Tag Archives: Batman

LEGO 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box | Set Preview

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LEGO’s ‘Set for Adults’ just keep getting bigger. This is the brand new 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box, a £345/$399, near-4,000 piece tableau that recreates Batman’s secret lair from the 1992 blockbuster ‘Batman Returns’ in mini-figure scale. And yes, we had to look up what a ‘tableau’ is.

Measuring over half-a-metre in length, featuring seven mini-figures, the Batmobile, and 3,981 pieces, almost all of which are black (or very very dark grey), 76252 is one of the largest mini-figure scale sets that LEGO has ever produced.

Hinging along its right-hand edge, allowing the box – sorry tableau – to open , a variety of small play features are included, which can be controlled from the back via hidden mechanisms. These include a rotating chair, changing computer screen, opening toolbox, and an “illuminated Batsuit vault”. It’s safe to say a ‘tableau’ is more about the visuals than the functions…

Due for release exclusively at LEGO.com on June 8th, the LEGO 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box is – like many of the brand’s recent sets – aimed at ages 18+, although for once the black packaging is more than marketing gimmick. With nearly 4,000 black or very very dark grey pieces, we expect the age on said packaging is more than a marketing gimmick this time too, as we can only imagine how difficult to read the instructions will be.

So what do you think internet? A spectacular homage to the 1992 ‘Batman Returns’ movie, a source of all the black and very very dark grey parts you will ever need, or another unattainable LEGO set priced so far out of reach only Bruce Wayne could afford it? There’s at least a neat circularity to 76252 if it’s the latter.

Bruce Wayne’s Bike

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Batman gets to ride/drive/fly some pretty awesome stuff. But when he’s not at work fighting the seedy underbelly of Gotham, Bruce Wayne might still want access to some cool machinery. Cue 1980SomethingSpaceGuy, who has repurposed the parts from the 42155 The Batman – Batcycle set into this stealthy cafe racer. A V4 engine, steering and suspension all feature, and there’s more to see of 1980’s 42155 B-Model at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.

LEGO Technic H1 2023 | Set Previews

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This week marks the start of a brand a new year, and thus, as is customary, our sneaky Elves have unearthed all the brand new for 2023 LEGO Technic sets! So, following our reveal of the awesome looking 42154 Ford GT earlier in the week, here is every new addition to the LEGO Technic line-up due to reach stores in the first half of 2023…

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42147 Dump Truck

Kicking off the new 2023 Technic range is this, the 42147 Dump Truck. Consisting of 177 pieces and aimed at ages 7+, 42147 looks like a great way to introduce Technic to younger builders, with working ‘HOG’ steering, a tipping bucket, and a good level of visual detail that reasonably approximates any number of generic compact trucks common across Asia in particular. 42147 costs around £9, can also be built as a rather decent looking excavator, and is available to buy now.

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42148 Snow Groomer

Alternatively, with the same target age and just one difference in the piece count, your £9 for a Technic starter set could be spent on this; the 42148 Snow Groomer. 42148 also looks pretty good to us, and includes mechanical levers to operate the front blade and the rear smoothing, um… thingy. Like 42147 above, an alternative model can also be constructed (in this case the worst-looking snowmobile we’ve ever seen) and is available to buy now.

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42149 Monster Jam Dragon & 42150 Monster Jam Monster Mutt

It wouldn’t be a New Year Set Preview without a pair of pull-backs. Fortunately after some dismal efforts a few years ago, LEGO seem to have struck gold with the officially-licensed ‘Monster Jam’ series, which are perfect for pull-back tomfoolery. 2023 sees another two real-world monster trucks from the American arena spectacular immortalised in brick-form, one of which is giant dog. There’s a green dragon or something too, but if you don’t want the giant dog there’s something wrong with you. Each set costs around £18, and both are available to buy now. Buy the dog.

