Lego Overwatch: Is that it?

We live in a time where there are venn diagrams crossing all kinds of our interests these days. You only gave to pop into an HMV to find novelisation prequels focusing on classic Disney villains, Funko Pops based on any character under the sun and Lego doing pretty much the same thing also.

Like any self respecting 30 year old man, I enjoy a bit of Lego, and anyone who has spent any time reading my stuff also knows I am actively still a fan of Overwatch. The cross over of which has been no big secret amongst fans of either property for a while now. However certain it was to happen though, I was always a little doubtful as how Lego could really capture Overwatch in a set.

And the outcome, it’s apparent that Lego were struggling to think of anything as striking as I was. Six sets have been leaked out of an American toy retailer in the last few days, each of which featuring a number of characters and a piece of scenery from one of the maps within the game.

And for the most part, they’re pretty unimpressive all things considered. I chock this up to one of those time where I come to the unfortunate realisation that Lego, after all, is still a children’s toy.

I’m the kind of guy who browses the especially expensive Star Wars vehicle sets or architecture sets. The odd one I have bought ends up getting built, sat on a shelf and eventually disassembled in order to be made up again at some later date.

It’s a relaxing, almost meditative pastime for me. The bigger, more complex the set, the more I get out of it. Large and complex these Overwatch sets are not. These are sets for children, the tools required to play make-believe and invent their own stories with these characters I assume they must know from their foray in Grandmaster level Overwatch.

It reminds me of the plot of the Lego movie, the product can be all manner of different things for adults and children alike, just because I like the series the sets are based on, doesn’t mean they need to cater specifically to me. There are larger, more decorative builds available, like the Bastion set below, which is probably the best of the lot from what I’d want out of these sets.

The things I want to see out a Lego set are vehicles, large structures that are iconic of other franchises I love. When it comes to Overwatch, there is no obvious choice to focusing on. No Millennium Falcon, Ghostbusters firehouse or other painfully obvious large build to base a set on, unless you want to recreate the whole the Horizon Lunar Colony in Lego.

I am disappointed, but I shouldn’t be. It was always going to be difficult yo capture a series that mostly centres around a group of individuals in Lego. I sure can’t think of anything better they could have done. Except maybe just sell the mini figs separately on a keyring.