With the amount of Lego Superhero sets that I own I could probably do a Superhero Sundays post for the next twenty years. Unfortunately though I don’t have much power, I do have a fair amount  of responsibilities and I don’t have the time to do one every Sunday at present.

That said, I really needed to find the time to post about this set.

 

It’s Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum!

Though I really liked the movie, it wasn’t my favourite in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I am getting a bit tired of antagonists that are just polar opposites of the antagonist. It seems to always have been a thing  that every superhero has to have their polar opposite to fight against. Which is interesting I guess, but in the movies it always seems a bit tiresome to pit them up against their opposites right away in their first story. And a lot of superheroes have had to, Ironman had Obidiah Stane as Iron Monger back in 2008, Hulk had Abomination also in 2008, Captain America had Red Skull who  had taken the same super soldier serum as him, Ant-man had Yellow Jacket and now Doctor Strange has Kaecilius who is also a kung fu/magic user.

Regardless, Doctor Strange was a good movie. It just wasn’t amazing. Whereas this Lego set loosely based on the movie is amazing.

First off, unlike most other Lego Marvel superheroes sets, there isn’t a single vehicle included in this set. Which makes a nice change! I like vehicles enough, but I have definitely run out of hands to ‘swoosh’ ’em all now. I would much rather have a cool looking scene to display (and play) my minifigures on instead of another vehicle to add to the twelve million I already own. And then there’s the most obvious thing about this set, which is a godamn squid/ Cthulhu-esque  monster coming through a porthole into the room. There was never a scene in the movie where anything like that really happened in the movie, but I for one will be the first to forgive Lego for this, as I really love sanctum invading giant squid creatures and I don’t think Lego has done anything  as awesome and weirdly different as that before.

The best part of the squid is that his mouth rotates and his tentacles move about by rotating a wheel on the other side of the set. If there is anything better than a Lego squid, it’s definitely a Lego squid with wiggly tentacles.

The rest of the scene is comprised of book shelves, tables, maps, letters, a treasure chest and other magical artifacts. It reminds me a lot of some of the Harry Potter Lego sets which I owned as a kid. I have always had a love for wizards and magical things perhaps because one of my first ever sets was Lego 6020 Magic Shop which came with a wizard, a sword, a bird, a scroll, torches etc. Regardless of what spawned my appreciation, I love all of the included little accessories that make this look all mystical.

The books on the shelf are actually just coloured tiles which are pretty neat but I would have preferred little books like the Harry Pottter Lego sets have had.

There are also two clear little platforms which have ‘levers’ on the other side. The idea is that you can put your figures on and make them jump and hover in midair like they do in the movie.

I really like that the letter on the desk is addressed to Stark Industries, a little nod of acknowledgement to other things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The final thing to look at in this set are the minifigures. Unlike other sets which usually have a couple of the heroes and a villain, this just has three of the heroes, Karl Mordo (who actually is a villain in the comics), The Ancient One, and Doctor Strange. They all look like pretty good versions of their on-screen characters, though I don’t know if the Ancient one wore gold colour robes in the film. Maybe she did, I just don’t remember. Doesn’t really matter, I don’t care. She comes with two little energy fans that she conjures up in the movie at some point.

Doctor Strange is the final figure and he looks awesome. I really like the hair and everything. The cape caused some confusion just as to how it was meant to go on him, and I actually had to watch a Youtube video to show me how to put it on. He comes with two little circular pieces which have printing on them, to make it look like he is doing magic which looks great.

So in all, despite my not knowing what a ‘Sanctorum’ is, this is one of my favourite Lego Marvel sets to date. It has some simple minifigs and  overall design (apart from the squid) but looks brilliant and has a bunch of really neat little pieces. Most sets I dismantle after I have put together, just for the purposes of storage but I didn’t have the heart to pull this one apart.

It’s still available in stores at the moment, and though it isn’t one of the cheapest I personally think it is well worth the money, if only to own a little Tilda Swinton.

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