Review: 76202 Wolverine Mech Armour

Why did they not just use the plate with the ball joint in the middle?

This looks ridiculous.

Still, that Wolverine fig is pretty awesome.

The width of the "hips" definitely looks more proportional, and it's always good to have another costumed minifig version of Wolverine, although the best is definitely the one from 76022, because that's his greatest costume, ever. It is unfortunate that he doesn't have a hairpiece (cue the Cheech & Chong bit), though. While his cowl is iconic, it does seem to get ripped/shot/burned/irradiated/etc. off quite frequently. . . .

I usually have 0 interest in anything super hero related, but this is a really slick lil mech for 10 bucks.

Strange that ball joints weren't their first choice c0

Does it bother anyone else that Wolverine's minifigure claws extend from the wrong plane, using a pistol-grip instead of the back of his hand?

@Bison_Bricks said:
"Does it bother anyone else that Wolverine's minifigure claws extend from the wrong plane, using a pistol-grip instead of the back of his hand?"

A new element would be required, of course. I doubt they see it as necessary since they almost never make X-men sets.

I have more of an issue that the claws aren’t parallel with each other.

I was Logan for Halloween, I’m probably gonna get this set. The Mech builds don’t interest me but this is one of the best ones yet imo (I can even disregard the hip issue). I love the giant claws, I’d love to see how many Minifigures I can impale to them by putting together their torsos and legs between them (it’s difficult to explain but I’m pretty sure you know this method).

No boots: no buy

So is that a new piece? How is it done?

@darthnorman said:
"So is that a new piece? How is it done?"

It isn’t and its explained in the review ;)

The single-molded feet, though. The feet. The feet.

Just got mine in the mail and built it! It's great! Time to Bricklink the hair!

Gonna enjoy this set for Wolverine, sad that no unique hair.

Hmm… not a fan of the mech… want wolverine…

“I imagine the element previously used for Wolverine is no longer in production, having last appeared five years ago.”
The helmet last appeared eight years ago so I wasn’t not sure about this statement at first, that being said the hairpiece was made in the 2000s and thus they might have consciously phased it out after the Wolverine vs. Magneto Mighty Micros set thinking they’d never need it again.

I've seen Wolverine action figures where the claws were longer than his forearms, but this takes it to a whole new level..

I found this at Kohl’s yesterday and grabbed one. They have been putting new sets on the shelf before the official release dates I’ve noticed this year.

@CapnRex101 said:
"Initially, I presumed the design change had been made because the element with three ball joints had been retired, but I see that has appeared in a couple of 2022 sets. On that basis, I can only assume the previous design was not considered sturdy enough. It is ironic that the subsequent solution was also unsuccessful and involved a delay, but the revised structure is certainly stronger.

Regardless, that will be a question whenever I or anybody else have the chance to interview the Super Heroes designers.

@Trigger_ said:
"I’d love to see how many Minifigures I can impale."

I think the LEGO City Police Department would like to speak with you :o)"

I noticed on the previous mechs that the three-way ball joint could be dislodged from the mechs by rotating the leg forwards too much, the socket would push the entire lower half off of the black axle piece

Still waiting on the X-Mansion, but this will do for now I guess.

The ball-joints Lego use in mecha are becoming increasingly problematic.

I don't know if anyone else has found this, but I certainly have. Lego's ball-joints are too loose. This didn't used to be a problem, but -- for whatever reason -- the last couple of years, Lego has altered or changed the design process in such a way that the joints are now, practically, worthless. They're just not solid enough.

I noticed this when I was building Lloyd's underwater mech, last year. It was one of the most awful experiences I've ever had, putting together a Lego set. The joints were so loose that they couldn't support the weight of the toy above them. Try and remove the figure from the cockpit, and the legs would buckle and collapse. Reposition the toy, and the legs would buckle and collapse. Adjust the position of the arms, and the legs would buckle and collapse. Not to mention, the arms were so badly-designed that it exacerbated the existing problem. Within an hour, I'd disassembled the thing and sold it on eBay. It was a horrible toy, and there wasn't one part of it worth keeping.

I worked in a toy shop for 7 years, and one of the most depressing things I ever heard from a customer was that, the toys you buy from the typical department stores were just disposable junk, designed to keep kids entertained for five minutes and then to be discarded. "Landfill" was the word she used. She was right, of course. But putting Lloyd's mech together, that was the thought in my head. It was landfill. Disposable junk. An awful toy, that was utterly disappointing and didn't do what it was supposed to do. And I have *never* thought that, about Lego, before, and it really threw me.

