The Super Heroes Set We Don't Deserve [Lele Super Heroes Set]

Because superheroes are absolutely in vogue lately, it's hardly surprising to see another bootleg minifig maker enter the scene, hot on the heels of Decool and SY. Today we're looking at Lele's own Super Heroes set. Is it any good? What secrets lie hidden in these small paperback-sized boxes? The answers will surprise you! (Not really, I just wanted to try my hand at a viral post-style lede.)

So let's get the basics out of the way first. Pricing is exactly identical to SY offerings (shocking, I know). As shown in the inset photo above, the set is comprised of the following characters:
- Wolverine
- War Machine
- Batman (The Dark Knight movie series version)
- Green Lantern (movie version, I think)
- Iron Man (Mark 42)
- Superman (classic comic book version)
- Captain America (The Avengers movie version)
- Spider-Man (comic book version)

Obviously Green Lantern is new here, as both the Decool and SY sets we've checked out so far don't have him. The rest can be found elsewhere, though if you're planning to get just one set among the three and you prefer having War Machine and Iron Man in one set (you'd have to buy War Machine separately with Decool) along with the all-new Green Lantern (because who needs Thor and his insecurity-inducing chiseled body, right?), this Lele set might appeal to you better than the competing Decool and SY versions.

But hold up. Don't go rushing out to buy this Lele set just yet. You do want to see if it's worth it, yes?

Spider-Man

Eh, nope. Just looking at the rear box art sets off some alarms. Those are some wild-looking weapons that are advertised as being included with the Spidey minifig. That's already bad enough, worse when you consider that Lele didn't bother adding a web accessory, but it takes an even worse turn when you open the box and none of those pictured weapons are in it.

But okay, pack-in accessories are really just bonus items, right? What really matters is the minifig itself.

Well, the minifig itself provides no redemption. The paint job is splotchy and at some areas looks like as if it was done with a permanent marker. Even if the paint job was spot-on and good, the design itself is quite questionable. For example, the front torso shows the classic comic book design, but the rear torso is from The Amazing Spider-Man movie costume.

Then you have the feet emblazoned with a spread-out, radial, web design which, if I'm not mistaken, no Spider-man costume in history ever had. Not to mention how the design for the shin area pictured in the box art moved upwards to the thigh part.

Also of note, the conspicuous white paint used to detail Peter Parker's physique, instead of using a more low-key gray. It just stands out in a bad way.

To Lele's credit, though, they're pretty generous to include not only a display plate, but also a couple of bricks and green fire pieces to further accentuate the hero-ness of their minifigs. Is it flashy and over-the-top? Sure, but again, free pieces are free pieces, so thanks, Lele!

Wolverine

Lele's Wolverine fares no better. The front box art itself is a bit eyebrow-raising. You have a cartoonish CGI Wolverine laid on top of a painting that's going for a more realistic depiction.

You also have the pack-in weapons that aren't exactly a match for Wolverine's character. Well, okay, I guess the katana could be apt for when Wolverine was traipsing through the Japanese countryside in his earlier years. The mace is decidedly off the mark, though.

The minifig itself shows a slightly better paint job from the Spider-Man one, though the figure shows some manufacturing error on the head piece, the face details being painted a bit lower on the piece than intended, resulting in a larger forehead for Logan. The hair piece shows pretty good detail, though.

Wolverine's claws are taken from Shredder (like SY did), and I should also mention that the arm pieces look more like light yellow sleeves than the flesh color it's supposed to be aiming for, and for some reason, Wolverine's gloves are taken from Michael Jackson's wardrobe - they're white.

Superman

Next we have the Man of Steel, in his classic comic book costume. Lele lays the detail lines too heavy on this minifig (at least on the torso muscles), but that's pretty passable. What's not is how a reddish paint was used to highlight cheekbones and other defining features on Superman's face making it look as if he had just taken a moderate beating from some supervillain. The marking that's right at one end of his mouth is especially unfortunate.

The lack of details on some parts of the hair piece as well as the black gloves given this minifig also gives me pause. Free halberd weapon, though.

A shout-out to the horizontally-flipped Superman on the box art.

Iron Man

Will this minifig stop the bleeding so far? Well, the detailing on the torso looks the best among the set so far. It's not perfect, but considering the complexity of the design, I say it's passable. The helmet piece is where this minifig starts to show problems.

The actual piece itself looks to be okay, it gets the form correct. The paint, on the other hand, drags it from okay to not good. Once again Lele's preference for heavy detail lines, coupled with not-so-perfect placing, makes it look like Iron Man was on the business end of a haymaker to the face, which is ridiculous, not because Iron Man can't ever be punched, but because the Iron Man suit itself would sport dents after a heavy punch, not a black eye.

Lele also whiffed on the design of the helmet's jaw area. Instead of having the lower area of the jaw be painted red, they curiously chose to extend the gold paint all the way down to the chin and add a dab of silver. If you ever wondered how Iron Man would look like with a chin like Guy Smiley's and a goatee, here it is.

Opening the helmet faceplate reveals... a sad red face, literally. It's not even a reddish-faced Tony Stark - the trademark mustache and beard aren't there. It's a sentient being made from the same material used to make the Iron Man suit. A human representation of J.A.R.V.I.S., perhaps?

