Review : LEGO Marvel 76178 Daily Bugle

As promised, we quickly tour the LEGO Marvel set 76178 Daily Bugle, a very large box unveiled today by LEGO which will be available from May 26, 2021 as a VIP preview and at the public price of € 299.99.

It is therefore a question of assembling the LEGO version of the Daily Bugle, the New York newspaper directed by J. Jonah Jameson and for which Peter Parker works as a freelance photographer.

Let's reassure those who already imagine being able to integrate this 82-centimeter-high building into their LEGO city made up of Modulars Creator Expert: the construction is installed on a 32x32 base plate and nothing protrudes from the four sides, there will remain narrow and dark alleys between the buildings with two containers, a newspaper stand, a large manhole cover with a sticker, a rat and a few boxes lying around.

The sidewalk is in the usual format with its light gray border (Medium Stone Gray) and its dark gray tiles (Dark Stone Gray) and LEGO has provided four connection points to integrate the Daily Bugle in your favorite neighborhood. Some may regret that the building does not occupy more floor space and that the construction becomes shallower from the second floor.

When the first rumors around this box had circulated, I had imagined a building in the spirit of that of the set 76005 Spider-Man: Daily Bugle Showdown marketed in 2013, with beige brick walls and a slightly different architecture from that offered here. The designer chose to offer a gray building with large glass surfaces similar to the one seen in the video game Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Why not, but the dominant color seems to me poorly chosen.

The construction is broken down into five sections: the ground floor, the three floors and the roof. Each of these modules can be removed to allow top access to the interior fittings of the lower module. But the modularity of the set does not stop there and it is possible to remove the facade of the three floors for front access to the offices installed in the premises.

The system is ingenious, there is no need to force and it holds. For the 2nd and 3rd floors, it will just be necessary to make sure to put the facade of a floor back in place only when the lower level is installed on the building. The facade of the ground floor is not removable, but the designer has provided access from the side of the building, via a sub-assembly that can be removed using the integrated handle. Access to this space is still relatively laborious, even if it ultimately only houses the entrance hall of the Daily Bugle and the receptionist's office.

The facade of the second floor was "blown up" to let the Goblin rider fixed on a transparent rod. The dynamics of the stage are excellent, the rails and the glazing suspended in the vacuum are installed in a very realistic way. It is not possible to restore the building to its initial state via any mechanism, this explosion is not optional, but it is the only frozen contextual element of this diorama. The bravest who want to do without this staging can always tinker with the facade so that it is intact, all the necessary parts are present and there is nothing complicated in the technique used.

The construction experience is generally satisfactory, as often we alternate between somewhat repetitive sequences for the walls, facades or the different modules of the emergency staircase and the slightly more interesting phases of assembling the furniture and setting up place decorative elements.

As often, many of the transparent parts present in the different bags are already scratched when unpacking. The bags that are too large and the box too large for what it contains do not help, especially during the logistical phases during which the bags and parts move freely.

We do not escape the usual differences in color between the different gray pieces, it is subtle depending on the lighting but the difference is very present. Another detail to note: the copy of the set I received contained a poorly molded part which will require replacement via customer service.

The various offices of the Daily Bugle are very well equipped, it is of the best level Modulars with floors covered with Tiles, various and varied desks, chairs, computers, television screens, photocopier, coffee machine, etc ... here we get a large batch of professional furniture to build, it changes the beds and chests of drawers a bit. The elevator integrated in all the floors is obviously not functional, but the doors with their luminous indicators of ascent and descent are well integrated, one would almost believe it.

The facade of the building is dressed in huge screens covered with stickers, there is in particular a reference to the arch Clone Saga published in 1975 then continued in the 90s with on the biggest of these screens Professor Miles Warren (The Jackal) and Doctor "Kurt" (here with a K instead of a C) Connors, both at the origin of Peter Parker's clone, Ben Reilly aka Scarlet Spider. On the side, a second screen refers to Norman Osborn's run for mayor of New York.

The Daily Bugle is also known for its sign in large letters usually placed at the top of the building and this box allows us to assemble a version of the thing which I find very successful even if it reinforces a little the impression of obtaining here a very narrow building protruding widely on both sides of the roof.

If you run out of room in height, you can always shorten or remove the transmitter by about thirty centimeters and the tank placed at the top. From the ground to the top of the sign, the building measures only 61 cm. The red emergency staircase that runs along the left side of the building is rather well integrated even if I would have preferred a darker color, Dark Red or dark brown for example, than the bright red used here.

Two vehicles are provided, a neatly finished 6 stud New York taxi and a Spider Buggy which ends its career at the top of the building on official visuals. The taxi can choose to simply circulate in the street or end up in collateral damage from an attack by Sandman which emerges from the sidewalk via an orientable support with very well thought out dynamics on which we just plug the character.

Another interesting detail, the presence of 18 Tiles all pad printed which distill various and varied references via newspaper headlines. These different pieces are installed in the offices, either at the top of a pile of newspapers, or hung on the walls. There are fifteen different versions of which one Tile provided in quadruplicate. Two large sheets of stickers are also delivered in this box with some stickers on a transparent background and very large stickers to stick on the interior and exterior screens of the newspaper. I salute in passing the nice work of the graphic designer who worked on the different stickers representing screens, it is very successful.