But half of Lego's output, these days, are mecha or large animals, or other sets that require these balljoints. If that's how they want to make toys, then fine. I liked the Ninjago dragons. I liked the Creator animals. I liked the superhero mecha sets ... but get the pieces right. And they're not doing that.

I warily tried some of this year's Ninjago sets, last month, to find the exact same problem. Zane's mecha suffers the same issue. The hip joints are too loose. If you move the toy in any way, there's no friction in the joint to hold the body steady, and the leg buckles and collapses. Jay's blue dragon (which already seems to exist in this strange no-man's-land of being a 4+ set, but also not) has the same problem, but at least with 4 legs, there was a bit more stability.

And I was really disappointed by the Creator Super Robot. A really gorgeous design, like, visually, I think it's beautiful ... but with those damn balljoints. It's okay with the arms. There's no weight on them, so the lack of friction doesn't really cause a problem. You can position the arms and leave them. But the legs and ankles? Awful. Particularly with the ankles. There's too much weight pressing down on frictionless ankle balljoints, so if you reposition or change the arms or head or wings? The whole thing just starts leaning forward.

They're awful toys. And I hate saying that about Lego, but here we are. These aren't gifts. Lego is asking for my time and money for their products.

So imagine my surprise when, at the start of this year, the mecha sets were delayed because of stability issues that nobody noticed until very, very late in the process. Hell, the boxart and catalogue art still features the original design. Except I wasn't really surprised at all, because they're still using these balljoints and I expected it. The solution itself seems quite poor, and rushed. Like, they lacked options and did whatever they could so that the line wasn't outrightly cancelled. I imagine this would've been hugely embarrassing, not to mention, expensive to solve.

Part two ...

Long ago, I made peace with Lego's habit of attempting to fix things that weren't broken. They had a system (for the first half dozen of these mecha, that were released, last year and the year before), and I don't know why they changed it. It worked. They were fine. But that habit has run headfirst into the bigger problem -- the horrible new balljoint pieces that they're now relying on.

I really wish to see some positive change on this, in the future. I really hope they've stopped and are now examining these pieces. I really hope they are.

But I'm not hopeful.

@Zordboy said:
"Part two ...

Long ago, I made peace with Lego's habit of attempting to fix things that weren't broken. They had a system (for the first half dozen of these mecha, that were released, last year and the year before), and I don't know why they changed it. It worked. They were fine. But that habit has run headfirst into the bigger problem -- the horrible new balljoint pieces that they're now relying on.

I really wish to see some positive change on this, in the future. I really hope they've stopped and are now examining these pieces. I really hope they are.

But I'm not hopeful."

The problem is that while you said it worked, it didn’t.

I bought all the Marvel mechs and every single one is falling apart from barely any play, especially those hips, they fell apart basically constantly.
I don’t know if the new method is any better, but this isn’t a fixing something that isn’t broken issue

@Terreneflame said: "I bought all the Marvel mechs and every single one is falling apart from barely any play, especially those hips, they fell apart basically constantly."

That's interesting, to me, because I hadn't experienced that problem at all.

Correct me if I'm wrong (because this is going back a few years, and my memory beyond about 2018 or so is pretty sketchy) but the initial line of Marvel mecha --- didn't they use a hip and chest design (and the corresponding pieces) that was originally used in the line of Nexo Knight small mecha? I absolutely loved that line of Nexo Knight mecha, I bought every single one, I adored them. I never had this problem with those, and similarly, I never had a problem with the last couple of years of Marvel mechs either.

@Hellscream said: "To clarify, I only collect and build mechs, so if there were rampantly loose ball joints everywhere, I would notice."

I've been collecting Ninjago dragons since the very first line, a decade ago. In that time, I've also collected a heap of superhero mecha, a lot of the Nexo Knights mecha, as well as the brickbuilt Creator animals. For most of that time, I haven't had any problems with any of them. And a lot of the bigger sets (like the Monkie Kid mecha, or the Overlord Dragon from last year) use the larger click-balljoints. I like those, they're bigger and I've never had an issue with them.

But in the last couple of years, the medium and smaller-size balljoint pieces are getting worse and worse. I'm surprised that *more* people aren't making noise about it, honestly, because it's so terrible.

And with these three superhero mecha, I feel like, the problem has finally caught up to Lego and caused them a significant issue.

