Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO ART set 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man, a box of 2099 pieces which will be available via the official online store and in LEGO Stores from August 1, 2023 at the retail price of €199.99.

As with other recent products in the LEGO ART range, this construction breaks away from the usual concept of a flat painting with a subject treated in three dimensions. Here, Spider-Man appropriates the frame which becomes a box on a comic strip and the character takes advantage of the border of the painting to give the impression that he is stepping outside the limits of the work. Why not the idea is excellent with a new dynamic that should appeal to hardcore fans of the spider-man.

The chassis of the product is not designed like most of the other references in the range and this product does not use the usual 16x16 black plates which are often used as a starting point. Here, we first create an internal structure equipped with two elements that allow the painting to be hung on the wall and on which we then install ten 16x16 green plates, the central part of the construction remaining hollow to accommodate the system that will be used to fix later the character's head.

We then alternate between a batch of large filler pieces to create relief and a selection of Tiles various and varied which ensures a sufficient level of detail in the background of the painting and finally we add the visible sections in relief with the shoulders, the forearms, the hands and the head.

The assembly is quickly dispatched, the most laborious being not to forget one or more Tiles green, even if it is not so serious because the final rendering will not be affected unduly. The construction process is entertaining, the different stages are well distributed and you don't get bored. We sometimes wonder how the whole will end up representing something coherent and there is a real satisfaction in discovering the final result by taking a step back from the end of the assembly.

However, I am rather torn about this proposal, which at least has the merit of innovating a little: I really like the halftone effect Benday on the background of the painting which reminds me of the assiduous reading of Strange or Spidey comics during my young years, it is successful. The presence of a white spider's web in relief on the bottom frame of the box is also an appreciable detail and the fifteen or so spiders to be distributed over the whole of the painting is also a nice finishing detail.

I'm much less of a fan of the execution of the central character though, it's a bit rough up close and it lacks some of the iconic attributes of the Spider-Man suit including the shoulders, waistband, and cuffs. forearm.

Six of the seven pad-printed pieces delivered in this box are used for the cobweb pattern on the head and I find the rendering of the Spider-Man costume a little poor as it is. The colors used do not help, we find once again the "classic" red and blue of the LEGO universe and I am always a little disappointed by the use of these colors which seem dated according to the set concerned.

The shadows on the folds of the costume or on the musculature of the character are also really symbolic here, it's crude and you really have to take a step back for this lack of finish to fade. Same observation for the shoulders which are framed by very large elements and whose very basic finish has difficulty in being forgotten even when the painting is observed from a certain distance.

Some Tiles flanked by the pattern seen on the Spider-Man costume would have frankly helped to improve the overall rendering. I understand the desire to offer a "stylized" version of the character, but in my opinion we feel more here a desire to save money than a desire that would really come from an artistic bias.

As for the proportions, everything seems quite correct to me except perhaps for the forearms which are a little thin and the left calf which lacks volume and which is visually lost in the background. The left arm lacks muscle and the junction with the hands seems a bit sloppy to me.

We could also discuss the position of the hands, that of the right hand really lacks naturalness with an improbable angle. The fingers that come to grip the edge of the frame are on the other hand well executed, it will even be possible in principle to orient those of the left hand differently so that they do not interfere when the frame is placed on the dresser in the living room.

In fact, it's laborious and annoying: by passing the four fingers of the hand flat outwards from the bottom of the frame, you have to be careful not to unhook the pieces that form the upper part of the hand.

The yellow plate placed at the bottom right of the work is pad printed, there are no stickers in this box. Do not look for the statement indicated by the official description of the product, "...a box at the bottom quotes his motto "With great power comes great responsibility"...", she is not there.

The initial idea is excellent and the possibility of obtaining a purely decorative product that offers something other than alignments of small parts was enticing. Unfortunately, the execution leaves in my opinion a little to be desired and it will be necessary to take a lot of hindsight so that the defects of the product are forgotten. The overall finish is therefore too approximate to convince me, especially at 200 € for the poster in relief.

I'm still looking for thesurprising details" vaunted in the official description of the product and I remain on my hunger in front of a table which could have been much more successful. I hope that LEGO will show a little more ambition on future proposals of the same barrel, the possibilities are numerous, especially in the Star Wars universe.

This product therefore deserves in my opinion encouragement if not mentioned, it opens the door to future creations that could seduce me if the manufacturer is a little less stingy in pad printing and more diligent about the important details of the subject treated. We will therefore wisely wait for a significant reduction in the price of this product at LEGO or elsewhere.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at July 16, 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

Today we take a quick tour of the content of the LEGO Marvel set 76262 Captain America's Shield, a very large box of 3128 pieces currently in pre-order on the official online store and which will be available at the retail price of €209.99 from August 1, 2023.

I'm not drawing you a picture, this is about building a reproduction of Captain America's shield 47 cm in diameter and you will have understood that the assembly phase is not the strong point of this derivative product: it will have to work on the assembly line to finally have the pleasure of displaying the thing on a shelf alongside, for example, the hammer from the LEGO Marvel set 76209 Thor's Hammer (119.99 €).

If you are wondering where the 3128 pieces of the set are, just look at the photos below to understand that this shield is not a simple disc on which we would distribute plates diverse and varied colours. The internal structure of the accessory consumes most of the inventory and it is designed so that it supports standing and moving. It is also thanks to these alignments of parts that the shield takes on a little volume with a very successful curved effect and the designer has applied himself to proposing a model that fits rather well with the aesthetics of the reference accessory.

