Review: 77078 Mecha Team Leader
Posted by SetToBuild,
What in the Teddy bear Voltron is this, you say? Fortnite’s Mecha Team Leader skin was introduced in 2019, at the same time as this giant robot became part of the game’s main story in Season 9.
Throughout July that year, the Pressure Plant map location gradually updated to show the progress of a huge mechanical figure being assembled. Once complete, it was decorated with several styles which refer to other aspects of the game, before it fought and ultimately destroyed the main antagonist of the season, The Devourer.
Summary
77078 Mecha Team Leader, 2,503 pieces.
£209.99 / $249.99 / €229.99 | 8.4p / 10.0c / 9.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
This towering behemoth sacrifices features for magnitude
- Somewhat posable
- Strong joints
- Sturdy on display
- Detailed minifigure
- No hidden features
- No knee joints
- Tomatohead's sticker eyes
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Box
The large tray-style box contains 19 paper bags. On the front is, of course, the fully assembled Team Leader, and on the back the features and various components are shown in more detail. It features the traditional 18+ black background rather than game scenery, as other Fortnite sets have done.
The two sticker sheets are made of the same material, so it’s unclear why they are split. Perhaps one was added as an afterthought for an element that really should have been printed—more on that later.
Game Content
As a reward for purchasing this set, players can unlock the Mecha Team Leader and Mecha Team Shadow outfits, Jet Set back blings to match both skins, and the Turbocharged emote for free. If you’ve got your LEGO account linked with Epic Games, the process to get your in-game loot is easy. After scanning the barcode on the instructions, you can get the style code from the same screen as your extra 20 LEGO Insiders points. You do get both the LEGO Fortnite Odyssey and Battle Royale versions of the styles that can be used in many different game modes.
Minifigure
The minifigure version of Mecha Team Leader, as with any Fortnite figures to date, closely resembles its in-game counterpart, which was designed first. As usual, some of the finer details are missing, but the moulded head and printed arms and legs are faithful. I love the tiny faces on the toes.
It would have been cool if the minifig came with a custom sword, but it instead holds a sign. This is a reference to the Team Mech emote, where the character holds this sign up to the sound of cheers from an imaginary crowd. The emote was released in 2019 alongside the Mecha Team Leader skin, as was a corresponding Team Monster emote representing its opponent.
Completed Model
In Season 9, a character named Singularity could be unlocked by doing certain challenges, and different variants for her outfits could be unlocked by finding helmets hidden across the map. Each of these represented different well-known Fortnite styles: Rex the dinosaur, Beef Boss/Durrr Burger, Tomatohead/Uncle Pete’s Pizza Pit, Drift, and Cuddle Team Leader. These same five aspects are represented in the Mecha Team Leader’s right arm, left leg, right leg, left arm, and torso and head, respectively.
In profile, you can see that the figure is leaning forward slightly; I found that this is more stable than a straight-backed posture. He can lean forward quite a bit further without falling, but the same isn’t as true for leaning back.
On the shoulders, torso, knees and hips, there are integrated missile launchers. Sadly, none of these actually fire in LEGO form. Looking closer, these little red caps are a brand new element for 2025, a modern descendant of the light cover, and a cousin of the Technic ball joint and the Barraki eye piece.
The head is less bulbous in its LEGO form, but all of the defining features are represented well. From the ears, hair fluff and mouth covering to Gundam-like side vents, the designers have made use of the wide range of pink colours available. Two stickers represent Cuddle Team Leader’s scar and hearts. Speaking of hearts, the broken heart emblem on the chest is one of only two prints in the whole set.
The huge figure’s torso is also based on Cuddle Team Leader, and opens up to reveal the pilot, a tiny minifigure version of itself. You can also see the other printed element of the set, the control panel. It is generally understood that Singularity was probably the Mecha’s pilot. This is only confused slightly by the Mecha Team Leader’s unmasking as Slim Shady in disguise in late 2024’s “Remix: The Finale” musical event. (Look, I never told you that Fortnite’s lore makes sense!)
The Jet Set back bling was launched in Season 9 to complement the rest of Mecha Team Leader’s accoutrements. It’s fun to have the chance to model this at a larger scale, since back bling has been lacking from the minifigure versions of Fortnite characters. The transparent light blue ‘glowing’ portions get a bit lost here. They should really have been medium azure to match the same concept underneath.
Underneath the back bling, the quite detailed shaping uses some more recent slope pieces. These create a nice negative shape in medium azure, hinting at the glowing power within. Unfortunately, some of the angled elements on the front and back fall off a bit too easily.
