The bad news is I don't have a digital camera, so no pics.
(I have no doubt though, that there will be a pictoral review from someone by the weekend).The Mine.
It was the minifigs that caught my eye initially - the mine itself just seemed so-so. But I throughly enjoyed putting this set together and was impressed with the end result. Of course there is the obligatory catapult, but I like how it's put together and it's fun lobbing that big boulder piece. On the right there is the wheel that raises and lowers a bucket and on the left there is another bucket that slides on a piece of technic tube (it can dump it's load down the chute in the front or into the mine cars in the back). There are 4 gold crystals and 4 silver crystals for the buckets and mine cars. There are 2 mine cars that are a neat little build and each use a right and left car door in dark green.
The Figs.
The first thing I noticed when opening the box was that the gold winged helm was loose in the box. It appears there was a packaging error. The instructions list 2 winged helms (one in gold and one in silver). There are 2 winged helms in silver sealed in the bag. My guess is the error was caught early enough that they just added the gold helm loose in the box (which means we get an extra silver helm, but be on the lookout for the gold helm when you open the box).
The dwarve beards are great. Unlike the current wizard beard which just covers the front of the fig, the dwarven beards cover the front and back of the fig. The front is the beard of course and in the back it looks as if the figs hair is flowing out the back of his helm. The split beard has a pony tail in the back and comes in black and a color that I believe is sometimes called butterscotch. The full beard with two braids has three braids in the back and comes in a new dark brown color. It's darker than old brown and I think looks better than either old brown or reddish brown. (It also appears in then preliminary pics of the Troll's Ship set coming out next year).
The orcs...err I mean trolls look good and as has been noted elsewhere come with the Shadow Knights helm. There is only one troll shield, but it appears to be new (at least to me). It is rectangular like the Knights Kingdom shields, but it does not have the stud on the front like the Knights Kingdom shields - it has a smooth front.
The giant troll has four points of articulation instead of two as I thought it would. The arms are attached with blue technic pins and the hands have a molded pin that fits into a hole at the wrist (the hands come preattached, the arms do not). So, both arms move at the shoulder and both hands move at the wrist. The hands are designed so that they can hold minifig accessories and also a minifig foot (the back of the box shows a giant troll holding a dwarve upside down). One minor quibble: the holes in the armor/helm take viking horns, but are shallow so that the horns don't sit flush. The armor and helmet are not removable.
In the end I think if you have been looking forward to this set you will not be disappointed. If you have been on the fence about this set I would recommend getting it - I think you may be pleasantly surprised.
That's it for now. I'm sure someone will have a pictoral review up in short order. In the meantime I hope this 'mini' review satisfied a little of your curiosity.
Ken
