Review: 76025 Green Lantern vs. Sinestro
Posted by CapnRex101,
DC Super Heroes sets have been generally disappointing in the past couple of years, which has been particularly frustrating since the theme has a great deal of potential. However, the reveal of this year's sets was met with enormous excitement as LEGO finally expanded the selection to include many more members of the Justice League.
The smallest of the five new sets is 76025 Green Lantern vs. Sinestro which contains 174-pieces and is the first widely available set to include Green Lantern, an integral member of the heroic DC roster. Although this is undoubtedly the greatest draw to this set it is not without other merits. In fact it easily lives up to the precedent of fantastic Super Heroes sets at this price point of £19.99 or $19.99, perhaps even surpassing many of the others!
Box and Contents
The box is the usual size and shows Green Lantern and Batman approaching Sinestro, who appears to have set up his base on a moon. On the back Sinestro has been imprisoned as Green Lantern flies away with the power battery taken by his arch-nemesis. The Super Jumper feature and firing weapons are also shown off. It is worth noting that while boxes in Europe feature the Batman logo the US packaging is emblazoned with Justice League branding. I am not sure why this is the case, but presumably a licensing issue is involved, or perhaps LEGO assumed that European consumers would be less familiar with the Justice League.
Inside are two bags of pieces, a single instruction manual and a plastic sheet for Batman's wings. There are no stickers included and the two decorated pieces are printed which are always nice to see.
Minifigures
Just about every Super Heroes set rests on the minifigures and this one is no different. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, particularly when all three are as good as these!
The first and most exciting of these is Green Lantern himself. It is astounding that the DC Super Heroes theme managed to avoid including this minifigure in a set until 2015 but it has been worth the wait as this comic book inspired edition is perfect. The dark brown hair piece is appropriate for the Hal Jordan version of the character on which the figure is based and the head looks great too, including a grinning expression and a determined one as well as a green eye mask. The torso mixes black and green colours nicely and features the Green Lantern Corp symbol on the front with some muscle definition continuing onto the back. The legs are also printed with a green and black design to represent boots which contrast nicely with his white gloved hands. This is probably going to be the most talked-about minifigure of the wave and I think it more than lives up to the excitement.
The next, and perhaps least interesting minifigure, is Space Batman. This design originated in the recent LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham video game and looks as brilliant in reality as he does in the game! The cowl is a new design for this year with shorter ears than before and no chin strap. This one is pearl silver in colour which matches the silver printing on his head and chest. A pair of golden goggles on the head piece show through the holes in his cowl and an alternate Bruce Wayne head is also included with smiling and frowning expressions.The torso is printed with air tubing and a Batman symbol, a design which also appears on the back while the legs are plain white with grey hips.
It is the wings however which stand out on this minifigure. They are made from a soft plastic similar to the Geonosian wings in 9491 Geonosian Cannon and are printed with metallic struts. An open and closed pair are included and they are attached using a trans-clear neck bracket with two studs on the back rather than the usual one. I am sure this piece will be very useful for MOCs and custom minifigures, particularly in the unobtrusive trans-clear colour. It is testament to the excellence of these three minifigures that this is my least favourite. In any other set it would be the best I am sure!
The third and final minifigure is Sinestro, the fallen member of the Lantern Corps who consistently seems to cause trouble for the Justice League. This hair piece has inspired some criticism but I think it suits him quite well, particularly since it is the pink head which captures the attention. This design looks fantastic to me and is printed with green eyes and the thin moustache famously sported by Sinestro in the comics. The head is double sided, with one serious expression and the other scowling. His torso and legs are also printed with some impressive detail including the Sinestro Corp symbol and some muscles. Sinestro is armed with some kind of axe, the head of which has appeared in several Ninjago sets. I was surprised to find that this is the first appearance of the 4L bar in trans-yellow, so that is another potential useful piece!
The Completed Model
Although this set is certainly focused on the minifigures the model is also not bad at all in my opinion. One could question the sense of Green Lantern having a jet since he can fly anyway, but it makes for a nice vehicle which adds a great deal of play value to the set. Suitably it consists mainly of green and black parts with some trans-green to give the impression that it has been formed using Hal's power ring.
As well as an opening cockpit the plane includes two spring loaded missile launchers, which are fired by twisting the engine nacelle at the rear, and a pair of stud shooters on the wings. These are new pieces with the barrel of the hand-held weapon now fixed to a 1x2 plate, which provides further opportunities for incorporation into custom builds. The jet is compatible with the new Super Jumper feature and you can place this at the back as a launch platform for a minifigure. Personally I see no appeal as you could just as easily fly the minifigure around manually but I suppose it must have proved popular with focus groups or they would not have included it.
