Random set of the day: Dwarves' Mine Defender
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7040 Dwarves' Mine Defender, released during 2008. It's one of 14 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 86 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$9.99/£6.85.
It's owned by 4512 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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49 comments on this article
These aren't the Castle sets you're looking for.
From Wind-fly to Rock-chuck!
If Lepin made ripoff LOTR sets... God of the Bracelets, Dwarves Mine Defender.
I got three of these when they came out. good way to bulk up on your orc and dwarf army. Plus some decent parts. But not for Blacktron. Hardly any black, no white, and no trans neon green. And what does a space empire need with a buzzsaw throwing wheeled catapult?
This is a weird Warhammer Fantasy set.
@ElephantKnight said:
"I got three of these when they came out. good way to bulk up on your orc and dwarf army. Plus some decent parts. But not for Blacktron. Hardly any black, no white, and no trans neon green. And what does a space empire need with a buzzsaw throwing wheeled catapult? "
ask the Warhammer universe that question....
I don't want to call this set a dud, because it certainly is not, but of the Fantasy Era sets I own, this is one of the few disassembled. I liked the addition of dwarfs to the theme and this one provides the interesting twist of bearing the royal livery--and comes in at a nice price point for bulking up your troll army too. But the build is a bit meh.
Sorcery powers these machines.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I thoroughly enjoy the Fantasy-era Castle sets, but generally the larger ones have better display and play value. There's still a little bit of KKII influence in this one.
The actual mine counterpart to this set was my absolute most wanted set since the day it was revealed. I finally managed to pick it up at the start of this year, and funnily enough Just2Good did the same like two months later. I still don't have this cart but I'd like to get a few to protect the mine one of these days.
So uh lore, I'll keep it fast. A dark Wizard named Mallock the Malign rose and army of undead skeletons and made a pact with a nearby kingdom of trolls to take over the planet Ashlar, their main enemy being the Crown Knights. The Trolls also had their own rivalry with a nearby Dwarf kingdom so the Dwarves allied with the Crown.
I don’t remember having this set assembled (probably because I was like 4 when I got it) but it’s pretty neat nonetheless, I wonder exactly what would happen to those trolls if they ran into the saw-blades. What parts would they lose first, or would they just explode? I might be the only one who ponders the morbid result that every LEGO weapon would have on the Minifigures.
As far as lore for this goes, it appeared in Clutch Powers as one of the Troll/Orc (LEGO was really unclear on the terminology) war machines. So the dwarf and his enemies are on opposite sides of the saw.
It's other appearance was in the 2007 Castle Battle flash game on the Lego Castle website. Remember when themes had their own sections of Lego.com? I miss those days. But 2007, you ask? How? This is a 2008 set. Well, on occasion the games were updated to reflect new products. In the Lego City "Time to Build" game, another 2007 release updated in 2008, the original 2005/6 City police station and vehicles were replaced by the 2008 version. The old one stuck out like a sore thumb with its design compared to the other buildings, and the change was well executed.
Well, when "Castle Battle" was updated with the 2008 wave, this set was chosen to replace one of the King's units - either 7090 Crossbow Attack or a non-set specific squadron of archers. Since the original versions of these Flash games may be lost to time, it won't be easy to prove what it was. But the Wizard (who it feels silly to call that since he has a name from Clutch Powers, Mallock) says "Shoot arrows at my castle will you?" This line was unchanged in the updated version. The mine defender shoot sawblades in the game, not rocks like in the set. Either way they are clearly not arrows. So the update to this game was not quite as elegant and you can tell something is off.
You do have to wonder what kind of varmints they encounter while gardening that they’d need a catapult on their rototiller. Or is that for flinging fertilizer?
But does the dwarf have his lucky socks?
I have most of this set from a bulk bin. Say what you will about the set, but I think sand green heads and speckled helmets look good together. Never did get that dwarf though.
Mmm... the mine defender, for the defending of mines.
@bananaworld said:
"
These aren't the Castle sets you're looking for."
