Perhaps I'm going a touch soft in my old age, but I've really come around to the pointy-nosed Jedi fighters from the Prequel era. In an absolute jungle of dull grey lumps (looking at you The Twilight), flat heaps of nothing (Obi-Wan Kenobi vs Darth Vader) or ugly grey flat heaps of nothing (just watch yourself Pirate Snub Fighter), the Jedi fighters are cheerful, colourful and individual.

And while time was that these were being fired out of Lego's factory at such a rate that fatigue with the design was definitely working against them, 2016 saw the king of the bunch shine through - from a no-longer-canon source, no less.

(tasty sandwich not included)

Ah but yes, this fine specimen comes from the 2003 2D Clone Wars cartoon, as opposed to the later 3D one. As such, it predates the idea that yellow would be Anakin's colour of choice for his space-vroom-vrooms, or that he'd be attached at the hip to bankable character favourite R2D2. Instead, he gets a spicy red version, guaranteed to live a long and happy life as Annie's copilot.

I really love the design. There's something very believable in the idea that the teenage Anakin Skywalker would be the space equivalent of one of those boy racers that slap extra spoilers and custom paint jobs on a Ford Focus, make the engine extra-noisy and drive it round and round the town centre of a Wednesday night.

The space equivalent being ridiculously huge engines, an even pointier pointy end, extra fins (very important in space), twice as many guns and even an escape pod. Seems Anakin picked up his hydrospanner and just never put it down again. He'd still be twiddling with it today if the entire show hadn't been stricken from canon like that.

Problem is, this is Lego, and even at the top of their game the designers had to eventually admit defeat. The underside of the ship has no actual bodywork to it - with most Jedi fighters this is less of an issue as the wings make most of the shape anyway. But here, the blue-and-white striped hull plating should go around the bottom of the big engine thingies (I know, I know they're the hyperdrive, stop your foaming), but it just doesn't.

Is it a problem if you never look at the underside? Well, kinda, yeah. You don't swoosh your ships around? You're dead to me, friend. Yeah, the lack of a proper bottom is the one black mark against an otherwise stellar design.

Wait, not quite the only black mark. The gun fittings are a bit low-effort, if we're being honest.

What makes this really stand out is when you put it next to any other pointy Jedi fighters, in particular the recent #75333 Obi-Wan Kenobi Jedi Fighter. Suddenly Anakin's fighter just radiates charm and vibrancy, setting itself apart as being quintessentially Anakin.

The boy racer that became a magic space wizard. Brings a tear to your eye.

Oh! And Asajj Ventress is there too! Miss you, gurl.

It's not as if there's been a notable absence of Batmobiles in the various superheroes themes that Lego has put out down the years. Out of every superhero in both the Marvel and DC stables there is no vehicle as well known and recognisable as the Batmobile, despite the fact that over 80 years of comics, toys, movies and TV the Batmobile has had no consistent design. Some are more artistic and stylised, some more grungy and militaristic - some are just black cars with a bat-logo haphazardly stamped on the bonnet.

Ah but this right here, this toy is designed to evoke the 1989 movie Batmobile - long, protruding nose, single-seat cockpit thrust right back, bat wings in place of a spoiler. Designed to evoke the look, mind, not designed to slavishly adhere to it. This is a blessed relief as it allows the design of the car to breathe somewhat, to be it's own thing, and not need to compromise in the name of screen accuracy, something which has troubled Star Wars toys for many years now.

The Build

Building the toy is generally unchallenging, although the process is a little archaic compared to modern Lego standards, in that in the early portions of the framework the front and back end look very similar, meaning you need to be somewhat on the ball to not go accidentally attaching pieces to the wrong end. It's only a minor gripe though, and overall the model comes together with little difficulty.

The Completed Model

On completion you are left with a beast of a vehicle, especially when placed alongside the smaller Lego City cars. Not that that's a problem - the Batmobile is supposed to be big and intimidating. What impresses - from an AFOL point of view at least - is that a couple of action features are included without taking away from the overall design of the vehicle. Which is to say, the look and design of the Batmobile come first, the fold-out stud shooters and spinning flame-exhaust come second.

While stud shooters are definitely old hat by now, the way they tuck into the fuselage of the car make them entirely inoffensive. Neither is the flame-exhaust, but I can't help but feel that the rear portion of the car could have been better used as a place to stow the captured Joker, but sadly it isn't to be. The space available would always have been a tight squeeze for a minifigure, but the Technic axle and gears make it impossible.