The large Sinestro Corps symbol above the chamber housing the power battery stolen by the villain acts as a target for firing missiles at. When hit the chamber is thrown open which allows access to the battery inside. This is a fun, if uncomplicated, feature and the power battery looks pretty close its appearance in the comics so I am happy with its design.
Overall
For Justice League and DC fans this is a must have set. All three minifigures are brilliant and the appearance of Green Lantern alone is enough of a relief to warrant the purchase. The set itself is not fantastic but there are plenty of enjoyable play features and the models look pretty good too if you prefer to display them.
This set is a highlight of the entire wave for me as it contains some great characters and is good value at £19.99 in my opinion, so I would not hesitate to recommend it to any Super Heroes fan. A few more sets like this one would make me very happy!
8 likes
27 comments on this article
Public Service Announcement: There have been several reports on the Eurobricks forums of the Super Jumper piece cracking minifigure legs. I've not personally gotten any of the sets to test this, but considering Brickset is (at least in my opinion) one of the most reliable sites for Lego news/reviews, you might wanna look in to this so you can warn people rather than potentially, inadvertently advocating use of a destructive element.
Nice review, though reading JaseTJ's comment, am not so sure about these now... :-|
@JaseTJ - I was not aware of that although it would not surprise me as the minifigures do fit very tightly into the launcher. Thanks for the heads up.
I got this set yesterday, price-matched Target with their own website and got it for $13... at that price it's a good bargain IMO.... at $20 a little less so. There were a couple of bulkier sets in this size last year, the Starblaster Showdown and Captain America vs Hydra. Both came with three minifigs, similar piece count, but this GL vs Sinestro set feels a bit smaller.
I think it's because the part count in the 2014 sets all went to their main builds or the secondary build was decent on its own in the case of Starblaster Showdown. The little GL Battery cage in this set soaks up a fair number of parts and can't help but feel insubstantial.
Then again GL's jet looks MUCH better in person than I'd have thought, especially if you do the backwards wings mod. I was planning to disassemble it for parts, but now I'm going to keep it intact. Why should Batman get all the vehicles!
Also re: the jumper piece, it IS a super tight fit. It didn't crack the feet of my batman but it took some elbow grease to remove him from it.
That jumper piece sounds like something useful for Star Wars (Jedi/Jetpack/Sith) minifigures (now I have just to wait and see if the reports about breaking minifigures is true).
The thumbnail for the box led me to believe the included Batman was a White Lantern Batman minfig; I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed that my initial impression of this set was incorrect. I guess it's silly to expect a War of Light set from LEGO, though.
I think the Super Jumper piece is a wacky gimmick to begin with, but I am not surprised to hear it also poses a threat to the 'health' of minifigures as well. I was fortunate enough to find this set the day after Christmas, and purchased it immediately at full MSRP. I have been eager to nab this set from the moment it was announced. Great set, and great review!
The fit of minifigure legs in the jumper piece is indeed very tight. I put Batman in one time and I had very little luck getting him to jump. Getting the legs out of the jumper will likely lead to cracking if not done very carefully.
The jumpers kind of remind me of tiddlywinks. It looks like it will jump high and be fun to play with on the box, but in reality, it doesn't even come off the table much at all.
This is my one must-buy for 2015. I have to have that Green Lantern minifig (and with it, I'll finally be able to complete my core-seven JLA). It's irksome that it's Hal, but that's a debate for another time. Getting Sinestro as well as a little Power Battery is the icing on the cake.
The power jumper thing looks interesting. I don't really see why Lego needs these gimmicks (it's Lego. Isn't that gimmick enough?), but then I'm of two minds about the projectile pieces, too.
Wow , I wrote a in depth comment and here it is telling me I can't post Becuase it's too long. Sigh.
Anyway , I'll shorten it.
Batman is great but coulda used printed legs. Also , I would preferred another lantern fig (atrocitus , larfleeze , kilowog , john Stewart , etc.)
Hal is AMAZING. I agree , worth the wait.
I kinda have to admit I think sinestro is the best minifig , the hair is perfect to the newer versions of the character. The suit is so amazingly accurate , heck , it's better than action figure versions of him in that it gets the yellow correct.
The super jumper is THE WORST LEGO PART EVER. This includes the molded aldar beedo from wattos junkyard. It messed up figs legs , is a pain to use with said figs (it took me forever to get batman on and off of it) and worst , it doesn't even work properly.
The best part of the set itself is that everything is printed. So refreshing to not have to break out a sticker sheet.
The jet is a great model , not in the least Becuase it has several rare or new peices. Pretend it's that he's going abin sur and using physical forms of transport.
Sinestros obelisk is notable only in that it works properly and that it has that wonderful sinestro corps symbol.
