Here we are, days before the release of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, which is currently sitting pretty with a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm very excited about this movie, and will be seeing it as soon as I can, but I'm not here to talk about the movie today. Today, I'm reviewing Lego set 76021: The Milano Spaceship Rescue.
I was pretty impressed with this set. It's well put together and a fairly complicated build, took me about two hours to complete. It clocks in at 665 pieces, five minifigures, and a $74.99 price tag. Having reviewed the other two sets in this line, The Starblaster Showdown and The Knowhere Escape Mission, I must say that I left the best set for last.
On a side note, while I generally prefer printed pieces to stickers, I did appreciate Lego numbering the stickers to match their corresponding placement. This isn't something I've seen before, but it did simplify thing a bit and I hope to see more of it.
The Minifigures
The set came with five minifigures, Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser, and yet another Sakaraan Soldier.
I wasn't too keen on getting another Star-Lord but the mini grew on me once I ripped into the set. And while I would've preferred a second Nova Corpsman, I can't complain too much about having another faceless enemy for the Guardians to beat up on in the Sakaraan Soldier. Not that I'm playing with these Legos, but it's fun in theory.
The Star-Lord minifigure included in this set does differ from the minifigure in the Starblaster set, at least as far as the outfit goes. Here, Quill is decked out in his Guardians of the Galaxy uniform, which looks pretty good. I really like the detail on the front and matches the other Guardians in this set nicely. My one complaint is that the double-sided facial expressions on this figure are also the same as the previous release. While I'm no stranger to receiving the same figure across multiple sets, for $75 Lego could've included some variation.
Star-Lord also come with his signature mask, two blaster pistols, two cylinder pieces to act as his rocket boots, and another weapon that seems to be his "heavy artillery." It's a simple build but looks pretty neat in hand.
Drax the Destroyer is the simplest of the minifigures, at least as far as extra's go, but the detail on the figure is actually quite amazing. It's really intricately designed and works really well at this scale.
I love the detail on his back tattoo, especially since they use Lego skulls to make the figure fit better with the Lego universe. Drax also come with two knives that act as his signature weapons.
Gamora rounds out the Guardians, finally giving me a complete set of heroes. The detail is nice, pretty much the same as Star-Lord, except with feminine features. She is a lady, after all. The highlights on her hairpiece are nicely done, as well as the detail on her face. As you can see, she also come with a double-sided face, one angry, the other more sultry, and she has two swords as her weapons.
I really love the detail on Ronan the Accuser. His body is greatly detailed, and the battle damage across the front and back shows nicely. He comes with a standard black Lego cape, but the headdress seems to be a new piece. I also love his hammer, which not only looks great, but is something you actually have to assemble yourself. Ronan also comes with a silver orb, which everyone seems to be after, and a double-sided head.
Overall, the minifigures in this set are really well done and are great additions to the line. You'll notice I didn't talk about the Sakaraan Soldier, but there's no need to, as it's the same figure from the sets I reviewed previously.
The Vehicles
In classic Lego fashion, we have the larger Milano spaceship serving as the hero's vehicle, and the much smaller Necrocraft servicing the bad guy's. I wish this wasn't the case, but I supposed if you're trying to sell the set to kids, you wanna show off the good guys first and foremost.
The Milano is a beast of a ship, measuring 15 inches wide, nine inches deep and three inches high. It's big enough to fit most off the Guardians (sorry Groot), comes with two flick fire missiles on the under side of the ship and two new blasters along the side which fires 1x1 round pegs. The detail of his build is great, and the ingenuity that when into it really shows. It's really amazing to see what can be done with Lego and this is example to show off.
The top of the ship is removable to fit the minifigures inside. Sadly, it isn't attached to the ship via a hinge put it's still pretty easy to remove and reattach. It's probably a good thing that the designer just got it out of the way rather than having you work around it.
Oddly enough, as great as this build is, the feature I enjoyed the most was the boombox included in the ship. There nothing quite like giving Star_Lord and company a ghetto blaster to accompany them on their adventures.
This time around the Necrocraft is a much better addition to the set than the one feature in the Starblaster set. It's about the same size, and much smaller than the Milano, but it features two missile launchers that are pretty awesome. The range on these missiles are quite impressive, and as I've said in previous reviews, they seem to have come straight out of a 1980s GI Joe action figure.
The ship itself is well built, although the purpose of the fins are still not explained. The front of this ship also has a small platform for Ronan to stand on, which is pretty badass, especially if this is a spaceship.
The Verdict
I'm pretty happy with this set. It's definitely the best overall set in this line, even if it's a bit overpriced. But you can't go wrong with this purchase. I had fun with the build, and kids will definitely enjoy playing with the finished product.
