UCS Helicarrier

[iamwhoiam]

I would love to buy this set! Obviously it's nothing more than a display piece but the figures are okay and I am a die-hard Marvel fan!

[eldiano]

how many led power cables would you need for this UCS?

[jzlego]

At first I was pretty unsure of how I felt about it due to all the black and dark grey coloring, but it's starting to grow on me. I still think it might look cleaner if it was mostly light grey.

I do have a question about the set. It's been a while since I saw the movies, and I forget if there is an opening for a hanger or something in the back or front of the carrier. If you look at this picture, it looks like there is a hole in the back of the model. Is that for something?

http://www.fbtb.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/76042_Func_08.jpg

[Risgrynsgrot]

At first I was pretty unsure of how I felt about it due to all the black and dark grey coloring, but it's starting to grow on me. I still think it might look cleaner if it was mostly light grey.

I do have a question about the set. It's been a while since I saw the movies, and I forget if there is an opening for a hanger or something in the back or front of the carrier. If you look at this picture, it looks like there is a hole in the back of the model. Is that for something?

http://www.fbtb.net/...042_Func_08.jpg

If you watch the last minute of this clip you see that the opening is there, but it isn't a hangar it's just an opening with a bunch of glass windows. Maybe the space in the set is for the power functions you can add?

[Blazej_Holen]

Dont like the scale of the set. Maybe its a nice model, and it contains clearly some intersting building techniques and also its nicely designed, but the scale is really big let down along with price...

[tonif430]

Agree with you. Instead of all microfigures and mini quinjets make this piees go to control room and make it a little bigger. Waitign to see the MOC's that are coming but disaponted with the scale and tag price!!!

[Dapper-D2]

I was not planning on picking up this set, but I am so impressed by it that I will probably skip some of the other sets I wanted in order to afford this one. Yes the price could be better and I'm not a fan of the illegal connections, but everything else about it is refreshing and new. I hope Lego keeps the microfig scale UCS coming, because this is Great!

Edited January 30, 2015 by Dapper-D2

[Brickmasta]

I quote Batman from THE LEGO MOVIE when facing Emmet in the submarine:

"... so disappointing... on so many levels ... "

I really do not like what they have done. This is not a UCS, it is just a huge playset with not many details, looking just rough. And the price... with the biggest joke, that you can add POWER FUNCTIONS for additional money. A plus would have been if this is already included.

I would have expected a real UCS, bigger, like the Star Destroyer, with a lot of details and stuff. Why do we need microfigures with it?

[ChriChriChri]

A model like this got 10.000 votes at LEGO Ideas; I'm curious what they'll say about it at the next review...

I ask myself the same thing … + or is this published as ideas project or as normal Super Heroes UCS set? (Idon't think so) … a grand piano at the Friends grand hotel - Creator changing seasons … the UCS helicarrier. I know that Lego explicitly states that it might happen that the same idea is created by the designers in parallel - but 3 times. According to my opinion the lego fans that created that ideas and spend a lot commitment to gather support should at least get a picture in the construction manual and a free set or something (even if it would be the case that the designers had the same idea without knowing - It does proof that the fan's ideas were excellent), I mean that can't all be a coincidence….

[Brickmamba]

Put simply minifig scale would have sealed the deal regardless of the extra in price, even the bland selection of figures can't save this display only set from doom, as an AFOL thouroughly disappointed

[clm]

Hmm.. in minifig scale this would likely be bigger then any set Lego ever offered or likely will offer. 6-7 feet long perhaps? And to make is smaller would end up looking more like a chibi flying lifeboat. Although it is not in my interest range I think it manages to pull off exactly what it's trying to, a display model of an enormous flying aircraft carrier in a size that is actually manageable to move around and display in an average house and cheap enough that they will sell more then a couple. The inclusion of the minifigs seems to be more of a gesture of including a portion of the kit that can interact with the rest of your collection instead of including minifigs to interact with the helicarrier itself.

