Review:6862 Superman vs. Power Armour Lex
| Superman vs. Power Armour Lex (1 Review) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|
||||||||||||||
| View more information... | |||||||||||||||
$19.99
€26.99
£19.99
$39.99
$49.99
Reviews
Berrybrick
Country: America the Beautiful Gender: Male
Joined: February 2010 
№ of Reviews: 46 
№ of Featured reviews: 1
Building Experience: Enough is enough
Cligra took care of the poll I usually set up, so vote on this set on his review please :)
This is the only Superman set in the first DC Universe wave, and possibly the most anticipated set of the wave. If you haven't read Cligra's review of this set yet, please do, I'm going to mention and allude to it some.
Box/Instructions
Unlike the Batman sets which mostly show a night-time setting, Lex seems to be attacking Metropolis in broad daylight. The front is okay, but the back really is ugly. Purple and green don't look good against yellow. The box is different from the other DC sets as there is a cartoon Superman in Batman's normal spot.
For size reference (I accidently the deleted the picture without the mech)
Cligra saved me the trouble of going over the instructions, which I hate doing. I'd like to say that the Superman shown in the instructions' background (described here) looks better than the official figure, but more than that later.
The comic book and instruction manual are both small. I took a reference pictures with Superman and with the comic from one of the larger sets.
Random page
Instructions and comic with Superman (for size reference)
Comic book comparisons (6862 on bottom)
The comic book was nice, as usual, but I didn't get it. After Superman is hit by the kryptonite laser, he falls to the ground and gets right back up again, able to use his powers. I don't know much about Superman, but that seems wrong. Maybe it isn't as much of a weakness as I thought.
Parts
I'm not a fan of Superman or mechs. For the most part, I only bought the set for Wonder Woman (not a fan of her either though), Lex Luthor, and the parts. I don't think they disappoint. For $20 (US), 207 parts comes just above the golden ratio, plus this is a licensed set.
A lot of purple and green, which is great. There is also some Transparent Bright Green which was introduced in Atlantis a couple years ago. I didn't like it then (against red), but it looks good with green. There are other useful parts too, like ball joint bricks and "cheese graters" and the dome pieces (I finally have the right color for Mr. Freeze).
I'm not a fan of mechs, so I'll probably disassemble the set to use the parts for The Joker and The Riddler.
Minifigures
The three minifigures are exclusive (though it doesn't seem like they will all be), and possibly the main draw of the set. For most people at least, I would of skipped it if it wasn't for the parts (and I have some ideas for Lex Luthor).
Superman
Superman, yay! Not really, I'm not a Superman fan, and he is probably one of my least favorite mainstream super heroes (but not my least favorite).
The torso is very good, both the front and back printing. The legs and cape both work well. The face is pretty ugly though. It looks a lot like Bruce Wayne's (which I wasn't overly fond of in the first place), except older. I have some uses for it though. I don't like the hair either (which is molded in China btw), it just looks strange on a minifigure. Mutt Williams' hair in black looks nicer, I think. On the instructions background, he is shown with a less Bruce-esque face and Mutt's hair, which looks better.
Instert caption here
Lex Luthor
Even though I don't like Superman, I don't hate Lex Luthor. He's kind of like an opposite Bruce Wayne (but so are Drury Walker and Thomas Elliot). He's a buisnessman, millionaire (or maybe a billionaire, I don't know), and a philantropist. He's also a corrupt politician though. Nothing says corrupt politician like rampaging a brightly colored mech through a street though.
As a minifigure, there isn't much to say. I plan on giving him a black hairpiece and making Harvey Dent, his face is pretty similar to the good side of Two-Face's.
Wonder Woman
I said earlier that Superman was almost my least favorite mainstream super hero. Wonder Woman is my least favorite; she's just like Superman, except she's in a woman's body (nothing wrong with that), has an arsenal of weapons which I have to wonder (he he...) how someone came up with them (bulletproof bracelets? A lasso that makes people tell the truth? A boomerang tiara that hides her identity?), and she gives other female super heroes a bad name because she's so superficial and melodrmatic. I wouldn't call her the worst super hero though, at least not after reading this (I particularly like the one who welds dogs to peoples' faces).
