With just a couple of weeks now until Peter Park returns to the big screen and with the news that Avengers: Endgame is returning to the cinema as an “extended” cut (yep six whole minutes of additional footage, WOW!), I thought I’d jump back into the Far From Home movie tie-in sets and see what else is on offer.
Pieces: 471
Set Number: 76129
Minifigures: Peter Parker, Mysterio, Hydro-Man, MJ
RRP: £34.99/$39.99
Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to read my Molten Man Battle review, a wondrous elemental in all it’s LEGO glory. Don’t worry if you haven’t, there is a video on the review to save you time. That, the cheapest of the LEGO Spider-Man: Far From Home sets turned out to be a treat thanks in no small part to the Molten Man himself as well as a brand new variant of Spidey in his SHIELD-issue stealth suit.
Now, however, it’s time to shift from the heated action of London, to the rather wet powers of Hydro-Man as he threatens the Italian city of Venice and we take a look at the mid-range set in the movie themed wave. The movie trailers have already given us a hint of what to expect from the water-based monster, as well as our first proper look at Mysterio in action, but given the size and scope of his counterpart, how does this bricked up aqua-villain compare?
Minifigures
Much like Molten Man’s set, the minifigure cast is strong here and while we do get another Mysterio, matching that of the aforementioned set, we also get a truly awesome Peter Parker mid-suit change, our first ever MCU MJ figure and Hydro-Man in minifig form.
As we’ve already had a Mysterio identical to this in another set, let’s get him out of the way first – it’s not to say the minifigure isn’t superb, it’s just if you’re buying more than one of the Far From Home sets then the excitement for this minifigure will wane with each unboxing.
The most noticeable thing here is the standard comic-book to MCU design upgrade in armour, there’s a significant amount of detail on the characters torso and legs. As a result of the upgrade in look, we get a much darker colour scheme than fans of the character may be used to, a darker green covering the minifigure as well as a more prominent gold replaces the more yellow colouring of the comic version.
In terms of the design, it’s not unlike the printing on Civil War era Iron Man minifigure, with clearly defined armour plates in the gold and purple colour-scheme fans will be familiar with. It’s interesting to note that one of the fan theories based on the mention of a multi-verse is that this version of Mysterio is actually the equivalent to the Iron Man of his world – I doubt that has even been considered in the design here, but the similarities may certainly hint at that.
The highlight of the front printing for me is the chest plate which meets the cape neckline connections, the geometric pattern of gold, purple and silver makes for a stunning design. Saldy, as with many of LEGO’s caped characters, there is a superb design on the back of the minifigure as well that never gets seen, again providing an impressive armour plating print, it’s just a shame it’ll likely get overlooked due to the fabric purple cape.
The torso armour design continues on to the legs piece with a wonderfully detailed waistline, impressively sharp given the tiny area of plastic to play with. Again, in comparison to the Iron Man armour design, the legs also include metallic looking knee plates and toecaps.
Moving up to the head and rather than a standard head and hair like we’ve seen the character appear as in the movie trailer, this Mysterio is fully armoured. As a result the headpiece is simply solid silver with no facial features or other printing and the goldfish bowl helmet sits over the top.
Getting on to the set exclusives and my personal favourite of all the minifigures from the range is Peter Parker’s appearance here. Unlike the other sets in this Spidey trio, which contain a suited-up variant of the web-slinger, this set has Peter Parker mid-suit change.
As you can see in the picture, Peter comes with two pieces for head coverings, one is a standard hair piece that’s shown up many times in other themes, though fairly character accurate for the MCU Spidey. The other piece is far more interesting and unique, essentially a hat piece in red with printed Spider-Man suit eyes on it to look like his mask, ready to pull over his face. The mask piece is more than just printing though, there are textured creases and folds in the plastic to add a superb level of subtle detail to the piece and produce a ruffled up fabric effect.
While the rest of the outfit is pretty much Peter in his civilian clothing, much like Clark Kent figures of the past, his hero suit makes up the chest area of the torso, underneath an unbuttoned shirt – clearly Peter is preparing for battle. The Spidey-suit printing is interesting in one sense as it doesn’t match the scale of the suited minifigure, maybe it’s a new suit with a smaller spider logo on it? We’ll have to wait for the cinema release for that info.
