Review: LEGO 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion
10
It’s been a big year for X-Men fans thanks to the triumphant return of the X-Men 97 animated series and now, a proper return to form in LEGO with the 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion.
There have only been 4 LEGO X-Men prior to this (one’s a mech), so LEGO fans have been clamouring for proper X-Men set. With 10 minifigures and 3,093 pieces, 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion is the biggest LEGO X-Men set so far, so it has high x-pectations attached to it, thanks to its x-pensive price tag. Let’s dive into this review so see if its a great x-perience!
76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion will be available on 1 November 2024 (Insiders Early Access) exclusively from LEGO.com or your local LEGO store. For fans that order the set between 1-7 November 2024, you’ll also receive a limited edition 5009015 Cerebro gift with purchase while stocks last.
Check out the global pricing and regional product pages for links to purchase:
- 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion [US] – US$329.99
- 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion [AUS] – AU$499.99
- 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion [UK] – £289.99
- 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion [EU] – €329.99
- 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion [CA] – CAD$429.99
- 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion [SG] – SGD$479.99
Special thanks to LEGO for sending this set over for review.
If you’re planning on purchasing or pre-ordering this set, please consider using the affiliate links in this post. I may earn a small commission with each purchase that helps support the work I do on the blog!
This is a pretty lengthy retail, so for ease of access you can jump to a specific section via these links below!
- Part 1: Building the LEGO X-Mansion
- Part 2: Meet the LEGO X-Men: X-Mansion Minifigures
- Part 3: The completed LEGO X-Mansion
- Part 4: LEGO X-Mansion Easter Eggs and References
- Part 5: Final thoughts and Conclusion
76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion Set Details
76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion
76294
X-Men: The X-Mansion
10
3,093
US$329.99 / AU$499.99 / £289.99 / €329.99 / CAD$429.99
1 November 2024 (Insiders Early Access), 4 November 2024 (General)
Justin Ramsden (@justinramsden), Graphics by Mark Tranter
A little fun fact about the X-Mansion, there are 24 numbered bags included, which makes this an ideal Advent Calendar build!
There are 3 instruction manuals included, which means that you can build this together with up to two other people. Just like the X-Men, you can team up to take on this build too!
Here’s a look at the contents of the manual which has various tidbits of information about Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. This is a trend I’ve begun to notice in recent sets, but it seems like LEGO are beginning to phase out profiles on the set designers which is a bit of a shame as I enjoy learning about who the people are behind the sets.
Here’s look at the X-Mansion sticker sheets. There are 54 stickers in total which might horrify you if you’re not a fan of applying them. That said, stickers are a staple of the big Marvel sets like 76269 Avengers Tower and 76178 Daily Bugle, and are effective vehicles by the Graphic Design team to jam as many different Easter Eggs and references into a set as humanly possible.
Thankfully, most of the stickers are in conventional shapes like squares or rectangles, so they’re relatively easy to apply. On the second sticker sheet, there are also 8 generic battle-damage stickers that you can apply to the Sentinel, or parts of the mansion/sidewalk to give them a more damaged look.
Building the LEGO X-Mansion
The build experience was fairly straight forward for a set of this size. It’s split into three different booklets, and it wasn’t particularly challenging. There are some fairly repetitive sections (such as walls), but the build flows really well, and it’s quite entertaining as an X-Men fan to build all the different rooms, as well as encounter some Easter Eggs (like Jubilee’s bubble gum) hidden all over the house. Some Easter Eggs are only viewable during the build, so enjoy it in the moment!
The X-Mansion is definitely aimed at a broad swathe of LEGO builders, no matter the skill level. It definitely lacks the architectural finesse of the Sanctum Sanctorum, or the window-building bonanza and epic height of the Avengers Tower, and as such, just feels more like a bigger LEGO playset than an advanced adult LEGO model.