On the contrary, those are exactly the Castle sets I am looking for. In my opinion, Fantasy Era is hands down the best iteration of Castle we've ever gotten. I'd kill to see LEGO make more original Fantasy stuff...
As much as I really like these original fantasy sets, I'd much prefer more LOTR.
I liked the minifigs. The gadgets and vehicles are though, another story.
Why would dwarves put this thing in a mine to defend it? The width is impractical; not to mention: a catapult? You do know a mine the basically a cave with things of value within them (metal, minerals, and so on).
No, they'd have been better to move this to their rural area: more wide open for the catapult; and when the blades are not being used...for their real use (yesh...) they could used to cultivate the ground, making easier to seed/plant and irrigate...
@TheWackyWookiee said:
"As much as I really like these original fantasy sets, I'd much prefer more LOTR."
Absolutely. To me this isn't even a set I would call Castle. It's pure fantasy, so much more fitting to LOTR than Castle, which is supposed to be based on real life.
If the only had this in LOTR/Hobbit, Middle-Earth looked a lot different today. Where's the LEGO Castle movie?
At one time some years ago I found a second-hand 7036 Dwarves' Mine for I think €25 and it included this set too. The catapult was a bit superfluous but adding some extra orcs and a dwarf to the mine definitely didn't hurt :-)
Too bad some of those sand green arms disintegrated, just like a dark red arm on one of those dwarves from the mine (or an entire octopus torso from 8078 Portal of Atlantis, for that matter) :-(
@AustinPowers said:
" @TheWackyWookiee said:
"As much as I really like these original fantasy sets, I'd much prefer more LOTR."
Absolutely. To me this isn't even a set I would call Castle. It's pure fantasy, so much more fitting to LOTR than Castle, which is supposed to be based on real life. "
Based on RL, of course, with all those ghosts, dragons and sorcerers...
@PurpleDave said:
"You do have to wonder what kind of varmints they encounter while gardening that they’d need a catapult on their rototiller. Or is that for flinging fertilizer?"
I think they use it to fertilize the soil with orcs.
@AustinPowers said:
" @TheWackyWookiee said:
"As much as I really like these original fantasy sets, I'd much prefer more LOTR."
Absolutely. To me this isn't even a set I would call Castle. It's pure fantasy, so much more fitting to LOTR than Castle, which is supposed to be based on real life. "
Supposed to be? Says who? It's Lego, even city is loosely connected to reality at times.
If I have one complaint about this set it’s that it feel a bit gappy. For something that is supposed to be a sturdy piece of dwarven engineering there’s holes all over the place and it’s more than a little fragile (compare it with, say, that giant wheel thing the trolls had, which felt solid as a rock). Other than that, honestly really fun, it’s great having a catapult that can either defend itself or make its own ammunition depending on what those saw blades were pointed at
They must not have had these in Moria…
@brick_r:
Ask Balin.
@jol said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @TheWackyWookiee said:
"As much as I really like these original fantasy sets, I'd much prefer more LOTR."
Absolutely. To me this isn't even a set I would call Castle. It's pure fantasy, so much more fitting to LOTR than Castle, which is supposed to be based on real life. "
Supposed to be? Says who? It's Lego, even city is loosely connected to reality at times."
Classic Castle (like Classic Space time frame wise) i.e. from the Seventies and Eighties was very much based on reality. No dragons, ghosts, dwarfs, trolls or whatever. Only in later iterations did LEGO add ever more fantasy elements. And sales of "Castle" went down ever since. Until after the travesty that was Nexo Knights LEGO finally pulled the plug.
They should have two distinct lines, one with realistic Castle sets and one LOTR like fantasy series.
@AustinPowers said:
"
Classic Castle (like Classic Space time frame wise) i.e. from the Seventies and Eighties was very much based on reality. No dragons, ghosts, dwarfs, trolls or whatever. Only in later iterations did LEGO add ever more fantasy elements. And sales of "Castle" went down ever since. Until after the travesty that was Nexo Knights LEGO finally pulled the plug.
