LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes parts review: 76178 Daily Bugle

Thomas Jenkins (@thomas_jenkins_bricks) examines LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes 76178 Daily Bugle across 2 articles; today analysing its parts and then the build in this separate article. Please consider using our affiliate links to purchase, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

Stop the presses! Today we’re taking a look at the latest - and largest - entry into the LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes line: 76178 Daily Bugle. It’s a massive set weighing in at 3772 pieces and is priced at €299.99/ £274,99/ $299,99/ 499.99 AUD/ 399.99 CAD.

The parts

There are no new moulds in 76178 Daily Bugle, but we are treated to a large and varied selection of parts which include a handful of recolours and rare elements. We also receive significant quantities of some quite useful pieces. And of the 25 minifigures included in the set, 5 are brand new and exclusive.

Recolours

For a set with such a great number of parts, there is a relatively small number of recoloured elements.

• 8 x Bar 7 x 3 with Double Clips (Ladder) in Red (6329922|6020)
• 18 x Fence Spindled 1 x 4 x 2 [4 Top Studs] in Red (6329920|15332)
• 2 x Wheel 18 x 8 with Fake Bolts and Shallow Spokes and Axle Hole in Light Bluish Grey (6357599|56903) was only previously available in White.
• 8 x Plate Special 1 x 2 with Pin Hole on Top in Yellow (6360862|11458)
• 1 x Bucket 1 x 1 x 1 Handle in Red (6347644|95344)
• 1 x Cone 1.17 x 1.17 x 2/3 (Fez) in Red (6347805|85975)

That’s not to say I’m disappointed. It’s great to see a classic piece like the ladder get a refresh with a new colour; great for making fences and guardrails. Paired with the fence, they really are excellent choices for the fire escape, and I imagine a number of town planners will incorporate this idea into their city MOCs. Personally, I can see myself using the bucket handle as a greeble piece but I wish we got a couple more (note that we do actually get an extra as a spare here, though). 

Of these recolours, the wheel surprised me, it’s only been available in White up until now and has appeared in a whole bunch of sets. Grey seems like an obvious choice for such an element, and this kind of wheel comes useful in a number of situations to represent any mechanical cylindrical shape, like engines on a starfighter for example, so this is a welcome inclusion.

New Prints

The Daily Bugle contains a delightful set of 18 printed tiles that are packaged together in a single bag and listed in the inventory as a single item, the element ID is 6360862. There are 15 unique prints but the set of tiles contains three extra ‘No Crime’ patterns. These are really fun elements and contain a number of Easter eggs featuring characters from the Spider-verse. The ‘Conspirator’ newspaper is a more generic print having been created by the LEGO designers rather than the Marvel writers.

Rare Parts

There are plenty of rare parts contained in 76178 Daily Bugle. I spent a long time poring over the set inventory which spans the last five pages of the manual, and yet I continued to find rare and interesting pieces during the build. Yep, this set contains a lot of parts.

The following parts appear in one other set:

• 1 x Book Cover [Plain] in Trans Light Blue (6311467|24093).
• 4 x Mudguard 4 x 2 1/2 x 1 with Arch Round in Yellow (6344180|98282). Last seen in 60082 Dune Buggy Trailer from 2015.
• 4 x Tile Round 1 x 1 with Pink Donut print in Medium Nougat (6329593|98138pr0090). This printed tile was first introduced in 102178 Police Station and replaces the old donut print (6315329).
• 4 x Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 4 [Rounded Corners at Bottom, Square Corners at Top] in Reddish Brown (6168623|28802). Last seen in 7258 Wookiee Attack way back in 2005, rare indeed!
• 1 x Slope 45° 2 x 2 with Vent/Grate Print in Dark Bluish Grey (6329592|3039pr0030).
• 5 x Tile 1 x 2 with Computer Keyboard with No Letters Print in White (6329575|3069bpr0300). Another new print for 2021, this has actually appeared in one set and a foil pack from a Jurassic Park magazine.
• 1 x Slope Curved 2 x 2 Inverted - Dark Bluish Grey (6344820|32803). This was recently seen in 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery.
• 1 x Tile Round 3x3 in Light Bluish Grey (6306721|67095).

The following parts appear in two other sets:

• 2 x Minifig Seat 2 x 2 in Dark Blue (6273588|4079).
• 1 x Hinge Brick 1 x 2 Top Plate Thin in Sand Green (6223168|3938).
• 2 x Panel 1 x 6 x 3 with Studs on Sides in Green (6251117|98280).
• 1 x Tile 2 x 2 with Electric Danger Symbol print in Yellow (6223076|3068bpr0368).
• 8 x Tile 1 x 1 with Triangle print in Trans Orange (6255958|3070bpr0191).
• 6 x Tile 2 x 3 in Green (6288100|26603).

