One more week until the LEGO Batman Movie is out! We are soo excited because we love the LEGO Batman and LEGO Justice League DVD series, as well as The LEGO Movie. The kids loved them so much that they must have seen each of them for more than 5 times! We don't always go to the cinema, but for this we will definitely go (I didn't dare to tell them that we missed the awesome media preview as I already upset hubby by telling him haha...).
The kids are extra excited because we've received an amazing box of LEGO Batman Movie goodies from LEGO and Warner Bros UK, thank you so much! Everything except one item in the box are available to buy, so we did an unboxing video to show you what we've received:
and here is our review:
By allowing the kids to get their hands on the products, 3 items were broken into and 2 misplaced when I took this picture, so I had to do some editing! We've received:
LEGO Batman Movie Minifigure Pack
LEGO Batman Movie Harley Quinn Key Light
LEGO Batman Movie Robin Link Watch
LEGO Batman Movie Jokers Mad House Poster
LEGO Batman Movie The Essential Guide
LEGO Batman Movie The Joker Balloon Escape
LEGO Batman Movie The Batmobile
LEGO Batman Movie The Scuttler
LEGO Batman Batarang
There are 20 LEGO Batman Movie minifigures from the series, and we've found Commisioner Gordon in our pack. Looking at the collection there are some really fun ones to collect, including Fairy Batman (?!), Vacation Batman (that batduck ring!), Nurse Harley Quinn (cute!) and The Eraser. It would be awesome to have them all! RRP is £2.99 each.
The LEGO Batman Movie Key Light assortment by Re:creation Ltd are RRP £7.99 (age 5+), and features Batman, Batman Glam Rocker, Batman Kimono, Batgirl, Harley Quinn that we've received, and The Joker. Batman, Batman Glam Rocker and Batman Kimono, like the Batman in the LEGO Batman Movie, has light up eyes feature, whilst Batgirl, Harley Quinn and The Joker has poseable arms and light angling legs.
We received Harley Quinn from the box, but I was given the new Batman at the Toy Fair. We have the previous Batman version too (the new for Spring 2017 LEGO Batman has a utility belt). They make perfect key rings and look great on school bags too, I just had to remind Clay not to shine the light into anyone's eyes, including his own.
There is a collection of LEGO Batman Movie Maxi Posters by Pyramid, measuring 61cm x 91.5cm (RRP £3.99) and we were sent the Joker's Mad House. I think it's quite cool, and me and Abby are intrigued by the crossed out Wayne Manor, wondering if it hint to anything related to the movie! Clay is a bit scared of The Joker though bless him.
Brilliant quality and print, definitely worth keeping an eye out for them!
The LEGO Batman Movie: The Essential Guide by DK books (RRP £9.99) is the essential item fans should get especially after watching the movie! I stopped the kids from peaking, but I did of course and it looked amazing! I'm looking forward to reading this with the kids.
We bought Clay the LEGO Batman version of the LEGO Minifigure Link Watch by Clic Time (RRP £19.99) last year for his birthday, and we were really happy to find LEGO Batman Movie Robin in our press goodie box! We love how you can change the colour pattern by clicking the pieces together, just like you would with LEGO. You can also get The Joker and Batgirl version of the watch.
I built this LEGO Batman Movie The Joker Balloon Escape set (70900, RRP £11.99) because I love the balloons, but after completion, I was more attracted to the bomb, because it's one very sophisticated LEGO bomb! And you can "blow up" the silo too! The kids said that the balloons reminded them of lollies. I should have known.
Oh, and we saw a page in the manual showing us that The Joker Balloon Escape can be a part of a bigger set! By collecting the 3 sets shown in the picture (70900, 70901 and 70902) you can build a power station!
Clay has chosen to build the LEGO Batman Movie Batmobile (RRP 70905, RRP £54.99) because well, it is THE Batmobile. This one has a very different design, but can be transformed into 3 modes: Race mode, Parallel-parking mode (it's a very handy mode to have!) and Monster Truck mode, which we didn't notice until we finished building it:
Clay was super excited to find out about the Monster Truck mode, which is also his favourite mode. The Batmobile has been built for days and it's still in one piece, so I'm guessing that he really likes it (otherwise he will remove certain pieces from a set for his own creation instead).
The recommended age for this set is 8+, and there is a good reason for it. Clay has given it a very good go, and did do a lot of it by himself, but there is quite a lot to build, and he needed help with certain parts that require stronger fingers to put together. He had lots of fun doing the rest though, especially when one of us was willing to help him find the pieces!
The LEGO Batman Movie: The Batmobile set comes with 5 minifigures, I wonder how the Kabuki Twins are related to the movie?
And that awesome Batman Merch Gun Robin is holding, which is created by attaching the bottom bit to an existing LEGO gun piece, made me wonder if the designer of that LEGO gun piece has already thought of the possibility that it can be expanded by attaching something to it? The LEGO bricks designers always intrigue me with their creations, and the LEGO master builders can always find a new use for classic pieces too. It's really fascinating!
The Batmobile in the LEGO Batman Movie is a 2 seater, and one of the space is for Robin! Now that's rare!
Absolutely love the details of the Batmobile.
The LEGO Batman Movie Batmobile can also shoot the roof off for quick escape! The mechanism for this is quite interesting, not one we have seen before. Instead of pulling or pushing the lever at the back of the Batmobile (marked with a purple piece), you turn it to pop the roof.
The LEGO Batman Movie range, especially the bigger sets, uses quite a bit of the above pieces for the sets. What's normally LEGO gold bricks are now black bricks that provides details on LEGO Batman's vehicles, and we saw quite a bit of the clear 2 dot pieces being used as well, which we lost a couple already because they are a bit hard to find on our cream carpet haha.
