This set contains two bags, an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet and a fun little comic detailing the adventures of the Guardians but if you flip the comic over, you get the story for the 76022 X-Men vs. The Sentinel set! Let’s take a gander at the minifigures!

This set has a nice variety of minifigures, with the heroic Star-Lord, a dutiful Nova Corps Officer and a sinister Sakaaran Soldier! Star-Lord (played by Chris Pratt, who now has two minifigures from two different movies!) features a double printed face and hair piece but the real draw is his signature mask, complete with spiky hair sticking out the top. He also comes with two blasters, yellow pieces for his rocket boots and the mysterious orb! The Nova Corps Officer is surprisingly old, with a wrinkled facade hiding under his brilliant helmet. The Sakaaran Soldier, a far cry from the pink-skinned humanoids of the comics, features a double-printed face with a veil on one side and a terrifying insectoid face on the other. His blaster rifle is a brand new design too! All the minifigures have gorgeous printing on their other body parts that really bring out the character in all of them.

The first bag is entirely for the Starblaster vehicle, which seems to be a fighter employed by the Nova Corps, an intergalactic police force. The cockpit is a great build with larger pieces, sloped bricks and a couple of sticker applications thrown in to add some detail and colour onto the control panel and cockpit sidings. Flick missiles are put on the underside of the craft and, once the model is completely, serve adequately as landing gear.

It’s with the engine assembly that I had the most trouble, as it had lots of layers of tiny pieces and the sticker application on the fins was truly aggravating. Thin stickers onto thin panels had me there for about 20 minutes trying not to come out with slanted decals. It’s a much more involved build than any other part of the set and it really played havoc with my OCD but…

… You can’t argue with the final product! The Starblaster looks AMAZING! It’s sloped lines and aerodynamic profile give it the feel of a high-speed pursuit vehicle. Spreading out the fins for “arrest mode” also give the vehicle so much character. The colours work well with Nova’s and you end up with something beautiful.

The Sakaaran Soldier’s fighter is kinda of a let down for me. Compared to the astounding Starblaster, the Sakaaran fighter looks a little weak and thrown together. Still, the build is very quick and simple, with only the sticker applications on the cockpit presenting a challenge. The bricks are a mix of dark reds, greys and blacks, denoting it as the villain ship. Given the new look of the Sakaarans, the fighter’s strange profile makes much more sense, looking more insect-like and giving the small craft more personality than it’s build belies.

76019 Starblaster Showdown is the entry level set for the Guardian’s subline of the Marvel Super Heroes Theme. It retails for £19.99 and is well worth the money in my opinion. Characterful minifigures, lots of accessories and a fantastic spaceship give this set all you could ask out of a LEGO set. As the introduction to the larger Guardians sets, LEGO did a fantastic job and I highly recommend this out of this world set!

I’m certainly hooked on a feeling and it’s the feeling I’ve had ever since this movie was announced and that feeling was that this would easily become my favourite of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Why? Well, I’ll get into that but check out the trailer and then we’ll talk about that.

The Guardians of The Galaxy in this movie are obviously based on the second team of the same name. In the comics, they were formed by Star-Lord as a proactive response to galactic threats, made up of ex-cons, space magicians, assassins and a celestial madonna. During their tenure, they’ve fought mad kings, the space-church, and the eldritch abominations of the Cancerverse. They were an absolutely great team and they’re one of my personal favourite team books in the Marvel stable so what do I think of the jump to silver screen?

The Dashing Rogue

Despite humble appearances, Star-Lord is the leader of this merry band of misfits. A child of the 80’s who hasn’t been back to Earth since then. Accompanied by his trusty walkman (his only connection to his home), Peter Quill finds his purpose amongst the Guardians. I don’t know Chris Pratt other than his roles in this and The LEGO Movie but I’m really digging him, he’s a funny dude so I suppose I should watch Parks and Rec, right?

The Assassin(s)

Gamora is the adoptive daughter of Thanos (the purple, chinny geezer from The Avengers) and is an absolute badass in all ways. Zoe Saldana is no stranger to sci-fi nor playing sexy space women, having previously played Uhurua in Star Trek and swapping the blue hues of Avatar‘s Neytiri for green. I’d use this space to also talk about Drax but apart from having a boner for vengeance, he’s never really been an interesting character and he’s being played by shite-bag Royal Rumble winner Batista. Highlight of the trailer for him was getting a one-armed choke spot from Ronan The Accuser.

The DPS and The Tank

Okay, okay, I’m done with the D&D analogies but seriously, each member of this team serves a particular function and these two are no exception. By far two of the most bizarre and outstanding members of the Guardians are Rocket Racoon and Groot; one a genetic experiment that created a tiny furry sociopath and the other is Groot. Bradley Cooper will be the voice of Rocket and I think that’s a fine choice, even though we don’t hear him speak in the trailer. Vin Diesel provides the voice and motion capture for Groot, a sentient tree-like creature who usually speaks only three words “I am Groot” but his meaning is always known by the crew (or they’re just casting their own ideas about what he says onto him.) The two have a genuine friendship in the comics and I’d like to see that play out.

Nebulous Villains

My biggest desire for this movie was that they flesh out the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a more literal sense. We’ve seen what Earth has to offer but now we get to see some intergalactic baddies! Nebula is played by former Doctor’s Companion Karen Gillen. She appears to be just as much an assassin as Gamora and Gillen has alluded to a “complex” relationship with Gamora. Other villains include Korath the Pursuer (played by Djimon Hounsou), Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser.

Sound of the Police! Whoop-whoop-whoop!

Not only are we getting an all-star team of good guys fighting an all-star team of bad guys, we also get an all-star team of other folks thrown in for good measure! The Nova Corps are an intergalactic police force and have some serious acting chops in their ranks. Glenn Close will be portraying Nova Prime Rael while John C Reilly is Rhomann Dey and Peter Serafinowicz another Nova Corps officer. Brilliant!

So that’s Guardians of The Galaxy and I am hyped! One of my favourite teams, backed by this immense cast and a damn good director shows that despite being the wild card for phase two, Marvel isn’t doing it half-cocked. It’s fully embracing the sci-fi and the silliness and will no doubt be a big hit with the fans. With mainstream audiences however? I dunno. Wait and see. Guardians of the Galaxy will be released August 1, 2014.