Friday, December 28, 2012

Set Review - Lego Marvel Superheroes, Ultimate Spider-man, Spider-man's Doc Ock Ambush 6873

It's funny out of all the new Marvel Superhero sets Lego has offered I didn't think this would be the one I would want the most. It might have to do with the fact that I couldn't find this set anywhere.  I looked all over Anchorage and all over Georgia when we went down a couple months ago to visit family.  Nothing, nowhere to be seen.  Then by chance I was at a Wal-mart picking something up, I can't remember what and just happen to walk by the toy display for Christmas and saw three of these sets just sitting there.  And I tried not to buy it. I really did, but in the end I snagged it.  It was a little more expensive than the Lego.com price, but much cheaper than what they are going for on eBay and Amazon.

This isn't the first Spider-man set Lego has produced, but it is however the only current set out of the new Marvel Super Heroes line that features Spider-man. That will change next year as Lego has at least 2 more Spider-man sets coming out.  They will be 76004 Spider-man Cycle Chase featuring Spider-man,  Nick Fury and Venom! and 76005 Spider-man's Daily Bugle Showdown that will have 5 mini-figures, Spider-man, J Johan Jameson, Beetle, Dr. Doom! and Nova!  Both of these should be out after the 1st of the year. And there's also a new Batman set coming out from the DC Heroes line, featuring an Arctic Batman.

But I digress we are here to look at the Doc Ock Ambush set.




I forgot to take a shot of the back but it's like a stage set there's nothing back there but the guts all the pretty is up front.

The play set has three parts that are connected and hinged together.
You have the tower with the fan blade that swivels, the clear tank side that opens to put a minifigure in there and the middle section with the torture bed that rotates as well.

The little satellite dish also swivels down.







Doc Ock comes with the Octomobile, or something like that.


It's neat you can put Docs Octoarms on the back for storage or just to look cool.
It's also nice to be able to put the legs somewhere because they are incredibly unwieldy when on Doc Ock's back.

If you don't use at least one of the legs to balance him he'll tip right over.


Doc also comes with a second face.


It's a nice little play set and of course you get three minifigures with it.  Spider-man is the main draw of course, but it's actually Iron Fist that's the biggie here, as this is the only set you will find him.  Doc Ock can also be found in the discontinued Spider-Man 2 sets along with Spider-man. I think they are slightly different, but I haven't seen either up close. The two upcoming sets also have some nice ancillary characters available with Nova and Nick Fury.



Thursday, December 27, 2012

Minifigure Spotlight - Iron Fist

From the Lego Ultimate Spider-man Marvel Super Heroes line this guy is from set 6873 Doc Ock Ambush and I'll feature a review of the whole set tomorrow.  I just need to take a few more photos to round out the review.  But the best mini you get from the set is this guy.


Iron Fist is an interesting character and one of those kind of oddball ones you don't expect to see get their own Lego Minifigure, but really makes the set.  You can find Spider-man and Doctor Octopus in older retired Lego sets, but this is the only place you'll find Iron Fist.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Minifigure Storage

You'll notice I said storage! Not  display.  That's a whole other post.

One of the problems I've run into is what to do with all those damn minifigures you have laying around.  Sure they're fun to display all over the office or house. But I'm married and believe it or not my wife doens't really want all those mini's all over the house. Plus I'm sure one of her cats will make off with them and put them in the heating vents.

So I decided that while I like to have a few around my home studio/man cave for the sake of my mini's well being I had to find some way to store them, but I also wanted easy access.

I've found that the clear tray tackle boxes work exceptionally well for this duty.

Depending on where you shop you can pick up one of these for around 5-6 bucks.  They hold 24 regular minifigures perfectly.

Not only that but they'll hold all the accessories they come with, they're easy to label, and you can clearly see what's inside  They're also stackable, water resistant, and of course cheap.  And they also make great block storage containers too, if your anal about that sort of thing.



Friday, December 21, 2012

Minifigure spotlight --- Ocean King

I always called this guy, Neptune or Poseidon, but Lego officially calls him Ocean King.  I'm not sure exactly what line he comes from since Lego's minifigure series' usually includes characters from a wide array of non-licenced themes.

 Here we have another Series 7 great. Another mini I really wanted to pull and the second new minifigure I got from my early Christmas present from my wife.

The Ocean King has great detailing.  The hair/horn helmut is really cool.  He has no articulation below the waist as the tail piece is one solid block.  And he also comes with a really nice trident. And the detail on the upper body is pretty cool.  Man that guy is ripped!


And here is what the face looks like with out the beard or hair on.