They should have two distinct lines, one with realistic Castle sets and one LOTR like fantasy series. "
Do you like any modern Lego? I swear the only posts I see you make complain about how things were ‘better’ in the 70s/80s
This whole series was peak castle for me.
I really wish Lego made own +7 fantasy series again as they did with elves.
@AustinPowers said:
" @jol said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @TheWackyWookiee said:
"As much as I really like these original fantasy sets, I'd much prefer more LOTR."
Absolutely. To me this isn't even a set I would call Castle. It's pure fantasy, so much more fitting to LOTR than Castle, which is supposed to be based on real life. "
Supposed to be? Says who? It's Lego, even city is loosely connected to reality at times."
Classic Castle (like Classic Space time frame wise) i.e. from the Seventies and Eighties was very much based on reality. No dragons, ghosts, dwarfs, trolls or whatever. Only in later iterations did LEGO add ever more fantasy elements. And sales of "Castle" went down ever since. Until after the travesty that was Nexo Knights LEGO finally pulled the plug.
They should have two distinct lines, one with realistic Castle sets and one LOTR like fantasy series. "
Ah yes, the definitely real forestmen were well known to live in hollowed out trees with stone bricks structures in the top in real life. And unless you mean the yellow castle era with classic castle fantasy elements were already there with the black knights in the late eighties. But even with the Forestmen... those are based on folklore and ballads. The historical basis for Robin Hood's merry men is debatable, but these minifig designs are clearly based on the cultural depiction of Robin Hood, not some specific historical group.
And ehm... have you SEEN the classic space sets? Sure, they were inspired by spacetravel after the apollo missions... but I doubt there was much of a realistic basis for the walking astro grappler, robot command center or solar power transporter or the moon bases or the space scooters...
You get the idea. And don't say the blue-grey-tr.yellow era is the only realistic one. Because to this day we have nothing close to a 918 One-Man Spaceship.
They were just a different kind of fantasy. At first they were set in the near-future before getting more futuristic as time went on. Only with the last two or four waves (if you count the fossils in Exploriens or LoM as a subtheme) did we even meet alien lifeforms. But Space in all its iterations has been about space colonization and exploration. You know, the thing that's still fantasy to us in 2021, 40 years later?
But the thing is... do we really not only need castle to return, but also specifically as the exact same thing it was in the first half of the eighties? And if there are any fantasy elements those should just stay out of the theme because that's too unrealistic?
Come on man. If you don't want dragons or dwarves or orcs in your sets, just sell them. Or just don't buy the dwarf defender and buy the castle instead. The wonderful thing about Fantasy Era was that it had something for everyone. It only lacked a human enemy faction. But there were plenty of 'realistic' things about it. You could buy those too. You don't have to go full LOTR if you want fantasy elements. Most people bought the Black Knights castles without batting an eye at the Black Monarch's Ghost.
This is why any attempt at releasing an updated version of Castle and Space is doomed to fail to some extent. If it's not the EXACT same thing as before it's not REAL Castle or Space.
I mean, the other day there was someone why complained that despite the myriad of Classic Space nods, references and even full-blown sets such as the Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship! they were due for an ACTUAL Classic Space revival, as those were 'too different'. Even when the grey-blue-tr.yellow era is the only space sets ever referenced beside the occasional blacktron symbol anyway. Even Classic Space itself had more than that first era! But nooo, all those bones thrown aren't good enough.
(follow up from previous comment)
Sorry for the rant. Maybe you specifically didn't mean it in this particular way. I just get so tired of the gatekeeping in these two communities.
It's been 8 years since the last full castle theme that wasn't also sci-fi or Harry Potter. We haven't recieved anything like Fantasy Era in 12 years.
The thing with lego is that you can build anything you want, as long as you have the right parts. But the most likely vocal minority that demands something that must exactly adhere to the standards from their childhoods is not helping.
I was thinking about castle this morning! I’ve gotten a few sets like 6098 and some other knights kingdom ones.