Chris

[JackJonespaw]

Whoa, my jaw actually dropped when I saw this. I love the size of it, and the control room with the microfigs is absolutely adorable! But having it minifig size would make it at least, like, 3 times the current size, which would be epic, but also not so Lego-y. Not that Lego doesn't make huge sets, but a giant Helicarrier would be too much.

[blksuperman2]

This is just decent to me. I would've been sold if we got Coulson or maybe a generic S.H.I.E.L.D agent or two.

[Robianco]

I find it amazing that people actually expected something mini figure scale. Really?!

And with models like this the minifigures are not the reason for purchase... maybe a bonus to the set... a sweetener perhaps but not the reason for buying... so what if Coulson isn't in it? Is that such a deal breaker in a £300 set?

This set doesn't succeed or fail because of the minifigures included. When the designer was tasked with putting this together he probably wasn't even asked about minifigures to include.

With regards to Ideas... that set was NEVER going to be made. Ever. It was too big... it would have dwarfed every other set Lego has ever made in piece count and size. It would have been somewhere around £2000 if it ever hit the shelves.. and that's a conservative estimate. So what if Coulson had only been in a set that was £2000/$3000... people would be whinging all day long... the prices of the Coulson figure hitting more than an SDCC figure on the aftermarket.

I'll revert back to my stance that I think most sets that relate to existing themes are doomed... if not all. Yes they serve a purpose in showing that there is interest in the possibility of a set like that... or even in the extension of a theme in the case of Minas Tirith, but every single one of them is huge and has 15-20 minifigs... and you wonder why it gets votes?

This is a good set... and they've tried something new with it. Some people will like it and others won't... but I'm just not sure that the success of it can be judged by the minifigures included.

[phanstasm]

Another lovely model by Marcus Bessa! It’s very well built, and I’m very impressed by spinning turbines and the simplicity of adding power functions. Also, for those that can't afford it, I'm happy that most of minifigures are characters that come in other sets.

It sounds like many people won’t be buying it because of the price, the size, or both. I have to agree.

Since the model isn’t to minifigure scale anyway, I think I would have been happier if they dropped the price to $120, made a smaller Helicarrier that could fit on my desk (around 12 inches), and expanded that lovely minifigure display, perhaps by including something similar for Hydra. I would love to have a brick-built Hydra logo on the left (featuring a Hydra soldier, Red Skull, and Crossbones), the SHIELD logo on the right (featuring Fury, Hill, and a generic SHIELD soldier), and maybe Captain America posed in the middle by himself and in front of a brick-built version of his shield.

Edited January 30, 2015 by phanstasm

[Kristof]

I find it amazing that people actually expected something mini figure scale. Really?!

With regards to Ideas... that set was NEVER going to be made. Ever. It was too big... it would have dwarfed every other set Lego has ever made in piece count and size. It would have been somewhere around £2000 if it ever hit the shelves.. and that's a conservative estimate. So what if Coulson had only been in a set that was £2000/$3000... people would be whinging all day long... the prices of the Coulson figure hitting more than an SDCC figure on the aftermarket.

I'll revert back to my stance that I think most sets that relate to existing themes are doomed... if not all. Yes they serve a purpose in showing that there is interest in the possibility of a set like that... or even in the extension of a theme in the case of Minas Tirith, but every single one of them is huge and has 15-20 minifigs... and you wonder why it gets votes?

Hey, regarding the first line I quoted - there was nobody saying he expected full minifig scale. The only what people said was that they would rather see playset with minifigure interior - that's relevant wish, eventhough I personally disagree and like the way it is better. But for sure nobody expected 10ft long model so it't no point getting curious abou that :/

About LEGO Ideas, there is no official statement saying that size of the set representing the Idea has to be equal to the final set, if made. In contrary, most of the sets actually got reduced on size, maybe except the birds. True, the reduction has never been that massive, yet LEGO states no limits or even recommendations for how big the Ideas sets should be. Of course there are many reasons why wouldnt they like to have big sets based on ideas. But until they go ahead and clarify this, I'll always point out these issues that feels slightly unfair to me. What are they doing now is exploiting someones work and using it as free market research. They keep writing encouraging 'official comments' with not even an essence of some doubts or worries about the size. All they have to do later is reject the project and create the set on their own as they see there is a demand.

