A Worthy Successor

7327 Scorpion Pyramid

The Chronicler's Rating - 5/5

Price ~ $100.00

Year Released - 2011



The Pharaoh’s Quest series is unabashedly inspired by the Adventurers theme which began in the late 90's.  I would even go so far as to say it is a continuation of that theme, just with different characters.  This comes as no surprise, the Adventurers theme eventually went on to contain 4 subthemes (these subthemes were locations where the treasure hunting took place and included Egypt, the Amazon, Dino Island and the Orient) and last longer than almost any theme other than the four core themes (Town/City, Space, Pirate and Castle).  I am happy to say that the Pharaoh’s quest sets and the Scorpion Pyramid in particular appear to be worthy successors. 

FOR PARENTS

You pretty much can't go wrong with this set.  Lego is incorporating what has emerged as a winning strategy in the last decade: including both bad guy and good guy components in the same set.  In earlier days it used to be that good guys and bad guys were separate, if you wanted opposing forces it meant spending more money on multiple sets.  A few sets mixed the two but it did not become standardized until the advent of Star Wars.  This formula requires a delicate balance as one portion will often come at the expense of another (the Space Police sets of 2009 and 2010 suffer from this: the bad guy vehicles are fairly Spartan as compared to the very well equipped Space Police Vehicles).  There is a little bit of that here as a lot of the pyramid's baseplate is empty and the inside is fairly puny in comparison to some of its predecessors (5988 Pharaoh’s Forbidden Ruins for example).  This is however of little consequence for one simple reason: everything your kid (or grandkid) needs to start playing is here.  Good guys, bad guys, a giant scorpion, vehicles, weapons and plenty of space for the opposing forces to duke it out.  The playability of this set is excellent and won't disappoint.  If you want a safe bet go with this one.

FOR KIDS

If you were either too young or just didn't get any of the earlier Adventurer's sets I would highly suggest that you consider this one.  The beauty of this type of set (where the point is treasure hunting) is that unless you think some of the other sets are really cool you really only need one.  Inevitably the smaller sets become stops along the treasure hunt which will end right here with this set.  If you think you will only be able to get one of these I would highly recommend that you save up for this one.  If however this is too expensive almost any story you would want to play with this set can be played with 7326 Rise of the Sphinx. 

CONCLUSION

The Adventurers theme was exceptional as proven by its longevity.  This was because its playability was so high.  Many hours of fun could be had and the same is true of this new Pharaoh’s Quest theme and this set in particular.  I highly recommend collecting this theme and especially if you can afford it this set, you won't be disappointed.

Happy Building

TheLegoChronicler