@brick_r said:
"Why would dwarves put this thing in a mine to defend it? The width is impractical; not to mention: a catapult? You do know a mine the basically a cave with things of value within them (metal, minerals, and so on).
No, they'd have been better to move this to their rural area: more wide open for the catapult; and when the blades are not being used...for their real use (yesh...) they could used to cultivate the ground, making easier to seed/plant and irrigate..."
Maybe it's just an unwarranted inference from the design features you mention, but I always sort of assumed this was used outside the Mines--i.e. defending the entrance not the interior.
@Binnekamp : you could have saved most of your rant, as I mentioned Classic Space only for the time frame it appeared in parallel to Classic Castle, not the realism aspect of it. Of course Classic Space was highly unrealistic, I never said otherwise.
As for Classic Castle and my fondness for older sets, sure I like a lot of what was available in the Eighties better than what is available today, but I never said all new sets were bad. Neither did I say fantasy sets were bad imho. I just make a clear distinction between (semi-)realistic Castle sets and completely fantasy scenarios like the one in this RSOTD which to me isn't Castle. But that's just my opinion, in no way do you have to be of the same one.
Blame it on me being in a hurry when writing my original post. Had I written "which TO ME is supposed to...." perhaps it would not have triggered so many negative reactions.
@Brickalili: of course I like a lot of modern sets. There are only certain things/aspects I don't like (and going by other commenters I am far from the only one).
The Dwarf and Orcs was the reason to get this set :)
I loved the 2007-2009 Castle Fantasy line... that and the pirates from the same year are what got me back into LEGO. Brilliant.
@Binnekamp:
1. @AustinPowers has made it pretty clear that he’d prefer to see The LEGO Company go bankrupt than produce sets that are popular outside of Germany.
2. I think the sole Black Knights set I ever got was Black Monarch’s Ghost (and it was probably the only one I ever asked for).
3. The only exception I can think of to your observation is that Ice Planet got some sort of vague reference in the Ninjago City Gardens sticker set. Otherwise, yes, it’s Classic Space, Blacktron I, or Super B Blacktron Cadet/Target Corps. You could sorta throw Futuron a bone for sharing the CS symbol, but the two-tone spacesuits have never appeared outside of the TRU retro minifig box sets.
@Wrecknbuild said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"You do have to wonder what kind of varmints they encounter while gardening that they’d need a catapult on their rototiller. Or is that for flinging fertilizer?"
I think they use it to fertilize the soil with orcs."
The blood of your enemies is good for flowers.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Binnekamp:
1. @AustinPowers has made it pretty clear that he’d prefer to see The LEGO Company go bankrupt than produce sets that are popular outside of Germany."
Careful, not everybody understands sarcasm.
;-)
@PurpleDave said:
" @Binnekamp:
1. @AustinPowers has made it pretty clear that he’d prefer to see The LEGO Company go bankrupt than produce sets that are popular outside of Germany.
2. I think the sole Black Knights set I ever got was Black Monarch’s Ghost (and it was probably the only one I ever asked for).
3. The only exception I can think of to your observation is that Ice Planet got some sort of vague reference in the Ninjago City Gardens sticker set. Otherwise, yes, it’s Classic Space, Blacktron I, or Super B Blacktron Cadet/Target Corps. You could sorta throw Futuron a bone for sharing the CS symbol, but the two-tone spacesuits have never appeared outside of the TRU retro minifig box sets."
Does the recent Space Police CMF count as a Futuron reference? I know that Space Police is a different thing, but the two-tone black and white suit originated with Futuron, right? Is it a matter of visor color? I clearly have questions.
@jkb said:
"If the only had this in LOTR/Hobbit, Middle-Earth looked a lot different today. Where's the LEGO Castle movie?"
It's called Clutch Powers...
