Review of 76039 Ant-man Final Battle and 76109 Quantum Realm Explorers

[kaelthas]

'Hold on, you gave her wings?!'
'And blasters.'
'So I take it you didn’t have that tech available for me.'
'No, I did.'

No blasters or wings for you poor Scott.. So this movie is about the story of antman and the wasp after Captain America: Civil War right before Infinity War. So I suppose we will know why antman is absent when Thanos invaded with is 50% discount ideology. I really love these 'one set to collect them all' LEGO sets. They really make you feel complete. Let's go into the sets.

 

Introduction

Remember the previous set of Antman when the first movie was out? I missed that set and didn't buy it. Now there are some increase in the value, but I still manage to get the set from a local reseller. So here I am, having two Antman LEGO sets and a review combo. Hope you like it!

Overview

Name: 76039 Ant-man Final Battle
Year: 2015
Pieces: 183
Minifigures: 3
Price: £19.99 / $19.99 / 24.99€

Quote

Get set for a massive battle on a micro scale! Ride with Ant-Man on the giant flying ant, firing the flick missiles on each wing. Evade Yellowjacket’s stud shooters and LEGO® brick-built catapult. After landing, use Ant-Man’s special powers to communicate with the ants and activate the Super Jumper to knock over Yellowjacket. Take off again on the flying ant and swoop to capture Yellowjacket in its pincers! Includes 3 minifigures with weapon and accessory elements: Ant-Man, Hank Pym and Yellowjacket.

• Includes 3 minifigures with weapon and accessory elements: Ant-Man, Hank Pym and Yellowjacket
• Flying ant features foil-like wings, head with pincers to lift Yellowjacket and posable joints
• Also includes LEGO® brick-built catapult with 2 nail elements and 2 miniature ant figures
• Weapon elements include Yellowjacket’s 2 stud shooters
• Includes Ant-Man’s Super Jumper element
• Swerve away from Yellowjacket’s nail catapult
• Super-jump to knock over Yellowjacket
• Pick up Yellowjacket in the flying ant’s pincers
• Flying ant measures over 2” (7cm) high, 9” (25cm) long and 3” (9cm) wide
• LEGO® brick-built catapult measures over 1” (4cm) high, 2” (7cm) wide and 2” (6cm) deep

Name: 76109 Quantum Realm Explorers
Year: 2018
Pieces: 200
Minifigures: 3
Price: £19.99 / $19.99 / 24.99€

Quote

Fly into action against Ghost with Ant-Man’s Quantum Vehicle and The Wasp with this LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes 76109 Quantum Realm Explorers set. The Quantum Vehicle features an opening, bug-eye-shaped minifigure cockpit, adjustable insect arms, stud shooters and adjustable engines for launch, hover and flight modes. This set includes 3 minifigures and a gold-colored trophy element.

• Includes 3 LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes minifigures: Ant-Man, The Wasp and Ghost.
• Quantum Vehicle features a bug-eye-shaped, opening minifigure cockpit, 2 adjustable insect arms, 2 stud shooters, 2 adjustable engines and 3 mufflers.
• Adjust the engines for launch, flight and hover modes.
• Weapons include Ant-Man's Shrink Gun and Ghost's 2 Power Blasts.
• Accessory elements include a gold-colored trophy and The Wasp's wings.
• Ghost minifigure is new for June 2018.
• Recreate thrilling scenes from the Marvel Super Heroes Ant-Man and the Wasp movie.
• Quantum Vehicle measures over 2” (7cm) high, 5” (15cm) long and 3” (9cm) wide.

The Box

 

The box arts are incredibly amazing for both sets. The previous battle is on a coffee table and the latest battle looks more like a small lab in the Quantum Realm. I'm pleased that the super jumper is no more. 

The play features are quite little in both of the sets but I'm not complaining as their appearances are amazing.

The antman designs are different as you can see from the actual sized photos here.

The Content

 

For 76039, we got two numbered bags, one sticker sheet, one instruction booklet, one comic book and two transparent printed wings, I love these exclusive wings!

Booklet one, two, parts list 1, parts list 2 and five.

Bag one, two and extra parts.

76109 also came with the same content but we don't have the comic book any more. Is it because it is not appreciated?

Booklet one, two, three, four and parts list. Sticker sheet.

Bag one, two and extra parts.

These are the special parts in bag one. I love the printed round tile that looks like a watch battery. The ski base is quite a large part which I prefer it to be several small parts so that it can be more useful in MOCs.

I loved this one so much! The printed rounded trans clear windows, wind pipes and the roller skate shoes! The wings for the wasp is nice too but I kinda hoped she got a special new mold. 

