Review: 6867 Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape

[JackJonespaw]

Name: 6867 Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape

Theme: LEGO Marvel Superheros/Avengers

Year: 2012

Pieces: 181

Minifigs: 3 Minifigures

Price: USD $19.99; £19.99

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INTRODUCTION

Iron Man and Hawkeye have been two of my favorite heroes, and when I first saw this set featuring both of them, plus Loki, I knew that I had to get this. This set was taken from a scene in the movie: Hawkeye driving Loki in a S.H.I.E.L.D. truck. However, Iron Man has been added in this set, which was not featured in the Avengers. As the second smallest set of the line, this set includes three minifigs and a dark blue S.H.I.E.L.D. truck. So, is this set as good as it looks, or is it a disappointment?

THE BOX

The box features a nice dark red top, with Marvel Superheroes in a shiny gold font. I really like this contrast from the dark blue DC sets from January. The front shows the “main” Avengers – Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, and Captain America, all in drawn Lego form. But, on the other side, we’re shown the “main” Avengers as they appear in the movie. The purpose for this is a bit odd, and I think this is Lego’s way of showing how they can make something not Lego into Lego. The scene featured on the front cover shows Iron Man chasing the S.H.I.E.L.D. truck down, while Loki holds the Tesseract up with his staff. The minifigs are shown at the bottom, with some text saying that there is a comic included. Finally, the Avengers logo is in the bottom-right corner.

The back shows the action of the set. Iron Man’s helmet opening, the ever-present flick-fire missile, Loki being catapulted, and a fight scene. The real Avengers are here again at the bottom-right. I really like the faded out comic in the background. I feel that it adds something to the background – otherwise it would just be blank.

INSTRUCTION BOOKLET

The instructions, of course, have the same image as the box. Thankfully, no pages were folded or torn in this – a rare thing I’ve found with the smaller sets.

Inside the instructions, Loki, Thor, and Captain America lurk, faded into the background. The dark bley and black were quite easy to differentiate.

There is also a comic booklet in here. I honestly don’t see why these are included, other than to make this set seem more comic-like. I feel that this makes sense with the DC sets, but not with sets made after movies. The comic isn’t anything special, just some drawings and those comic symbols. (Like ? and !.) I find it funny that even the comic artists didn’t draw Black Widow’s hair the way it is in the Lego set she’s featured in.

THE MINIFIGS

Iron Man is an amazing figure, and I’m really happy that a cheaper set features him. The torso is really nice and detailed, but I don’t feel like it’s too detailed, like the Trooper in the 2012 Clone Battle Pack. I’ve heard many rants about the helmet looking way too blocky and huge on the minifig, and while it’s not proportional to his body, I still think it looks really nice.

The back is also greatly detailed, but, again, it’s not too much. I don’t like the way Tony’s head it showing on the back of the helmet. It ruins the impression that the suit is a full body suit, and that the helmet isn’t part of the rest of the suit, but just a helmet.

It’s rare that a minifig has a play feature, but Iron Man’s helmet can flip up to show his face inside. This is the reason why the helmet was so big, but I really like it, even though Tony’s helmet doesn’t open like this. Hm, maybe it would have just been better to go with a printed head, like Cap or the Comic Con version of Iron Man.

Two 1x1 round plates in trans-blue and two 1x1 round bricks in the same color make up Iron Man's flying mechanics. I’ve never had a minifig that I felt like swooshing around, but there’s just something about this minifig that makes me want to. There are so many epic poses that Iron Man can be put in while these are equipped.

And then there’s the glorious face under the helmet. Tony Stark’s minifig is wonderful, great, fantastic, and it looks just like Robert Downey, Jr. If Lego had included a piece of hair for him in this set, like Han’s hair in Echo Base, he would have been wonderful. I love the smirking face, it’s like he has a trick that he knows and we don’t.

I feel that this other face is better under the helmet, for when he’s blasting baddies left and right. It’s still a nice face, but it can’t be used as well for a Tony Stark minifig, unless it’s a recreation of the

.

The next minifig included in this set is Loki, the God of Mischief. The torso, legs, and helmet are great, but the head is really bad. In most cases, the face is the best part of the minifig, so reusing 2012 Bruce Wayne’s face was not a good move. I’m not sure if this was just another way for Lego to show that the Marvel and DC 2012 sets are connected, or they were just too lazy to come up with an awesome face. I’m really happy with the torso, though. Although in the scene that this is based on Loki is wearing casual clothing, it’s nice to see him in the clothes he wears for most of the movie.

