With the first wave of The LEGO Batman Movie sets out, it is time to take a closer look. I’m particularly excited for this theme as it is based on LEGO’s own twist of classic superheroes and villains, which allows LEGO designers a lot more innovation, instead of just dealing with original DC Comics material. Remember how awesome, creative and fun The LEGO Movie sets were? The LEGO Batman Movie sets are the same, with the added awesomeness of well-known and loved superheroes and villains. So, whether you like to collect LEGO Super Heroes minifigures, or you appreciate creative LEGO sets, there will be something for you in The LEGO Batman Movie line-up. Oh, and of course there is the movie itself too, which we haven’t even seen, but expected to be awesome! 🙂
As there are so many sets related to The LEGO Batman Movie (some released already, some coming in January), it will not be possible to cover them all in one review, however I don’t want to talk about Batman every day either in a bunch of separate reviews, so I will attempt to group the sets together logically. Today we will cover three sets; the #70900 LEGO Batman Movie The Joker Balloon Escape, the #70901 LEGO Batman Movie Mr. Freeze Ice Attack, and the #70910 LEGO Batman Movie Scarecrow Special Delivery.
The reason for grouping these three sets together is because according to the instruction booklets, you can attach them and combine them into one scene, as you can see above and below. The three sets are basically different parts of the Gotham Energy Facility. The #70900 LEGO Batman Movie The Joker Balloon Escape, and the #70901 LEGO Batman Movie Mr. Freeze Ice Attack both contain a small section of the power plant, and the #70910 LEGO Batman Movie Scarecrow Special Delivery includes the entrance to the power plant with a small security guard booth. The three sets can be attached with clips and bars if you would like to combine them.
I should add here that these are some of the smallest and most inexpensive sets in The LEGO Batman Movie line-up, so even when you put them all together you aren’t ending up with anything big; just a small guard booth, and a small representation of a power plant. Having said that, these three sets provide some of the most interesting parts of the collection, so they are definitely worth considering. We will look at each of the sets separately.
➡ #70900 LEGO BATMAN MOVIE THE JOKER BALLOON ESCAPE: We do not have the official description of this set yet, but it is basically a small power plant section, The Joker with a balloon-powered jetpack, and Batman. I’m most excited for the balloons, the red macaroni-pipes, and The Joker’s Jetpack.
The power plant section has a simple play-feature; by pushing the yellow lever at the base of the white half cylinders, The Joker can “blow up” the power plant. While the play-feature works fine, it leaves the half cylinders very wobbly as they are only attached by one stud each. If you don’t want the power plant to constantly fall apart, you probably want to secure this section a bit better with some extra connections.
The Joker’s jetpack is large, but it looks really good, and you can turn the flames downwards to give the whole contraption stability. In other words, The Joker won’t fall over even with all that stuff attached. You get five of the new type of balloon pieces, which I’m very happy about.
The two minifigs included are of course The Joker and Batman. We get Batman in almost all of The LEGO Batman Movie sets, so if you are planning to get several sets, you will end up with a whole Batman collection! Batman has the same torso, legs and cowl in all of the sets, but his double-sided facial prints are different. In each of the sets you will also get the new utility belt for Batman, and they always include one extra as well (along with an extra Batarang).
I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed by the utility belt. I love small minifig accessories, but on this piece it is really hard to make out the details. It is basically just a piece that is there, doesn’t look that cool, and doesn’t serve any purpose. I’m used to utility belts from LEGO customizers that have much better definition. Perhaps it has to do with the bright yellow color blurring the details, and the belt would look better in something more dark and muted.
As far as The Joker, he has a double-sided face as well, and nice printing on both the front and back of his torso, and the front of the hips and legs. The Joker also got a long purple pointy coattail piece that attaches to his leg-studs, making him look more awesome when maniacally zipping around with his jetpack.
All in all this is a fun small set with only 124 pieces, but many of them are very useful. And you get both Batman and The Joker to play out their eternal conflict. The price is $14.99, which I think is maybe a tad high, but not bad for what you get.
➡ #70901 LEGO BATMAN MOVIE MR. FREEZE ICE ATTACK: This set is already available, so there is an official description: Help Batman defend the Gotham City Energy Facility from Mr. Freeze’s Exosuit assault and save the security guard from the ice prison in The Lego Batman Movie: Mr. Freeze Ice Attack set. The set features Mr. Freeze’s posable Exosuit with room for a minifigure and a stud-shooting freeze gun, plus a detailed power plant build and an opening ice prison. Includes three minifigures: Batman, Mr. Freeze and a security guard. 201 pieces. Price: $19.99 – BUY HERE
This set contains another small section of the power plant. Notice the nice sand-green wall (there are also a couple of sand-green pieces in the previous set) with a computer, pressure-meter and some other controls. The decoration on the computer and pressure-meter are stickers. You also get a few more of the red macaroni-pipes. There is a stand-alone section as well; the translucent-blue ice prison, which can encapsulate one minifigure when Mr. Freeze shoots his freeze gun at them.
The real highlight here is of course is Mr. Freeze’s exosuit. The exosuit’s core is a new specialized piece, which allows building small exosuits very easily by just hooking up some arms and legs to the ball-joint connections. It is quite brilliant, and I’m sure kids will love it, as it makes exosuit building so much easier. (The same piece is used in the 2017 LEGO Nexo Knights Battle Suits.)
Mr. Freeze’s Exosuit got fully articulated arms and legs, and the hip-joint can also rotate. It is about 4 inches high and comes with an awesome stud-shooting freeze gun. Just an excellent little mech all around.
