LEGO's Avengers Tower Is A Massive, Dynamic Display Piece With Endless Possibilities

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was once a blockbuster behemoth, churning out hit comic book movies with superheroes and villains who popped in and out of multiple franchises, occasionally culminating in the massive spectacle of "Avengers" movies. It all came to a magnificent head with the double dose of "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," completing the masterful storyline dubbed The Infinity Saga and shattering the box office. Sadly, recent years have seen the MCU take a dive in quality as the quantity of their output in film and television has increased (something the comic book movie makers will be changing soon). But thankfully, LEGO has a way for us to cherish the glory days of the MCU.

Last year, LEGO released the Avengers Tower playset, a massive building brick recreation of Tony Stark's corporate headquarters turned superhero lair. Standing nearly three feet tall, the LEGO Avengers Tower features several floors that allow fans to re-create a variety of memorable scenes from across the "Avengers" movies, from the first time Earth's mightiest heroes assembled in 2012 to their time traveling return to the Battle of New York in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," with some "Age of Ultron" sprinkled in between. To help build these scenes, the set also includes a plethora of minifigures and diorama pieces that make the building an incredibly dynamic display for endless action sequences. 

If you want to get up close with the LEGO Avengers Tower, the building brick company sent over this huge playset for me to put together, and even though I wish I could just spend all my free time building LEGO sets like this, it's taken me this long to finish it. But the reward was worth the wait. Let's take a closer look below. 

Even though this is a LEGO Avengers Tower playset, you don't start off with the skyscraper itself or even the foundation on which it will sit. Instead, the building begins with one of the biggest threats from the third act of "Avengers." 

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The Chitauri Leviathan is a massive, flying, armored, snake-like whale that wreaks havoc around New York City. Though not scaled to the Avengers minifigures in the set, including the Leviathan is a nice touch, especially since it comes with a clear base to make it appear as if it's flying. The creature itself doesn't have a firm foundation, opting to focus more on the armor on the creature, and the pieces representing the side-armor are a little too easily displaced when trying to shift the Leviathan. But if you're crafty, you can probably figure out a way to situate the Leviathan to make it appear as if it's flying around Avengers Tower. More on that later. 

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For this next part, I'm actually going to jump way ahead to the end of the build, because that's when you build another separate entity that isn't actually part of the tower itself, though it does help complete the assembly in a certain way. You get to build a Quinjet that's scaled to the size of Avengers Tower, though not exactly scaled to the size of the LEGO minifigures, because only one of them fits in the building brick vehicle. However, as you'll see later, the Quinjet does fit perfectly on the Avengers Tower landing pad, and it also has little projectile shooters for maximum playability, if you plan on letting your kids go hogwild with this LEGO set. 

Inside LEGO Avengers Tower, there's a lot going on. Let's start with the bottom floor, which gives us the lobby in which part of the time heist in "Avengers: Endgame" unfolds. Since there's only so much room in a LEGO build of a skyscraper, it's not quite as spacious, so fitting all the LEGO minifigures required to recreate the scene takes a bit of patience. Fitting the Hulk in there isn't recommended, unless you want to make it look like he's smashed through and knocked characters around. But the Cosmic Cube is included, along with a micro-figure of Ant-Man, and a SHIELD agent minifigure featuring the head of Tony Stark in disguise. Plus, LEGO couldn't help but include one of their trademark vending machines. 

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On the second floor, we've got two key settings, and they can both be used to recreate moments from one particularly memorable scene from "Avengers: Endgame." But primarily, this is a lab inspired by "Avengers: Age of Ultron," where you can situate Dr. Helen Cho, who Ultron uses to help create Vision, seen lying on the medical table in the back. Also included is a battle damaged Ultron-bot, which we see taunting the Avengers before ultimately escaping with the threatening artificial intelligence inside of it. 

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That same floor has an additional layer that includes the glass bridge on which Steve Rogers from "Avengers: Endgame" has to square off with the 2012 version of himself. What's cool about the placement of this bridge is that the floor also includes some shattered glass pieces where you can situate Cap to stare at the incapacitated version of himself as he recognizes the beauty of America's ass.

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The next floor gives Tony Stark his Iron Man workshop, complete with a little display base to place one of the Iron Man armor minifigures included in the set (one clean, and one battle-damaged). There are some amusing little Easter eggs, such as a tiny LEGO version of the arc reactor memento that Pepper Potts gives to Tony Stark. Also included as a minifigure of sorts is the clumsy robotic arm known as DUM-E. In the background, there are hologram screens showing off the Iron Man armor. One of the handheld screens, intended for Pepper Potts, includes both an image of her getting a call from Tony Stark and a cheeseburger, which is pretty cute. 

Speaking of Easter eggs, I didn't take pictures of this as I was building, but each floor has an elevator door, even though there isn't a functional elevator using Technic technology within the tower. However, the door frame of the elevator does have a couple of Easter eggs for longtime builders. For example, there's a hidden red LEGO coffee cup that goes inside one of the elevator door frames, and this is because LEGO designers sneak in the little red mug into the sets that they like the most. It's a badge of honor.

The next floor up, we've got a familiar scene that didn't actually happen in Avengers Tower. Instead, this location comes from inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in "The Avengers" from 2012. This room has the massive transparent tank that was designed for containing Hulk, if Dr. Bruce Banner were to lose control while inside the massive ship. However, in a disappointing twist, the big Hulk minifigure included with the LEGO Avengers Tower set doesn't actually fit inside of the tank. Thankfully, it's not a total loss, because Hulk never ends up in that tank anyway, and you can still recreate the scene where Black Widow interrogates Loki, prompting his cruelest lines). So I guess it's all good?

