Ant-Man hits theaters in a few weeks, and still has a decent chance of being Marvel’s first big MCU bomb (since, as we know, the last potential bomb, Guardians of the Galaxy, was powered by the awesome that is Chris Pratt and being a good movie). It’s had a whole bunch of delays, a highly-publicized director change, and the fact that no one really knows who Ant-Man is anymore unless you’ve been reading comics for years. And before anyone comments, yes, I know that the third figure fell over. I didn’t notice until it was time to edit photos. I’d like to be clever and say it was because I was hiding the spoilery character… but yeah, I’m not that forward-thinking.
It’s pretty surprising that we’re getting an Ant-Man set at all. LEGO has typically stuck to a few movies, Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy. That’s left things like the other solo films out in the cold, which is a shame. There were a lot of good set ideas in those movies, like the fighters in Dark World or maybe minifigs for Falcon or the hydra peoples in Winter Soldier. Since Ant-Man (either Scott or Hank) have been outside the Avengers world thus far, and we haven’t seen how they connect elsewhere in the MCU (okay, the latest trailer sort of spoils that a bit)… all of which makes getting an Ant-Man set that more unusual.
The shocking part of this set is that it jumps in at the $19.99 price point, which was starting to look like an extinct creature in LEGO lineups. It comes in with 195 parts, but it’s pretty unclear if they’re cheating and counting the big bricks as extra parts… I mean, I would. It’s interesting reviewing 76039 Ant-Man Final Battle with no pre-conceptions… I haven’t seen the movie yet and I have no real expectations for it. There’s a lot to like at first glance, and the “big” bricks are just a wonderfully meta touch. There’s something to be said for a set where you can tell the designer enjoyed making it, and this seems like one of those. The question is can that effort on the designer’s part make it worth our time and money?