LEGO Designer Mark Stafford, a Veteran LEGO Designer who has worked previously on popular themes like LEGO Exo-Force, LEGO Agents and who later contributed to the highly popular and successful LEGO Ninjago and Legends of Chima Themes—recently sat down with MiniSuperHeroesToday to discuss the future of the LEGO Marvel Theme and LEGO X-Men Subtheme. In recent years, Stafford has been working on quite a few of the superhero themes, having contributed to a few LEGO DC Wonder Woman, Batman, and who recently made his foray into LEGO Marvel with the LEGO Marvel Daily Bugle (76178). His most recent work was on the LEGO Marvel Black Panther (76215) bust, which is releasing on October 1st.
While many LEGO Marvel fans would love to see a return of the X-Men to the LEGO Marvel universe, Stafford said it's mainly up to how well the source material is received by audiences, and whether or not Marvel revitalizes the popular characters in future projects:
"I love the X-Men, but I think we have to wait to see what [Disney does], now the license has reverted back to Marvel for the movies. And we’ve got the X-Men ’97 TV cartoon, so we’ll see how well that does. To comic book fans, and even movie fans, these characters were household names 20 years ago—will they get back to that level again?"
Besides the most recent wave of LEGO Marvel Mechs, namely LEGO Marvel Wolverine Mech Armor (76202), X-Men sets have been fairly few and far between in the Catalog of the LEGO Marvel Theme, with only a total of 3 official LEGO Marvel X-Men sets having released between 2012 and now. Stafford doubles down and states that he's "always optimistic" that we could see a return of the LEGO Marvel X-Men Subtheme:
"The X-Men are a timeless story. The mutant storyline, the put-upon minority, is a storyline which—because humanity is what it is—will keep coming back and will always be relevant. So yes, the X-Men will be relevant again, they will find a new voice and they will be back. And of course, whatever the Marvel movies do with them, we would love to [make sets] based on them . . . but we’ll have to wait and see. There’s nothing concrete."
So it seems as though the X-Men are still on the minds of LEGO's design team, they're just waiting for an opportunity to kick around some new ideas to revitalize the subtheme once they have some new source material. With such projects planned for the future as Disney+'s X-Men '97, a continuation of the popular 1990s X-Men Cartoon, and an X-Men Marvel Studios Reboot Film rumored to be coming down the line—which isn't expected until at least 2025—it could be quite a few years before we see LEGO Marvel X-Men Sets hitting shelves.
If you wish to watch the full video interview with LEGO Marvel Designer Mark Stafford, view on Youtube.
Set Number | Set Name | Number of Parts | Cost (USD) | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
10789 | Spidey and His Amazing Friends (Juniors 4+) | 48 | $9.99 | March 1, 2023 |
10790 | Spidey and His Amazing Friends (Juniors 4+) | 149 | $34.99 | March 1, 2023 |
10791 | Spidey and His Amazing Friends (Juniors 4+) | 187 | $49.99 | March 1, 2023 |
76232 | The Marvels | N/A | $89.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76241 | Hulk Mech | 138 | $14.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76242 | Thanos Mech | 113 | $14.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76243 | Rocket Raccoon Mech | 98 | $14.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76244 | Miles Morales vs Morbius | 220 | $24.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76245 | Ghost Rider with Mech & Bike | 264 | $34.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76247 | Hulkbuster: The Battle of Wakanda | 385 | $49.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76248 | The Avengers Quinjet | 795 | $99.99 | January 1, 2023 |
76250 | (Marvel Helmet) | N/A | $69.99 | 2023 |
76251 | (Marvel Helmet) | N/A | $79.99 | 2023 |
76253 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | 67 | $9.99 | April 1, 2023 |
76254 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | 330 | $34.99 | Aprial 1, 2023 |
76255 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | 1,108 | $99.99 | April 1, 2023 |
76256 | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | N/A | $29.99 | 2023 |
30652 | (Polybag) | 44 | N/A | February 2023 |
As always, these set details and prices are merely a rumor at this point and may prove to be just that. Be sure to follow us on Facebook or head to the bottom of the page to Subscribe and stay in-the-know! We'll be following any new updates and revelations in the meantime!
