Review: 76156 Rise of the Domo
Posted by CapnRex101,The triangular 76156 Rise of the Domo appears remarkably impressive, faithfully replicating the onscreen spacecraft. The vehicle is undoubtedly distinctive and exhibits marvellous detail, which corresponds with the Eternals' bright costumes and looks excellent.
Furthermore, this spacecraft provides generous room inside, accommodating various minifigures and containing recognisable features from the movie. The accompanying Deviants look appealing too, matching creatures from smaller Eternals sets. However, the inclusion of two unique Deviants here was arguably unnecessary.
Please be aware this review is spoiler free.
Minifigures
Ikaris appears in more Eternals sets than other characters, featuring vibrant blue and metallic gold colours. These shades look excellent together and the patterns are impressively complex, continuing across the torso and legs. This double-sided head was originally developed for Han Solo and the expressions appear reasonable, but Ikaris' facial hair is missing.
Additionally, the head is arguably the weakest aspect of Sersi, which is disappointing. Even so, the green attire includes marvellous detail, with metallic silver and pale green highlights. These designs correspond with the onscreen heroine, while the hair component includes great texture and appears faithful to the source material as well.
Lacking the bright colours which decorate other characters, Thena appears distinctive among the Eternals. Her metallic gold armour looks splendid though, complementing the tan clothing underneath. Moreover, this double-sided head recreates Thena's prominent cheekbones and severe personality, making effective use of an element which was initially designed for Mantis.
Thena and Makkari both return from 76154 Deviant Ambush! and their respective minifigures remain unchanged. Makkari therefore includes an intricate hair element, accurately portraying her onscreen hairstyle. This head looks good too, again employing an appropriate design from another character. I am especially satisfied with the expression that displays a raised eyebrow, while Makkari's costume displays outstanding detail.
The final two minifigures are exclusively available here, commencing with Phastos. I love this colour combination of purple and dark blue, again featuring metallic gold accents and rounded designs which appear throughout the Eternals subtheme. The bearded head also looks superb, returning from 76178 Daily Bugle but originating here, since the Eternals range was delayed.
Druig completes the minifigure selection and appears completely unique, wearing darker garb than his fellow Eternals and exhibiting different patterns. These symmetrical rings most closely resemble Thor's armour. However, these dark red and metallic silver highlights look impressive and I am satisfied with this double-sided head, even though the element is relatively common.
The Completed Model
Spacecraft appear frequently in LEGO sets, although the Domo resembles nothing produced before! The triangular shape looks absolutely fantastic and I am surprised by how closely this vessel matches an equilateral triangle, since the longer side measures 26cm across while the shorter flanks reach 25cm. The proportions certainly vary from the source material, but I think this represents a good compromise.
The colour scheme appears chaotic, comprising dark bluish grey, light bluish grey, sand blue, metallic silver and trans-opalescent black parts. That combination seems especially awkward across each side, although this somewhat muddled design is preferable to bland colours. The subtle stickers are attractive too, displaying golden decoration.
Fortunately, the disordered design seems more effective across the top. Three attractive 8x8 elements adorn this surface, each featuring complex decoration. These designs complement each Eternals minifigure perfectly and stickers provide further detail. Additionally, I appreciate the trans-opalescent black 6x6 dishes which convey the connection between this vehicle and 76155 In Arishem's Shadow.
Several incomplete circles decorate this model too, comprising 2x2 curved corner tiles and 4x4 curved corner tiles. The metallic silver details are particularly attractive, although such complex designs are omitted from the back. Instead, simple texture and further stickers are present here, which looks reasonable.
Mark Stafford designed 76156 Rise of the Domo, following numerous previous models which demonstrate his ability to pack larger vehicles with internal detail and functionality. The Domo illustrates that skill since the interior is incredibly spacious, accessed through various opening panels. I can imagine another version of the model with little interior, where Technic elements dominate the structure instead.
This design is preferable though, beginning with the cockpit. There is space for one minifigure inside, surrounded by pearl dark grey pipes with several control consoles. However, access is somewhat restricted because the hatch is rather small. Perhaps the seat and consoles should have been completely removable.
