Review: LEGO 76083 Beware The Vulture

July 18, 2017 | 24

I know I’m quite late to the party but I finally got the chance to watch Spider-Man Homecoming over the weekend and I absolutely love it. This may be one of the finest Marvel movies ever and is right up there with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 as one of the best Spidey flicks yet.

Tom Holland absolutely nailed it as Peter Parker and there was so much web shooting!

Anyway, now that I’ve seen the movie, I feel much better prepared to review both Homecoming sets. Let’s kick things off with 76083 Beware The Vulture, the largest of the two Homecoming sets and features pretty much all the major characters from Spider-Man homecoming!

Slight spoilers in the review as I’ll compare the accuracy of the set to what was actually depicted in the movie.

Name: Beware the Vulture
Set Number: 76083
Pieces: 375
Price: AU$49.99 | US$39.99 | £44.99 (Buy from LEGO.com [AUS] [USA] [UK] [Amazon])
Exclusive to: N/A
Minifigs: 4
Theme: Spider-Man Homecoming

I’ve been collecting Marvel Super Heroes minifigures since the very beginning, and one of the things I’ve come to terms with is the fact that minifigs are the bread and butter of the theme. LEGO knows this and often designs sets primarily as vehicles to deliver minifigs into the collections of Marvel fans worldwide.

It takes a lot for a Marvel LEGO set to impress me, so my expectations when it comes to sets are lower than they ought to be, but I like the minifigs and amassing my favourite Marvel characters in LEGO form, so I usually tolerate how sets are advanced.

Beware the Vulture isn’t a perfect set, but it does buck the trend of forcing you to pick up multiple sets to collect all the main characters – see GOTG 2. It’s quite refreshing to be able to buy just one set and have ALL the major characters, which is easily the best thing about it.

Here’s a look at the sticker sheet. It’s a pretty typical sticker sheet for a licensed set, with stickers for details, and damage on the van. A couple of crate stickers which references the DODC (Department of Damage Control) from the movie, a humorous sticker and extra details for Vulture’s wings.

I’m usually pretty indifferent to stickers, but I felt like a lot of the stickers in this set for the spiderwebs and van damage were pretty unnecessary and don’t really add much to the model. I’m not a fan of the “damaged panels” look as it seems a little cheesy.

Here are all 4 minifigures included in the set, all of whom (except for Spider-Man) are exclusive to the set. From left to right, we have The Shocker, Spider-Man, Vulture and Iron Man.

All main characters, no filler and the exclusive-to-this-set factor makes this a particularly strong lineup of minifigures for a AU$50 set.

On the good guy side, we get the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man in this brand spanking new suit and the Iron Man Mark 47 Armour. Iron Man and Spidey are probably both #1 and #2 in appearances in LEGO set, so it’s kinda neat that we get both heavyweights in the set.

Spider-Man has his new MCU suit on, which was designed and supplied by Tony Stark. It’s the best Spider-Man suit yet to grace a minifigure’s body with sharp details, arm printing and dual-tone legs – all the bells and whistles of 2017 minifigure.

The design accurately reflects that of the movie version with its well-defined lines and black accents. The blue is perhaps a shade or two darker than it ought to be, but in LEGO form, it still has a really nice contrast against the red sections.

Marvel has graced us with yet another Iron Man variant, which is never a bad thing. The MK 47 armour is one of the most interesting versions yet, defined by a splash of silver across the suit’s body.

The silver is reflective and perfectly complements the dark red base and gold and light blue accents. It’s not a colour you’d typically associate with Iron Man, but it works well in that regard, drawing your attention in. He also has silver hands to go with his outfit.Here’s a look at Spider-Man and Iron Man’s back printing. Both feature vibrant back prints which continue on the detail of their torsos. I’m not a fan of the back Spider-Man logo but I do like his “utility belt”.

The webbing on his mask also continues on his back, although I would’ve much preferred if the pattern enveloped the entire head – currently, there’s just printing on the front and back which is probably due to the technical challenges of printing on the sides. Maybe… in 2020.

Iron Man’s back printing is all sorts of intricate and is really lovely to behold.

Here’s a better look at Spidey’s arm printing, which has those black bands across the wrist and forearms. Spider-Man comes with different varieties of webbing, a string version and a solid white “power blaster” piece.

