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Captain Nemo

Review: 41585 Batman

How do you rate 41585 Batman?   

15 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you rate 41585 Batman?

    • Worse than Bat-Clooney
      0
    • Poor
      1
    • Average
      11
    • Good
      1
    • Almost as great as the Lego Batman Movie
      2


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BrickHeadz is an exciting new Lego theme that depicts our favorite characters from movies, TV shows, games, and comics into fun and stylized collectible forms.  Each set contains a brick built figure with a build-able base, that includes a printed tile piece denoting the figure's wave number. Wave one consists of twelve unique and colorful characters based on The Lego Batman Movie, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Pirates of the Caribbean. BrickHeadz is an exclusive theme from Lego, which means that you can only find the BrickHeadz sets at Lego brand retail stores and online from Lego Shop.

Before I begin this review, I would like to give my sincerest thanks to The LEGO Group (TLG) who have provided this set, and other wave one BrickHeadz sets, to Eurobricks making this review possible. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. 

 

Introduction 

Batman—of course! It’s not surprising that the Dark Knight himself is the first character of the BrickHeadz theme. Riding hot off the heels of Lego’s latest blockbuster, The Lego Batman Movie, this version is based on the film design of the titular hero. While we’ve seen Batman in Lego form previously, and if you’ve been picking up some of the new movies sets lately--you’ve almost seen him too much--this version is a blocky stylized design that is sure to stand out. So how well does this Dark Knight hold up? Let's find out with a deeper look... 

Set Stats

Name: 41585 Batman
Theme:  Licensed / BrickHeadz
Year: 2017
Pieces: 91
Minifigs: N/A
Price: USD $9.99, CA $12.99, DE 9.99€, UK £9.99
Resources: Brickset, BricklinkLego Shop

 

Packaging 

The BrickHeadz sets all come in the same sized box (3.6 x 4.8 x 3.1), and 41585 Batman is no exception. The box itself is an unusual size for Lego and features a bold design of the BrickHeadz figure as well as an image of the character who inspired it. I think that is a great inclusion. Granted it's clear who the brick character is supposed to be, but it's nice nonetheless that the source material is provided right on the package. It provides a nice "transformation" aspect to the set. The box also features the new BrickHeadz logo (which looks very ninja-like to me, personally), as well as the numerical order of the figure within the wave. Batman of course is number one, but that's just common knowledge.  

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Now on the other hand you may also be saying, why Nemo, what about the back? Well I'd rather not talk about it because it certainly isn't pretty. More Two-Face than Batman, the small size of the BrickHeadz box does have it's downsides, mainly in the form of a large unsightly black wall littered with ugly text. Lego must surely be covering their legal bases on this one, as they've written in literally every language ever including a few that have yet to be conceptualized, that under no circumstances should anyone gargle red Lego 2x4 bricks in their mouths like salt water. Salt water helps with sore throats; improperly used Lego bricks help with choking. Noted. 

While not as bad a choking, the "thumb open" box style is rather unfortunate. For a premium product--and no doubt this is one, considering its limited retail availability--it's disappointing that the box must be torn open, in an ape like fashion, to get the parts out. Surely it would sell the premium feel better with an elegant "cut tape here" style box; and then at least the box could be reused. Each box contains two bags, one large and one small, the instruction booklet, and a loose 4x6 black plate for the figure's base. 

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In the plus column, the Batman BrickHeadz box is unique in that on the top next to its cute 1:1 size comparison, an additional image showing Batman's eyes glowing is included. The glow in the dark bricks were a surprise to me, as it was not particularly clear from the set images that this an actual feature (glow in the dark bricks are often mistake for standard white ones, after all). A good bonus--and one that fits with the film's appearance. 

 

Interesting Parts 

One of the best things about the BrickHeadz theme in my opinion is the fact it is bring tons of small, rare, quality pieces to affordable sets. Every BrickHeadz sets contains printed parts (and only printed parts, no stickers in sight) as well as new production bricks--most notably the 1x2x2 modified brick in Light Bley, which while they have yet to get a catchy name that's also descriptive, first appeared in the Brick Bank and are now crucial to the construction of every BrickHeadz character. Frankly without that piece, these sets wouldn't exist--that's why you get fourteen in every set!  Every BrickHeadz set also come with a printed 2x4 black tile that denotes the wave's number, although Lego has not numbered each character individually. On the plus side, leaving a character out of your collection won't make it seem incomplete numerically. Just incomplete in the soul. 

