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Set Review: 6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle
 Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 6:02am by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Ta-metru_defender] It's time for the Avengers reviews to continue! Not content to just buy the teeny-tiny set, Ta-metru_defender bought the big Marvel Super Heroes set, the Quinjet Aerial Battle. Is this a set that should swoosh through your house? Read on to see! Presentation
The first thing you'll notice about the box is that it's big. It easily dwarfs all the other Avengers (and most other Lego) boxes on the shelf. Rightfully so too: at $70 it's the priciest one from the Marvel Super Heroes line. The front of the box bears the same red Marvel markings and Lego-fied Avengers as the other sets. The main image is Earth's Mightiest Heroes doing epic battle with Loki's chariot. Then there's the piece count, minifigs, and all that too. On the back we've got a demonstration of the Quinjet's features along with the normal Avengers in the corner. And sound effects. Lots of sound effects. But you didn't buy the set for box, did you? At least I hope not.
You get five numbered bags of pieces as well as a sixth bag containing the three instruction booklets, comic, and sticker sheet. And a piece of cardboard, presumably to make sure the booklets and all doesn't bend in the box. A good call, I say, especially considering there's a sticker sheet and, yanno, bended sticker sheets are a pain. The comic's entertaining enough for the ten seconds it takes to read/look at it. Younger fans will like it. What I like is this awesome shot of Iron Man:
Building
The first instruction booklet is for Loki's Chariot and the Quinjet's cockpit. The chariot is straightforward and rather uninteresting, but the cockpit has some nifty brickwork going on with the design of its chair as you can see here:
(And yes, I am once again sabotaging my AFOL street cred by applying stickers.)
It doesn't take long before the Quinjet's hull steadily begins to take shape. The build's fun and uses a couple basic SNOT techniques. It's not something you'll find terribly difficult, but it's not boring, either.
You get a handful of extra pieces as well as a bright orange brick separator. Naturally, these extra bricks means more decoration for my phone's case.
Set Design
Alright. New pieces first.
We get 1x1 round tiles which will make great light detailing on just about anything; the interesting product of mixing cheese slopes and 1x2 plates; and these wonderful bracket pieces. I understand the bigger one's been around for a while, but the smaller ones are new. And man, I can see them having innumerable uses in various MOC's.
In small baggies we get Loki and Iron Man's helmets, but more on that in a moment.
Both villains have leg printing, and the Alien Foot Soldier has back printing on his head and torso too. Despite being a mischievous trickster, Loki has only one face. Their printing is very detailed and looks great, as you can see for yourself. Loki's helmet is of the rubbery sort and his staff is two pieces which I believe come from the Ninjago line.
Combine him with the figs from Captain America's Avenging Cycle and Loki indeed has an army. A small, one anyway.
The heroes are just as beautiful. All of them have front and back printing, two sided heads, and (except Thor) leg printing. Thor's hammer is a new mold which you can get a better view of in other pictures. I love these minifigs. The detail on them is fantastic and they're instantly recognizable yet still very Lego. They have you give Iron Man the trans-blue bricks for repulsors in the instructions and they work quite well (I took them off for these pictures). Sadly, there's no hair piece for Tony without his helmet, but hey, nothing a quick rummage in the Lego collection can't fix. Also: people, we have a Scarlett Johansson minifig. Let us celebrate.
Let me take a moment to talk about Iron Man's helmet. I like it. Yes, I know, most people don't, most people say it's too big, etc. I think it works well for the minifig. Its ability to open up is a nifty touch and it just looks plain cool. No complaints from me.
Loki's Chariot is, well, unremarkable. The two minifigs can drive/ride it around and, well, that's it. I mean, it's got a nice aesthetic but that's about it. That said, it's justification for getting two more minifigs in the set, so I'm not gonna complain that much. It is what it is.
The Quinjet, on the other hand, is just downright cool. I'm not kidding when I say it: this jet is probably the coolest collection of plastic bricks I've bought in a long time. I'm not even sure where to begin. For starters the overall shape is just so smooth and flowy. It just feels aerodynamic when you look at it. Aerodynamic and potent. Dude, this is a friggin' cool jet. It also bears a strong resemblance to the actual Quinjet from what comparisons I've done so there's that. Even if it didn't it is such a cool plane.
Playability
Okay, features. The aft has a ramp that you can lower revealing a neat little compartment. You can fit a couple minifigs in there and also access it from the top. It's simple and nifty.
Black Window shows the main cockpit opening. It's a simple hinge, but hey, Lego could have easily gone with the snap-on-snap-off method.
The windshield in the main fuselage behind the cockpit snaps off (no hingers there) revealing a control room of sorts. Two minifgs can fit in there just fine and there's a fire extinguisher behind the starboard chair. They aren't facing the control panel but hey, when has that ever kept a 'fig down?
Beneath the wings you can swivel down the flick-fire missile batteries. The wings can also spin and pivot on the hinges, letting you fold it down for when it lands.
The spiffiest feature is the drone release thingy. You press the running light on the top and from below the compartment holding the drone pops out. It's a fairly unorthodox (in my experience) design involving a pin, a plate with pin holes, and a couple axles. It works great and hey, it's cool.
The drone itself is kinda just there. It bears the SHIELD emblem proudly and will certainly fly far if you throw it hard enough.
Like I've said before, the Quinjet is just plain cool. Its a sturdy build so you can run around your room making swooshing noises without fear of anything coming apart (I know this from first hand experimentation). The play features all work just as they should and the minifigs are fun to pose around the plane.
Then you can take your figs, mix it with the rest of your Lego collection, and change the Avengers into their civvies.
And if you add Captain America your Avengers (minus Hulk and Hawkeye) can assemble! Final Thoughts
The Quinjet is a magnificent vehicle. I know I've sung its praises over and over again throughout this review but I can't stress it enough: this thing is made of pure cool. Loki's chariot just sorta being there is more than easily forgivable in light of how plain cool the Quinjet itself is. And the minifigs, but, again, the Quinjet is just cool. That's the only word for it. Cool. If you have $70 to spend and have to pick just one Avengers set, get this one. You get a group of great minifigs and one of the coolest Lego vehicles ever. Get it. And that concludes today's review - I hope you all enjoyed it. Of course, be sure to thank Ta-metru_defender and ask any questions you might have in the Talkback. Our next review will hopefully be pretty unique, so keep checking back for that and other LEGO and Hero Factory news and reviews, right here on BZPower!
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