Power blasters were introduced late last year and are a pretty nifty accessory which can be launched from minifig hands as a projectile.

The engineering behind the power blast piece and how it works is honestly pretty genius in that it works effortlessly well . Check out this video to see it in action.

One of the big surprises of the set? No Tony Stark! The Mark 47 Armour is empty and is remotely controlled by Tony Stark like a drone! A transparent blue minifigure head is what greets you upon lifting open the mask.

I was pretty surprised that they didn’t include a spare Tony Stark head because he definitely showed up in the MK 47 Armour in the movie.

If you’re wondering how the Spider-Man suit in this set differs from previous iterations, including last year’s Civil War debut, here’s a shot with two recent Spider-Man suits. The minifigure with the grey baseplate is the new one.

There are some very subtle differences between this new suit and the one that appeared in 76067 Tanker Truck Takedown – the suit itself is about 90% similar in design, save for more prominent black accents on the chest (instead of blue), a different Spidey logo and a wider red middle section.

If I had to pick between the two, I’d select the suit from this set as my preferred one.

There are more differences on the back, with black borders across his upper back, and a different Spider-Man motif as well as a slightly more detailed belt.

And here’s the new Iron Man MK 47 armour (in the middle) being flanked by some recent Iron Man armours. It looks pretty sick when you add Silver Centurion’s helmet on it to complete the all-silver ensemble.

On to the bad guys, we get Vulture the primary antagonist brilliantly brought to life by Michael Keaton and the secondary villain, the Shocker. Vulture is a pretty simple minifigure, making great use of the new bucket-style Iron Man helmet for details.

Unlike Iron Man, this helmet style suits Vulture a lot better. The printing on the helmet is sharp and they perfectly captured the menacing green eyes, as well as the pilot oxygen mask.

Vulture’s torso features his black flight suit, which has a fur lined collar. I really like the design – it’s not too over the top, and instead is rooted in realism. It also looks pretty bad-ass.

The Shocker also follows the simplistic route with a basic leather asymmetrical jacket, yellow arms with a criss-cross pattern printed on them and his signature weapons, electro-charged fists. The fists are always a nice accessory to have and look mostly great on him.

Here’s a look at Vulture’s face beneath the mask – we get a grumpy old man face complete with tons of wrinkles and even freckles. Michael Keaton definitely didn’t look this elderly in the movie!

Here’s a look at Vulture’s and The Shocker’s back printing – nothing too remarkable but it’s always a nice to have.

Both Vulture and the Shocker don’t have alternate faces, but the back of Vulture’s head has a bit of old man freckles printed on it. It’s a really tiny bit of a detail and quite unnecessary but I do appreciate it!

Vulture’s outfit isn’t complete without his massive set of wings that he can attach himself to using a neck brace. The wings, which are constructed out of alien technology harvested from the Chitauri, Ultron and other sources look particularly good.

Firstly, the wingspan is quite impressive and this is a quite a sizable model. The dark green elements mixed in with greys, blacks and whites is really attractive.

The wings can also be folded, albeit in a limited fashion. You can tilt them backwards and forwards, and I also like the wingtips being on separate clips.

Here’s a look at the Vulture’s wings from the back, where you can see the two turbines/thrusters which are connected to the main unit via ball joints.

The turbines are quite flexible and can be moved to a variety of different positions and can also be used as a rudimentary stand to prop the wings up.

Here’s a look at the plates on the wings, which are created using 4 Nexo Knight shields. The geometric pattern is pretty neat and gives the wings a cool, futuristic vibe and are a splendid touch to the entire model.

The LEGO designers nailed it with the wings, and they’ve really done the model a lot of justice. The scale with the minifigure is pretty much perfect, and I do like how poseable it is.

My only gripe with the wings is that it’s quite hard to display by standing upright. You have to either support it against something, or try and use the turbines as a stand. LEGO should’ve really included some transparent stands. 

This is Shocker’s van, which for all intents and purposes is easily the weakest part of the set. There’s nothing particularly special about it.

It’s a white van that’s six studs wide, which means it’s so scale with all your other LEGO City vehicles – so you can reuse and repurpose it for your city if you want to.

The van has plenty of “damage” or spiderwebs on it, thanks to the use of stickers but they kind of give it a very messy look. The stickers don’t really make the van look any better, and I half regret applying them on.

