In Part 1 of our Helicarrier review we focused on the ship itself, covering the build, the design, and looks. In Part 2, we explore the smaller details (including the new microfigs) as well as all the minifigs bundled with this set. And we finally answer that all-important question… Does it fly?

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 76042 The SHIELD Helicarrier is currently available on Amazon.

Once again, if you feel video is some form of witchcraft, there’s a written review below the fold.

Vital Statistics (recap)

The Helicarrier consists of 2996 pieces and retails in the US for $350. It is recommended for builders age 16+. The set, which depicts the Helicarrier from the 2012 Avengers movie, includes a ship with display stand, a variety of accompanying microscale vehicles, 12 new printed “microfigs”, 5 Marvel super hero minifigs (all new for 2015) and a brick-built mining display stand. Ship features include four working rotors (hand-operated, but with an option to add power functions) and a concealed microfig-scale version of the bridge.

Microscale Details

– Whereas comparable microscale UCS sets are relatively featureless, this one is packed with all kinds of interesting microscale details that almost make it feel like a play set.
– The most notable microscale feature are the quinjets. They are pretty nifty-looking and very swooshable – and you get *three* of them!
– The quinjets are based on the new Age of Ultron design (a very “sci-fi” blue and gray wedge) which matches the larger quinjet featured in one of the other 2015 Ultron sets. But it represents yet another inconsistency between this set and the 2010 Avengers movie. I kinda preferred the 2012 quinjet, which was black and stealthy.
– There’s a transparent rod that lets you display one of the quinjets in flight. It’s fairly easy to attach (despite that not being covered in the instruction manual) but does wobble pretty spectacularly if you move within twenty feet of it.
– There are also 3 fighter jets. But these are a pretty minimal affair and I think they’re little more than static set decoration.
– The upper deck of the carrier features a cluster of microscale vehicles, containers and other equipment. This includes a fuel tanker and two fork lift trucks. The fork lifts in particular are craftily designed, and completely adorable.

Microfigs

– So far LEGO has only given us licensed character microfigs in the context of board games, so it’ll be interesting to see if their inclusion in a regular set is a one-off or the start of a trend. I’m hoping it’s the latter!
– The set includes 4 micro heroes and 8 micro SHIELD agents. This seems like an unnecessarily large number of agents. Given an entire act of the Avengers movie takes place on the Helicarrier, and this set appears to have play features, I’m puzzled as to why some of those agents couldn’t have been substituted with Thor, Black Widow or Loki. Or even a tiny 1×1 brick Hulk?
– The SHIELD agent microfigs sport a blue helmet and large chest logo that (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) bear no relation to any costumes that actually appeared in the movie. The agent figs are pointless and I plan to give all mine to Simon to paint over!

The Bridge

– The ship interior features a microscale recreation of the bridge, accessed though a removable section of the runway. It features walkways, banks of computer screens, Nick Fury’s command area, and the SHIELD logo.
– The front windows of the bridge actually form part of the bow of the ship and thus connect to the exterior, which cleverly matches the placement of the bridge in the movie. In contrast, the “well deck” at the stern of the ship is represented by a featureless cavity with window pieces that don’t actually open onto anything.
– While the bridge is well designed, it’s surrounded by unfinished hull interior, rotor axles and gears, and a void at the back (unrelated to the space left for adding power functions). All this kind of mars the display value of the concealed bridge feature.
– The bridge can accommodate all the microfigs, but placing them is incredibly difficult for adult sized hands. And if a fig falls over in the wrong spot, it becomes almost impossible to retrieve without tools. But that’s moot since none of the areas for the SHIELD agents have any studs to attach them to, so the minute you try to move the ship, they’re all gonna topple over and vanish.

Minifigs

The Helicarrier comes with 5 minifigs, four of which feature heads with different facial expressions printed on each side. They come with a rather smart display stand featuring a brick-built SHIELD logo – a nice touch not seen in other UCS sets.

The set’s mish-mashing of elements from The Avengers, Age of Ultron, and the designer’s imaginations is played out once again with the minifigs: Two are from The Avengers, and three are from Ultron. Furthermore, two of the Ultron figs are identical to ones you can get in smaller 2015 Ultron sets (and the third is damn near identical). So they’re not even exclusive to the Helicarrier! Compare that to the figs that came with the Super Star Destroyer.

Captain America
Appears here in his Ultron costume. This is the first time the Cap’ has been featured with hair rather than a helmet, and he looks pretty dashing. The brown gloves are a nice touch, but I would have liked to see the arms and legs include more printed details, to round out the costume. And there should be a way to clip his shield to his back.

Black Widow
She is also sporting an Ultron costume – and they have finally given her the right hair style! But for some reason she carries a random space gun that LEGO seems to be dumping in lots of sets recently (overproduction maybe??). It makes no sense: she should either have a pair of black pistols, or better still the pair of shock batons we see her use in the Ultron movie.

Hawkeye
I honestly did not recognize this as Hawkeye at first, partly due to the new Ultron outfit. But the shades-and-grimace face option seems like a mismatch for the character. And while the new hair piece is going to be very popular amongst minifig fans, it’s also kinda the wrong color and style compared to the movie. And the compound bow is the same clunky mess that we saw with earlier incarnations of Hawkeye – it’s comically bad.

Nick Fury
The head printing is great, with an eye patch cord that even goes all the way around. But LEGO’s attempt at his trademark trench coat is a disaster. It’s printed along the sides of the torso and legs, and his clothes have been switched to a light gray to try and make it stand out. They really should have tried to provide a proper coat piece and kept his clothes black …and given him a gun!

Maria Hill
This is the first time Agent Hill has appeared as a minifig, which kinda sounds like an exciting “exclusive” for this set – until you actually look at the fig. It’s a very plain affair, except for the rather nice SHIELD logo arm printing. But the outfit is the wrong color (blue, not gray) and the hair is the wrong style (a long pony tail instead of short and tied back). The hair is obviously an existing LEGO part. This fig is way off from the 2012 movie, and changes to the character’s appearance in the new movie or spin-off TV show do nothing to make it any less inaccurate. And again – no gun!

So is this a play set or a display model?

The ship is well designed, easy to put together, looks good, and is packed with all sorts of awesome microscale bits and bobs – and the microfigs are a great addition (I hope to see more of those from LEGO in the future). So the set is a big win – if a little overpriced – with or without the rather slap-dash collection of minifigs that LEGO threw into the box. Maybe the figs are there to bump up the price, or lure in fig collectors. Though I don’t think the latter strategy will work given that several of them are available in cheaper sets.

The Helicarrier’s microscale vehicles, figures and other details do suggest “play set”. But clearly it’s too heavy for younger builders to swoosh around (or assemble). And as cute as the microfigs are, I think minifigs will remain better suited for play. UCS sets like the Sand Crawler, Slave 1, or Millenium Falcon had minifigs – and they were also minifig scale. So they struck a balance between play set and display model. But the Helicarrier is microscale. So my feeling is that this set is really intended as a display model – albeit quite an improvement and a change of direction from some of LEGO’s other display models.

Does it fly?

Watch the video to find out!

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LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 76042 The SHIELD Helicarrier is currently available on Amazon.