That is what I dislike and that's why I'm bringing up the discussion.

[Zerobricks]

Here's a video

[Blondie-Wan]

About LEGO Ideas, there is no official statement saying that size of the set representing the Idea has to be equal to the final set, if made. In contrary, most of the sets actually got reduced on size, maybe except the birds. True, the reduction has never been that massive, yet LEGO states no limits or even recommendations for how big the Ideas sets should be. Of course there are many reasons why wouldnt they like to have big sets based on ideas. But until they go ahead and clarify this, I'll always point out these issues that feels slightly unfair to me. What are they doing now is exploiting someones work and using it as free market research. They keep writing encouraging 'official comments' with not even an essence of some doubts or worries about the size. All they have to do later is reject the project and create the set on their own as they see there is a demand.

That is what I dislike and that's why I'm bringing up the discussion.

While an Ideas project does get changed if it becomes a real set, LEGO does in fact try to retain general parameters, like keeping it around the same size, keeping features, etc., since those parameters are what people voted for. The Helicarrier on Ideas is immense - so much so that reducing it to anything remotely manageable would entail trimming the size not just slightly but severely, which would effectively mean the final set would be significantly different from the set people voted for.

As far as exploiting that person's work as free R&D, that's just preposterous. First of all, the Helicarrier, as a prominent vehicle seen in multiple movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which is the central subject of one of LEGO's popular licensed themes they've been doing since 2012), it was always already a natural candidate for a set; indeed, it's probably the most natural, obvious candidate for a large, LEGO Direct exclusive from the entire Marvel line, and they were due for a large, LEGO Direct exclusive from the Marvel line since they've already had a couple from DC. I'd bet dollars to donuts the possibility of doing a set like this has been at least floated around since the license was first acquired years ago. And while this specific set of course wouldn't have taken all that time, it would have to have been in development for quite a while - probably a year or close to it, given its size. The Ideas project was posted less than a year ago, so this set was almost certainly in the works before the Ideas project was even submitted, to say nothing of whenever it got any significant number of votes.

If the person who submitted the project was seriously expecting that a Helicarrier set would be based on his / her project, and put in all that work seriously expecting it to happen, then I imagine it doesn't feel good for them, but it's not LEGO's fault. It's simply an inherent risk, both of proposing such a colossal model (with more than four times the piece count of the most expensive LEGO set ever released to date), and of proposing an obvious set candidate from a current and ongoing popular licensed theme.

[SMC]

I cant believe the amount of hate this is getting, I don't really know what people were expecting because we have had little cues along the way that meant this is what I was expecting. The turbines are a great bonus as are the great micro figs, just trying to work out how much adding the power functions would cost and if I am going to do it. I do think the price is not great but look at the other sets that are showing up and the value does not seem to be there.

[jimmysnuff]

I love it, day one purchase for sure. My only disappointment is that Hawkeye and Black Widow aren't variants too.

[Dhivael]

I love this set, although not the price tag. I respectfully disagree with those expressing disappointment at the scale or the "trophy" micro-figs. I think it's a fantastic idea, and extraordinarily well executed by TLG designers. I see this as a UCS set much like the Star Wars line, and it will look amazing next to my SSD Executor. I'm looking forward to picking this up... as soon as I can scrape together some funding, although it'll probably come at the expense of the UCS Slave I. I will also echo the disappointment at the lack of Coulson though. Would have loved to see him instead of Hawkeye. But I'm thrilled with the other offerings.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Dhivael

[Lord Tyrus]

At first glance, I was like "OH MY GOD " but after scrolling through the pictures and viewing them carefuly, I gotta say I'm a litlle disappointed by the size.

It would've been great if the room was playable with minifigs and not microfigs.

But that's not to say the idea of microfigs isn't great. I like how they give a feeling of things going on on the Helicarrier.

I'll probably still buy it.The set itself looks truly amazing in my opinion

Regards,

Mitch

Well I'll say it for you. OH MY GOD. Done. Although I don't even pretend to love the super heroes theme, this does look quite impressive, but what I like the most is the new techniques used, like the 'illegal' connection of the hologram computer displays and the printed trophies.

