LEGO's Spider-Man: No Way Home Final Battle Is Awesome And Worth It For The Minifigures Alone
When it comes to recreating action sequences from movies, it can be hard for LEGO to deliver the excitement of a big screen blockbuster. The building brick playsets don't always match up very well with the scene itself (such as the first "Avengers: Endgame" final battle playset, which was recently somewhat improved upon), and while that's usually because they're made for kids who will fill in the gaps with their imagination, sometimes it's nice to have a LEGO set that gets it right. That's what makes the recently released "Spider-Man: No Way Home" final battle playset so great.
In the ongoing Multiverse Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only "Spider-Man: No Way Home" has really delivered a satisfying spectacle utilizing the parallel universes of Marvel movies. The MCU's Peter Parker (Tom Holland) met his cinematic predecessors thanks to a magic spell gone wrong, which brought in the versions of Peter Parker played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. The villains from their respective universes also crossed over into the MCU, with Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Electro (Jamie Foxx) also entering the fray.
Now, LEGO has brought (almost) all of those characters and more together in the Spider-Man Final Battle LEGO set, which lets fans build the head of the in-progress renovation of the Statue of Liberty and the fight that ensues between our friendly neighborhood Spider-Men and their adversaries. What's great about this set is that, despite the smaller scale of the build, it makes for some really fun playtime while also allowing for a dynamic display piece for longtime Spider-Man fans. Let's take a closer look at the set that LEGO sent us to check out below.
The foundation of America
Perhaps one of the weirdest decisions in the MCU is the renovation of the Statue of Liberty to restore it to its original copper color and replace the trademark torch with Captain America's shield. But that's what happened, so the version of the Statue of Liberty in this playset is colored copper.
The LEGO build begins with a black base that the head will sit on, which makes it feel a little less like a playset and more like a display piece for MCU fans. As you continue the build, you'll complete the details of Lady Liberty's face and begin the base of the construction scaffoldings that will surround the head, recreating the climax of "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
Ethan Anderton
One of my favorite things about building a LEGO set like this is seeing how the pieces come together to create the more difficult details. What pieces make up Lady Liberty's lips, nose and eyes? For me, the eyes were the most amusing surprise, especially when you see that it's basically a different colored hot dog LEGO piece that forms her eyelid.
Initially I was disappointed that the "Spider-Man: No Way Home" LEGO set didn't seem to include Sandman and Lizard minifigures, especially since the other villains are present and accounted for. The good news is that Sandman is included in the set in a really clever way, and those beige pieces in the foundation above provide a little bit of a hint as to how. The bad news is that Lizard has been left out in the wind.
Ethan Anderton
As you can see, inside the Statue of Liberty's head, there's a beige hand that you piece together. It's meant to represent a piece of Sandman's larger form reaching up through the statue. What's great is that you can actually move the hand to situate it in other places around the statue, and there are small pieces of the same color built into little areas of the playset's foundation that make it appear as if there's sand flowing throughout the statue. It's a pretty clever touch that makes up for the lack of a proper minifigure. Speaking of minifigures...
An amazing assembly of minifigures
Sometimes, LEGO sets don't include all the minifigures that you'd like, especially when it comes to those based on the movies of Marvel Studios. But I gotta say, with the exception of the missing Lizard, this Spider-Man LEGO set has pretty much every minifigure you'd want, and they come with all the appropriate accessories, too.
It goes without saying that one of the most appealing aspects of this LEGO set is bringing together all three versions of Spider-Man, and each of them has a different paint job for their respective Spider-Man suit, different facial features, and hair pieces to accurately bring Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield to life. Not unlike the recent Marvel Legends figure that includes a sculpt of Garfield's unmasked head, the hair sculpt for his LEGO minifigure is pretty great. The guy just has an impressive head of hair!
Ethan Anderton
Included is a fantastic assortment of web accessories to allow for various action poses for each of the Spider-Men, whether it's a small shot of web, a bigger web blast, or a web-covered punch. There are also some bigger webs that can be placed around the statue.
Ethan Anderton
Equally as cool is the roster of villains, each of them having a larger presence in the playset because of their enhanced abilities and gadgets. Green Goblin comes with a buildable glider and a couple pumpkin bombs, Doc Ock is equipped with his four tentacle arms that can easily latch on to various pieces of scaffolding surrounding the statue, and Electro comes with an array of yellow lightning bolts that give him a look reminiscent of the comics.
Ethan Anderton
Finally, we have Peter Parker's allies from the MCU in the form of Doctor Strange, MJ, and Ned. Strange comes with a couple orange disc pieces that act as his magic Tao Mandalas, and the cube he uses to contain the spell that he used to make people forget Peter Parker's identity is included as well. MJ and Ned are suited up in casual teen clothes, but Ned (and any minifigure, really) can also be equipped with Doctor Strange's cape, so that's fun.
Create your own action scene!
But perhaps the best part of the Spider-Man Final Battle LEGO set is how versatile it is. Because of the collection of minifigures and accessories, there are endless possibilities for positioning them around the statue for battle. Making the set even more friendly to a variety of action displays are a trio of little plastic arm stands that can be situated at various points around the statue to position Spider-Man in a leap or make Green Goblin or Electro fly around. You can try to recreate the image on the front of the box, which is basically what I did, or you can try to create your own scene inspired by the movie.
Ethan Anderton
There are also a couple other cool touches that make Doctor Strange's presence that much better. Situated near the top of the statue's head is one of Strange's portals, allowing him to show up and help stop all this multiverse insanity. There's also a secret portal that can be revealed on the back of the statue's head, which houses a sticker that shows the Sanctum Santorum on the other side. That's a great detail that goes hand-in-hand for anyone who has the modular LEGO building of Doctor Strange's lair (which was released last year).
Ethan Anderton
If there's one complaint I have about this LEGO set, it's that I wish it was scaled to be a bit bigger. As it stands, the action is close quarters, and it makes the statue feel a little too crowded. With a $109.99 price tag, it just feels like it's a tad too small. It would have been cool to be able to see more of the statue's detail without the scaffolding and surrounding details obscuring it quite so much. But regardless, this is a fantastic LEGO set that recreates the final action sequence in the movie better than most Marvel LEGO sets.
The LEGO Spider-Man Final Battle set is available now for $109.99.