Review of 76084 The Ultimate Battle for Asgard and 76088 Thor vs Hulk: Arena Clash

Just in time, to prevent Ragnarok, the end of everything!

The movie will be up in a few days time! Let's indulge in the LEGO sets first before going into the cinema. 

Ragnarok is a word from the Norse Mythology which carried the meaning of “Final Destiny of the Gods”, or can be interpreted as “the doom or destruction of the Gods”. Another interpretation is from Taika, the director of the movie himself stated that it is the destruction of the old and rebirth of the new. Here the LEGO sets are designed to match the scenes of Thor’s third Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, “Thor: Ragnarok”.

Introduction

The Gods are made into LEGO sets as minifigures! Thor Ragnarok movie trailers were very colorful, resembling The Guardians of the Galaxies. In this review, I’m going to include both sets from the movie, 76084 The Ultimate Battle for Asgard and 76088 Thor vs Hulk Arena Clash.

Let's see what both sets have to offer.

Overview

Name: 76084 The Ultimate Battle for Asgard
Year: 2017
Pieces: 400
Minifigures: 6 
Price: £49.99 / $49.99 / 49.99€

  Quote

Fly the Commodore spaceship and team up with Thor, Bruce Banner and Valkyrie to take on Hela, her Berserkers and the Fenris wolf in this exciting LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes The Ultimate Battle for Asgard set. The Commodore has 2 dual stud shooters and a minifigure-drop function, while the buildable Fenris wolf figure features posable joints for different battle poses. Includes 6 minifigures with assorted weapons such as Thor and Hela’s firing Power Blasts to intensify the role-play action.

• Includes 6 minifigures: Thor, Bruce Banner, Valkyrie, Hela, 2 Berserkers, plus a buildable Fenris wolf figure.
• The Commodore spaceship features an opening minifigure cockpit, 2 dual stud shooters, opening storage compartment and a minifigure-drop function.
• The Fenris wolf has a buildable head with glow-in-the-dark eye elements, minifigure seat and posable joints.
• Weapons include Thor and Hela’s Power Blasts (3 each), Hela’s sword and axe, Valkyrie’s sword and the Berserkers’ blades (2 each).
• Accessory elements include Thor’s new-for-June-2017 helmet and Hela’s brick-built legs.
• Attach the Power Blast elements to Thor and Hela’s hands and push inwards to fire!
• All 6 included minifigures are new for June 2017.
• Bruce Banner minifigure has 2 faces—turn the head to begin his transformation into angry Hulk.
• Commodore spaceship measures over 1” (3cm) high, 8” (22cm) long and 7” (20cm) wide.
• The Fenris wolf measures over 3” (8cm) high, 6” (16cm) long and 2” (6cm) wide.

Name: 76088 Thor vs Hulk: Arena Clash
Year: 2017
Pieces: 492
Minifigures: 4 plus Hulk big fig
Price: £54.99 / $59.99 / 59.99€

  Quote

Role-play an arena duel between Thor and Hulk and then team up with these two old friends to topple Grandmaster. This awesome LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes Thor vs. Hulk: Arena Clash set features an arena with a sliding gate, secret weapons rack, 2 toppling pillars, smash-function wall and an opening prison cell. Use Thor’s super jumper to knock Grandmaster off his throne and Loki off his seat. Includes 4 minifigures plus a Hulk big figure with assorted weapons and accessories to intensify the action play.

• Includes 4 minifigures: Thor, Loki, Grandmaster and a Sakaarian Guard, plus a Hulk big figure.
• The arena features a sliding gate, interchangeable wall sections, opening wall section with secret weapons rack plus spear, axe and sword, opening prison cell, 2 topple-function pillars with translucent floodlight-style elements, smash-function wall, plus a throne for Grandmaster and seat for Loki—each with knock-over function.
• Weapons include Thor’s 2 swords, the guard’s staff and Hulk’s axe and hammer.
• Accessory elements include Thor’s new-for-June 2017 helmet, super jumper and sword holder.
• All 4 included minifigures are new for June 2017.
• Hulk stands over 2” (7cm) tall.
• Arena when opened out measures over 7” (19cm) high, 15” (39cm) wide and 2” (7cm) deep.

The box

The box art showing two different scene, one is the arena and another is a battle field where Thor and Hela had their final fight. It appeared that they actually fought in a snowy scene with the Asgard Palace as the background. In this scene, there is a distinct separation of good guys and bad guys. As you can see, Hela had brought her dead army and a wolf, fighting Thor, Banner and Valkyrie with their commodore at the other side.

