Review: 76171 Miles Morales Mech Armour
Posted by CapnRex101,76171 Miles Morales Mech Armour expands the enjoyable collection of Marvel mechs which was introduced during 2020, including similar pieces and assembly techniques. This model combines appealing black and red shades, corresponding with Miles Morales himself.
The accompanying minifigure looks marvellous and is exclusively available here. Much like Peter Parker, Miles Morales has featured copious Spider-Man suits during comics and video games, hence I am pleased to receive an updated design here. Furthermore, there appear to be substantial improvements over other variants.
Minifigure
Miles Morales has appeared twice before, wearing the black Spider-Man suit with which this character is most frequently associated. The new minifigure features a similar suit, albeit now covered by a dark red hooded jacket which looks excellent. This appears quite reminiscent of the Bodega Cat Suit which appears during the recent Spider-Man: Miles Morales video game, albeit lacking his distinctive backpack and accompanying cat.
Fortunately, the attractive symbol on Miles' back therefore remains visible and I like the bright red hem which adorns the torso. The hood element matches that introduced with The LEGO NINJAGO Movie, albeit lacking the moulded hair. The head underneath features light bluish grey webbing so differs from previous Miles Morales minifigures.
Removing the hood reveals continued detail across the back of the head, matching previous Spider-Man minifigures. The trans-clear element used for connecting webs is equally familiar and can support an array of trans-light blue accessories on this occasion. White is the normal colour for these interchangeable webs so their availability in another shade is welcome.
The Completed Model
Despite each incorporating some unique features, the Marvel character mechs share various similarities. Their size is perhaps the most obvious of these as each mech measures 12cm in height. However, their proportions vary and 76171 Miles Morales Mech Armour appears quite lithe when compared with previous mechs, lacking bulky shoulder armour or broad feet.
That design appears somewhat awkward under certain circumstances, particularly since the arms seem exceedingly long. However, omitting bulky armour allows unrestricted articulation which is fantastic for Miles Morales, whose extraordinary agility is arguably his greatest asset. An amazing selection of poses can therefore be created, capturing the character in action.
Another feature which distinguishes this model from others is the dearth of stickers! None are necessary because the only decorated part, affixed to the chest, is printed. This complements the Miles Morales minifigure and includes the famed Spider-Man symbol. Otherwise, the body does seem consistent with the mechs released at the beginning of 2020, featuring an element that was originally created for the NEXO Knights Battle Suits.
The torso can accommodate one minifigure, although accessing this driving position is quite difficult because the aforementioned 2x3 pentagonal tile restricts motion of the entire forward panel. Furthermore, the shoulder position seems unnatural, set behind the centre of the torso. Exactly the same structure appeared before but was disguised by bulkier shoulder armour on those occasions.
While the arms appear unusually simple, the hands are more complicated than other Marvel mechs. Both hands include three fingers and a thumb which are properly articulated, allowing you to recreate Spider-Man's classic web-shooting pose! Web accessories can accordingly be connected to both hands, forming a small shield on the left and launching web on the right.
Further accessories are located on the back of each shoulder, the sides of both legs and web handcuffs are kept behind the driver. These trans-light blue highlights look superb beside the predominant black and red colours, representing electro-webs. I am less impressed with the feet, which look exceedingly narrow. Heavy boots would be unsuitable for Miles Morales but these appear too narrow, in my opinion.
Overall
As anticipated, the exclusive Miles Morales minifigure is the highlight of 76171 Miles Morales Mech Armour. His unique Spider-Man suit looks marvellous and differs significantly from past depictions of the same character. The consistent design features between that minifigure and the mech are appealing too, particularly where their colour schemes are concerned.
However, I dislike the proportions of this model. Deviating from previous Marvel mechs which focused primarily upon strength, so featured heavy armour, is effective but the arms appear excessively long beside the body and legs. The articulation is appealing though and I think the price of £8.99 or $9.99 seems reasonable, especially given the enticing minifigure.
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review represents an expression of my own opinions.
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29 comments on this article
Those feet look very tricky. Too narrow. I associate my mechs with huge feet to help balance out the weight of the shoulders and forearms.
oh yeah, that fig is sick! i agree about the feet, they are weird! also nice web pieces.
Actually i think lot of people are going to buy it for the minifig and the parts will go directly into the part bin..
That’s what i planned to do with the 3mechs of 2020
10 bucks isn’t a bad deal for getting legs to upgrade my imperial officers. I might be picking up a few of these as parts packs.
I, for one, love the tiny feet.
Yeah, I like the narrowed proportions- I'm glad that the other mechs have stockier builds and wider feet, but for a Spider-mech this is a good deviation from the template.
I may look into shrinking the hands a bit, those look odd without the big shoulders and feet.
This is definitely the winner of the new mech roster, both the figure and the build are nice.
@Chouju_X_SPAM_ said:
"I, for one, love the tiny feet."
Me too. They feel appropriately nimble and spider-like, while still having enough length to support the weight of the mech.
Cool! At last, a model with freakishly long arms that resemble mine!
I'm going to confess: the mechs are the new Microfighters, and they're loveably awful and awfully loveable. And, again, a cheap way to get a minifig.
(Also, I found the Avengers blisterpack clearanced to $11.99 at a Lego Store yesterday, so if you're looking to assemble a Gamerverse team, that pack and three mechs--Cap, Iron Man, and Thor--are a good way to go.)
This reminds me of the age-old question "What does God need with a starship?"
Nice Kid Arachnid mech to pal around with last year’s Spider-Man mech.
I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I’m buying it!
Easily my favorite marvel mech of this wave and maybe better than Thanos from last wave.