Minifigures

Ah yes, the minifigs. They're not exactly the highlight of the set, but they're certainly functional. Batman is in a rather bland grey suit with a printed-on utility belt, with the newer cowl with the shorter ears and no built-in chinstrap. Sadly this apparently necessitates a printed face on a black minifig head, which invariably comes out too pale. Perhaps this is a welcome change from the overly-tanned Batmen of recent years, but honestly it just feels unnecessary. A normal flesh-toned head would do just fine. And thankfully the older cowl has no trouble squeezing its longer ears into the Batmobile canopy, so if you have one of these lying around spare it's an easy swap.

The Joker has gone back to his 'classic' look that he sported between 2012 and 2016, albeit with a new torso print that makes him the more interesting of the two minifigs. In a bright purple waistcoat over a green shirt, this is a well-decked-out Joker, rather than the scruffier versions that the movies have been offering over the years. Sadly his only accessory is a stud-shooter gun to fire splodges of purest green - presumably some dastardly chemical or other. A shame that more uniquely Joker-y accessories were eschewed in favour of bland functionality.

Overall

I don't hesitate in saying that this is the best Batmobile Lego has produced so far, in minifig scale at least. While it still stops short of perfect (no lockup in the rear, bland minifigs), it does the important stuff better than any other version.

It's also noteworthy that this single toy gives kids and collectors alike everything they need for Batman: the Dark Knight himself, his nemesis, and the iconic car. If this were the only Batman set you bought, you wouldn't be missing anything. While the price is hardly generous, it doesn't feel like a ripoff either, unless you were desperately expecting more minifigs with nowhere to put them. In essence then, this is a must-buy if you have no Batman sets at all, and a deserved upgrade if you've been disappointed with Batmobiles in the past.

There's no getting away from the sense that this set represents a deliberate response on Marvel's part to the release of 76028-1: Darkseid Invasion. The similarities are obvious: large white space jet manned by superheroes going up against a bigfig of a top-tier villain of its respective universe. And Darkseid Invasion already has the upper hand with a visibly sleeker main vehicle compared to the noticeably more boxy Avenjet, as well as more substantial transport for the big villain.

Still, that doesn't make the Avenjet a bad model in its own right, just that it's got stiff competition from the get-go.

Parts

It's not exactly controversial to bemoan the use of stickers over printed pieces, so it's a little surprising to see both make a strong showing here. Most of the logos and details are stickers, but the large turbines on each wing are printed. This isn't as good as it sounds though, as it still shows them up as being flat and two-dimensional. Turbines are hard to render in bricks of course, but it's difficult to not to think there must have been some better solution out there. Considering it's not exactly the first time decent turbines have been needed on a Marvel set... maybe it's worth investing in a new part or two?

Minifigures

First off, the boring: Captain America is not only the same as in 76048-1: Iron Skull Sub Attack (with a ridiculous star-spangled air tank thrown in). Only of interest if you don't already own another version of Cap.

And because this is a Marvel set, there needs to be (by law or something) either a cameo by Iron Man or Spider-man. It's the former we get here, and he at least has the decency to appear in a different colour suit to normal. He's in space, so obviously the suit needs to be white. That's just science. But like Cap, there's really nothing to get excited by here.

You know what is exciting though? Captain Marvel.

Captain Flerken Marvel! I make it a point to never buy a set purely for the minifigs, but the sheer awesomeness of Carol Danvers' Lego incarnation is the closest I've come yet. The torso and leg printing is superb, and while the short spiky haircut won't be to everyone's liking, Carol's hair length is notably inconsistent anyway. An alternate masked head is provided, but sadly not a blond mohawk to go with it. It's a sad indictment of LEGO's policy with superhero minifigs that this is probably the only time we're going to get a Captain Marvel fig for some years to come, and it's tucked away in a £50 set.

On the villain side we have a bigfig of Thanos The Mad Titan and Hyperion. Thanos is... okay enough. Honestly he'd probably have been fine as a regular minifig, but he hardly looks bad. Just a bit plain, considering it's one of the most important villains in Marvel Comics. As for Hyperion... well, if you were looking for more proof that this was a response to DC's set, how about a minifig of a villainous expy of Superman himself? Hyperion looks pretty decent, with t-shirt arms and a unique shaped cape (made of the old stiff cloth, which I definitely prefer). He even uses the exact same double-sided head as Superman used, with glowing heat-ray eyes on one side.