For 76088, the scene is with a backgroud of a stadium seats full of people watching the long due fight of Mighty Thor and The Incredible Hulk. Both the scene are very recognisable if you did watch the trailers. (I've lost count of how many times I've looped it.) As usual, the back of these two boxes 76084 and 76088 and the side are with the play features and some actions in it. I think the box arts are very interesting to look at until you already bought the sets. After that, it will be better to look at the content, right? Haha

The Content

For 76084, you get one bag with books, bag one, bag two, bag three Fenris, and one unnumbered bag. Oh yeah, stickers! There is a sticker sheet in the bag and gladly there are only eleven pieces of stickers here and they are quite easy to be applied. Since all of those stickers are for the commodore instead of Fenris the wolf, I’m not complaining. Haha.

However in 76088, you get only one instruction book, bag one, bag two, bag three, one Hulk bag, and the same comic book from 76084. The comic books here contain spoilers to the movie, so I better not reveal anything inside until the movie is out. There is a sticker sheet here too.

The minifigures

This is the most exciting part of these two sets. The characters in both sets are exclusive and can’t be found in any other LEGO sets. Most importantly, they are not repeated! (Except for Thor and berserker but Thor is with different torso and we need more berserker to build a dead army of Hel!)

Let’s start with the arena set 76088.

We get four minifigures and one big figure Hulk. I personally love the vibrant color used for the character which makes them looked pleasing. Even the bad guys here are colorful.

Thor, the God of Thunder is not a stranger to anyone. He is played by Chris Hemsworth and kind of irreplaceable by any other actor. This is quite true for other characters in MCU as well etc ‘Hugh Jackman as Logan’. Here in this set, he is wearing a grey plated armor with red gladiator paint. The red paint should be extended to the head piece to further distinguish him from the Thor in 76084. His new dark grey helmet is very nicely molded. For his leg, the blue kneepad is another print that differentiates him from the Thor outside the arena. Another highlight of this minifigure is the left arm printing that looks like his armor extended to his hand.

In the movie trailer, Thor is wearing a blue pauldron on his left shoulder. Hence the ninjago sword holder here in blue color suits him best. This is my first LEGO sword holder in my life, so I got very excited when I have this part. I liked it especially the feeling when you put the sword in the sheath.

This is Thor from 6868, 6869 and 30163 with his mighty hammer Mjolnir. The attire of new Thor is totally different from the Avengers version. I suppose Taika Waititi wants to make a really different version of the Mighty Thor.

Gladiator Hulk! Whenever you see him, the iconic roaring entrance scene will definitely come into mind thanks to the trailers. It is said that Hulk didn’t change back into human form for two years in Sakaar after Age of Ultron. Hence Sakaarian get him to fight in the arena and able to ‘decorate’ him with this gladiator attire. This big figure’s awesomeness is further enhanced by his brick built giant axe and hammer which looks very similar to those in the trailers. Somehow I wonder why his pants changed into black in Sakaar. Will we get any explanation for that in the movie? Hmm… 

Upon removing the weapons, we have clearer views to his tattoos and bandage (can he bleed?). The silver helmet has a metallic paint and the carving was very detailed. The red fur plume on it matches the blue colored pauldron on his left shoulder. One thing I don’t really like here is the fact that the helmet is actually a separate part glued to his head (I think). Why kragled it while it’s better to be removable? Or maybe add a hairpiece for him? Other than that, this is a greatly designed figure and it should be a fantastic collector’s item for Gladiator Hulk.

Comparison with the old light green Hulk from 6868, or I called it the pioneer Hulk. It improves in his angry expression where the old one looks a bit cartoony. The green also changes shade throughout the years in Sakaar. Both Hulks are great and now that I have them, I need to hunt the other Hulk in LEGO universe.

I’m always amused by the reminder of this scene that Hulk and Loki interacted way back in the first Avengers movie.

Now how did he get into Tolkien’s universe? The quinjet? Stark tech again..

Sakaarian guard. Even the bad guys is so fantastic. However I think this faceless dude is going to be a less appreciated minifigure. I liked the purple black color scheme of this servant of Grandmaster. He looked robotic and maybe he is some kind of cyborg in sakaar. He is holding a staff like Mordo in Dr. Strange’s set.

Hello dude, I suppose we have the same fate of being ignored.

Hey, you look scary too.

The Grandmaster. He was played by Jeff Goldblum in the movie. It is said that he is the brother of the Collector in MCU, hence the similarity in the character. He has dual face printing. His torso is very nicely printed with pearl gold and light blue arms. However the lack of printings for his legs is a little bit disappointing.

So you caught the God of Thunder? That’s interesting!

Loki the God of Mischief. He has a very different look in this set. He is wearing a dark blue coat and a bright yellow cape. Besides, he has two facial expressions which I liked the scared face with sweats. This look is quite rare and quite useful in flesh colored headpiece. Here in this set, it represents the look of Loki when he found out Hulk is actually here in sakaar and he is still scared of him. There are two appearance of Loki here. One is with his horned gold helmet and another one is provided with short hair piece.

