Aquaman Black Manta Strike
*** SET 76095 ***
LEGO RETIRED PRODUCT
BRAND NEW - SEALED
GALLERY PHOTOS ARE THE ACTUAL ITEM
with ADDITIONAL STOCK IMAGES
Stage an Aquaman" vs. Black Manta" Atlantis showdown!
Join forces with Aquaman™ and Mera™ and battle Black Manta™ for the treasure in LEGO® DC Super Heroes 76095 Aquaman: Black Manta Strike, featuring Black Manta’s submarine, with an opening minifigure cockpit, 2 spring-loaded shooters, 6-stud rapid shooter and 2 engines. This set also includes a buildable underwater scene with 2 detachable treasure elements, 3 minifigures with trident, sword and Power Blast weapons, plus a shark figure to role-play battles from the Aquaman movie and create your own Atlantis adventures.
- Includes 3 LEGO® DC Super Heroes minifigures: Aquaman™, Mera™ and Black Manta™, plus a shark figure.
- Black Manta’s submarine features an opening minifigure cockpit, 2 spring-loaded shooters, 6-stud rapid shooter and 2 engines.
- Underwater scene features seaweed elements and 2 detachable gold-colored treasure elements.
- Weapons include Aquaman's trident and Power Blast, Mera's Power Blast and Black Manta's sword.
- The LEGO® DC Super Heroes Aquaman™, Mera™ and Black Manta™ minifigures are new for August 2018.
- Role-play exciting underwater scenes from the Aquaman™ movie.
- Black Manta’s submarine measures over 1” (4cm) high, 9” (25cm) long and 9” (25cm) wide.
REVIEW
The recent unveiling of 76095 Black Manta Strike came as a pleasant surprise to many fans of the DC Super Heroes theme. Not only does this set include a superb selection of new minifigures, the most appealing of which is perhaps Black Manta himself, but the villain's heavily armed submarine looks excellent too.
BUILDING EXPERIENCE
Minifigures
This version of Aquaman is considerably more colourful than the minifigure in 76085 Battle of Atlantis from 2017, wearing bright green trousers and pearl gold chest armour which are both decorated with a beautiful scaly texture. I like the emblem at the centre of Aquaman's belt and the green scales continue onto his torso, matching the source material closely. The green gauntlets look brilliant too.
Both sides of the head feature a rugged beard along with two different expressions, one of which looks confident while the other is fixed in a determined grimace. Yellow eyes might have been more accurate than these white ones but the hair piece is absolutely perfect, including tan highlights and tremendous moulded detail. Aquaman carries a pearl dark grey trident which looks pretty good to me, despite only loosely resembling the quindent that he will probably wield during most of the upcoming film.
Mera made her first onscreen appearance in 2017's Justice League but will occupy a more prominent in Aquaman. Her teal attire looks marvellous, featuring a metallic silver pattern on the torso and legs which appears quite similar to Aquaman's scaly armour. The distinct boots are excellent and I think teal was a good colour choice as the true shade of Mera's clothing in the movie lies somewhere between blue and green.
The hair piece is less impressive. Either red or dark red would have been a more appropriate colour than dark orange and I think the hair style could have been improved too, ideally making use of a component with hair hanging over both shoulders. Mera’s double-sided head looks good though and is shared with Jyn Erso, featuring a neutral expression on one side and a determined snarl on the other. Mera and Aquaman each come with a trans-light blue Power Blast, presumably representing bursts of energy underwater.
Ocean Master will occupy the primary antagonistic role during the upcoming Aquaman film but the hero's arch nemesis, Black Manta, will also be making an appearance. A new version of the villain is accordingly included here, wearing the same helmet as the minifigure from 76027 Black Manta Deep Sea Strike but in black rather than pearl silver. The movie incarnation sports a more bulbous helmet than this figure and a brand new element could have been created, although I think the black colour change is a reasonable compromise.
The printed designs on the front and back of the torso are more faithful to the source material, including red streaks on the sides of the chest and some tubes around the abdomen which are visible in the trailer for Aquaman. Unfortunately, the minifigure does not feature any leg printing or a separate head beneath the helmet, both of which would have been wonderful, but he does carry a pearl dark grey sword.
The Completed Model
Aquaman possesses numerous super powers, perhaps the most notable of which is his ability to control sea creatures. A dark bluish grey shark is therefore included, featuring moulded gill slits and printed eyes along with an opening mouth. The shark fits neatly on the top of some greenery which is ideal for display and I like the gold nuggets distributed around its base. These are presumably the target of Black Manta’s mission, unless he is intending to retrieve Aquaman’s trident.
Black Manta’s submarine measures 25cm in both width and length and takes clear design cues from the appearance of a real manta ray, albeit with a militaristic edge befitting its villainous owner. The black and trans-red colour scheme of the craft is imposing and its curved profile looks incredibly sleek. Moreover, the model is sturdily constructed so there is little risk of accidental breakage during play, thankfully.
A rotary six-stud shooter is fitted to the front of the submarine. These often appear rather awkward when attached to smaller models but this example looks great in my opinion, slotting nicely between two lights which can be angled up and down. A pair of printed 2x2 round tiles form the vehicle's thrusters and these cylindrical structures continue through the hull, with 1x1 cone pieces forming the thrust nozzles the rear.