Yikes my camera has a focus problem.  Pretty basic, but I do love that the character gets a full face even thought most of the face is covered up by his beard.


Thursday, December 20, 2012

Minifigure Spotlight -- Evil Knight

My awesome wife surprised me with an early Christmas present of 9 packs of Series 7 Lego Minifigures. And out of those 9 we added 4 new figures to the minifigure collection.

So lets spotlight -----Series 7 Evil Knight


Probably one of the more desirable characters offered in Series 7, the Evil Knight has great detailing.

The shield has an awesome decal as well as the whole front of the body.

I love the detail of the boars head.

Side view.

Back View

The helmet has some pretty cool detail as well.


Mr. Evil Knight only comes with one face, but when your first name is Evil one is all you need.

Here's a close up of the face with out the helmet.  Man he is really angry.

A great minifigure. I was thinking that maybe a cape would have been a nice touch too, but he already comes with a large well detailed shield and sword.  

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Heroes in a half shell!! Legos - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I am by no means a Lego expert.  I will preface that by saying that while my interest in minifigures and sets has been renewed I've had and played with Legos since I can remember.  I don't think there's really any other toy as great for an over active imagination and there's absolutely nothing better for a kid on a rain day.  But growing up one of my other loves was TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I was 12 or 13 I think when I first found out about them in Eastman and Lairds comics and then they hit big with their first cartoon and then Archie comics run too.  So when I saw that Lego was offering TMNT exclusive mini figures at New York Comic Con I had to find out what was going on.and soon found out that Lego would be releasing a line of TMNT themed Lego sets and minifigures based on the new Nickelodeon cartoon.  I was pretty excited.  These literally were just released and living in Alaska I'd be lucky to see these on the shelf sometime in January.  But lets have a look at the first wave.

Like all Lego themes there are varying price points, from entry level sets under $15 to mega expensive sets that could set you back hundreds (although none in this series so far).  Let's look at the 6 new sets from cheapest to most expensive as prices set from the Lego website

All my price estimates are from what the sets sell for on Lego.com and therefore should be close to what you would find on the retail end.

 First up we have set 79100 - Kraang Lab Escape.  If you remember any of the old cartoon or comic books Kraag was that little brainy octopus thing that was in cahoots with Shredder.  A cool little entry level set that should be right around $12.99 and you get 3 minifigures if you count Kraag.

Minifigures - Michelangelo, Foot Soldier (with ball and chain), and Kraang




79102 - Stealth Shell in Pursuit

It seems that every episode or issue of the old series had a new anthropomorphic character in it.  Here we have Fishface.  I'm not sure if he's good or evil, but since it looks like Raphael is chasing him I'll say he's bad.
This one should be about $19.99.

Minifigures (3) - Raphael, Fishface, and another Foot Soldier (with ninja stars)





79101 - Shredder's Dragon Bike
I always like the villains.  A great villain makes a story and in this set you get the main TMNT villain Shredder!.  This one should retail around $24.99.

Minifigures (3)  Shredder, Donatello, and another Foot Soldier (with sword)

 79105 -Baxter Robot Rampage

I would think that this set would be a lot more expensive than the $39.99 retail price, especially with 5 minifigures if you include the mouser.  Interestingly enough, the Mousers made their first appearance in the second issue of the original comic back in the early 80's.  Sorry for the crappy box photo.

Mini-figures (5) Donatello, Raphael, April, Baxter, and Mouser mini-robot.

Plus look how cool this set is!!
79103 - Turtle Lair Attack -
Another great set under $50 (barely)  $49.99.  And you get 5 more minifigures.

Minifigures (5) Splinter, Leonardo, Raphael, Dark Ninja, and another Foot Soldier (with bladed bo staff and  ninja star)

And lastly 79104 - The Shellraiser Street Chase.

This is currently the most expensive set retailing for 59.99.  You get 5 mini's and it makes 2 big vehicles. This set features the Kraag body.  Check out the chest and you can see the Kraang in his belly.

Minifigures (5) - Leonardo, Michelangelo, The Kraang, Dogpound, and another Foot Soilder (with gold/yellow sword and the only one with Red legs!).

Price on Amazon and Ebay are already almost triple what you can get this stuff for ordering on Lego.com or what you can expect to pay in a retail store.

I'm almost positive that there will be more to come.  And there is one glaring omission on the minifigure side. There is no Casey Jones!  I more than likely will end up picking up at least one set in this series and it'll more than likely be one of the two cheaper ones.  I'll do a full review when  I  get a set in hand.

cb out