Set Review: 76007 Malibu Mansion Attack

[Hapori Tohu]

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

From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

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

Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

Bag 1 has the Mandarin, the Extremis Soldier, and the helicopter. It comes together quickly, not much to say here.

End of Bag 2, insert Bag 3 to continue

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!

Extra pieces

Set Design

Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

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).

Much better

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

The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

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':

Other Avengers not included

Holy cow, I'm playing house.

Final Thoughts

Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

Pros What's to like? Great minifigs, as usual Dummy! Cool mansion Hall of Armor! Little details like the Mark V suitcase and blender Cons What's not to like? Helicopter is underwhelming Mansion is kinda small Hairpieces could have been better A reminder I need to get the Mark VI Iron Man

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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[Tilius]

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Edited April 27, 2021 by Tilius

[Black Six]

Odd, I thought it'd be TMD reviewing it when I saw this topic. Good review, pretty good set. I'll pick it up when it's cheap. The helicopter is basically a clone of the one from the Wolverine set, so I'm not too keen on it, but the mansion is nice and recognisable for its size.

TMD did review it.

[Tilius]

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Edited April 27, 2021 by Tilius

[Lenny7092]

This set looks awesome! I like showdowns between archenemies.

[TahuForever!]

Wow. Being a fan of Iron Man I'd love to own all these sets, but now I want this one even more. I now see how much detail they put into the mansion's interior, and how cool is it that they added Dummy and Mark V? Too bad the Mark V is just a suitcase here, though. Also, I wonder how difficult it would be to MOC the mansion by adding on to the set to make it twice, maybe three times as big. . . ?

 

The best part of this review is the creative picture-taking. But come to think of it, you didn't take pictures of the building process like most reviews. I don't mind though, in fact I think it was a nice variation. I do love all the creative pics you took, especially the ones of Tony working on the armor, and testing the repulsion system with Dummy. That is odd that they gave Tony the wrong color hair, but the blender and cabinets are totally awesome.

 

Kudos!

[Ta-metru_defender]

Hey guys. Real quick, after parsing through some trailers I noticed that Tony's Hall of Armor is in fact in a room with windows (one that looks very much like the one here), not in his garage. So I take back my comments about inaccuracy.

Odd, I thought it'd be TMD reviewing it when I saw this topic.

What on earth would make you think that?

Wow. Being a fan of Iron Man I'd love to own all these sets, but now I want this one even more. I now see how much detail they put into the mansion's interior, and how cool is it that they added Dummy and Mark V? Too bad the Mark V is just a suitcase here, though. Also, I wonder how difficult it would be to MOC the mansion by adding on to the set to make it twice, maybe three times as big. . . ? The best part of this review is the creative picture-taking. But come to think of it, you didn't take pictures of the building process like most reviews. I don't mind though, in fact I think it was a nice variation. I do love all the creative pics you took, especially the ones of Tony working on the armor, and testing the repulsion system with Dummy. That is odd that they gave Tony the wrong color hair, but the blender and cabinets are totally awesome. Kudos!

I really want to build a bigger mansion (with the garage, bedroom, living room, hall of armor). Really want to. I've found just the mansion part of the set online for $15 and am really tempted to pick it up. Sadly, I don't have the money. I'm also far away from my collection at the present. Yeah, have one or two, but for the most part I was building the set in snatches of time while I cooked/ate dinner with friends and worked on homework. Didn't want to wait for a free afternoon, haha (you'll also see that some were taken at night and some at day...). I love the details in the set and posing characters is much more fun that it should be. Edited April 3, 2013 by Ta-metru_defender

[xccj]

Great review, TMD. I also like the selection of new hairpieces.

 

The mansion looks okay, but I'm not quite sure it's worth the price. Still, the little details like the blender and robot are nice touches. Shame the helicopter is so lackluster.

 

[TahuForever!]

Ah, that's too bad, TMD. I would've loved to see a bigger version.

 

Yeah, posing characters is always fun.

 

Hey, XCCJ, I like your signature.

[Lyichir]

I like the oranges (Mandarins) in the blender. Don't know if that's just a joke by the set designers or a scene from the movie. I can totally imagine Tony, after being introduced to or humiliated by the Mandarin, taking his anger out on Mandarin oranges as a symbolic act of revenge!

[Kanakalackin]

Odd, I thought that it was the Mark 4.2. Anyway. The set looks great, but I would've done more for Dummy and a different color for the cabinets.

[TahuForever!]

I like the oranges (Mandarins) in the blender. Don't know if that's just a joke by the set designers or a scene from the movie. I can totally imagine Tony, after being introduced to or humiliated by the Mandarin, taking his anger out on Mandarin oranges as a symbolic act of revenge!

 

Ha! You're right, that's funny! I wonder if they even did that on purpose?

[Ta-metru_defender]

The mansion looks okay, but I'm not quite sure it's worth the price.

Neither am I, honestly. I guess I wish they'd either beefed up the helicopter or spiffed the mansion a bit more. Give it more oomph.

 

Ah, that's too bad, TMD. I would've loved to see a bigger version.

Oh I'll make one, it's just a question of when.

 

I like the oranges (Mandarins) in the blender. Don't know if that's just a joke by the set designers or a scene from the movie. I can totally imagine Tony, after being introduced to or humiliated by the Mandarin, taking his anger out on Mandarin oranges as a symbolic act of revenge!

xD. Maybe. Would explain why it's not that green... goop you see in the movies.