Meet the LEGO X-Men: X-Mansion Minifigures
There are 10 minifigures included in the LEGO X-Mansion set, including some long-awaited debuts that fans have been waiting years for! From left to right, we have Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Professor X, Magneto, Rogue, Gambit, Iceman and Bishop.
The new X-Men making their debut in the set are Jean Grey, Charles Xavier, Gambit, Iceman and Bishop, whereas characters like Storm, Cyclops and Magneto have slight cosmetic updates like a new wig, or in Cyclops’ case, leg printing!
Here’s a look at the Cyclops and Jean Grey minifigures! Cyclops is near-identical to the one from 76281 X-Jet, except that he has leg printing, which fixes a critical issue with his first outing. The leg printing allows him to finally show off his yellow undies and thigh straps, although the print quality on mine is quite shoddy.
Nitpicky, but it would’ve been nice to have Cyclops have dual-moulded legs for his yellow boots, but I think the balance of the minifigure would be slightly off, so they decided to (rightly) prioritise his yellow undies as the focal point.
Jean Grey on the other hand is fantastic, and her original outfit has been something that X-Men fans have been wanting for a really long time. Her legs are plain, which isn’t too bad as they’re quite plain in the animated series. The big achievement here is that LEGO has upgraded their ability to print light-coloured faces on dark bases, so her face doesn’t look like an anaemic zombie! It’s still not 100% perfect, but heaps better than before, so I chalk this up as a win.
I’m still triggered by the awful Mercy from Overwatch minifigure from 75975 Watchpoint Gibraltar.
Here’s a look at their back printing and alternate faces. Look at that muscle definition on Scott Summers’ back. No wonder the mutant telepaths can’t resist his charms.
The LEGO designers came up with an ingenious technique for Cyclops’ optic blasts. It looks kinda wonky having a trans-red flick fire missile attached to a Bar 1L with 1 x 1 Round Plate with Hollow Stud, or better known as “stud with bar”. I do like that it requires Cyclops hands to be raised close to his face, which mimics him tapping his visor to fire off his trademark blasts.
Jean Grey has been a long-time coming for LEGO fans. LEGO did produce a Phoenix minifigure which is a rare (and very expensive) 2012 San Diego Comic Con minifigure which holds up incredibly well till this day. Here are both of them side by side!
Next we have Magneto and Professor Charles Xavier, the two mutant leaders who ultimately have different philosophies on mutantkind and how they should live alongside humans. Magneto sees the return of his helmet, which was last seen with his Mighty Micros outing, and sports a brand new purple cape as well.
Charles Xavier’s minifigure isn’t great. He has the same generic head used across a multitude of characters, from Lex Luthor, to Lucius Malfoy to Bruce Wayne, and it’s slightly disappointing that we didn’t get a brand new face with his prominent eyebrows, which would’ve been perfect. Let’s not even get to his outfit, which belongs to Michael Scott from The Office…
Here’s their back prints and Magneto’s alternate face. He also comes with a white wig to switch up his look.
These new rubbery capes that LEGO have been pumping out this year across their portfolio are great, and I especially like how dramatic it makes Magneto look, compared to a traditional paper or fabric cape.
Professor X also comes with his iconic yellow levitating wheelchair which is a tidy little build.
Here’s a look at Ororo Munroe, aka Storm. She has the same torso as the one from Marvel Minifigures Series 2, but has plain legs, a new head, a different hairstyle and her cape has a yellow border across it.
Storm is one of my favourite X-Men and had an incredible outing in the latest X-Men 97 series, and as second-in-command of the X-Men, her presence in the X-Mansion makes perfect sense.
One big enhancement Storm has over the Marvel Series 2 version is her alternate face, which has her in weather-control mode, with lightning flashing from her whited out eyes. While Storm is great, I do wish that we got her in her amazing black costume in this set (which has only appeared once in a 2014 set), so hopefully LEGO has special plans for a future black suit storm.