The rounded cockpit hatch opens to reveal two control panels and a red steering wheel inside. This area is reasonably spacious so will accommodate Black Manta's helmet and you can place his pearl dark grey weapon in a container behind the pilot, as shown below. I like the stickers depicting mechanical details on either side of the cockpit and the stickers inside look good too, featuring a small targeting reticule.
In addition to a rotary stud shooter, the submarine is also armed with two spring-loaded shooters which are nestled between two layers of the hull. The trans-red missile tails are very visible but they can easily be removed for display. I also think this layered configuration looks a bit strange from certain angles, although design features like this one help to distinguish Black Manta's submarine from past LEGO watercraft.
The tapering tail is similarly unusual, narrowing to a rubbery point and therefore looking very sleek. I also think the layered hull design seems more cohesive when viewed from this angle, perhaps because of the angled wedge plates which provide ample support to the craft's rear and partially conceal the spaces between the upper and lower hull sections.
Overall
Super Heroes sets are sometimes criticised for their focus upon great minifigures rather than impressive models but I think 76095 Black Manta Strike fares well in both respects. The new Aquaman minifigure is perfect and I am pleased with this rendition of Black Manta, despite the inaccurate shape of his helmet. Moreover, the villain’s submarine is highly detailed so looks superb on display and it includes numerous play features, all of which are incorporated neatly.
Mera's hair piece could certainly have been improved and I do think the price of £29.99 or $29.99 is a little expensive, although not to the extent that I was anticipating. Otherwise, however, this is an excellent set on the whole and I would recommend adding it to your DC Super Heroes collection, particularly if you missed 76027 Black Manta Deep Sea Strike from 2015 or last year's 76085 Battle of Atlantis.
Customer Reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
"Excellent build and excellent fun"
Amazing toy! Super creative and so much fun to build it!
"Fantastically colorful!"
This set is just beautiful and fantastic!
"Really Enjoy This Set"
This is a pretty solid offering from DC Comics. It also features a very nice upgrade for Black Manta’s Submersible, a huge improvement over the original model from the comics based set.
Packaging
The box for this set shows off the set very nicely. It includes a very impressive action shot on the front and the Aquaman logo with the film character in the corner. On the back there’s another action shot showing off even more of the set, really impressive.
The manual is nice and thick with some very familiar looking cross-promotional issues. There is a small sticker sheet for a few minor details, but nothing else to speak of. The LEGO Life system was also promoted here, though not as prominent as sets have gotten since.
Parts
Loads of black elements in this set, a nice dark colour palette to choose from, with a few clear red elements for the cockpit window and seven of the reverse dishes commonly used for simulating floating with hovering sets. Two gold nuggets are also included as is several metallic silver studs.
Minifigures
Aquaman: What can I say about this figure? The Battle for Atlantis set first introduced the movie version of Aquaman and this Minifigure is using the same basic parts, but not the same basic print. His legs and torso are now printed more in keeping with his comic uniform, the movie Aquaman having changed his costume from Justice League to the more traditional appearance. For accessories he has a metallic black trident and two of the energy bursts which can be fired out of a Minifigures hand.
Black Manta: Using the same parts as the previous version, this movie Black Manta has a darker colour, a more sinister looking helmet with glowing red eyes and a more detailed armor print on his torso, as is right for a set based on a movie. This is a pretty solid looking figure, for accessories he includes a dark black sword.
Mera: Dressed in a flowing green suit Mera looks almost perfect, unlike in the film she hasn’t got the small crown she wore in the movie. Instead she uses the fairly common by now side-cut hair piece which has the one part which falls over her shoulder. Her torso and legs are printed in a scale pattern which looks sublime. For accessories she includes two energy elements which can be launched out of her hands. Due to the spare parts you could also give her a trident, since an extra comes in the set, but it isn’t official.
The Build
Bag #1: Aquaman and Mera help in the construction of the lower section of the Black Manta submarine. This is an interesting build, using some nice techniques. I particularly enjoyed the construction of the wings, despite the repetitive nature of said build. Oh, you also get to make a small section of underwater plants with the shark to rest on.
Bag #2: Black Manta leaps into action to build his submarine’s upper portion. This was a relatively quick and easy build, only a few elements had stickers to apply which is perfectly acceptable for a model of this type. The entire model took no longer than an hour to build, no tricky moments or other issues.
The Completed Model
Black Manta’s Submarine: This submarine is loaded for whale. It features flick missiles on the side-wings and a massive stud launcher on the front. It looks very impressive too, matching the look of a Manta Ray in dark black colours. There’s space inside for Black Mamba to pilot his craft. There isn’t much else to be said, it’s a single model set, the piece of foliage is a nice extra bit of scenery, but not really much in the way to discuss. As someone who owns both sets, this one from Aquaman and the one based more on the Comics Black Manta I think I’m confident in saying that this model is a huge improvement over the original submarine. It’s also more sinister looking, if you can believe that.
Overall opinion
This is a very good set, the price however seems a bit high. It might be better if the set had been 25$ instead of 40$ CND, the set doesn’t seem to have many more parts compared to some of the 25$ price range of Super Heroes sets, if they’d included a more substantial side build it might have felt worth it. Honestly though, it’s not a bad set, but it could have been better executed. I’d still recommend this set though, Mera and Black Manta are strong reasons, but the submarine model is also extremely well done and I’m highly impressed by it. Highly Recommended.
