LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower review

LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower is a headline-making behemoth of a LEGO set, but do such impressive numbers equate to LEGO greatness?

Whether you love LEGO Marvel or have no real interest in it as a theme, 76269 Avengers Tower is going to grab your attention just for the sheer audacity of it. Although in recent years we have seen an increasing number of outlandish LEGO sets, it is still fair to say that few LEGO sets – and in particular licensed LEGO sets – attempt such things as LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower does.

Headlines and conversation starters are aplenty in LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower, but how does all that translate into an actual LEGO set? Is bigger actually better?

--- LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower set details ---

Theme: LEGO Marvel Set name: 76269 Avengers Tower Release: November 24, 2023

Price: £429.99 / $499.99 / €499.99 Pieces: 5,201 Characters: 32

LEGO: Order now

--- Where to buy LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower ---

LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower debuted on November 24 at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores. Look out for it through a single third-party retailer eventually.

--- LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower build ---

Coming in at £429.99 / $499.99 / €499.99, offering a piece count of 5,201, packing in a whopping 32 characters and measuring an impressive 90cm tall, 76269 Avengers Tower is one of the most expensive LEGO Marvel sets so far, comes with the largest piece count of any set from the theme’s 11-year history to date, includes the highest number of characters too and also measures as the tallest-ever LEGO Marvel set, and for that matter the sixth-tallest LEGO set of all time.

Given just how much this costs, it’s probably fair and to be expected that all those other impressive stats follow on. You pay the most, you want the most, and LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower really does attempt to deliver you the most in almost every way possible.

Outside of stats, though, how does this giant LEGO set really stack up? What’s it like to build such a gigantic and recognisable building from the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

At first glance, with all those window pieces, you would guess that building LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower may get a little repetitive in places. Well, while there are aspects to piecing it all together that indeed do feel like that, pleasingly the LEGO experience around this set is actually really very fun.

And the best comparison for how and why is the set that most closely stands with LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower – 76178 Daily Bugle, which was the last such skyscraper from the theme. That also risked being an overly repetitive build by its very nature, but proved to be a wholly immersive, varied and enjoyable set to put together. Working floor by floor, that set offered all sorts of different details and storytelling in its interior and kept construction of the monotonous exterior broken up into phases in-between.

Generally, then, what made 76178 Daily Bugle so memorable and genuinely fun to build carries over to 76269 Avengers Tower just the same. Of course starting at the base and building up, this is a LEGO build that once again leans into that opportunity to treat each floor inside the building as its own microcosm of Marvel storytelling, while bit by bit requiring you to work through the many, many window pieces that create the more uniform exterior.

Quite honestly, not a lot of this translates to the most challenging of LEGO builds, but that doesn’t mean that the simpler techniques used in places here make for too basic of a set. Instead, it’s best described as pure fun to put together, particularly for how each level of the building pulls you back into something you may vaguely or specifically recall from the last decade-and-a-half of Marvel movies, or that may set off your imagination in setting up or playing with the large number of included minifigures.

This is a set packed with deeper dives into the MCU, bag by bag, level by level, and it makes for an enjoyable (and long) journey to piece together. Seriously, you could build everything with your own hands, place it all where it should go and still only be spotting little references or background details ages later while looking at the finished set.

As was the case with 76178 Daily Bugle, the floors to 76269 Avengers Tower are designed at almost double height, allowing for both a lot of light to fill each area and for hands large and small to more easily get inside. Tall ceilings also help pull the eyes ever upward through the structure, which as you add more and more floors (this build really does keep going) really hammers home the impressive scale of the build once complete.

And it’s at that stage, as the final level goes on and the back wall to the structure is fitted in place, that you can truly appreciate the stature of 76269 Avengers Tower as a one-of-a-kind, supermassive LEGO set, both inside and out. Externally, the endless windows you put together align so nicely to form the long, clean, uniform lines of the building, while the unique shaping of the structure is excellently captured at this large scale, both in the rounded edges of the building and in the more pointed aspects to its design.