The shoulder and hip joints are sturdy. They were stiff at first, so much so that I felt like I was going to break them when adjusting their position. With a bit of practice, you’ll be able to confidently adjust the pose.
Four new-for-2025 Technic elements (from left to right: rotation joint pin, rotation joint socket, bevelled 12-tooth gear with clutch, and bevelled 12-tooth gear) make up these robust joints that allow the imposing model to stand strong. Once combined, they create one of the robust posable joints yet. First used in 76968 Dinosaur Fossils: Tyrannosaurus rex, this joint was needed to hold up the massive skull steadily. The T. rex uses additional supports to hold the body and tail, but this joint is enough to keep its head from sagging.
The left arm, based on the character Drift, is quite simple aesthetically, and its presence indicates that the great battle hasn’t taken place yet, as this arm is lost in the fight. Drift has many different outfits, but this arm does emulate his sleeves in the stage 4/5 form’s jacket. The elbows are made with two sets of flex joints and a fairly standard ball joint construction for the hand.
The right hand is immediately recognisable as Rex's. Its excellent sculpt makes up for the simplicity of the left, with an expressive, snarling dinosaur face seamlessly formed, integrating a fully detailed hand. I wish that the last spine was one stud further forward, so it doesn’t conflict with the shoulder and limit the range of motion.
In either hand, the Mecha Team Leader can hold the Sword of Singularity, which was used to fight The Devourer. Both sides of the hilt are detailed with the same sticker. Unfortunately, the thumbs awkwardly rest against the guard of the sword, rather than wrapping around the handle. Since the thumbs don’t fully grasp it, I would have liked to see a more fleshed-out hilt, more true to the game. This sword isn’t available to players, but a dual-wielded pickaxe version called Combo Cleavers is.
There are hinged coverings to the knees, but these bear no indication of actual joints, with hips and ankles being the only leg joints. The range of motion in the legs is therefore quite limited, especially once the hip coverings are in place. When positioning the legs, the dishes and triangular tiles covering the false knee joints fall off constantly, which is quite frustrating. It looks appealing, but you’re clearly not supposed to move it very much—the sturdiness of the joints is such that the whole model can be lifted by just an arm or a leg, but these fiddly details become casualties.
The inner structure of the knees is exposed from behind, and the inverted wedge pieces accurately depict the polygonal shaping of this mechanical form.
The stickers on the right foot for the Tomatohead’s eyes are very difficult to apply to the curved surface. Mine keep raising and having to be smoothed out. As it happens, a printed 3x6x1 half dome brick was made for the 'M' emblem on Mario's hat in 72037 Mario Kart - Mario & Standard Kart. The same element could have been printed and used here, saving me a great deal of headache! Luckily, there are suitable eyes for the Durrr Burger side already. Both are accurate characterful representations, but I much prefer the cuter face on the burger!
Wheels under the feet roll forward and back, but provide friction against any left-right motion, and are combined with rubber anti-slip pieces for full stability. All of that extra support makes the figure difficult to tip over, unless you were to just push on the top with force. I would be comfortable with having this model on a high shelf—even whilst striking a pose!
The sign has the same formatting as the Peely Bone set, as this isn’t the first UCS-style Fortnite set with a display plaque. However, this time we do get the traditional minifigure standing next to the sign, which was lacking before.
The spare pieces are mostly quite normal, but it was cool to get a couple of extra new missile caps.
Comparisons
This model is huge. It’s much taller than the 77072 Peely Bone statuette, and much broader overall. Due to his slender limbs, Peely Bone’s stability relies on his predefined stance, with even less posability than the mech.
Compared to one of my favourite mechs, 71821 Cole's Titan Dragon Mech, the Mecha Team Leader looks even bigger. However, the smaller mech is significantly more posable and agile, with rotating and sliding joints in far more places, offering much more articulation. The best the new set can do is wiggle at the waist slightly to attempt a recreation of the No Sweat emote.
Adjusted for inflation in today’s prices, Voltron would have been £210 for 2321 pieces, so this set’s £210 price tag for 2503 pieces doesn’t actually compare too badly, despite the lack of extra features. Sadly, I don’t have Voltron handy to compare their overall proportions side by side, but it was sold as the “Largest LEGO mech ever! Voltron stands over 15 inches high.” which would nowadays be overshadowed by the Mecha Team Leader figure at over 17.5 inches.
Conclusion
To someone not familiar with Fortnite, it might be reasonable to expect that the different parts come apart like Voltron and have their own action features or standalone display value. Sadly, there are no such hidden features, as the subject is a single robot assembled as one and then decorated with different styles.