We've also noticed a new LEGO piece combination that allow parts to bend by each click (it makes a click sound when it turns an angle further). It could be a common LEGO brick, or even LEGO Technic brick we aren't sure, but it's new to us anyway, and we like it! It does take stronger fingers to snap them together though so younger children will need some help here.
We found the LEGO Batman Movie The Batmobile set really cool, but The LEGO Batman Movie The Scuttler was the set that impressed us most:
| Right: I realised we haven't taken an open box picture for The Scuttler until we were half way through! |
The LEGO Batman Movie: The Scuttler (70908, RRP £84.99) comes with 6 LEGO minifigures, including one of Abby's favourite villain Poison Ivy, and LEGO Robin with pants on! Look at the gorgeous details on Poison Ivy's hair. I'm also very impressed with LEGO Batman's facial features. This is the first time I noticed why he's wearing a bandana, and we had many LEGO Batmans before this one! How clever is it to use his eyebrows as eyes when he's wearing his mask?!
The main creation in the set is of course The Scuttler. We have been wondering what it was by looking at the box. We initially thought it was shaped like a bug, but the more we built, the more it looks like a gorilla with long arms and short legs. It even has ears!
There was a lot of details put into The Scuttler, and I'm really surprised because I was expecting a lot of bigger unique components, which makes them easier to build. But there was a lot of classic components mixed with LEGO Technic instead, so for younger children it can be harder to build (recommended for age 9+), but for us, this is exactly what we love about LEGO.
Because of the LEGO bricks used, not only is The Scuttler really detailed, it has a lot of features as well.
The Scuttler's head, ears, arms and hands, legs and feet are all bendable, which made us realise that it's not a vehicle, but a robot.
LEGO Batman sits in the head, with movable steering panel (I think!). The windscreen opens, and it has side doors as well.
It carries a dangerous looking weapon in the rear, and there is space to hide LEGO Batman's Jet Pack as well.
The Scuttler has a net shooter, and shoots quite far! While we were still building the Scuttler, Clay had some fun playing Catch The Joker with the net.
The Scuttler has 6 shooters, 2 each on the arms and 1 each next to the neck.
The arms are extendable with a very clever mechanism. I love studying how the design works, and have been wondering why the designer used a blue and a sand colour piece to attach the cogs. Apparently the sand colour connection tube is slightly smaller, so the cog attached to it rolls smoother, while the blue one is a tiny bit tighter. I mean, you have to be more than someone who likes to build LEGO to create something like this. Seriously, this is proper engineer work!
They also used a possibly new LEGO piece we've never seen before (the black zig-zag one) to allow the arm to extend and roll back (like a saw!).
Not only are the functions cool looking, well engineered and has a purpose, The Scuttler has some really nice features that, not only make it look cool, but also makes a lot of sense to have it, even if they don't really function for the set. Like the cable in the above picture. It doesn't actually do anything, but it makes sense to have it there (could be to control oxygen/ pressure inside the cockpit?), and it looks good too. That attention to detail really amaze me.
Another clever engineering work I wanted to show you is this connection system, attaching the legs to the body of the Scuttler. I don't even know how they manage to get the distance of the pieces exactly right to fit the bendable joint (another new LEGO brick combination we haven't seen before). Surely you'll need a computer to calculate all this for 100% accuracy?!
Don't you agree that LEGO is absolutely fascinating? Or am I just being geeky? But I think this is one of the main reason why LEGO stand above other construction kits. The thoughtfulness, the engineering work, the clever designs, that's what you are paying for, and not just for a set where you put pieces together.
We also noticed that LEGO has been improving their structure durability. In the past, we simply click 2 pieces of LEGO bricks together, maybe interlock them like building a house, but they break easily. Now you see all sorts of method implemented, to keep the bricks attached without ruining the design.
Take the LEGO Batman Movie: The Batmobile for example. If you look at the above picture where the wheel is, you can see a tiny piece that looks like a screw in it. That's there to lock the whole wheel into the Batmobile. It doesn't really need the tiny piece because it clicked onto the Batmobile and stayed put, but with that little piece there, it secures the wheel even further.
We saw this in one of the LEGO City set that we are currently reviewing as well, which I will mention in the LEGO City post.
The LEGO Batman Movie range is brilliant, and also contain these super adorable LEGO BrickHeadz that'll be out on 1st March 2017 (RRP £9.99)! They are so so cute! LEGO BrickHeadz are a brand new range and comes with characters from other range as well, which you can find through the purple link. These will no doubt be another popular collectibles like the LEGO Minifigures!
Okay I was actually going to say that there is a lot of other awesome The LEGO Batman Movie sets but I got carried away as soon as I saw these during my research. So do check out the whole LEGO Batman Movie range here, which also comes with Arkham Asylum and Batcave!
We've received a LEGO Batman Batarang in our goodie box that was built using LEGO bricks, which was absolutely awesome! It's not for sale, but you can buy a LEGO Batman Movie Batman Batarang from their online store for RRP £6.99 that looks like the above.
Overall we are super happy with the LEGO Batman Movie merchandise, especially the LEGO construction sets. We are most impressed with The Scuttler, which is very playable and with the details and clever design, plus a good amount of construction time, it's definitely value for money. But we have enjoyed building the other LEGO sets too of course, we love playing with LEGO!
One more week to go and we will be watching the LEGO Batman Movie, and all these goodies will be even more fun to play with (and read!)!
