With DK Books producing so many different LEGO® titles for many years now, it’s hard to believe that this is the first time LEGO Marvel has been the subject of a book. The LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary follows a similar format as other LEGO books published by DK and offers a comprehensive guide to the many LEGO Marvel sets and minifigures from across the themes 12-year history. It also includes an exclusive LEGO Marvel minifigure. Here’s a closer look at both with my advanced review of the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary.
Product Details
Book Title: LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary | Publisher: DK Books | Pages: 160 | RRP: £19.99 | ISBN: 9780241621424
LEGO elements: Iron Man Mk64 minifigure | Availability: Published Oct 2nd
One thing which surprised me about the book is its size. Many of the recent LEGO titles from DK Books have followed a smaller more compact format. This is like the older LEGO books so it’s on the larger size, making the page layouts and imagery far better. On the subject of format, the book is split into five chapters – Spider-Man, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy along with other teams, Special Sets and behind the scenes. Pages offer details on when the set was released and piece count along with highlighting some of the minifigures featured in the sets. The start of the book also offers a simplified timeline of Marvel set releases beginning in 2012 right through to 2023.
Each of the chapters offers a pretty in-depth look at various aspects of the Marvel theme and does a great job of grouping various sets and characters around a similar subject. But the highlight for me is the final chapter which focuses on the LEGO Marvel Design Team and details how they create sets and minifigures for the popular theme. This chapter features a chat with LEGO designers along with images of sketch models. I’ve often shared my joy at this sort of content and it’s nice to get a peek behind the
As with many of the LEGO titles, this book features an exclusive LEGO minifigure. Although it’s yet another version of Iron Man, at least it’s an exclusive suit variant. The MK64 or Model 64 suit first appeared in a 2019 issue of the Tony Stark: Iron Man comic. It also has a similar design to the Model 56 suit, which appeared earlier in the same run of comics. The suit has a larger darker panel around the waist area, on the minifigure this is achieved by print detail on the torso and a darker top to the legs. The helmet uses the new style element with the flip-up face panel. It’s a nice little bonus and expands the LEGO Iron Man suit collection.
Overall
DK Books have been providing a lot of similar LEGO titles for many years now and to finally have a LEGO Marvel title is very welcomed. Because of this, the book is very much the highlight for me. Let’s be honest, some LEGO books are only desirable due to the physical LEGO elements they offer. For the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary, the minifigure is merely a nice bonus, the content of the book is the real star. I’ve always made clear my love of behind-the-scenes content and the few pages featured in the book are genuinely interesting and offer a nice insight into how LEGO sets are created. The book will be available from Amazon and all good retailers from October 2nd
