A sprawling Lego Marvel Skyline with some of the franchise's best-loved locations has been revealed, and besides ample fan-service, it's got some gloriously silly deep cuts.
The 1,200-piece kit went up for pre-order at the Lego store yesterday ahead of its launch in January, and it's a rogue's gallery of the Marvel universe's most iconic buildings. While there are plenty you'd expect to see like Avengers Tower, the X-Mansion, and the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building, it's also stuffed with lesser-known locations from the comics like Rand Industries (Iron Fist's company) and then villainous AIM. In addition, Lego Marvel Skyline makes sure to sneak in a couple of very goofy references too – the Spider-Mobile and Thanos Copter.
Yes, Thanos the Mad Titan – destroyer of half the universe – used to fly about in an incredibly silly yellow helicopter that he named after himself. This can be seen hovering beside the Daily Bugle from the Spider-Man mythos.
UK: £89.99 at LEGO
This is designed as a for-adults display piece that shows off all the major Marvel locations from New York, all on a dark black base. It has 1,261 pieces and measures 8 inches high as well as 15.5 inches wide. One minifigure (Galactus) is included in the box, but look closely and you'll spit tiny microfigures for Spider-Man and Johnny Storm, the Human Torch.
Oh, and speaking of everyone's favorite webhead, his infamous 'Spider-Mobile' is also scaling the Bugle. Spidey was made this by an in-universe car company who wanted to promote their non-polluting engine, and it's been an in-joke ever since. (There was even an alternate-universe version of Peter who looked like Spider-Mobile called 'Peter Parkedcar,' which is the best thing I've ever heard.)
In terms of other references, there's a Chitauri Leviathan from the 2012 Avengers movie, Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, Oscorp, the Department of Damage Control (with a teeny Spidey out front stopping a train as he did in Spider-Man 2), Daredevil's law office Nelson and Murdock, the hyper-evil Roxxon Corporation, a Wakandan Embassy referencing Black Panther, and Fisk Tower. There's even a to-scale Galactus minifigure as well, which might be the first we've ever gotten.
Much like the new Lego PlayStation with its Gran Turismo diorama, it's also populated with tiny cars made using squares or curved single stud pieces on a roller skate.
Lego Marvel Skyline will drop on January 1, 2027.
There's quite a lot on the docket for January; an iconic piece of Joker art is being made into a Lego Batman set, but fans are worried it'll haunt kids' nightmares. However, it's impressive enough to challenge the best Lego sets, so maybe it gets a pass.
- See all the new sets at Lego store
