76004 Spider-cycle Chase Thoughts

[CaptainFordo]

Much like my Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape post last year, this isn't a review so much as a bunch of my opinions on the new set, which I bought from Toysrus today. Photos will follow.

First off, it's a pretty decently put together set, I don't follow the 'Ultimate Spider-man' cartoon (big fan of the unrelated comics though) but this set fits in nicely with the existing sets, perhaps more so than the other USM set of the Daily Bugle, with Dr. Doom looking a tad overly cartoony.

I'll begin with the minifigures:
All of them look pretty great, the only repeat figure of the set, Spidey, is nicely designed and though the red plastic of his head means that the white of his 'eyes' is a little off-white, it's not so severe as to be detrimental to the figure. He even has printing on the back of his head. Some leg printing would've been nice though. They did it for Wonder Woman after all.

Nick Fury also looks nice, though the lack of any attempt to incorporate a trenchcoat is a shame. While the blue looks visually distinct, it's also wrong from what I've seen of the show. Fury always wears black, even underneath his trench. Frankly a nod to 'The Ultimates' with a turtleneck/jacket combo might've been nice, but he's still a good looking figure in spite of that. He also comes with one of those grey two barrelled guns, the same as Deadpool, meaning the latter can now go "guns akimbo" if you don't have more than one already. His little gun holster is nice, but on the back it has a strap that seems to go nowhere... it's a little strange.

Venom is probably one of the most popular Spidey villains and will make this set sought after, the figure itself looks great, with the back printing you'd expect, his weird tendril backpack leaves more than a little to be desire though, it's certainly not as well thought out as Ock's arms, but it's better than nothing I suppose. The weird tendril blobs of nothing also add little to the set, but if you stick them on Venom's hands you can make it look like he's mutating so that's cool I guess.

The two vehicles in this set are the Spider-cycle and Fury's flying car. Both have a neat flip-up 'Back to the Future II' style set of wheels for flight mode and the mechanism is quite well built. THe spider-cycle is neat, especially considering it's the first cycle that required any construction in the Marvel heroes line. Compared to stills from the show it doesn't look a lot like it, but for playability it looks very nice, if simple. Spidey is also one of the few heroes that would benefit from a vehicle (unlike Superman and Iron Man who always seem to get toys with them...) since his web doesn't grow on trees, nor can he fly, so it's not a bad idea for him to ride a flying bike.

The meat of the set, though, is ironically NOT the titular vehicle, but Fury's car. With the SHIELD emblems it sits nicely with the truck from Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape, and is almost exactly as long and wide, though not as tall (small wheels). While initially I was sceptical, the car ended up a lot better than I expected, the build is an ok experience, but the final result is good. The bumpers are constructed nicely and the mechanism for the pop up missile launcher in the boot is really nicely done, my main issue with it is that it seems way too boxy, in the front at least. It's an awfully square car, which would be fine for a jeep, but it's obviously supposed to be a sports car or roadster. I think more troubling to me though is the lack of wheel arches. Having the wheels stuck on the side looks very much like the kind of cars I would make when I was about 5 or 6 and had no real concept of design. It just looks so strange, and I don't think wheel arches would've hindered the flip down flight mode process at all.

Taken individually, I'm not sure either of the vehicles would've been great on their own, but with the selection of minifigs and the two vehicles together, it's a pretty fun little set for £19.99. If you wanted Nick Fury to lead your Avengers and you don't already have a Spidey, this is definitely worth a pick up for that alone.

[CaptainFordo]

More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76875248@N06/

But I've just picked out a handful for this thread


All 3 minifigs by CaptainFordo, on Flickr

Spider-cycle flight mode by CaptainFordo, on Flickr

Spider-Cycle front-side by CaptainFordo, on Flickr

Flying Mode by CaptainFordo, on Flickr

SHIELD vehicles by CaptainFordo, on Flickr

[shoggoth666]

I think it's a good deal for 20 dollars, lotta lego bang for your buck.

[Dr Axels]

I'm slightly interested in this set myself. But all I'm really after is Venom. Is $20 worth it if all I want is him?

[dWhisper]

I was more in it for Nick Fury, but it's a good little set. Interesting build, some new pieces, and the way they solved the hover or drive thing on the jeep was quite cool.

[CaptainFordo]

@Axels: Probably not, given the low pricepoint of the set I can't imagine he'd be too much sold loose.

[buriedbybricks]

Moved to reviews because the shoe fits, no?

[dWhisper]

@Axels: Probably not, given the low pricepoint of the set I can't imagine he'd be too much sold loose.

Historically, a figure like that while the set is out will settle in about the $4 range on Bricklink. More once it's out of print, but that's a couple of years off.

[CaptainFordo]

Moved to reviews because the shoe fits, no?

Ok, sure. I wasn't sure if it really counted since I wasn't doing an out and out full-on review.

[dWhisper]

Eh, depends. The review guidelines are mostly there to filter out some of the tripe we'd seen posted in the name of reviews. While I usually like to see pictures or the like in reviews, the use of punctuation and formatting makes me a lot more forgiving than I've been for some of the other threads I've killed in this forum.

[CaptainFordo]

Eh, depends. The review guidelines are mostly there to filter out some of the tripe we'd seen posted in the name of reviews. While I usually like to see pictures or the like in reviews, the use of punctuation and formatting makes me a lot more forgiving than I've been for some of the other threads I've killed in this forum.

Ok, I'll bear that in mind. How do I put flickr images in the reviews? I could do it before but not now =S

[dWhisper]

On the picture, just go to Share > Grab the HTML/BBCode, and then switch the radio to BBCode. Copy/paste, and you're good.

[CaptainFordo]

On the picture, just go to Share > Grab the HTML/BBCode, and then switch the radio to BBCode. Copy/paste, and you're good.

Thanks =)