76009 - Superman: Black Zero Escape

76009 - Superman: Black Zero Escape

Year: 2013
Pieces: 168
Retail Price: $19.99 (paid $10 at Wal-Mart)
Theme: Superheroes (DC Universe)

At this point It's fair to say that I have not seen the new superman movie.  I know - it's wrong of me and I should be beaten but to be fair, I also haven't seen the last two Batman movies either, despite owning them now (due to a wonderful Christmas present from my sister). So having said that, I can't really compare the accuracy of the model to the movie itself. I don't even know what to look for when searching Google for a movie representation as the term "Superman black zero" only turns up this LEGO set.

Anyways, this set has some good things going for it. It appears that at some point in the movie, Lois Lane gets placed in a spacecraft of Lord Zod. Assuming that point to be correct, this is a LEGO representation of that scene. Includes in the set is the spacecraft itself as well as a base of operations for Lord Zod himself. First up, the base of operations.

 

 

Includes in the bag for this set is Lord Zod and Superman. Both have eyes that glow red and Lord Zod has a helmet that come son and off and is attached to his armor. Lord Zod also has a weapon (what bad guy doesn't after all). Superman has a darker shade of superman suit than the one used in the previously reviewed superman set but accurately reflects the darker shade used in the new movie as well.

 

The base of operations is interesting. Not having seen the movie, it seemed a bit archaistic with no rhyme or reason to it. It has a wall that moves back and forth, presumably so that Lord Zod can make a grand entrance. It also has a walkway that leads to the spacecraft.  The missile launchers on this set are fantastic though. Most LEGO missile launchers use a flick fire missile. Flick fire missiles fit snugly into their base and are launched when someone "flicks" their finger on the back of the missile which releases it from it's holder and launches it. Instead of that, this set has a rubber component that is pulled back and released. When released, it springs forward, launching the missile. To me, this is a much better process than the flick fire missiles but also is only one that can be done to a missile launcher that is securely affixed to something, such as this base. I don't think it would work well on something like an aircraft (such as the quinjet just reviewed) as one hand is holding the aircraft and the other hand would need to be trying to launch the missile.  The base was an easy build and Daniel had no problems getting it up and running.

 

 

The second half of the set is the spacecraft.  To me, the craft looks fantastic. It has guns and some hefty engines which give it some power. It has a seat in it for one person. Lois Lane comes packages with this bag but her face looks a little bit weird to me. It looks like she could very well be a clown if she had different hair on. I don't have much to say about the craft itself - it works for what it is supposed to do. We did have a few issues with the stickers, mainly because we had to figure out which ones went where. Both sides of the craft have stickers and when outing them on, you need to put them on opposite sides of the pieces and then place them on the appropriate side of the craft. For a five year old boy, this was a confusing process but then again, the set isn't listed for 5 year olds, so I can't fault LEGO for that.

 

All together, this is a very playable set. My only fault with the set is more with the series itself for the Superman Movie. There really isn't much heft to it. There are three sets to the series and all of them have Superman and Lord Zod in them. It makes sense, but when you get all three sets, there really isn't much of a need for all of those Supermen. furthermore, the sets are all kind of, "eh" when put together. It really requires the builder to have a decent LEGO city to make playing with the LEGOs as fun as they should be. None of the sets contain civilians or even a building, for example, making the series (with the exception of Lois in this set) easily played in space, on another planet... wherever because the boundaries don't exist with the series. The only thing tying these to Earth is a military vehicle in the battle of Smallville and a building antenna in the Metroplis showdown. I guess I just expect more from a series of LEGO superheroes.

To see what I'm talking about, the Batman series (also DC universe) has a bank, batcave, the asylum, and funhouse as buildings, which makes playing with a full series much more fun. It grounds it to Earth and isn't just spaceships flying around booming each other. From what I remember of Superman, 95% of it takes place on Earth and the series should have more ground things to play with.