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Finally, we've come to the top floor. Part of this floor also includes a key exterior location (we'll get to more of the outside features in a moment), so we have to show off the landing pad that neatly fits the little Quinjet that comes with the building set. 

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However, if you move the Quinjet out of the way, you'll be able to see the snazzy penthouse features of Avengers Tower inside. Primarily, this is the table from "Avengers: Age of Ultron" where all the superheroes pal around and try to lift Thor's hammer. There's also a swanky bar that you can see in the background, including a carton of milk, presumably for anyone who wants White Russians. 

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That top floor also has a removable roof overhead, to see inside of the building easier and situate minifigures without reaching through the landing pad opening. Also up top, there are a few mini scenes to re-create, albeit a bit clumsily. There's a tiny lab on the tip top of the tower, as well as an empty space featuring a sticker that creates the minifigure imprint of Loki, as if the puny god has just been swung around by Hulk, who (again) doesn't easily fit into the space. 

While the inside has plenty of display options for various scenes from "Avengers" movies, the outside is even more dynamic. Around the exterior of the building there are plenty of exposed studs and cross-holes that allow you to attach transparent LEGO arms (both curved and straight) to attach minifigures to the outside of the building to create action sequences. One of my trickier stagings was balancing Loki aboard one of the Chitauri flying crafts, to make it appear as if he's zooming around the tower. Sadly, it's seemingly impossible to easily do that with the Leviathan. I tried a few different variations with some of the clear arms, but it was very difficult to secure it. It might be possible with some more time, but it'll require some patience. 

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You can also recreate the sequence where Tony Stark jumps out of Stark Tower and summons his flying armor, which is included as a little buildable accessory. Or you can just have various superheroes floating around outside the building in any possible team combination you can dream up, even if some of these characters never appeared in the Battle of New York that raged outside of Stark Tower. 

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Speaking of which, there are some surprising inclusions, considering the fact that most of the scenes that you can recreate come from "The Avengers," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Avengers: Endgame." For example, both Wong and Wasp are included, with the former even coming with a buildable portal. Obviously, Wong has key moments in both "Avengers: Endgame" and "Avengers: Infinity War," but neither of them happen in or around Stark Tower. As for Wasp, she's not part of the other "Avengers movies, gets dusted after Thanos snaps his fingers, and doesn't return until the end of "Endgame." I suppose it's nice to include her for the sake of having a larger roster of minifigures, though.

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One of the more unique touches is a small area of the exterior where there are a couple broken windows busted out, complete with a place for Hulk to hang on to as he grabs one of the Chitauri warriors in his massive hands. Meanwhile, up top, there's a tiny space featuring the device that Dr. Erik Selvig built to open the portal into space that allowed the Chitauri to attack New York. It's a very small space, and situating both Dr. Selvig and Black Widow minifigures up there is a somewhat tight squeeze, but as you can see, it can certainly be done. 

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Finally, the base of LEGO Avengers Tower has some fun Easter eggs. Out front, it's like any other skyscraper with doors to enter the building and some nice benches for people to sit. It's the perfect place for Kevin Feige to hang out with his little baseball cap (though it would be nice to have a LEGO version of his "She-Hulk" form, too). You'll also notice there's a little plaque on the far right side that acts as a memorial to the Battle of New York, and it names the six original Avengers who assembled to stop the invasion.

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Meanwhile, in the back, you can recreate a scene that didn't take place at Avengers Tower. Nick Fury is included in the LEGO set, as well as a small rectangular piece representing the special pager that Captain Marvel (not included) gave him in case he ever needed her help. So you can throw that pager on the floor and act like Nick Fury just got dusted by Thanos. There's also a dumpster and a cardboard box near the backdoor, since this is meant to be an alley behind Stark Tower. 

All of these different LEGO Avengers scenes are possible because there are so many minifigures included. There are no less than 28 regular minifigures, as well as a big Hulk minifigure, a micro scale Ant-Man figure, and the DUM-E robot arm. Most of them come with corresponding accessories like guns, capes, wings, shields, handcuffs, etc. For example, Wasp has cool wings, and you can also build Falcon's wingsuit to attach to the figure. 

There are also colored, transparent pieces to represent magic for Scarlet Witch or repulsor blasts from Iron Man and War Machine suits. A lightning bolt can also be attached to Thor's hammer, which you can situate on one of those transparent arms to make it appears as if Thor is flying with it zooming ahead of him. There are also little pieces for Loki's scepter and the Tesseract, not to mention various pieces of tech from the labs inside Stark Tower. 

One thing you might notice about LEGO Avengers Tower is that it's comprised of a plethora of windows. As a skyscraper, the exterior is almost entirely transparent. That makes piecing together the actual building itself rather mundane. That's often the case with a lot of modular buildings, since the outer walls have a uniform, repeating pattern. Hell, there's one entire panel of the building that acts a larger window for the set, and it can be removed from the side of the tower to see each floor inside. While piecing together the build can be repetitive and tedious, it doesn't taint the final result. Furthermore, even though the interiors aren't quite as detailed as some of the other modular buildings that LEGO has released over the years, it actually fits the aesthetic of the skyscraper's interior, which has plenty of open space inside. 

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But perhaps the best feature of LEGO Avengers Tower is its size and scope, literally towering above other LEGO modular buildings from the Expert line of building brick sets. Plus, as mentioned above, the set has so many diorama possibilities that once the building is pieced together, you can keep changing what's happening around it. It's one of the most dynamic LEGO sets to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and having such a huge roster of minifigures makes it that much better. 

The LEGO Avengers Tower set is available to order now for $499.99.