LEGO 2026 Iron Man set was going to glow in the dark

The upcoming LEGO Marvel 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition was going to glow in the dark, but that changed to benefit the display.

Of the newly-revealed LEGO Marvel 2026 sets, there's one specifically aimed at an older audience that went through a few changes during its development. 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition is the subject of a new interview with LEGO designer Aaron Newman, who has discussed a potential path for the build that was ultimately abandoned in favour of accuracy and display.

"We did consider glow-in-the-dark elements, at some point, but it came down to the level of polish for the finished model when it's in most display conditions," Aaron said to MiniSuperHeroesToday.

"A glow-in-the-dark feature can give that extra level of playability, but this is not really a play model; it's a display model, and when you look at the glow-in-the-dark elements under daylight conditions, they have kind of a green-ish tint to them, which is less accurate for the character."

Glow-in-the-dark pieces have a different colour than white elements, and though such colours are not overly prominent in 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition, their presence would have been noticeable in the build. The decision to eschew any glow-in-the-dark pieces goes beyond the colours, though.

"In the case of the hands, we decided to decorate them because while we could have explored doing something brick-built, very quickly the palm got quite thick, so we went for a decoration there as well," Aaron continued. "White makes the most sense to get that as vibrant as possible.

"Something like the arc reactor, too, to be able to work with the slight blue tint that we wanted to have, white was just the better choice to go for [over anything glow-in-the-dark], but we did think about it for a bit."

An Easter egg integrated into the arc reactor assembly in 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition also made an alternative to glow-in-the-dark elements challenging to include, despite attempts to feature a light brick in the 2026 Marvel set.

"We thought about adding a light brick where the arc reactor is, and ultimately we decided that it would be better to focus on the sculpt and the level of detail, rather than including that functionality," Aaron explained. "There is an Easter egg in this set where you build the arc reactor and put it in, so to be able to keep that moment, it wouldn't have been possible to include a light brick."

The size of the model isn't the issue with integrating a light brick in 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition. 76206 Iron Man Figure is much smaller and manages to include an arc reactor light brick. It's the fact that the reactor can be placed into the set, and theoretically taken out, that makes any such inclusion almost impossible with the current element.

Whether this Easter egg is worth the lack of a light brick has yet to be seen, but we'll be able to discover for ourselves when 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition launches on January 1, 2026. Pre-orders are open now for £119.99 / $129.99 / €129.99. You can see the other LEGO Marvel sets confirmed and rumoured for next year in the following table.

LEGO Marvel 2026 sets

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