The license plate includes the initials JR which is probably a nod at Justin Ramsden, a LEGO designer who often works on Super Heroes sets.

The shape is pretty standard for a van but it utilises curved slops across the side and top to give it a bit of a smoother, less blocky look. That’s not particularly movie accurate as the white van Spidey was chasing was pretty boxy and didn’t look as modern as this van.

There are some unsightly gaps that you can see from the side where you have some yellow bricks exposed which are a little odd.

The back hatch of the van is pretty ugly. It sticks out awkwardly, and doesn’t really look like any van door I’ve ever seen.

I do like the sticker which injects a bit of humour into the set, but nothing will save the back door from how bad it looks. 

The back door, is however a necessary evil and allows for the entire back section of the van to open up to reveal the insides. The sides of the van swivel open – it’s a smooth motion and for the most part it works well, to the detriment of how the van looks.

In the back of the van are some clips for weapons, and a massive stud blaster gatling gun that’s mounted on a technic L-piece. It’s able to be swiveled forwards to fire in front of the van.

There’s also a sticker on the gatling gun which has the DODC nameplate on it. The DODC is the Department of Damage Control, a US government agency that cleans up after super heroes and the trail of destruction and collateral damage that they leave behind.

There are also some crates with more DODC labels on them, which is a reference to the stole alien technology that Vulture and his crew use and modify to sell on the black market. The crates contain ammo and a transparent purple cone.

In the back is a blaster for The Shocker to use. It’s very basic but it does reference the alien weaponry used by the Vulture’s crew.

One of the play features involves Spider-Man firing his webbing at the van to slow it down and hinder its escape. You’re given a big cobweb piece that you can use clip on the back of the van in place of the hatch door.

It’s not the most well-thought of play feature as the clips tend to dislodge themselves every time you swap the door for the web which is a minor annoyance.

What I liked:

• Great selection of exclusive minifigures
• All the main characters of Spider-Man Homecoming in one set
• Vulture’s wings are very well designed

What I didn’t like: 

• The van is boring and unattractive
• There’s not much else that make this set interesting apart from the minifigs

Final thoughts: 76083 Beware the Vulture is as average as Marvel sets come. The build and main focal point of the set, Shocker’s white van is pretty uninspiring and bland.

It looks and feels like it should be a LEGO City vehicle more than anything else, which is not what you expect from a Marvel Super Heroes set.

Aside from being fairly accurate to the film where Spider-Man is in pursuit of a white van driven by Shocker, it’s just one of those times that I wished the LEGO designers took a bit more artistic liberty to come up with something a bit more interesting than a white van.

Not a fan of the stickers on the van too.

Thankfully, what salvages the set from being a total snoozefest is the minifigures lineup, which is really quite terrific.

Getting all the main characters in the movie, Spider-Man, Vulture, Iron Man’s Mark 47 Armour and The Shocker is a very pleasant surprise and I’m glad to not have to buy multiple sets to amass the characters that matter.

This set is the classic case of buying the set purely for the minifigures, and in this area, does not disappoint. Iron Man and Vulture are fantastic, and I really do love how well they designed Vulture’s wings and kept it as close to the movie depiction as possible.

For collectors, this set hits the right spots as you get all the minifigures you could want from the latest Marvel movie and can kind of be done with the theme unless you’re a completionist.

The set’s price is pretty fair for what you get. I was pleasantly surprised that the Australian price was pretty decent. RRP is only AU$50 which is very close to the US pricing and with the amount of discounts we get, you could easily snag it for $35 which makes this a great deal.

It seems that the Brits are shafted this time as the set is priced at £44.99 which is roughly AU$75 and close to US$60. Insane price and seems like a massive error from LEGO’s pricing department.

All in all, I don’t hate the set but apart from the minifigures, there’s really nothing here that will interest you. For casual fans and parents, this is a great set as you get all the Homecoming characters at a pricepoint that isn’t too predatory unless you’re in the UK.

For that, this set gets a very borderline 3/5. I was very close to giving it a 2/5, but the minifigs and relative affordability of this set won me over in the end.

Buy this if you’re a serial LEGO Marvel collector, or are a fan of the movie. Avoid if you want a decent LEGO model and building experience.

Rating: 3/5

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Till next time! Oh and go watch Spider-Man Homecoming! It’s absolutely brilliant!