The sheer number of Lego super hero sets released means they can’t all be winners, and this set is definitely on the losing side. Coming in at £19.99 with 174 pieces (11.5p per piece), Green Lantern vs. Sinestro is one of the cheaper items in the Lego DC Super Heroes range, but that doesn’t mean you should buy it.
Watch our video review, and then continue on for more details and photos…
Let’s be honest, Green Lantern is a bit of a second-rate superhero for those that aren’t deep into comics. There hasn’t been a good, successful Green Lantern movie yet, which means he’s playing second fiddle to the Captain America’s and Batman’s of the world. That probably limits the appeal of this set somewhat, and the quality of the build isn’t going to change that. The main bulk of the pieces are used for this black, dark green and transparent lime green spaceship…
I don’t really mind the colours, and the transparency adds some interest, but the finished ship just looks terrible. It’s so small, and so bare, with next to no detail, it’s almost unfinished. I am sure that there was a target piece count and budget to meet for the Lego designer who put it together, but from the build to the finished product, it just doesn’t work.
As well as a printed piece for the Green Lantern logo on the front, the spaceship also has stud shooters and missile launchers, the latter of which are fired one at a time by turning the engine piece on the back. The stud shooters are fairly common on a lot of the super hero sets, and are able to fire single 1×1 round studs a significant distance. The problem for kids is that not only are they quite fiddly to load, but that also 1×1 studs that fly that far are also easily lost – making them fairly impractical, especially for younger children.
There are also three minifigs included in this set, all of which are good representations of the comic characters and they may be worth the price of this set alone if you’re a fan. The first of course is Green Lantern himself…
We only had one problem with him, and that’s the clutch on his hair seemed really loose and kept falling off. Despite numerous tries, we could never get it to connect in a satisfying way. Next we have Sinestro, Green Lantern’s arch-enemy…
He has his traditional pink face, and one of the more modern designs for his outfit. Finally, we have Space Batman…
The design for this is just too cluttered. The wings are a nice, bendy plastic piece, held onto his back via a jetpack, but his face and cowl just end up clashing and looking like a bit of a mess. I’ve checked since the video, and it really is Bruce Wayne wearing a mask, and then wearing his cowl on top of that. It does feel a bit like Batman was included just to make the set more appealing.
Finally, there’s the containment unit, which can either hold the included green lantern, or a minifig…
The Sinestro Corps logo is printed on the dish at the top, which when bumped back causes the front of the containment unit to open. Since this set also comes with a “super jumper” piece which allows you to hop an attached minifig, you can try to knock it over with Green Lantern or Batman. You can see in the video just how much fun Noah has with those jumping pieces.
Speaking of Noah, he likes this set. He thinks the spaceship is nice, and there’s a lot of different elements to play with. I can’t disagree on the latter point, kids love flying spaceships and planes through the air, especially if there’s room for a minfig inside and a couple of things to fire along the way. It’s just that they could do so much better, with something larger, cheaper, and/or better looking. Just like Green Lantern at the movies, there are simply better options available.