Review:76010 Batman: The Penguin Face Off
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$12.99
€14.99
£11.99
$19.99
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Reviews
Berrybrick
Country: America the Beautiful Gender: Male
Joined: February 2010 
№ of Reviews: 46 
№ of Featured reviews: 1
Building Experience: Enough is enough
You are not entitled to view results of this poll.
I just do not understand why my spellchecker recognizes "Waugh" as a word, and no, I am positive I never added it to dictionary....
- Set: 76010 Batman: The Penguin Face Off
- Theme: DC Universe Super Heroes
- Pieces: 136
- Minifigures: 2
- Price: 12.99 USD / 11.99 GBP
- Brickipedia / Brickset
DC had a fairly good year in 2013 as far as variety is concerned, with it being split between Batman and Man of Steel tie-ins, but 2014 is, at first glance, pretty disappointing with only a handful of new characters and vehicles, all focused on Batman no less. This smallest set from that wave, 76010 Batman: The Penguin Face Off, features no new characters, instead opting for the action figure approach, featuring new variants of Batman and Penguin. That sounds dull to someone like me who has collected almost every other DC set (skipping out on that Man of Steel one which couldn't even be bothered with variations), but we also get some penguin suicide bombers, a scuba scooter, a piece of arctic landscape, and a rubber ducky. Suddenly, this set sounds more appealing.
The Build
Quick, easy, and no surprises. If you are looking to Super Heroes sets for a memorable build though, and at the smallest pricepoint, you sir/ma'am are in the wrong place.
Parts
Not many of the parts are very impressive, either. There are plenty of them for what you pay for, but most of them are small and just not very interesting. What I found notworthy were some transparent neon orange studs, which have been phased into obscurity over the last few years, the printed eye pieces (though they can be found in Mixels sets for about half the price), some brackets, the orange clips used for the penguins' feet, the orange cones, and then the shell piece on the front of Batman's scooter which is actually printed, surprisingly. The wings used on the ducks, both the carved slope and those strange angular plates, are pretty rare, only appearing in yellow in one other set each at the moment. The carved slopes are probably useful, but honestly, those plate thingies likely aren't something you are looking for, unless you are into Knights Kingdom II MOCing.
Final Model
The weakest part of the set is easily the arctic facade. I won't complain about its inclusion, since if it hadn't been I doubt the designers would have replaced it with anything, but it bothers me how flat it is in front. It basically acts as a place to hold the jewel, and there is enough room to place the penguins on it, but they make it look sort of crowded.
Plenty of people do not seem to like the bat-scooter, but I do. It makes sense as a vehicle he would have to me, moreso than the Batwing or Batboat, actually. And the model is pretty good. It isn't without faults though; it suffers from having too many colors. Black is inevitable and I am not bothered by yellow accents, myself, but the five fins on the vehicle are in two different colors, and one of those colors appears nowhere else on the vehicle. All of them should have been black. The model itself also is not a perfect rendition of a sea scooter into LEGO, I think it could use a windscreen (which the sea scooters closest to this in look seem to have for some reason) but Batman would make sure to own a military grade one which could takeout an aircraft carrier before it notices it, so otherwise I have no qualms. It is an underrated model overall.
The rubber ducky though, I think is getting a little too much love. Just a little too much. The orange plates strewn throughout it are troublesome because they make no sense, but I see why LEGO did it and it isn't like it will be too difficult to replace them with yellow ones. The flick fire missiles may also be removed very easily. The wings look very good and the model is constructed quite well with so few pieces, but what does bother me is how angular the head is. I would have liked it if the beak had been depicted using the same piece that makes up the bulk of the wing, but in orange of course, and if the forehead could use a curvier brick. But still, the duck is a great callback to Batman Returns which I will admit I haven't gotten around to seeing yet, but I still know I love this thing:http://media1.break.com/breakstudios/2013/7/12/duck.jpg
Minifigures
Batman's scuba suit is a great looking minifigure with the two shades of blue plus some black and gray. It may be a little too flashy due to action figure syndrome, but hey, if it makes a good minifigure I'm all for it. The face is different from ones in other Batman sets. Rather than the overused smirk, we have a mask which I am sure clever customizers will find very versatile. Since it is printed on a black head, the other side is also a little bit changed. Bruce's skin is paler, since LEGO hasn't quite worked out how to print lighter colors on darker heads, but it looks fine under the cowl and is much better than the sunburned look Captain America and the one Scout Trooper I own have. It also gives Batman a chinstrap, a look which I do like when it is placed on a Batman in a black cowl. Speaking of which, this is also my first dark blue cowl in the newer mold (having bought earlier issues of the Batcave, Catwoman, and Funhouse sets), and the difference between the two molds feels much greater with the blue than it does with the black. The new one is much better.
Unlike this year's reissues of Riddler and Joker, Penguin in this set does variation right. The fur coat is a sensible variation (unlike Riddler) but is different enough from the suit he wore in the last set (unlike Joker) to justify it. That said, I do prefer the version in Arkham Asylum. Penguin wearing gaudy colors just suits the character more, I think. I like him somewhat campy, since it accents how fake the character is, which is what makes him one of my favorite villains / supporting characters. (Red herring: Penguin has been somewhere between villain and supporting character in more recent years. I prefer him to lean towards the supporting side, but I won't complain if LEGO depicts him as a villain, since we are probably not going to get the Iceberg Lounge anytime soon). The minifigure is fine though, and plenty of people other than me seem to prefer him to the variant from Arkham. My only real qualm is that we still have not gotten a purple umbrella.
The two penguin minions aren't too different from the ones in the Batman sets of old, but they have been improved. Firstly, they have orange flippers instead of red. And that is really all that makes them so much better. The antennae make it clear that they are robots (or cyborgs, maybe) and the guns have been replaced with dynamite, but neither is much of an improvement and more of a differentiation. I guess action figure syndrome even affects these guys....
Conclusion
This set might not tick all of the boxes that a Super Heroes fan or even a LEGO fan is looking for, but it ticks some which, unfortunately, many of the other sets miss. Honestly, this is the most satisfying DC set it looks like we are going to get this year. No, it does not have any exclusive characters, but both Batman and Penguin's designs are great, and it isn't as though Penguin was easily accessible. As amazing as Arkham is, it is insanely expensive. This set works as a companion piece to last year's Batman vs. Mister Freeze: Aquaman on Ice, or as a standalone. It has everything it needs and more, though as usual, it may be best to skip this in favor of saving up towards something larger, but with small sets like this it is hard to find much better.
| Building Experience |   3 / 5 |
| Parts | 3 / 5 |
| Value for Money |  4½ / 5 |
| Playability | 4 / 5 |
| Minifigures | 4½ / 5 |
| Overall | 4 / 5 |
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