Review: 76320 Iron Man & War Machine vs. Hammer Drones
Posted by CapnRex101,
Iron Man 2 has received infrequent attention in minifigure-scale sets, so 76320 Iron Man & War Machine vs. Hammer Drones sounds great from the name alone. These drones have never been available in LEGO form before, after all.
However, brick-built characters towering above the minifigures are probably not what many fans had in mind. This format enables extra articulation, but the drones look quite awkward to me, at least based on their poses in official images.
Summary
76320 Iron Man & War Machine vs. Hammer Drones, 204 pieces.
£17.99 / $22.99 / €19.99 | 8.8p/11.3c/9.8c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
While the play value is reasonable, the drones should have been executed differently
- Inexpensive set to collect Iron Man and War Machine
- Hammer Drones are good for play
- Missed opportunity for Hammer Drone minifigures
- Drones look terrible, especially the arms
- Expensive for so little substance
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
Iron Man MK6 was introduced in 76313 MARVEL Logo in January and this minifigure appears for a third time here, finally in a scene where it really belongs! The combination of red and dark red shades creates an impression of reflective metal, common among modern Iron Man figures, while the distinctive triangular arc reactor looks superb too.
This version of War Machine has appeared twice before as well, although the dark bluish grey hands used before have been replaced with pearl dark grey. That is a welcome update and the details on the legs, torso and helmet look as impressive as ever, capturing even subtle symbols on the armour, such as the US Air Force insignia.
A stud shooter is mounted on the back, further distinguishing this War Machine MK1 minifigure from others. While I prefer the standard lightsaber hilt representing the minigun, a stud shooter works for play. Both figures are equipped with repulsor pieces and Iron Man wields a pair of red lasers to match the movie, but more importantly, the characters desperately need new heads.
The Completed Model
Hammer Drones are significantly taller than an average human onscreen, although minifigures could still have been large enough, so I am unsure why a brick-built solution was required. The sand green and sand blue liveries are effective and roughly correspond with the army and navy drones in the movie, but the figures' proportions seem strange, even so.
The shoulders and arms are a particular problem. I am pleased with the legs' range of motion and their stability, but the arms seem relatively short and the shoulder joints are much too low, regardless of pose. Surely it would have been simpler to use small ball joints for the shoulders, similar to 30699 Mini Ninja Combo Mech and others.
I am not convinced by the drones' weapons either. Integrating a spring-loaded shooter makes sense for the army drone's long-barrelled M242 autocannon, but I wish it could rotate to either side, following the head motion. On that subject, the printed 1x1 tile forming a single eye works perfectly, with a striking metallic blue sheen.
The navy drone, meanwhile, is equipped with two flick-fire missiles on the shoulder-mounted missile pods. Again, this is nice for play, but the missile pods look crude compared with other areas of the figure, which are fairly detailed. I like the use of 1x2 ingots as textured armour on each drone, for instance.
Moving to the back of the Hammer Drones, the tails of the missiles look awful, inevitably. The finish is otherwise reasonable though, using the same colours as the front. Olive green would probably have been more accurate for the army drone, although I think sand green works with the dark tan highlights.
Overall
76320 Iron Man & War Machine vs. Hammer Drones was designed with a young audience in mind and offers good play value for a set of its size. The drones are fun to articulate and their ability to launch missiles is welcome; unusual for such small figures. There are many problems, however.
Attempting to build the drones at all was a mistake, in my opinion. They would be much better suited to minifigures and could potentially have used these brick-built heads to avoid the need for a new mould, if necessary. Unfortunately, there is little to like for the price of £17.99, $22.99 or €19.99, so I would only recommend this set if you are missing these War Machine and Iron Man minifigures.
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36 comments on this article
I'll just leave this here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDZ6PhvF3E
I'm a sucker for nearly everything Iron Man/Tony Stark..NEARLY. Neat idea but so-so execution. I'll look for it on a deep sale. Thanks for the spot-on review.
Me and all the mech builders are foaming at the mouth for that 1x1 printed tile. Im gonna need so many of those!
The proportions in this set are bizarre.
I already have that War Machine (with a different back attachment), and I'm planning on getting the Mark VI Iron Man in 76315 when I see a good sale, so this is an easy skip for me.
It's high time for some new head prints for Tony and Rhodey.
For a second, I thought we finally got ingots in a new kind of blue. It might be me (or my computer or the photos), but it does not quite look like sand blue to me. Sand blue should be more muted, no? That said, the only blue the ingots are available in is sand blue, so sand blue it is, I guess.
I think the mechs are kinda cute, tbh.
@BabuBrick said:
"The proportions in this set are bizarre.
I already have that War Machine (with a different back attachment), and I'm planning on getting the Mark VI Iron Man in 76315 when I see a good sale, so this is an easy skip for me.
It's high time for some new head prints for Tony and Rhodey."
I just put Rhodey's head (with HUD) from the War Machine Buster onto my War Machine from the Avengers Tower, and it looks endlessly better.
I intend to switch my credit card points for this. It feels less guilty than paying for it. I don't have these minifigs.
"Expensive for so little substance" - 100%
The Stark Expo is such an exotic location. I wonder why Lego is so reluctant to give us location-based play sets. Even when I was a wee child I was always frustrated that my superhero minifigs had no world to inhabit and had to live in vehicles instead of buildings. It really is annoying.
