User:Berrybrick/BtcvRev

<poll> ''What do you think of 76052 Batman Classic TV Series - Batcave?'' 5/5 Slam! Pow! Wham! 4/5 Holy rock and roll, Batman! 3/5 Don't worry, Boy Wonder, even Batman makes mistakes sometimes: the mettle of a true crimefighter is that they keep trying 2/5 Let this set serve as a lesson that even the most depraved hives of villainy have some good deep inside 1/5 Na na na na not for me I just want to see the results </poll>

Hail, Brickipedia! This was your Christmas present to me this year, a chance to review 76052 Batman Classic TV Series - Batcave. I hesitate to say that I am a “big” fan of the show which this set is based on, but it is more or less what got me into Batman and then the larger DC Universe when I was younger, so please excuse any hipsterism which shows through. I liked it before it was cool. Until recently, the 60s Batman TV series wasn’t quite so celebrated; it had its fans, but until the last few years with DC and Warner Bros really playing up how their characters, especially Batman, are myths open to endless reinterpretation, it didn’t get a whole lot of love. Now in 2016 when the set was released, when we reached the show’s 50th anniversary—-Holy grand jubilee, Batman!-—merchandise for the show is piling up everywhere. This is LEGO’s contribution to the celebration: a $270 Direct to Consumer set with 2526 pieces and nine minifigures.

A thank you to The LEGO Group for providing the set and to the Brickipedia community for allowing me to review it. I am sorry that this review is coming to close to the end of the year; I’ve been busy with school up until now. Even if the set has been out for a few months, I do think that there is still something for me to add to the conversation.

Packaging and instructions

The box! it is big! The picture! it is blurry!

Really though, it's taking up most of my table. There's some LEGO stuff pushed to the side if that helps give an idea of how massive this thing is.

I was a little surprised to see that there is one large instruction book, when sets a fifth this size will sometimes have two or three. There are at least five substantial builds here, between the three cave sections, the Batmobile, and then other vehicles with all the computers and tables. Building this set, I was wondering who has the money to buy DTCs (it’s certainly not me) and then I wondered whether families might be doing it and then they would share the set. But, with only one book, that can’t be LEGO’s intention, or even on their mind. That must mean it is about adult collectors after all. Or nerds. I mean, I almost did opt to build the set wearing a pair of white gloves, so I could roleplay as Alfred. That’s something a nerd would do, right? False. 60s Alfred doesn’t even wear gloves, so I was totally being faithful in my decision to forgo them.

Ehem.

Random page of the instruction manual; there are no decorations in the corners of these pages, like you would sometimes used to get in Super Heroes sets.

The instructions are mostly readable. There is one spot, when building the table in Bruce’s study, where it was a little hard to see what pieces were being added, but it only lasted for a couple of steps. So long as one pays attention, there shouldn’t be any issues. It is annoying right at the end though when they go, “Oh, yeah, those rock panels that you placed at the sides of the towers and garage? Do some minor disassembling so you can switch them.” I don’t know why they didn’t just have us build them the way they wanted in the first place.

The build

The sticker sheet comes in a plastic bag with the instruction manual. The fire poles are loose in the box; there are actually three of them, but I included the extra with the extra pieces for some reason. Wonder why I did that....

In these bags are some pieces which are used throughout the build but aren't numbered; most of them are larger pieces like baseplates, support pillars, and large rock pieces.

There are eight segments to the build; usually we would say bags, but most segments use more than one bag, but by force of habit and just because it’s the more common vocabulary (and so lit fam), I will be calling these segments bags. It goes something like this: Bag one gives you Batman, The Joker, and the Batmobile.

Contents of Bag 1

Note: Batman's grappling hook is supposed to have a string, but I am so bad at tying those things that I didn't bother trying

Bag two builds most of the bat-pole segment and the façade of the manor’s wall plus Catwoman.

Contents of Bag 2 -- You may see Catwoman in that pile fully formed, but that's because like Athena sprouted full grown from her father's head there are so many bags that go into "Bag" 2 that I missed a few the first couple of tries at taking this picture, and didn't realize until after she was put together

Bag 2 builds the bat poles and Wayne Manor's wall

Bag 2 builds the bat poles and Wayne Manor's wall

Bag three adds Bruce’s study, plus Dick, Alfred, Bruce himself, and Catwoman’s cat. It also finishes some of the rock work around the cave portion

Bag 3

And there's this portion finished

And from the back

Bag four constructs the nuclear reactor and The Riddler

Bag 4

The nuclear generator constructed

Bags five and six are more of the rock work around the reactor and a few computers

Bag 5

Here we get the rocky siding for the generator

It's modular and ugly

Bag 6

This builds the all-important stone archway over the generator and slides some computers in to the side where they are not easily accessible; this is probably why most official images of the set pull those out and just have them loose around the set, like the chair and dresser we see here

Bag seven builds most of the garage. Bag eight finishes it off, plus the rest of the set by including Robin, Penguin, the Batcopter, Batcycle, and some tables and things which haven’t been built yet. Please forgive me for not applying the large helipad stickers; those large tiles will be more useful without them. (And there I go implying that I won’t keep this set together.) (And there I go implying mysteriousness.)

