The dawn of
There’s more to this mansion than you’ll glean from just the instruction manual, though – and designers Justin Ramsden and Mark Tranter have thankfully been more than forthcoming about the set’s secrets. From the reason behind Iceman’s inclusion to a hidden link to real-world technology, here are five things you probably don’t know about
5 – Gambit was in the mix from day one
You’ll find 10 minifigures total included with the X-Mansion, and the stand-out for many will be Gambit, who’s currently enjoying his moment in the spotlight thanks to this summer’s Deadpool and Wolverine. For Mark and Justin, his presence in
“That’s one of the ones we wanted from day one,” Justin told MiniSuperHeroesToday. “Gambit had to be in.”
“We sat down to talk about minifigures, and it was just Gambit, Gambit, Gambit,” Mark added.
4 – The Sentinel is this set’s taxi
76218 Sanctum Sanctorum notwithstanding, every LEGO Marvel modular to date has included an additional side build – and
“We did the Avengers Tower that came with the Leviathan, we did the Bugle that came with a taxi, and so it needed this extra superhero thing,” Justin said. “Watching the cartoons and reading the comics, they’re always being attacked by something or other, and a Sentinel made perfect sense here.”
“The Sentinel in X-Men lore is such a prominent character in itself,” Mark said. “They’re just mindless robots, but they are the same as the mansion – it’s its own character. And there are so many variations it would be a shame not to include it in some form.”
3 – A guest designer helped out with the MRI machine
While Justin and Mark are the face of Xavier’s school, many LEGO sets take a village to raise – and so it was for the X-Mansion, which also features a small build designed by NINJAGO veteran Niek van Slagmaat.
“We’ve got the MRI scanner where they find out that Wolverine has the metal inside him,” Justin expained. “The fun thing about this is I asked one of my friends Niek to make me this MRI scanner, because his mum was part of the team that designed the technology for MRI scanners.”
2 – Iceman’s here for one very specific reason
In case you’re wondering, Justin confirmed that Iceman made the cut in
1 – A Thor set determined the scale of the Sentinel
Figuring out the scale of the Sentinel was no easy task, because the X-Men canon itself plays fast and loose with their size. They started by looking at the Sentinel head included in 71039 Marvel Series 2, which Mark also designed, and which was based on the previous Sentinel included in 2014’s 76022 X-Men vs. The Sentinel. But a better scale soon emerged in the summer 2024 LEGO Marvel range.
“When we released Surtur from Thor Ragnarok, we were like, ‘Oh, that’s a nice little scale we’ve got going on there,’” Justin explained. “And Junior, who sits next to me and is amazing at making mechs and brick-built characters said, ‘Maybe the Sentinel could fit in that world.’
“We tried different scales – could it be the size of the buildable action figures? And for me, we’re selling the X-Mansion, of course it’d be great to have a huge Sentinel. But the Sentinels vary in scale throughout the comics, so we landed on this one. The cool thing is you get some stickers for damage, so you can put damage stickers all over him and make him look like he’s beaten up.”
Further reading
- Deadpool isn’t in the LEGO Marvel X-Mansion – but not for a lack of trying
- LEGO confirms the X-Mansion wasn’t always going to be modular
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