The build

Nothing particularly complex while building the Avenjet or Thanos's space-skates. There are a few instances of SNOT, especially in order to put the sides on the two cockpits, but there's nothing that stands out as an exciting technique or altogether challenging.

The completed model

The real test is whether the blockier, boxier look of the Avenjet is still a good-looking and fun model and toy. Thankfully I can report that it is, although the aforementioned flaws never really go away. It's blocky because it's a more down-to-earth (sorry) take on a space vehicle than the more fantastical Javelin. Taken on it's own merits, the Avenjet still looks good and is as much fun to swoosh around as any decent spaceship.

Scale is an issue though. Smaller than both Quinjets released so far, it's a rather dinky ship for a £50 pricetag, barely the size of a Star Wars starfighter (and dwarfed by the recent X-Wing and TIE Fighter from TFA). That said, it does size up well next to the Milano, as well as the more compact starfighters that Lego's own space lines tend to put out.

The main gimmick of the Avenjet is that the upper part of the ship detaches into an even smaller fighter. It's decent enough, and I'm a real sucker for vehicles that dock with other vehicles, but the mini-fighter is very small on it's own.

I have a particular bugbear about cockpits with gaps between the pilot and the bleak horror that is outer space, so it's disappointing also to see that both cockpit canopies leave a significant gap when they close. In addition, the landing gear (such as it is) doubles up as flick-fire launchers. Considering the stud-launchers on top are far better, it's weird seeing flick-fires still in use at all.

Overall opinion

If Captain Marvel hadn't been included, I'm not sure I'd have forked out the requisite £50 for this set. For some the draw will be the Thanos bigfig, or the unique Iron Man armour. But there won't be a huge number of people after this set for the Avenjet itself, which is of course where most of your money goes.

Which is a shame, as it's not a bad set in the least. It's a fun, swooshable alternative to yet another Quinjet (and considering they're getting smaller every time, this is probably merciful). Where this set suffers is as a hook to sell certain characters that wouldn't warrant their own smaller set, and that's a shame. There's no reason why the Avenjet doesn't deserve a place on your shelf, but at the same time, it's a far from perfect set.

Oh, and on the matter of which is better, this or 76028-1: Darkseid Invasion? Bare in mind that the other set costs a hefty £10 more. Pity the poor kid that asks for Superman's spacejet, and gets Captain America's. It's even got the 'wrong' Captain Marvel!

Dragons have been a staple ingredient in the Ninjago line from the very start, but were originally among the more... 'aspirational' type of sets. You know, the kind that kids have to spend the whole year pleading with mum and dad to get for their birthday to even have a chance of seeing in the flesh?

It's a pleasant surprise therefore to find in the latest wave of Ninjago sets a dragon that can be had for pocket money, coming in as it does at a wallet-pleasing £8. But with fewer than 100 pieces, does it merit even that low price?

Parts

There's a goodly selection of ball joints on offer here - the wings, tail and head use the smaller kind introduced with Mixels, and the chunky legs use the larger type. Along with these are a pair of A-frame pieces for the wings - hardly rare any more but still welcome additions, and five scythe heads in pearl gold.

For both pirate and ninja there are a bunch of accessories, including two flintlock pistols, a skull-handle cutlass, scythe (ninjas love good lawn maintenance) and the year's gimmick, a bone-handled energy sword thing with a ninja's face on it and two massive axe blades. To be honest, the hilt looks better without the axe blades, and thankfully there's a spare brown handle they can be attached too - free battleaxe!

Minifigures

The dragon's rider is Cole, who I always vaguely admired in the early days of Ninjago, being the only one of the team that was dressed in any sense ready for ninja work. Or at least, being a Noh Theatre stagehand, given the black outfit he sports. Nowadays of course, the rest of the team have mostly caught up and wear black as well, and in response Cole seems to have lost the plot by wearing a Sashimono flag on the back, confidently letting his enemies know not only where he is but who he is at all times. Top-quality ninja-ing there, Cole.

The pirate, who has the unfortunate name 'Bucko' is dressed in classic pirate gear: dark green and bright orange, with a snazzy silver logo on his lapel. Because even among vicious gangs of marauding thieves and vagabonds branding is important, dangit. There's little else to say about him to be honest - he doesn't look bad by any means, but he's just not interesting enough to waste words on.