Otherwise, access is easy. The roof and sides open in multiple sections, revealing impressive sand green and dark green colours inside. These contrast wonderfully with the muted exterior and the hinges are reasonably integrated too, even though some Technic elements are visible on the outside. I think their inclusion was unavoidable to strengthen each panel.
Detachable vehicles are another repeating feature of numerous Mark Stafford designs, hence the Domo contains one such vehicle. Weapons are also distributed throughout this spacecraft, including Thena's naginata opposite Gilgamesh's energy fist. Both accessories are moulded in pearl gold and trans-orange, conveying their intangible nature.
Additional weapons are fixed on the second opening panel, which conceals a coffee machine inside! This accessory appears strange within such alien surroundings, although the Eternals have resided on Earth for millennia and evidently acquired some human artefacts during that period, including this colourful coffee machine.
Those surprisingly human accessories continue in the corner, where microphones are stored alongside an umbrella, a crowbar, a gaming controller and a metal detector. Once again, they seem unusual, but I appreciate the efficient use of space and providing numerous accessories certainly benefits play.
The central space appears grander, incorporating several stickers that create circular patterns across the floor. They look superb beside the green columns, especially since golden accents decorate the floor and each column. The predominantly tiled surface provides few connection points for minifigures, but sufficient studs remain exposed.
Arishem stands at one end of this chamber, featuring three stacked roller-skates which depict his six eyes. The mysterious Celestial is therefore immediately recognisable and carries a tiny figure. I like the trans-yellow element underneath which represents his projection, although the location shown during trailers is considerably larger and more majestic than this area.
Unlike the accessories located elsewhere, the central chamber appears completely alien and houses an intriguing device which combines several unusual pieces. The lantern, sextant and golden rings look splendid here, recreating the aesthetic which dominates the Domo onscreen. Moreover, I like how this is mounted on the ceiling, again demonstrating clever use of space.
Two grotesque Deviants oppose the Domo, including their leader. Kro appears unique among the Deviants, featuring humanoid proportions and achieving greater expression than the other figures. The articulation is important in that regard, particularly around the asymmetrical hands which look good and incorporate numerous joints for realistic posing.
Furthermore, I appreciate the consistent colour scheme of dark blue, dark red and teal, which unites the Deviants. The contrasting tendrils look appealing too, creating additional similarities between these characters. However, their integration here appears less organic than has been achieved elsewhere, since the connecting clips and hollow studs remain fairly conspicuous.
The reliance upon stickers is disappointing too, especially across the torso which would appear bland without them. The unique head also looks awkward, including reasonable moulded detail and therefore contrasting sharply with the chest underneath. The decoration looks good though, including four eyes with continuing dark red and teal highlights. Even so, Kro displays the same weaknesses as Steppenwolf from 76087 Flying Fox: Batmobile Airlift Attack.
The second Deviant more closely resembles those from other sets, standing on four legs and appearing more animalistic. Nevertheless, the vital colours remain intact and this combination looks fantastic. Moreover, the scale is quite impressive as this Deviant reaches 18cm in length, with the poseable tail extended.
In fact, articulation is probably the greatest strength of this design. The head cannot move, but the jaw opens and each leg is attached to the body using a ball joint. The ankles are also fixed using ball joints, ensuring absolute stability. Articulated knees would have been great, although their static position appears natural and scarcely affects the display options.
Once again, the head includes two pairs of printed eyes which are shared with 76154 Deviant Ambush! These appear fittingly inhuman and I like the unusual head shape, with two horns on top. The dark red decoration that continues across the body also looks marvellous, but the jaw appears odd, comprising two sections and including enormous gaps.
My favourite feature of this Deviant is definitely the stunning crests across its back, which are beautifully angled and incorporate several trans-opalescent black pieces. These are available exclusively within the four Eternals sets and look excellent, complemented by the surrounding black spines and pearl gold elements.
