Through the end of June, if you spend $75 or more at LEGO Shop@Home or at a LEGO Brand Retail store, you get a free 5002943 Winter Soldier polybag. Resident Marvel Cinematic Universe superfan Ta-metru_defender met this goal and is now sharing his thoughts on the exclusive character from last year's Captain America film. Is now the time to use those VIP points, or should you wait for the next exclusive promotion? You'll have to read on to find out!

Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

Behold, a polybag! And on it we've got the Winter Soldier walking towards you. There's the Avengers symbol in the bottom right corner, which, interestingly, reads "Avengers Initiative" as opposed to Age of Ultron or any other of the Marvel Superheroes subthemes. Does this mean there are more random Avengers coming? We can hope!

And on the back is legalese, websites, and all that other fun stuff.

Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

That's literally all that's inside the bag. There's no instructions/poster combo, no accessories, no advertising for other LEGO sets, it's just minifig parts. Which I suppose makes sense, as thus far the only way to get this is by buying other LEGO sets, but, still. It's a little barebones.

Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

But the minifig is great. He looks like a cross between his comic and film versions, with a shoulder holster and ammo pouches over armor for good measure. His arm is printed, which is beautiful and replete with the red star. There's no mistaking him for someone else.

His head's two sided too, in case you prefer your Bucky Barnes more comic-ish.

Playability
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

I think this is where most of my issues with the polybag is: it's just a minifig. Despite having a shoulder and hip holster, he doesn't come with a gun of any sort, nor the knife he wields in a memorable fight from the film. At least the Iron Patriot minifig from a couple years back came with a stand/repair-thing. This one is just the minifig. Which looks cool with other figs and all, but isn't terribly exciting alone.

Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

Pros What's to like? Winter Soldier minifig! Cons What's not to like? ...and that's it.

One of my big questions about this polybag is why now? There weren't any LEGO sets for the movie last year, why not throw this one out last year and have one more tangentially related to Age of Ultron now (I would really like an MCU-Falcon minifig, thankyouverymuch)?

But then, we are getting a Winter Soldier 'fig, which is really cool. And the polybag is sorta free too, if you're spending $75+ on LEGO in the first place. So at the end of the day it's really quite hard to argue with. If you're planning on making a big LEGO purchase and you dig the MCU, go for it and get the fig.

Thanks as always to Josh for filling us in on the world of LEGO Marvel. Let us know what you thought and ask any questions you might have in the Talkback. And if you want the latest LEGO and Bionicle news, you should keep checking back right here on BZPower!

« Return to News