As a minifigure she's nice though. The face is useful, and I'm sure that you could find uses for the hair and torso, but I think I'll keeps her together. Unlike Cligra, I don't think she looks pudgy. Well, she does when she has the bracelets I made for her on (I couldn't resist, they're so stupidly unresistable). I don't oppose to the legs being red with the flesh parts printed on, the alternative would of been open heals on the boots and a thong, printing the legs on red seems to be the lesser of two evils. I don't think that the flesh printing looks like stockings (but in an unrelated note, I do think Wonder Woman should wear stockings, I think she's get cold). The only time that the red on the back really looks weird to me is when she's posed at an angle where you can see the side and back.
The lasso really does look stupid when it isn't posed right. It is stupid though, so whatever.
Controversy
The legs are Chinese plastic as Brickset pointed out. However, both Wonder Woman and Superman's hairpieces are also Chinese made. Huw believes that we should excuse some molded pieces from China because they are so detailed, like these hairpieces. However, these legs are also very detailed. There are the stars on the tights and the printing on the sides (I can't think of an example of a minifigure with printing on the side of their legs who wasn't from China). It's just a pair of detailed legs. I don't see why we can't excuse them like we would the hair. I don't think it's a precursor to all minifigures being made in China, at least not more than before, the legs are more detailed than minifigures produced elsewhere. Sure, I'd prefer Danish or Mexican plastic, but I don't see why these can't be excused.
The Build
Just the mech build from the feet up. It was pretty average, not too interseting, not too boring. Nothing really stand out.
The Completed Model
I'm not a mech fan, I actually almost went into a dark age during the Exo-Force era, most of the LEGO sets from that time were horrible, except for City had started to get better, so I made it through.
Anyway, I guess it's okay for a LEGO mech. One arm is longer than the other though, which is strange. I like the colorscheme, except I don't know why it belongs to Lex Luthor, purple and green don't exactly scream "serious" like he does.
I'll probably strip it for parts, but I did have some fun with it, as you can see in some of the pictures.
Extras
The mech is a lot bigger than you'd probably expect, almost as big as the Seattle Space Needle! Not really, it's actually probably smaller than you'd think, the box makes it look bigger than it is.
I had to cut the caption off at the end, just use your imagination. Just a spoof about Wonder Woman's lasso.
And lastly, if you like mechs but not Superman, I find that this easily translates to Batman. The only thing you'd have to remove is the green kryptonite crystal. My excuse for the trans. green lights that I was too lazy to remove is Joker's laughing gas. I don't imagine Joker as the kind of person who drives mechs too much, but whatever.
Summary
I recomend this set, but I don't think that you need me to tell you to get it, it was probably one of the most anticipated sets (at least until pictures of 6857 surfaced). Just two things first;
- Cligra suggested that this may have the best value/price (one or the other, I can't remember) of all the current DC sets, I think 6864 actually does have more than this.
- I don't get the set-up of the set, Superman coming to rescue Wonder Woman who has been captured by (Lex Luthor in) a kryptonite mech. Any other mech and Superman could rescue WW in a few seconds, but a kryptonite one? Wouldn't Woner Woman have a better chance at defeating that?
I feel I actually have to explain some of my ratings here;
- Building Experience only gets a three because it wasn't really stand out
- I overthought the set-up of the set above, but ignoring that, Superman and a villain together have great playability, (mostly) no matter what, so it gets an easy five
- Minifigures get a four not because of Wonder Woman's legs, but because of Superman's face/and hair
| Overall: |   4½ / 5 |
|---|---|
| Building Experience: |  3 / 5 |
| Parts: | 5 / 5 |
| Playability: | 5 / 5 |
| Minifigures: | 4 / 5 |
| Value for Money: | 5 / 5 |
(Please use this section to write mini-reviews or ask questions about the set. If you wish to leave a comment about an individual review, please go to that review page and see if the reviewer has comments enabled.)
Enable comment auto-refresher