Super Heroes Marvel

Spider Mech vs. Venom

A hulking Venom mech and one of the best minifig line-ups Spider-Man ever got.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 76115 · 2019

Pieces612

Minifigs4

Year2019

Set number76115

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The verdict

The Venom mech is what got me here, this glossy black beast with a gaping mouth and a tongue lolling out, towering over everything else on the shelf.

The minifigure spread is genuinely one of the strongest Spider-Man ever put in a set at this price, and Aunt May tucked in as the fourth fig made me grin. It is not flawless (the Venom mech's legs barely move and the ankles wobble), but as a display-and-play piece it holds up. Great for anyone who loves the villains as much as the heroes.

Best for: Spider-Man fans who care about villains and minifigures more than mech engineering

The full review

What it is

Some sets sell you on a hero and some sell you on a villain, and this one is squarely the second kind. The Venom mech is the reason to buy it. It stands taller than almost anything else in the boxed-Spider-Man price range, all glossy black with a wide open mouth full of teeth and a long red tongue hanging out, claws ready to snatch a minifig right off the table. The first time I stood it up next to the little Spider mech I actually laughed at the size difference. This is a set built around one big menacing centrepiece, and on that front it absolutely delivers.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about where it falls down. The Venom mech looks the part but does not move like it. The knees are brick-built, so the legs only really manage standing upright or leaning slightly forward, and the ankles connect on loose pins that leave the whole thing a bit wobbly once it's assembled. Getting it to stand steady took me a few goes. The smaller Spider mech, meanwhile, is the forgettable half of the box. It's fine, it has a web shooter and a gripping claw, but nobody buys this set for it. And that big open mouth never closes, which is a small thing but it nags at you.

Who it's for

So who should get this. If you love the Spider-Man rogues gallery, if a good villain build matters more to you than perfect articulation, this is an easy yes, especially now that it's retired and the minifigures alone carry real value. Aunt May with her dual smiling and frightened expressions is a genuinely nice touch, and the four-fig line-up is stronger than most sets twice the price. If you live for clever mech engineering and posability, though, the stiff legs and wobbly ankles will frustrate you, and you'd be happier with a set that leans into function over presence.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build splits across five bags, and the pacing is a bit lopsided in a way I actually enjoyed. Bag one knocks out Spider-Man and his little mech quickly, and then bags three through five are all Venom, torso and toothy head first, then legs and feet, then the arms, claws and that final tongue. Watching the beast come together section by section is the fun part. It's a straightforward build with no real head-scratchers, well suited to a younger builder who wants a big satisfying result without a marathon.

The minifigures are where the parts really shine. That Spider-Man was new for late 2018 with dual-moulded legs and an updated torso carrying a brand new spider emblem, and Venom got a properly nasty new head with an open mouth showing the symbiote tongue inside, red highlights breaking up all that black. Aunt May uses a dual-expression head (smiling on one side, terrified on the other), and Ghost Spider rounds out a rare four-fig roster. There are also nine assorted new-for-2018 web elements and a translucent flame piece on the hoverboard. For roughly 612 pieces at the original fifty-dollar price, the value always sat in the figures more than the mech bricks, which is exactly why this set has climbed so hard on the secondary market.

Fun facts

01Released in late 2018 at an RRP of $49.99, the set retired in December 2020 and has since climbed well past $100 sealed, driven largely by its four-figure line-up.
02The Spider-Man minifig here was a new design for the era, with dual-moulded legs and a redrawn spider emblem on a fresh torso.
03Aunt May's head is double-sided, with a smiling face on one side and a frightened one on the other, fitting a story where Venom has snatched her.
04The Venom mech's mouth was built to stay permanently open, showing off the symbiote tongue, with no mechanism to close it.