[LEGO Review] – 76178 Daily Bugle

THE DAILY BUGLE SET REVIEW

We are absolutely thrilled to be given early access to review this hotly anticipated Marvel Superheroes LEGO set. Details of the set have not leaked out till very recently and this review is hot off the presses!
This set is designed by Mark John Stafford who also designed the marvelous Jurassic Park D2C 75936 set

Box Experience

The set comes in the Adult themed black box. The front shows the full set while the back of the box (sorry we forgot to take a pic) comes with the play features and also some insets. Not to nitpick but the print quality of the images at the back of the box is passable at best but it’s possible we just got a “lemon”

Box Contents
There are bags numbered 1-16 with 2 packs of each with the exception of bags 4,8,11 and 14 with 3 packs of each, 1pc unnumbered bag, 1pc 32×32 Dark Bluish Gray baseplate  one instructions manual and 2pcs of sticker sheets.

In the unnumbered bag, there is a whole bag of printed tiles representing various newspaper headlines, mostly from the Daily Bugle. It looks like they just published the “No Crime No Thanks to Spider-menace” cover, judging by the relative surplus of it in various parts of the set.

The Build
As the build represents a typical office building, the schema is quite straightforward. You build the base, first floor, second floor, third floor and the roof. We are using the American convention of naming floors for this review.

Bags 1- 5

The ground floor/first floor houses the reception/security and a holding/waiting area

There are a lot of details in and around the first part of this build. We also see two familiar technic pin holes made popular by the LEGO modular line which keeps the option of add-ons OPEN! A breakaway wall is located at the left side of the building allow the role play of Doc Ock or somebody else breaking the wall.

**We might have placed the two boxes too close together, there should be 10 studs between each hole.

The Newsstand is also built up in such a way that it’s easily removable and it’s probably an easter egg that Marvel fans may catch(let us know!) Also making an appearance is Peter Parker’s backpack hidden behind webbing while he goes off to save the day

Bags 6 – 8
The first floor houses the bullpen, the shared office space of Daily Bugle reporters Gwen Stacy, Robbie Robinson and Glen Urich

After the floor is complete, it can be stacked on top of the main build. The facade is then built with some panels and big stickers. The sticker lords smiled at us and we put these on with no major issues. The facade is place on and held in place courtesy of just a few studs and also interference fit from the 1×1 half rounded bricks

A look at the build from up top and also when the module is removed from the main building.

Bags 9 – 11
The second floor belongs to the dingy mail room as well as a makeshift office space for Peter Parker. Every floor has realistic “fake lift doors” which does not open up but some handy printed up/down arrow tiles really sell the image.

It also houses a handy backdoor that leads to a balcony where Spidey could probably meet up with Black Cat!
This highlight of this floor has to be the facade which is the most exciting of all as it features the Green Goblin breaking out of the building with four panels simulating the breakthrough. This is like the additional “POW” artwork on any action comic. This facade is held on more securely courtesy of the back of two transparent  headlight/Travis bricks which provide a little extra grip to handle the heavier load.

*This facade also includes all the pieces to build up the bland version of an un-exploded facade if you so wish to!

Bags 12 – 16

The top floor belongs to the editor J.Jonah Jameson and his secretary Betty Brant.

The rooftop, Daily Bugle signage, the watertower and antenna completes the build

We enjoyed the water tower build quite a bit.

Final Build

The final build is a staggeringly tall 82cm from bottom to the tallest tip (the antenna) on a footprint of a 32×32 stud baseplate. As the floors are modular, you would have no problems removing one floor if you so wish. The antenna is similarly easily removable (Maybe a tad too easily) to accommodate your cabinet space if necessary.

Minifigures

But candidbricks, where are the 25 minifigures? Punisher? Daredevil? Black Cat? Firestar? Blade?” you may ask.

Well, we are still uploading them as we speak so head over to this link once it’s ready in a couple of hours!

Here are the minifigures in a no-frills link.

Vehicles

A New York City Cab and Spider Buggy is included. The Spider Buggy attaches on the outside of J. Jonah Jameson’s office to annoy him 🙂

Building Tips

As always, pay attention to the stickers as there is no second chance unless you put a little bit of window cleaning fluid on the part first. Our first mistake was the exit signs which we pasted too close to the edge. Pay close attention to the instructions for this one

While mounting the separate levels, you may come to a slight problem, due to the glass windows, there is a propensity for the build to slightly bow inward, just pull the wall outward using the 1×2 overhanging tile if you encounter the same problem.

The newsstand is a bit flimsy as it is meant to be break-able during play. If you must carry your build around, we would recommend holding on to the baseplate of the walls of the first floor (except the punched through portion!)

Summary

Here is a view of it next to our Ninjago City set, sans the antenna. We highly recommend Marvel Superheroes fans to get this set as it features many Marvel easter eggs and is easily accessible for play due to the removable facades. With at least 5 new brand new most asked about superhero minifigures , what else could a Spidey fan ask for? Spider-Woman perhaps, but maybe she’ll come in an add-on set.

We give this a highly recommended 4.5 out of 5 stars

Recommended Retail Price : €299.99/ £274,99 / $299,99/499.99 AUD/399.99 CAD
Available 26^th May for LEGO VIP members and 1^st June, 2021 for all.

The set used for the review was sent to us by The LEGO Group for the purpose of an honest review. Provision of sets do not in any way influence or guarantee a positive review.