Meanwhile, the interior is accessed through the removal of the entire backside of the model, allowing for a wonderful cross-section of activity, story and play potential across multiple levels. Again, even if the building isn’t the most challenging, the effectiveness of the design works perfectly: at once capturing the spirit of various moments and scenes from the Infinity Saga intended to be recreated in LEGO form, and still leaving each space open to plenty of hands-on LEGO play.

Even during this period we are in with evermore giant-sized LEGO sets releasing month after month, 76269 Avengers Tower stands among the very largest of these, alongside the likes of 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank Collectors’ Edition and 10307 Eiffel Tower, where untold piece-counts unlock – quite literally – everything imaginable that a LEGO set at this size could be. That is to say, 76269 Avengers Tower is yet another example of a LEGO design team taking the opportunity to go big and wisely not wasting a single brick in the process. It means that while the headlines will focus on the somewhat superfluous records and numbers, the substance to this set is very much there too. Come for the size of the thing, or the silly number of minifigures, but stay for just how great this set is.

Inside and out, 76269 Avengers Tower is a fun and immersive LEGO set to put together, which delivers on every level any Marvel fan would hope for from a set based on this iconic, gigantic skyscraper.

--- LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower characters ---

LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower includes a record-breaking number of characters, even if it is stretching the definition of character and even if some are certainly not minifigures. Indeed, and perhaps inevitably for wanting to work in such a large quantity here, the overall quality of the line-up – in terms of design, detail and selection – is best described as a mixed bag.

There are certainly impressive redesigns of classic characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most notably including Vision complete with fancy patterned cape and printed trans-light blue legs, and Hulk in big-fig form and for the first time able to turn his head. Game-changer. Hulk smash? Hulk look left, Hulk look right.

A battle-damaged Iron Man Mark VI and a returning, updated Ultron are also notable highlights in 76269 Avengers Tower’s line-up, while for such a large set it is nice to receive a good number of generic good and bad guys in the form of the SHIELD Agents (including disguised Tony Stark a la Endgame) and Chitauri aliens to help populate the huge vertical landscape before them.

Alongside these, there more unexpected or obscure inclusions such as Dr. Helen Cho, who had some memorable scenes with Ultron in Age of Ultron, before returning (as did everyone) for Avengers: Endgame. Likewise, Erik Selvig debuts in LEGO minifigure form too and even if his design is relatively simple, his inclusion is more than welcome.

Kevin Feige is probably the most unexpected inclusion to this line-up, but for his involvement across every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this is a nice nod to the work he has done. As a minifigure, he’s one for the collectors more than the players, unless acting out in LEGO form some behind-the-scenes action of him giving notes to Robert Downey Jr. floats your boat.

Every main Avenger is also included in one way or another, with Iron Man also coming unsuited as Tony Stark, and as mentioned in SHIELD Agent disguise. Captain America also comes in masked and unmasked versions, which may seem unnecessary until you realise it’s a clever nod to the time travel storyline in Avengers: Endgame. Indeed, every hero you would expect or need to recreate any number of scenes from moments in and around the Avengers Tower are included.

Even so, beyond the aforementioned battle-damaged Iron Man Mark VI, head-turning Hulk, and pretty boy Vision, the rest of the star line-up are essentially repeats from previous, cheaper sets, with no extra or new printing. That means an unexpectedly high number of plain legs, as well as what for a good few of us will be one-for-one duplicates of characters we already have.

There are limitations to how many legs, arms, helmets et al that designers can print within any theme per year and so there has to be a balance struck between offering a good number of these in a set such as 76269 Avengers Tower, and still being able to offer enough spread throughout the rest of the LEGO Marvel set line-up for the year. That’s the reason for why this line-up may seem disappointingly light on such details.

But even with it being an understandable limitation likely imposed on the design team from up above, it doesn’t make the minifigure line-up here any better for where a lot of us will otherwise see room for improvement, and it doesn’t reduce the slight sting of having to pay that much for this set only to feel like this about the overall character design.