The build

I always enjoy brick-built creatures using ball-joint articulation and Cole's mighty dragon-cub is no exception. It doesn't take long to put together, especially as it is entirely symmetrical, but kept my interest throughout.

The completed model

The dragon uses the same colour scheme that has been following Cole's models around for years, earth tones of brown, black and pale green, offset with gold highlights. The number of articulation points makes for a very posable model, although as with all such creatures this comes at the price of stability and sturdiness. But being such a small model, repairs are quick and easy.

It's a good-looking creature as well, almost entirely brick-built (only the feet are pre-moulded pieces, sadly a small letdown). The A-frame pieces give a good shape to the wings, although obviously their aerodynamic properties leave something to be desired, having great big whacking holes in the middle. The dragon is actually more akin to a wyvern, as it has no forelegs, but this is mere pedantry on my part.

One odd quirk is that the lower jaw is permanently fixed in an open position. It can swivel left and right, but never close. Poor thing, unable to hum.

Overall opinion

Aside from freebie polybags, I'm always a little wary of sets with fewer than 100 pieces. There's a limit to how far small numbers of pieces can go, and it usually represents poor value for money on a part-by-part basis.

Happily Cole's Dragon is, like all good Lego sets, more than the sum of its parts. This isn't just an affordable dragon, it's actually a really great dragon, an excellent model, fun to swoop and swoosh around and play with, and unlike its predecessors, it won't break the bank.

It also makes a good companion model to 70603-1: Raid Zeppelin, a far better model than the weird silver hover-thingy that came with that set, and a more dynamic foe for the small airship.

Cole's Dragon was never going to be an unmissable set - anything this small and low-price could never be. But for £8 it's hard to imagine anything more fun.

There's something about the quintessential 'red Ferrari' that bugs me. It's too dull, too trite, too... Top Gear. I hadn't intended to buy this entry in the Speed Champions line, preferring at a glance the apparently classier aesthetic of the Porsche 918 Spyder, but I'm extremely glad I did. The LaFerrari is one hell of a model, and well deserving of a place in most collections.

Parts

There are a few interesting pieces to note. Firstly, the canopy is pretty unique and well suited to plenty of other MOC vehicles, contemporary or sci-fi. In addition the wheel-arch bricks, though found across the Speed Champions line, seem new here, although being large and chunky won't be particularly adaptable. The tires come with changeable hubcaps, but with nowhere to store the second set they easily risk being lost. A nice idea, but not nearly so exciting as LEGO seems to think. As you'd expect from a sleek, modern sports car, there are plenty of smooth curved pieces of various sizes and shapes, but a great many of these are covered by stickers.

Yes, a word of warning for those why abhor stickers - while this is far from being the worst offender among the Speed Champions sets, there's still plenty to have to apply. Dainty fingers (or in my case, a pair of tweezers) are needed to put the stickers on properly.

Minifigures

One race car driver, decked out in a Ferrari-themed suit. Boring, and just asking to be replaced by someone more interesting. Put Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark in there, job done.

The build

Nothing too complicated. Mostly just brick-on-brick, but the sides of the car (which I can't call doors, even charitably) are built at 90 degrees to the rest. The sheer amount of red involved could potentially become confusing if built in a rush, but the model is small enough that mistakes are easily corrected.

The completed model

A very sexy car. Can't put it otherwise, this car looks pretty amazing. Its biggest downfall is the way it adheres to LEGO convention of only having one seat, which means that the whole thing is slightly too small, and too narrow in particular. In addition, the car has no functional doors, meaning the only way in or out is to physically remove the windscreen and drop into the cockpit. A shame, but the benefits of this system are plain to see - the car looks good from every angle, and no details are lost due to having single-piece doors.

Overall opinion

Even if cars and motor racing are not your thing I urge you to give this set a look. It fits a niche which has been almost entirely empty since LEGO's inception - that of semi-realistic, good-looking cars. Yes, it would be better as a two-seater, and yes, working doors would be welcome, but at this size and price point it'd be difficult to do much better. Considering £13 is the same price as a Star Wars battlepack where the model will be disassembled in days, the LaFerrari (and by extension the other Speed Champions cars) is a far better use of your pocket money.

Also consider that despite being marketed as a race car, the LaFerrari is also perfectly passable as a road car, albeit an exceedingly swish one even in Lego-town. It looks exceptionally good trundling down the street in front of a few modular buildings, something which can't be said of all the Speed Champions sets.