Let's examine Lego toy sets for Infinity War clues like a bunch of dorks
We’re only a few months away from Avengers: Infinity War, and if you’re anything like us here at The A.V. Club, you’ve already watched the trailer that ends with Captain America leading a slo-mo charge a good 20 or so times. You may be asking yourself: How else can I nerd out about this film I haven’t seen?
Well, today brings good fortune, fellow time waster: Coming Soon discovered that the French-language Lego toy site Brick Heroes has gotten ahold of some images of the forthcoming sets featuring locations from the upcoming film. Needless to say, we’re going to now proceed to examine these images, because we’re a bunch of dorks who would rather spend time minutely studying images of children’s toys than, say, trying to better understand how Russia is already planning to further erode our democratic process by interfering in the 2018 elections.
We’re not going to reprint the images here, because we’re big fans of not being sued by Marvel or Lego, but you’re welcome to check out a detailed slideshow of the Infinity War-based sets. The names of these sets, on the other hand, are listed below. If you consider the names of locations that have already been seen in the trailer, paired with titles that imply certain events will transpire at those locations, to be spoilers, then by all means, stop reading now—though having looked at all of the sets, I’m hard-pressed to call much of this a “spoiler” (with one very notable exception, which I’ll call out before you get to it below) just based on what has already been shown in both trailer and TV spots. Consider yourself warned.
The first set is called “Sanctum Sanctorum Showdown,” and the clear implication is that Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and Iron Man are going to have a battle taking place not just outside in the street (as we already knew from the brief shot in the trailer), but one that carries on inside the Sorcerer Supreme’s home. It comes with adjustable webs, some nifty new Spidey tech, and a couple villains—one of whom looks a bit like Ebony Maw and the other like a new character named Cull Obsidian, both members of Thanos’ Black Order. See? Already we’re having more fun than people discovering the F.B.I. has shown the White House is lying about its timeline of investigating senior aide Rob Porter!
Next up is one named “Outrider Dropship Attack,” so named for the location where Cap is leading that collective assault we’ve seen. In addition to Captain America and Black Widow figures, it includes a large alien ship and a pair of Outriders, the four-armed aliens that presumably arrive in said craft, one of whom gets punched by Black Panther in footage we’ve seen. Pretty awesome, right? And way more enjoyable than learning Monsanto is suing small farmers trying to protect their livelihood! Ugh, that’s just depressing. Back to toys.
Our third set is listed as “Thor’s Weapon Quest.” Now we’re getting a little deeper into unknown territory. Along with the Asgardian, we get a little Guardians fun, too, with Rocket Raccoon and Groot figures included, as well as a smaller Rocket-driven spacecraft. There’s some sort of powerful energy machine, too, which can spin around and seems to generate the weaponized attachments that go on Thor’s hands. If one of you fellow dorks recognize this from the comics, please chime, because I’ve got nothing. Maybe it’s a movie-only item! Exciting! And so much more pleasing to think about than an ongoing reminder of how the new tax cuts are an embarrassing giveaway to the rich and a huge explosion of the federal deficit. Honestly, I hate pondering that thing.
Our next set is called the “Corvus Glaive Thrasher Attack,” which is already a cool name. For those of you nerds not already familiar with the Children of Thanos, Corvus Glaive is another member of the Black Order, Thanos’ loyal soldiers, as is his wife Proxima Midnight. (I love these ridiculous names, they are just the best.) To my best guess, he’s briefly seen in the trailer trying to remove Vision’s Mind Stone—and given he’s accompanied by a Vision figure here, that seems to be reaffirmed. It also comes with Black Panther, his sister Shuri, and another Outrider. There’s also a spinning-saw weapon thing (presumably the titular Thrasher) and a cool Wakandan wall location. Isn’t this preferable to hearing more about the ongoing worldwide destruction of the coral reefs?
This next one does contain an actual spoiler of sorts, so skip the following paragraph if you don’t want any hint of a story reveal.
The penultimate set is “The Hulkbuster Smash-Up,” and as expected, it contains a figure of Iron Man’s Hulkbuster suit. It looks really big, and is accompanied by The Falcon, another Outrider, an evil tower that fires a weapon, and Corvus Glaive’s spouse, Proxima Midnight. But the kicker is that it doesn’t include a Tony Stark figure to put inside the Hulkbuster. It contains someone else instead. That’s all I’ll say on the subject, so let’s just move on to our final set, shall we?
Okay, spoilers over.
Lastly, we’ve got “Thanos Ultimate Battle,” which sounds very impressive, but is really just another set that happens to include the main villain. It comes with Thanos (bigger than the average Lego figurine), Iron Man, Star Lord, and Gamora. Thanos is holding his big-ass sword, and Peter Quill’s got his ship. But also, it’s got the Infinity Glove (first seen in the post-credits stinger from The Avengers), and a space bike Gamora and Star Lord can ride around on, possibly while you make “vroom vroom” noises. So much cooler than knowing we’ve destroyed a tenth of the Earth’s wilderness in just 25 years!
Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this little trip into the deepest recesses of dorky Avengers fandom. Join us next time, when we spin two new shots from whatever TV spot is released next into an entire theory about how the second film is going to relate to this first one.