LEGO says 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man’s best reference was a ‘total fluke’

31209 The Amazing Spider-Man contains plenty of references to the web-slinger’s 60-year history – but the LEGO Group says its deepest cut was a ‘total fluke’.

Arriving on shelves in August alongside 31210 Modern Art, 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man is the latest superhero-themed art set to swing out of Billund. It also happens to be the most unique of the three LEGO Marvel and DC Art sets so far, eschewing the 1×1 tiles and plates approach of 31199 Marvel Studios and 31205 Jim Lee Batman Collection for a three-dimensional portrait of Spidey crawling out of his frame.

The image pulls from the past six decades of Spider-Man comic books for inspiration, but most closely resembles a panel in Issue #67 of The Amazing Spider-Man, in which the web-slinger takes on master of illusion Mysterio. But that’s not the only reference packed into the 2,099-piece set: for instance, the 15 spiders dotted around the frame (the most in any one LEGO set) is a nod to Spidey’s debut in Amazing Fantasy #15.

The colours used in the model, meanwhile – red, blue, yellow, green, black and white – were apparently selected to reflect not only the limited LEGO colour palette in the 1960s, when Spider-Man was first introduced, but also the limited colours of printed comics in the same era. You’ll discover those secrets and more while putting the set together for yourself when it launches on August 1, as the instruction manual is littered with insights from a mystery narrator.

One thing 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man’s instructions make no mention of, though, is the set’s piece count. There are exactly 2,099 elements in the LEGO Art set – and as anyone who’s watched this summer’s Across the Spider-Verse will know, that’s a direct reference to Spider-Man 2099, or Miguel O’Hara. Or is it?

Well, not according to the set’s designer, Nico Vás. In a recent roundtable interview with Brick Fanatics and other LEGO Fan Media, Vás revealed that the set’s piece count was completely unintentional. “It was a total fluke,” he admits. “A total coincidence. But it does look pretty neat on the box. I enjoyed seeing the box and it’s got the number down the bottom. It’s topical.”

Manipulating particular piece counts is something we’ve seen from the LEGO Group before – designer Rok Žgalin Kobe deliberately gave last year’s 10307 Eiffel Tower a symmetrical 10,001 elements – but this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen this kind of happy coincidence in a set, either. This year’s 75350 Clone Commander Cody Helmet includes 766 pieces, which was also apparently not a deliberate reference to Order 66.

If anything, it’s almost more impressive that Vás ended up at 2,099 pieces for 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man by accident – include one extra spider, or take away one bit of webbing, and you’d have been agonisingly close. To arrive at that part count without even consciously thinking about it is pretty remarkable. Not quite as remarkable as a teenager being given superpowers by a radioactive spider, but close…

31209 The Amazing Spider-Man launches August 1 for £169.99 / $199.99 / €199.99. Check out our detailed review of one of the latest LEGO Art sets here.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links. Thanks!