Overall
Marvel Super Heroes sets are sometimes criticised for being formulaic, so 76156 Rise of the Domo representing an exciting change! The Domo is undoubtedly my favourite aspect of this set, featuring exceptional detail and internal space for play. The distinctive triangular shape is appealing as well, since no other LEGO spacecraft resembles this example.
The accompanying Deviants are less enjoyable. Kro is an important presence, although I think his execution leaves something to be desired. The second Deviant displays superior detail, but seems superfluous. Increasing the focus upon Kro would have enhanced the set, in my opinion. Moreover, the additional Deviant increases the cost somewhat, hence £89.99 or $89.99 seems relatively expensive, despite the satisfying Domo.
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review represents an expression of my own opinions.
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35 comments on this article
I'm just waiting for someone to use those printed 8 x 8 dishes in a Doctor Who MOC of a TARDIS console (or something like that)... the design screams to be used for the circular written language of the Time Lords.
Excellent use of parts with the plow at the front center and the doors at the back corners! I love when LEGO designers opt for creative applications rather than specialized parts.
Interesting set design, sets that can fold out are nice.
Domo name and triangle shape reminds me of the Triangle version of Domino , Triominos.
I would have enjoyed it if Kro was a large buildable figure similar to Ant-Man in the airport battle, but for size and consistency I understand not doing that.
I now have a strange craving for pizza.
a really interesting set, but the problem is i physically can't bring myself to care about the eternals
The exterior looks like a slice of Sbarro stuffed pizza that has gone a bit moldy. However, the interior looks great and it really evokes how cramped these fictional spacecraft would be.
The Deviants are not particularly compelling villains, though. I mean, it's Marvel, can't they give us a villain with interesting motives like Magneto?
I haven't watched the movie yet, but I loved all the sets from the Eternals. The minifig selection of this set is amazing.
But weirdly, none of the sets arrived here in Brazil yet. (for comparison, the Titanic is already available)
@cooldude69420 said:
"more like rise of dorito"
Or the rise of Domino's Pizza
The price feels rather out of whack for what little model the whole thing builds into. The Deviants look ridiculous and I can only agree that either their parts allotment should have gone toward the main build or they simply should have been left out. For around 70 Euro I might have considered this and possibly got it with a good discount, but as it is I probably couldn't be bothered.
I enjoyed this building this set, it was certainly something different! However on the Deviant side, I definitely preferred the Deviant build from 76154.
That Ikaris hair isn't really close. I think it would be better in black, and ideally with the little gray streak but I would understand if they didn't include that detail.
This has got to be the dumbest and also the ugliest LEGO set ever, even worse than Galidor.
Every time I see the Eternals minifigures, I always think that they would make for some awesome Sci-Fi armor in MOCs. Think something like the Guardians from Destiny!
As for the set itself, I think it's well done for what it is. I'm not a big fan of the Eternals, but I have a feeling this kit will be valuable for those that do.
Kro has an exceptionally muscular neck for such a frail figure.
I'm going to wait to see The Eternals before getting any of the sets even though I think they look impressive. Based on the negative campaigning of the lonely internet trolls, I will probably love the film.
@955561976 said:
" @cooldude69420 said:
"more like rise of dorito"
Or the rise of Domino's Pizza"
Rise of the mouldy Domino’s Pizza
Usually I'm like, spaceship! With this one I'm just like, nah. Good review though.
I expect these sets will be heavily discounted before long. What with the movie tanking at the box office and all. Can’t wait to snap up some bargains.
@Murdoch17 said:
"I'm just waiting for someone to use those printed 8 x 8 dishes in a Doctor Who MOC of a TARDIS console (or something like that)... the design screams to be used for the circular written language of the Time Lords."
That's quite a good idea.
It’s a real change reading the Capn reviewing the aesthetics of a colour scheme. I guess it’s messy because a certain other franchise have trademarked plain grey triangles!
I just feel the Deviant side models have pushed the price too high, especially when there are more appealing variants in reasonably priced sets.