Edit ---- Having said that? You might have a point in the idea that this is a regional problem. Late last year, I managed to track down the blue-variant of the Creator dinosaur set from an eBay seller in Wales. The balljoints are great. They're tight, and perfect, and I haven't had an issue with them. While at the same time, the recent Ninjago and Creator sets that I've purchased here in Australia have been really bad. *shrug*

I'm a dope. I can't understand why the way they did the previous mechs, don't work for the new mechs? The hips, etc.
I have Cap and Thor mechs and they hold up well. No problem with the hips. I'm confused of the change.

@CapnRex101 said:
"Initially, I presumed the design change had been made because the element with three ball joints had been retired, but I see that has appeared in a couple of 2022 sets. On that basis, I can only assume the previous design was not considered sturdy enough. It is ironic that the subsequent solution was also unsuccessful and involved a delay, but the revised structure is certainly stronger.

Regardless, that will be a question whenever I or anybody else have the chance to interview the Super Heroes designers.

@Trigger_ said:
"I’d love to see how many Minifigures I can impale."

I think the LEGO City Police Department would like to speak with you :o)"

Its worth noting that the shaft with ball joint piece which was used in the original design of these three sets has started being made from a softer plastic than it used to be, and the new version of the part has dramatically lower friction (rendering it, IMO, virtually useless). When the old, hard plastic version of the part is used, the design is perfectly stable. Its easy to imagine that the design was tested with the old version of the part.

I've said it before, but probably bears repeating: the 3 ball steering joint piece used previously has 2 versions in circulation. One is high friction, good for mechs, the other low friction, bad for mechs good for original steering purpose. I have examples of both.

I suggest that the bar & ball that was the original design for this one is also not designed as a friction joint.

The Mixels joints (plates with balls and cups) are the pieces designed for friction and can support quite a lot of weight. I've had no examples (among hundreds) of low friction in these pieces. And it is these now used in this redesign.

LEGO’s solution to the problem may have been the fastest, cheapest one, but it wasn’t the best.

What LEGO should have done was to create a new 1 x 2 plate with a ball connector at each of the short ends. That would have solved the floppy hip problem without offsetting the legs. It would have added to the cost - I would have been OK with an extra 50p on the RRP incl. VAT - and pushed back the release until the summer - I would have accepted that too.

As it is, the solution is something of a bodge job that falls short of LEGO’s usual design standards. Compromising on its standards is damaging to LEGO’s reputation, something that elements of the company’s current management seem not to understand or care about.

@DoonsterBuildsLego said:
"I've said it before, but probably bears repeating: the 3 ball steering joint piece used previously has 2 versions in circulation. One is high friction, good for mechs, the other low friction, bad for mechs good for original steering purpose. I have examples of both.

I suggest that the bar & ball that was the original design for this one is also not designed as a friction joint.

The Mixels joints (plates with balls and cups) are the pieces designed for friction and can support quite a lot of weight. I've had no examples (among hundreds) of low friction in these pieces. And it is these now used in this redesign. "

Are there any sets which use the bar & ball for a low-friction application though? I cant say I've seen any personally. Obviously I cant go through every single use the piece has ever seen, but having a brief look though its usage, it seems exclusively either high-friction or friction-indifferent in its usage. Even if low-friction is the intended use for it though, surely easily distinguishable low-friction sockets are the better solution? Instead of ruining any potential high-friction application by making the old high-friction and the new low-friction versions indistinguishable

I only really want the figures from these Marvel sets, but this mech is actually very cool, even with the design issues. Yes, a hair piece would've been great, but I'm not complaining now we're finally getting a Jim Lee style Wolverine and in a cheap set, no less! The 9-year old in me is very happy right now.

@Zordboy said:
"The ball-joints Lego use in mecha are becoming increasingly problematic.

I don't know if anyone else has found this, but I certainly have. Lego's ball-joints are too loose. This didn't used to be a problem, but -- for whatever reason -- the last couple of years, Lego has altered or changed the design process in such a way that the joints are now, practically, worthless. They're just not solid enough.

"

I’ve just built the Zane mech you mentioned specifically to test your hypothesis, and I found for the majority of the build process the joint friction was fine, with a satisfactory crunching sound as I moved the poses. I did notice it not holding as well once I attached the torso with arms to the legs, and more so once I added bag 2, and I think the problem is the builds are getting heavier rather than the joints getting looser. Lloyd’s mech from last year was huge compared to other applications of the joint- compared to Mixels and the two piece cockpits of the Nexo Knight mechs I think they are being stretched beyond their design. Perhaps this is leading to trying new building techniques which also don’t meet QA?

