River Mountain Gold Mine

River Mountain Gold Mine! This is the place to be, if you like gold and the rush it gives. There's gold to be found everywhere! Either inside the mine, at the bottom of the waterfall or in the teeth of the miners.

This is a western inspired gold mine, with a lot of fun details all around the set. The set first of all contains the gold mine itself, burried inside the mountain. The wooden structure is framed to ensure it doesn't collapse on top of the miners. The mine consists of an entrance with the working minecart, a golden spot (G-spot) to mine, an explosive area with a lot of dynamite and last but not least an upper level where bats and spiders have taken over (and perhaps other things as well).

On top of the mountain, a river is running down and creating a beautiful scenery, hence the name of the mine itself "River Mountain Gold Mine". At the very top hill, a vulture is having an outpost to observe the area beneath for more preys, as seen right beside it.

At the ground level there's a lot going on. The river has over the years collected pieces of gold, down at the bottom of the waterfall, which is being panned out. Also there's a campfire area to get warm and also make food over the fire. Then there is the cabin, which houses the owner of the gold mine Mr. Nugget. He got his nickname, due to his discovery of the largest gold nugget ever found. His cabin is small, but there's all he need. A bed, a table with a stool and a small kitchen to prepare a meal once in a while. There's also a porch for him to have an overview over the area, and beneath a rocking chair to relax in. As part of the cabin, there's a shed for firewood and an axe to chop up the wood, in order for the miners to have a fire going.

There's sections of the build, that can be removed, in order to access it and easier look at the details hidden within. The backside of the mountain is framed, like there's windows to see what's going on in the different spots of the mine. Also the "walls" can be removed, in order to get inside and reposition the actions of the scene. To better access the area where the mining is happening, the top part with the river can be removed, for you to play like you are mining the gold ore. There's even a wall of gold to take out, for you to extract the gold with the pickaxe. Furthermore, the cabin has some of the same features. Here you are able to take off the roof and the back wall as well.

The Western theme is absolutely one of my favourite themes over the years. There's just something about it, that appeals to me. The adventure aspect is very exciting and the playability is very cool too. The characters and stories to be told in these environments, is fantastic and makes room for a lot of creativity.

I have seen a lot of documentaries about treasure hunting and gold mining and it always fascinates me. The methods has developed a lot over the last 100 years, but then it hasn't. It's easier nowadays to mine for even small golddust particles, but the principles are more or less the same. Get it out of the ground and extract it from the dirt. The machinery is just different.

A fun detail is for example, that there's a bird near the miners inside the mountain. In the old days, they used birds in a cage to know whether there was enough oxygen inside the mine. So if the bird was falling over, it was time to go out side to get some fresh air.

I decided to make a Lego set, that shows the excitement and fun part of gold mining and some of the different ways to mine, within the same set.

I feel like it could make a great lego set, because of the great display the scenery makes, together with the fact that it has a lot of storytelling and playability. I feel like both children and adults would like it and who doesn't love gold?