Batman Arkham Asylum Game Size

[Walberto Kennedy]

First of all, credit must be given where credit is due: to our own Bonaparte and LEGO for sending me this set to review, and so speedily to boot! Many thanks to you! (LEGO really is the most wonderful company when it comes to community interaction, although since I don't participate on the international Coca-Cola forums, I can't really say that Coke doesn't have such a high level of interaction as well.)

A quick note about the pictures: unlike my usual reviews, this time I've uploaded the pictures in their huge un-shrunk glory, so please check out the Flickr set link above if you'd like to see the minute details of all the dust that accumulated on the set in the five seconds between when I took it out of the box and when I snapped the photos.

This box is just one thing: beastly. Really, it's absolutely ginormous (I've added Riddler for a little size comparison). This being the European version, the front isn't adulterated with parts count and stuff, so you can really enjoy the humungous, gloomy, dark scene. The artwork is quite beautiful and suits Arkham very well. There's more action here than you usually find on the big exclusives; it's still a Superhero thing after all.

Since the box is so darn large, the back feels empty despite having all the usual back-of-box trappings. It's fun that LEGO still puts on the comic-style arrows and noise words even on a big-kid geared set. Just because this box dwarfs all the others by a factor of twelve doesn't mean it isn't part of the line!

In the box we get nine numbered bags, one bag with big plates and the white rope, and this lovely thing to keep our sticker sheet, comic, and instructions from getting bent out of shape! I don't really care about smashed instruction manuals on small sets, but on such a large one like this it would be quite a bother. It's great LEGO makes sure that doesn't happen!

Here's the front of the comic, which I'm pretty sure is exactly the same one you get in the Arctic Batman set except a lot bigger because why not. Just like Oky mentioned in his Arctic Batman review, it's got an odd smattering of stuff inspired by different media, movie Bane being the biggest sore thumb (though the Tumbler is the background is a little odd too).

The inside contains a fun but average wordless comic that you can enjoy flipping through once and then never look at again. The back, just like on the Marvel comic, has last year's DC figure lineup and this January's. Some choices are a bit odd, though, like putting Ivy and the guard in both when they're exactly the same, having two Harleys in the right-side one, and not having blue-winged Batman on the left side. But ok, whatever. Lots to collect, go buy sets, etc.

The inside is an orangey-yellow gradient that looks just fine. It doesn't muddle things up, anyway. Here you see how the minifigures are spread out over the bags to spice things up just when you were starting to feel minifigure-withdrawal. The steps are easy to follow, and there are piece callouts (though I don't use them because I'm stuck in the old 'search the picture for differences' method).

Lastly, everybody's favorite: the DSS. Most of these stickers are just fine, and I didn't mind them (although the instructions do seem to mock you by showing the stickers going on perfectly straight). The ones for license plates, though, are terrible because they're smaller than the length of the plates on which they go so it's quite annoying getting them smack-dab in the middle. As you'll notice on the set pictures, I wasn't having the best stickering day in general.

No more tricks; here's the actual color scheme for the set. Grey, grey, grey, and black. Still, less grey than a Star Wars set. In Bag 2, which builds the gate, we get four lovely black wings from Chima, the 3L brown flex tubing that's also in TMNT sets, and the Ninjago skeleton arm now in dark bley! Plus dark green and dark red, and a bunch of dark metallic sais, lovely.

The two big plates are from the unnumbered bag of big stuff, but the rest is Bag 3, which builds the entrance. From now on, we'll see lots of the tall grey pieces with a groove in them, which lend a lovely look to the finished model as we shall see. I had no idea this piece has only been around since 2010! Before that they just stacked up 1x2 ones when they needed a tall column for garage doors. Other cools parts here are the chair in dark green (because dark green), the brick brick (because it's still slightly a novelty), and the red phone (because yeah).

You build above the entrance with Bag 4. Included are those tall black industrial-like pillars, more groove columns, metallic teeth, square bricks with groove, that printed computer screen, and some nice accessories. Plus lots of trans-black little screen parts; large quantities of things are always fun.

Bag 5 makes the cell block, and there's nothing of exceptional interest. Many grey 'log' bricks are nice, though, as are dark red and leaves. There are also more jail bar parts than I think you'd see in a City set normally.