The Build

 

Anthony! This giant flying ant is the main attraction of this set and you won't get it anywhere else. It was so well designed with the wings! 

This is the top side view after you assembled the parts. The colors used are very nice too.

The wings can spread very long and it looks like taking off now.

Side view. Here you can appreciate the head, thorax and abdomen of an insect.

When he is 'flying'. There are actually two attachment under the thorax to make him fly.

Shelob is here! 

You can actually put a minifig to ride him. The flexibility of the head makes him look like he got his own expression when posed at the right angle. I love this Anthony so much!

This is the final build of the set with the up sized 1x1 red brick and 1x2 yellow plate. The stickers are so minimal in this set made me wonder why not just print the LEGO words on the tiles? 

Run Yellow Jacket!

Moving on to 76109, the build only consist of this Quantum Realm Explorer. I love the spherical dock design with round and transparent parts. It looks like arctic explorer but much cooler and more advanced looking. 

The back of the explorer is surprisingly detailed. I do love the brilliant use of the barrels as the exhaust pipes. 

The wings of the explorer are attached via ball joints on both sides which makes them stretchable like this. It does feels like Anthony in the previous set to me.

The cockpit can only fit one minifig at a time.

Top view of the explorer. The roller skate shoes really look cute here as the details of the ship!

The completed build. *The trans stand that make wasp fly is not included in the set.

The Minifigures

 

The Yellow Jacket, Ant man and Hank Pym in his old motorcycle suit. Look at the amount of details printed on the torsos and legs! If you love antman and minifigures, you wouldn't want to miss this gorgeous set! Their helmets are very nicely molded and The trans red and trans yellow part that incorporated into the helmet showing their expressions really super awesome! 

The back of their torso are equally detailed. You can even see the part that Ant man broke inside the Yellow jacket by shrinking between atoms. 

Helmets removed and you can see Darren Cross, Scott Lang and Hank Pym (Saruman?). OMG I really love the helmets.

Darren only have one face while Scott is added with puzzled expression and Hank with angry face.

Let me present to you. THE YELLOW JACKET! 

Moving on to 76109. A lot of complains goes to the wasp's helmet. Including me. WHY not use the Ant man's helmet with trans yellow visors? Now she looks ugly. Or at least I thought of this before I got my hands on her. The recycled use of the invincible iron man's helmet is really a lazy move but the printings on it does make her looks nicer. You gave her wings!? The trans blue wings are nice but also a repeated use of parts. Only her torso prints made her looks nice here as a minifigure. Leg prints are also missing for her and the Ghost. Alright enough with the complains for the Wasp. New Ant Man suit! Now he has a blaster and superb torso and leg printings. The Ghost looks nice too with two trans blue blasters. The trophy is quite a mystery to be added to this set. I think we will know after the movie.

With all the complains raised for the Wasp, she is quite nice and acceptable after I acquired my copy of the set. 

The back of their torso is very nicely printed and you can recognize ant man here is actually similar to the ant man in the trailer. 

All three of them have dual facial expressions. Finally we get a scared face of Scott here. The Ghost we got a Valkyrie face that will look better with the hood on.

Helmet off. Hope does have facial expressions under the helmet. Scott is happier than the previous version and for the Ghost, her helmet is printed on the head and it looks quite nice.

Haha, here it looks like Scott is surprised to notice that the Ghost looks really similar to Valkyrie in Thor Ragnarok! I took Hope's hair from the other city set and it looks nice on her like that.

Comparison of new and old ant man. Is he gaining weight that the belt is curved at the new suit?

The back is also different and the new one looks lighter without so much clunky metals.

The evolution of ant man suits and I love all of them!

Ant man family!

So you get what I mean of the helmet is recycled but the printings on it saves the day? 

Conclusion

Both sets are so nice and I can't find a reason not to have them in my collection. Miss them, you will surely regret as a Marvel Ant man fan!

Review Summary
Playability: 6/10 - Nothing much to play with actually. 
Design / Building Experience: 10/10 - The design is very nice and I really love Anthony and the explorer.
Minifigures:  9/10 - Great minifigures! All the printings and the details are marvelous! A little bit disappointed for the wasp but it's ok, she does look cute here.
Overall: 9/10 - These two sets are must buy for ant man fans. The sets are equally worthy with the minifigures in it. I love them so much!

Hope you enjoy the review, do share your thoughts in the comments! 

[WhiteFang]

Outstanding review and excellent photography accompanied with awesome past and present comparisons of the Ant-Man (especially the Ant-Man family). It is definitely a welcoming treat to see you sharing your excitement of the MCU movies set with us. I own both of these sets and I enjoyed them as much as you do. Now I am just looking forward to the upcoming movie of the Ant-Man and the Wasp. 