I'm apathetic towards Iron Man and I clicked on this article specifically because I thought the robots looked cool.
Most interesting thing about that set for me is that flick fire missiles are still a thing.
Also, how long will those knees be stiff enough to have the mechs standing?.
Lego corporated with Hammer Industries?
Not a great plan
@GirlWoman said:
"The Stark Expo is such an exotic location. I wonder why Lego is so reluctant to give us location-based play sets. Even when I was a wee child I was always frustrated that my superhero minifigs had no world to inhabit and had to live in vehicles instead of buildings. It really is annoying."
Plunk these figures down in 10315 (Not-So-Tranquil Garden) and you've got a nice display going
Not bad! The minifigs have a very good design.
Also, are you considering the drones being brick-built a problem? Absurd. Then it wouldn't be a set! Also, the drones look really slick and futuristic (although the giant missles are kind of distracting).
The set would be more fun if the drones were just Mixels instead.
Pretty weird set (thought so when it was first announced) but yes at least it's a cheap way for newcomers to get two iconic minifigures. LEGO clearly does not have a problem playing fast and loose with scale ( 76190 anyone?) so maybe a single slightly larger and more detailed drone for Tony and Rhodey to team up against would have worked better. Who knows?
I want someone to edit the scene where Hammer presents the drones for the different branches and instead of the real CGI things entering the stage, it's these Lego derp-bots
Once again, LEGO provides a freebie so that Brickset can unapologetically praise and adore it while...
...wait a sec, they said what?.....uh, never mind....nothing to see here...
:o)
Honestly, the Hammer Drones hardly look any better to me than whatever robot or mech you'll find in cheap LEGO (poly)bags -- if at all. The figs are nice, though.
The drones are adorable. They make me yearn for an affordable robot theme in a similar vein to Mixels and X-Pods.
This should have been 2 poly bags with one figure and mech each.
@Crux said:
"I'll just leave this here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDZ6PhvF3E "
I need snacks.
RIP Alexander Pierce aka The Kid. :(
I was initially excited by this set, until I realised that I already had both figs. If they'd included Justin Hammer, it would have been an instant buy regardless.
@Ryangaff said:
" @GirlWoman said:
"The Stark Expo is such an exotic location. I wonder why Lego is so reluctant to give us location-based play sets. Even when I was a wee child I was always frustrated that my superhero minifigs had no world to inhabit and had to live in vehicles instead of buildings. It really is annoying."
Plunk these figures down in 10315 (Not-So-Tranquil Garden) and you've got a nice display going"
funny you say that--I would love Bride and Cottonmouth minfigs to put in 10315 to recreate that final duel. And throw in a soundbrick with the "handclap" instrumental break and we would have a winner.
I think about that every time i see that set.
@ohrmazd said:
" @Ryangaff said:
" @GirlWoman said:
"The Stark Expo is such an exotic location. I wonder why Lego is so reluctant to give us location-based play sets. Even when I was a wee child I was always frustrated that my superhero minifigs had no world to inhabit and had to live in vehicles instead of buildings. It really is annoying."
Plunk these figures down in 10315 (Not-So-Tranquil Garden) and you've got a nice display going"
funny you say that--I would love Bride and Cottonmouth minfigs to put in 10315 to recreate that final duel. And throw in a soundbrick with the "handclap" instrumental break and we would have a winner.
I think about that every time i see that set."
https://brickset.com/minifigs/njo0565
I'm just a soul whose intentions are good.
Feels like this should've come with a third drone. That would have upped the value proposition considerably.
I'm with folks who find them weirdly cute.
I don't think minifigures would have been the right solution, but the drones definitely could've been built better. It's been a long while since I've seen Iron Man 2, but they're supposed to be bulky robots.
The only set with an Iron Man Mark 6 I have is 6867 and the only one with a War Machine is 76006, so I might pick this up. Besides, I'm used to mechanical Iron Man opponents being oversized; I have 76190, after all.
@ScholtzTKO said:
"This should have been 2 poly bags with one figure and mech each. "
I was thinking the same thing. This set should really be just 11.99 CAD; as polybags here are 5.99...but no thanks to Disney its $24.99 CAD
It's a nice idea for a set, but the mecha designs are just horrible.
I also agree, I don't think minifigs would've been a better solution, I think they would've been *too* small, so I'm not sure what they could've done otherwise.
I like the robots. It looks like something a kid can come up with. This doesn’t need to be a marvel set
The drones remind me of Bastion (75987 & 75974) from Overwatch (especially their "faces"), guess they could pass as some other type of battle ready Omnics.
I never liked the heavy red colouring for War Machine. They eyes and arc reactor should be white with a little bit of red or pink tinge around the edges, and the repulsors should be the same colour as Iron Man's. I never even noticed that he had red eyes in Iron Man 2 until the minifigures started coming out.
Isn't the appeal of brick built robots that you can blow them apart? The play value would've gone down significantly if it were all mini-figures.
@Vesperas said:
"Isn't the appeal of brick built robots that you can blow them apart? The play value would've gone down significantly if it were all mini-figures."
An excellent point!