And the following parts appear in three other sets:

• 8 x Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 1 No Studs in Yellow (6297284|37352).
• 1 x Tile 1 x 3 in Metallic Silver (6217498|63864).
• 11 x Tile 2x6 in Dark Bluish Grey (6321746 |69729).
• 1 x Wave / Flame Rounded Single with Pin in Red (6253815|18395).
• 5 x Bar holder with clip in Red (6341972|11090).
• 1 x Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 in Red (6223168|99781).
• 5 x Plate Round 1 x 1 with Open Stud and Bar on Underside in Black (6356406|25893).
• 1 x Tile Special 2 x 2 with 1 x 2 Vertical Plate in Medium Nougat (6313599|41682).

Parts appearing in large quantities

As this is such a large set, there are a number of elements  that appear in large quantities, many of which are extremely useful.

First up, a variety of grey SNOT bricks. I always find myself running out of these pieces so I’m grateful for this top-up. That is, if I can bring myself to part out this magnificent model.

• 287x Brick Special 1 x 1 x 1 2/3 with Studs on 1 Side in Light Bluish Gray (6225242|32952). Yes, you read that correctly. That’s double the total amount included in all the sets combined in which it appeared prior to the Daily Bugle (143 across 38 sets).
• 51x Brick Special 1 x 1 with Stud on 1 Side in Dark Bluish Gray (4558955|87087).
• 30x Brick Special 1 x 1 with Headlight and No Slot in Light Bluish Gray (4211476|4070).
• 24x Brick Special 1 x 1 with Studs on 2 Adjacent Sides in Light Bluish Gray(6267495|26604). This marginally surpasses 21318 Tree House which contains 20.

We also get a nice selection of useful parts for the budding architects out there.

• 347 x Panel 1 x 2 x 2 [Side Supports / Hollow Studs] in Trans Clear (6253231|87552). The highest quantity in which this piece appeared previously was just 18.
• 231 x Plate Special 1 x 2 with Door Rail in Light Bluish Gray (4211568|32028). Much more than the previous record holder for this part, 75252 Imperial Star Destroyer, which contained 63.
• 94 x Plate 1 x 4 in Light Bluish Gray (4211445|3710).
• 62 x Brick 1 x 4 in Light Bluish Gray (4211394|3010).

Next up is a decent portion of studless elements.

• Most interesting of which (at least, for me) are the 67x Train, Track Plain Rail Straight (no slots, no notches on end) in Light Bluish Grey (3228c) which reappears after a five-year hiatus with a new element ID (6333276). 
• 64x Tile 2x2 with Groove in Dark Bluish Grey (4211055|3068b).
• 44x Tile 2x2 with Groove in Bright Green (6294513|3068b). Prior to this set the largest number available in a single set was 7 in the Minecraft set, 21156 Big Fig Creeper and Ocelot. So that’s a pretty big increase.

And finally, a generous helping of some really useful parts which I’ve categorised as 1x1 elements:

• 28 x Bar, Angled with Stud on End in Light Bluish Grey (6326748|65578) is also a pretty rare element, having only appeared in 4 other sets.
• 31 x Plate Round 1 x 1 with Open Stud - Light Bluish Gray (6168647|85861) not a rare element by any means but this is a pretty large quantity for this element, but maybe I’m just excited due to the way they’re used in the set. The next largest quantity is 21127 The Fortress which has 30.
• 46 x Slope Double 45° 1 x 1 in Light Bluish Gray (6253436|35464), another great element for architecture and modular buildings.

I’m delighted we get so many of these elements. I’ve found the former especially useful for rcreating 45-degree angles in the internal structures of my builds, but the Light Bluish Grey colourway that has appeared only a little earlier this year has been a great part for greebling. I was so impressed with the way this part was used in the set; I have to show it off now:

We’ll have a look at the building techniques in 76178 Daily Bugle in a later article, so consider this a preview. This is such a great technique for Doctor Octopus’ prehensile mechanical arms, I’m sure it’ll work its way into the MOC building community; perhaps not just for robot arms but maybe also to represent some pipework or hose-like greebling in a sci-fi or space build.

We’ll also have a look at the rest of the minifigures a little later, but this iteration of Doc Ock may be one of my favourites among the 25 minifigures that appear in here. His mechanical arms may take a little time to position just right but they do look superb.

Stickers

There are two sticker sheets included in the set: one large opaque sheet and one smaller transparent sheet.

