REVIEW: 6863 Batwing Battle Over Gotham City

[montgocloud]

Hello and welcome to my review of the Lego Superheroes set: Batwing Battle Over Gotham City. Let's dive right in.

Number-6863

Name-Batwing Battle Over Gotham City

Theme-LEGO DC Universe Superheroes

Year-Late 2011/Early 2012

Minifigs-3

Pieces-278

Price-$34.99 USD

Part 1: THE BOX

The box art looks nice, with a cartoon Batman in action at the top right. Nothing to complain about here.

Back of the box. Standard design for all of the DC Superheroes line.

Artwork of LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes. Personally, I'm fairly excited for this game.

PART 2: THE CONTENTS

This set came with three numbered bags, one containing the Batwing p1, the second containing the Batwing p2, and the third containing the Joker's helicopter. Since I am doing this review post-build, I do not have them pictured.

The instruction booklet. Exact same art as on the box. It is 68 pages of actual instruction, and has several adds for the new LEGO City line of sets, and the buildable Superheroes.

The "comic" that comes with the Superheroes sets... if you can call them that. While the artwork is nice, some parts of the story would be greatly improved with dialogue.

PART 3: THE MINIFIGURES

Here we are with Batman. His torso is very similar to his last LEGO incarnation, as well as the mold for his cowl.

The back printing on his torso as well as the alternate expression on his head. While I like this, LEGO has one more step to go to make this minifigure perfect. On the alternate expression, REMOVE THE WHITE STRIP. This could be a Bruce Wayne head, and if they really wanted to, they could include optional hair!

Ah, the Joker. Owning both of these, I'm not sure which I like best! They both have their ups, and their downs. While everything is perfect with this version, I would sure like to have a return of the old gun with the BANG! sticker on it. That really suited the character. Instead, we just attach a red flag to a standard tommy gun.

The Joker's alternate expression. This is great and everything, but with this expression part of the Joker's lips are uncovered by the hair on the back of the head.

Back printing on the Joker's suit.

DEFINITELY a highlight of the set. The new Joker henchman is... beautiful. Wait until you see the back printing...

BAM! This figure is a must buy for any LEGO Batman fan. A perfect minifigure. One gripe on the gear is that he could use a pistol of some sort.

PART 3: THE VEHICLES

The Batwing. While the review on FBTB complained about this vehicle, I don't think it's that bad. Compared to the '06 one, yes it is lacking. But, as a stand alone model, it is good! (That could just be me being optimistic)

Batman at the controls. There are no studs holding him down, just a tile. The canopy actually holds him down, which I thought I would hate but it does make for easy access to Batman.

A blurry picture of the main feature of this model. You can raise the back portion of the wings and flick-fire missles are revealed. When displayed like this, it is totally badass.

The Batbomb play feature. Basically, you open the back hatch to reveal a little knob that you can push down to release the Batbomb. Would have much preferred a cape/batarang storage compartment, but oh well. That is what modding is for.

Ah, the Joker's helicopter. A true spectacle.

The cockpit is great, with ample room for the driver. A true MARVEL! Get it? That's funny right...?

Four missles are featured on this aircraft, and they are covered by these nice purple panels with the Joker's gleaming face on them.

A smiling bomb. Just for decoration, right? Well let's take a look...

When you push this button, the bomb shoots forward! This feature is spot on and works like a charm.

PART 4: CONCLUSION

Well should you get this set? At normal LEGO price, absolutely. But at the $10 TRU mark up? It is your decision.

DESIGN-8/10 The design of the Batwing could have been... larger but it is still a good design. The Joker's helicopter is really where it shines though.

PARTS-9/10 Great parts, a lot of rare purple items and a couple rare curves on the Batwing.

MINIFIGURES-10/10 Perfect. Batman, the Joker, and a henchman. Not much more you could ask for, really.

BUILD-10/10 Not getting redundant and the build is long enough for the price. One great thing is that they outlined the black pieces in white in the instruction booklet for easy black/dark bley color differentiation.

PLAYABILITY/SWOOSHABILITY-10/10 I love swooshing around the Batwing and the Joker's helicopter. Loads of fun!

FINAL VERDICT-87/100 Get this set if there is no mark up. A must buy!

[CM4Sci]

Great review, montyofmusic! Yes, I agree that the Batwing is lacking, but just a little. Other than that, I think the set is wonderful. I really love that clown missile under the cockpit of the heli

-Sci

[CMP]

A good review. I prefer this to the 06 one, in my opinion. The price is reduced 15 bucks, even WITH the TRU markup, and it's very much worth the smaller Batwing and helicopter. I also miss the 'Bang' sticker but at least we get a printed, unique henchman.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the cool review 'montyofmusic', the figures are a huge , Batman's flight is okay, but the Joker's is totally AWESOME....it makes you always go with a smile !