Up next we have one of the coolest X-Men (literally) with Bobby Drake aka Iceman who makes his long-awaited debut as a minifigure. Iceman is an Omega-level mutant, and is one of the most powerful characters in the X-Men, and also has the distinction of being one of the original members the X-Men.
The minifigure however is just okay, and there’s nothing particularly interesting about Iceman. Bobby is completely encased in ice, with some nice printed details across his entire body (but no arm printing), but I would’ve liked it if LEGO had the budget to make him look a little more interesting by incorporating some trans-blue or trans-clear element to jazz Iceman up.
Still, I’m happy that we finally got Iceman as a minifigure (he was one of my favourites in the comics), but Bobby is prime real estate for some serious updates down the line.
X-Men fans will be delighted to finally have Bishop, the time-travelling mutant as a LEGO minifigure and LEGO have done a fantastic job with nailing his design. I especially like his outfit which closely matches his X-Men 97 appearance, and I also like that he has the M tattoo on his face, a mark branded on mutants who were captured and put into camps in the dystopian future that he’s from.
Wolverine is well, Wolverine and I’m pretty sure LEGO is contractually obligated to include him in every single X-Men set. The minifigure is identical to the one from the 2024 X-Jet set, but is in many ways inferior to the Marvel Series 2 version which has printed arms, and dual-moulded legs. That’s still the best Wolverine minifigure ever made, so you can just disregard this one and replace it with the Marvel Series 2 version for best results.
Oh, Logan has a bike too which is handy every time he storms off from the X-Mansion in one of his classic Wolverine tantrums.
And last but certainly not least, we have Rogue and Gambit. Rogue is recycled from the 2024 X-Jet set, but Gambit is the real highlight of this set, and one of the most requested X-Men minifigures! Like Jean Grey, LEGO’s ability to print light skin tones on a dark base makes his appearance feasible, and fans will love that Remy LeBeau is now an official LEGO minifigure.
The print on his torso and legs is quite nice. His tan trenchcoat is printed on, which is not the worst, and here’s a look at Rogue and Gambit’s alternate faces, and back printing.
One of the major recolours in the set is this Ninjago energy blast, which is now in trans dark pink, which gives Gambit a dramatic visualisation of his kinetic charging powers.
I do wish that the cards, an ace of spades, ace of hearts and the X-card were printed and not stickers. Mostly because I’m still terrible at applying stickers despite being someone that builds and reviews LEGO for a living.
The completed LEGO X-Mansion
And here’s the completed model! Out of the box, I think the set looks great. It’s an accurate depiction of the X-Mansion that’s an amalgamation of the comics, and animated series depiction of Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The architecture gives off a distinct upstate New York vibe and ultimately, this IS immediately recognisable as the X-Mansion in LEGO form.
There are placements all over for minifigures, which add a bit to the displayability. There’s always stuff going down at the X-Mansion, whether its being attacked by Sentinels or rogue Mutants, so the dynamic slightly chaotic facade, with a chunk of wall exploding fits in quite well.
A neat little play feature is hidden inside the dome, which explodes dramatically, causing chunks to fly out in all directions when you press a lever at the back.
Here’s a look at the side and back. It’s a fully enclosed building, which certain fans will appreciate the fact that it isn’t a dollhouse-style build.
The footprint of the model is 48 x 32 studs and it’s completely Modular-compatible as I’ve demonstrated in my post showcasing how the X-Mansion fits in with the rest of the Marvel modulars.
For ease of access, the X-Mansion splits into three sections, plus the floors and roofs easily come off for ease of access to the interiors.
To connect each section, long Technic axles are used which have the added benefit of making it easy for you to split them apart.
The exterior has a bit of green space and plenty of studs to place all the X-Men minifigures around. The build also has plenty of different action scenes such as a lamp post and fire hydrant being violently thrown into the air, plus a variety of clear minifigure action elements and stands offer many different options to pose the X-Men.
Magneto as usual can’t resist destroying public infrastructure!
