Review: 76329 Miles Morales' Mask
Posted by CapnRex101,
76285 Spider-Man's Mask was released in 2024 and its reception was relatively positive on the whole, considering the challenges inherent to designing a curved mask, especially given the intricate web patterns on all sides.
76329 Miles Morales' Mask follows and clearly faces the same challenges, hence the model is actually a simple re-colour of Peter's mask.
Summary
76329 Miles Morales' Mask, 487 pieces.
£59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99 | 12.3p/14.4c/14.4c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
76329 Miles Morales' Mask is appealing on display, though not terribly exciting
- Impressive shaping on the whole
- Quite a few printed elements
- Matches 76285 Spider-Man's Mask
- Some visible gaps and ridges
- Overpriced
- Perhaps a missed opportunity for improvements
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The Completed Model
Re-coloured sets never feel entirely appropriate for LEGO, arguably lacking a proper sense of creativity. However, this example makes sense, especially because 76285 Spider-Man's Mask was already well-executed and ensuring that Miles' mask matches Peter's is useful should you wish to display the pair together.
On that subject, they do look good paired up. The inverted colour schemes are appealing and the bases match, each featuring a printed nameplate. These are stylistically consistent across this whole series of sculptures, referred to as 'Marvel Masks' in the instruction manual.
I think the rounded shape of the mask looks excellent, particularly when viewed from the front, where 6x8x2 shells are used to splendid effect. These elements and the 2x4 curved slopes on the cheeks are printed, as they were on Peter's mask, but there are quite a few stickers applied on the top and sides.
The eyes are nicely constructed with 3x3 quarter spheres, which work brilliantly for Miles' eyes, framed by red tiles. Their shape is fairly accurate to the character's comic appearances and his design from the Insomniac video games, as are the web patterns.
As expected, this mask's internal structure is also completely identical to 76285 Spider-Man's Mask, albeit with certain colour changes, even inside. The face features several clips and ball joints to secure different sections, while the panels across the back and sides are more simply connected to bricks with studs on the side.
These are weaker sections of the model, in my opinion. The shaping is not bad, but there are definitely some noticeable seams and the web patterns do not line up as neatly as they do on the face. Additionally, the gaps in these red patterns are somehow more conspicuous than the black webbing on Peter's mask, even though the stickered and printed details are the same.
I find the use of stacked 2x6 rounded plates on the back relatively crude. However, the model's dark colour is beneficial here because it disguises the ridges and transitions between panels to some degree, much like 75274 TIE Fighter Pilot Helmet when the format was introduced.
Overall
76329 Miles Morales' Mask is a lovely companion to last year's Spider-Man mask, sharing the same realistic shaping and attractive patterns, but also the same gaps and ridges on the back, unfortunately. Part of me wishes the design had been refined between the duo, although I can see the advantages of identical sculpting if they are displayed together.
Unfortunately, the consistency between the two masks extends to the price. £59.99, $69.99 or €69.99 feels too expensive for a relatively basic model of this size, so I would definitely advise waiting for a discount before considering this one. Notably, I expect this will be the final Marvel mask released, as the series is presumably supplanted by the Marvel Busts.
This set will be launched on the 1st of July and is available for pre-order on LEGO.com.
57 likes
23 comments on this article
Looks cool, but that price and the lack of improvements make this an easy pass.
Two (minor) positives - what appears like a massive straight-through gap above the eye in the main picture is actually a reflection which hopefully won't look nearly as bad in real life. And at least they've managed to avoid that "grumpy geezer" look from the Brickheads (seriously, those reminds me of Carl from "Up").
The price makes these difficult to justify for space parts, even with the great printing. Building a Spider Fighter could be awesome, but it’s just so much money.
Wake me up when it's 25% off.
Seriously, it looks pretty good next to red Spidey. Regardless, these go on sale so fast it really doesn't make sense to buy them right away.
@StyleCounselor said:
"Wake me up when it's 25% off.
Seriously, it looks pretty good next to red Spidey. Regardless, these go on sale so fast it really doesn't make sense to buy them right away. "
Definitely looks better than the other Spider-Man.
Yeah I really wish they’d waited at least another year or so before doing this, give a bit of time for the design to be tinkered with a bit. Or use the more stylised designs for Miles that the Spider-Verse films use, something that would have made it more than just a direct palette swap
Nice review! I actually think the gaps are less noticeable on this one thanks to the dark color.
Is Miles Morales an evil version of spiderman or something?
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Is Miles Morales an evil version of spiderman or something?"
He is a black variant (someone had to say it) of Spider-Man from another universe.
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Is Miles Morales an evil version of spiderman or something?"