The rest of the civilian clothing is made up of jeans depicted by solid dark blue legs, a shirt and hoodie. The printing is great for the character, but outside of the spidey suit printing, it’s nothing overly exciting to write home about. The back of the minifigure has fairly rudimentary printing in the form of a hood and crease lines for the back of the hoodie.
As is the standard for most minifigures these days, the head piece does have two faces printed, both unique to the minifigure and somehow they’ve managed to capture Tom Holland’s more youthful Parker surprisingly well. Overall, a superb Spidey variant that any Marvel fan will appreciate.
Continuing the set exclusives, we also get Parker’s love interest in the new movie, MJ (Michelle, for some reason) and while some fans are still unsure if the MCU will ever bring in Mary-Jane Watson, it’s clear that this MJ is firmly embedded in the franchise.
If you’re familiar with the character from either Homecoming or the Far From Home trailers then you’ll be aware that in terms of clothing, this MJ tends to go for very baggy casual attire and that is represented well in this minifigure. The printing on the torso is spartan at best, but with a red top and grey hoodie, there isn’t a great deal the designer could do with this figure. As a result, the only real detail to show off is the hoodie strings just below the neck line, a couple of pocket lines and creasing. Interestingly, unlike other minifigures based on female characters, she doesn’t have the waistline figure lines, again highlighting the baggy clothing she’s supposedly wearing.
The head and hands colouring works really well to define the minifigure as someone of mixed race, much like the actress, Zendaya, who plays her in the movie. It’s the two facial expressions on the headpiece that really define who this minifigure is supposed to be, however. One one side the mouth printing smirk does more than enough to replicate the character as we know her from Homecoming. Similarly, the slightly confused, subtly announced raised brow on the other printed face is just perfect.
Much like Parker, the hair piece is nothing new, it’s definitely shown up on a number of other figures in the past in various colours – it works for the character, if a little generic. Overall, though, MJ doesn’t stand out as an amazing minifigure, it suits the character, but it’s not going to draw collectors in for a wonderfully unique exclusive.
Hydro-Man
While technically a minifigure, the villain of the piece does come with a superb water plinth which completes Hydro-Man’s look so he more than deserves a highlighted section in this review.
While comparing this LEGO creation to the movie CGI behemoth we’ve seen in the trailers is probably not the best idea given his stature, this is still a superbly wonderful addition to all things LEGO Marvel. Instead of following in the same footsteps as Molten Man and creating a large mech-like build, the designers of this set have gone for something a little more subtle which, while smaller than the movie trailers would suggests, works perfectly with the rest of the set…plus there’s a fun build to be had.
Starting with the minifigure himself and his printing is amazingly unique from the head down to the waist. Ignoring the solid blue legs which are hidden from the plinth anyway, the torso and head are exquisite in two-tone blue printed detail with waves of water rising from the waist, front and back. You can easily make out the muscle tone of a shirtless man on the printing, but the chest and six-pack areas are distorted in such a way that they look like puddles. It’s a fascinating design, and it well that makes up for the lack of similarities to what we’ve seen from the movie trailers thus far.
The plinth itself is a fun build as you construct layer upon layer, building up a mini-pyramid of solid and translucent blue. The arch pieces, sadly not printed and instead stickered, create a brilliant twirling effect as to replicate the tornado of water we see the elemental appear from in the movie. The model’s instructions keep you interested with a design that isn’t quite symmetrical and so it’s not build a section, repeat, there is some, though minor, variation.
The top of the plinth hides two exposed studs behind two large translucent pieces which perfect sits the minifigure in place, hiding those non-printed legs and only exposing the interesting parts of the minifigure. Together, this is a villainous work of art, not dissimilar from the Sandman that came out with the comic-based Spider-Man set earlier this year – 76114, if you’re interested in that.
The Gondolier
The gondolier is one of the first things you put together and while being only around 15-20 pieces, it’s still a impressive design which utilises all existing elements to create the very unique shape of the Italian boat design.
In all fairness, if you take the end pieces off, it is exactly the same as one of the row boats that came out with the Pirates of the Caribbean sets, just in black. It’s amazing what a couple of arched pieces on each each, and a 1×1 plate can do.
Venice Scene
Reading other reviews for this set, some on the main LEGO.com page, there are those that expected more from this set in terms of a larger build. Given the price-tag, however, based on my own experience, the Venice scene is well worth the asking price for this set. A decent size with some great detail more than sells this for me.
