Every year the biannual Sun newspaper promotions are eagerly anticipated by polybag collectors all over the world, not just in the UK, but also overseas since prices are driven down once the polybags become much more common. This occasion has been no exception and the first of these polybag releases is this, Thor and the Cosmic Cube, a Marvel polybag. I must say, this is probably among the best polybags of all time in my opinion, allowing one to obtain the rare Thor Minifigure at a bargain price (whether you are in the UK and getting it for the price of a Sun newspaper, or elsewhere and finding it in stores or online) and providing us with a rather nice little model to go along with it.

Polybag/Instructions

The set is packaged in a small polybag, which displays a simple image of the set on the front, with an angry looking Thor dropping his might hammer on the small rock formation included, revealing the Cosmic Cube from behind it. The Marvel Super Heroes logo is placed in a dark red banner along the top of the packaging and in the bottom right corner is the Avengers logo. Also in the red stripe at the top is an image of the four main Avengers, including Thor who we get here, in an action pose which is nice to see and features on all of the Lego Marvel products. On the reverse of the bag is nothing other than a small advertisement for the Lego Club.

The instructions are folded inside and feature the same artwork as the polybag. There are some advertisements for the other sets in the line, and very little else as one would expect for such a tiny set.

Parts

There are a brilliant selection of parts in this small set, which is most impressive. These include Thor's marvellous hairpiece, a blonde version of Dastan's unkempt long hair piece, which works on both male and female Minifigures so is especially useful. He also comes with his new hammer piece which is unprinted as usual but has a detailed mould so is very accurate. We also receive a translucent one by one brick, and a lovely selection of simple light and dark grey rock parts, which I like very much and in numbers these could become very handy. All in all, an amazing parts pack given its size!

Minifigure

The included Minifigure is of course Thor, and this is by far the cheapest way of getting this fantastic figure, which is of course the biggest draw to this polybag.

His hairpiece as I mentioned earlier is a blonde version of the Dastan hairpiece. The mould is very detailed with plenty of texture and it is reasonably accurate to Thor's hair in the film, although it is a bit too brightly coloured, and perhaps a dark tan colour would be more suited to the character. His head is printed on both sides, with a dark tan beard just like he has in the movie and some cheek definition which looks great. On one side his expression is serious but fairly neutral, the other however is decidedly angry with bared teeth! He wears a simple red cape which is packaged in a small cardboard box as usual, which I was not expecting in a polybag set.

The torso piece is printed with a huge amount of detail and is very accurate indeed. It features the six silver spheres which are on his armour and some other alien style armour, which is very complicated and detailed indeed. Beneath his dark grey and silver armour is a dark blue shirt, which is continued on to the back of the torso along with the armour designs and some red strapping. He features light grey arms with flesh coloured hands. His legs are plain dark blue and he carries his lovely hammer which is a very nice inclusion.

The build

The build is of course brief, with no impressive building techniques that I can see as one would expect of a tiny polybag set. The construction phase simply consists of placing bricks on top of one another and a small amount of Technic construction.

The completed model

This is probabaly the smallest set I have ever know to include a play feature, which is simple but functional. By pushing down on the black Technic part on the right of the rock section, you reveal the Cosmic Cube as the front of the rocks explode off. It achieves a reasonable appearance with so few pieces and the Minifigure goes along with it nicely.

Summary

This is an excellent little polybag, and while the actual model is not bad, you would really purchase this for the figure alone which is completely worth it in my opinion. If you find this polybag online or in stores, get it as soon as you can would be my advice, and I highly recommend this little model.

Overall - 10/10

I got this early on Saturday morning. I think that for the price of a newspaper this is wonderful value for money, and especially since the small range they've selected is based on exclusive licences in the main.

The build is interesting from the view of its small piece count and parts selection ranging from slopes to Technic pieces. I even found a logical use for the spare parts and added them to the 'Cosmic Cube' contraption Thor comes with. I should take a pic to show what i mean and upload it to my flickr account to show you all sometime soon...it really does 'add' to the whole.

However, my only gripe is the multiple buyers looking to make a fast buck on ebay and the like - it really, really disgusts me. I could have done the same but DIDN'T. I only bought ONE paper and got ONE 'free' Lego toy. I've seen listings on ebay and ones at £19.95 or so BUY NOW - that is taking the proverbial imo...then theres listings that have sets yet to be released and theres a listing with Thor AND Frodo's sets?! HOW did someone get a hold of the Frodo set, which is last to be released? Unless they work for Lego or the papers distribution team....hmmm....

I think its wholly unfair to those who cannot buy these and now have to pay an extortionate premium price due to greedy folk.

For a polybag set, this isn't bad. It's a very easy, affordable way early on to get a Thor minifigure and the Cosmic Cube that features in the first Avengers movie.

The Thor minifigure makes picking this set up worth it.

The rest of the set is a quick, easy build for some stone that Thor smashes with his hammer to break out the cosmic cube. There is also a small technic build that flips up to create the breaking action of the hammer on stone.

Set #30163 Thor and the Cosmic Cube: This set was offered for free in the UK with the Sun, in Canada if you spent over 35$ in LEGO at TRU you would also recieve this for free. And it was well worth that price.

This is a Polybagged Super Heroes set, it features the character of Thor from Marvel's Avengers and includes a small number of pieces to build a bustable model featuring the cosmic cube.

The model is simple and fast to build, it has play functionality for the kids and includes a 1x1 clear brick to represent the Cosmic Cube... Personally I think LEGO might have benefited from printing a blue energy pattern on the brick to make the Cube a bit more unique. It isn't a terrible model, its simplistic design however doesn't win it too many brownie points, but for free you can't fault it too badly. Now if you were paying for it you might feel a tiny bit cheated.

Thor, Thor is an awesome looking little Mini-Fig. Based on his movie costume, which doubles as the Ultimates Thor costume, this dude oozes personality and demonstrates why LEGO is the leading brand when it comes to brick building toys. The torso print is great, with backprinting included, the facial expressions are great, one side is serious closed mouth Thor, the other is angry teeth showing open mouthed Thor, the God of Thunder does not smile often it would seem.

I have a minor quibble with the face printing, the beard and side-burns don't match the blonde coloring of the hair piece, honestly it is a very minor annoyance. There are other Mini-Figures who have different colored hair on their faces, with Thor though I kind of would prefer LEGO to pick one or the other really. The red cape and Mjolnir accessories round out the Mini-Figure quite nicely.

Overall this set is worth getting for Thor alone, and the Cosmic Cube is a nice touch. To date this is the cheapest method of obtaining Thor if you're only interested in the Mini-Fig. Not much in the way of extra parts for MOCs, but for Mini-Fig collectors and children with parents on a budget they'll have loads of fun out of this set.