Tag Archives: Batmobile

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.

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.

My Other Car’s The Batmobile

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Not many people can say that. One really. And we suspect if he knew anyone else was saying it he wouldn’t be happy.

However thanks to TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, you dear readers, can say ‘My Other Car’s the Batmobile’, as this deeply cool hot rod – instructions for which are available – is constructed only from the parts found within the new LEGO Technic 42127 Batmobile set.

There’s working steering, a V8 engine and… er, that’s it. Because to be fair it’s all the 42127 set is equipped with. Plus some unnecessary light-up bricks, but our thoughts on those being a Technic ‘feature’ mirror Batman’s feelings on impersonators.

You can convert your own 42127 Batmobile set into Nico’s hot rod alternate via his excellent website, where building instructions, further imagery and a video are available. Click the link above to take a look.

LEGO Technic 42127 The Batman Batmobile | Set Preview

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Controversial opinion: The world needs another comic book superhero movie rehash like a second Trump presidency.

And yet, thanks to Hollywood seemingly only funding sequels, prequels and spin-offs, that’s exactly what we’re going to get. Again.

And, as LEGO have a licensing agreement with DC Comics, that means we’re going to get another Batmobile set. Again.

This is the new LEGO Technic 42127 ‘The Batman’ Batmobile, and it looks bloody awful. Vaguely reminiscent of a muscle car with a barbecue in the boot, the new Batmobile makes for both a poor Technic set and movie car.

1,360 pieces, working steering, opening doors, a light brick that we don’t understand, and a barbecue in the boot do not seem to warrant an age recommendation of 10+, which we suspect has everything to do with marketing to a target group and nothing to do with build complexity.

42127 joins a series of ‘The Batman’ sets that span several LEGO themes, precluding the movie’s arrival in 2022. Still, at least LEGO have released a new Batmobile Tumbler set too…

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.

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.

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.

LEGO 76139 1989 Batmobile | Set Preview

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Great news for those of you who only work in black! LEGO have revealed their upcoming 76139 ‘1989 Batmobile’ set, at it is really very black indeed. With 3,306 pieces (at least 3,000 of which look to be black), 76139 is one of the largest Superheroes sets to date, and bridges nicely across the DC and Creator car lines.

The model is a faithful replica of the vehicle used in the 1989 Tim Burton movie, and comes with a rotating platform and three slightly superfluous mini-figures (Joker, Vicki Vale (who?!), and Batman himself), which gives away the model’s primary purpose as being a display piece rather than a toy or engineering demonstration. Nevertheless the new set does feature working steering, a sliding cockpit (using a new piece), and pop-up machine guns should Batman decide to go rogue.

The new 76139 ‘1989 Batmobile’ set is expected to cost a around £220/$250 – which is rather a lot – and will go on sale on Black Friday 2019, which seems both appropriate and quite possibly a dark joke considering the price…

Build-a-Batmobile

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Batman has had some good, bad and ugly vehicles over the years. By far our favourite is this, the Tumbler from The Dark Knight trilogy, built for real for the movies and managing to be both believable and brilliantly wild at the same time.

This superb mini-figure scale version of Batman’s coolest whip comes from previous bloggee hachiroku24 who has not only recreated the Tumbler perfectly he’s made video instructions available too so that you can build your very own. Head to hachiroku’s photostream via the link above to find the link.

Technic Tumbler

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Batman has had many vehicles over the years, however our favourite by some considerable margin is the Tumbler from The Dark Knight trilogy. Several full-size Tumblers were built for real to star in the movie (you can even see one in action here), and The Dark Knight’s dark ride has inspired a few Lego versions too. Today’s by newcomer Dominik Novak is a neat addition, being fully Technic, fairly small-scale, and thoroughly excellent looking too. Dominik’s Tumbler features a detailed cockpit, Hand-of-God steering and working suspension, and there’s more to see on both Flickr and Eurobricks via the links.

Knight in Shining Armour

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Lego Batman Batpod

We all know Batman only works in black (and sometimes very very dark grey). After the extravagant campness of his appearances in the ’60s this is something of a relief, but if he were to pick a new colour the Dark Knight could do well to take advice from ianying616 of Flickr.

ianying616 has recreated the amazing Batpod from The Dark Knight trilogy and given it an exterior somewhat shinier than the mat-black original. The result is spectacular and there’s more to see of ianying’s all-chrome Batpod at his photostream. Click the link in his name above to see all of the stunning imagery.

Lego Batman Batpod