Another month, another LEGO license. They may be piling up faster than paperwork while you’re on holiday, but unlike that analogous stack of dread, they’re far more welcome.
Scooby-Doo is next on the roster, having joined up with Ghostbusters, Batman, Lord of the Rings and more for the upcoming toys-to-life game, LEGO Dimensions. An initial wave of five sets are on shelves now, with the entire Mystery gang and a whole host of villains available to collect.
The main draw of the theme was always going to be, of course, the Mystery Machine – the famous blue and green van driven around by Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo – and, a disproportionately high number of stickers aside, LEGO’s rendition is almost perfect.
The scale is spot on – sure, you can’t fit the entire gang in the front seat, but if it was any bigger it would have looked ridiculous. Luckily, there’s plenty for the gang to do in the back of the van, with details galore. The roof is detachable and you can access the interior by opening the hinged rear compartment.
At just £29.99, the entire Mystery gang would be a bit much to ask for, but some female representation here might have been nice – instead, Daphne and Velma are limited to the larger, more expensive sets, with Velma only included in the £69.99 Mystery Mansion.
We do get Fred, Shaggy and Scooby though, and they’re all brilliant representations of the classic cartoon characters. Fred even has an alternate scared expression, while Shaggy varies between his crooked smile and a worried grimace.
Also included is Zeke the Zombie, who in the original TV show was one half of a spooky duo, alongside his partner-in-crime Zeb. The pair robbed an armoured truck and drove it into a swamp, returning to search for it years later while using their disguises to scare away passers-by.
There’s no armoured truck here, but we do get a rather menacing tree for Zeke to control. With high playability levels and fantastic display value – particularly next to other iconic vehicles LEGO has released through the years, including the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and the Back to the Future DeLorean – the Mystery Machine is another superb effort from LEGO, and one you can add to your own collection here.
The rest of the wave is no less fantastic, with the Haunted Lighthouse and Mystery Plane Adventures notable standouts – not only for their villains, which have reversible heads to reveal their true identities – but for their Mystery Machine-coloured vehicles and bounty of play features.
The LEGO Scooby-Doo range is available in stores and online now. Stay tuned for a look at another brand new LEGO release from a galaxy far, far away soon…
