With the ever weird events of 2020 happening, this was a rare opportunity to be able to afford a LEGO set that was intended to be a Comic-Con exclusive give away. By sheer luck, I happened upon this set early one morning, available at Lego.com and jumped at the chance to pick it up. Our family has a decent smattering of the past couple years of Marvel/Avengers sets and the opportunity to get a couple exclusive mini-figures was hard to pass up.

Aside from the exclusive mini-figs of Taskmaster and Red Guardian, there aren't any rare parts that I noticed. The sticker sheet is minimal (6 stickers) as well.

The build is very straightforward too. First the base is constructed, which resembles some kind of lunar/rough terrain with some translucent orange highlights. The ATV is pretty neat, in that the wheels and suspension on it are very different. The front 2 wheels rock up and down opposite of each other, while the middle/back set of wheels work in tandem with both side to side and up and down movement. Its pretty neat how this was achieved and this 6 wheeler really can go over some uneven terrain! Its definitely a fun vehicle to add to our super hero landscape.

Price was $40, which for a normal set, I would have waited, as I'm sure most people would. But given the rare opportunity and sheer exclusiveness of this set, it's an obvious bargain at that price given what the resale value on this is for collectors.

A solid addition to the collection that I'm glad to have!

San Diego Comic Con, the yearly Lego fan tradition of hearing about all the convention exclusives and then not being able to get any due to not being at the physical event! At least until 2020, the year of COVID shutdowns and lockdowns causing the annual convention to be cancelled (and other conventions to do online only events). As such the normally hard to obtain Lego sets were instead sold through online retailers, and this set in particular was provided to Amazon.com. I got the news on FBTB that a small batch of the set was seeing an early release on October 29, 2020. I decided "well, why not" seeing it was the only set from Marvel's Black Widow line so far to include the Red Guardian and an exclusive variant of Natasha herself, and I managed to order one for myself. Kudos to Amazon for restricting it to one copy of the set for each customer, helping to keep the scalpers at bay and avoid the horror stories of the Target release of the limited Star Wars Nebulon-B set, also from this cancelled Comic Con. The set arrived far earlier than I expected being at my door the next day, and I decided to review it for the rest of the Lego fandom to see what is in this limited release set.

Packaging

As befits what was supposed to be a comic convention exclusive, there is a very deluxe feel to the box art which shows the Black Widow, Taskmaster and Red Guardian in a very stylised and dynamic pose. Black Widow appears on the side of the box by herself.

I am rather surprised by the size of the box, it certainly helps to make it eye-catching and one worth keeping instead of tossing out. Here it is with a Silver Centurion Iron Man minifigure and 2001's Tahu for scale:

The back of the box contains more traditional Lego box art, showing what is either a photo or render of the set on the back.

The Build

The set comes in two large bags, neither of which are numbered so all bags have to be opened together.

There is nothing particularly challenging in the build other than trying to align the two circular stickers. The vehicle build feels very similar to a scaled down and smaller version of 76017: Avengers: Captain America vs. Hydra, who knows maybe Taskmaster and Red Skull both like the same vehicle dealer? Despite the similarities in style, I'd say Taskmasters is the better vehicle due to some nice detailing and how it favors accessories over flick-fire missiles like the older set.

The following are the bonus pieces:

Minifigures

The set has three minifigures, Taskmaster (the same figure was released earlier this year with a black-hood piece), an exclusive Natasha Romanov Black Widow variant, and the new Red Guardian. Natasha is the only one with a double sided head.

Red Guardian uses the same face as Chief Jim Hopper from 75810: The Upside Down, since both characters are played by David Harbour. However the more neat beard of Jim Hopper seems wrong on the scruffy Red Guardian, at least from what we have seen of the character in the oft delayed film's trailers (another victim of COVID, the film having been pushed back from 2020 to now 2021 we don't know if any of the contents of this set are spoilers or not). Who knows, maybe he gets a shave before the film is over?

It is a shame Red Guardian as the most elusive figure of the set though uses a stickered piece for his shield. It certainly puts the Soviet superhero at a disadvantage to his American counterpart Steve Rogers.

Another chance to compare minifigures to characters from previous sets, comparing Black Widow to her previous MCU counterparts. I don't have the version from the other Black Widow set released earlier this year, but I do have all the other alternative takes of the character to make the comparison with. I have to say, the white suit is one of the more stylish takes on the character while still retaining her identity (the Avengers: Endgame Quantum Realm suit is not nearly as distinct since it is shared with almost all Avengers: Endgame minifigures). It is a shame that so far this is an exclusive figure, and there are no signs of Nat's white suit making appearances in more wide release sets.

The Finished Model

Despite the similar appearance to that older Captain America vs. Hydra set, the inclusion of a rocky display base helps to keep the Taskmaster's set feeling more exclusive. Clear display spots are available to put Red Guardian and Black Widow into action poses to attack the Taskmaster's vehicle.

The base is not as photogenic without the vehicle on top, but I appreciate its inclusion all the same:

Various accessory pieces are included. A bow and arrow and a shield are available as secondary weapons for Taskmaster, showing their skill in being able to imitate various superheroes and their talents (the shield a reference to Red Guardian and Captain America's preferred weapon of choice, while the bow and arrow seem to mimic the powers of Hawkeye). A gas canister for the vehicle makes another nice addition, while the crate onboard is carrying inside a suitcase, a cellphone and two glowing trans-pink canisters. Chitauri weapons similar to those in Avengers (2012) and Spider-Man Homecoming? Or some bio-weapon Taskmaster is stealing? Superhuman serum? I dunno the movie isn't out yet, use your imagination! :P

Conclusion

At nearly $40 USD, was this set worth it? Well the price to part ratio at about 10 cents is fair enough, but it's certainly a very small set for the price tag. But I have to also take in consideration, this was supposed to be a San Diego Comic Con set, and those are infamous to go for a scalper's price on the secondary market. For such an exclusive then, this price is a steal since it's the same price assumedly convention attendees would have had to pay to obtain it. The packaging and overall presentation helps to make this feel worth the higher price value than what a retail price would be.

If Amazon posts these again for sale on November 1st as rumored and you live in the US, I'd buy it. It's got good minifigures, good accessories and just looks neat on display. Is it a shame that it is region locked? Yes, although certainly allowing any US Amazon user a shot to buy it is far wider of an audience than the original intended convention audience; so I can't entirely complain. However the inclusion of the exclusive Red Guardian and a rare Black Widow variant feels a bit dirty, I would love to see them in future wide release sets since currently they feel trapped in this rare set. I imagine their value will go up in price over time on Bricklink. I cannot complain though, I managed to snag two of Marvel's famous Russian superheroes and their common foe in a decent enough vehicle build. Grab it if you get a chance at the current $40 price before the scalpers can reach it.