Bag 7

Builds the garage, with heavy supplementation from the large parts we saw early

Bag 8 includes some detail for the garage as well as the Batcycle, Batcopter, and more equipment to just strew around in front of the set; since it's so disparate, I didn't take a picture showing all of it together. If you look closely at the Batcopter's windscreen, you might be able to see the meaning of life

These (as well as the chair which goes with the generator's segment) are pieces of equipment which are placed loosely in front of the set; there are extra tapes in the player on the left, but the dresser is empty

The build isn’t too difficult. Long, yes, and it gets repetitive at times. The only time when I was actually surprised by a building technique was when I was adding the windows to the Wayne Manor façade, and even then, it’s not insanely clever (I’ve definitely encountered it before), I just wasn’t expecting something so efficient.

I guess that there is also the fact that the reactor isn’t connected by the conventional studs or TECHNIC pieces, but that’s not really intriguing and more of an, “Okay, that works, apparently.” It’s something I would have thought to be illegal. Other than those though, the build is really just fine. It’s a lot of rock detailing, and when you aren’t doing that, it’s building windows or bookshelves or panels or computers; not terribly involved, and a little repetitive. The only “adult” parts are that there are a lot of pieces, and sometimes there are similar pieces that have to be identified. It’s not a hard build. It just takes time, and some attention. A focused kid could handle it.

Final model

But the set is done

Extra pieces

The connections between the three segments are pretty loose, putting crossaxles into round holes. It's really only meant to keep them in place while in display, I guess, and certainly won't stay together through transport

The best portions of the set are the study and the Batmobile.

That bookcase will pull out. Unlike the last Batcave, where putting Bruce into the elevator would trigger Batman's transformation, Bruce and Dick just hide behind the bookcase

I think that the portraits of Thomas and Martha Wayne are noncanonical. I know that the show never went over Batman’s origin, and aside from Bruce making reference to “My late father” once, I don’t remember them even being mentioned. Still though, the only issue with the study is that the table is about a brick higher than it ought to be.

This is what is on the inside of the batpole tower; those platforms are pulled

Those platforms are pulled, and Batman and Robin will come down

They probably won't the same way when they come own, but hey, it's still the batpoles

Sometimes they will get stuck, however

This whole segment of the set really is decent. I like the Wayne Manor façade, and the bat-poles are a must for this set. It is true that the rock work isn’t terribly well designed though, what with that large flat space, and then the cave arch below sort of doesn’t make for a great exit. In the show, it would be pretty normal to see Batman and Robin slide down their poles and then rush to the Batmobile; here Batman’s pole is blocked by a large chunk of rock, so he’ll either have to slide behind Robin or just push him out of the way.

The Batmobile has room in its trunk for extra batarangs and ammo for the guns which apparently exist on its hood

The shaping is quite good; I'm not sure about the use of opaque orange plates as headlights, but I guess that anything transparent might be too glassy with the car's shape preventing the light from hitting them in a lot of angles

Batman and Robin's capes don't fit quite comfortably, but being a crimefighter is about function as much as it is fashion

The Batmobile is good because it’s the 60s Batmobile, recreated pretty faithfully. It’s got space for two and a trunk, it’s not out of scale with previous Batmobiles, and a bunch of details that I never really noticed are included.

There were two Batcycles on the show; LEGO seems to have gone with the less interesting one where Robin's sidecar doesn't detach and become it's own vehicle

Batman still looks goofy on it though, so that's a plus; it's better than the overlarge ones they keep putting into other sets

The Batcopter looks accurate except for it should be able to hold both Batman and Robin

While we’re at it, the Batcopter and Batcycle are fine inclusions too, but they aren’t really necessary. The Batcopter especially, since it wasn’t even kept in the Batcave in the show.

