Reviewing the 40493 Spider and Haunted House Pack

and 40497 Halloween Owl Sets

Well, it’s summer, so naturally, the next season is being lined up for LEGO sets. Coming out August 1 will be a couple of sets that are for fall, specifically Halloween, and BrickJournal got to review them. Are these tricks or treats? Well, let’s take a look…

40493 Spider and Haunted House Pack
132 parts | 7+
$9.99 USD

These two models are set up to be hung like ornaments, I guess. When you open the box, you’ll get this:

There’s nothing that appears new or unusual, until you look at the magenta 2×4 brick in the largest bag. But we’ll get to that later. Parts for both models are in the bags, so if you are the type that sorts beforehand, you’ll have to do a little more work to separate the two models.

The sticker sheet is for the haunted house:

With the stickers in mind, lets get to building the haunted house!

Here’s some pics of the completed model:

From there, we can go to build the more whimsical model of the spider:

The completed spider build looks like this:

Both of the models in the set are here:

As you may have figured out, there really isn’t much to the set in terms of difficulty. Both models are what you would expect from a Halloween set for kids – the spider is not scary and the haunted house is the typical haunted house. The spider has some detail with the movable legs and positionable eye tiles. The haunted house has room inside for a small LED to make it glow (the battery would have to wired away) and would make a nice microscale model. What makes the haunted house so haunted are the stickers  – and what’s kinda nice is that with the boards on the windows, being precisely straight with the stickers isn’t needed.

132 parts for 9.99 isn’t bad, either. You get multiples of the 1×2 triple corner slope in black in the roof of the haunted house, and the corner columns are light bluish gray telescopes.  The spider has 8 claw parts in black, 8 bar holders with handles in black, 4 1 x 1 tiles with clips in dark bluish gray and 4 1 x 2 plates with clips in black.

There’s one thing in both models that is odd, though – and this refers to the magenta brick. It’s a special part. But… just look at the pics below and pay attention when you build these.

 

You can order this set from LEGO.com with this link.

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40497 Halloween Owl
228 pieces | Ages 8+
$14.99 USD

This set has more pieces and has a a bit more character and detail. Opening the box you get this:

Building the set is interesting – watch the first part of the video to see the very first build.

The completed model is pretty neat. and you can see:

The owl can rotate on his feet, thanks to the 2 x 2 turntable under him. His wings are attached by ball and socket joints so they can be repositioned. The owl also has a bit of a stern stare thanks to the black claw parts. But the neat thing in the model is in the base:

Under the base is a bat!

This is another set that is nicely priced. 14.99 for over 200 parts is good, and the multiples of parts are in the shaped parts – the rounded plates come to mind. The best thing about set, though, is that it has a lot of bricks with side studs for SNOT building – 12 of them in different sizes, including 4 bricks with studs on 3 sides!

Both sets are good for the season and for simple fun building. More treat than trick!

You can order the Halloween owl from LEGO at this link.