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Set Review: 76007 Malibu Mansion Attack
 Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013 at 6:40pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Ta-metru_defender] Iron Man 3 is still over a month away from hitting theaters but the LEGO sets based on the film are already on store shelves. Today Ta-metru_defender takes a look at one of these, none other than 76007 Malibu Mansion Attack. Representing a scene prominently placed in the trailer, will it live up to your expectations or sink to the bottom of the ocean? Read on to find out! Presentation
The box isn't as big as you'd expect a $40 set to be these days. Or it is if your size standard for $40 sets is smaller. If anything it seems an appropriate size for a $40 box. But hey. Not the size of the box that matters. The box art and all is standard. Big red banner on top with the Super Heroes logo. We see the mansion, the helicopter, the window being blown out, Tony falling out, and oh yeah: Pepper in the Iron Man armor. That's interesting. The back shows us the set's play features replete with sound effects.
There's also a Lego Mark 42 in the top corner with the film version just around. Cool.
So now, in the box! We get three numbered bags, instructions, a comic, and a sticker sheet. The highlight of the sticker sheet are the minifig-sized Iron Man stickers. The lowlight is that the suitcase with the Mark V isn't printed. Ah well.
The comic's, well, a comic. It features a little action scene of each set. Nothing terribly interesting (besides LEGO's usual creative sound effects). Building
Bag 1 has the Mandarin, the Extremis Soldier, and the helicopter. It comes together quickly, not much to say here.
The mansion starts to come together in Bag 2. We get the rest of the figs, Dummy the Robot, and part of the mansion.
Bag 3 has us finish the mansion. That's it! It's done! It's built!
Set Design
Alright folks: minifigs.
Behold. The villains. In their villainy. Both have front and back printing on heads and torso and the Mandarin has leg printing. They're really cool, the Mandarin looking like the posters of him we've seen. I can't say the same of the Extremis Soldier due to, well, the lack of a poster/image of him. His veiny head does glow in the dark which is particularly fun.
And the heroes. I'm just going to start off with saying how happy I am we get Tony in plainclothes. It's cool to see him 'unmasked', but it's the Arc Reactor that seals the deal. People, look at that. Also, his head isn't the same one from last year, his one side has a confident grin and the other is him looking worried. Pepper and the Mk. 42 are spot on and instantly recognizable, which should always be the goal with Lego minifigs. But who's under the Mk. 42 helmet here? A plain white head, but the manual tells you to switch it out at will:
So Pepper should go in the armor some of the time. Clearly she'll be wearing it in the movie. Awesome. I do have one problem with these figs though, and that's their hair colors. Tony should have black hair and Pepper's hair isn't as red as Black Widow's. I switched them out with some hairpieces I had lying around (Pepper's was actually intended for a custom fig I never made).
I also have to mention Dummy. He/it's not a minifig per se, but still, he's in the set. Lego didn't have to stick him, but they did and he adds a bit of charm. It's a cool touch that he has not only the Mark V but a fire extinguisher too. Neat.
The Mandarin's helicopter is... well, a helicopter. Nothing really sticks out. It would have been cool if the side panels could open and close (like in the movie) or if, well, anything. It sort of just sits there. I mean, there are flick-fire missiles, some cool brick work on the sides, and the stickers with the Ten Rings symbol add a sinister touch along with the color scheme (clearly not a news helicopter [I suppose Lego decided that route was too dark ). The Mandarin sits on the side and the Extremis soldier pilots (without a dashboard... really?). Again, not much to it, it's just kinda there.
Will say one thing, it does look cool in front of a window.
The mansion is also kinda just there but it's a house so it's supposed to be. It's not that big, but it's clearly Tony's house. The designers did a good job of giving it that look of the curved roof and slanted windows, so props to them. The accuracy nut in me has a tiny problem with the fact that the interior is more Tony's garage rather than living room... but it's excusable. It has some cool design to give it that curve and details like space for Tony's armors and cabinets make it all the better. It's small, but it's the mansion. Simple. Playability
Let's look at the mansion (the helicopter doesn't really need to be mentioned anymore). It has its features, namely being able to be blown up. Flip a switch on the far wall and the armor collection (which you can outfit yourself) goes sorta flying:
Or push the gray lever and the window pops out:
It's cool and it works well enough, but the real fun to be had is with posing minifigs and recreating scenes from the movie(s).
Tony's work station is fun, thanks to both the hologram stickers as well as the fact that we have a Tony fig to work on Iron Man.
We also have warnings on the windows which are fittingly worrisome. I put the stickers at minifig height. Seemed appropriate.
One of my favorite touches is the blender and cabinets. It's a small detail but it really adds to it as a whole. Plus, the blender just looks cool. I think I'll finish off this section with more pictures of the house in 'action':
Holy cow, I'm playing house. Final Thoughts
Overall, Malibu Mansion Attack isn't much of a set. But, at $40, I suppose it's what you paid for. The five minifigs we get are all great and for what it is the mansion works. I guess I wish the helicopter didn't feel like so much of an afterthought and that we got a little something more to push this set over to being a really good set. That said, I like it. It's not a bad set. I love the minifigs and the mansion itself. It's just nowhere near as good as last years Quinjet so I suppose my standards are a bit high. But as a part of a mansion it does a very good job of being a part of a mansion. And I will be answering questions and taking picture requests in the Talkback. Thank you all for reading! As TMD mentioned, you can ask questions and leave your comments in the Talkback topic on the forums. Don't forget to keep checking back for more reviews and all the latest LEGO news!
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