This caps it off! A little more tan to break up the grey/black combo. The brick with grooves actually appears to be new in tan, though there's just one. As we'll see in the model, I'm not sure why it's necessary at all, but hey, I'll take it. Maybe it'll be more prevalent in another upcoming set.

There are more extra parts in this set than there are parts in a SW Battlepack! Ok, maybe not, but there's still a boatload of extras here. Somebody should start a 'build using only extra pieces in big sets' challenge.

For once, I'm not more excited about discussing minifigures than I am about discussing a set. But still, minifigures are lovely goodies! Let's look at 'em. I've collaborated with The Penguin to bring you info about the inspiration for the specific designs of each figure; since the set's not tied to any particular media, it's interesting to see what designs were chosen.

All of these guys are not so fresh. The guard is the twin of the one that failed to stop Two-Face's robbery last year, though he still has a snappy torso. This Robin is styled after the one in the Arkham City game, which would make him Tim Drake, the third Robin. Of course, he just uses parts from the Robin of last year, but it's cool to see him in this darker outfit anyway. An all-new Nightwing would've been better, though. Batman may also come from Arkham City because of the wings, though I think the wings are a common move, so he really could be anything. He'd be better with an alternate cape, but I do like the winged look.

Unlike in the Catwoman set where Bats has a whole jetpack on his wings, these he wears straight up. Perhaps they're really just supposed to be a cape, as Bats often does have a cape that becomes stiff to help him swoosh around. Robin's cape feels pretty soft, which surprised me.

Both have reverse faces that I like less. Joker's works well for being locked up and maniacal, but the grin is a bit too creepy-wide for me. Ivy's mouth looks a little too close to her eyes, but it's still ok.

Ivy has some quite low-cut back printing, and Joker has a inmate number. The number is really the only detracting factor from the torso - if you collected a bunch of the torso, all your prisoners would have the same number! Or maybe that's useful for something.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel is clearly from Batman: The Animated Series where she's introduced, subsequently goes mad and becomes Harley Quinn. The Harley outfit under her doctor's coat isn't from anything specifically, but perhaps in the context of this set it's showing that she's already Harley Quinn and is merely dressing up like her old self. The face is great (girls with glasses, yay!) but I find the torso to be fairly bland and single-use. This Penguin with lovely lilac pants is reminiscent of the Gotham Underground Penguin; LEGO pulled off a fat look very well, and it's useful parts all around, but still I find his face pretty ugly (ugly still is useful, though). Scarecrow has a generic Scarecrow look, but frankly looks amazing! The old one was a bit creepier, but this one is more on the adorably creepy side, which I like. He looks so sly and mischievous.

Harley has a reverse 'Harley' head with sloppily applied white face paint - a great touch. Scarecrow has lovely printing on the back of his head that could be quite useful for other things, like plain scarecrows. It's stuff like this that make him a standout figure.

I was sad to find that the Harley face is the same as the one on the full-Harley figure. This would've been a great opportunity to get a third expression for her, but instead we're stuck with the same one I didn't like much last time anyway. Her hat is glossier this time, though.

There are surprisingly few true accessories. I say 'true accessories' because plenty of the detail bits in this set, like the sais or the axe blades or spears, could double as accessories, but these are the only ones LEGO tells you to use as accessories. Just a plain pole for Robin, a batarang for Batman, handcuffs for the guard, and a fish and umbrella for the Penguin. Scarecrow is really sorely missing a scythe.

I'm not going to show the whole build; most of it is pretty straight forward, or you can see what's done on the finished model. There were just a few things that stood out, so I'll show you them and provide musings, as always.

Quite early on is the use of two newish SNOT pieces together to make the front of the truck. Just made me think about how useful all the new SNOT pieces are, and how well they work together. I imagine that to people who actually MOC regularly (unlike myself), these must be amazing.

This assembly, though, is utterly annoying. These are necessary to attached the windows on the center part, so four are built over time. Stacking everything straight is a nightmare! I'm not sure of an alternative, and you can power through it, but man is it annoying. Shorter ones are also needed for the shorter window assemblies.

Finally, somebody employed Shire architects in Gotham! It's the same technique used in the Bag End Hobbit set, and I was surprised to find that once it's closed with another arch on the other side, the window isn't actually snug - it rattles around. Still, the effect is worth it.

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