure. Who will be thwarted by the deadly trap that lies within?

Set #: 7418

Theme: Adventurers

Sub-Theme: Orient Expedition, India

Year Released: 2003

Pieces: 358

Minifigs: 5

Price: $50 USD

Scorpion Palace is a "real jewel" within the Orient Expedition Collection. Found on many clearance shelves a year after its release, the set offered a great amount of playability as well as an abundance of decorative and useful pieces. Let's take a look at this set closer, shall we?

An adventuring Brickster presents:

The pictures depicted on the backside of the box provide two alternate models:

Alternate #1:

and Alternate #2:

The side of the box shows the five terrific minifigs included within the set:

I love the artwork on the instructions, as Johnny Thunder holds the map:

The backside is actually a map depicting the three geographic regions of Orient Expedition: India, Mount Everest/Himalayas, and China:

Included within the Orient Expedition sets is the Lego game, which I never opened. 15 years ago, I would have probably been playing it. Not pictured is a single die for the game:

The set includes five figs. The "good guys" are Johnny Thunder and Dr. Kilroy:

The bad guys include the Maharaja, Lord Sam Sinister, and another Indian thug:

A nice assortment of accessories include two custom shields, scimitars, and a few other extras:

The set includes a light grey elephant. This is lighter than the elephant included in 7414 Elephant Caravan:

The top of the elephant has a simple brick-built saddle and sun shade:

This concludes Part 1 of the review. We'll venture inside the Scorpion Palace in Part 2, coming soon...

Lego.com Orient Expedition has a neat comic (Episode #4) of the Scorpion Palace to keep you busy until Part 2.

Loved this set when it came out!! Elephants FTW!

REVIEW: PART 2

Continuing the 2nd part of this review, we're going to take a look at the Palace:

On the left side are two brown doors:

They open to reveal anything you'd like to place behind them:

Here's a shot from the back. A creative builder might try adding some custom furnishings:

The right side is somewhat similar, but has a tapestry (flag) for the entry. This is a fantastic piece:

Not much behind the tapestry:

On each side of the 2nd floor is a small balcony and rounded roof dome:

The domes lift open for added playability:

Under each dome is a decorative arch (2 included in the set):

In the center of the palace is a large brick-build scorpion with two claws:

Attached to the front and tail of the scorpion are two flexible tubes which serve as track for the large trap ball/boulder (Indiana Jones-style):

Here's a shot of the mechanism on the back. A string attaches to one of the scorpion claws and the top mechanism:

The ball is placed on the mechanism:

When Adventurers attempt to pull out the chest in the scorpion's claws, the right claw caused the mechanism in the back to tilt:

The mechanism tilts, and the ball/boulder rolls off:

After the boulder has rolled atop Lord Sinister and company, Johnny Thunder and the Professor can get the treasure:

Here's a shot of the middle section above the scorpion:

The large dome piece is very unique:

Behind the dome is the Golden Shield:

Pulling the beam out releases the trap door:

Here's a shot of the palace looking down on it:

Here's some additional accessories and extras:

And lastly, the complete set (Elephant pictured previously):

SUMMARY

India was a fantastic place for an Orient Expedition sub-theme, and Scorpion Palace a very unique set among the collection. The set offers an abundance of special pieces including 16 Dark Orange 1x6 pillars, 10 1x6x2 white arches (two with ornate print), Dark Orange fence pieces, 2 brown arched-doors, and a number of other very useful pieces. The figs are fantastic, esp. the Maharaja and the other Indian villain. I think I picked this set up for under $20 (USD), and just regret not buying a few more at the time. I hope you've enjoyed this review and the pictures. It's a great set!

Splendid, simply outstanding! Brickster, this is one set which I hope to view it up close and personal and through this review of yours, this set is simply so amazing to play with.

There are many fun elements to play with such as the elephant, soldiers' attire/weapons, scorpion, opened roof tops, playing mechanism and etc. More importantly, this set resemble asian culture in India and is one of the few true oriential looking sets which was released by TLG apart from Ninja theme. I do hope I could find this set somehow, when I missed it during my dark age and now you defintely making me feel regret about my decision back then.

Thanks for doing another wonderful review for us!

Very Good review i like the detail you went into concerning the palace.

Thanks for the gorgeous pictures and the great review!

I got this set with my Orient Expedition batch, and it truly is like no other. The unique pieces, the prints, the design, the action elements, the minifigs... They're all pretty much flawless. I honestly can't think of anything negative to say about this set (except that there could be another guard minifig, but let's not get greedy).

A great review on what looks to be a very nice set. Lots of great figs, as well as unique and hard to find pieces

Just a couple of dark pictures but otherwise this is all round a well polished review on a set I now wish I owned.

Cheers

Sorry if I goofed your review by spouting off in the middle of it... Thanks for taking the time to do a review!

I like both the review and the set. Unfortunately I don't own it.

I only own the China Fortress and the big building on the everest. Great sets by the way!

This set is really well designed, just like other sets from Adventurers.

And I hope Lego will bring back elephant! It is just briliant and so big!

Good review, and frames are really neat addition to photos.

Classy review Brickster.

I was able to find this beauty half off, and while I probably wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't on sale, I really enjoy it for what it is.

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the great feedback.

I was able to find this beauty half off, and while I probably wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't on sale, I really enjoy it for what it is.

Strangely, I had no interest in buying this set as I was collecting the Orient Expedition series.

Only after I had picked it up on clearance and built it, did I realize - this is a great set! I've used many of the pieces in this set for creating various MOCs from Wild West to Indiana Jones. It's a fun set with great pieces.

Thanks for the great review. This series was released during my dark ages. I had no idea that LEGO ever released an elephant! It's so cool! I think I'll definitely be buying one off of Bricklink tonight.

I had no idea that LEGO ever released an elephant! It's so cool!

You're kidding? The elephant was also contained in 7414 Elephant Caravan, a very nice set as well. He is an awesome Lego dinosaur-like creation.

Thanks for the review and I have to agree. This is a great set. With lots of playability when playing the game and a great start for some serious MOC-ing.

Beware when taking the game to the next level by combining it with the other sets. It may take longer then you reconned for....

Just want to point out that there is only one big white dome in this set, and even it is only one half a dome, open on the other side. For MOC roof dome because you need two of them.

Also the same dome piece was included in two other sets, a purple color.

http://brickset.com/sets/5857-1/Safran-s-Amazing-Bazaar

http://brickset.com/sets/5858-1/The-Golden-Palace

Man, this is one of those sets I wish I was around to get. Always loved adventurers (particularly Orient Expedition), but I got interested in lego far too late to actually get the sets. I thoroughly enjoyed the website and comics for as long as they were still up. It's a shame that they don't make another Orient Expedition esque line. Ninjago kind of has the Pagoda style temples and fortresses covered, but the cool Indian architecture like this and Himalayan stuff haven't been in sets since this line(save the Taj Mahal set).

Anyways, nice review! Perhaps I'll pony up enough money to get this on bricklink one of these days.

Love the theme, but the set is a little empty. I thankfully got it for $25 so I'm happy.

Great review! I remember getting this set as a gift and I loved playing with the Scorpion trap mechanism. It's a really nice set.

Thank you for the review; one of my favorite all-times sets as I have always loved the adventurers series.

Great review!

Although, it makes me a little sad I sold ours without ever actually opening it and building it.

But then I probably wouldn't have sold it!

A wonderful classic set!

I recently got one, but it's in parts, spread over a big lot of LEGO. I'm now in the process of cleaning all the bricks from the big lot and taking out all the parts of this set. Once I'm done with that I'm ready to build the set.