There are few guarantees in life, as they say. Death, taxes, and the perpetual release of the next LEGO set. And, for fans of the brand, or one of the many franchises it partners with for its next release, that’s not a bad thing. It’s not rare for the brand to be on a roll in terms of great options for its releases, having a solid lineup planned years in advance. These partnerships tie in with major releases, so we’ve seen releases for the likes of the Pokémon 30th anniversary celebrations and Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu movie. Sticking to the Disney stables, we have the theatrical release of Marvel’s Spider-Man – with the film’s character rights licensed by Sony to Marvel Studios for the MCU – and the launch of numerous associated toys, figures and other paraphernalia, including the LEGO Spider-Man: Brand New Day Hero Figure (76346).
With the hype and subsequent success of the film, the LEGO Spider-Man: Brand New Day Hero just had to deliver. LEGO set out to achieve that with a posable Spider-Man figure for play and display, complete with impressive 24 movable joints, which includes individually movable fingers.
The Spider-Man franchise is hugely significant, not just to Marvel and Sony, but to fans and brands across the globe. From the comic books and the many animated series to the live-action outings, the franchise has almost always delivered a successful release. That trend has continued with Tom Holland’s films, even when you exclude the greater MCU titles and focus only on the standalone franchise. The respective box office runs includes Spider-Man: Homecoming with $880 million, Spider-Man: Far From Home with $1.1 billion, Spider-Man: No Way Home with $1.9 billion, and the still-running Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has now crossed $2 billion worldwide — becoming the first Spider-Man film in history to hit that mark, and the 12th MCU film to cross $1 billion.
RELATED: Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review – Punisher Steals the Show
The LEGO Spider-Man: Brand New Day Hero Figure (76346) has a brick count of 813 pieces and an age rating of 12+. Additionally, when considering the number of movable parts, I expected quite the challenging build. However, that wasn’t the case. This may not be the ideal for most builders, especially those in search of a challenge, but the instructions were extremely straight forward and very little in the way of making errors due to the relative simplicity. In total, the seven packs of bricks took under three hours to complete. If you really want to, you could speed run the building and shave off a further 60 minutes.
Although it wasn’t as challenging as the LEGO Eevee or Grogu builds, it was still reasonably fun. The good thing about the less complex nature of this build is that it also opens up to a much younger audience, despite the 12+ rating. Interestingly, the Eevee set with only 587 pieces has a higher age rating at 18+, while the Grogu set with 1,200 pieces has a 10+ rating. While the age ratings are more an indicator for difficulty and expected age for the build, it’s not the limitation. In terms of personal difficulty ratings, I’d place the Eevee set as the most challenging, followed by Grogu and then Spider-Man, irrespective of the ratings of the last two.
RELATED: LEGO Star Wars Grogu 75446 Review: LEGO Hid a Heart Inside This Set
While many LEGO sets are made for display, you often get a few of the larger sets that have been designed for both your cabinet and to be played with. However, to achieve the latter, you need a solid build – something that isn’t going to fall apart or lose a piece each time its lifted from the display.
For the display option, there are plenty of interchangeable poses to enjoy, as long as you’re able to find the balance required. There are four rubber bits fitted to either foot, providing the required grip for an upright stance, or one of the many superhero poses, including the signature landing pose. However, there’s a lot to consider as a result of the height at 36cm tall while standing on two feet. Unlike the Grogu build that has a solid base, the 76346 set needs much more attention to detail on the final stance, which may also tilt over with a slight nudge if you don’t get it right. That’s not ideal when you expect something to be on display for quite some time without needing to readjust each time. While the rubber feet does help somewhat, the flexibility in the ankle joints are a bit too flimsy. Yes, you get a great selection of poses from it, but anything upright may be a struggle, especially when using the detachable webs.
That being said, perhaps the different poses you get from the number of moving joints makes it all worth the struggle. You may not have as many collectors displaying the figure in an upright position, but you will get plenty of action poses, even down to having folded legs and arms. And, as with most of the slightly larger builds, the set also includes a Spider-Man minifig and a nameplate for it to attach to as well.
When it comes to actually playing with the completed set, the results also deliver a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, you get the numerous action poses to enjoy, while also adding the webs for more action scenes, the joints aren’t as easy to move as your average action figure. Kids playing with the set will need to add a touch more force to get the joints to move, with some areas like the hips needing to rotate out before you can bend to a more suitable pose. With one or two wrongs moves, the hip and knee covers may have a bit more pressure added and pop right out, which I found several times when attempting to mimic some of the poses on the box art. That being said, despite a few of these elements prone to popping off, the overall build is quite solid and allows for easy play without the constant worry of any more parts falling off and needing to do a mini rebuild each time.
Overall, the LEGO Spider-Man: Brand New Day Hero Figure (76346) is quite a fun set. Yes, it has a few shortcomings with the balance and stance for display, as well as being a touch too rigid with its movements for a full action figure, but with 24 points of articulation, robust build to allow for dual display and play options, makes it a great set to own for young and old alike. And it looks great too.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in cinemas.