Compared to the old Loki, the old one is more recognizable as the god of mischief. But for the cape, the new Loki came with this spongy stretchable fabric which is much more durable and flexible than the old traditional starched fabric. The latter is easily folded and crimped if you are not careful enough.

Now you know why Loki is scared of the Hulk.

Another thing about his hair. As I recall, Tom Hiddleston’s hair is quite long in the trailer. So I took Thorin’s hair and it matched! Maybe the short one is for Thor? But it’s too long for him. Hmm…

Let’s move on to 76084. There are two distinct shades here whereby Hela and the villains looked dark and a little bit of green, and the good guys are red and blue. We get six minifigures here, so I think they compensated the lack of build in this set.

Thor in this set is with a one sided cape. I think this is the first cape that looked like this (correct me if I’m wrong). The torso and legs are quite the same from the arena Thor, but this one is without the red war paint and blue kneepad. The armor print extended to the back of the torso which is very nice as well. This Thor is equipped with two trans blue power blasts and the color suits well with his ‘what are you the god of again?’ eyes.

Looked very different but quite similar. Why is he still wearing the helmet in this set? I want his short hair!

I have dire plans for destiny.

Valkyrie. At first she worked for the Grandmaster collecting beings to fight in the arena as his entertainment. After that recruited by Thor to join the revengers to fight Hela. Her skin tone is light brown with white paint at her face just like the movie. She got a Mohawk hairstyle which they used for Taserface in Guardian of the Galaxy. The blue cape is also one sided, with jagged edges which I think it’s very special.

Really? Now she joins the band. She has the long hair look in the movie too. I think LEGO wants us to be creative on changing their hair piece.

Berserkers. We got two of them in this set. I really love the dark green printings on black torsos. I think batman digs it too. They have no eyes, only big mouth with nice teeth. They have this horn at their back and the ninjago blades to wield which makes them looked more bad megablocks fighting team revengers. These bad guys are really very awesomely printed.

Do we need dentists?

Who the hell is Hela? The goddess of death is said to be Loki’s daughter in the comics but apparently Loki is single in the MCU. So I guess the origin of Hela will be revealed in the movie. From the released clip, she seemed to know Odin very well. She is wearing a helmet which looks like Medusa’s hair. Those tentacles are rubbery. I think this is to prevent those parts of her hair to easily fractured if they are made rigid. Very wise thinking from the designers. Here she is wielding a dark sword and axe.

She was provided with her hair in the set. At last, the right hair to have. The first look is the pretty Galadriel look. I prefer the Cate Blenchett look here than the catwoman look at  the second one. The torso is printed with slightly glowy green and it really looks like she was from the dark world. She is also equipped with black power blasts as she can hurl energy balls towards her enemy.

May the force be with you.

Another reason to buy this set. We finally get Bruce Banner! Before this we only get Hulk and minifigure Hulks in various colors but never the human form of him. Now he is in his black jacket and a very nice molded hair for him. The best part is he comes with green eyes just before the transformation. This is a truly awesome minifigure for Hulk fans.

Believe me. You don’t want me to be angry.

Surprise…

From these sets, I really love the helmet of the Gods. Loki’s helmet is already available way back in Avengers one. The new arena helmet for Thor is very nice and detailed. Although I would like some print on the side, this helmet is good enough. Hela’s helmet is truly exclusive and you won’t get it in any other sets. The design is very accurate to the movie and nothing to complain of.

Here you can see the various expressions in flesh colored heads. Kind of a rejoice for mocers and LEGO photographers to get the scared face of Loki, thief look of Hela, for the other licensed minifigures. However I think Thor’s lightning eyes look is not that versatile.

Another highlight is the capes. The colors are very sharp and both Valkyrie and Thor’s are very specially designed. More importantly, they are made with spongy stretchable fabric where you can pull and stretch to adjust them without worrying that they will be torn.

This is pretty much sums up the characters from these two sets. It is so awesome and I think they will be much appreciated after the movie!

The Build

I will start with 76084. In the first bag, you get to build Fenris the wolf. It is said that he is Loki’s son in the comics but I think we have to wait for the movie to know about his origin in MCU. According to the comic, being a wolf god that can shape-shift and transform into anyone he's consumed, gaining power and abilities with each being he's fought and eaten, repeatedly battling Thor and other Asgardians like the "Warriors Three," being severely beaten by Beta-Ray Bill, to prophesies of him starting Ragnarok by eating the Asgardian sun and moon, as well as devouring Odin. Will all these happen in the MCU? Let’s wait and see.

