LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Avengers: Age of Ultron The Hydra Fortress Smash (76041) Review

For our fourth review of the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Avengers: Age of Ultron set, we have the Toys R Us exclusive The Hydra Fortress Smash (76041). The set contains 405 pieces and retails for $49.99 for a $0.12/piece ratio. The contents of the box comprises of four numbered bags, a bagged Hulk figure, two instruction booklets, and a small sticker sheet.

Minifigures

There are five minifigures included in The Hydra Fortress Smash: Captain America, Hulk, Quicksilver, Baron von Strucker, and a Hydra Henchman. Like with many of the Avengers characters who are returning for the sequel, Captain America also has an updated uniform. The colors are still red, white, and blue but has a very accurate look to the movie costume. There is now printing for his shield harness as well as a more prominent printimg for the belt. For his head, he wears a cowl with brown chinstrap printing as well as the letter A. His accessory is his trusty shield which is the same as in the Captain America vs. Hydra (76017) set. What’s interesting about this version of Captain America is a third of him is exclusive to this set and in The Avengers Quinjet Chase (76032). The torso and legs will also be in the The SHIELD Helicarrier (76042) but the head piece is only included in this set and the aforementioned Quinjet set. One interesting note about Captain America is that this is the first set that does not feature him with a motorcycle.

Hulk also makes an appearance in the Age of Ultron sets. The mold is mostly similar to the previous Avengers bigfig but there are some notable changes. The first change is the color scheme. He is now more of a olive green color instead of a bright green one. Also the pants are now a darker purple rather than a tan color. Notice that the pants also has printing of the Avengers insignia on the right leg. Finally, his hair has a little more volume and not as flat as before. Hulk will also be appearing in The Hulk Buster Smash (76031) set.

Quicksilver is one of “The Twins” in the movie with the other being Wanda, aka Scarlet Witch. He was first seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when he was being held prisoner by Baron von Strucker. The Chitauri scepter unlocked his superhuman speed and reflexes. He has a light blue torso with some dark blue on the arms and some on both sides of the torso. If you look closely, the torso has a nice looking shine to it. Quicksilver has a double-sided head with a smirk on one side and an angry expression on the other. Finally, he has the the Surfer’s hair from the Series 2 Collectible Minifigures but I believe this is the first time we have the piece in white. Quicksilver is exclusive to this particular set.

Next up we have one of the villains in the movie with Baron von Strucker. He has sort of a medium blue uniform with some simple detailing on both sides of the torso. The Hydra insignia is also printed on the torso. He is portrayed as bald with the minifigure but he actually has very short hair in the movie. He has an angry expression and there is printing of his monocle over his right eye. His accessory is an ADU gun. Baron von Strucker is also exclusive to this set.

Finally, we have the Hydra Henchman. He’s the same one that we’ve saw in the Avengers Hydra Showdown (76030). He wears a grey Chitauri-looking armor with white legs. He also wears some goggles and the back of his head has some robotic implant. There’s nothing too spectacular about him.

Build

There are two parts to the build of The Hydra Fortress Smash (76041), the Hydra tank and the Hydra fortress itself. The vehicle is mostly white and has a pretty sleek look to it. There is also the red Hydra insignia on the hood as well as a sticker on each side of the tank with the number 318. I’m not sure if there’s any meaning for the number or if it’s just a random number. There are a couple of play features with the Hydra tank. One is the rotating turret that you pinch to launch the blue Zamor Sphere. The other feature is by pushing down on the front bumper area which pops the hood down and breaks turret off its studs. One downside of the tank is that the bottom is a little thin because it only has the the starting chassis piece for the seating area.

The Hydra “fortress” isn’t really a fortress but one of the towers from it. On the exterior, there are some detailing with the grey masonry bricks and the large rock pieces.

The interior is where the interesting stuff is at. There is a chamber that holds Loki’s Chitauri scepter that can be broken open. On top of the tower, there is another rotating turret that is made of two stud shooters. It his held steady by a latch but can be knocked down using the included Super Jumper piece to launch Captain America into it.

Finally there is a tree on the opposite side of the tower as well as a couple of gates that can be broken as well by pressing down on the levers underneath each gate.

Results

My initial thoughts on The Hydra Fortress Smash (76041) is that it is pretty mediocre. The fortress should actually be named a tower since that’s pretty much what it is. I actually like the Hydra tank more than the fortress mainly because of the looks and the features it has. The main draw of the set are the minifigures as Quicksilver and Baron von Strucker are unique to this set. As mentioned before, the set does go for $49.99 which is a little high for what you’ll be getting but if you’re a Marvel fan, you’ll probably end up purchasing it anyways. It will be a Toys R Us exclusive and has started to show up in stores already which is where I purchased it. I recommend picking up the set last out of all the Age of Ultron sets that will be available in this wave.

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