Moving to the supporting cast of heroes too, this is where pleasing everyone becomes even harder again, and where naming the characters you wanted to see included but that haven’t been is the name of the game. We’ll start: Quicksilver. It’s a fun game, but one that no-one ever really wins.

Ultimately, the selected minifigures included do tick a lot of the right boxes, and the best of the character line-up in LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower really represents the best of LEGO minifigure design in 2023 for the theme. However, running such a high number of characters in the one set does stretch out the highlights a little too thinly. On the plus side we get almost everyone that we could hope for included here, but for it being such a high number of minifigures it also means that too many are ones we have received before and too many lack enough new or detailed printing to perhaps justify sitting in what is otherwise a very special set.

It’s likely not as simple as this, but if the line-up contained 10 fewer minifigures but was able to offer far more detailed, unique LEGO versions of those that remain in the set, most of us would probably be even happier with 76269 Avengers Tower. As it is, and for what it needs to offer as a LEGO set in this unique case – which is a self-contained collection of the best of LEGO Marvel and the Marvel Cinematic Universe – 76269 Avengers Tower may take a few missteps, but ultimately does stick the landing.

It is also worth saying that the new minifigure stands that attach the various characters to the model really do elevate every aspect of the set as a whole, including the purpose to so many being included here. It’s a big set and the ability to dot the minifigures all around it makes sure it’s a busy set too.

--- LEGO Marvel comparison – 76269 Avengers Tower vs. 76178 Daily Bugle ---

Similar in status, sharing the same LEGO theme, both coming in at the higher end of the budget and both packed with a large number of minifigures, the instant comparisons between LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower and 76178 Daily Bugle are easy to make. But while the models may share a lot in common in this regard and indeed even follow a similar base structure to how they are built, that’s really where comparing the two becomes redundant.

And this is where the skill of the design team behind both sets comes into play – they are very much complementary sets. There may be some aspects that at a simplistic level may feel familiar, but both sets have so much that is unique and identifiable in build, design, play and display that serve their independence at the same time as allowing them to work so nicely placed alongside each other.

In short, there is more than enough to separate these two models as their own, highly-enjoyable experiences, and in a way that only serves to highlight the strengths of each. Bad news for our wallets, then.

--- LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower price ---

LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower comes in at £429.99 / $499.99 / €499.99 so quite obviously won’t be a day one purchase for absolutely everyone. When you get into the upper echelons of such LEGO sets, where prices and piece counts are off the chart, the experience, playability and all-round enjoyment of such sets is guaranteed. These are specialist LEGO sets geared towards creating the ultimate, all-inclusive LEGO experience for specific fan bases. It’s just finding the money in the first place for such sets.

--- LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower pictures ---

--- LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower pros and cons ---

LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower ultimately delivers a memorable, one-of-a-kind LEGO experience that packs in the story, detail and play that any fan looking for the ultimate tribute to the Marvel Cinematic Universe could hope for. From the impressive line-up of characters through the multiple spacious levels inside, and from the enjoyable nature of building the model through to the sheer enormity of it once complete, 76269 Avengers Tower delivers in pretty much every way imaginable, and all of this is at a scale not long ago we would never have dreamed of.

76269 Avengers Tower is big, much bigger than you thought, and it still doesn’t feel like a single brick has been wasted. Such large-scale, unchained LEGO sets exist in their own world, designed to create special, all-encompassing experiences for those lucky enough to afford them.

The LEGO Marvel team has truly taken one of the most iconic buildings from the franchise and created one of this LEGO theme’s most iconic sets yet.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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--- Alternatives to LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower ---

LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower is best compared with 76178 Daily Bugle, which offers a similar all-round LEGO experience and is set to share shelves until at least the end of 2024. Otherwise, if size is your thing then look no further than the likes of 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank Collectors’ Edition or 10307 Eiffel Tower.

--- LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower FAQs ---