Although the X-Men have been returning to the world of Lego in fits and starts recently—a few characters in the Marvel minifigures line here, a giant Wolverine fist there—2014 was the last time Marvel’s mutants actually got to star in a more traditional Lego set. That’s now changing… but it’s not an entirely joyous turn of events.
Today Lego officially revealed the X-Men X-Jet, a new set launching on New Year’s Day 2024, inspired by the upcoming X-Men ‘97 animated series, continuing on the classic ‘90s cartoon. The set is actually startlingly similar to that aforementioned 2014 set, X-Men vs. the Sentinel. That 2014 set came with four minifigures—Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, and Magneto—as well as buildable versions of a Sentinel and, of course, the X-Men’s blackbird jet. The 2024 set meanwhile, comes with four minifigures—Wolverine, Rogue, Cyclops, and Magneto—and a buildable version of the X-Men’s blackbird jet.
Some of the tweaks here make sense. Rogue is nice to get instead of Storm, because X-Men ‘97‘s mohawked Storm already got a recent minifigure this year alongside Beast and Wolverine in the last Lego Marvel minifigures collectible series. Magneto, instead of donning his classic look, has an appearance inspired by the upcoming show, based on this iconic “M” outfit from Uncanny X-Men #200. The X-Jet itself has a more stylized, angular design, and uses more pieces than the 2014 set, 359 to 336—and that’s without having the parts for the Sentinel the 2014 set had, as well.
But… that’s about where the largely positive comparisons end. The 2024 set will set you back a whopping $85, which is a lot for a relatively small piece-count set. It’s even more egregious when compared to the 2014 X-Men set, which cost $50 when it launched. Yes, times have changed, but it’s stark reminder of just how much Lego’s value has been in flux over the last 10 years to put two such similar sets in terms of parts, scope, theme, and design next to each other and come away with such a price disparity.
Hopefully at least this time we won’t have to wait another decade to get an X-Men set like this. The Lego Marvel X-Men X-Jet will go on sale January 1, 2024—click through to see more pictures.