Kinda pricey and I would only get it for parts
IDK how well ETERNALS merch is selling but I’m going to guess “not great” based on the shrug the movie has been greeted with. Probably will be on clearance in a few month, good sci-fi parts pack.
This ship can be used as background filler in any SW MOC.
The ship looked a lot less colorful and more stone-like to me, plus it wasn't a perfect triangle to my knowledge. Phastos was one of my favorite characters in the film and the build is definitely solid but as it stands there are other sets that are less expensive which I want more. I'm hoping to get In Arishem's Shadow since I plan to have him in one of my Brickfilms but I'll wait for the inevitable sale, even if it isn't any less than Amazon's baseline 20%. Eternals wasn't a movie I hated unlike a lot of people did but it gets drowned out in a year that has had 7 MCU projects so far and 9 of them by the end of the year. In any case, the generic "black eyebrows" head fits Druig too well, the hair could use some work but the fact that the face print looks so much like him to me is kind of amazing.
This set is so stinking boring. …Total snooze-fest. …I feel bad for LEGO having even taken on this license. They just weren’t given anything good to work with and now these turds will be taking up shelf space for the next 8 months. …sigh.
Clever use of the internal space and roller-skates as I was just expecting a shell. Can a mini-fig stand up (away from sextant and rings) and the lid close as both are 4 bricks tall so might be just possible?
The price for a 1000+ set does not seem unreasonable, just that there are too many Marvel sets and movies out there at the moment and far more coming in 2022.
@NickLafreniere1 said:
"This has got to be the dumbest and also the ugliest LEGO set ever, even worse than Galidor."
This comment will haunt me to my grave! :D
Just to provide some insight so you understand the information we generally have when designing this kind of set. We finish design around a year before the movies come out. This is normally around the time the sets are being built and the movie is being shot. Therefore when we are sent concept art of things like a spaceship we can be fairly certain the costumes and the interiors are going to be pretty accurate as the wardrobe and set builders are using these images to make the ‘real’ versions at around the same time. However any external shots will only be concept art and rudimentary animatics until the editing process begins and the director is sure of which scenes need to be made into final digital models. This is way after the LEGO design process has finished.
In the specific case of The Eternals, although we had multiple images of the interior, the only exterior image we had for ages was an concept art of the triangular ship in space with the crescent of the Earth behind it and the sun rising over that. This meant the ship was mostly in silhouette and looked black with a shimmer of oil like rainbows over it. After two months of working on it with this colour scheme we got feedback that they wanted it ‘grey, like in the picture’ which was revelatory for us! A week or so later they sent a couple of more recent concept art images for it where we could see it was grey and found out the nose was now flat (not the perfect triangle it had been). Also that the triangle was slimmer and bigger than the earlier image and that it was called The Domo. This made for some fun to figure out in the final few weeks, but there wasn’t much time to integrate all of these things before my final deadline and that’s why the LEGO Domo might appear a bit plump in comparison to the movie version!
I liked the movie BTW, some great characters and a fun Superhero movie, I’d put it in the top half of the Marvel movies and not as formulaic as some of them, also nice to see a fight scene Camden in London, a place I actually know!
Crap. My multi-paragraph lecture about my view on the movie and this set got somehow deleted when I pressed the ‘post comment’ button. Well, here’s the short version.
I saw Eternals on Sunday and LOVED it. As for this set: Domo is extremely ugly but has good features, Deviants are a bit too filler-ish but there’s nothing wrong with them as they are. I actually really appreciate the second Deviant here, since that makes a total of five of them across the sets and this is accurate to the film (or a certain part of it, at least). And surprisingly the strange split-fang-jaw thing also corresponds with the source material! Props to the designer for achieving this much accuracy very early before the film’s release. I will probably end up disassembling the Domo and MOCing a more accurate and slightly upscaled version somewhere down the line. It actually isn’t as big as I expected it to be in the movie, plus a lot of the interior isn’t shown so it doesn’t need to be as big anyway to accommodate all the essential elements.
The set is decent (especially the minifigs), but the movie sucks... and I don't buy sets based on bad movies or series...