I remember being at my friends house on his 7 birthday party. He got this set, and I played with it for a few moments. I got my own copy of the set a year ago, and I was surprised how small it was. As a kid I thought it was a bigger machine
@ForestMenOfEndor:
Actually...no, it doesn’t. It counts as Space Police I. I never got that theme (or CMF 71029-10, but I may have received a single original SP1 minifig in a minifig pack), so I was never that familiar with the livery, but someone pointed out to me that the standard pattern for Futuron was an outfit that had a half-white torso, with the legs and the rest of the torso in one of four colors (red, yellow, blue, or black, with no equivalent for the white CS uniform). The helmet always matches the main color, and the visor is always blue. There are a few oddball ones that have mismatched pants (one of which has a red visor), and one that had a normal black Futuron outfit with a white helmet (the only one that doesn’t look like someone had to mix and match spacesuit components just to survive until they could be rescued). But SP1 had the black Futuron outfit (complete with CS logo) with a white helmet and red visor, just like 71029-10. So you did catch another vintage Space theme that has been referenced since the onset of the CMF theme, but it’s a different theme than you expected. That does bring us up to five Space themes that have been directly referenced outside of retro minifig releases, though.
This was the set the ignited my AFOL passion... followed shortly by the Mine itself... then a deep dive back into classic castle (back when you could still grab a bargain on ebay)... and the rest is history.
Good times.
@AustinPowers
Same here. I was writing my post in between videocalls and got carried away. Sorry if it felt like it was directed at you particularly.
@PurpleDave
@ForestMenOfEndor :
You're right that the SP1 officer made a re-emergence in S21. I've completely forgotten about that! I would like to add that there was also an M-Tron logo used on the Video Game Champ from S19 and in 70620-1 Ninjago City. And now that the two of you mentioned it, Futuron actually was referenced in 60097-1 City Square.
There were also references in SPIII to Spyrius and Insectoids. There's also an exploriens nod in 70657-1 Ninjago City Docks.
This actually makes me feel a little bit better about the whole Space cameo thing. Most of these references are old now, but not all of them. Although the blue-grey-tr.yellow part of the classic era is by far the most referenced, at least the other subthemes have been given some sort of nod throughout the years.
I keep forgetting how fabulous these Fantasy Castle war machines were until they show up in RSOD.
2008/2009 were the best years for retail Lego since the early/mid 90s. The shelves were full of all sorts of drool-worthy original themes: Fantasy Castle, Space Police III, Pirates, Agents, City Farm. The sets had a wonderful balance of playfulness and quality. I thoroughly enjoyed buying and building them as an adult, and I would have loved to have had them as a child too.
Since then, the Lego aisle has been getting less and less interesting. It's been mostly devoured by licensed themes and Ninjago, with the remainder getting more expensive and less compelling. I recently couldn't even talk myself into some 2021 City sets at 50% off clearance. (Already clearanced! Apparently I wasn't the only one who was underwhelmed!)
On the plus side, adult-oriented sets have gotten nothing but better and have soaked up the balance, but it's still sad that I can't just go to any old store and find Lego I want to buy.
@AllenSmith said:
"I keep forgetting how fabulous these Fantasy Castle war machines were until they show up in RSOD.
2008/2009 were the best years for retail Lego since the early/mid 90s. The shelves were full of all sorts of drool-worthy original themes: Fantasy Castle, Space Police III, Pirates, Agents, City Farm. The sets had a wonderful balance of playfulness and quality. I thoroughly enjoyed buying and building them as an adult, and I would have loved to have had them as an child too.
Since then, the Lego aisle has been getting less and less interesting. It's been mostly devoured by licensed themes and Ninjago, with the remainder getting more expensive and less compelling. I recently couldn't even talk myself into some 2021 City sets at 50% off clearance. (Already clearanced! Apparently I wasn't the only one who was underwhelmed!)
On the plus side, adult-oriented sets have gotten nothing but better and have soaked up the balance, but it's still sad that I can't just go to any old store and find Lego I want to buy."
Those years were my big years in LEGO. Back when I had enough money to buy LEGO, but before I had to spend that money on other things! I fully agree about how awesome the themes from this time were!