Today at LEGO CON, the LEGO Group’s Live-Streamed product showcase, we got our first official look at the Sanctum Sanctorum. This set fits a modular corner block, and contains lots of dynamic action.
Designer Justin Ramsden presented the set during the event – the building is confirmed to fit the modular standard, with the full four walls and portals that can be swapped in and out.
Aimed at audiences 18 years and older, it will release on the 1st of August, have 2708 pieces, and will cost 249.99EUR /249.99 USD/349.99 379.99 AUD/ 214.99 GBP/279.99 CAD
Spoilers for Doctor Strange and the Multitude of Madness are present in the Minifigure selection…
Read on for this, as well as enlarged detail from the back of box images.
Do you remember Mixels? Crazy, chaotic pocket money sets that were released a few years ago. With each wave, we got a collection of small, interesting elements in previously unexplored colours: arches, greebly bits and of course ball joints. The characters had their appeal, but many AFOLs typically considered them to be awesome parts packs. And then, they were gone.
Earlier in the year, I reviewed some of the new Marvel Mechs: Thor, Captain America and Miles Morales. From my point of view, they were interesting enough, but not too startling. And, to an extent, the choice of characters in that selection felt a little odd: a Super Solder and a Norse God are characters for whom a mech feels to be more of a hindrance than a help, unless they were acutely robbed of their powers! For Miles Morales, it feels more like an enhancement of his powers. But only just. Overall, they felt like they were missing a bit of excitement and drama.
And now, along comes 76198: Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus Mech Battle. Something has happened in the last few months that left me not only excited, but wanting to explore them more. I am left wondering if these sets are now occupying a segment of the market previously occupied by the Mixels range…
Today, The LEGO Group Announce the largest Marvel Super Heroes set to Date! The LEGO® Daily Bugle 76178. With 3772 Pieces, this set spreads the action across three floors, the roof and an alley: Just perfect for creating adventures in the Spiderverse. The Final model measures 82 cm tall, and has lots of great details, as well as 25 minifigures. Yes: 25.
Unfortunately, the press pack only included a few. However, I was able to enhance the end of the box to get all characters in one shot….
The set will be released on the 26th May for VIPs, and June 1st for everyone else, and cost €299.99/ £274,99 / $299,99/499.99 AUD/399.99 CAD
When we saw the Carnage head sculpt unveiled a few weeks ago, the first thing I heard asked was, ‘Where’s venom?’ The next thing we knew, we had Venom appearing in the catalogue, and we were asking, ‘Where’s Spiderman?’ Now, we still don’t have the answer to that one.
I have had the opportunity to build the Venom head sculpt (Helmet is just wrong, and it is not, technically, a bust) thanks to the AFOL Engagement team of the LEGO Group. The set is now available, has 565 elements and costs $AUD89.99;$USD59.99 €59.99; £54.99
Venom is an alien symbiote, who first appeared in Amazing Spiderman #282 in 1984. It integrates with a host, drawing on aspects of their memories and personality, but also granting them great strength.
My first impression was, ‘Hmmm….just like Carnage, except it’s black, there are no stickers, and we have a tongue’ So why did I enjoy building it so much more?
The set comes in the same black box, with a picture of the model on the front. It has some images from the comic on the back, and there are 3 numbered bags on the inside, just like Carnage. And then, almost as soon as Ann started laying elements out on the tray, I could see that there were a couple of things serving to differentiate the sets. Not many, but enough for me to find that my head was flooding over with new ideas.
A few weeks ago, the latest in the LEGO® 18+ ‘helmet’ set was previewed: Marvel’s Carnage (76199). Advertised as a Target Exclusive in the USA, with no other international media supporting its existence, the world became a little anxious: will this be a regional exclusive, associated with an event that never happened (Note: we were reassured 2 years ago that the idea of a regional exclusive was gone, although event exclusives – read Star Wars Celebration and Comic-Con, and retailer exclusive, within certain makets remain).
And then a few days later, Carnage appeared on LEGO.com, along with this year’s Star Wars helmets – Darth Vader and Scout Trooper. We have subsequently seen helmet models for Venom (76187) and Batman (76182 )revealed.
I have been fortunate to reveive a pre release copy of the Carnage helmet for prerelease review – so without any further ado…
Carnage 76199 is perhaps not technically a helmet, so much as an alien symbiote engulfing the body of serial killer Kletus Cassidy, but thwere is no doubt that he has an extremely distintive physiognomy.
