Welcome back to part 4 of my LEGO Marvel 2019 retrospective! Last time, we discussed three of the six Avengers: Endgame sets. Today, we will be reviewing the rest from this wave. So far, it had been quite disappointing overall, as none of the sets had actually appeared in the movie, despite the War Machine Buster and Iron Man Hall of Armour being solid as a whole. So without further ado, let’s jump right into it! (Also spoilers for Avengers: Endgame)
Avengers Compound Battle (76131)
As the Endgame wave slowly started to leak, anticipation started to build up for a $100 USD Avengers Compound. Following the previous year’s awesome Sanctum Sanctorum set, everyone expected that this would be on the same level – a $100 USD set with amazing minifigures and a beautiful build which could be displayed and played with. So imagine everyone’s disappointment when we finally got this set. Let’s start with the figures.
In 2018, LEGO royally screwed up their Thanos minifigure. They were lazy, and used the original minifigure mould for the character- a look that had major inaccuracies. So for the biggest villain of the MCU, they had a second time to fix their minifigure in this set. And… they screwed it up again. They re-used the same mould again, which was fitting this time, as he wore armour for the majority of the film. I really liked his face print. But it stops there. His main look in the movie was based on his gold-coloured armour which he has on his entire body. There are some grey accents below the golden plates. So we should’ve expected a phenomenally printed Thanos, that was basically fully gold right? No. The entire base colour of the figure was the dark grey colour. To add the armour detailing, LEGO just printed on the torso.
In my opinion, this is disgusting. We as LEGO fans pay for a premium product. But then LEGO under-delivers. At least he received the armour printing on his arms, which I really appreciated. But that right does not even out the wrong they had committed. It was so lazy, and even though it shouldn’t get on my nerves, it does. If you want to hear me rant more about the many faults of this theme, I suggest you check on my LEGO Marvel Rant. If the Overwatch big figs can get so much care and love, why can’t Marvel? But the disappointing minifigures don’t stop there.
The Iron Man was done also so lazily. When the promo images for the movie were released, everyone and their mom could make a custom minifigure of this figure using existing pieces. My main gripe with this minifigure are his arms. If you look at the suit from the movie, the top half of Tony’s arm is coloured red, while the bottom half, gold. Usually, I’m fine that LEGO doesn’t do dual-moulded arms for its Marvel minifigure selection (no matter how badly I would love that). But this time, it was necessary. We needed a dual-moulded pearl gold and red arms for him. The fact that we can mostly recreate this minifigure from pre-existing parts is so disappointing. Aside from that, the rest of the minifigure was done well, with the usual, detailed printing.
Captain Marvel was also included in this set – the same one from the Captain Marvel movie set. That was a fine re-use as she has basically the same outfit. However, LEGO should’ve gone that extra mile to give her dual-moulded legs. It would’ve really elevated the minifigure. Nebula was also a decent minifigure, using the same, Quantum Realm torso and legs.
Now, Hulk. LEGO probably didn’t have much to go off when designing this minifigure, so it would’ve been hard to design an Endgame accurate minifigure. However, there was a piece of concept art that had a slimmer and more sized down Hulk which was revealed way before the movie. All LEGO had to do was make a minifigure with this print as Hulk was just a bit larger than a regular sized person due to a plot-line. They also could’ve used the regular big fig mould and printed the same detailing. But the figure we got was extremely bland. I also never understood why he was smiling.
The same 2018 Outrider was included in the set, along with a micro figure Ant-Man. In 2016, we got our first micro figure Ant-Man in his typical outfit. This was done in the same vein – however the Quantum Realm suit was printed into him which was so cool! So overall, this minifigure selection was mostly disappointing. By the way, the Power and Time stones were included in this set, and Thanos also came with his gauntlet.
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The Avengers Compound. LEGO took a massive step down from 2018’s $100 play-set. This was basically as detailed as an 8+ Police Station. There were so many memes surrounding this set when it released. It was just bad. Since the two big figs costed LEGO more to produce in the set, they cut down on the value of the build, and the result – this. But LEGO decided to also include filler to even more devalue the build. The buggy was just average, with the ability to seat one minifigure and shoot studs via a rotating stud-shooter. The helicopter was also hot garbage. The one-seater cockpit wasn’t even enclosed. It had a spinning rotor and a six-stud shooter at its front to shoot at enemies. We never needed these. The argument many bring forward is these sets are for kids. But so is Harry Potter. And that theme always delivers.
So now the compound. The ground level consisted of a pad locked door. There was a security room which could store the Infinity Gauntlet, and a computer. The top level had a meeting room with four chairs and a table. You could remove the tabletop to reveal a secret compartment for weapons. Waking into a revolving door, you could cross into the second section of the compound via a bridge to the helicopter bay. There were four stud-shooters which could be positioned in different angles to shoot at intruders. Below that was a garage which could be opened to store the Avengers car. There was a door on the bottom level to access the garage, with a tool rack next to it. Finally, a movable satiate was positioned outside, next to the barrier which could be angled up and down to allow vehicles in and out of the garage.
Oh yeah, there was a teal brick separator included. I have to admit, this was quite a great set to play with, and kids would’ve enjoyed it. It also didn’t look too bad. However, for the price, I never saw the value. Especially in comparison to the Spider-Man Ultimate Bridge Battle from 2016, and the Sanctum Sanctorum in 2018, this was a massive step down for the $100 USD Marvel sets as a whole.
Captain Marvel and The Skrull Attack (76127)
Jumping back into February of 2019, LEGO released this $30 USD set to coincide with the release of Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel was new – although she had appeared in the previously discussed Compound Battle later that year. Again, dual-moulded boots was essential for this character to account for the lack of detail. She received incorrectly coloured power-blast pieces. Talos – the green alien was also lacklustre, the new headpiece was pretty cool, but it looked a little off. They should’ve added printing to illustrate the wrinkles on his head. He had a great torso and face print, although again, we should’ve gotten leg printing. He received a stud-shooter as a weapon. The set also came with a younger Nick Fury, with a re-used face and a new torso print. Again LEGO. Please. Give us leg printing on more figures.
The prototype Quinjet itself was quite cool – especially for a $30 USD set. Its cockpit could fit one minifigure, and on each side, there were a set of four flick-fire missiles which could all be shot at once using a simple LEGO contraption. All the different winglets on the ship could be adjusted for side to side. Finally, in the back, you could open a door to reveal a very cramped interior. The space was a 1×2 stud wide space. Overall, it was a solid build. If you want a comparison of this Quinjet to the other official one, I suggest you check out my Ultimate Quinjet Showdown article. But this was a cool set.
And that’s part 4! Thanks for sticking with me so far through this journey into LEGO Marvel 2019! Finally, we will be reaching the end of my largest article series to date in Part 5! So stick around for that if you can. But again, thanks for listening to me rambling about my loves and extremely strong hates revolving around this theme. And I’ll see you next time! Peace.
Images from Brickset
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