- The Washington Times - Thursday, May 2, 2019

For fans smitten with Disney’s blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame,” and its key heroes, Lego supports building some of their favorite tech and movie moments with its latest collection of construction kits.

The latest brick-based vehicles and dioramas include Avengers Ultimate Quinjet ($79.99, 838 pieces); War Machine Buster ($34.99, 362 pieces); Captain America: Outriders Attack ($19.99, 167 pieces); Iron Man: Hall of Armor ($59.99, 524 pieces); and a playset offering a pivotal confrontation at the headquarters of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Figure profile: With the Avengers ranks dwindled by Thanos successful acquisition of the Infinity Stones and his wiping out half of the universe’s population, the remaining heroes band together to reverse his deadly actions. They make a final stand on Earth against the powerful villain and his minions looking to thwart their plans.

Accessories: The fully assembled playset features an almost foot-long, 2-level, white-and-grey building with a plastic glass front connected to a garage that has a translucent rolling door.

The building details include a meeting room with three chairs and a table, a computer lab and a rotating door to reach a catwalk to the garage.

On the table rests three glasses and a pitcher, and the table has a removable top containing a secret weapons stash with 2 pistols.

Also, the building features [POTENTIAL SPOLIER ALERT], a containment room protected by two rows of four red laser beams that houses the Infinity Gauntlet embedded with two Infinity Stones. The building has a detachable wall block to sneak out the gauntlet [END POTENTIAL SPOLIER ALERT].

The roof has a mounted laser cannon that shoots translucent blue projectiles that are guaranteed to poke an eye out (so be careful).

The 8-inch-long garage has an orange satellite dish, landing pad, a pair of stud shooters, a plastic glass door and an entrance security barrier that lifts up, and a tool rack with a chainsaw, a wrench, a welder and a crowbar.

The set also offers two vehicles for the Avengers — a 4-inch-long, dark-blue, off-road jeep; and a 5-inch-long, blue-and-black helicopter

The sturdy jeep boasts rolling rubber wheels, a movable front-grill protector, driver’s area with windshield, rear rotating missile turret and a place for a hero to stand on its rear bumper.

The copter has two rotating black rotors, a six-barrel stud shooter in the front, a cockpit with moveable windshield, a red fire extinguisher and exhaust ports.

And, finally, the set offers 1.5-inch-tall, blocky and slightly articulated mini-figures of Iron Man, Captain Marvel and a 6-armed Outrider minion, almost 3-inch-tall versions of Thanos and Hulk and a .75-inch, micro-version of Ant Man (in his Quantum Realm suit).

Here are a few quick thoughts on my favorites figures of the set:

Captain Marvel: By far the most power-packed of the figures, Carol Danvers’ alter-ego gets her blue-red-and-gold Kree warrior garb, a blond wig and assortment of translucent tentacle orange power blasts that can attach to her hands and feet. An accompanying orange base allows her to get posed in mid, fiery flight.

Iron Man: Owners get Tony Stark enveloped in his Mark 85 armor and can lift up the front of his tiny helmet to reveal the unhappy billionaire’s face with slightly bluish tech skin tint. The hero holds a pair of translucent blue power blasts and can attach his legs to translucent blue studs to look like he is ready to take flight.

Thanos: Purple, dressed in grey and painted gold armor, he wears a mischievous grin on his face (like he just deleted half of the universe) and can only raise his arms to grip and swing a large Legoized battle-ax.

Nebula: Thanos’ least favorite daughter has a blue head and is dressed in a Quantum Realm suit and wields two, silver katanas.

Buildability: The daunting task of assembling 699 blocks and various plastic pieces was only mired by Lego’s welcomed attention to nearly infuriating construction detail when assembling the included vehicles.

I’ll reference, building the front grill, missile launcher and rear license plate area of the jeep and the swiveling computer station on the compound’s lower level laboratory.

However, I brought the masterpiece to three-dimensional life in roughly than 3.5 hours.

My suggested age range for the kit is 8 to 10 years old. Once focused, it’s an easy-to-assemble kit for tweens that pays off richly when it comes to playability.

As per Zadzooks tradition, I offer a few tips and observations of the build experience.

• The more than 160-page, full-color manual was not a ton of help due to my old-age eyestrain as I coordinated digging through six bags of Legos to find specific pieces.

What I highly recommend for adults is downloading a PDF version of the manual from Lego and opening it in large scale on a computer laptop. The clarity and fine detail of manual at that size makes the assembly process a breeze.

• Also, owners will need to place 15 stickers on the set and vehicles. Some may require tweezers to accurately position.

Price: $99.99.

Read all about it: While perusing a PDF of the Lego manual, also grab the Infinity Gauntlet Trilogy digital download from Marvel Comics ($39.99) and read all about Thanos and his battles in the complied sets — “Infinity Gauntlet” Nos. 1 to 6; “Infinity War” Nos. 1 to 6; “Infinity Crusade” Nos. 1 to 6; “Warlock and the Infinity Watch” Nos. 7 to 10 and Nos. 18-22; “Warlock Chronicles” Nos. 1 to 5; and “Marvel Comics Presents” Nos. 108 to 111.

What’s it worth: Parents and collectors will pay a pretty price but will receive arguably the coolest selection of minifigures in the “Avengers: Endgame” kits.

However, and best of all, children will love the role-playing potential and will easily have enough figures, vehicles and locations to get lost for hours in the Avengers universe.

• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.

Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Please read our comment policy before commenting.

Click to Read More and View Comments

Click to Hide