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LEGO Marvel sets have certainly fallen a tad in popularity and sales at mass retail over the last few years, with fewer major widely-distributed sets arriving in the biannual drops and more expensive sets (like last year’s $500 Avengers Tower) being released solely as more limited exclusives. But that doesn’t mean The LEGO Group (TLG) is throwing in the towel! In fact, the January 2024 LEGO Marvel sets that have just been released include 3 major sets including a brick-built Rocket Raccoon, X-Men Blackbird Jet and Spider-Man No Way Home Sandman Final Battle!
As usual, there are several new smaller LEGO Marvel 2024 sets that just started shipping this week, but as I think those are primarily impulse buy items aimed at kiddos, I’ll be focusing solely on the three new sets that I think have adult collector appeal.
All three of these sets are now readily available on Amazon, but I wanted to see if any of them were visible built and displayed in-store, so I went off to my local LEGO Store.
As I expected, the trio of new sets I went seeking were in-stock, although there were only a couple boxes of each actually stocked on the shelf. I was disappointed that only the new brick-built 76282 Rocket & Baby Groot set was built and on display, as I was really hoping they’d all be displayed forever.
Retailing for $59.99 and containing 566 pieces (a very reasonable 10.6 cents per piece), the brick-built Rocket Raccoon put a big smile on my face.
At over 8” tall, articulated (including an opening and closing jaw!) and dual-wielding blasters, this LEGO 76282 Rocket set hit all the right chords with me (although my wife called it “nightmare fuel”, so I’ll resist bringing him home for the time being).
For the Spidey fans, LEGO 76280 Spider-Man vs. Sandman: Final Battle completes the No Way Home villains roster with Minifigures of Lizard and Electro in addition to the brick-built giant Sandman figure.
Oddly enough, the LEGO Store had this set’s 2023 predecessor with Green Goblin and Doc Ock on display (LEGO 76261 Final Battle), but not this year’s new Sandman set itself. I think that particular set feels rather bloated, but it was nice to see it built nonetheless.
Priced at an unusual $37.99 for 347 pieces, Spider-Man vs. Sandman: Final Battle is another set I think was very fairly priced by TLG. At that price-point, I can see it being a lot more palatable to many than the prior $110 set that comes with Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus.
Finally, we’ve got the set that’s going to utterly lay waste to the favorable price-per-piece ratio I’ve been talking about for the other January 2024 LEGO Marvel sets: the X-Men ‘97 76281 X-Men X-Jet (don’t call it the Blackbird, even though I already did a minute ago).
At a wildly crazy $84.99 price-point for 359 pieces, the cost on this averages out to an eye-popping 23.7 cents per piece—well more than double what I consider the LEGO “sweet spot” of 10 cents per piece! I think this is likely due to licensing costs and a few larger pieces necessary for this build, but that MSRP is still hurts like a dagger to the back.
Along with updated versions of LEGO Cyclops, Magneto and Wolverine in their costumes from the upcoming cartoon, this set also features the inaugural LEGO Rogue Minifigure, which is clad in her new green jacket from X-Men ‘97.
The jet itself appears to be improved somewhat from the 2014 LEGO X-Men vs. The Sentinel set, although that set also included a brick-built Sentinel (that admittedly looks a bit silly now by today’s standards). This new X-Jet set has drawn a lot of hate for its pricing, but as a mega X-Men fanboy I’m looking forward to building it this year.
What do you think of these new 2024 LEGO Marvel sets? Any readers pick any of them up yet and want to share their feedback on the builds?