| Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 30-12-2006 14:53 |
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spencer1984
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Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile
LEGO Model #7784
LEGO first started using licensed properties a few years ago, though they didn't acquire the rights to Batman until 2006. Two Batmobiles were released in the first series: a standard "Minifig scale" Batmobile, and this larger (about 1/12 scale) version.
Packaging
Although larger than most boxes (18.75" x 15" 3.75" ), LEGO follows a pretty typical theme with their packaging, and this is no exception: a photo of the finished model on the front, along with the kit name, number, part count (1045 pieces), recommended age range, and appropriate logos (LEGO, Batman, & DC in this case). One end of the box has another photo of the finished model along with the basic kit info and logos, while the other end has only the logos and legal warnings. The top edge has more legal-ese and two more photos, while the bottom edge repeats the photo from the side flap and has information about the LEGO club and he rest of the legal info. The back of the box is entirely made of images: a large overhead view of the car, with several detail callouts. An image of the currently availble kits is set in the lower right corner of the panel. The box hinges like a donut box, and the parts are packaged in several seperate baggies. Two booklets are required for the instructions (64 and 52 pages, 86 main steps total).
Building/Design
If you've ever built a LEGO set, you know what to expect...there's just a bit more here than usual. The instructions are great in that each step has a part callout, so you know what parts are added at each step and shouldn't miss anything along the way. You will need a large, flat surface to work on until step 12, when you add the first of two primary frame rails. With both rails in place, the design is strong enough to hold itself together pretty well. Total build time took around 3 1/2 hours. Though there are idea photos in the back of the book (including a Tumbler that can be built from this set), there are only instructions for the one model. The single-seat cockpit is done well, with an adjustable seat, adjustable steering column, and detailed side panels.
Features/Accessories
The two main features are both activated as the car rolls: the front wheels turn counterrotating turbines in the front of the car, while the rear wheels turn the jet exhausts. The steering wheel turns, but isn't tied to the front wheels. Instead, turning it to the right pops the mask up, at which point you can flip it back to reveal the two turbine intakes. Although it all looks very cool and works well, I'm not really wowed by either feature. You can lift the mask out of the way with less effort than what it takes to open the cockpit and twist the wheel. Also, the spinning engines are a neat idea, but a little silly in execution. Since both intakes use the same turbine but spin in opposite directions, you're left with one engine blowing air out the intake. Oh, well...they still get an "A" for effort.
Overall
It's not based on any specific Batmobile, so LEGO is off the hook as far as that goes but as a Batmobile and a car in general? Very, very well done. Any reservations I had about the action features are lost in the overall "cool" factor of this piece. If I had one nitpick, I would have preferred a solid hood over the open one that's here, but a few black plates can take care of that easily enough. I also made a negligible adjustment to the eyes on my car (I can post more if anyone is interested). If you're a fan of Batman, LEGOs, or Batmobiles in general, you should strongly consider picking this up.
Edited by spencer1984 on 30-12-2006 14:59 |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 30-12-2006 16:59 |
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FlaBat
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Nice review. I have the kit, but have not built it yet. I don?t have room for the finished model just yet. It?s too bad that LEGO did not include instructions on how to build a Tumbler from this set. Perhaps they are Online somewhere. I have all the LEGO stes so far and when I do build my LEGO sets I may just glue them together so they won?t come apart.
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 31-12-2006 09:57 |
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spencer1984
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Thanks! Yeah, I actually did some rearranging before I had a place for it. On the up side, that also gave me room for my X-Wing.
FlaBat wrote:
I have all the LEGO stes so far and when I do build my LEGO sets I may just glue them together so they won?t come apart.
A lot of people do that, though I don't just in case I want to make any changes in the future. I'll tell you, though: this car is really solid once it's together. You won't have anything come apart unless you want it to.