LEGO designed him to be a little bit skinny than the movie wolf. It can be ride by a minifigure. In the trailer, it’s quite obvious that he is one of the villains where he tried to ‘eat’ Hulk. However, I like the design of his head and the legs that make him always pose-able like he is preparing to attack somebody.

He has a slender body where the studs are for minifigures to ride on and the slope right after the stud is a very brilliant touch to let the cape sit on without crimping them. The mouth can be opened but the mandible is quite small. I like the pointy ears where you can actually bend it forward and backward. The wolf is smaller than it should be but the colour combination of black and grey makes him look cool.

Another cool feature of the wolf is LEGO added two ‘glow in the dark’ round plate as his eyes. His pose is quite limited despite the joints are all ball joints. The pointy parts of his fore and hind legs are blocking them to be turned 180 degrees. So this pose is the nicest for him to jump up and attack The Hulk.

Can I get some bone?

Another small build is the stand that Hela stood on. It resembles lord business’ extendable legs in The Lego Movie. I think it’s a bit redundant unless maybe there is a scene somewhere in the movie that Hela actually become taller than everyone else.

Bag two and bag three brings out the red round Frisbee that appeared quite frequently in the trailer. It is just a jet with four stud shooters, a cockpit, a weapon container at the rear of the jet and the ‘Hulk Launcher’. Dr. Banner will be loaded at the bottom of the ship. The yellow round tile at the center of the ship acts as a button to push Banner out of the ship and he will become the Hulk as he falls. This is actually a quite interesting play feature that includes a minifigure as a ‘bullet’.

The cockpit can fit only one minifigure and she must be leaned backward like the picture to close the lid. The console panel is a purple sticker which is quite a nice touch inside the driver’s seat. Let’s have a look at 76088.

After the first two bags, you can actually make the iconic scene of Hulk bashing through the door. The build of this arena is considerably easy, just a few inter-connecting walls with the color of red and blue. The door is a little bit smaller than the Hulk figure which is quite accurate that he has to smash the door to make a grand entrance. Now let them have some avengers’ reunion talk.

The whole arena consists of five separable walls with a black sliding door. It is quite long if you make it flat like this. Each wall has their own ply feature and I kind of like the idea that you can actually change the arrangement of the wall to suit your photography needs.

The back of the walls are quite detailed too I would say. It is not simply left empty or messily looking rear. Here you can see Thor’s cell, sliding door with two pillars, weapons vault and the lever to smash the wall.

With all the minifigures inside, you can curve the walls surrounding Thor and Hulk at the center of the ring. Grandmaster, Loki and sakaarian guard is happily watching at the top until Thor hit them with the help of the super jumper. The super jumper is something that sticks to the legs very strong where it is hard to be removed. So I did not include it here.

This is a close up shot to the cell. It is a door panel with enough room for a minifigure to stand inside and close the door. The stickers actually added some nice details to the cell door. I like the digital lock which is a printed tile. Two were included in this set. Another small detail here that I liked very much here was the hanger for Thor’s katana. How nice to hang that so close yet beyond the reach of Thor from the cell!

Behind the door you can see the Hulk is waiting impatiently for his name to be called upon. The mechanism to open the door is simply sliding the cheese slope at the top side of each door.

At the other side of the stadium, the weapons are placed there loosely into three technic pin holes. This is quite a new way of holding the weapons instead of using clips. The other wall was loosely assembled with similar technique used in Helm’s Deep set where the bomb blows off the castle wall. A simple flick towards the 2x3 tile will scatter the wall pieces all over the arena.

These two pictures are to illustrate the play feature of the arena walls. Quite a few of them are Thor’s target with the super jumper.

Tada!!! I think they created the chaos to escape from the captivity by the Grandmaster.

Conclusion

Both of the sets are very worthy of their respective minifigures. However the build is kind of easy and a little bit boring. I was hoping for some rainbow bridge build or the palace of Asgard instead of the plane. The arena looks great with the sliding doors so I'm not so disappointed. Overall 76084 and 76088 are both a 'must buy' sets if you are a super heroes collector. 

Review Summary
Playability: 5/10 - Both sets are packed with play features but I gave it a quite low score due to the looseness of the arena build to allow Thor to destroy it. For the commodore, the play mechanism is quite simple without any surprises.
Design / Building Experience: 9/10 - The design is complete, nothing more. As I say, a rainbow bridge and palace of Asgard would have satisfied me. 
Minifigures:  10/10 - Great minifigures! All the printings and the details exceeds all expectations. Especially the Gladiator Hulk. How could you miss that?
Overall: 9/10 - It's a must buy, you can't find minifigures this good any where else after the Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Carribean era.

Hope you enjoy the review, do share your thoughts in the comments! Can't wait for the movie!