The Box is similar in form to the boxes seen for the previous Helmet models, and the black box works quite well here. Carnage is labelled as ‘Assembled from the Spider Man Universe.’ The set has 546 pieces and costs $89.99 AUD; £54.99;€59.99; $59.99 USD It will be released in the USA on April 11, and the Rest of the World May 1, 2021.
Back in 2017, The LEGO Group released the NEXO Knights Power suits range. This was essentially a dumbed down range of Mech suits, which incorporated a new cockpit element for the seating of of the pilot. Fast forward to 2020, and there was a new series of inexpensive mech suits featuring Marvel characters: Iron Man, Spider Man and Thanos. I missed these, for no good reason. However, this year, we have another three Marvel Mech Suits released: 76168 Captain America; 76169 Thor and 76171 Mile Morales. the sets have around 120-135 elements, and retail for $AUD19.99/$USD9.99/9.99€/£8.99.
I am grateful that The LEGO Group sent these three over for me to take a look at: I have been curious to learn a bit more about mech building, and I am keen to see what these sets might teach me about designing a custom mech suit in the future.
In which I look at 76109 Quantum Realm Explorers and realise that not only does it have some great minifigures, but it also gives a masterclass in greebles! And there isn’t long to enter our Ant-Man Contest.
When the original Ant-Man film was released a few years ago, I missed seeing it at the cinema, and I missed getting hold of the single LEGO® Set related to the movie. And as such, I missed out getting hold of an Ant-Man Minifigure. A favourite figure amongst toy photographers, there are so many images of this figure exploring the world. A month or so ago I went to see Ant-Man and the Wasp. It was an enjoyable film, full of humour, action and special effects. I have finally got around to building the set, Quantum Realm Explorers. You might have seen posts over the last few weeks, providing an opportunity to win this set in a building competition: I will come back to that later.
Quantum Realm Explorers was released in June 2018, and has 200 pieces, including 3 minifigures. It costs $39.99AUD; or $19.99USD, 24.99€ or £19.99. 10c/part in the US, 10p/part in the UK, 12.5 eurocents/part in Germany and 20¢/part in Australia…
The Figures
Many people may be looking at this set as an opportunity to pickup the minifigures, and each of the figures included in this set are terrific. We have: Ant-Man, Wasp and Ghost.
They are all pretty close to their movie counterparts. They all have detailed torso printing, front and back, to match their characters, as well as double sided faces. Continue reading →
A few weeks ago, I announced our building competition, to win one of two ‘76109 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Realm Explorers’, thanks to our friends in the AFOL Engagement team at the LEGO Group. Continue reading →
Hulkbuster Armour: is it UCS? is it a good reason for last year’s changes in the LEGO Ideas guidelines and house rules? Is it going to occupy valuable display space after March 3? Hopefully these questions will be answered, or at least addressed, in this post.
At the New York Toy Show today, LEGO Unveiled the 76105 The Hulkbuster: Ultron Edition. Based on the Mark 44 Iron Man Armour, this armour was designed as a contingency, to be deployed from an orbital platform, codenamed Veronica, in the event of a confrontation with the Hulk. While the relative success in developing such a strategy, along with the ensuing destruction witnessed at the ‘Battle of Johannesburg’ may be argued either way, there is no doubt that the resultant suit looks pretty cool!
With 1363 pieces, and measuring over 25 centimetres tall, and a descriptive plaque, this is a set that fans have been waiting years for. Celebrating the 10 years of Marvel Studios cinema releases, this set will be available from 3rd March 2018, through shop.lego.com or your local LEGO Brand retail store. It will be priced at AU $199.99 – US $119.99 – CA $149.99 – DE 129.99€ – UK £119.99 – DK 1199DKKThere will be no early availability for VIPs.
Ten years of Marvel Studios
On April 14, it will be ten years since the first Iron Man movie was released, heralding the beginning of the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was the first film to be released under the Marvel Studios label, but it was not for another four years that we saw an official LEGO version. The first Iron Man minifigure was a Toy Fair 2012 exclusive, with figures becoming available for the rest of us as part of the sets released in conjunction with The Avengers movie. To date, there have been at least 15 variations on Iron Man mini figures released. And there is a new one included in this set, to say nothing of the forthcoming Avengers: Infinity War sets. Iron Man has also been released as a constructible figure (4529), a micro figure (in the Helicarrier 70642), two BrickHeadz (41492 – San Diego Comic Con Exclusive; and 41590 – general release) and as a brick built version of the Hulkbuster Armour in The Hulk Buster Smash (76031). It is this final version which is expanded and elaborated on today.
Alternative prior (non minifigure) LEGO Presentations of Iron Man: Not to scale…