LEGO X-Mansion Easter Eggs and References
There are some nice little details such as pop out turrets on the lawn, and the grey signboard.
Here’s a look at the Sentinel which is a pretty decent mech build and provides a large foe for the X-Men to battle. Its size works quite well when placed next to the X-Mansion and this is the best Sentinel design that LEGO have done with.
With Sentinels being an ubiquitous threat to the X-Men, this is a build that I’d love to see return in a smaller set to enable fans to army-build a bunch of Sentinels. The articulation is decent, although the shoulders do tend to pop off when you move his arms about too much.
A surprise is that the Sentinel’s face is printed which is a really neat touch to make it look a bit more premium compared to a sticker.
The Sentinel is able to be fastened to the street via a Technic pin hole at the back of its feet, to anchor it to the build, and the X-Men can then team up to take the robotic monstrosity down.
The back has a small alleyway which has some more Easter Eggs for fans to discover. There’s a basketball hoop (and ball) which is a nod to the X-Men’s favourite way to unwind. No full-sized basketball court that opens up to reveal a hidden hangar for the X-Jet though…
There’s some cardboard boxes with the Trask Industries, the evil firm that created Sentinels!
Some of the best Easter Eggs and references are in the back. Marvel modulars often have yellow garbage bins and it’s always prudent to look inside. There’s an olive frog on it, likely a nod to the mutant Toad, and in the bin, we have Beasts’ fedora, Nightcrawler’s cutlass, more Jubilee bubblegum and magneto’s 5 reichsmark coin.
There’s also this great poster here with missing/collected posters of some of the best-known X-Men! Some nice nods in the poster include Cable and Old Man Logan!
Welsh mutant Pixie also features here in this scrawl of graffiti.
There’s also a nod to Pyro who most recently was featured in Deadpool & Wolverine.
But the best poster designs at the back of the X-Mansion are two dedicated to Nightcrawler, and Dazzler who is a circus performer and roller skater/singer respectively. There is a huge Nightcrawler-shaped hole in this set and is wildly popular with fans, so it’s a bummer he’s not included, but just like Jubilee, I have hopes that LEGO have excluded them from this set in order to do them right in the future.
LEGO X-Mansion Interiors
Now let’s take a look at the entrance hall, which features a fantastic brick-built carpet with the X-symbol in it. There are two armchairs and some decorative elements like a ceramic vase and pot plant.
There are two portraits here in black and white, firstly with Erik (Magneto) and Charles in the early days of their friendship, where Charles is seen standing at the opening of his school. It’s a reminder of better days before their competing views on how Mutants and humans tore their relationship asunder.
And on the other side, we have this portrait that’s featured prominently in X-Men 97, with the founding members of the X-Men – Professor X surrounded by Beast (pre-transformation), Angel, Jean Grey, Cyclops and Iceman.
In the corner right next to the elevator is this bust with a white classic space helmet. When I interviewed Justin Ramsden who designed the set, I noticed this bust and asked him if it was meant to be a Classic Space helmet in a different colour, and alas, he did confirm that he wanted to recolour it dark grey which would’ve been a huge move for Classic space fans, but ultimately, it didn’t work out. There is precedent for this when he introduced the Green helmet in 80054 Megapolis City. Oh well!
On the upper floor there is a Laboratory where Beast spends most of his time. Problem is Beast is missing from the set. Thankfully, you can still pick up Beast from LEGO Marvel Series 2 at a pretty reasonable price.
Some fun highlights here include an MRI machine, and there’s also an X-Ray of his arm showcasing his adamantium bones. A really subtle reference in the X-Ray is that Wolverine’s arm is based on the older LEGO Skeleton arms which had ball-joints, instead of the clips that they have today, possibly a nod to Wolverine being super old!
There’s also a very crude Cerebro squeezed into the lab, which doesn’t make much sense as Beast’s device which magnifies Professor X’s psionic abilities has its own specialised chamber. Cerebro is also just a gunmetal bowl/flower pot stuck on Charles’ head which looks quite comical.