He uses Miles, Spider-Man uses Kilometers.
Masks, helmets... how boring! We want to be able to play with it after we build it, not just look at it !
And now bundle both sets in one big box for like €160 or so.....
@FARLANDER said:
"Masks, helmets... how boring! We want to be able to play with it after we build it, not just look at it !"
So buy 11199.
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Is Miles Morales an evil version of spiderman or something?"
Lemme give a short comics rundown (as a casual comic fan).
Around the turn of the millennium, Marvel introduced the "Ultimate Spider-Man" series (alongside other comics that would form the "Ultimate Marvel" universe) as a reimagined take on Spider-Man's origin without the baggage of many decades of comics continuity to catch up on. The comic was successful and lasted over a decade. Around the end of that run, Peter Parker (the original Spider-Man, by that point an adult with many adventures under his belt) died and was succeeded by Miles Morales, an afro-Puerto Rican teen from Brooklyn who acquired similar powers to Peter Parker's but with a few twists (including an electrical "sting" that could conduct through his webs). Eventually the "Ultimate Marvel" imprint was discontinued, but Miles proved to be so popular that he was folded into the main Marvel universe via multiversal shenanigans.
I've only read some of the comics featuring Miles Morales (superhero comics being a sprawling medium at the best of times), but a much easier onboarding to the character is the recent animated movies "Into the Spider-Verse" and "Across the Spider-Verse", which star Miles and showcase his origin story alongside several other Spider-heroes from across the multiverse. Miles also appears in several other Spider-Man media from recent years, including the PS4/PS5 video game series where he becomes Peter Parker's protege.
Is it just me, or are the prices of Marvel Lego sets in particular just outrageous? I'm more often a defender of modern Lego set prices than a detractor, but I've noticed that Marvel sets seem pretty consistently priced at or above the top end of the typical price-per-part range for IP-licensed sets.
Am I the only one who thinks that it'd be funny to swap pieces between this and 76285? You could do it at random, or actually try for something that looked coherent.
@Lyichir said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"Is Miles Morales an evil version of spiderman or something?"
Lemme give a short comics rundown (as a casual comic fan).
Around the turn of the millennium, Marvel introduced the "Ultimate Spider-Man" series (alongside other comics that would form the "Ultimate Marvel" universe) as a reimagined take on Spider-Man's origin without the baggage of many decades of comics continuity to catch up on. The comic was successful and lasted over a decade. Around the end of that run, Peter Parker (the original Spider-Man, by that point an adult with many adventures under his belt) died and was succeeded by Miles Morales, an afro-Puerto Rican teen from Brooklyn who acquired similar powers to Peter Parker's but with a few twists (including an electrical "sting" that could conduct through his webs). Eventually the "Ultimate Marvel" imprint was discontinued, but Miles proved to be so popular that he was folded into the main Marvel universe via multiversal shenanigans.
I've only read some of the comics featuring Miles Morales (superhero comics being a sprawling medium at the best of times), but a much easier onboarding to the character is the recent animated movies "Into the Spider-Verse" and "Across the Spider-Verse", which star Miles and showcase his origin story alongside several other Spider-heroes from across the multiverse. Miles also appears in several other Spider-Man media from recent years, including the PS4/PS5 video game series where he becomes Peter Parker's protege."
Hey thanks for that. I knew he was a different Spider-Man from Peter Parker, but I wasn’t sure how he became a Spider-Man as I don’t read comics and haven’t played the games or seen that movie (yet).
It feels like most sets are priced so that even with a 20% discount retailers will still make a pile of profit.
@Brickbuilder0937 said:
"It feels like most sets are priced so that even with a 20% discount retailers will still make a pile of profit."
There's definately a factor, exclusive sets seem to have more reasonable prices , due to less discounts from lego.com itself.
The exclusive 40657 Dream Village had a notably lower price ratio compared to the rest of Dreamzzz
As someone who likes the classic Peter way more,
Pass.
Lego selling souless recolors lmao
@TeriXeri said:
" @Brickbuilder0937 said:
"It feels like most sets are priced so that even with a 20% discount retailers will still make a pile of profit."
There's definately a factor, exclusive sets seem to have more reasonable prices , due to less discounts from lego.com itself.
The exclusive 40657 Dream Village had a notably lower price ratio compared to the rest of Dreamzzz"
Didn't stop LEGO from selling that particular set at 40% off several times on Shop at Home.
@lordofdragonss said:
"Lego selling souless recolors lmao"
76187 and 76199 say "hello". They're also wondering what the fuss is about, and why you did not raise your voice in complaint four years ago.
I may not like them very much, but they do have some good points there.