Well done and keep up the good work.  

[SpiderJazz]

Nice review! Love the comparison both cool sets. But if I were to choose I still prefer the old one. 

Brick build bricks are cool.

[icm]

Thanks for the nice double review.  You really show off all the details of these sets.  They're both really charming little sets that seem to capture all the essentials of their respective films in an affordable package, but that little Quantum Realm ship just doesn't hit all my "SPACESHIP!" buttons, so I don't think I'll pick it up after all.  Also, the lack of leg printing on Wasp compared to Ant-Man and Yellow Jacket is pretty disappointing.  It would be pretty cool if TLG copied that cockpit technique for a City helicopter, though.

[kaelthas]

15 hours ago, WhiteFang said:

Outstanding review and excellent photography accompanied with awesome past and present comparisons of the Ant-Man (especially the Ant-Man family). It is definitely a welcoming treat to see you sharing your excitement of the MCU movies set with us. I own both of these sets and I enjoyed them as much as you do. Now I am just looking forward to the upcoming movie of the Ant-Man and the Wasp. 

Well done and keep up the good work.  

Thanks for the kind words! Can't wait for the movie too! This is the first time I used black background for the review, turns out quite okay and I will try new colored background in my next ones. Hopefully it adds some different feeling in the review. 

13 hours ago, SpiderJazz said:

Nice review! Love the comparison both cool sets. But if I were to choose I still prefer the old one. 

Brick build bricks are cool.

Thanks! Glad you liked it! Yeah I do love Anthony with those large wings. 

9 hours ago, icm said:

Thanks for the nice double review.  You really show off all the details of these sets.  They're both really charming little sets that seem to capture all the essentials of their respective films in an affordable package, but that little Quantum Realm ship just doesn't hit all my "SPACESHIP!" buttons, so I don't think I'll pick it up after all.  Also, the lack of leg printing on Wasp compared to Ant-Man and Yellow Jacket is pretty disappointing.  It would be pretty cool if TLG copied that cockpit technique for a City helicopter, though.

Thanks! It's not a spaceship but more of some arctic vehicle. Maybe they didn't copy the city helicopter to make it similar to the ones in the movie? But I do agree with you that I want leg printings..

[Borex]

I don't know why the playability is only a 6? You can swoosh around on an ant or in a tiny 'space'ship, attack villains and even earn a gold trophy (i don't know why that is included, but that is probably something from the movie). I would give it a 8.

I had very much fun building both sets so i recommend these as well :-)

[kaelthas]

19 minutes ago, Borex said:

I don't know why the playability is only a 6? You can swoosh around on an ant or in a tiny 'space'ship, attack villains and even earn a gold trophy (i don't know why that is included, but that is probably something from the movie). I would give it a 8.

I had very much fun building both sets so i recommend these as well :-)

Haha maybe my definition of playability is a little bit different. To me something like a mechanism equals to my definition of playability. Yes I had very much fun building them too! 

FYI, I swoosh Anthony around with his large wings all the time. Haha

[Borex]

1 hour ago, kaelthas said:

 

FYI, I swoosh Anthony around with his large wings all the time. Haha

I still do too lol

[MOMAtteo79]

i like this format of reviews

[makoy]

I like your unique "comparison reviews" so keep on doing them -- but my question all the time to you is: if you only have a budget for 1 set, which one will you buy and why? 

[kaelthas]

On 6/11/2018 at 12:01 AM, Borex said:

I still do too lol

High five!

On 6/11/2018 at 5:23 PM, MOMAtteo79 said:

i like this format of reviews

Thanks mate!

On 6/12/2018 at 8:37 AM, makoy said:

I like your unique "comparison reviews" so keep on doing them -- but my question all the time to you is: if you only have a budget for 1 set, which one will you buy and why? 

Thanks! Hmm. 76039. Anthony is so exclusive and the wings are too special to be missed!

 

[meepinater]

now I want antony. (that's how i say/spell it). 

lego did  a great job!

[kaelthas]

On 6/26/2018 at 8:59 AM, meepinater said:

now I want antony. (that's how i say/spell it). 

lego did  a great job!

That insect with giant wings is really an amazing masterpiece!

[Huigberts Builds]

Gotta love Antony, the first figures were the best in my opinion (except for the face prints), but I like the updated Ant-man better, it also looks more like giant-man. The new one is still a good set if you missed the first one.

[Pchan1983]

Great Review!  I think the Quantum Realm Explorer is very well done.  The wasp is very disappointing and really hope they include hair pieces.  Anyway, here is my detailed thoughts if you are interested.