The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier is the enormous flying aircraft carrier from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and comics. LEGO® has made two larger scale versions of this behemoth in sets before; 76042 The SHIELD Helicarrier from 2015 and 76153 Avengers Helicarrier from 2020, but now we have the first midi-scale version.
The original Helicarrier was a massive set with a similarly massive price tag so it's nice to see set 76295 The Avengers Helicarrier aimed at the adult market with more of a 'regular birthday' price tag. But before an endorsement we need to check the specs and fly it around a bit.
Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.
76925 The Avengers Helicarrier
- Price: US$79.99/ £69.99/ €79.99/ AU$129.99
- 509 parts
- Release Date: 1 August 2024
LEGO Marvel 76295 The Avengers Helicarrier on LEGO.com
Recolours & prints
There are no new moulds in set 76295 but there are three nice recolours of some new parts.
- 1x Windscreen 6 x 8 Curved in Medium Stone Gray/ Light Bluish Gray (6508818 | 5274)
- 1xWedge Sloped 2 x 5 Right in Medium Stone Gray/ Light Bluish Gray (6493587 | 3505)
- 1xWedge Sloped 2 x 5 Left in Medium Stone Gray/ Light Bluish Gray (6493589 | 3504)
- 1x Tile 4 x 4 with new Marvel Helicarrier print in Black (6488086 | 1751pr)
The curved windscreen is a new mould that is tearing through the colour palette! Currently available in trans-light blue but there are 4 new colours in the upcoming LEGO® DREAMZzz™ wave – see Toby's thorough overview of all the new LEGO® DREAMZzz™ parts.
I am stupid amounts of excited to see those wedges in light bluish grey!
Rare parts
Some of these parts are very standard fare but sometimes any new colour is a good thing if you're collecting elements in every colour.
- 1x Tile 4 x 4 in Black (6469830 | 1751) in 3 sets
- 4x Plate Round Corner 5 x 5 with 4 x 4 Round Cutout in Medium Stone Grey/ Light Bluish Gray (6430583 | 80015) in 4 sets
- 2x Brick Sloped 1 x 6 x 1 with 1 x 2 x 1 / 3 Cutout in Medium Stone Grey/ Light Bluish Gray (6508016 | 4569) only comes in the 75382 Tie Interceptor
- 1x Plate Special 2 x 2 with Only 2 studs in Dark Green/ Green (6505153 | 33909) in 2 sets
- 3x Plate 1 x 1 in Vibrant Yellow (6465247 | 3024) in 2 sets
- 7x Plate 1 x 2 in Trans-Black (6514010 | 3023 or 28653) in 3 sets
- 4x Sports Roller Skate in Sand Yellow/ Dark Tan (6300318 | 11253 or 18747) in 2 sets
Sticker sheet
It's a fair number of stickers but the set does benefit from their decorations. I haven't applied them for this review so here is an official LEGO image to show the set as envisioned:
The build
I have a mild irrational dislike when a LEGO set has just one side of a pair of reflected pieces included. So I was inordinately pleased to see this wedge brick neatly hidden in the construction because it means if you build something else from these parts you have the option of symmetry without sourcing the reflected piece.
In these early stages, I just continually felt like I was building in the wrong theme! The initial few sections on the build felt very much like the structure of a Star Wars ship.
There is a really good collection of light bluish grey parts in the set (fairly obviously) but as I was getting towards the final few steps of the build I was asking myself where the value in this set was. I knew there was no exclusive minifigure accompanying the set to place on an unnecessarily extended stand with fancy plinth, so where was the justification for the price in all this?
The stand is an appropriate addition; effective and sturdy in-keeping with stands we've seen before. It's just that at the scale, the Helicarrier is not all that weighty and I wonder whether a smaller trans-clear stand might have been possible, to add to the appearance of it floating:
I used two Support Half Round 2 x 4 x 13 in Trans-Clear (6507798 | 1749) for my stand.
Conclusion
A huge grey thing, hanging in the sky, exactly the same way that bricks don't.
– Douglas Adams (mis)quote
The model is a fairly basic construction, so much so that it feels as if it might be aimed at novice builders or Marvel fans who are at the beginning of their LEGO journey, although the finished model is no less effective or less accurate-looking for that simplicity. At scale, I think what has been achieved is fairly effective.
I would have liked to see a Nick Fury minifigure instead of the ‘identification’ panel, but I’m aware those are not really comparable costs. Then again, compare this set to 76286 The Milano (read my review) and it's a third of the price for a quarter of the parts. I honestly don't believe Nick Fury or an alternative exclusive would have broken the bank.
It's a big hulking bundle of grey parts. The set is predominantly light bluish grey and there are some exotic parts in that colour but many of the parts are commonly available. With all the decoration being done with stickers there's not a considerable amount of uniqueness to this set. The newer parts shown above are enticing but would not be enough to tempt me to buy the set.
In closing, 76295 The Avengers Helicarrier could be a contender for a good parts pack if it were better value. It presents some reasonable opportunity for alternate builds and it would undeniably make me happy to have a couple of these sets at my disposal for making my own spaceships. A Sith Infiltrator perhaps?
It is a fairly accurate representation of the source vehicle and the build was satisfying enough for the brief time I spent doing it, but honestly if the set was closer to three-quarters of the price I'd be more inclined to recommend it.
READ MORE: LEGO® Wicked: October sets available to pre-order
Help New Elementary keep publishing articles like this. Become a Patron!
A huge thank you to all our patrons for your support, especially our 'Vibrant Coral' tier: London AFOLs, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Huw Millington, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Gerald Lasser, Baixo LMmodels, Sue Ann Barber and Trevor Clark, Markus Rollbühler, Elspeth De Montes, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Chuck Hagenbuch, Jf, Wayne R. Tyler, Daniel Church, Lukas Kurth (StoneWars), Timo Luehnen, Chris Wight, Jonathan Breidert and our newest top-tier patron, Brick Owl! You folks are just the cutest little baby bows.
All text and images are ©2024 New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.
Well, it'll be 20% off or more on Amazon eventually, so pick it up then :)
ReplyDeleteI still adhere to the golden 10¢-per-part metric when deciding value. Licensed sets might be a bit more than that, but then deduct value for having zero minifigs. This should be a $55 set at most.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see this set. I have no interest in buying it but it means a few pieces appear in light bluish gray that I've been waiting for
ReplyDeleteThe light bley recolor of that windscreen is a nice surprise—didn't notice it in the initial pictures since it's only really visible from the underside of this set!
ReplyDeleteGood conversation starter, but as there is no new minifigs and just a single printed part, there's nothing here that interests me personally, as there still is a Disney tax applied.
ReplyDeleteI don't say this often, but this set should really have had all the runways printed, for at least 3 different reasons:
ReplyDelete1. Alignment is crucial here, you don't want to screw that up.
2. Runways, by their nature, are quite monotonous/repetitive and would have required only a single new print, for example a single 2x6 tile used 12x or so.
3. Runways, by their nature, are prone to having little toy aircraft being rolled over them, which would damage stickers quicker than prints I assume.
I'm not opposed to stickers per se, but in this use-case, for this model, there are so many arguments for prints that the choice for stickers is just unjustifiable.
That, and the price is ridiculous. Given the piece count and type of pieces, it's €40 at most. Compare to for example 75377, also a flying craft, also about 500 pieces, and even with the Star Wars licence it's only €53.