All in all , it's up there with lex luthor mech from the first year , perhaps even surpassing it. Not sure though , brainiacs skull ship looks perhaps better than this , and may get the title of best superhero set under 50$. Haven't got it yet , we shall see if it does look as good on the box as it does in person.
Last thing : YELLOW LIGHTSABER BLADE! Finally , Lego zayne carrick will be a reality! Now I need two more for bastila...
I was tempted by the last (slightly damaged) remaining 76025 in Glasgow yesterday. It looked fantastic. Opted for the new Bad Cop set as I had already got the double-decker couch and super angry kitty sets. I have built the couch and I love it. I wish the car came separate with Emmet and some Brickburg residents. The car does seem out of place.
I won't repeat the comments on the Super Jumper. However, I have to disagree on Sinestro: IMO, he looks awful. The same inaccurate widow's peak, those yellow legs (NOT a good solution for boots!!) and that pink face that looks like he's having terrible indigestion. GL and Space Batman are excellent, although I have to ask why you've given Space Bats a regular flesh head in the second and third minifig photos?
Still, the printed parts are quite nice, and I gotta love that yellow lightsaber blade. I wonder how they've pulled off that launching mechanism... there's something similar in the Inquisitor's TIE.
^ the launching mechanism works well if you mean the one to launch the new missiles from the biggest engine on the back of the jet.
Great looking set. Can someone please tell me when we will get these sets in Australia? I thought they would be available from the 1st. If you UK guys can buy these new DC sets in stores why are they not listed on UK Lego LEGO.com? Australia usually mirrors the UK on release dates but it looks like Lego is again giving a raw deal to us Down Under.
I didn't know you could price-match Target from their own website! That is extremely useful information. Thank you very much, blarghiflargh!
Oh, and staying on topic: love this kit, can't wait to pick it up, hopefully at the $12.99 price that Target.com is listing.
This set looks fantastic! And great pricing, I think. Finally we can get a Green Lantern minifigure. Ever since GL appearing at San Diego Comic-Con, I've been wanting one.
I just realized , save tahu , all the sets you guys have reviewed have been sets I've already bought by the time the review comes up. What are the chances of that anyway? Crazy!
Please do the AT-DP for the next star wars review.. Or at least , the inquisitors ship. Or anything that isn't a battle pack.
Actually , I just came up with a use for the pooper jumpers. Hover effects. That is if you don't mind whatever brick your using to be f'ed up by the thing. I guess though one could modify them to not that that cursed backing to it.
Some have questioned why Green Lantern needs the jet... It might be his only way to fly if Sinestro has captured his power lantern. In this scenario his ring might be out of juice? Thus the need to get it back from the bad guy.
I should have included in my previous comment, somebody fixed the issue by placing studs into the Super Jumper under the minifigure's legs. Allows you to use the play feature without hurting your figures. (But Lego should still do something about them, obviously, even if only to warn people.)
@PicnicBasketSam - An alternative Bruce Wayne head is included as I said in the review, hence the flesh head you can see in the second and third photos.
Another thing you can do in the set is remove the pedestal for the Green Lantern battery and hold Sinestro captive in the Sinestro Corps tube, as the back of the box shows. Perhaps that should get mention? And the studs on the wings are ammunition for the stud-shooters. Great review of a set I enjoy!
I remember reading somewhere that Hal is also a pilot so it makes sense that he'd either one, have a jet handy in case of emergency and maybe it's faster and easier than him just flying; or two he could create one with his ring to take down sinestro. Either way you want to look at it.
Grrr! Why isn't this in the UK Lego online shop?
I thought the purpose of the jet was Hal couldn't fly since his battery was stolen. So he doesn't have the lantern abilities currently??
To be honest, I know very little about the Green Lantern world. Literally the only thing I knew of him was a ring was involved.
This set looks great though. I'm always welcoming new figures to my line-up. Especially evil pink villains!
They didn't make an actual piece for the wings?!
There goes the main reason i wanted the set. :(
*sigh* I wanted the Green Lantern set to be a creator bucket full of trans green parts... It would have made so much sense! Also, I'm disappointed that GL doesn't have a ring...
I also added two clear studs to the jumper and made for a much nicer fit. If using it as a play feature the figure tends to fly off while the jumper falls behind (Yoshi in a pit effect). I'm using them as display stands for Batsuits, very sleek in that respect. I agree, kind of an interesting choice with the jet because it appears to be a real jet but in the comic that comes in the other sets it seems like the windshield and projectiles are constructs. All in all great set though! Been waiting a long time. Hey, did anyone else's Sinestro legs printing seem kind of faded? Thinking about getting a replacement.