As I mentioned before, the helmet is fantastic. It’s made out of more bendy rubber than some of the molded heads, like Kit Fisto or Plo Koon, but it holds it’s shape. The curved “antlers” look even better from the side, and shows off this great minifig. Well, as long as you don’t look at the face.

The last minifig, Hawkeye, or Clint Barton, is another one who looks great if you don’t glance at the face. The torso is wonderful, looking just like it does in the movie, as do the legs. I’ve noticed that Lego does a much better job with the torso and the legs than the head, unless the torso and leg prints don’t match up. The face is pretty bad, a really angry, almost squished looking face. I’m not sure what would make this face better, a chin detail, some cheekbones, a crease between eyebrows, but this face is just not recognizable as Hawkeye.

The back printing is great, with his awesome quiver. The other face isn’t much better than the first, but at least the red glasses give the minifig away as Hawkeye. Or Cyclops. Many people have mentioned that the hair isn’t right for Hawkeye, but there's no better solution for a hairpiece made yet, not even the S6 Sleepyhead’s hair, as only the front part of Hawkeye’s hair is spiked up. After seeing the movie twice, I’ve noticed that his glasses weren’t used at all in the movie – only in posters. A bit odd, as Hawkeye is already so great, red glasses would make him even cooler.

ACCESSORIES

Loki’s staff, Hawkeye’s bow, and the … Cosmic Cube? Loki’s staff is nice, and pretty ingenious, using two already existing pieces, but this isn’t his staff in the Avengers. For some odd reason, this staff is a perfect match forthe one in Thor. More laziness on Lego’s part, perhaps? Hawkeye’s bow is great, and a nice contrast from the more medieval-esque ones we’ve been getting over the years in castle sets and even Star Wars. I wish that there was some way to attach and remove Lego arrows to bows, instead of always having them loaded, but the arrows would probably be misplaced and lost. Finally, the whole reason behind the Avengers movie, the Cosmic Cube, or the Tesseract. This is a pretty bad way to show it. Two 1x1 trans-light blue plates under a 1x1 trans-blue tile would have been more cube-like and bluer. Instead, we got a 1x1 clear brick. Hooray.

THE BUILD

I don’t buy a lot of City sets, so I don’t build a lost of cars. I did have a lot fun time building this car, for the detail and shapes of it. By the end of the first ten steps, the very basic shape of the truck has been build, and some places for SNOT-ing have been added. Most of the pieces in this segment of steps are dark bley, which will be almost invisible by the end of the build.

Some dark blue has been added, and the catapult (more on that later) has been added. The dark blue plates have been placed around the space the cockpit will be. I’ve never liked the way odd colors have been placed randomly in Lego sets, like the blue and red here. Is it cheaper to have these pieces in the set?

A whole lot has been added in these ten steps. The entire front, save the hood, most of the cockpit, and the flick-fires. Two stickered 1x4 tiles have also been added on the SNOT pieces.

The next-to-last step adds some stickered doors, a window in the back, and some SNOT-ing on the sides. The window is a bit odd in it’s location, but, viewing trucks, it’s in the right place.

THE S.H.I.E.L.D. TRUCK

And the truck is done after around fifty steps. It’s a beautiful truck, despite the bright red fire extinguisher, which draws some of the attention away. The truck rolls really well, the tires are really perfect for this truck. As I said before, I don’t buy City sets, so I’m not a big Lego car expert, but I’m really impressed with this car. It almost has the feeling of suspension in the tires, as they're a bit bouncy.

The front of the car is my favorite part of the truck, hands down. It uses some nice building techniques with the 1x1 round tiles and the black train wagon end piece. I absolutely love the SNOT-ing headlights, using nice slopes. It’s a pretty fluid slope and it’s not interrupted by the two cheese slopes that are next to each other. I’m really impressed with the detail and techniques put into this one section.

The back is nice, although not as nice as the front. The SNOT-ed slopes are also present here, with some stickers. The rear lights are made using some 1x2 trans-red plates. I like the bars on each side of the back. When I first opened it, I thought it was a new bar, but it’s just a flex-y bar. Thankfully, only one red piece is shown on the catapult, which I’ll mention some more in just a bit.

[0img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7221/7403362716_1da0c73394_z.jpg[/img]

The sides of the truck are, of course, identical, save the fire extinguisher on one side. The doors with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo are are pretty nice, as I love interesting pieces in the rarer colors. I’ve been wishing for a door for a while that is four bricks high, not two, or a trans-clear door with printing or a sticker on it, that will be in place for windows. The great tires can be seen at their best at this angle – nice and bulky, and, as I said, perfect for this truck. The flex-y bar can also be seen at it’s length in this.