And that’s really the issue with the rest of the set; why I don’t like the other portions as much. What I’ve been calling the garage has no basis in the show…

In the show

In the show

In the show

I don’t think that harping on about what is and isn’t accurate sounds like me (since I don't usually care too much), but agh, please bear with me. It’s not just about accuracy. I’ll go into more ragey stuff when we reach the conclusion, but it’s that the set doesn’t need to be this big. The nuclear reactor is positioned like it’s the set’s centerpiece, but it isn’t. I never would have even noticed that thing if there wasn’t one episode (the first one, or at least the second part of the first pair) where Riddler’s henchwoman was taken to the Batcave and then she fell into it. This is how we knew the show would be going to dark places. After that, the reactor was really just something in the background.

The nuclear generator from behind

Seriously though, the reactor doesn’t need this much emphasis and the garage doesn’t need to exist at all. There are other things they could have done, like the exitway that the Batmobile takes from the cave (a sequence which appeared in probably almost every episode) and is actually memorable. Even then though, it might be nice if all of these tables and things had a place to go, rather than just being strewn randomly in front of the set.

Minifigures

Minifigures are for the most part accurate. Usually I like to give a little bit of background on the characters, but I won't do that here. Firstly because these are all decently well known characters, but secondly because I couldn't easily explain who they are in the show, because it is different from how people may usually think of them. It's something that needs to be seen firsthand.

Batman, Robin, and Catwoman

Catwoman switches from Julie Newmar to Lee Meriwether (the former portrayed Catwoman on the TV show proper and the latter in the movie; Newmar's version went without a mask whilst Meriwether's had one...the recent animated movie does have Newmar's Catwoman wearing a mask in the first act, however)

Batman has dual-molded legs, and Robin's are printed

Batman's head is dark blue to match the cowl, but he still has a nasty bat tan

Penguin, Joker, and Riddler; Penguin is the same as his previous appearances in Arkham Asylum Breakout and Jokerland, but with the colors swapped on his hat and pants. I don't find it terribly convincing for the show's Penguin, personally.

I wasn't too interested in doing comparisons with most of the figures to their other versions because it just seems unnecessary, but comparing some of the different colors on Joker and Riddler to their past versions is fun; these 60s versions are much brighter

Backprinting

Joker and Riddler have alternate expressions; I don't really remember Riddler making that expression, but Joker's hooping was certainly memorable. I'm not a big fan of his mustache, however.

Oh, right, Alfred, Bruce, and Dick are here too. Bruce and Dick seem to have their outfits from the animated movie; I'm sure they wore similar things on the show, but I don't know if it was modeled on anything specific there

Even these guys get backprinting, though Bruce and Alfred have the same pattern

I'm not a big fan of Bruce and Dick's regular faces (they have weird proportions), but these perplexed expressions are better; Alfred's alternate face doesn't look very good though

Conclusions

When I heard that we were getting a 60s Batman set, I was initially excited. When images and pricing information came, I was admittedly less so. It was too expensive. And it was big, and bright, and honestly didn't look a whole lot like the batcave from the show. It might be a pretty easy fix of tighter angles, but they even made the mistake of putting the batpoles on the wrong side.

And then I have to wonder if the designers actually watched the show or if they were just looking at images of the Batcave. Which, if they were, that’s okay, but I think that it sort of gets at the larger problem with this set: it’s the sixties Batcave. Who cares? I do, but not this much. Not $300 much. It's not some grand thing. It's small and and cheesy and dingy and outdated. Adam West Batman seems to have become one of those properties which has been rediscovered and is being milked for it. Which isn’t totally bad. If more people are appreciating it, that makes me happy. It being turned into something like this really doesn’t though. Just the way that this build is setup really irks me. The Batcave on the show was not this big. It was small and sort of cramped. They could have gotten away with making the set tall, maybe, but not this wide. There is no basis for that garage section on the show. I’m not really against them including it, but they included it and the full reactor and a bunch of rock work which doesn't even look good.

Pros

• Wayne Manor portion
• The Batmobile
• They did manage to include most of the characters you could ask for here, no matter how much it may have inflated the set to justify them

Cons

• Fails to capture the spirit of the show; feels inauthentic
• Skipped out on Batgirl
• The set does not need to be this big

As a LEGO set, it’s fine. As a piece of Batman merchandise, it’s not what I’m looking for. If you want these characters, there are better options with The LEGO Batman Movie and some of the regular DC stuff. Sure, if you are actually a fan of the Batman TV series these are those characters as minifigures, but on that point, it's not worth the price and just the fact that they messed up on Batman's face with this awful bat tan sort of cheapens the set of them, I think, since even he isn't right.