The three minifigs included are Batman, Mr. Freeze and a security guard. Batman is the same as in the previous set, except with different expressions on his double-sided face. The guard has pretty generic printing, which makes him useful in other settings. Mr. Freeze is the most elaborate minifig here, with very detailed printing on his torso and legs, and a really cool armor piece – also printed. I like everything about this set, and would highly recommend it – super fun for a reasonable price.
➡ #70910 LEGO BATMAN MOVIE SCARECROW SPECIAL DELIVERY: This is the third set that can be attached to make a larger Gotham Energy Facility. It includes a small booth for the guard and a pizza delivery scooter. The guard-booth is very generic with no special features. All the fun design and play-features are in the scooter.
The scooter is solidly built with a nice color-scheme. The pizza pieces are printed, so is the pizza box. The other decorations you see on the vehicle are stickers. If you rotate the pizza sign on the top of the small trailer, the sidewalls will pop out, revealing that Scarecrow has more than just pizza for delivery – a simple but fun play-feature.
The three minifigures included are Batman, Scarecrow, and a security guard. Batman is exactly the same as in the #70901 LEGO Batman Movie Mr. Freeze Ice Attack, including the same facial expressions. The security guard is also the same as in the previous set, except for his face. Scarecrow is the most unique minifigure here with double-sided facial printing, torso printed front and back, and legs printed on the front and the sides.
From the three sets I would say that this is the weakest. The pizza delivery scooter is okay, and Scarecrow is unique to the set, but other than that, there is really not much going for it. According to Brickset the price is going to be $29.99, and I just don’t see the value. I’m not sure about the exact piece-count as I got the European version of the set and that information is not printed on the box, but it may have slightly more pieces than the #70901 LEGO Batman Movie Mr. Freeze Ice Attack. If you like the pizza scooter you may just want to build your own as it has no unique pieces other than the stickers, or wait until the set goes on sale.
In summary, I would say that both the #70900 LEGO Batman Movie The Joker Balloon Escape, and the #70901 LEGO Batman Movie Mr. Freeze Ice Attack, are nice small sets with good play value and great selection of parts and minifigures. I would recommend them both. Perhaps you would also like to get the #70910 LEGO Batman Movie Scarecrow Special Delivery to complete the Gotham Energy Facility setup, but I would only recommend it if you can get it for a cheaper price. You can find the currently available sets under The LEGO Batman Movie section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? Are you excited about The LEGO Batman Movie sets? Which ones are you looking forward to the most? How do you like the three sets we look at today? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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do you get six or five ballons?
Oscar, it’s five balloons. I know I initially mentioned six in the review by mistake, but I had that corrected. You get two yellow, two red and one blue. 🙂
Nice review! The function on Scarecrow’s delivery vehicle is interesting, I didn’t know that was there. The Joker’s jetpack is pretty neat, and its extravagant look definitely matches its rider. Thanks for the picture of the mech-core piece; that thing has a lot of connections. Out of curiosity, how many studs are there on the flat side of the piece? Does it have only 4, or are there more?
BTW, LEGO did upload inventories for the new 2017 sets yesterday, but there’s something wrong with the LEGO CS inventories in general. Most of them have this piece: http://brickset.com/parts/4163987 in quantity, possibly replacing other parts. I wonder if it’s a glitch, or intentional. 😕 Either way, I was able to acquire some official info & images of new parts, including a chassis piece on #60137. The new part count is now 34+. 🙂
For the mech core, there are four studs on the inside (where the minifig is standing), and there are 8 studs facing the front in three rows (4 on top row, and 2 on the second and third rows). And there are also two standard clips at the back, and of course the two ball-joints for the arms, and the Technic pin-hole at the bottom to attach the second piece with the three ball-joints for the legs. It really is a great piece.
I’m not sure about the glitch in the inventories, but this wouldn’t be the first time the inventories are wrong when they are first uploaded. But they usually eventually get corrected. What is your favorite 2017 part so far? Just curious. 🙂
Mech core could be interesting. I’ve seen some similar compatible mech frames from third party providers.
8 studs on the front? Cool, that’s more than I expected. That allows for lots of additions to that side. Definitely a great piece.
It’s not just the newly uploaded inventories that are glitched. Many old sets have it as well. I did some searches and all but two sets had it. Not all the 2017 sets have it, though: Brickset says only 27 out of the 31 new inventories have it. #10740, 31056, 42058, & 42059 escaped for some reason. Really weird, hopefully it will be fixed. 😕
My favorite 2017 part so far? Hm… it’s hard to pick. My top three of the parts on LEGO CS are the 1X1 Brick W/ 2 Knobs, Corner (26604); the Plate 2X2 Corner 45 Deg. (26601); and this piece: http://brickset.com/parts/6167281 . There are also a few unreleased parts I like, but I can’t pick an absolute favorite. That’s how great those parts are. What’s your favorite part? Brickset has the new 2017 parts (except the mech-core) in the database, so you can view them. 🙂
I also really like the 1×1 brick with the adjacent knobs, the trans-yellow window in the new Batman Movie Batmobile, and this piece: http://brickset.com/sets/containing-part-6170153. I like pretty much anything that has an interesting shape and good for greebling. 😀
Joker’s enormously oversized tails seem like a very bad idea in connection with a jetpack… Then, it might fit a character who treats his own life with the same disregard as others…
LOL! I didn’t think of that! But yeah, you are right; jetpacks and long clothing don’t go well together! 😈
Looking awesome always trumps potential lethality!