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42151 Bugatti Bolide

Continuing LEGO’s partnership with Bugatti, which has produced such sets as the huge Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron, comes the 905-piece 42151 Bugatti Bolide. Nope, we hadn’t heard of it either. Apparently the Bolide is a $4million track-only hypercar limited to just 40 units, due for delivery some time in 2024. Unless you buy this one of course, which is available now for £45. That price still seems rather a lot for a set that has only working steering and a miniature V16 piston engine for its technical features, but hey – it’s got lots of stickers, some new panels, and lightsabers for rear lights.

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42152 Firefighter Aircraft

This is more like it. Looking a bit like a Canadair CL-215 water bomber (but distinct enough not to require licensing…), 42152 brings some decent technical functions to the Technic line-up in aircraft form. And it can dump blue bricks from its hold.

Retractible landing gear, a working tail rudder, propellors that spin when the model is pushed along the floor (with its landing gear retracted), and a lever to dump the ‘water’ all feature, as do a few new pieces not seen before – including some curved corner sloped panels that’ll you’ll soon be able to find listed on Bricklink at an enormous cost. Aimed at ages 10+, 42152 is a welcome addition to the Technic hangar and will reach stores later this quarter.

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42153 NASCAR Next-Gen Chevrolet Camaro

It’s time for some double branding with this; the 42153 NASCAR Next-Gen Chevrolet Camaro. Looking rather good (albeit in a very be-stickered way), the new 42153 set brings next-generation NASCAR to the LEGO Technic line-up. And by ‘next-generation’ we mean, ‘exactly the same as NASCAR has always been’. Cue angry comments from NASCAR fans.

Costing the same £45 as the 42151 Bugatti-we’d-never-heard-of above, but with some 230 fewer pieces, 42153 looks to be even poorer value, featuring only a working miniature V8 engine and ‘HOG’ steering. It does look nice though, and will reach stores in March 2023.

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42155 The Batman – Batcycle

2023’s final new addition is this, the 42155 The Batman – Batcycle, which we should write in all-caps but can’t bring ourselves to. We haven’t seen 2022’s ‘The Batman’ movie, having decided that ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy cannot be bettered, but apparently this features in it. It’s no Tumbler…

But it is quite a nice looking motorcycle we have to admit, and includes an H4 engine, working suspension (via new shock absorbers in black), steering, and a phat set of tyres on new black rims. Expect 641 pieces, a 9+ target age, and £50 price-tag when 42155 lands on shelves in March 2023.

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And there you have it, the complete line-up of new LEGO Technic sets for the first half of 2023. Which new Technic sets do you think are worth having? Us… we’ll take the Ford GT.

Bat Effect

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We like a good mash-up here at The Lego Car Blog, even if we don’t really understand one or more of the things being mashed. Cue previous bloggee Slick_Brick, who has successfully merged Christopher Nolan era Batman (aka the best Batman) with the Mass Effect video game, of which we know nothing. We assume it has some lovely flowers in it though. Anyway, the results are excellent, with a neat Tumbler-esque rover driving through a wonderfully constructed alien landscape, and there’s more to see of Slick’s Bat Effect mash-up via the link above.

Dananananana…

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…is the sound a helicopter makes. Also Batman.

This is the ‘Batcopter’ from the Batman TV series, which was a little more, er… ‘festive’ than the dark and secretive Batman we know from the 2010s. Still, if every time you fought crime giant bubble writing appeared shouting ‘KAPOW!’, there was probably little point being stealthy.

Andre Pinto’s ‘Batcopter’ captures the camp flamboyance of the ’60s caped crusader brilliantly, and there’s more to see at his ‘Batcopter TV’ album on Flickr. Dananananana…

To the Bat Bus!

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What’s this? Is Batman giving up on vigilante crime-fighting in favour of all-natural-ethnically-sustainable-like-and-subscribe-#vanlife? Thankfully a ginormous gas-turbine-rocket-engine-propulsion-thingumy mounted in the bed of his ’60s Volkswagen Transporter suggests not.

Our hope is the Dark Knight is off to infiltrate the #vanlife community before beating the living crap out them. Not for being criminals, just for being douchbags. Whilst we luxuriate in that thought you can check out more of Batman’s new ride courtesy of 1saac W. of Flickr.