The build itself it fairly extensive and while easy, will keep even the most experienced of us busy for some time. It’s great to see this model come together as you build section by section and connect them up as the bridge comes to life. In all honesty, you’d expect a scene build which has a fairly bare bridge taking up 60-70% of the model to be a little boring, but this is far from that and it’s mainly down to the level of detail on the main platform.
The detail in and around the coffee shop is impressive to say the least and it’s done with, what seems like, minimal effort. Outside on the waters edge you’ll find a couple of chairs and table with some pizza and a sticker-printed paper. Throw in a well thought-out guard-rail made easily with a chain piece and two brown cylinders, a simple flower bed, and the lamp post, and you’ve got the perfect Venice setting. It’s really not complex, but all the small simple pieces put together make a brilliant scenery model. It’s just well designed.
One of my absolute favourite parts of this set is inside the coffee shop, in fact it’s the only thing inside the coffee shop, a large coffee machine. Look at it, how cool does that look? And yet, once again, so simple in design. The black granule holders are created using shorted one studded post pieces that tend to appear in road sign builds. It is a shame that the rest of the small coffee shop is empty, I would have loved to see the designer take on other aspects of this shop, but other than that, it’s perfect.
Moving back around to the front and on to the interactivity side, this is a play-set after all and not just to be displayed and admired. Luckily, LEGO has you covered with a hinged trap door piece sitting below the chairs and table with a trigger button at water level on the side – push that button in and whoever is sat on the chair will go flying.
On top of the coffee shop is a tower which screams Latin-based architecture , it’s the kind of design you’d expect to see on a villa. Accompanied by the clipped on web and greenery, this is definitely one of the highlights of the entire scenes look for me – it wasn’t the most fun to build, in all honesty, as it can get fiddly, but the end result speaks for itself.
One thing you’ll notice in all of the pictures of the scenery build is the seemingly random exposed bricks on all the walls. These serve two purposes, one to make it look a bit more rugged as some of the buildings this is looking to represent are not modern creations. Secondly, to allow Spidey to climb the walls, you can connect the minifigure in a number of different places and in a number of poses, a win for collectors and for playtime.
Finally, if we move on to the bridge and the back side of the bridge is decorated with a symmetrical archway construction, whether meant as part of a build not included in the set, or as ruins across the bridge itself, they really look the part. Again, sticking with the simple makes best approach, the archway value to the overall look of the set is high as it now gives the otherwise mundane looking bridge a simple, yet effective backdrop. There is, however, one last interactive element to this set hidden behind the archway, another push button which when activated blows out the bridge.
I love the Venice scene, I think it gives you more than your money’s worth and looks fantastic. The only annoyance for me is that the blue plates on the bottom on either side of the bridge aren’t connected as I’d much rather have seen the blue cover all of the underneath of the bridge, this is the only thing in my opinion that would have fully completed the scenery element of the set.
Overall
Overall, I think you get a lot for you money on this set, and it is very difficult to find much fault in it.
The minifigure collection will more than peak the interest of Marvel fans, especially those into the MCU movies, thanks to the inclusion of a Peter Parker minifigure rather than just suited up Spider-Man. The MJ minifigure isn’t that overly exciting, and the Mysterio minifigure – as awesome as he is – not an exclusive, but Hydro-Man more than makes up for any issues you might have there.
Between Hydro-Man’s plinth, the gondolier, and the main Venice scene you’ve got the makings of a great set that uses simplicity to it’s advantage, make a set that’s easy to construct, but also looks superb – pretty much LEGO’s life goal for set design.
Hydro-Man himself, the big bad, isn’t as big as you’d expect based on the movie trailers, but still, you get a highly detailed and unique minifigure so it’s a win.
For price vs value for money, this is the best set out of the Far From Home sets in my opinion.
THE GOOD
- A brand new Peter Parker minifigure, it’s my favourite variant of the three Far From Home sets.
- Hydro-Man is stunning, a great looking bad-guy.
- The scenery build is amazingly detailed, yet superbly simple, each addition during the build, compliments the rest.
THE BAD
- Hydro-Man doesn’t look like the one from the movie trailers in any way and is incredibly small compared.
- It’s a shame the set doesn’t have larger blue plates on the bottom under the bridge.
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