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41585 Batman comes with two additional unique printed bricks--that being a rather boring 1x4 bat symbol brick (honestly what brick doesn't have a bat symbol on it by now?) and a far more interesting 1x4 yellow "belt" tile. Other interesting bits include two 2x3 tiles, two 1x2 wedge plates, and well a batarang...if you don't have enough of those already either. For good measure the set includes two just in case.  

Build

In terms of the BrickHeadz theme as a whole, on the construction side of things, Batman is perhaps the most formulaic. He's rather basic in design and has only a few colors, which makes constructing him a breeze. That's probably why I kept building him four-plus steps a head and there's only 28 steps in the whole darn thing.  

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That said the Lego designers made the best of it, and included what is perhaps one of the best filler brick uses in any Lego set--a simple pink 2x2 brick. Utterly hilarious and totally in character for Lego. Another part of the build comprises only four pieces that make up the figure's base. This base design is universal and as such you'll be making one for each BrickHeadz. Notably, the base only includes two studs worth of figure a attachment area, meaning it's easy to remove the figures from their bases for play. Although, consequently, the base also provides an outlet for some of the more heavy BrickHeadz, such as Batgirl and Joker, to topple over easily.  

Completed Figure

Soon enough the figure is complete, and it's time to answer my question--how does this Batman hold up? Well somewhat all right. Batman is not a difficult character to get wrong…visually that is…and so this brick version looks great and is instantly recognizable. In fact, despite his largely single color suit, he does have some nice physical similarities between the BrickHeadz style and that of the movie version itself. The belt for instance, which sticks off the torso of the figure, correlates well with the new minifigure belt piece introduced for the movie.

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In comparison to the other BrickHeadz of wave one however, Batman seems rather simple. He does come with an accessory, but it quickly becomes lost in the figure’s darkness. I do find the lack of detail detrimental to pulling off the figure’s inspiration too. This figure doesn’t read so much as the Lego Batman Movie version to me, as it does just Batman. I see Keaton’s Batman in this just as much as I do Kilmer’s or Arnett’s--but not West! Considering which version this is being billed as, I think a smug arrogant facial expression would have gone a long way to help sell this as the Lego film version. He just feels like he's missing something right now. 

Visually though, it’s still Batman. I will say I'm unsure of the cowl. The decision to curve the ears is strange in my opinion. Considering the Batgirl BrickHeadz in this same wave uses the more appropriate sharp eared style, I’m not sure what to make of those curved ears.

Conclusion

Overall, 41585 Batman is a great way to kick off the BrickHeadz theme. He's more of a basic character in terms of design, but he's a crowd pleaser and will surely sell like hotcakes.     

Score 

  • Design: 4/5 - Compared to the other BrickHeadz, Batman is somewhat bland. He lacks a facial expression which would have added context and life to the character.  
  • Parts: 4/5 - Nice new parts are included, but nothing crazy impressive. Mostly black, sometimes very very Light Bley.  
  • Build: 4/5 - Again, compared to other BrickHeadz in this wave, Batman is rather plain and straightforward brick stacking.  
  • Value for Price: 4/5 - Because of his more common pieces and formulaic design, Batman is less appealing than others at this price point. 

My Score: (16/20)      B- 

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Eurobricks BrickHeadz Reviews:

41585 Batman, 41586 Batgirl, 41587 Robin, 41588 The Joker41595 Belle, 41596 Beast41589 Captain America, 41590 Iron Man, 41591 Black Widow, 41592 The Hulk

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On 1-3-2017 at 10:12 PM, Captain Nemo said:

BrickHeadz is an exclusive theme from Lego, which means that you can only find the BrickHeadz sets at Lego brand retail stores and online f

Is this 100% sure? No chance these things will be available at other stores like Amazon?
I was hoping they'd be available outside of Lego so my chances for some good deals would be a bit higher :grin:

Btw, your Brickheadz images are very nice. Especially the last ones :laugh:

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On 3/1/2017 at 3:12 PM, Captain Nemo said:

 BrickHeadz is an exclusive theme from Lego, which means that you can only find the BrickHeadz sets at Lego brand retail stores and online from Lego Shop.

Man, really? Extravagant shipping prices from s@h and no official lego stores here means I cannot get these. What a shame. 

On 3/1/2017 at 3:12 PM, Captain Nemo said:

 

*snip*

 

I'm dead. :laugh:

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5 hours ago, legolijntje said:

Is this 100% sure? No chance these things will be available at other stores like Amazon?
I was hoping they'd be available outside of Lego so my chances for some good deals would be a bit higher :grin:

They're listed as Exclusives on Lego Shop, which would preclude them from other non-Lego physical stores. Granted Amazon may end up getting some, but they would be sold through third parties most likely. 

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