Usually I’d recoil at such a large number of stickers in a set, and such big ones too, but the graphic design team did a fantastic job with these and since they are so big, the model would suffer without them, leaving big empty black spaces in the build. Many are Spider-man-specific in their design so once applied those elements will have their usability decreased significantly, becoming pretty much exclusively Spider-man parts, but most aren’t applied on particularly rare pieces, save the manhole cover which is used on the Light Bluish Grey 3x3 round tile. 

I’m a fan of the New York City-centric graphics too. They might work well as bumper stickers on a car or truck.I’m sure some of the other designs such as the ‘TAXI’ print will have some appeal for MOC purposes too.

Minifigures in 76178 Daily Bugle

I know, I know, you must be yelling ‘Get me pictures of Spider-man!’.

There’s a whopping 25 minifigures that appear in the Daily Bugle. That’s a whole series of Collectible Minifigures, and then some! The set boasts five exclusive figures and they are:

• Blade
• J. Jonah Jameson
• Punisher
• Black Cat
• Daredevil

As you’d expect, the new figures are adorned with some nice new prints. I particularly like J. Jonah Jameson’s alternate head print.

There are a few notable elements that make up the minifigs, for both the new faces and returning characters:

Daredevil has a 1x Minifig Head Top with Panther Ears [Plain] in Red (6344698|25264) to represent the devil horns of his costume. I think these would work well paired with other Red minifig heads to create a demon or devil. This is a new colour for the part and we get a spare in the set. More useful to builders will be his signature batons, they are 2 x: Bar 3L in Red (6275080|87994). It’s an uncommon piece having only appeared in four other sets.

Firestar has a recoloured wig in Minifig Hair Long Wavy with Centre Part in Red (6343473|95225). She’s a new figure, but not listed as ‘exclusive’ in the press release. Perhaps we’ll see her reappear soon in an upcoming Marvel set?

Black Cat has Minifig Hair Mid-Length with Part over Front of Right Shoulder in White (6343441|85974). We’ve only ever seen this hairpiece in White once way back in 2014 when it was worn by Storm in 76022 X-Men vs. The Sentinel, although it had a different element ID back then (6078438).

Mysterio is back sporting 1x Minifig Helmet Round Sphere with Small Hole in Trans Blue Opal (6324167 |51283). This is the second appearance of this part as we also saw Mysterio in this costume in 76174 Spider-Man's Monster Truck vs. Mysterio.

Sandman has a Lower Body, Swirling Rocks over Dark Tan Cone Pattern (6249263|28376c02). It’s only been in two other sets thus far. It’s an interesting element and despite its origins as a minifigure part, I think it could be useful elsewhere.

Spider Gwen and Miles Morales both make use of Minifig Hood (74528), a new element for 2021. They wear White (6332378) and Dark Red (6329789) respectively. It’s only the second time we’ve seen either of these pieces.

There appear to be a few new torso prints for the civilian figures too. They are some useful prints that are generic enough to be used in a variety of settings:

Left to right these figures are:

• Robbie Robertson wearing a Medium Nougat knitted sweater 6343739
• Amber Grant wearing a Sand Blue jacket and satchel 6345728
• Ron Barney in another nice sweater, this time in Red 6345280

Conclusion

I don’t think I have to re-iterate just how massive a set 76178 Daily Bugle is. A great deal of useful parts appear in large quantities, such as the windows (which account for almost 10% of the total pieces) and the selection of different SNOT bricks, which might be enticing for builders from a number of different genres. Despite the sheer number of these pieces, there is still plenty of room for a surprisingly diverse selection of parts, and hopefully the rare parts pictured above will give some idea of the wide range of colours that are included too (a bit surprising for a set that appears mostly grey from the outside). Check out my build review to see how colourful the Daily Bugle interior really is.

If I can bring myself to part out this set (the number of pieces make this a daunting task, and it’ll be hard to dismantle such a beautiful model), the newly recoloured red ladders will be interesting to play around with... and I won’t be running out of SNOT bricks any time soon.

But as is the trend with a number of licensed sets these days (especially larger ones like this) the exclusive minifigures, a few of which have been long-awaited, will be the biggest draw for fans of LEGO and Marvel comics alike. It will be available from tomorrow, 26 May 2021 for LEGO VIP members and will be available to all from 1 June priced at €299.99/ £274,99/ $299,99/ 499.99 AUD/ 399.99 CAD. If you enjoyed our coverage, please consider using our affiliate links to purchase it, as New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'.

READ MORE: Continue to part 2 of this review; the build

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