It's the subject that wants that, so almost the entire assembly process is broken down into sequences consisting of building the same thing 18 times, and those who love LEGOs for the diversity of assembly techniques will be in for their costs. Here, it is only the end that justifies the means and we are bored while waiting to finally have the possibility of exposing this shield on its support. The only instruction booklet provided seemed strangely thin for a product of more than 3000 parts, I quickly understood why by discovering the sequences consisting of multiplying the same sub-assemblies in a loop.

The whole is flawlessly rigid, thanks in particular to the solid cross made up of axes which takes place in the center of the construction. Placed very quickly in the center of the construction, it ensures the shield a perfect distribution of the sub-assemblies which constitute the internal structure of the object and makes it possible to no longer have to worry about the solidity of the whole.

We could discuss the choice of colors, I would rather have used dark colors, Dark Red et dark Blue, rather than basic shades for the outer surface of the shield, the result would have been only closer to that offered by the abundantly retouched official visuals of the product. In "real" with these basic colors, this shield immediately has less cachet than on the product sheet available online or on the box and it will be necessary to play on the lighting to attenuate the flashy side of the red and blue pieces a little used.

The black support supplied with its pad-printed plate which serves as a reminder that the owner of the object is indeed Captain America is a version on steroids of the usual presentation bases, you have to be able to hold the shield in place without risking it falling . The part of the internal structure of the shield which rests on the base is also reinforced, this is the area identified by a Plate red on the visuals above.

The central star offers a slightly more entertaining assembly sequence than the rest of the product, it's always taken and it's the finishing detail that gives a little cachet to this shield which looks like cracked up close over its entire surface. From further away, the object is necessarily an illusion while recalling that it is indeed a LEGO model with its studs visible on 100% of the outer surface. Nothing has been planned to be able to get rid of the base and hang this shield on the wall, but the most resourceful will necessarily find a solution to install the object, the area with the Plate red seems to me sufficiently reinforced to allow it to be suspended.

The set therefore seems extremely well designed to me and nothing has been left to chance, except perhaps the absence of a handle at the back to grab the shield like a superhero. Was this by-product essential? Nothing is less certain but it will be up to everyone to assess the interest of having a large shield with a surface dotted with studs on its shelves.

LEGO adds a minifig of the owner of the shield in the box, just to furnish a little at the foot of the presentation base and to make the whole thing even more imposing by creating a comparison of scale. The supplied Captain America figurine is not exclusive to this box, it is the one already seen in the sets 76189 Captain America and HYDRA Face-Off (9.99 €) and 76260 Black Widow & Captain America Motorcycles (15.99 €) and we can conclude that this is good news for collectors of minifigs, they will not have to invest more than 200 € in this shield to obtain the figurine in question.

LEGO provides both the character's mask and additional hair. how you want to expose the character is up to you. Small printing defect on the shield accompanying the minifig in the box I received, it will once again be necessary to call on customer service to obtain a perfectly pad-printed element.

It is obvious that this product is aimed at customers who would not necessarily buy the usual classic sets and who want to be able to display their passion for the Marvel universe without getting stuck with the cars, ships and other motorcycles that the range distills for us year round. LEGO attracts here interior decoration enthusiasts who buy their New York posters at Ikea and who proudly display the word "Welcome" based on large wooden letters found at Nature et Découverte on the wall of the living room. It's simple: if this shield does not seem essential to you, it means that you are not the target of the product.

It is therefore lifestyle pushed to the extreme, and even if the object benefits from pretty techniques which allow it to obtain a very acceptable finish, the construction process is unequally monotonous which will undoubtedly put off the most LEGO fans looking for a bit of diversity in the techniques used. It will be without me, anyway I don't have the space to display this big shield at home and I already have the minifig provided.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at July 14, 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

LEGO today unveils a new reference in the LEGO ART range: the set 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man. This box of 2099 pieces will be available from August 1, 2023 at the public price of €199.99 and it will allow you to assemble a representation of the spider-man in relief with his hands clinging to the frame of the painting.

The whole thing measures 54 cm high by 41 cm wide and the painting is dotted with fifteen spiders in homage to the comic Amazing Fantasy #15 published in 1962 in which Spider-Man made his first appearance. Do not hesitate to view the 360° view below to discover the back of the painting.

31209 THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ON THE LEGO SHOP >>

The June 2023 issue of the official LEGO Batman magazine is currently available on newsstands and it allows us, as planned, to obtain a Joker minifigure which is obviously neither new nor exclusive since it is the one already seen in the set. LEGO DC Comics 76188 Batman Classic TV Series Batmobile marketed in 2021 and since removed from the LEGO supply.

In the pages of this magazine sold for €6.99, we discover the construction that will accompany the next issue scheduled for July 28: it is a 58-piece Tumbler which, in my opinion, does quite well considering reduced inventory. For those who have the feeling of having already seen this Tumbler somewhere, this new version is different from that of the polybag of 2014 30300 The Batman Tumbler (57 rooms).

For those who are interested, I remind you that the instructions for the various mini-models delivered with the magazines published by Blue Ocean are available in PDF format. on the publisher's website. All you have to do is enter the code on the back of the bag to obtain the file.

The June 2023 issue of the official LEGO Marvel Avengers magazine is currently on newsstands (€6.99) and, as expected, you can obtain a minifig of Doctor Strange with his pretty plastic cape, a figurine available identically in the sets. 76205 Gargantos Showdown, 76218 Sanctum Sanctorum, as well as in the polybag 30652 Doctor Strange's Interdimensional Portal.

The next issue of this magazine will be available on newsstands from September 4, 2023 and it will be accompanied by a minifig of Groot already seen in the set 76193 The Guardians' Ship  as well as in the Advent calendar 2022 of the Marvel range (76231 Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar 2022).