Speaking of which: last night, I decided to go ahead and "fix" the hood:
I was just going to add flat plates in there (a pair of 4x12 plates will fit perfectly), but I decided to get fancy and add a hinging hood so that I could still see the engine:
As long as I was taking pictures, I thought I'd show a closeup of my eye modification, too. Out of the box, the eyes are made by sticking a Slope Brick 33 to a Technic 1/2 pin in a 1x1 Technic Brick (as shown by the yellow square). Unfortunately, that meant that the upper & lower halves were offset from each other a bit, and looked off. I replaced the lower brick/pin combo with a 1x1 Plate(green rectangle) on a Headlight Brick(red rectangle). Now they line up perfectly:
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 31-12-2006 13:49 |
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real-dark-knight
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Excellent review Spencer. I'm almost tempted! The pictures and descriptions are really good.
I think you know how I feel about Lego (at least you did - you quoted me on it once I remember!), I just don't have an interest in it; however valid a part of the overall BatWorld it is. I'll stick to diecasts.
I think some of the age ranges are a bit off - I saw a box the other day that had 8-12 on it. My nephew is 8, maybe I'm under-estimating him, but I can't see anyway he could do that (at least not alone!)
If however you do do Lego, I'd have thought glueing it would possibly take the pleasure away of building it again (at whatever point in the future you might so desire?).
I remember as a child, I lost a front tooth trying to separate Lego bits (and I got no sympathy from my mum "I told you that would that happen!!" etc).
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 01-01-2007 02:18 |
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spencer1984
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Thanks! Yeah, I know they're definitely not for everyone. They sort of fit with my main interest of model building, though, so I still have fun with them (they're a lot easier to work with in some cases: no paint, tools, or glue required).
real-dark-knight wrote:
I remember as a child, I lost a front tooth trying to separate Lego bits (and I got no sympathy from my mum "I told you that would that happen!!" etc).
Ouch. I used to seperate them like that when I was little, too. A brick gave out before any dentals, though, so I switched to tools pretty quickly before I damaged any too much to use. |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 01-01-2007 03:44 |
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Drunken Fist
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I've wanted to get this, it looks great! The price is just too high for me, though. Lego stuff usually is pretty pricey.
See my Myspace profile!
CHECK OUT MY BLOG! |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 01-01-2007 18:22 |
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Caleson
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Great review! Although, I couldn't quite catch all the lingo.  Along with the high prices though, I'd have to have at least two or three nice LEGO sets in my collection for them to not look way out of place. My brother was really into the pirate and medieval sets in the early '90s, and I had some fun building the small sets (the complete ones anyway), but I don't think I'm into LEGO enough now to start buying them. Though I do find myself admiring the awesome Batwing set once in a while. It would definitely be fun to build...
real-dark-knight wrote:
I remember as a child, I lost a front tooth trying to separate Lego bits (and I got no sympathy from my mum "I told you that would that happen!!" etc). I think I remember trying that myself when I was little. Luckily, nothing bad came out of it.
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 01-01-2007 19:28 |
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spencer1984
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I just got back from TRU, where they had it marked down to $50. If anyone was considering it, now is the time.
Caleson wrote:
Great review! Although, I couldn't quite catch all the lingo.
Thanks! I realize now that I forgot to add underlines/boldfaced text to make it more obvious, but the specific part names in my second post all link to pages in a LEGO visual guide to help out. I actually don't know most of the "correct" terms myself, so I looked them up and linked them just in case.
That Batwing is pretty nice looking. It's the only one of the vehicles that I don't have yet, and I think I may pick it up in the near future. |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 01-01-2007 21:53 |
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Tom-Tom
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how much does this puppy cost? i believe you spencer, but i dont have any TRUs near me. |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 01-01-2007 21:58 |
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FlaBat
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Tom-Tom wrote:
how much does this puppy cost? i believe you spencer, but i dont have any TRUs near me.
They were $79.99 for awhile, but TRU did just lower the price to S49.99.