At least the screen with mutants detected all over the world looks pretty cool. Except that this particular sticker was the hardest one to apply as you have to get it inside the curved panel which is not the easiest to say the least.
There’s one final nod to Hank McCoy here which is the computer screen with the mutant genome, and a cure being researched, which is a nod to Hank’s efforts to cure his beastly feet, which went wrong and ultimately caused him to turn blue and transform into the Beast that we all know and love.
Over on the left wing of the Mansion, we have the Danger Room. There’s a large vault-like door with an X on it that leads into the X-Men’s practice area that you can slide open.
On the floor are some newspaper with a nod to the Mutant Registration Act, which is a recurring plotline throughout the animated series, plus the signature LEGO Marvel feature, the red fire extinguisher.
Another fun Easter Egg is this TV screen which makes a nod to the return of the Sentinel program, plus the newsreader revealing that he too has three arms and mutant powers! If the newsreader looks familiar, it’s because he also features on TV screens in the Avengers Tower and Daily Bugle, which is a fantastic piece of continuity that ties the X-Mansion to the wider LEGO Marvel universe!
There’s an observation and control room for the senior leaders to monitor the younger X-Men as they train in the Danger Room.
The Danger Room is a tall but narrow room that stretches across two floors, and is where the X-Men train and learn to use their powers in battles. In the LEGO X-Mansion, there is danger aplenty with spikes, missiles, lasers, saw blades and more to put the X-Men through their paces.
A really clever play feature is the ability to reconfigure the danger room, which involves removing the wall panels so you can swap the location of the different threats, in case you wanted to up the danger in the room. While it feels like a gimmick (because it is), it does match the comic books and TV series where the Danger Room can be customised with as many different scenarios and threats for the X-Men to train on.
There are a few Easter Eggs here that will appeal to hardcore X-Men fans. This series of numbers, 141965 is likely a nod to X-Men #14, which was released in 1965 and introduced the Sentinels!
E92131 here is a nod to Earth-92131, the universe in which the X-Men and Spider-Man animated series take place!
There are 2 more codes here to decrypt, UX 266 which is a nod to Uncanny X-Men #266, which featured the debut of fan-favourite Gambit, and E13122, which is a reference to Earth-13122, where the LEGO Marvel universe takes place in!
I will say, the Danger Room is far too cramped, and with so much going on, it’s also quite dark and difficult to place the minifigures in them to play around with.
And on the right side of the mansion, the ground floor features a teeny tiny classroom, with only 2 seats.
It looks like hybrid study/working has also found its way to the X-Men universe as we have Beast conducting a virtual class here! He’s upside down in the call, and this may explain why he isn’t physically in the set! There’s a sliding blackboard, which features some equations and a reference to M-Day, which is part of the Decimation arc in the comic books.
Behind the academic blackboard, there’s some lessons on finding weak spots in Sentinels!
In the bookshelf is another Gambit nod, with a book on Creole recipes!
There’s also this hilarious illustration of Wolverine riding the X-Jet. Wolverine must’ve been so proud of this drawing that he proudly signed his name on it.
And moving upstairs we have a Bedroom, which is my favourite part of the house, because this is where you can re-enact the Sad Wolverine meme, complete with a portrait of LEGO Cyclops and Jean!
There’s also a nod to the Statue of Liberty on the chest of drawers, alongside Jubilee’s bubblegum, which is Guble Bubble branded, suggesting a tie-in with Heartlake City where this brand first showed up?
On the floor, we have a comic book cover of the first issue of the Uncanny X-Men, which is a new addition to the LEGO tile collection of first-edition comic book issues!
And just demonstrating how serious Mark Tranter the graphic designer was about squeezing in all sorts of obscure Easter Eggs, we have this calendar with Wolverine using his claws to barbecue hot dogs by the beach. There’s multiple layers to this. The Alkali Lake is a nod to the location of the Weapon X program in the Fox X-Men movies, but the scene could be a nod to Hugh Jackman’s Aussie roots, where barbecuing sausages on the beach is a time-honoured Australian tradition.
