Submit to these minifigs or perish [Sheng Yuan Age of Ultron minifig set]

The new Avengers movie is only about to start screening in American theaters and Sheng Yuan has already shipped their bootleg minifigs. That’s a pretty fast turnaround, considering that we’re talking about bootlegs here.

As an aside, watch the movie. It’s great!

Anyway, I know that I have a tremendous backlog of minifig sets to lay out on this blog. But I figure I’d shake things up a bit and try to post new acquisitions ASAP, so as not to further add to said backlog. For the readers who check back here every once in a while, thanks for keeping tabs on this small spot on the internet!


Going back to the minifig set, as usual with SY, they’re offering a set of eight minifigs. Pricing hasn’t really changed from the last time, so you’re once again looking at PhP 25 and up per minifig, depending on where you’re buying.

Included in the set are the following:

• Iron Man
• Thor
• Black Widow
• Hulk
• Nick Fury
• Hawkeye
• Captain America
• Ultron

SY doesn’t really shy away from using registered trademarks with this one, and they proudly display the Avengers signage on their box.



They put the build instructions on one side of the box.



And then at the back, they show the full roster for this set, as well as a bio snippet of the character for this particular box. It’s decidedly different from SY’s usual design ethos of having the top part of the back of the box be CGI versions of the minifigs together in one artwork. The bio is a nice touch, and it makes the box look more retail-friendly and seem more like an official product.



So here’s what you’re can expect to get inside the box:


You have your minifig, a display plate, an extra accessory, SY’s traditional extra hand, and… nothing else. If you’re a long-time bootleg enthusiast, you might have noticed the lack of cards with this set, and you’d be correct.

SY has broken their tradition of inserting cards for what I’m guessing is a move to again keep costs down. I don’t know about you, but that’s A-OK with me, as I’ve never really been fond of those cards.

If I may, I’ll direct your attention to the display plate. Why? Because SY modified it some. Here, let me show you.



That circular cutout-looking thing on the top left part of the plate is SY’s mod to the usual display plate. As you might have guessed, you’re free to turn it around, making it easier to turn around attached minifigs for display purposes. Now you don’t have to keep pulling out your minifig to look at it from different angles. Nifty.

So you can have your minifig at this angle:



And then get to this angle with just a quick twist:



Nice.

Now that we’re already here, let’s take a look at Iron Man. This is Mark 45. Here’s a closer look at his front:



SY does a solid paint job here, and this is true for the rest of the set. They’ve found their groove after making a good number of sets at this point, and you can bank on them to deliver a solid set without even looking for samples firsthand.

A closer look at his helmet:



And under the helmet is a more grizzled Tony Stark:



Here’s the back of Iron Man:



Side-by-side with the Mark 42. You can see how the extra panel lines on the helmet forehead helps a great deal with making the helmet look more 3D. Nice touch by whoever thought about doing so in the LEGO design team.



Next up is Black Widow.












For reference, here’s a side-by-side of this set’s Black Widow and and the previous version:



There’s definitely a marked improvement with this new one, beyond the new details in the suit design that’s copied over from the actual movie suit. The new Widow’s face looks better and the torso looks more defined than the previous version.

Most characters in this set that also appeared in previous sets get an improvement with this set. It’s like they’ve upgraded to Mark 2 versions of themselves.

Let’s move on to Thor.



 
   
 


I’m not sure that’s I’m on board with the translucent Mjolnir, but I can get used to that. Otherwise, this minifig is again a marked improvement over the older one.



Here’s Hawkeye:











With regards to Hawkeye, though, the changes are down to user preference. I can see some people favoring the old one, and some preferring the new one.

Nick Fury, anyone?









Seriously, that trench coat is boss. It practically makes the older minifig look like a square by comparison. The head piece is the same, though, no changes there.

The perpetually angry Hulk:









His pants are now issued by the Avengers, so it has the logo and everything.





A big difference from the old Hulk is that his head can now turn slightly, thanks to an additional pivot joint. It used to be that the Hulk’s head and torso are moulded as one.



There’s no swiveling display plate for the Hulk, though. Just the same, SY is adamant about putting their branding in there:



I have a slight problem with his hands, though. The inner part that’s supposed to be able to hold on to standard poles can’t. The wrench and sledge provided keep popping out when I try to wedge those in. The best I can do is this:



That said, the more important aspect of the Hulk’s hands for me is still there:



Whew! Crisis averted!

Up next is the Cap.











I personally like the decision (in the movie itself) to have a more throwback-looking costume for the Cap. There are design elements taken from Cap’s original suit in the First Avenger movie. That said, no changes are made for the shield.



Comparison with older minifig:



I like the new one so much better.

And last, we have the big bad of the movie, Ultron. His box, though, reads something different:



Nice. Anyway, the minifig:











If you’re at all curious what’s under the helmet, here you go:



I like that they painted something on there. Makers of lower-grade bootlegs would’ve just left it blank, especially since there are no elements peeking through the helmet that would be seen when the latter is on.

So that’s the set. It’s quite hard to find faults in it, considering that this is a bootleg set. Perhaps the omission of the Maximoff twins and the Vision are noteworthy, yes, and SY could’ve made a special exception to increase the set size to 11 to include those three. That said, all eight minifigs that *are* included are new and not just an old minifig thrown in the mix. They could’ve done that for, say, Thor, and most buyers would’ve just accepted it as is.

The hope is that Decool or Lele will come through and be able to cover for the excluded minifigs with this one. In the meantime, this set is fine as it is, all things considered. Recommended.