Halloween House Building Block Set

 This is the other generic building block Halloween set I got from Temu. The set was only $1.38 but what I saved in money, I paid for...with my soul! This entire build took somewhere around 6-7 hours. At least 60% of that time was sorting or looking for the piece I needed.

I would bet if this was an official LEGO set, the time would have easily been cut in half. In anything other than the smaller builds, their parts will come in numbered bags and you only need to open one bag at a time because all the bits for each section of the build are in a single bag. This set? Seven bags of parts, all numbered but with no bearing on the order you put it together. Take a moment to let that soak into your brain. 

Seven. Bags. Of. Small. Parts.

To make things a little more fun, this would be classified as a mini-build meaning it's not "actual size" in scale with the minifigs. What does that mean? Lots and lots of small pieces. I cannot even begin to guess at how many 1x1 or 1x2 pieces were in this set. Here's a small sample.

Carry on after the break...if you dare!

The final thing that had my questioning my purchase was the instructions. These are a far step above the last ones. At least it was printed on a white background! If this were LEGO, it would be a nice bound booklet that would be easy to keep handy. This set? A 20"x30" folded sheet. Between the instructions and having to sort pieces, you will need more room than you think for this one!

But let's get away from the griping and take a look a the finished build.

I'm mostly happy with it! It looks great on display and there's lots of detail to it. My one final (I promise!) issue is with the angled roofs and the way they're supposed to connect. They're very difficult to connect as intended so I just left them sitting there. I have no idea why there are snowflakes up there either...

Who's up for a little tour?

Here's a frontal close up. The torches on either side of the door have little flames that go in them but they don't stay in well and are a pain to get in the tiny area. Maybe I need to invest in some long tweezers. There's a picket fence that goes in front of the pumpkins but why block them? The graphics above and next to the door, as well as the bottom of the door, are stickers. One of the things I really like about this are the random boards that look like they're falling off,

This side has got a pumpkin-headed scarecrow with a cape blowing in the wind, maybe he's doing the Titanic king of the world thing. The smoking chimney is a neat effect. One of my favorite features is the staircase on this side of the house. There was a little "a-ha!" moment when I figured out what it was going to be.

There's a lot going on around back so we'll peek in on each area.

Here's the kitchen with lots of enticing goodies! Toy, presents, cake, and candy! You can't see it well from this angle, but on the right is a fireplace with a candle on the mantle. Seriously, given the size of this place, this is a major fire hazard. There's a little picture hanging next to the door and the chandelier is a nice touch also. 

If you go back a couple pics, there's a spider web over the top right but it's connected to hinge pieces so you can just swing it out of the way to view this No Kids area. There's a little sack in there but I'm not sure what the room is supposed to be. Body part storage? And you can see the messed up roof is not quite connected properly.

Swinging around to the other side, there's a tree with a skull and a couple of ghosts hanging on it. 

But are they just decorations? (oooOOOOoooo)

Lastly, the set came with a couple animals, minifigs, and this little grave area. The "grandma" has a cute Halloween ghost sweater and has hinged knees. Not sure why you'd need knee articulation on such a small figure but there you go. And I'm convinced that she is a wicked witch in disguise as a little old lady. Look at the inside of her house!

Temu has lots of mini-build Halloween (and Christmas) decorated houses like this one if you're up for the challenge. I couldn't find the link to the original one I bought at the major discount price. Temu is an ever changing market place so if you see something, grab it. If you search for Halloween Magic House Building Blocks (or click that link) you can find this set in the $10-15 range.

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