Batman’s going to give them not the beating that they deserve, but the one they need.

LEGO 76240 Batmobile Tumbler | Set Preview

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It’s been thirteen years since Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ re-set the bar for Batman movies. It’s also been thirteen years since the best Batmobile of all time crashed onto screens, and seven since LEGO’s own 76023 Tumbler set first crashed across bedroom floors.

Time therefore for an update, which LEGO have revealed today in the form of the new 76240 Batmobile Tumbler.

76240 looks fairly similar to the first set to recreate the Tumbler, because… well, it is, but the new version includes 200 more pieces for a total parts count of over 2,000. It also features the awesome tyres first released with the 42054 Technic Claas Xerion 5000 – although we’re not actually sure they’re that accurate for the Tumbler – along with LEGO’s new all-black marketing for their adult sets, which is rather appropriate for ‘The Dark Knight’.

The ’18+’ bit is probably just marketing guff though, allowing adults to feel more comfortable purchasing a toy / justifying it to a perplexed partner. “Honestly Barbara, this isn’t for kids. It’s a sophisticated interlocking building system!” “OK, just buy the damn thing. (Sigh….)”.

Nevertheless – and unlike the Batman films that followed ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy – 76240 looks a good update to bring the Tumbler back to Batman fans in LEGO form, and the new set will be available to buy for around $230/£170 when it reaches stores later this year.

Game of Bricks – Light Kit (76139 1989 Batmobile) | Review

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The Lego Car Blog laziness, er… we mean ‘generosity’ continues today, as we’ve passed another impressive looking Game of Bricks lighting kit on to a reader for their thoughts. Greg Kinkaid (aka black_hand_bricks on Instagram) was one of the lucky readers first to respond to our Facebook call, and bagged himself a Game of Bricks kit to light up the huge LEGO 76139 1989 Batmobile set. Read on to find out Greg’s thoughts!

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“Where does he get those wonderful toys?” people might ask of me. Well the Batmobile comes from LEGO, but the light emitting from within it – that’s all Game of Bricks. I was offered the opportunity to write a review here at The Lego Car Blog, making this both my first review and my first light kit; the Game of Bricks 76139 1989 Batmobile.

My Game of Bricks light kit arrived in a plain padded envelope, which held a nice sturdy box filled with individually numbered bags. At first I was unsure of how to even begin putting it together, but a link to the online instructions was in my order confirmation e-mail, leading to thorough and well photographed build steps.

Onto the kit, and a tedious process starts at the back of the Batmobile set running wires from the rocket booster, tail lights, as well as the fin lights, and moves forward from there. Much of the set must be disassembled during the installation, with wheels, headlights, side panels, the back panel as well as the intakes all removed, but the result is wires that are very hard to see when the installation is finished. That said, several of the kit’s lights are fitted with 3M tape, so I don’t get the feeling the lighting kit will be reusable if the set is ever disassembled again.

The wiring on the lights seems thin but is stronger than it looks, with some wires twisted together and others a single strand, depending on the number of LEDs attached. All the boards and the battery pack fit nicely within the back end of the set between the rear wheels, and these had command strips so they’re not just floating around. 

Now for the bad bits; The lights in the headlight area and the turrets were tricky to run in-between gaps within the front wheel-wells and through to the bottom of the vehicle. Once they were run to the back of the set I discovered the wires were the exact length of the model. That made it even more difficult, because – whilst the instructional photos showed a bit of slack to pull the board out and easily plug in the lights – instead I had to fat finger the plugs in the lower part next to the axle and hope the lights didn’t pull out of the other end.

The 3M strips I mentioned before didn’t seem to hold up after the recent heat wave and I had to go back in and push them back down. Afterwards the underside looked messy so I used the wire ties that were in the packaging to clean it up, and perhaps this kit would be better to use these in the official installation instructions.

Overall though, even after the frustrating installation, I would recommend the Game of Bricks  lighting kit for those looking to make their LEGO 76139 1989 Batmobile set even more impressive ; visually the end result is amazing.  And in hindsight I should probably have opted for the remote version too, so I wouldn’t have to mess about with the backend to turn it on!