Even though I’m not (or really anyone) on the side of stickers, I do admit that the top and the hood would be really bland without the detailed stickers. The new bricks with studs on the side and top hold the lights - four 1x1 trans-clear plates. The gaps between the side curves and the truck can be seen from this angle, so I try not to look at it from the top.

Inside the cockpit sits a blue chair, a light bley steering wheel, a printed 1x1 tile, and a lever. It seems like the printed tile and the lever are in any cockpit: car, spaceship, plane. I think that the lever represents the gearshift, and the printed tile could represent the gas level or speed, but it’s not definite. I’m glad that the driver of this truck has more room than the space allowed by the doors. This also helps in getting a minifig in and out of the car.

PLAY FEATURES

The bed of the truck that Loki stands on has one stud for him to be placed, which he will be catapulted off in a second. I feel like Lego was really stretching for a play feature instead of just flick-fires in this set, and they decided that catapulting Loki would be fitting. The catapult is attached to the rest of the truck by some of those light bley frictionless pins.

When Loki’s not about to go flying off the back of the truck, he’ll stand on the back of the truck like this. As fun as seeing Loki fly away is, I wish he was more secure when rolling the truck, because I had him fall off a bit. But aside from security, catapulting Loki is pretty fun and easy. Just place Loki on the stud in whichever pose you’d like, and press down on the red piece at the rear of the truck. Loki will hopefully go flying.

It was really hard to get Loki a good distance from the truck. Most of the time, he wouldn’t come off because the catapult is only one stud from the bottom of the truck, and it was difficult to press down hard enough for him to fly away. But when he did, it was glorious. I’m not sure if the catapult or the Hulk smashing him around was more painful.

The other play feature is flick-fire missiles, which come in the form of trans-red light covers this time. The location is hard for my hands to get to, as I sometimes hit the sideways slopes instead. In the odd chance that I do hit it and it goes out, it only goes about four inches. I’ve heard some stories from fellow Eurobricks members that their children love the missiles, so, as long as the target audience loves it, I’ll have to put up with it.

MY JUDGEMENT

Playability: 9/10 The truck is great for rolling around, and even though the flick-fires and the catapult don’t work perfectly for me, I think that they work pretty well for kids.

Design: 10/10 This is an absolutely amazing truck. I love all aspects of it, and I would love to have a whole lot of them in my collection.

Minifigs: 8/10 The minifigs are pretty nice, if Loki’s and Hawkeye’s face were fixed and made to look like them, I would give this a ten.

Pieces: 10/10 Lovely dark blue pieces, some nice pieces for SNOT-ing, and useful car pieces.

Price: 10/10 I’ll go along with this, as Lego never does $17 or $18 sets. Those would be that values I would go with for a set like this, but Lego does need their money to make more sets.

So, my final verdict? I say that if you have enough money for this smaller set, and you haven’t picked up the other sets that these minifigs have come in, pick this up. The car is perfect, and would look great in any collection. If you’re looking at this set for the pieces, it’s nice for that, too. As I said in the judging, it’s got some great pieces. So, check out this set!

[sologuy369]

Nice review! I have this set too and share the same opinion about it. My favorite minifg in this set is Iron Man.

[purpleparadox]

Thanks for the review, JackJonespaw! 

It's a really nice set. Dark colours are some of my favourites, and Dk. Blue looks really nice on this set.  The truck is great, and I'd probably buy it even if it didn't come with those cool minifigures!

Iron Man is probably my favourite out of all the Avengers figs. Despite the gap on the back, I like his helmet. He's also the only one (in this set) whose face is really accurate. And his torso/leg printing is good.

I think the reason Loki's face is so unrecognizable is because his nose is such a prominent feature on his face (IMO). Other than that he looks great. I like Hawkeye's face with goggles and his body is nice and detailed. His bow is fantastic too.

Overall a well-written review of a good set. Thanks!

[TheLegoJoker]

While I prefer the Mark VII armor from the Quinjet, it's nice that LEGO didn't cheap out and use the same torso for both Iron Man figures they produced. Hawkeye is definitely the weakest minifig offering of the Avengers sets to me, but the sleepy time collectible minifigure hair piece is a huge improvement over the one we actually got. Three figures and a nice jeep for $20. Not a bad set at all.

[just2good]

Nice review, 'JackJonespaw'!

It took me forever to find this set and it's awesome because of the truck and the Iron Man figure. I know it wouldn't be as accurate if they did this, but I think they should of put Nick Fury in this set besides of Hawkeye...