So far we have looked at the three smallest Overwatch sets- Tracer vs Widowmaker; Hanzo vs Genji and Dorado Showdown. Today’s set does not appear to be loaded with the intrinsic antagonism that the three previously reviewed playsets were. From what I can gather from Harry, the Gamer in our house, these two characters do not have an intrinsic rivalry, but rather exist independently of each other in Overwatch Lore. There is a linking thread however: Both characters are Mech Pilots.

For your favorite Overwatch® fan, a buildable mech suit and powered armor with LEGO® Overwatch 75973 D.Va & Reinhardt! Each of these instantly recognizable Overwatch tank heroes features an Overwatch minifigure so fans can place the highly-detailed Overwatch characters inside through the hatches that open. Reinhardt features a massive buildable Rocket Hammer and both minifigures have smaller weapons so younger fans can play out the action of the game, while older fans may want to display the minifigures and toys next to their gaming setup! 
Includes D.Va and Reinhardt minifigures.
D.Va tank model features shooting function and opens so the D.Va minifigure can fit inside.
Reinhardt tank model features buildable colossal Rocket Hammer and opens so the Reinhardt minifigure can fit inside.
Overwatch® character weapons include D.Va’s Fusion Cannons and Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer.

shop.lego.com

I looked at this set while taking a few days off over Christmas… the photography style may be a little different. Bear with me. As with previous sets, the box artwork offers several presentations of these sets:

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Opening the box, we have three bags of parts, two manuals and a sticker sheet, with just a few more stickers than I would have liked…

When you compare the nature of the colour themes, and designs on the box, you might think that there is a slight incongruity of tone between the.

Reinhardt

As the two mechs are essentially presented separately, I will look at them independently. As occurs with the with the build order, I will start with Reinhardt. I asked my son Harry, who has previously invested in the background lore of Overwatch to explain a little about Reinhardt to us all.

Speaking of incongruity of tone, Reinhardt: a 61-year-old who dresses up in knight armor alongside his friend Torbjorn’s daughter Brigitte to right wrongs around Europe. He follows a knightly code of honor and justice, and was a member of the German ‘Crusader’ unit fighting the omnics before joining Overwatch and later being forced into retirement as a result of his advanced age, subsequently having to powerlessly watch the organisation he devoted so much of his life to have its public reputation torn to shreds. For more information on Reinhardt’s character and background, I recommend watching his animated character short ‘Honor and Glory’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQfk5HykiEk)

Harry – Advice to My Father: The Overwatch Years

Reinhardt appears as a knight in armour, with his battle suit exaggerating this effect.The minifigure mini the final form of his battle suit, too an extent, even including the jet in the middle of his back.

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Reinhardt comes with a double sided head print, as well as a choice of head great: a wizened, battle scarred face, with a grip of white hair; as well as the ‘electronic visor’ and helmet. There is not arm or leg printing, but both torso, arms and legs are flat silver in colour. The armour plates of the power suit are reflected in the torso printing.

As I cam to expect when building the Next Knights King’s Mech earlier in 2018, the parts include a lot of brackets, as well as click joints, ball joints and tiles. We have further examples of single stud brackets, first introduced in the second half of 2018.

The first bag builds Reinhardt’s cockpit/suit body and legs. As is often asked as we approach the legs, there was one nagging question in the back of my mind… Will there be knees?

It has been rare for flexing knees to be included in official sets including mechsuits in recent years. We have seen Mechs in Ninjago and Next Knights, as well as the Ideas Voltron set. None of these Mecha have had knees that can vary in their pitch. And Reinhardt is no different. His hips can move abduct and adduct, as well as flex and extend. So can his ankles. However, his knees are not designed to flex at all.

The second bag includes Reinhardt’s helmet, as well as the elements required to build his arms and rocket hammer. We have lots of plates with bars, horizontal hinges and two large elements, the likes of which I have never seen before…

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With the bottom of a 2×4 brick to be found on the inside, at 45º to the straight edges of these parts, they function as shoulder pauldrons on our completed mechsuit.

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We construct the Jet Hammer with a number of long bars, a technic wheel and some elements to convey the jets. The hammer can be ‘held’ in Reinhardt’s hands by means of a hidden plate with clips. This is concealed by the moving fingers.

There are a few stickers, which add some markings to the the mech suit: come red highlights, as well as identifying markings.

The cockpit of the suit lifts up to allow the figure to drop in, and this might be an area of difference between the set and the concept are. In the animated short, Honor and Glory, Reinhardt is shown to be, at most, about 50% taller than other, no- armoured, personnel. As such, we would expect the mech to be a lot smaller than it is depicted here! However, as a compromise, we see that his armour is printed to match his battle suit, so you might imagine that he is always prepared for battle.

As well as the hatch, we have many points of articulation ( despite the absence of a mobile knee joint: Hips, ankles and shoulders on ball joints or their variations; two elbows, using multiple horizontal hinges, and three fingers and a third on each hand.

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Overall, the build of Reinhardt’s mech suit ( and the printing on the minifigure) correlate quite nicely with the design seen in this clipart above, taken from playoverwatch.com. Although, I am left somewhat confused about the scale.