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 02-01-2007 00:07 |
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BornAgainBatman
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sweet!!1
i need to get to a tru fast!!!
so this comes with no lego figs??? |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 02-01-2007 11:14 |
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spencer1984
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Correct - it's a different scale altogether, so the regular LEGO figs won't work with it (unless you wanteed to have dozens of them swarming across the surface...that could work).
:p:p:p
The complete history of the Batmobile: BatmobileHistory.com
Scale models of Batmobiles & more: spencer1984.com |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 02-01-2007 19:49 |
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real-dark-knight
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Spencer - totally unrelated - but love the new avatar and signature!
I like my avatar and wouldn't wanna change it, but that's got me thinking.............
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 02-01-2007 22:21 |
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spencer1984
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Thanks! I figured with the new year I ought to update things, and thanks to Justice #9 I had an ideal image waiting to be used
The complete history of the Batmobile: BatmobileHistory.com
Scale models of Batmobiles & more: spencer1984.com |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 02-01-2007 22:56 |
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A_Spidey_Fan
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Nice review spencer1984, and I like the picture that's at the bottem of each posting(The 1 with the Riddler and Batman in the Batmobile). Was wondering something, and I hope someone can answer this: Any idea if any Batman action figures could actually fit inside this Batmobile? I mean, the 6" scales most likely wouldn't, but I was thinking maybe the approxmatily 3" JL/JLU or Microman Batman figures could. The scale figures between 4"-5.5" might be pushing it for this, but I think the JL/JLU or Microman Batmans could fit.
Glad to see that both Lego and Mega Brands(Which used to be known as Mega Blocks) are doing stuff based on properties. When I little, I really wished for Lego based stuff on comic book superheroes and what not, because of the customization you could do, and design things however you wanted. Plus, the figures are small so they could fit in your pocket as you take them around and play with them. While I may not be into Lego like I used to, I'm still interested in them, espeically now a days with the stuff based on properities. I do wish this Batmobile was at a lower price though. |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 03-01-2007 10:23 |
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spencer1984
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The 6" Batman can just about fit: if he had hip articulation that would allow his legs to move closer together, I think he'd make it. The TB figures would definitely fit, and the BTAS-JLU figures might actually be a bit small.
The complete history of the Batmobile: BatmobileHistory.com
Scale models of Batmobiles & more: spencer1984.com |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 07-01-2007 16:47 |
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real-dark-knight
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I saw a couple of Batman lego sets in the shops today...........
I know I've already said I'm not a great fan, but I've got to say the boxes looked quite impressive. Quite coincidentally, last night I saw a Lego ad for Jabba's Barge - that did look good!
I asked a friend about Lego recently who gets toys for her kids (and finds it funny that I talk about these things with such interest to them), she wasn't a fan of lego - for the sole reason it's not something she says turns up in sales very often! So I guess it must sell pretty well if it doesnt seem to get reduced. I guess they tend to license from heavyweight character/stories; so that must help sales a little |
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| RE: Cool review... -
Posted on 07-01-2007 17:54 |
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inzo
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I have the Batman and Two-Face Batmobile...
I have say that I wish this one looked more smoother
around the edges...Its looks like an old Nintendo game
screen shot or is it just me...
If it climbs down to well under $20.00 then I'll mess
with it...
Also the modifications are cool...
Edited by inzo on 07-01-2007 18:30 |
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| RE: Review: LEGO Ultimate Collectors' Edition Batmobile -
Posted on 09-01-2007 13:18 |
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A_Spidey_Fan
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Cool, so both The Batman and Batman Begins figures, along with probably Hasbro's/Kenner's figures, will defently fit in well. Man, that would be cool if the 6" figures could if they had the hip articulation. Course with Lego, I suppose you could modify it so that it can fit in a 6" figure, so long as you have some extra pieces. And even if the onces based on Bruce Timm's Animated designs and Micromen might be too small, the fact of the matter is, they can fit into it or you can probably modifiy it so that it's a more perfect fit/scale for those figures.
Edited by A_Spidey_Fan on 09-01-2007 13:27 |
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