POTC rock! This is one of the better sets of 2011, you can make this set in to a mill for a lego kingdomes villige if you want!

pros

• New Hadras minifig
• New Norrington (pirate) minifig
• A very well designed mill
• The mill wheel witch was super fun to build
• gold bell
• rum
• fish
• plants
• Hadras shell hat is SICK!

cons

• the bells rope doesn't really stay in place
• the mills tower is little ustable
• dead mans chest should be smaller and black

Overall this is a realy good set to get, but what it should have is a row boat, Elizebeth in a pirate suite, Davy Jones or another Flying Dutchmen crew member like the eel man. with all of the extra stuff it should be $45, then it would be the perfect set. I will be revewing the fountaine of youth, the londen escape, and captains cabin once i see On Strangers Tides! If you want to see POTC 3 sets, then click like on this reveiw!

The water wheel duel has always been one of my favourite scenes from Dead Man's Chest, and to see it rendered in LEGO bricks is glorious.

BUILD:

The mill is very faithfully reconstructed from the film, with the tower, the water wheel, and the wood skeleton of the belfry all present and accounted for. The building process for the ruins is very engaging, with the construction of the belfry being particularly interesting. The build becomes slightly repetitive with the wheel, but the structures are all very sturdy. (Even now, as I type this, I have just dropped the wheel from a height of three or four feet and it is still in one piece.)

PLAYABILITY:

The set has many play features that kids will get a kick out of, not the least of which include the water wheel, which spins and can be detached from the main model, and the bell, which pulls a minifigure up when it is dropped, thanks to a simple pulley system. (Note: the ability of the bell to pull up a minifigure may vary depending on the mass of each respective object.) There are also ladders to climb, rooves to walk on, and a bottle and bucket for more relaxed play.

MINIFIGURES:

The set includes four minifigures, all of whom have excellent printing on their faces, torsos, and, in three cases, legs. All of the minifigures are excellent, with the Dutchman crewman Hadras and the disgraced Commodore Norrington being exclusive to this set. The Jack Sparrow minifigure also appears in 4191 Captain's Cabin and the Will Turner figure appears in 4182 Cannibal Escape. Out of all the figures, Hadras is my favourite. He has barnacles and seaweed growing all over his chest, and his headgear is a large conch shell which is exclusive to this set.

VERDICT:

Overall, this is an outstanding set with very interesting minifigures and many amusing play features. The structure of the set is very solid and it should stand up to the rowdiest FOLs. (Fans Of LEGO, to the laymen.) This is one of my favourite sets out of the current line and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Lego 4183 The Mill is proving to be one of the most popular sets from the initial Lego Pirates of the Caribbean line. This set is really a lot of fun, and probably one of the best designed Lego pirates sets in a long while. Based on a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, it comes with some great figures and new Lego pieces, making it a must-own if you are a Lego Pirates or Pirates of the Caribbean fan. This is a favorite of mine from the new POTC line, outdistancing some of the others by far, especially the similarly priced London Escape. I'm sure this will be looked back on as a classic in the years to come. Don't miss your chance to get one right away!

For my full review including more pictures, please visit www.brick-building-ideas.com/lego-4183-the-mill.html.



Of primary importance to Lego fans are, of course, the minifigs. And let me tell you- this set doesn't disappoint. Lego Jack Sparrow is the same one that we've seen in several of the POTC sets, wearing his bandana and featuring the standard Jack double-sided head. Great look, and great job by Lego translating Johnny Depp's immortal pirate into a worthy minifigure.

Lego Will Turner is sharp, with a new Lego hairpiece and good facial expression on the double-sided head. This figure is a reasonable facsimile of Orlando Bloom and is a worthy addition to the POTC figure line.



Lego Admiral Norrington is a superb design, especially with his detailed leg pieces to match the torso. Lego is getting really good about painting legs now to match, which really expands the wardrobe potential for our minifigures. I especially like Admiral Norrington's torso painting, as it well represents an Imperial uniform worn slovenly and with disregard.

But the real treat here is the Lego Hadras figure. I mean, seriously, isn't this the coolest? Based on a relatively minor character from the movie, the Lego Hadras has that perfect blend of licensed accuracy and Lego goofiness. A cursed crew member from the fated Flying Dutchman, Hadras is some sort of freakish minion of Davy Jones with a crab shell growing out of his head. The Lego representation of his shell gives us a neat new hat piece, which would be funny to stick on a Lego City fig bumping around in one of the new Lego Modular Buildings in a big City diorama. But anyway, I digress...



In the movie, these four characters are chasing around a chest with Davy Jones' heart in it, and, separately, the key to said chest. These elements are given to us in Lego form with a standard Lego treasure chest and a 1x1 dark red circular brick with a heart printed on it (seen in the first picture above). Pretty neat, I guess. Also, we get a couple of Lego's standard over-sized keys.