Liked Eternals, liked the Deviants (and intend to collect them all), thanks set designer for this rendition of the Domo!
And yet
How is nobody out here commenting on how easy it will be to turn this into the **Quasar Fire-class Cruiser-Carrier** that is missing from our Imperial Hangars
@Nabii said:
" @NickLafreniere1 said:
"This has got to be the dumbest and also the ugliest LEGO set ever, even worse than Galidor."
This comment will haunt me to my grave! :D
Just to provide some insight so you understand the information we generally have when designing this kind of set. We finish design around a year before the movies come out. This is normally around the time the sets are being built and the movie is being shot. Therefore when we are sent concept art of things like a spaceship we can be fairly certain the costumes and the interiors are going to be pretty accurate as the wardrobe and set builders are using these images to make the ‘real’ versions at around the same time. However any external shots will only be concept art and rudimentary animatics until the editing process begins and the director is sure of which scenes need to be made into final digital models. This is way after the LEGO design process has finished.
In the specific case of The Eternals, although we had multiple images of the interior, the only exterior image we had for ages was an concept art of the triangular ship in space with the crescent of the Earth behind it and the sun rising over that. This meant the ship was mostly in silhouette and looked black with a shimmer of oil like rainbows over it. After two months of working on it with this colour scheme we got feedback that they wanted it ‘grey, like in the picture’ which was revelatory for us! A week or so later they sent a couple of more recent concept art images for it where we could see it was grey and found out the nose was now flat (not the perfect triangle it had been). Also that the triangle was slimmer and bigger than the earlier image and that it was called The Domo. This made for some fun to figure out in the final few weeks, but there wasn’t much time to integrate all of these things before my final deadline and that’s why the LEGO Domo might appear a bit plump in comparison to the movie version!
I liked the movie BTW, some great characters and a fun Superhero movie, I’d put it in the top half of the Marvel movies and not as formulaic as some of them, also nice to see a fight scene Camden in London, a place I actually know!
"
I appreciate you coming here to share this, it's always interesting to hear how sets are designed!
@CopperTablet said:
"it really evokes how cramped these fictional spacecraft would be."
The *toy* is cramped, but the on-screen craft is huge, at least 100 meters on an edge. It's the same compromise as with Imperial Star Destroyer sets with playset interiors.
Above, set designer Mark " @Nabii" Stafford describes the limited reference material available to him. (This is a recurring challenge with LEGO sets -- remember the wings on Kylo Ren's shuttle? Vertical in 75104 (2015) per concept art, corrected in 75256 (2019); and with movie tie-ins from Hasbro.) The interior looks to have been carved from stone and is dimly lit; Mark represented this in two shades of green, which conflicts with the grey and sand-blue that overlaps from the exterior panels. The rooms are distinguished more by use of light than by distinctive shapes -- so good call on the tiny Arishem statue. The pearl-gold arrangement on the center-aft hinged panel -- I assume that's one of Phastos's creations?
In the movie, the aft surface of the wedge has prominent vertical notches; sounds like that detail didn't exist in the single exterior image Mark received.
The signature "look" for the Eternals is loops and arcs of golden light ("cosmic energy") (reminiscent of the "incised concentric overlapping arcs" used in "Stargate" (1994) and "Independence Day" (1996)) as depicted on the minifigs, printed elements in this set, and brick-built on the dorsal surface. The toy's lateral surfaces, IMHO, have messy color blocking, fragmented further by a single row of 1x tiles. Some macaroni tiles and smaller dishes would've tied it together.
Like the uniform designs on the minifigures and the ship is pretty nifty once it is opened up. But I fear that this set and many of The Eternals sets will be discounted to get them off of the shelves quickly. The movie generated very little 'buzz' and has less than memorable characters IMHO. Hope to snap this up in 3-4 months on clearance. An excellent review as always and thanks for showcasing this set!
This set is destined to be available at a huge discount and as a parts pack it is great. The minifigs are nice, but the Eternals was not good. So this is a win for Lego parts lovers!