But this artwork is actually a reference to a set of 1995 X-Men Spring Break cards which featured the X-Men in various funny beach holiday poses! Layers!
What I liked:
- A highly detailed LEGO X-Men sets that fans have been clamouring for
- Plenty of X-Men minifigures including new debuts like Gambit, Iceman and Bishop
- Chockful of Easter Eggs and references that will delight X-Men fans
- Faithfully captures the iconic look of the X-Mansion
What I didn’t like:
- Some minifigures are a downgrade from previous versions
- Danger Room is cramped
- X-Mansion feels a little small, especially when lined up against larger Modulars and Marvel sets
Final Thoughts
76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion encapsulates the wise words of Channing Tatum’s Gambit, “you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?
Long-suffering X-Men fans have been waiting years for LEGO to do their favourite comic book/animated series right and finally here in 2024 that wish is now fulfilled.
This set is truly a love letter to X-Men fans, and while it doesn’t quite deliver and x-ceptional LEGO x-perience, it’s still x-actly what most fans want.
The model itself is a decent-sized take on Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, an amalgamation of the comics, and both the original TV series and X-Men 97 depictions and immediately recognisable.
It’s not the biggest set, and is dwarfed by other Marvel modulars like the Avengers Tower, Daily Bugle, and Sanctum Sanctorum! which all have incredible display presence. Thankfully, for fans with the means to do so, the set’s modular segmented design allows for an easy way to add another level to enlarge the overall building.
The interiors are where the set truly shines, with familiar settings like the Danger Room, Classroom, Beast’s Lab and more. Like others in the series, the set is littered with an astounding number of Easter Eggs that long-time X-Men fans will enjoy searching and decoding.
Playability and having dynamic environments that explode, or be reconfigured like the Danger Room make for plenty of fun that make this set feel more like an expensive playset than expensive display model.
Like most Marvel sets, the minifigures are the big drawcard here, and fans will be happy with the selection, including new and highly requested characters like Gambit, Professor X, Bishop and Iceman, although some of the recycled minifigures are clear downgrades from their previous outings.
However, the set does feel like it doesn’t fully meet up to its maximum potential as the ultimate LEGO X-Men set, and this really highlights the balancing act that LEGO Designers and the Marketing team have to make when it comes to designing and pricing sets.
Do they go all out, and dramatically expand the size of the X-Mansion and minifigure lineup, and in the process, get close to the pricetag of the US$500 Avengers Tower? Or do they compromise in many different areas to deliver a “good enough” X-Mansion that will still delight fans, and make it a slightly more attainable US$330 purchase.
I believe the powers that be decided to go for the latter, prioritising accessibility over a truly exceptional (but pricey) product which LEGO are more than capable of doing. This is the uncanny reality of a large majority of fans who have been decrying the trend of LEGO releasing super-sized super expensive sets, and meeting those expectations.
As an X-Men fan, you will be happy with 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion when it releases on 1 November 2024. While it may seem small, ordering the elements to add another floor to the X-Mansion should be easy enough, and here’s hoping this set sells well to warrant more LEGO X-Men sets, so that we can finally add the likes of Angel, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, and more to the X-Mansion.
At its core, I’m actually glad that this isn’t another mega x-pensive set, and I’ve been waiting for a set like this for so long that I’m willing to overlook some of the glaring omissions and compromises to just celebrate the fact that we have a big LEGO X-Men set to close out 2024.
Final Score
Audience rating
76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion will be available on 1 November 2024 exclusively from LEGO.com or your local LEGO store for LEGO Insiders. Fans who order the set between 1-7 November 2024, you’ll also receive a limited edition 5009015 Cerebro gift with purchase.
What do you think of the LEGO X-Mansion? Would you have liked a bigger more expensive version, or do you think LEGO struck the right balance here?
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