The first thing I noticed when opening this set was the sticker sheet. The build-able parts of this set are fairly small being a single van and a tree monster so the amount of stickers you get with was pretty surprising. The majority of the exterior of the Mystery Machine is composed of stickers. It's always a little disappointing to get stickers rather than printed pieces especially if you're not the best at applying them centered and straight.
Despite the stickers I think the finished product looks great. The build was quite enjoyable and I particularly liked the little details for the interior of the van. There are detailed features for the interior of the van like a cooker, sink, computers and a large sandwich. The back of the Van is hinged so you can easily access the interior which is a good little play feature. There are a few clips in the back to hold accessories such as a camera and a torch (very useful items in a mystery solvers arsenal). The windshield of the van is a brand new unique piece for this set. It's a great new piece which really helps create the look of the mystery machine. The hub caps and the dish on the front are printed pieces which is great to see amongst all the stickers in this set.
The small build of the set is the spooky tree which is also covered in stickers. In fact the main part of the tree (the scary face) is a just a large sticker on a brown half cylinder piece. The back of the tree reveals that the scary tree is actually a robot possibly controlled by the Zombie we get with the set. The arms and the leaves have a little bit of articulation which I think adds to the mechanical effect of tree. The tree is quite a nice little addition to the set even though it is a very simple build.
Now onto the minifigures. You get four-ish minifigures Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Zombie/Zeke. I say four-ish as I'm not sure Scooby counts as an actual minifigure. I really like the minifigures included with this set and I like that the heads are regular minifigure style heads instead of the customised heads you get with the Simpsons minifigures. It makes me wonder why Lego decided to go that direction with the Simpsons minifigures but they were happy enough to use the standard heads for Scooby Doo. Even the Lego episode of the Simpsons used the standard heads and they looked quite good and did a good job of representing the character in Lego form.
Let's start with the least exciting figure of the set, Zombie/Zeke. Zeke is a completely different looking zombie to any other zombie we've had in any other set/theme. I'm quite happy that they've gave him a special design rather than reusing one of the zombies from monster fighters or the collectible minifigure series. With a little bit of research I found that Zombie is based on a character from the first season of the 1969 series "Scooby Doo where are you!" in the episode "Which Witch is Which?". You can find information about the character here. I really like the bright green colour they have used for the head and hands. I love the little detail of the buttons on the back of the head to make it look like a mask. It is a shame we did't get an extra head as an unmasked version of Zeke but I suppose it would be easy enough to use a head from a different minifigure if you really wanted to.
Fred is one of the main reasons to buy this set as this is the only set he actually appears in. So if you want the complete mystery incorporated team, you will have to buy this set. Luckily if you are only after these sets for the minifigures there are only two sets you need to buy, which is the Mystery Machine and (the only set to contain Velma) set 75904 Mystery Mansion. Fred has a brand new piece for his hair which suits the character well. I could imagine using one of the existing hair pieces would not have captured the character as well as the new piece does. His body print includes his signature ascot and the legs come in the bright pastel blue colour you find in many of the Lego friends sets. The head comes with two face prints, one standard and one scared face. Overall I really like the minifigure and I think it captures the character really well.
Shaggy is available in every set in this theme but he is pretty much the co-star of the show so that is to be expected. I think some of the available sets have slight variations of the Shaggy minifigure bust most are the same as this one with his standard green t-shirt and dark brown trousers. Just like Fred, Shaggy comes with a brand new piece for his hair which has been specifically made for the character. His torso has very basic but effective printing and the arms have two colours of plastic to create a short sleeved effect. The legs have no printing and come in a dark brown colour. He also has two face prints on his head with a standard face and a scared face. Both face prints feature his wispy facial hair to make the character really recognisable in Lego form. I really like the Shaggy minifigure but there's something about it that doesn't quite look like the character to me, It's possibly the shape as he is usually a tall skinny character which would be impossible to pull off with a standard minifigure.
Finally the title character, Scooby Doo himself. The figure looks great and captures the look of the character well. The body and scale is styled to be very similar to other Lego dogs. The head however looks very much how Scooby appears in the cartoon. Scooby has one point of articulation which is the neck. Scooby appears in all of the sets in this theme with a few variations available. The figure you get with this set looks to be in a walking or sneaking pose. The head has a chattering teeth effect printed on one side. I like this figure of Scooby but I do think the limited articulation is kind of a drawback. I remember the character building version of Scooby having much more articulation and still maintaining a stylised look. I might try to do a comparison of the Scooby Lego figure (maybe even the rest of mystery inc.) with the character building counterpart.
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