Aside from the usual cornucopia of weapons and display plate elements, there are two bulb-like elements that I think are supposed to approximate Iron Man's energy beams. They don't work as well in that capacity, but if you position them nicely, you could have Iron Man work as an airport grounds crew.

War Machine

Well, the thick line detailing rears it's ugly head once again. To be fair, though, the eyes of this minifig's helmet are better-painted, and it doesn't look like it sports a black eye like the Mark 42, so that's one thing going for it.

Unfortunately, the problems with the Guy Smiley-ish chin and the goatee carry over from the Mark 42, and where the Mark 42 had a pretty decent paint job on the torso and leg pieces, this War Machine doesn't have it. It looks like it's seen some heavy wear, and this is a new minifig straight out of the box. The feet in particular has some bad details painted on to it, as if done by a kid with permanent marker.

Lele also decided against giving the bulb-like accessories they gave the Mark 42, so there's only the random weapon set for War Machine to use. In this case, it's a staff and a Chima sword.

Captain America

Come on, Cap! Please save this set!

Unfortunately, this is where the set takes a turn from bad to worse. Just look at it. The big head sticks out like a very sore thumb. I mean, look at it. LOOK AT IT. [shudder] If Lele's intent was to make people look, they certainly succeeded in doing so. That doesn't mean that it's a good thing, though. This is more like looking at a train wreck than it is gawking at gorgeous celebrities.

Without even getting into the lackluster paint job that big head has (colors run outside the lines, and Cap's "A" on the forehead remains unpainted), what's even more head-scratching is that there's a perfectly usable "normal" head piece underneath the big head piece, painted with Cap's face and mask details like what you'd find in Decool's and SY's versions. It's not a perfect paint job, of course, but it's serviceable and way better than going with Lele's intended look for this minifig.

Then you have the torso piece. The front torso looks okay, while the back seems to simply mimic the same red and white design seen at the front, minus the black detail lines, alongside two white stripes to accentuate the shoulder blades. Compared to the other competing versions which have a unique design for the back torso, this Lele version falls behind them. This is compounded by the curious decision to paint on an Iron Man-inspired design on Cap's legs and feet, making Steve Rogers look like he's part-machine.

Also of note is that the shield accessory is made of one of those 2x2 plates with a rounded bottom and then the iconic shield design is painted on the bottom. This effectively means that the minifig can't properly hold the shield. You could hang the shield on the hand, but that limits the poses you can do with this minifig. On the plus side, you can make Cap sit on his shield, no problem.

Batman

This minifig follows the footsteps taken by Captain America, so that means big head is in play. And like Captain America, that big head piece has a horrible paint job, with the black mask paint bleeding into the jaw area and the mouth line devoid of any paint that would help make it visible. I had a hard time trying to make that mouth appear in photos (it's most visible from the side profile photo). I assure you, it's there, it's just hard to see it.

Here's the thing, though. Unlike the Cap minifig, you would actually want to keep the big head piece on because what's underneath is downright nasty. Instead of a usable head piece, you have an aberration of a face painted on it, with two white splotches for eyes and a mouth with a tongue sticking out. Yes, the tongue is actually supposed to be a chin detail, but because nothing separates it from the mouth and because it's red in color, it looks like a tongue. So yeah, keep the big head on.

The body and legs fare no better than the head section. The same heavy detail lines that plagued the other minifigs in this set also make an appearance here, made worse by how the lines bleed, making it look like a permanent marker job.

Lele also decided to put details on the leg piece. Why they think Batman needed it is a valid concern, and made worse by the atrocious paint job they did.

More perplexing is why they put another bat symbol on the freaking back. It's like Batman really needs to drill into people that he's Batman, so he should have a bat symbol on BOTH the front and back. On top of wearing a bat mask with pointy ears. It's just weird. Luckily, the cape covers that back bat symbol most of the time.

And no, you don't get a Batarang.

Green Lantern

Finally, we come to Green Lantern. Like Captain America and Batman, this Green Lantern comes with a big head piece that goes on top of the regular head. Like the other two, it looks downright ugly. And like the Captain America minifig, there's a good head piece that the big head covers.

Unfortunately, Lele expects people to keep the big head on and doesn't provide a hair piece to use with the normal head. And that's sad because out of all the minifigs we've seen in this set, this one has the best overall paint job. Unlike the Mark 42 which has good torso paint and fell apart elsewhere, this Green Lantern minifig kills it from top to bottom. Heck, even the big head has decent painting (not perfect, but decent).

Granted, there are some misses, especially on the not-so-clean lines on the back torso, but they're not exactly ugly. I'd also say that Lele could've done better by leaving the leg piece without paint, but hey, even that dragon-like paint job is pretty clean.

I didn't want to let this minifig go to waste, so I stuck a spare cowlick hair piece from Superman and will pretend that it's Kyle Rayner (last photo in the slideshow), replacing the hair piece when a more appropriate one comes along.

Wrap-up

This... is bad. Tong's Toy Story train wreck of a set is definitely a worse offender, but that doesn't exonerate Lele from releasing a pretty bad set.

If you had to pick one set among the three, go with either Decool or SY. The only reason I'd get this set is solely to get the Green Lantern minifig, and even then I had to augment it with a separate hair piece to complete it. Best bet would be to just find someone selling GL solo and add it to either the Decool or SY set.

Stay away from this one. Not recommended.