Today we are very quickly interested in the content of the LEGO Marvel set 76245 Ghost Rider Mech & Bike, a box of 264 pieces which will be available from January 1, 2023 at the retail price of €34.99. To be able to understand the logic of the product, you have to be prepared to admit that a guy might need a mech to ride a motorcycle too big for him. If we consider this to be logical, then the contents of this box may possibly make sense.

LEGO has made a specialty of providing a mech to many superheroes, even those who don't need it, and Ghost Rider could therefore not escape this tradition which is in principle able to appeal to young audiences. This is not the first appearance of the character at LEGO, he was already present in 2016 in Johnny Blaze version on his motorcycle vaguely on a minifig scale in the set 76058 Spider-Man: Ghost Rider Team-up then in 2021 in Robbie Reyes version at the wheel of his car in the set 76173 Spider-Man and Ghost Rider vs. Carnage. This new set features Johnny Blaze riding a motorcycle while sitting in his mech.

LEGO could have been content to provide us with the minifig and the mech in exchange for 14.99 € as is usually the case in these children's products, but this price bracket will already be occupied in January 2023 by three new boxes and it was necessary to furnish for fill in the box at €35. So someone at LEGO decided that a mech-scale motorcycle would do the trick.

I'm not going to dwell on the mech provided, it's barely on the level of what you get in other sets, no frills or articulated knees but with a playability potential that seems accepted by the target clientele since LEGO continues to wring out the idea. The build is vaguely character-colored and the hands are quite nice with four fingers thin enough to fit around the bike's handlebar grips.

The motorcycle is a little more interesting to assemble and it gives a little consistency to the product. Here too, the Ghost Rider theme is respected with a nice pad-printed piece on the front which could also work in black and white for the Punisher and the level of detail is sufficient to clearly distinguish the engine, the exhaust pipes and the pilot's seat. Too bad for the rims whose color is not uniform depending on the side concerned, it will be necessary to choose sides when highlighting this motorcycle on a shelf. No stickers in this box.

The highlight of the show: the installation of the mech at the controls of the motorcycle. LEGO has provided a clip under the mech which prevents it from falling permanently, it is well seen. The overall rendering will not be to everyone's taste with a Ghost Rider whose head is lost a little in the middle of this pile of parts and some flames are missing, for example, coming out of the upper back of the mech to increase the effect initiated by the hairstyle of the minifigure. Perhaps it was necessary to go all the way with the idea and possibly provide a helmet or mask to scale with everything else so that the proportions of the overall assembly would be a little more convincing.

The supplied minifig is a less colorful variant of the set 76173 Spider-Man and Ghost Rider vs. Carnage. The torso used here is no longer dotted with orange areas but there is an interpretation of the usual jacket with its chain that crosses the torso and its studded belt. The head provided in this box is new but it is above all a graphic variant of that of 2021 based on the same mold and I still find it a little too white and simplistic. The character's legs are neutral, there are no small savings at LEGO.

In short, this toy for children fans of Ghost Rider (if there are any) seems a bit expensive to me for what it really has to offer knowing that you have to be content with a single character. The idea of ​​the mech on the motorbike may amuse the younger ones, adults can still keep the rather convincing two-wheeler and display the minifig alongside.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 3th January 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.

The December 2022 issue of the official LEGO Batman magazine is now available on newsstands, it allows you to obtain a very common minifig of Batman accompanied by his Jet Boat.
In the pages of this issue, we discover the product that will accompany the magazine scheduled for March 17, 2023, it is a Batcycle "with biting tires" with space to install a minifigure not supplied. Nothing crazy , especially for 6.99€.

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. Simply enter the code on the back of the bag to obtain the file, 212224 for the assembly instructions for the Jet Boat delivered with this number.

Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO Marvel set 76247 The Hulkbuster: The Battle of Wakanda, a box of 385 pieces which will be available at the retail price of €49.99 from January 1, 2023. Even if the two products have a different approach to the subject matter and definitely do not play in the same league, it is impossible not to make a comparison direct between the proposal of this box and that of the LEGO Marvel set 76210 Hulkbuster (4049 pieces - 549.99 €).

In both cases, it is indeed a question of assembling a reproduction of the armor with on one side a high-end model for adult fans and on the other a simple toy for children. Those who had a little trouble with the aesthetic choices of the big model will perhaps find in this new less ambitious model something more faithful to the reference armor, even if the format imposes some limitations with a construction that does not measures on arrival only about fifteen centimeters high.

I think for my part that this interpretation of the Hulkbuster does not demerit, far from it. The armor looks great with a globally coherent "anatomy" despite the presence of gray joints that many will find too inconspicuous and it is far more convincing than that of the set 76104 The Hulkbuster Smash-up (375 pieces - €34.99) marketed in 2018 or that of the set 76031 The HulkBuster Smash (248 pieces - 34.99 €) dating from 2015. The four limbs here are thick enough to embody the volume expected of armor and the various joints whose finesse could have ruined the impression of corpulence are generally well integrated.

The assembly is done very quickly but it offers some sufficiently complex and satisfying sequences for the youngest to have the impression of taking up a construction challenge that goes beyond the simple stacking of parts. The fastening of the helmet with the new pad printing remains a little fragile with its two droid arms simply clipped on, but this is the only notable point of weakness of the product.

The object is easily taken in hand, nothing comes off inadvertently during the manipulations which allow this armor to strike a pose. As you can imagine, the knees are fixed because it is not a "Action Figure" and the manufacturer invokes in the product description the need to guarantee this toy a certain stability.

This rigidity of the lower limbs of the Hulkbuster is however not too penalizing, it remains enough to make him take a dynamic pose by combining the rotation of the hips with that of the arms. The size is also fixed, impossible to orient the trunk of the armor a few degrees to the left or the right to refine the pose.

The cockpit is only accessible by moving the helmet of the armor, there is no mobile element on the chest as is sometimes the case on certain mechs which offer the possibility of installing a minifigure in control but Bruce Banner slips easily into his slot.

Note that the transparent pieces in "Blue Opal" used for the ARC Reactor, the repulsors or the inside of the knees of the armor are not phosphorescent. These are the elements usually available in the DOTS and Friends ranges. The armor does not escape a large handful stickers that allow to slightly raise the overall level of finish, I would have liked to be able to do without them but they seem essential to me to obtain a visually convincing product.

As for the four minifigs provided, there is enough to please collectors who like the variants of existing characters with a somewhat generic Bruce Banner but which at least has the merit of being equipped with a new head with two faces and two Outriders whose facial expression is from 2019 but both come equipped with the same never-before-seen torso. The latter is only a slightly refined graphical variation of the 2018 version, but it is well presented as a new reference within the product inventory.

The Okoye figurine is not new, however, it reuses the elements already seen in the LEGO Marvel set 76214 Black Panther: War on the Water, whose torso has a slightly pale black area that has trouble fitting perfectly with the character's legs.

To sum up, at 50 € the armor and probably a little less as soon as the resellers seize the product, there are not many questions to ask. The finish/size ratio of this Hulkbuster is excellent and if you only have to display one version of the armor on your shelves while staying within a reasonable budget, in my opinion, it is this one. You will easily find the best possible angle to erase the few aesthetic shortcuts used and you can even have a little fun with this little model if you feel like it. My conclusion is therefore obvious: the Hulkbuster is finally entitled to the accessible and sufficiently successful derivative product that it deserves.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at December 26, 2022 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.