Despite the X-Men making their debut six decades ago in the comics and more recently inspiring a series of films from 20th Century Fox, for many, their interaction with Marvel’s Mutant-kind started on Saturday mornings in the 90’s. The animated adventures of the X-Men took place over five seasons but came to an end in 1996. Over 27 years later the X-Men were reborn on Disney+ with an official continuation of that original series in X-Men ’97. Those animated series have inspired several LEGO® Marvel sets, including the one I’m taking a closer look at today. To the outside world it’s known as Xavier Institute for Higher Learning but to Mutants it’s The X-Mansion.
Product Details
Set Name: X-Men: The X-Mansion | Set Number: 76294 | Pieces: 3093 | Theme: Marvel
Number of Bags: Bags x 25 (paper) + loose elements | Instructions: Paper booklet + Builder App | Stickers: Sheet x 2 | Insiders QR: Yes | Character: Professor X, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Iceman, Bishop & Magneto + Sentinel
RRP: £289.99/$329.99/329.99€/499.99AUD/429.99CAD
Availability: LEGO Stores & LEGO Online from November 1st (Insiders) November 4th (General)
For the last few years, the LEGO Marvel theme has explored iconic locations from various Marvel worlds. These have given us highly detailed versions of the Sanctum Santorum, the Daily Bugle and the imposing Avengers Tower. The latest to join them is The X-Mansion, the secretive home to Professor X and his X-Men. On the surface, it’s a school for gifted children but it’s really the base for the X-Men. It’s appeared in several different mediums and features heavily in the Fox X-Men films including Deadpool 2.
Although the set can be connected to those aforementioned Marvel sets and other modular sets, its construction and configuration are very different from the average modular building. For starters, it’s split across three 16×32 baseplates. This gives the building a larger footprint and divides it into three different sections. Each floor can also be accessed by removing both the upper sections of the mansion and the roof.
Splitting the building apart helps to access its interior, which manages to pack a lot of detail into a series of rather compact rooms. These include an entrance hall, medical room, lab, bedroom, office and the infamous ‘Danger Room’ where the X-Men train between missions.
A lot of stuff has been crammed into these areas of the set. Including plenty of Easter Eggs for fans of the X-Men to discover. I won’t list them all as that will spoil the fun of finding them as you build but there are plenty of visual mentions of characters not features in the set as Minifigures, most notably Hank Coy’s The Beast. There are also mentions of Trask, Charles and Erik’s early friendship, old X-Men comics and the ability to recreate an iconic Wolverine meme.
Beyond all the little visual details dotted around the set, there are plenty of physical details to find as well. Some rooms feature sliding panels which reveal extra detail or show access to other areas. The Danger Room, which spans two floors has four wall panels which can be popped out and swapped around. The white dome which sits on top of the mansion, can be blasted apart by flipping a lever on the back of the set.
These play features are fun but many will be using the set as a display piece and great effort has been made to make what is normally a rather static item a little more exciting. You’ll notice there are various holes dotted around the set, these are used to connect transparent rods so you can craft epic battle scenes. There’s also some battle damage found on the side of the mansion and the area around it. The use of clear elements to show debris flying around is quite fun, especially once you add the set minifigures into the thick of the action.
Unlike other Marvel teams, the X-Men are more recognised for their characters as opposed to their HQ or vehicles. After all, once you strip away all the chaos from the outside of this set, you’re left with a fancy house. So it’s nice to see the set features plenty of minifigures, through a mix of previously seen characters and some new faces. In total, the set includes 10 characters; some have been featured elsewhere but the majority of them are new.
Returning X-Men include Wolverine, who has appeared in the most sets compared to other characters. He’s joined by Cyclops and Rogue. All three characters are basically the same as the versions featured in the X-Jet set from earlier this year. Cyclops’ design has been tweaked and does not feature print detail on the legs. Wolverine also features hair as well as his cowl. Storm makes another minifigure appearance but now matches her classic style with long white hair. Magneto also returns and sports history classic appearances, so he’s featured in his red and purple outfit with his iconic helmet. He’s also wearing one of the new rigid capes. I’ve decided I like this more than the material one, they just look a little better.
The rest of the characters are all new and swell the ranks of X-Men minifigures. It wouldn’t be the X-Mansion without Charles Xavier. The leader of the X-Men is a rather plain character until you pop him into his hover chair. This is styled on the classic yellow version used in the cartoons. Jean Grey has appeared as a Minifigure before but that was via a Comic-Con exclusive character. Unlike that version, this one is styled on Jean’s classic outfit. The way the print detail on her torso and head combines with the shoulder element results in a great minifigure. Another main character from the TV series is Gambit. The Cajan Card Slinger has gained a newfound fame thanks to his live-action appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine. This is another great minifigure, although he lacks his trademark long coat, his power is replicated with a transparent pink element which has a trio of cards connected to it. Bishop isn’t as well known as other members of the X-Men. He travels back in time during the original series and becomes more involved with the team in X-Men ’97. Bishop is a nicely detailed character, I especially like his stupendously oversized blaster. Finally, one of the more unusual inclusions to the set is Iceman. The characters weren’t featured heavily in the animated series and are probably better known from the Fox films. Still, it’s a unique character especially since it’s simply a white minifigure with some blue detailing added. I think I’d have preferred another character such as Jubilee or Morph over Iceman.
Finally, the set also features a brick-built Sentinel. These oversized robot assassins are built to locate and capture Mutants by any means necessary. Their design from the TV series is the most recognisable. As with many brick-built characters, the back is a little plain but the detail elsewhere is great. Including the printed head. Once the set is complete the Sentinel can be connected to it can become part of the action.
It’s another great large-scale Marvel set. Although the interior is a little cramped, it does feature plenty of detail including numerous things for Marvel fans to enjoy. I like the battle damage found around the mansion. This adds some excitement to the set and is needed as I’ve mentioned once the characters are removed, the mansion does just look like a nice big house. That’s not due to the design of the set but the source material. There are an awful lot of stickers used, the main annoyance with these is some of them are transparent and regardless if you use your hands or a tool, they get easily marked up. Some many, it’s the minifigures which will be the main draw. I like the balance between the characters included as minifigures. Most of the main groups are featured even if there are some notable absences. The X-Men: X-Mansion will be available for Insiders on November 1st before its general release on November 4th.
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