Even though our friendly neighbourhood can swing through the city streets and climb the tallest buildings, for some reason he has a fleet of various spidey vehicle, which even Batman would look at with envy. Many of these seemingly random spider-themed vehicles have made the leap to LEGO® sets, with the latest being a 4×4, net firing monster truck. If you’re going to have a themed vehicle, you might as well go all in. But as I’ve found with all of these new Marvel and Spider-Man sets, their appeal often expands beyond the main focus of the set, thanks to some great Minifigures. So let’s take a closer look at the final one of my 2021 LEGO Marvel Spider-Man reviews, with set 76174: Spider-Man’s Monster Truck vs. Mysterio.
Product Description
With 4 iconic Marvel characters and an awesome monster truck, LEGO® Marvel Spider-Man: Spider-Man’s Monster Truck vs. Mysterio (76174) is a stand-out gift that will delight any young superhero.
A unique mix of superhero action
Kids who are into superheroes and super-vehicles will love this LEGO Marvel mega-set. With classic characters Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, Doctor Octopus and Mysterio, and featuring a big, tough monster truck with working suspension and a net launcher, plus 2 armed drones – the scene is set for imaginative adventures that never end. The fun continues even when the action stops, as kids put the cool scenes they’ve created on display in their room. For extra creative fun, the free LEGO Building Instructions app includes digital Instructions PLUS, which allows kids to zoom, rotate and visualize as they build.
- Set Name: Spider-Man’s Monster Truck vs. Mysterio
- Set Number: 76174
- Pieces: 439
- RRP: £44.99/$49.99/€49.99
- Measurements: measures over 4 in. (12 cm) high, 5 in. (15 cm) long and 3 in. (9 cm) wide
- Minifigures: Thor
- Availability: LEGO.com, LEGO Stores & LEGO Retailers from January 1st
The Build
There are various buildable aspects to this set including two drones, Doc Ock’s mechanical arms and of course Spider-Man’s Monster Truck. But the build begins with the bad guys and their gadgets. The drones are surprisingly complex considering their size and look very much inspired by the drones used by Mysterio in Spider-Man Far From Home, in fact their construction is almost identical to those in the Far From Home sets. Much of the details on the drones is achieved by stickers but they certainly add to their appearance.
Doctor Octopus gets his name from the set of mechanical tentacle-like arms, he dons before becoming supervillain Doc Ock. These are crafted as four dual jointed arms, each is connected to a special neck connector element. Although a simple clip joint is used to connect each arm, other articulated points are ball-jointed so you can get some decent movement out of them. If posed just right you can get them to hold up the Minifigure, as if being walked by the arms and don’t cause it to topple over, if just stood as a Minifigure normally would.
Of course, the main part of the build is Spider-Man’s branded 4×4 monster truck van. I’m still not convinced Spidey needs all these gadget-filled vehicles, but I suppose they make sets far more interesting, than just a Spider-Man Minifigure and some bad guys. The van is a similar style to the A-team, except its red, splattered with Spider-Man branding and is mounted on massive Monster Truck wheels. Oh, and it also features a net cannon.
Focusing on those massive wheels, there is actually a lot of building which goes into creating the chassis. It’s built in such a way, to offer the van a surprising amount of suspension. This would certainly be something, which would add to the playability of the set. Which is also the case for the net cannon. This sits with the back of the van and can be flipped up, to allow you to shoot the net. It’s not really a set aimed towards AFOLs, but the combination of the chunky wheels, suspension and ability to shoot a net would undoubtedly capture the eye of younger LEGO builders.
The Minifigure
As expected the set contains a Spider-Man Minifigure, which is the same as those featured in the other new sets. Apart from a slight variation in the web-patterning and that arm print detail compared to previous versions, Spider-Man is Spider-Man. It’s a shame at least one of these new sets couldn’t have offered at least one Spider-Man variant. Joining Spidey is Spider-Gwen or Ghost Spider if you prefer. She is the alter-ego of Gwen Stacey and is kitted out in a mostly white Spider-suit. The version here is similar to other versions, but features more visible colour on the torso and used a smaller hood piece, which looks a lot better than the larger hood, past Spider-Gwen’s have used.
But the stars of this set are most definitely the bad guys. Doc Ock is a decent version of the character, it looks a little like the version seen in the PlayStation Spider-Man game. Past versions of the character have used the basin cut hairpiece, but the one here works much better. The torso is also nicely detailed with the connection points where the arms would plug-in the suit. His classic goggled face is used for both different facial expressions.
Now the best has been saved for last with the master of illusion – Mysterio. The character has made a few appearances in LEGO sets recently, partly thanks to featuring in the last Spider-Man movie. Despite that, the version here is much more inspired by the comic books. Just like Spider-Gwen, the Minifigure is similar to the one featured in set 76149: The Menace of Mysterio. This offers a more brightly coloured suit for Mysterio but there are a couple of additions which really make this an amazing Minifigure. Firstly, the ‘fishbowl’ helmet is now a blue opaque colour, which hides the blank Minifigure head beneath and looks much more smokey. Secondly, Mysterio’s magical-like powers are represented by a couple of hand blast elements and the smokey, ghostly trail elements used for Nehmarr Reem in the Hidden Side sets. This is recoloured in the amazing transparent fluorescent green. I’ve always been fascinated with this colour LEGO element as it looks amazing under the right lighting and really makes this version of Mysterio outstandingly cool.
Of course, the overall set is far more than just a couple of decent Minifigures, I can see the Monster Truck and it’s various play features being a hit with younger LEGO fans and I enjoyed building it, especially the suspension, which was a little different to what I’ve experienced before. I cannot express how much I love the Mysterio Minifigure, the slight tweaks to the design of the character compared to other versions does so much to lift the appearance and impact of this classic Spider-Man foe.
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This set was provided to BricksFanz by the LEGO Group for purposes of review. The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group. Providing the set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
