OK, so I admit, I’ve gone full Lego geek.
It started with buying the odd Star Wars set for the kids, knowing full well I’d get do most of the actual building, and it’s ended with me compulsively collecting every movie or comic-based set that comes down the pipeline and sticking it on a very high shelf way out the kids’ reach.
And I have to say, of all the Lego sets I’ve had the pleasure of knowing since this new-found adult obsession– Marvel, DCD, Star Wars, or even that Ghostbusters Fire House I keep salivating over in the Lego shop window – the new Web Warriors Spider-Man Ultimate Bridge Battle is easily my favourite.
Unlike some of the other licensed sets – I’m looking at you, Millennium Falcon – it’s not too brittle to withstand a good play (the kids, of course, when I do permit them five minutes) and it has some ace interactive features: crumbling walls, whopping great potholes, web traps, and some very dodgy roadside barriers perfect for crashing a little Lego taxi though and drowning its passengers in the river below (if that do-gooder Spider-Man doesn’t save them first, of course).
The set’s big draw though is its selection of classic character mini-figures. Spider-Man is standard of course (though now with added triangular pointy web thingy accessory), but it also features the fanboy-baiting Spider-Girl, Scarlet Spider, Kraven the Hunter, the Scorpion, Aunt May (ripe for dangling off the bridge in peril), and a cracking Green Goblin. In fact, Lego have achieved in one and a half inches of plastic Hollywood failed to do in three whole film – get the Green Goblin bang on.
Also new on the block – or should that be brick? – is the Doc Ock Tentacle Trap, which is best described as a big Doctor Octopus robot contraption. It actually goes very nicely with the Bridge Battle set (adventurous dads might want to pretend Doc Ock is attacking the bridge in his Tentacle Trap, but I’ll leave that to your discretion) and there are more cool mini-figures: Spider-Man, Doc Ock himself, White Tiger, Captain Stacy, and Vulture.
The Tentacle Trap is a bit repetitive to build, but deceptively quick to get through – if slightly fiddly (its cannons and little green bullets seem to fire if you just look at them a bit funny, let alone grab them for a robust play).
Extra points are awarded for getting Doc Ock’s signature duds the exact shade of green from the original comics, which looks like a new colour of Lego brick to me. Yes, I have become that much of a Lego geek. Also, you can’t knock a Spider-Man set that comes with a special spider-motif surfboard.
All in all, further proof of just how sophisticated Lego models have become these days. Excelsior indeed.
For more info visit lego.com