I was initially quite sceptical of this model, since this part of Fortnite’s lore isn’t one I’m very familiar with, but after building it and enjoying the commentary in the instruction book, it’s certainly grown on me. Despite a few frustrations, I have to congratulate the designers on the sheer size of this still somewhat posable figure.
66 likes
29 comments on this article
I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece? I thought if they wanted to decorate a compound curve like that it had to be printed? Is this a deviation from those design guidelines, or is that piece not actually a compound curve?
Nope... my Lego Fortnite collection still has no chance of progressing beyond freebie Brickheadz!
The lack of pose-ability in these sets ultimately turns me off them. The Titan Dragon Mech is still the one to beat.
@Manomet3 said:
"I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece?"
It's very strange indeed! Your comment made me remember that a printed 3x6x1 half dome brick was made for the 'M' emblem on Mario's hat in the large Mario Kart set, so why didn't they just use the same element again?! I've updated the article with this conundrum, thanks!
77075 is almost certainly the only Fortnite set I'll ever buy (and that wasn't even for me, it was for my third nephew's next birthday), but if I had more space, I'd be tempted to get this, just to display it facing off against 21311, possibly with 10302 waiting in the wings to take on the winner. Sure, he's not a combiner robot, but I'm not really a fan of either Fortnite or Voltron (I just bought 21311 because giant robots are cool), but I've been a Transformers fan for decades. Heck, maybe it'd be 10338 instead of 10302. "The least likely can be the most dangerous," after all.
@SetToBuild said:
" @Manomet3 said:
"I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece?"
It's very strange indeed! Your comment made me remember that a printed 3x6x1 half dome brick was made for the 'M' emblem on Mario's hat in the large Mario Kart set, so why didn't they just use the same element again?! I've updated the article with this conundrum, thanks!"
I forgot about that piece, that would've been a perfect solution!
I did a quick search and found four sets that utilize that same 1/4 SPHERE 3x3x1 piece with decorations, and all of them are printed, not stickered. 76329, 76285, 76289, and 71476. I couldn't find any instances of this element being stickered before. Really curious if this is an intentional new direction for Lego or an oversight in the design?
@Manomet3 said:
" @SetToBuild said:
" @Manomet3 said:
"I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece?"
It's very strange indeed! Your comment made me remember that a printed 3x6x1 half dome brick was made for the 'M' emblem on Mario's hat in the large Mario Kart set, so why didn't they just use the same element again?! I've updated the article with this conundrum, thanks!"
I forgot about that piece, that would've been a perfect solution!
I did a quick search and found four sets that utilize that same 1/4 SPHERE 3x3x1 piece with decorations, and all of them are printed, not stickered. 76329, 76285, 76289, and 71476. I couldn't find any instances of this element being stickered before. Really curious if this is an intentional new direction for Lego or an oversight in the design?"
I wonder if it's a white-on-red printing issue again as those have notoriously been inconsistent and they decided to avoid the whole mess and just do a sticker instead
@Manomet3 said:
" @SetToBuild said:
" @Manomet3 said:
"I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece?"
It's very strange indeed! Your comment made me remember that a printed 3x6x1 half dome brick was made for the 'M' emblem on Mario's hat in the large Mario Kart set, so why didn't they just use the same element again?! I've updated the article with this conundrum, thanks!"
I forgot about that piece, that would've been a perfect solution!
I did a quick search and found four sets that utilize that same 1/4 SPHERE 3x3x1 piece with decorations, and all of them are printed, not stickered. 76329 , 76285 , 76289 , and 71476 . I couldn't find any instances of this element being stickered before."
Oh, of course! Good point. Though I wonder how many of those prints are aligned evenly in the actual sets.
Looking at it now, pockets have formed on the edges of the sticker. So much dust is going to get in there! I should add another con to the summary lol
@ytjedi said:
" @Manomet3 said:
" @SetToBuild said:
" @Manomet3 said:
"I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece?"
It's very strange indeed! Your comment made me remember that a printed 3x6x1 half dome brick was made for the 'M' emblem on Mario's hat in the large Mario Kart set, so why didn't they just use the same element again?! I've updated the article with this conundrum, thanks!"
I forgot about that piece, that would've been a perfect solution!
I did a quick search and found four sets that utilize that same 1/4 SPHERE 3x3x1 piece with decorations, and all of them are printed, not stickered. 76329, 76285, 76289, and 71476. I couldn't find any instances of this element being stickered before. Really curious if this is an intentional new direction for Lego or an oversight in the design?"
I wonder if it's a white-on-red printing issue again as those have notoriously been inconsistent and they decided to avoid the whole mess and just do a sticker instead"
Yeah, this is probably the reason. Just seems weird that they bothered to do an uncentred print for the broken heart on its chest. The sticker of the scar on its forehead doesn't have any issues, thankfully.
