Back from Maine suckers, you miss me? No? That’s….fair. The vacation was fun, but now I’m back, pimping out toys to the masses (and peeing myself in terror at those giant crab photos, what the hell is wrong with Australia???). And man, do I have some dope toys to pimp out.
In the early 2000s, Lego began to experiment with superhero-based sets after hitting a gold mine with the Star Wars and Harry Potter licenses. They managed to secure the rights to both Spider-Man (based on the 1st two Sam Raimi movies) and the Batman universe (mostly comic stuffs) and they sold alright, but the Spider-Man line died out within a year. Batman on the other hand would go on to inspire a hit video game, which saw a sequel earlier this summer. However, the time between those releases saw the superhero movies take over the box office, thanks in part to the Marvel Movie Universe and Nolan’s Batman trilogy. So 2012 saw the return of both Marvel and Lego DC sets, but instead of focusing only 1 character per universe, Lego decided to go for each respective universe. The results are, unsurprisingly, awesome.
Instead of starting off with Spider-Man again (although he’s on the way). Lego decided to start the Marvel line off with some Avengers tie ins. This was a genius move; it’s the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time, there’s a ton of Avengers, and WHY WOULDN’T YOU, RIGHT? There are currently 3 sets on the market. The Captain America Bike set with Cap and 2 “Alien Soldiers” ((still trying to be spoiler free! )) and Loki’s Cosmic Cube Escape set with the God of Mischief, Iron Man, and Hawkeye go for about $25 each. There’s also the massive Quinjet set, which comes with 3 vehicles, an alien soldier, Loki, Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow. That set is pushing the $80 dollar range, but seeing how you’re getting nearly 750 Legos plus 5 mini-figs, that’s pretty good. There’s also an X-Men-related set available, featuring Magneto, Deadpool, Wolverine, and a helicopter. That’s another set in the $25 range, but you can’t put a price on the happiness one gets from a Lego Deadpool.
Spinning out from/cashing in on the Bionicle line is the Marvel/DC Super Heroes line. A hybrid of Legos and action figures, they stand at about 7″ and consists of about 38 pieces. They’re basically Gunpla for kids, which is really simplifying things- but hey, I am not a master of comparisons. The DC side of the line consists of Green Lantern, Batman, and the Joker. The Marvel side has Captain America and Iron Man. The kids are obviously big fans of Bionicles and hey, for something that sells for about $15, they’re actually a better value than most of the action figures available out there, dollar wise.
DC also has its share of sets, focusing mostly on the Batman side of things (with the exception of a Superman/Wonder Woman set, where they’re throwing down with Lex Luthor). The highlight of the DC side of things is definitely the Batcave set, a massive set that comes with 5 mini-figs (Batman, Robin, Bruce Wayne, Poison Ivy, and Bane). Obviously this goes for a little more than your average Lego set ($70) but again, it’s the Batcave.
The Lego stuff is a bit pricey, but really cool for a line of stuff that you can actually build, destroy, and rebuild. Plus hey, if you have kids you can bond with them and junk. FORBIDDEN PLANET: ALWAYS THINKING OF THE CHILDRENS!!
