August’s LEGO sets make the new Fantastic Four minifigures look even worse

The new LEGO Marvel Fantastic Four minifigures don’t quite live up to the promise of their name – and August’s upcoming Marvel and One Piece sets make them look even worse.

76316 Fantastic Four vs. Galactus has finally brought Marvel’s first family to the LEGO line-up this summer, just in time for The Fantastic Four: First Steps to arrive in cinemas this week. But the LEGO community has widely criticised the execution of these minifigures, which have skimped out on dual-moulded legs and character-specific torsos, and largely dropped the ball on portraying their superpowers too.

The two biggest offenders are also those for which solutions currently exist, or will by the time the August sets drop on shelves. Mr. Fantastic’s brick-built elongated legs and boots are giving off stilts and slippers vibes, but One Piece’s 75638 Battle at Arlong Park features the same stretchy torso previously used for Ms. Marvel and Mrs. Incredible, which would have been a more convincing way to showcase Reed Richards’ longer limbs.

That’s an argument that’s been around the block two or three times since the LEGO Group unveiled 76316 Fantastic Four vs. Galactus, and it’s tough to say why it wasn’t included, given the mould is still in production. But maybe even more damning is a small innovation now confirmed to be coming to another LEGO set within the same theme in August.

Johnny Storm, or the Human Torch, gets a few trans-orange elements to attach to his minifigure’s hands and feet to represent flames (as well as some actual flame pieces), but his general appearance otherwise remains unchanged. That’s unfortunate, given his whole shtick is that his entire body is enveloped in flames when he powers up.

The LEGO Group does have an element that portrays a flaming head, which it’s previously used for Ghost Rider, but the head and flame pieces are not separable. Including that in 76316 Fantastic Four vs. Galactus would have meant either resorting to a permanently flamed-on Johnny, or required an additional regular head and hairpiece to switch between – and with one eye on the cost-cutting measures elsewhere in this set, including more LEGO was probably never going to happen.

However… the August 2025 LEGO Marvel sets actually sidestep the problem entirely. As demonstrated by MiniSuperHeroesToday in an early review, 76324 Spider-Man vs. Oscorp includes a redesigned version of the head and flaming hair piece that can separate into two individual parts, deployed there for two of Green Goblin’s pumpkin bombs.

The flame piece alone looks a bit daft on a normal minifigure head (as mocked up by Ashnflash above), but could be solved by giving Johnny a face print that includes orange highlights at the edges to mimic his appearance in the new movie. The other side of his head could then be his regular everyday mug, so you can achieve either look simply by rotating his head and changing his hairpiece – requiring just one extra part, and not an expensive dual-moulded element like the original Ghost Rider head-and-hair combo.

For those playing along at home, that’s now two different pieces in the August 2025 wave that could potentially have improved the minifigures in 76316 Fantastic Four vs. Galactus. To give the LEGO Group the benefit of the doubt, this could just be a case of unfortunate timing for the Human Torch at least: the MCU set arrived in June, while the Oscorp set will debut in August, so the revamped element may not have been ready in time.

On the other hand, there’s an argument to be made for the LEGO Group saving better versions of these minifigures for whenever they next appear in a set – and now they’re part of the MCU, they’re almost guaranteed to show up again – prompting collectors to double-dip. But that’s a very cynical read of the situation…

76316 Fantastic Four vs. Galactus is available now – check out our review here – while The Fantastic Four: First Steps is also in cinemas worldwide from today.

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