An extra character that could have been introduced in this set would have been Brigette, Reinhardt’s goddaughter. She is another Overwatch hero who travels as his squire, providing repairs and maintenance to the power suit, and continuing to protect the ageing man within.

D. Va

When Harry first explained D Va’s Origin story to me, I was a little confused. I asked him to repeat it. It just seemed a little different to the origins of many of the heroes we have encountered so far…

So, D.Va’s backstory; I suppose a 19-year old professional Starcraft champion turned M.E.K.A pilot and grizzled war veteran does take some explaining. In the Overwatch universe, Korea is periodically attacked by a massive, kaiju-scale omnic which learns and adapts from each attack. The Korean government’s response to this was to go all Pacific Rim … and form M.E.K.A, the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army (the Korean government clearly subscribing to the S.H.I.E.L.D philosophy of acronyms). Short on pilots, they drafted the country’s e-sport champions on the assertion that they had the reflexes necessary to pilot the mechs. 19-year-old Hana ‘D.Va’ Song was one such draftee, and although the idea of ‘it’s a pink mech piloted by a pro esports champion’ is frequently played for laughs in-game through cosmetics such as her ‘Game On’ emote, depicting her making the mech sit down so she can play video-games on a holographic screen while periodically snacking on the in-universe equivalents of Mountain Dew and Doritos, her animated short ‘Shooting Star’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7j2d6YCQbg) plays it much more seriously, leading to a rather wonderful incongruity of tone.

Harry – Advice to My Father: the Overwatch Years

D Va’s Minifigure has front and back printing on the torso, as well as leg printing. Her double sided head print has her winking on one side, and blowing a gum bubble on the other. Her sculpted hair piece incoprorates here earphone receivers. She carries a light pink gun, for when she is out of her MEKA ( So far we have seen this element in black, white and pink… what other colours lie ahead for us?)

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Opening up bag three, and laying out the pieces, we see a large variety of elements in light and bright purple.

Beyond the colouring, non of the elements are new shapes, however some of the trans green elements contributing to the cockpit door are new in this colour, and are a number of the curved light purple elements. We also see BB8 heads once again, this time in black as well as light blueish grey. I look forward to seeing these parts become generally available in a non-licensed theme, as this will ensure a wider availability going into the future, in other programs such as pick-a brick and bricks and pieces.

Again, we have lots of brackets, ball joints of the small and large clicky types, and a few more stickers in strange and mysterious shapes. I fear these shapes might make them a little harder to apply in a straight line.

Construction commenced simply enough, with the main body as well as the legs. When movie on to the arms and wings, I found the overall structure was a little more fragile, often requiring one step back for two steps forward, while attaching the arms.

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But the final result is impressive. D Va enters the MEKA through a hatch on the back, and lies prone to control it. Two double barrelled pistols act as the control sticks. I used a couple of 2×1 bricks under her feet to ensure that she reached the front, and was clearly looking out the windscreen.

But the knees… the knees here are permanently flexed. the ankles move in multiple directions thanks to the click ball hinges.

I love the look of D Va’s MEKA, but I am a little disappointed by the lack of knee movement, and the stability during construction was a little frustrating for me. It does, however, have a range of postures, including several ball joints in the arms. All up, there are around 20 points of articulation between the antennae, wings arms, legs ankles and feet!

How do our figure and build compare with the concept art from the playoverwatch.com site?

The printing featured on the D Va minifigure has a good resemblance to the source art: the hair and facial expressions as well as the torso and leg printing. Perhaps arm printing might have enhanced the look, with further sponsor labels. However, there is no doubt as to who the minifigure represents! The pink gun also hits the spot!

From a scaling point of view, this build seems slightly truer to scale than that for Reinhardt. The light purple matches the colour of the MEKA well.

The forward portal is probably a bit bigger on the model as a proportion of the body, but I think the approach used is about as good as could be achieved with the current parts, allowing for it being used as a hatch as well.

The lack of knee flexion, however, might cramp the MEKAs style if trying to get a good, action pose happening.

In conclusion:

What I liked:

• great minifigures
• good representation of the D Va’s Mech and Reinhardt’s Battle suit
• new parts in pink

What I didn’t like:

• odd scale of Reinhardt’s suit relative to in game depiction. However I can see why it was necessary to make this set work!
• fiddliness of DVa’s MEKA while trying to clip arms in and out.
• no flexing knees…

This set has 455 elements and costs $AUD59.99/£34.99/$UDD39.99/€39.99. Overall, it is fairly reasonably priced, even as a parts pack. It has already been put on backorder online, except for stores in the Asia Pacific.

If you are an Overwatch fan, you will probably need this set for the Minifigures. If you are a Mech Builder, you will probably look for a way to articulate the knees. If you are an AFOL starting out in the world of mech building, there are interesting techniques used for both models, with lots of variety: it certainly doesn’t feel like you are building two of the same model.

I give this set four arbitrary praise units out of five. The set is now generally available through shop.lego.com, and other retailers.

What do you think of this set? Do you like the variation in the form of the mechs? Are you bothered by the knees? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks once again to Harry for his insights into the characters. In our next Overwatch review, we will take a look at Bastion- 75974 – until then,

Play Well!

This set was provided by the AFOL Engagement Team of the LEGO Group for review purposes.  All opinions are my own.