Legos, anyone?

[danth]

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Lovely little ship- those angles are great, like an extrapolation of the Horton Bros' and Jack Northrop's flying wings. This itself would make for a splendid set, just saying. I'd be in for a couple copies.

Thank you! A while back, I sketched out some jokey ideas for spaceships -- one based on a triangle, one based on a rectangle, and one on a circle. This is the triangle ship. I designed it in Studio, and since I was also in for a copy, I only used pieces currently/recently in production. I figured that way, if anyone likes it (including me), they can easily/cheaply bricklink the parts. Well, semi-cheaply. Europe seems to have way more stores and better prices. 

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm a big Space fan, too, but I'm waiting for the fervor to die down, or for a double points period, or a visit to my local LEGO Store, whichever comes first. I don't have anywhere to display it, and this is definitely a display piece. I read a review saying that the head doesn't rotate, which would be fair if indeed there was some sort of hidden rocket buried within. However, the review made no mention of said hidden rocket, so it really beggars the question of why they'd leave such an easily accomplished bit of simple articulation out of the build. It's also a bummer that they used two 2x2 slopes with modern computer graphics instead of resurrecting the old CS computer graphics, a move that surely would've made a lot of Space fans giddy. Lastly, and the biggest black eye, they didn't include a proper astrofig. This would've been the perfect opportunity to officially give us the coveted light bley astrofig without resorting to piecing one together from disparate sources. The light bley fig would've been an apropos compliment to the large blue fig, recalling the old blue and grey ships. Just seems a huge missed opportunity to give Space fans an extra bit of Classic Space goodness.

Dang, the head doesn't rotate? I guess with the back of the helmet flat against the top of the air tanks, there's no way for it to swivel. I definitely would have preferred an astrofig to the droid, especially in a color we haven't gotten yet (blue, black, or light bley like you said). I was also hoping for some sort of gimmick, like opening the backpack to reveal some trans yellow panels and a computer room or something. It'd be cool if the back of the printed panel had another print, something like these: 

[M'Kyuun]

Yesterday and today the new Batman Vs Superman and The Batman Batmobile sets arrived, respectively, at my door and I just got done building both of them this evening. I didn't get the Batman and Robin Batmobile set (yet) as I'm not really a fan of its design, or the movie for that matter, but I may cave and grab it if I see it in the wild as I like Batmobiles and I may just use it as a parts set. Anyway, of the two I got, I'm by far a greater fan of the BvS Batmobile, but I think the "B" team worked on it and the The Batman car got the "A" team.  

The BvS Batmobile's split canopy is absent in this new model, which is a step down from the 2016 set which featured specially designed canopy parts to replicate that functionality of the film car. Surely they could have resurrected those molds, but they didn't. The 2016 set was very much geared at kids, and although the build is much simpler than the new set, it's still a good capture IMHO.  It's a shame they didn't try a little harder to replicate the front wheel armor, and this new model simply carries over the same solution for the rear wheel armor after ten years and a ton of new parts. Disappointing.

Here they are.  I'll start with the BvS car. It has much better side sculpting to capture the contours of the film car. They used a complex motorcycle fork piece to replicate the front wheel armor to so-so effect. At least it's there. I'm no too crazy about the flags as front tire armor, but I guess it was a simple solution. The dark grey color scheme of the new model matches the film car, though, so that's a nice improvement. I really like this Batmobile design, and I wish more effort had been put into this set. 

Like the BvS Batmobile, this isn't LEGO's first go with The Batman movie design. The original set came out in '22 with the premier of the film.  It was also a simpler set than the new take, but still a good capture, IMHO. It was also a good parts set, but I digress. My major gripe with this Batmobile is that it lacks any characteristics whatsoever that signify it as a Batmobile and IMHO, it would be more at home in a Fast and Furious film, as it's essentially a heavily modified Dodge Charger. However, if you've ever built a Speed Champions 8-wide set in the last couple of years, then you'll feel right at home with this set, which employs some slightly advanced techniques to really capture the shape and details of the car, quite beautifully I must say. Between the two sets, this one enjoyed the larger parts count, a more fulfilling build experience, and the more refined end product. I wish it had been the other way around, but it wasn't.

Both figs look great with crisp, nicely detailed prints. I was more focused on the cars and didn't take any close-ups of the figs. The Batman fig features dual molded legs to capture his black boots, and the BvS Batman has a nice armor piece (not sure if it's new). Both have soft-goods capes, which allow them to accommodate sitting the figs in their respective rides without crinkling like the old stiff capes. Both cowls are dual-molded with the eyes molded white, a preferable solution over LEGO's original cowl design. Oddly, neither fig comes with any accessories, not even the ubiquitous batarang.

The engine and hood detailing are sublime on the Batman Batmobile, with trans-red bricks under those ingots on the hood to represent the light effects of the movie car. Sorry I didn't capture that detail well with these photos. 

It's a great year thus far for LEGO Batman fans, as we're already served three Batmobiles from three different movies with very different aesthetics. I hope there are more in the pipeline, specifically the Arkham Knight Batmobile, a design LEGO has yet to do and one that's number one on my want list. With the new LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight video game releasing in May, encompassing the whole of Batman history in various media, I'm vehemently hoping the Arkham Knight Batmobile will be announced.  Guess we'll see.

Edited yesterday at 07:14 AM by M'Kyuun