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Visit the Game of Bricks Shop here!

Build-a-Batmobile

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Batman hasn’t always been dark and moody. There was a time when he was a little more… flamboyant.

These were his wheels from that more festive era; the Lincoln Futura-based, George Barris-designed 1966 Batmobile, and now you can build one too.

Flickr’s Orion Pax has recreated the ’60s television icon brilliantly and he’s released building instructions for his ’66 Batmobile model alongside the stunning imagery. Head to Orion’s photostream via the link above or visit his website here to see more and build your own!

I Only Work In Black…

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Mini-figure Batman is looking particularly moody in this shot, no doubt pondering darkness, no parents, and upgrades to his sound system. KitKat1414 is the builder behind it and there’s more to see of his Tumbler and Dark Knight on Flickr here.

Batlift Truck

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Ever wondered how Batman moves all his stuff around the Batcave? No, us neither, but Pasq67 has.

Cue Batman’s Fenwick forklift truck, which – considering it only operates out of sight in the Batcave – has been unnecessarily restyled to make it more Batty.

It also appears to be used only to transport large quantities of brooms (Batbrooms?) for some reason, but we know very little about comic book superheroes so who are we to argue.

See more on Flickr via the link!

Dark Knight Distancing

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Batman’s job has got a lot easier lately. Gone are the days of people holding up banks (they’re closed), robbing stores (closed), even walking out of a restaurant without paying (closed). Instead the Dark Knight is enforcing social distancing rules and breaking up groups of teens in the park. Still, at least he’s still got the Tumbler, which means he remains unbelievably cool. This brilliant Lego version comes from Riskjockey, there are instructions available, and you can see more on Flickr. Click the link above to order that old lady to stop hoarding toilet paper.

Slaughter is the Best Medicine

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The Dark Knight got pretty much everything right, becoming probably the best superhero movie of all time. Gritty, visceral, and darkly intelligent, it even pulled off that hardest of action movie prerequisites, the car chase.

The streets of Gotham became slightly more crashy thanks to the Joker, and the enormous fairground semi-truck deployed to conduct an audacious kidnapping.

Previous bloggee The Eleventh Bricks has done superb job recreating the Joker’s vehicle of choice, including accurate decals on the trailer complete with an extra ‘S’ added to the tag-line. Head to Eleventh’s photostream via the link above to put on your happy face.

UniBatty

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Is it just us, or is a bright pink Batmobile infinitely scarier than a black one?

It’ll be driven by the type of girl who’ll scream ‘This song is about meeee!’ at least twice a night, have an exhaustive Facebook album entitled ‘Randoms’, put a ‘Powered by Fairydust’ sticker on the trunk of their car, and claim you’re the crazy one for not wanting to come over for her cat’s birthday, before crying uncontrollably about how you don’t care enough… OK, that may have got a little personal, but you know what we mean. Pink cars are terrifying.

That hasn’t stopped The Brothers Brick’s own Chris Doyle from, er… ‘enhancing’ the official 76139 DC Comics 1989 Batmobile set though, with a new pink paint job, smiling star wheels, Unikitty at the controls, and very probably a ‘Powered by Fairydust’ sticker on the back.

Chris hasn’t stopped there either, uploading an album sixty photos strong (just like Karen’s ‘Randoms’ album… sorry, that got personal again), with Unikitty-ed versions of several of the Dark Knight’s rides. He’s gonna be pissed.

Click this link to take a look, where we definitely won’t be joining you for fear of getting sucked into another one of Karen’s ‘Sex and the City’ marathons…

Holy Guacamole Batman!

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Batman may have been a bit… camper back in the ’60s, but Adam West was considerably more violent, at least if this Technic recreation of the ’66 Batmobile is anything to go by. Created by previous bloggee James Tillson it features working steering, a flame afterburner, a rocket launcher, and a ‘chain slicer’; basically a giant circular saw that appears out of the front like something from Robot Wars. That’ll leave a mark…

Head to James’ Flickr photostream or the Eurobricks discussion forum to see more.