@Kynareth said: "I’ve just built the Zane mech you mentioned specifically to test your hypothesis, and I found for the majority of the build process the joint friction was fine, with a satisfactory crunching sound as I moved the poses."

That surprises me, because --- and I don't understand why --- but the ball-joint pieces I'm getting are definitely, definitely not making those noises anymore. The Creator super-mecha, which is still standing on my desk, right in front of me as I type this message? His joints don't make that crunching noise, either. And I know exactly what you mean, because I can remember how the balljoints used to make that noise.

I can't explain it. I wished I could, but I can't.

"Lloyd’s mech from last year was huge compared to other applications of the joint- compared to Mixels and the two piece cockpits of the Nexo Knight mechs I think they are being stretched beyond their design."

Lloyd's underwater mech -- at least, in terms of the legs and hips -- used the medium-sized balljoints (with the balls and sockets connected to bricks, not plates like the Mixels or the sets we've been talking about in this conversation).

And like I said upthread, those were worse than useless. The legs buckled, as soon as any pressure was applied to the toy at all.

such a chibi Wolverine!

“Nevertheless, this is definitely my favourite rendition of Wolverine produced to date, remaining true to the comics…”

@CapnRex101, while earlier versions are based on print media, this minifig has been noted for being based on the X-Men animated series from the mid-90’s. Except the missing boots, of course. As for the missing hair, I really prefer the hair used for Dollar Bill as a more understated take. Finally, if you ever do need to “retract” the claws because they stick out too far, but don’t have a place to store them, and don’t need to worry about them being seen, simply rotate them so they rest against the side of the arm.

@Bison_Bricks:
Green Lantern would like to have a word with you. Until then, you can get the Fighting Claw from Brickforge, which is designed more like Hugh Jackman’s prop blades.

@WemWem:
Two things that vary between artists are the splay and taper of the blades. I’ve definitely seen depictions where the tips of the outer blades would be 6” apart, minimum.

@Hellscream:
If it really is a difference in factories, it’s down to three possibilities: different plastic, different factory conditions, or different mold. I bought several copies of 70904, and had sets from identifiably different batches. One batch had 1x1 round plates that were translucent, and 2x2 round plates that had pips on either the upper left or upper right studs. The other had opaque parts and pips were all on the same stud. Parts from the first batch had noticeably weaker clutch. The difference in opacity tells me the plastic was different (different supplier, different amount of pigment, etc). The fact that it consistently matched the pips tells me it was probably a different factory operating different molds. Maybe the molds weren’t cut to the same dimensions, or they’ve started to wear out. Whatever the case, I had to weed out all those parts because they shed too easily.

3rd Wolverine fig and the worst by far

@BirchBot:
Third was from Mighty Micros, and I’d argue that the original brown version was worst. It’s not a dig against the costume, just that it’s the only one that has the cowl printed on back, so you can’t use the actual cowl element that was introduced with the second minifig unless you make sure his back is hidden from view. And of course it’s the _only_ option for the brown costume…

@Havok211:
He’s probably been completely bald a time or two, but only when burned badly enough to destroy his hair. But even his hairdo heals back to original status, given a little time. You know, like the girl from Interview With a Vampire.

@Zordboy said:
" @Terreneflame said: "I bought all the Marvel mechs and every single one is falling apart from barely any play, especially those hips, they fell apart basically constantly."

That's interesting, to me, because I hadn't experienced that problem at all.

Correct me if I'm wrong (because this is going back a few years, and my memory beyond about 2018 or so is pretty sketchy) but the initial line of Marvel mecha --- didn't they use a hip and chest design (and the corresponding pieces) that was originally used in the line of Nexo Knight small mecha? I absolutely loved that line of Nexo Knight mecha, I bought every single one, I adored them. I never had this problem with those, and similarly, I never had a problem with the last couple of years of Marvel mechs either. "

Not the torso, but the hip piece was used in them. And I had the same problem with it separating at the waist. Not sure about the joint pieces in the newer sets being loose though.

As others have stated, LEGO had two attempts at the hip joints, and still managed to screw it up. Why couldn't they have just stuck to the tried and tested method that they've used for the last few years!? I'm sure everyone would have been fine with that. The lack of arm and leg printing on the Minifigure are somewhat disappointing, and both sides of the torso look as if they're lacking a final layer of printing. At the very least, I would've expected Logan's iconic hair piece to be included. I would have paid a little more for this set had they solved these minor irritations.