Spider-man's Doc Ock Ambush 6873 - Review

I lucked out and managed to pick up a copy of the new Spider-man set during one of the brief periods it was available on Walmart's website. The set is hard to come by and is an exclusive to Walmart and LEGO stores in the US. It's been pretty scarce so far and only showed up on LEGO Store shelves this week. Walmart released it online a little earlier. My copy arrived in the mail today and I could not wait to crack it open.

This $29.99 set is 295 pieces and includes three great minifigures. You get Spider-man, Doc Ock, and Iron Fist. Spidey looks great, as you would expect. Some nice muscle tone on the suit's front and back printing. Iron Fist has some minor printing on the back, but nothing too detailed. Spidey comes with a strand of web which is pretty long, adding a nice play feature.

Doc Ock is a new design and is based on the Ultimate Spider-man universe version. I'm not a big fan of this new look, having grown up with the classic gold on green costume of this character in the comics. The face is double printed: one version with glasses up and one with them down. The arms are what make the character though, and those do not disappoint. They are very easy to pose and you can do some fun things with them. For example, the evil Doc is currently scaling the side of my Grand Emporium as he chases Spider-man.

The pieces are broken up into three bags. In the first, you build Spidey, Doc Ock, and the car. Iron Fist is in Bag two.

The vehicle is not very impressive. The coolest feature is a technic array on the back that you can attach the Doc's arms on to. The seat is actually on a swivel plate and moves pretty freely, which might be a little annoying if you decide to push a fig along for a ride.

While the car was a bit of a let down, the rest of the set has some great features and is easily worth the price. You build this in three sections.

First is the main console section and computer array. Plenty of great trans pieces here, a cool little radar dish/scanner array, and then an examination table that uses robot arms to hold down your prisoner. None of the screens are on printed bricks. They all require stickers, which there are thankfully just a few of in the set. As usual, I did not apply mine.

The second section is a sort of vent tower with a turbine and platform at the top. This appears to be a way for Spidey to sneak in as he tries to rescue Iron Fist. It's got some good height, although it's still a little short for the web strand to hook on to and swing.

The final section is a very awesome little glass dome holding cell. This make great use of pins to create sort of a clam shell hinge that tilts forward to put the prisoner in. This was probably one of my favorite features of the set. It's a very simple design, but I really enjoyed how it all came together. Both the tower and prison can connect to either side.

Overall, I was very impressed with this set and all of its features. The car is a little lame, but the lab scene more that makes up for that. You get three great figures and very cool little battle scene. I can see this being a very hard to find set in the coming months. It really is a great value if you can find a copy.