Ah, my wallet is going to be much lighter next year....my son will want as many Super Heroes sets as possible...he has already told me !

Review On 'montyofmusic' !

[Hobbestimus]

Great review. I missed out on the last round of Bat-sets, and the Batwing has always been my favorite Bat-vehicle. I look forward to picking this one up.

[Nightshroud99]

Thankfully Joker is in the funhouse set so I don't have to get this. It's a nice set, and the henchman is really cool. But I just don't want to spend my money on it.

Good review though.

[SoupOrFishOil]

Thanks for the quick, but very good, review! Looking at the pictures you took, I like the Batwing again, but I will need to MOD it. Hope to see more reviews here at Eurobricks soon!

[ScaryScarecrow]

This set will always be the JOKEr of the line.

The Batwing disgusts me, but the Jokercopter is now beautiful, it's like a reverse of last time.

I would get this anyway but I'm already getting the funhouse, this would be a win if the Batwing came with the cool lifting guns like last time.

[Miss Kyle]

Can't wait to get this set already! Come on, Europe release...!

[CorneliusMurdock]

I have to say I like the helicopter. It's a perfect little vehicle for Joker, almost as much as his previous ice cream truck.

Thanks for the review, montyofmusic! I've indexed it and removed the double topic for you.

[VBBN]

Thanks for that review,

I must say I am liking this set more than I thought i would, that is one fine looking helicopter indeed!

And the new henchmen for Joker looks grand

And the batwing is just simply a "Mini Batwing" In my opinion

[marcosbessa]

Thanks for the review, montyofmusic! I'm glad you liked the set.

This is one of my first sets. I had the task of creating something as cool as the old batwing set, with much less money... I believe i did my best within the circumstances. I tried to achieve a better bat-shape for the batwing, which i'm pretty satisfied with. But i must say it's a surprise to see that the fans seem to prefer the jokercopter! :) i guess it's teaching me never to expect anything specific from the fans... eheh

[Piranha]

great review! so the standard MSRP is $25? That is pretty good.

[montgocloud]

The MSRP is actually $34.99.

And marcosbessa... You created this set? I may not have shown it really well in the review, but I actually LOVE the Batwing! The fact that it is so compact but yet so full of features amazes me. It is a great set!

Edited December 19, 2011 by montyofmusic

[halomaster96]

I really like this set so much that I am going to get 2! Why you may ask? Because I want to make a fleet for the Joker. The Joker and Harley Quinn in the old helicopter and the new henchmen in the new choppers. But in total I like this set a lot better than the original even though I don't own the old batwing (when I bought the batcave on ebay they sent me the Joker's chopper for some reason). Nice review, I was hoping to do review on this before anyone else, but my tru didn't have any.

[maelstrom]

I like the copter. I will go along pretty well with the old one.

As for the Batwing, I'm really digging it. It may need a couple of small mods but I like the fact that it is smaller than the old one. I sold my original because it looked too big and took up too much display space. This one seems to be less unwieldy for play.

I'll have to build a display stand/launch bay for it like the old one had.

[Delta 38]

Wow. I don't own the previous Batwing, but I particularly like this one. I know it's smaller than the other one, but it has a nice bat shape when viewed from the top and looks more streamlined.

Overall, I'd say the set is an improvement over the previous one.

[Brickmamba]

first thx for the nice early review, not a set i was planning on getting given the leetness of the fun-house, though that henchman is full of win, will probably pick one up through brick-link/eBay

given the power armor lex set is $19.99 and comes with 3 figs i would have expected this set to have 1 more fig, maybe another henchman to make it a more appealing purchase

not a bad set, but not great either

[Ceroknight]

Thank you for the review!

I can't wait to get this

[Oky]

Yeah, thanks for the review. Could you tell us how many Bat-weapons are included in the set?

[Velika314]

Great review! I'm convinced that every set in this line is worth getting. My wallet disagrees.

[Holodoc]

Thank your for the review, montyofmusic!

Now I would like to see the minifigs compared to the old batwing set 7782.

I own that one and don't think the new one forces me to buy another yet very similar copy.

[AlexScammer]

Thank you for this wonderful review and all those views of your carpet

Now for serious. I liked to see what's I'm this set and all the functions, and I did. This is a nice review.

Thank you.

[montgocloud]

Oky, the only gear that Batman comes with is one Batarang. Kind of dissapointing. And thanks for front paging this! Is there any way I could add a poll to the topic?

Edited December 19, 2011 by montyofmusic

[Oky]

Very disappointing indeed. One of the best things about the old Batman sets was that every set came with a full arsenal of Bat-weapons as well as one or two guns for the bad guys. Most disappointing, but thanks for letting us know.

As for the poll, you'll have to ask one of the mods to do it for you.