After months of talking and talking about the prospect of Marvel LEGO sets, they’re finally here. The first sets officially come out on April 8th, but I was lucky enough to snag a couple on Walmart.com a week or so ago before they were quickly sold out. I got two of the cheaper sets, 6865: Captain America’s Avenging Cycle and the set I’m reviewing today, 6866: Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown.
The Lowdown
In addition to all the awesome Avengers LEGO sets coming out, LEGO is starting a X-Men line with the release of this Wolverine set, and honestly, it’s going to be a hard set to top. At $20, the value for LEGO/Marvel geeks is insane. Not only do you get a pretty awesome-looking helicopter, but you get almost perfect minifigure versions of Wolverine, Magneto, and…Deadpool. Are you kidding me? Deadpool exists in LEGO form, and was one of the first Marvel characters to be released?
Luckily, the X-Men line is not tied to any particular film or cartoon, it’s just based on the comics. So that means no horrible movie-Deadpool or Wolverine in all black. I revert to ten-year-old-me when I start thinking of the possibilities of this line. The X-Jet, Professor X’s School for the Gifted, and a huge Sentinel are ideas that come to mind.
The Set
Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown pits Logan against Magneto and Deadpool in a surprisingly cool-looking red and black helicopter. Wolverine comes with a simple motorcycle and looks pretty badass. His claws are simply a piece that snap in his hands, so when you’re pretending Wolverine is sipping Mimosas on his LEGO yacht, he can look the part.
All the minifigs look great and feature printing on the front and back. Deadpool comes with two swords (that also can attach to the wings of the copter) and a big gun. Magneto is perfect, with just a helmet and his cape. Wolverine and Magneto have reversible heads that let you go from mildy pissed off to full on LEGO rageface.
The Verdict
I can’t imagine being a kid and not owning this if it was available. LEGO has released some less-than-stellar licensed sets in the last few years, but I think Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown is a great example of how to do it right. It’s not forced to fulfill some movie studio’s marketing requirement to cover a particular part of a film, it’s just a cool X-Men LEGO set.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go pit my Wolverine and Batman minifigures against each other in an epic battle and/or have them grab some pizza.
Make sure to check back soon for reviews of the other Marvel LEGO sets!
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Christopher Shafer
