Review: 40554 Jake Sully & his Avatar
Posted by Huw,
The next BrickHeadz release is 40554 Jake Sully & his Avatar, which will be available alongside four minifig-scale models based on the forthcoming Avatar: The Way of the Water film next week.
It contains two versions of the film's main protagonist, in both his human and Na'vi guises.
Summary
40554 Jake Sully & his Avatar, 246 pieces.
£17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99 | 7.3p/8.1c/8.1c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Innovative figures that bring something new to the BrickHeadz line
- The medium blue Na'vi figure is very distinctive
- First BrickHeadz wheelchair
- The human has boring hair
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
In his human form, ex-Marine Jake Sully is a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair. This has thus resulted in several firsts for a BrickHeadz character: the wheelchair, of course, and I believe it's the first seated human figure, and the first to have hinged arms.
The head is unremarkable, though, as a result of the character not having a flamboyant hairstyle.
The figure can be detached from the chair and I believe that this is the only BrickHeadz which does not come with a 6x6 display stand.
His Na'vi form, which incorporates three printed parts and a new design of eye, is far more interesting.
Medium blue was one of the first pastel colour to be introduced, in around the year 2000, but it's been somewhat neglected over the last few years, having been eclipsed by the 'azur' family of blues. It's use here, then, is most welcome.
Like the minifigure representations of the Na'vi, it's taller than standard figures, but not by much.
Distinctive hairstyles always lead to more pleasing figure and this one is no exception. The headband does not appear to resemble that worn by Jake, in the promotional material at least, but it certainly adds interest to the model.
The figures are sufficiently different to other BrickHeadz to make the set appealing to collectors of the blocky characters, and it may well attract a few Avatar fans, too, although I suspect their money is more likely to be spent on the minifig sets.
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29 comments on this article
Love this and great to to see a wheelchair user brickhead
not the first to have hinged arms. Hulk 41592 and Thanos 41605 both had them. though done differently to how it is here
All hail Hypnosmurfcat!
I feel like the "The human has boring hair" con isn't really fair to the review considering the character just has a buzz cut hairstyle
At this stage pink or purple hair is boring.
Jake's Avatar-form could use a couple extra 1x2 medium blue bricks and/or plates to make him taller :)
For some reason the head on Jake Sully makes me think he looks like Mark Zuckerberg.
@PixelTheDragon said:
"For some reason the head on Jake Sully makes me think he looks like Mark Zuckerberg. "
He kind of looks like Zuckerberg but with bolder facial features in the film, in some scenes I swear he’s made of CGI. Brickheadz aren’t quite my taste but these aren’t bad IMO, I’m sure people will complain about the Na’vi’s face but I think these are solid and the wheelchair is cool. Fun fact: the sets’ release is also to coincide with the rerelease of the original, it’s coming this Friday iirc and I’m gonna see it with my family the day after.
"I became a Marine for the hardship. Told myself that I can pass any test a man can pass. All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for."
I'd personally take a point off for not being named 40554 Jake Sully & Jake Sully.
@CCC:
They did. The legs have an extra brick, and the arms are three studs long instead of two.
"based on the forthcoming Avatar: The Way of the Water film"
The sets are based on the original Avatar, I think we will get sets for the new film a little later.
I'm hoping this isn't the last wheelchair-bound Brickheadz. On top of the representation issues, I'd really like a Professor X.
@TheOtherMike said:
"I'm hoping this isn't the last wheelchair-bound Brickheadz. On top of the representation issues, I'd really like a Professor X."
Minifigure first, though.
@Trigger_: Well, yeah, obviously. And ideally in an X-Mansion playset.
I don't understand the appeal of brickheads like at all
"Medium blue was one of the first pastel colour to be introduced, in around the year 2000, but it's been somewhat neglected over the last few years, having been eclipsed by the 'azur' family of blues. It's use here, then, is most welcome."
I'm glad you acknowledged this. Medium blue is one of my favorite colors, but I have to admit even dark azure is competing with it among my favorites. I hold both in equally high regard, so I don't like either one more than the other.
Also, the reason it's spelled "azur" is because "azure blue" in Danish is "azurblå". So it's not necessarily a slip-of-the-finger typo like some people may think. They probably just didn't know or forgot that it ends with an e in English.
@Volfogg said:
"I feel like the "The human has boring hair" con isn't really fair to the review considering the character just has a buzz cut hairstyle"
I remember this being mentioned in previous reviews and the response was that it didn't matter that it was accurate to the source material, if it looked bad, it looked bad. In other words, they're OK shooting the messenger.
@LegoSonicBoy:
Medium Blue is actually _MUCH_ older than 2000. It was introduced even before regular blue, back in 1949, with 700-12. Eventually they cut the color palette down to the Mondrian Five, and Medium Blue went on a very long hiatus.
I’ve never seen Avatar. The likelihood of me seeing it is fairly small, even with a sequel pending. No reason really, we’ve just never synced up.
It’s a BrickHeadz though…and I’m addicted, so yeah, I’m completely in. Besides, the wheelchair is completely and totally awesome.
Oh…and I’m seeing the possibility of customs here of Professor X from the early days (ala First Class) and maybe Mystique with all that delicious blue.
The forehead in the first image looks awful with the 2x4 tile showing its underside. Talk about popping a vein in your forehead.
@Norikins:
He just turned 46. Are you age-shaming his forehead wrinkles?
@PurpleDave said:
" @Norikins:
He just turned 46. Are you age-shaming his forehead wrinkles?"
This is based on the original film from 2009, so he would be 33 at that point.
@Murdoch17:
Yeah, well, he’s been waiting around an extra 13 years to get here, hasn’t he?
"alongside four minifig-scale models based on the forthcoming Avatar" Brickset writes that these are available in Europe since july? Not in Denmark though :( I went to the lego store yesterday, and they told me they will be released in october.
@Martin_S:
Two sets are available for preorder, while this and the other two are just listed as Coming Soon. In the past, sets did not show up on the site at all until they went on sale, but the last couple years we've seen tons of Coming Soon listings and several Preorder options. Brickset automatically scrapes that data and updates itself accordingly, so maybe the issue is that it's not set up to recognize when a set is actually available to purchase vs having a forthcoming release date.
Plastic brick built Sam Worthington has more charisma than the real thing.
Nice models.
@PurpleDave said:
" @CCC:
They did. The legs have an extra brick, and the arms are three studs long instead of two."
yeah too bad we can't change Lego models further to fit our desires
@ShilohCyan:
Brickheadz aren't meant to be realistic representations of these characters. They're short, chunky, generally have no mouths, and basically look like old-school Nintendo game sprites. That said, height differences can be important to maintain recognizability. Jack Skellington was actually a bit shorter than Sally, and probably should have had arms and legs like this. This character does have them, however. The person I responded to lamented that they didn't, so I was just pointing out the truth. If people want to make them longer or shorter, that's their business. I have no interest in buying them, so the size difference is merely academic to me.
@PurpleDave said:
" @LegoSonicBoy:
Medium Blue is actually _MUCH_ older than 2000. It was introduced even before regular blue, back in 1949, with 700-12. Eventually they cut the color palette down to the Mondrian Five, and Medium Blue went on a very long hiatus."
Wow, I did not know that! I've always thought it appeared in Belville or something. That's 50 years older!