Having no interest in Fortnite, this looks like a pretty great parts pack! Lots of fun colors.
I have no knowledge or interest in Fortnite, but I really like the look of this mech! I just don't understand why it has wheels under the feet. Don't the rubber pieces render them useless?
So it's a Voltron-style mech that does not break into parts. I'm so confused..
It's big!
It's big!
It's big!
Anything else it has going for it?
It's big!
I don't care for Fortnite at all, but I am still on the fence if I''l get the Peely Bone set: It's just a very cool and unique display set! I don't feel that at all with this one. Yes, it's big, and it doesn't look bad......but I can't say it looks particularly interesting either. And while the first wave of Fortnite sets seemed pretty darn good value, these newer ones not so much. And to add insult to injury, those stickers.....
And hey, great if Lego indeed finally realized their printing quality is the worst in the business. But resorting to crappy stickers is a remedy worse than the disease.......
@TheOtherMike said:
"I'd be tempted to get this, just to display it facing off against 21311, possibly with 10302 waiting in the wings to take on the winner. Sure, he's not a combiner robot, but I'm not really a fan of either Fortnite or Voltron (I just bought 21311 because giant robots are cool), but I've been a Transformers fan for decades. Heck, maybe it'd be 10338 instead of 10302. "The least likely can be the most dangerous," after all."
71765 Ninja Ultra Combo Mech or 71834 Zane's Ultra Combiner Mech might be good contenders too :)
Once again, amazing review but this time for an IP to which I have no attachment and a set that looks nice but not much else.
@SetToBuild said:
"To someone not familiar with Fortnite, it might be reasonable to expect that the different parts come apart like Voltron and have their own action features or standalone display value."
That's exactly my case. What a lost opportunity.
The fixed knees are a major flaw, something that could persuade me to not buy the set.
I have NO idea what the hell I'm looking at but I kinda like it!
I could see myself grabbing this in 2 years at 30% off.
Woooow....The 'Power Rangers' really fell off...either that, or: Ladies and Gentlemen: REVOLTRON!:D
@Manomet3 said:
"I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece? I thought if they wanted to decorate a compound curve like that it had to be printed? Is this a deviation from those design guidelines, or is that piece not actually a compound curve? "
No, it’s a compound curve. A cylinder is not. A flat sticker can wrap around a cylinder like the label on a pop bottle because it only has to curve around one axis. For the toes on this set, you’ve got curves around 2-3 axes, so choosing to use stickers was a pretty bad call. If the sticker has a bit of stretch to it, and a really aggressive adhesive, a really shallow compound curve is doable without wrinkling or puckering, but this sticker material is going to take a fair amount of work to get to hold the shape of the parts.
1/10 because its clearly not a toy.
Seeing this made me realize that I really need a Lego version of MegaZord from MMPR.
Oh, honey, no.
@lordofdragonss said:
"1/10 because its clearly not a toy."
"No, actually it's a highly sophisticated interlocking brick system."
@Manomet3 said:
"I'm confused by the stickers used for the Tomatohead's eyes. I thought Lego didn't apply stickers to compound curves like that quarter-round piece? I thought if they wanted to decorate a compound curve like that it had to be printed? Is this a deviation from those design guidelines, or is that piece not actually a compound curve? "
Lego just make things up as they go along, if it fits the narrative they want then that'll do for them
Wtf is happening in Billund lately that they keep cutting corners as if they would struggle financially? Even ignoring basic design guidelines like "decorations on concave and convex surfaces must be printed". For instance, all those curved wedge pieces in the SC F1 sets should have been printed too. You'll see that they'll be the first to start peeling off...
@R0Sch said:
"Wtf is happening in Billund lately that they keep cutting corners as if they would struggle financially? Even ignoring basic design guidelines like "decorations on concave and convex surfaces must be printed". For instance, all those curved wedge pieces in the SC F1 sets should have been printed too. You'll see that they'll be the first to start peeling off..."
Pieces with simple concave and convex curves aren't the problem; pieces with complex curves (which are the ones that, until now, they always printed) are.
I'm curious why the printing design rules have been so nebulous as of late. Clearly a lot of it is up to the IP holder (Sonic, Minecraft, and Mario are prime examples of this) but there's also been strange exceptions where they'll print something somewhat randomly.
For instance, the rugs in The Shire... supposedly they're printed because minifigures have to stand over them, but check literally any other (non 4+) set with a decorated rug and it's a sticker.
At first when I looked at the official images I thought that it was eh, but no, actually it's super cool!