Your eyes don't deceive you: those are big bricks, and the movie's not out for another month!

With some big, expensive releases in recent months -- Ferris Wheels, Helicarriers and Tumblers, oh my! -- I've found some comfort and, well, joy in the "smaller" sets, and in particular the licensed ones.

For example, the Avengers set that came with Scarlet Witch (dear LEGO: please include more female superhero figs in LESS expensive sets!!!), Iron Man, Ultron, a Hulkbuster AND a Hulk bigfig cost a reasonable $30 and had a good degree of design and playability. The Double-Decker Couch set from The LEGO Movie came with a staggering four minifigs, Unikitty AND the namesake couch AND Emmet's car for only $15. If you're a sucker for minifigs like me, LEGO has been doing right by you recently. (Heck, even the Town construction "starter set" has four minifigs and an exploding toilet bowl for $10!)

Today, almost a full month before the film it's based on hits theaters, we're taking a look at set #76039, "Ant-Man Final Battle." The title itself appears to be a spoiler, and you can figure out from the box art that LEGO pieces come into play during the film's climax. That brings me to my favorite feature of this set: the scaled-up LEGO bricks!

The 1x1 "brick" actually comprises three 3x3 layers of bricks, topped off by red tiles and a "stud" two plates high. The yellow "plate" is, like it's smaller counterpart, is a third of the brick. Making the studs possible are the relatively new 2x2 round tiles, which have round connectors on the underside, instead of the "X" connectors on the older versions. (I didn't apply the included stickers here, but the "LEGO" prints make these big bricks even more authentic-looking.) The "screws" are also a simple, genius design. I'm still not sure what the white wedge plate is supposed to be, though. I guess we'll have to wait for the movie!

The set comes with three minifigs: the titular Ant-Man, Hank Pym and Yellow Jacket. Nw, I'll be the first to admit I'm more of a cinematic universe type than a comic book aficionado, so please don't ask me about backstory for each character. I'm mostly impressed by the meticulous design of the helmets here, with each incorporating transparent visors, and the nice torso and leg prints. The seemingly unwieldy weaponized backpack on Yellow Jacket does let him stand without the support of a plate, but it can be a little tricky getting him to stay upright. All in all, a good job on the overall design of our good and bad guys. And oh yeah, it comes with a "Super Jumper" thing, so feel free to make Ant-Man, Hank or the Jacket leap tall MOCs in a single bound.

And last but not least is this monstrosity -- relative to our diminuitive characters of course. Nothing extraordinary in this flying ant build, save for the copious amounts of dark blue elements and the ginormous plastic wings. Pleasantly surprised, too, just how many Technic elements made their (very necessary) way into the design. Hopefully you never find it in your soup!

In summary:

At $20, a great set with 183 pieces, three minifigs, a giant flying ant, and BIG BRICKS!
Great fig design which should appeal to fans of the SuperHeroes line, and Ant-Man fans in particular.
Good playability -- fire away with loose screws and Super Jumpers!
And last but not least, spoil the forthcoming movie for your friends by merely telling them the name of this set!

On a scale of one to five, I'm giving #76039, "Ant-Man Final Battle," four Nerdlys.