Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is a new LEGO set from the forthcoming Marvel movie Doctor Strange – and it’s a toy that’s bewitched my 4-year-old daughter
Aka the Sorcerer Supreme, the magical character of Doctor Strange is one of Marvel Comics top heroes.
Much of the Doctor Strange movie is still under wraps, so do we get some tantalising glimpses of what’s to come from this? We can’t always trust these licensed sets to depict actual scenarios in the movies. More often than not they’re based on scripted scenes, and usually developed months in advance. For instance, I first saw this set at the London Toy Fair over six months ago. So sometimes the story changes by the time toys are released.
This set shows Doctor Strange’s home and HQ – his Sanctum Sanctorum. It has his distinctive window, shelves filled with a collection of books & artefacts, a chest with treasures, old-fashioned oil and flame lamps, ancient maps, and intriguing letters (including one for Stark Industries?).
But most interesting of all is the elephant in the room – or in this case, the monster.
Beware of the LEGO Portal Beast
The key feature of the set is the tentacled ‘Portal Beast’ trying to make its way into the apartment.
I never imagined there would be a LEGO set that actually scared my daughter – but I think we may have found it.
4-years-old, she actually found the demon (as we called it) a bit unnerving when she saw it on the box. Her unease continued as we were building the set, and when we got to the beast, she rather chillingly kept whispering (in horror movie fashion):
“Shhh. The Demon is coming.”
Nightmare inducing. For both of us. But she remains fascinated by this creature.
The tentacled beast is very nicely realised, and it certainly looks the part of a monster presumably trying to get into our dimension via the portal. With a cool LEGO twist, the monster is connected to a series of cogs and a turning wheel, so its tentacles can be moved to simulate a writhing creature.
Other moving parts include an odd mechanism for levitating Strange’s cloak, and another better levitating function for a couple of minifigures. I’m guessing that these magical heroes and villains do a lot of flying around in the movie.
The Minifigures
The set comes with three minifigures – Doctor Strange, Karl Mordo, and The Ancient One.
Doctor Strange, although representing Benedict Cumberbatch, looks every bit his comic book counterpart and comes with a cloak and magic accessories. Mordo, presumably based on Baron Mordo the comic book villain, is played by another British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, and comes with a staff accessory. Rounding out the trio of Brits is Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One, who wields what appears to be magical fans.
Casting wise, some race and gender swapping has taken place in the movie compared to comics – Mordo was white, and the Ancient One a Tibetan old man – so the figures reflect these updates.
My daughter was a big fan of The Ancient One. While the race swapping of this character has been met with some criticism, the gender swap is most welcome – and adds another female character for my daughter to engage with.
The Verdict
Suggested for ages 7-14, in three numbered bags, this was a relatively simple set for my 4-year-old daughter and I to make in an afternoon. It’s fun and quirky, and packs a lot of nice features into its small size.
It’s so lovingly put together that I hope my daughter doesn’t want to break it up anytime soon, because it makes a nice display set.
LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum (76060) has an RRP: £29.99.
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Disclosure: We we provided with this product free of charge for the purposes of this review.
There’s no real scenario to each set, other than each character has a vehicle and an accessory. Some of these make sense – Cap has his shield and a tank vs. Red Skull in another military vehicle plus the cosmic cube. However, Hulk is driving a Hulk car and eating a drumstick. It’s not a problem – I really like the Hulk one (as does the kid) with its ‘Hulk hands’ and green & purple colours – it’s just clear that some characters suited the format more than others.
