Review:76012 Batman: The Riddler Chase
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$29.99
€34.99
£29.99
$49.99
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.
Can the Fastest Man Alive outshine Batman in his own set? Will the Riddler learn you can't turn a dragster the hard way? Will Batman share his secrets of where to find a thong adorned with a metallic waistband? Find out on--eh, I'm not going to answer those.
- Set: 76012 Batman: The Riddler Chase
- Theme: DC Universe Super Heroes
- Pieces: 304
- Minifigures: 3
- Price: 29.99 USD / 29.99 GBP
- Brickipedia / Brickset
While I was listening to songs about prohibition, I had that crazy idea to write a review for this set in my ever exciting series of pictureless reviews. It's sort of late to change that with this one, since I have been picking at it for parts for a few days. But do I regret that? Spoiler alert: No not really, but just saying that isn't a fair summary.
The Build
Shockingly, this build is conventional. Well, maybe a bit better. Riddler's dragster is devoid of anything surprising, but the Batmobile manages to make usage of a few clever techniques. Nothing is difficult, but the Batmobile at least is sort of refreshing. The way it is built around a small car chassis, firstly, and then the way that the sides are added. Brackets and hinges are also used well.
Parts
As mentioned above, I have been picking at the Batmobile for parts. I still haven't gotten through the main cockpit yet (and probably won't, since I finished the MOC I had been working on). The most memorable pieces are possibly the least useful, the orange windshield and huge golden wheels, but plenty of other items on the Batmobile are pretty helpful for me, though I never buy Star Wars or many of the sets which would include black wedges and such, so maybe it's me. One piece I thought was interesting was a newer variety of TECHNIC pin that is 2/3 o and 1/3 x.
I have yet to cannibalize Riddler's dragster, but I do have some ideas for it, particularly those green curves.
Looking through Brickset's inventory, other than the aforementioned wheels and windshield, things seem pretty versatile. At least to me, I recommend taking a look if you are interested in part collecting or MOCing yourself.
Final Model
It has been a while since LEGO has given us a dragster (I remember a fair amount of them at least back in the 90's) and it has been updated admirably, but just to be me, I want to comment on what a poor choice of an escape vehicle a dragster is. Sure, it probably could outrace the Batmobile pretty easily (Flash is debatable though; I guess that's what the banana is for), but dragsters are notorious for not being able to turn. LEGO did include a steering wheel though. The...satellite thingy in the back is flimsy, but other than that and the fact that it is a dragster, the model is well constructed.
The Batmobile is too, it uses some pretty clever techniques. My favorite is the inclusion of white plates behind the headlights to give them a bit of light. The orange windshield is a strange choice, but looking at screengrabs from Beware the Batman, I can see where it is coming from. The design is pretty solid and I am surprised by how light it is, thanks to good construction. the only flaw is that the missiles require bars to extend backwards really far. I'm not quite sure what those gold cones on the back are for either. Otherwise, I find the thing to be way too big for my taste. Again, looking at screengrabs it is designed to be ridiculously wide, it almost seems to be taking up two lanes in one image I'm seeing, but that isn't my style. The whole Batmobile isn't quite my style. I'm quite picky about what I like in a Batmobile, and a squished F1 Racer with eyes isn't on the list. Since that is personal taste though, I won't take points off for it. If you like how the 'bile (that is quite a nickname) looks in the pictures, I don't expect you will be disappointed in person.
Minifigures
This set includes an exclusive Beware the Batman minifigure, which is okay. It has odd design choices, most prominent of which is the gray over the black. Then there are the lack of gloves, yet Bats still has trunks (and a trendy metallic waistband to go with them). When given black gloves and plain gray legs, I think the design is vastly improved. I'm still waiting for a new face; every other DC character who has multiple variants other than Penguin and Batman have one.
The Riddler's face is considerably better than the one in the Funhouse, this one swaps the generic evil personality for a more sinister and playful one. The hat also being green gets points, but here is where it loses them: The racing jacket is a missed opportuinty for the suit. The design is actually quite good and can be used for a Riddler henchman, but it comes off as a waste of a variant. I blame the choice of a dragster for the secondary vehicle. A golden crowbar still doesn't fill the void left by the lack of a question mark cane. If anything, it's a little bit mocking, since the red one could have been ignored and given to the Joker for...playtime with Robin.
And then there is The Flash, who may be one of the few reasons I bought this set. First of all, I am going to say that I vastly prefer the head/cowl combo to the blocky helmet that was featured in LEGO Batman 2 and customizer Christo's imitation. LEGO's solution, I think, is smart and frankly looks much better. The torso is also more vibrant than the one featured in LB2 (really, Flash was probably the worst designed character in that game) and the minifigure's only huge flaw is the lack of boots, which would have been nice to see. I'm sure that LEGO is planning that for the next round though, to get people like me to buy Flash again. That's not a terrible thing though, Flash is a character where I can think of a few good reasons to have multiples.
Conclusion
Overall, this set is pretty solid. It stands up better than I originally suspected after seeing images at SDCC. Though I'm not ecstatic about Riddler, I would rather have him than most of the other characters featured in Beware the Batman (Metamorpho and Anarky would have been cool though). Flash is easily the star, even if he feels a little shoehorned in, but I'm not complaining. I do prefer the Batmobile from the last set, if only for scaling purposes and personal preferences, but again, if you like this version of the Batmobile, this is a good representation in LEGO.
| Building Experience |    3½ / 5 |
| Parts | 3½ / 5 |
| Value for Money | 4 / 5 |
| Playability | 3 / 5 |
| Minifigures | 4 / 5 |
| Overall | 3½ / 5 |
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