[8BrickMario]

For me, the greatest disappointment is the overuse of dark colors and the multitude of exposed studs. It just doesn't look so good when it has all of the rough texture from the studs, and the dark grey around the turbines doesn't look good.

Edited January 30, 2015 by 8BrickMario

[Adeel Zubair]

When I saw this set for the first time on the March store calender I thought this was 'meh' Now that official pictures and a designer video have been released I can say I does look really great but something about it still doesn't look right...Marcos Bessa has done an impressive job with this largest set to date. This will be an iconic and popular LEGO set. Is the first LEGO D2C (Direct to Consumer) Marvel set, and will be loved amongst Marvel fans.

This set contains a unique display stand like the one included with The Dark Knight Tumbler but with an additional S.H.I.E.L.D. logo which is brick built. The display stand holds five Minifigures: Captain America (with mask), Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Hawkeye and Black Widow. The biggest problem with the Minifigures is that we don't get Coulson or Bruce Banner. We should have Hawkeye and Black Widow replaced with Coulson and Banner beause those two are already in the Avengers: Age of Ultron sets. I don't see what other sets Banner and Coulson could fit into besides this set. I have a feeling they want us to spend a certain amount at the LEGO Store, purchase a Marvel video game or get them with a Marvel Blu-Ray.

This set contains Minifigure Trophy's of Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and eight Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. This new concept has people with various opinions: Some say they are a cheap replacement for actual Minifigures, they bring to life the scale of the Helicarreir and others says they are a cool concept. I like them but they don't do much for me, I'd rather have them displayed in the interior than the exterior. This set also has several different micro builds to set the scene and scale such as 3x Quinjet's, 3 x planes, 2x forklifts, 4 x barriers and other similar vehicles.

Marcos mentions that the 8x16 tiles are printed with a road design for your own micro scale creations.

The main features we don't know until we see the designer video is that you can turn all four engines and the same time with a simple crank of a lever at the back of the model. You can also add LEGO Power Functions and lights to make it more authentic. To be honest I think if they included the Power Functions and lights I would be happy with the price of £269.99.

One think I realised is that having several colours such as Black, Dark Stone Grey and Medium Stone Grey, Bright Yellow and Transparent Light Blue on the Helicarrier is that it makes it all colourful and bright. I think the profile of the Super Star Destroyer was spectacular and amazing was because the colour scheme of the having Medium Stone Grey as the primary colour and mixing it with the Dark Stone Grey in center made the model very clean. What I'm trying to say is the colours for the Helicarrier should have just been the two shades of grey but Medium Stone Grey as the primary colour. I'm not sure about the Black road with a Bright Yellow S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and the Transparent Light Blue for the engine area.

This set isn't just about small stuff this set measures 31 inches in length, I think puts it behind the original UCS Imperial Star Destroyer and the recent Super Star Destroyer as the longest LEGO model. I wonder if any kid or adult has any space for this...

Overall this set it is great. It has it's flaws like the colour variation. The model is an impressive recreation and would make a great gift for any adult or Marvel fan.

[Zzz]

I'm happy for everyone who loves it and wants to get one, but this is a pass without hesitation for me. The design is OK but not really the strongest Mr Bessa delivered so far, as it seems too busy and chaotic. The choice for micro figs is understandable but doesn't look too nice and the display stand reminds me of the Tumbler's one. Here it just gets too obvious that they just throw in a couple of minifigs to make the fans purchase this, as it is now a "minifig set" and the fans gotta have it for their exclusive figs. 2 series of Avengers sets and no Fury yet for us in a small set? What is that about? I don't get it.

I think the set could have been so much nicer using minifigs and having an interior that fits them, like the several Star Destroyers had. I would have loved to see a chunky Quinjet that carries 2 figures, like Vaders TIE in the Death Star playset.

Then, the price would have been nicer with 300€ for 3000 pcs, but 350€ is just a little too high. If I would have to chose between spending that amount on a PS4 or Xone and a Lego set, with the Shield Carrier they do make my choice pretty simple.