The endowment in minifigs is here at the height of the subject treated and the public price of the box with 25 different figurines. Those who do not buy or buy few other sets from the LEGO Marvel range will inevitably find something to expand their collection with many characters. For the regulars of the range, it will once again be necessary to be satisfied with a lot of secondary "civilian" characters, a large handful of super heroes or super villains already seen in other boxes and in the end only five truly unique heroes in costume.

The characters in really new outfit of this box: the duckling The Punisher (Frank Castle), the vigilante of Hell's Kitchen Daredevil (Matthew Murdock), Blade (Eric Brooks), the mutant Firestar (Angelica Jones) able to generate and control microwave and the Black Cat burglar (Felicia Hardy) capable of altering the odds to turn the situation to her advantage.

The Punisher minifigure is fine, although the hair used doesn't seem like the best fit for this character. The contrast between the white of the hands and feet, tinted in the mass, and the pad-printed area of ​​the torso is a little less annoying than for other figurines, the symbol being generally a little faded on the torso of the character. The belt should on the other hand be a more ... white white to convince.

In my opinion, there is one accessory missing from the Blade figurine to really pay homage to the character: his long leather jacket. The legs could also have inherited some visual details like a holster strap or a few pad-printed daggers. As it is, it is minimum service for this new figurine.

Daredevil's unseen minfiig is quite successful, the bright red costume lacks a bit of darker areas and the choice of Dark Red was necessary in my opinion to make the character less flashy, knowing that the arms and the legs are here hopelessly neutral. The area of ​​the face pad-printed on the head is convincing, the flesh color turns a little towards pink due to the superposition of the shades but it is bearable.

LEGO will not have made the effort to provide Firestar with legs in two colors to allow us to get a really successful minifig with his red boots. It's a shame, the rest of the figure is correctly executed for a character whose outfit is relatively simple. Black Cat has legs in two colors on his right side and the shade difference with the white pad printed on the black torso is a bit noticeable.

On the side of "civilians", we still get some headliners like J. Jonah Jameson, Aunt May, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. The rest of the cast is made up of more secondary characters: Betty Brandt, Jameson's secretary, editor Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, reporters Ben Urich and Ron Barney, photographer Amber Grant and Bernie the cab driver.

Recycling is at work in this box and many of these minifigs use elements already seen on other characters combined with a few pieces with unpublished pad printing. J. Jonah Jameson uses for example the torso of Hans Christian Andersen (40291) but with flesh-colored hands, Ben Urich takes the torso of Bruce Wayne and the head of Florean Fortescue (Harry Potter), Peter Parker wears the jacket of Jack Davids (Hidden Side) and Aunt May put on Hermione Granger's sweater and she retains her usual face used since 2016 which is also that of the witch with cart in the Harry Potter universe.

Bernie wears the gray vest already seen on Harry Potter or Zach Mitchell (Jurassic World) and the taxi driver is also the lookalike of Sinjin Prescott (Jurassic World) whose face he takes back. Gwen Stacy looks like Rey Palpatine, she wears an outfit similar to Rami's (Hidden Side) and LEGO misses the opportunity to deliver her signature hairstyle with her black headband. Betty Brandt uses Tina Goldstein (Fantastic Beasts) and Monica Geller (FRIENDS) face under Madame Maxime (Harry Potter) hair and she wears Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter) blouse.

As for the superheroes in uniform already seen elsewhere, LEGO brings out 10 minifigures marketed in at least one set in recent years: Spider-Man, in its version combining injected legs in two shades and pad-printed arms, and Doctor Octopus both delivered this year in set 76198 Spider-Man & Doctor Octopus Mech Battle, Spider-Ham (76151 Venomosaurus Ambush), Miles Morales (76171 Miles Morales Mech), GhostSpider (76174 Spider-Man's Monster Truck vs. Mysterio), Venom (76115 Spider Mech vs. Venom, 76150 Spiderjet vs. Venom Mech, 76175 Attack on the Spider Lair et 40454 Spider-Man vs Venom & Iron Venom), Rampage (76163 Venom Crawler), Mysterio (76174 Spider-Man's Monster Truck vs. Mysterio), Sandman (76172 Spider-Man and Sandman Showdown) and Green Goblin (76175 Attack on the Spider Lair).

We will retain the solution used here for the mechanical arms of Doctor Octopus with a series of supports for minifigs discovered with the DC Comics series in bags (71026), delivered here in gray. If the effect obtained is visually rather interesting, the handling of the appendages is on the other hand less easy than with the usual solutions and it is not uncommon to have to reassemble an arm from which a few parts have become detached.

As far as I'm concerned, this box will obviously find its place in my collection even if it is not the very big party that I expected, perhaps a little naively, at the level of the cast of characters provided. As I said above, I am also divided concerning the construction: I would have liked another exterior color for this Daily Bugle with the gray facade and the emergency exit a little too colorful but the interior spaces are well appointed with a very satisfactory level of finish. Access to these different spaces via the three removable facades is a real plus for those who would like to play with them even if LEGO presents this set as a high-end exhibition product for adult fans.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 30th May 2021 next at 23pm. 

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.