On to the Mill itself! And this is where the set really shines through. The building design we are treated to here is actually very unique for this type of set- normally something like this would be merely a shadow of the represented building (i.e. the Tavern from the London Escape set- very basic and half-hearted). In The Mill, however, we get a fully constructed spinning Lego wheel that comes apart and can roll around for the characters to have violent sword-fights on. Pretty neat!



The Lego wheel design is a bit repetitive in the build as you have to construct each "plank" in the wheel separately and then link them together. But really it's a pretty fast process, and in no time you will have your Mill wheel spinning on the river, or rolling around the floor with Jack Sparrow and the gang dancing about on top!



As far as the main Mill building goes, it is pretty straightforwardly done. The greenery and light tan pieces help to break up the monotony of the gray (something Whitecap Bay could have used).

From behind, there are a few interesting features. Underneath the mill wheel is a lever that, when pressed, pushes up on the wheel and send it rolling off of its supports. Pretty neat. Also, in the main building there is a brick-build bell that is hanging from a cord attached to a handle down below. If you untwist the cord from the handle the bell falls to the floor, and the other end of the cord gets pulled into the air, along with any minifigs that happen to be holding on at the time.



I can't recall if this is designed around a specific instance from the movie but I'm going to guess so. The bell itself is an ok design, nothing too special though. If I didn't know it was supposed to be a bell I might think it was a chandelier or something else. I guess I would have wished for more detailing on the bell, but oh well. It isn't a big deal and doesn't hurt the look of the set at all.



On the whole, the look of this set is pretty unique. Even if you are not a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean, it is worth picking up just for the Mill wheel and bell tower building. I was very pleasantly surprised when I completed the build; pictures don't do it justice. For some reason, I have a gut instinct that of the POTC line, this is going to be one of the most sought-after sets in the future. Retailing at $39.99 it is a few dollars more than it should have been, but for the great design of the buildings, solid minifigures, and new pieces (including Hadras' shell hat!) it is well worth the expense. Add 4183 The Mill to your Lego collection today! And don't forget to check out my full review by clicking here.

This was the last set I build for the day and it was by far the best set I did. I do not know if this is just some mistake but I did not have a backing board for this set, good thing the instructions and poster are in great shape, and no card again? Hope when other people reviews this I will find out if the put those cards at random box. To be honest I have watched all the PotC movies and just could not remember all their names, good thing each box has the name of the minifigure in front of the box, sure helps people remember who's who.

On to the review, this set comes with two intructions and this time stickers for the bricks around the window pieces and a couple of wall. Minifigures are awesome, we have our usual Jack Sparrow, Will Turner is one of my favorite with a new hair piece. We also have Admiral Norrington and Hadras who looks nasty as the movie and cool at the same time. The Mill build is kinda unique in itself, only question I have if why they used red and green pieces for the roof where you clip the brown roof pieces when they could have used gray? The Bell element is perfect for playability, as it was shown in the box that can take any minifigures swing up at the bell drops. I also love the small Davy Jones heart in the treasure chest (reminds me of plankton of the Sponge Bob lego set).

Eventually you come to the wheel construction at the second instruction which is worth the wait. Actually for me this is the highlight of the set. Though redundant in the built, when the wheel is actually completed it is amazing. Specially when you spin it in the mill building as well as the simple mechanism that lets it roll out. PERFECT for playability I tell you. The construction also makes it easy to play the scene where Will and Norrington do their battle. I do have nothing bad to say about this set, to me this is a set perfect for its price and worth buying.

This being my favorite seen from my favorite Pirates of the Caribbean movie POTC: Dead Man's Chest mean that I was really looking forward to this set and was going to be one of the first I would buy from this line.

I do love the minifigs in this set and that was one of the things I was most worried about. I think the Will figure is the closest looking to the character even if it isn't scene accurate (he is wearing a dark colored coat in this part of the movie), followed by the excellent Jack figure. The Norrington figure is good in detail on the torso and legs, but something about the face seems off, but not enough to make me stop liking it. The Hadras figure is little too bright green, but I like the shell piece for his hat.

Speaking of new pieces you get quite a few here. A couple new hair pieces, a bucket, the new bottle, Jack's compass, and the scabbards for the swords are all great pieces to have.

The thing I'm disappointed about though is the scale of the wheel to the building. The little roof piece that connects the tower to the wheel should have been longer and have a flat surface for the figurs to stand on and be parrell to the top of the wheel almost instead of quite aways below it. I would have liked the tower to be taller too so there could have been more detail to it.

Also there are two bright red and one green piece on the top of the building that stand out pretty badly. Reallt LEGO? You couldn't have made those in black, or grey, or some other color that was already in the set? Why bright red and green?

Really though these problems are only if you care about screen accuracy and most kids won't care. I wish they could have done a little better, but I'm still happy with this set. If the minifigs hadn't been as good and if it hadn't been my favorite part of the movie I probably wouldn't be as kind towards it.