@Lfm said:
"Actually i think lot of people are going to buy it for the minifig and the parts will go directly into the part bin..
That’s what i planned to do with the 3mechs of 2020"
That's exactly what I plan to do. Cool minifig, the rest goes straight to parts bin.
I want this minifigure so bad I can taste it. Though I’m not ACTUALLY going to taste it...much. :)
The more I look at these mechs the more I imagine Bionicle with very tiny heads. :P
Although honestly if Lego were to attempt Bionicle or something like it again I could actually see these being the way forward with that kind of theme. Use the $10 price point for these style of mechs/action figures, have each large action figure include a minifigure scale version of the character then release larger sets using those smaller minifigures to represent locations and vehicles. Is it a bit of a betrayal of Constraction's Technic roots? Yes, it would make them look out of place with classic Bionicle, Hero Factory, Slizer, Star Wars Buildable Figures etc. But the versatility of being System based is pretty impressive and allows for use of normal Lego parts instead of the specialized molds of CCBS.
These dual molded legs would fit any Batman minifigure. And I bet Miles wouldn't look bad with plain black legs.
This’ll be my first LEGO mech but I’m just buying it for the excellent minifigure. I think I’ll use Huw’s brilliant guide and try making a spider speeder out of the spare parts!
I envy those who can and will readily add the parts to their parts bins. This is one of several (not necessarily mech) sets I just can't make up my mind whether to build or part out!
I wonder how much money I could make by setting up a parody OnlyFans page for this mechs feet
So bored with Mechs. They look rubbish. Even my kids think they are lame. Wish TLG would drop the idea from their ranges and concentrate on more sets that are based upon things that actually feature in their source material.
I intend on Buying this one solely for the minifig
, same goes with Captain America one to make it No.9 and the Massive shield element is a nice touch.. The Thanos mech was the best of the last 3 in my opinion.
I am the only person that will get this set just for web xD
That pose reminiscent of The Matrix was the best! :D
I'll pick this one up, and possibly Cap and Thor. I picked up the Spider-Man one out of the last set, and I actually really like it. It isn't "realistic," but it's still goofy fun. It'd be fun to track down the Thanos one, too, just to get pics of them getting into trouble around the house.
Saw this and Thor in The Entertainer yesterday, but passed on them for the two smaller Technic sets.
Something about the hood on Miles doesn't quite look right to me, but I'm not sure what it is. I've never felt LEGO hoods have ever really worked.
Does Miles Morales actually have a mech in the comics? I didn't think he used stuff like that but my Marvel knowledge is limited to the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
Lego is the world's largest toy company because they make stuff like this, but I can't help but feel like it's a really "throwaway" design for a character that is important.
I don’t understand why he has to have blue webs.
@CopperTablet said:
"Does Miles Morales actually have a mech in the comics? I didn't think he used stuff like that but my Marvel knowledge is limited to the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
Lego is the world's largest toy company because they make stuff like this, but I can't help but feel like it's a really "throwaway" design for a character that is important."
I think you're sort of looking at this from the wrong perspective — LEGO has released several Marvel hero and villain mechs like this one which aren't based on anything those characters have piloted in their previous appearances, and a lot of the characters who have been in those sets are ones like Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man (Peter Parker) who show up extremely frequently in other Marvel sets.
So this is less "let's make up a mech since we don't have any other ideas for what to do with these characters" and more "since kids love both superheroes and mechs so much, let's create some sets based around the concept of what mechs for these popular superhero characters might look like".
After all, for a lot of kids, the appeal of creating fun action scenes and stories involving these characters often outweighs the appeal of simply recreating "official" storylines that they've appeared in.
Plus, this gives LEGO a way to release these characters in a form that has the same sort of articulation and play experience as non-LEGO action figures of these characters, but that is still compatible with other minifig-scale Marvel sets so it doesn't feel totally out-of-place as part of a larger collection.
@Be_hapi said:
"I don’t understand why he has to have blue webs."
One of Miles Morales' powers which differs from Peter Parker's is an abiliity called a "venom strike" which lets him channel bio-electric energy through his gloves and/or webs. This set seems to use Tr. Light Blue for his webs to signify these electrical powers being channeled through them.
Overall, I am really impressed with these mechs in general on account of their articulation and value-for-money. It's awesome to see Miles getting his own mech, since previously we'd only seen them for more "old-school" Marvel heroes and villains. Not only does this reflect how popular Miles Morales has become since his introduction (and especially since his starring roles in recent Spider-Man movies and video games), but it also opens the door for a much wider range of characters who could be candidates for this type of set in the future.
The designer of this set did a great job at making sure the build stands out from the previous Spider-Man and Venom mechs — not just through the electric blue web recolors and the color scheme resembling Miles' black and red suit, but also through the leaner, nimbler-looking designs of the feet and shoulders.
The web pieces on the back of the arms are another nice detail which both differentiates this mech from earlier sets and echoes the webbed "glider wings" of previous "spider-suits" from the comics (though as far as I know, that feature is more typically associated with Peter than with Miles).
In the future, it would be awesome if LEGO released a mech like this for Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider — it would be nice to have sets like this with some female heroes and villains, and her color scheme would stand out nicely from the other Marvel mechs (from both the Spider-Verse and Avengers categories) without necessarily requiring requiring any brand-new recolors.
And needless to say, there are any number of other Spider-Man villains they could make really cool and unique mechs for, like a Scorpion mech with a stinger tail, a Vulture mech with big feathery wings, or a Green Goblin mech with scaled-up versions of his signature glider and pumpkin bombs! One way or another, this review definitely showcases how much potential this category of sets still has for cool concepts and building techniques well beyond what we'd seen in this year's lineup!