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Review: 76023 The Tumbler

Set Opinion  

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Number: 76023

Title: The Tumbler

Theme: Superheroes

Released: 2014

Part Count: 1869

Minifigure Count: 2

Set Price (MSRP): US: $199.99 | UK: £159.99 | CN: $229.99 | France: €199.99

Lego.com Description:

Build the awesome Tumbler from the Batman™ The Dark Knight Trilogy!

Take on the challenge of building The Tumbler, an amazingly cool LEGO® model of the iconic vehicle from the Batman™ The Dark Knight Trilogy. Construct this black armored vehicle highlighted with new color LEGO® elements and brand new LEGO front wheels. Check out the cool, detailed interior and adjustable top wings. Includes 2 new and exclusive minifigures: Batman™ and The Joker.

  • Includes 2 minifigures: Batman™ and The Joker
  • Features an armored exterior, adjustable top wings, detailed interior and huge rubber-tread racing tires
  • Batman™ and The Joker minifigures are new and exclusive to this set!
  • Model includes new LEGO® front wheels
  • Includes a fact sheet about the Tumbler vehicle used in The Dark Knight Trilogy movies featuring Batman™
  • Tumbler measures over 5” (15cm) high, 15” (40cm) long and 9” (24cm) wide

Hello everyone and welcome to my review of The Tumbler! This set was released last year, yet we don't really have a review of it here on Eurobricks, so hopefully this will help out those who haven't quite decided if this set is worth getting or passing up. The Tumbler is a vast change from the sleek rides that Batman usually pilots, and it was a design I fell in love with since day 1. But does the set capture the detailed and angular design of the Tumbler and do it justice? Let's find out.

The Packaging & Contents

Box Front

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The front of the rather massive box gives us a pleasing image of the Tumbler cruising down a street in Gotham during the night. You can find some information such as the Tumbler's dimensions, the exclusive minifigures, and of course an image showing this as being part of the Dark Knight trilogy. (Am I the only one who wishes the first movie had been names The Dark Knight Begins?)

Box Back

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The back of the box displays the Tumbler in the safe house we saw in The Dark Knight. Some of the set details are highlighted, and the bottom shows some neat blueprints of the set. The "highlighted" parts in the blueprints are all of the gold pieces in the set. Why those were necessary to highlight, I haven't a clue, but it looks cool.

Box Sides

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The sides of the box are, well, completely uninteresting.

Instructions

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The set includes five instruction manuals. I really wish more UCS sets would follow the Millennium Falcon style with the actual "book," but oh well.

Random Instructions Shot

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The set is most black parts, and the instructions do a decent job of distinguishing between them by using heavy white borders. With that said I did miss adding the occasional cheese slope every once in a while, but user error aside I didn't have any issues with the construction.

Sticker Sheet

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The first sticker sheet is mostly comprised of info screens for the cockpit of the Tumbler, my favorite being the "Intimidate" one. The stickers without black backdrop are printed on a clear backing.

Second Sticker Sheet

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The second sheet is the large info panel that will go on the minifigure display stand. I've always enjoyed these panels in Star Wars UCS sets and I'm glad to see it return here.

Tires

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The only new piece that the Tumbler includes is the front wheels, which are of course modeled after the real tumbler's front wheels.

Tire Size

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A comparison between the new tires and the tire that is used for the back of the Tumbler.

Minifigures

Joker Front

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The Joker included is based off of the Heath Ledger Joker from the Dark Knight Trilogy, and he looks fantastic! The printing on the torso is spot-on, and the face printing is also nicely done. As shown in the callout, the face is dual sided, offering either a tame smile or a more sadistic smile... I prefer the latter.

Joker Back

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He does have some back printing, though it's nothing to write home about.

Batman Front

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The Batman included is based off of the Batman Begins styling. The torso is, once again, very nicely detailed, and as shown in the callout he also has back printing. His face is dual sided as well, offering either "slightly upset Batman" or "slightly more upset Batman" expressions.

Batman Back

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The nice back printing is of course covered when he is wearing his cape.

The Build

Construction 1

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The build begins with a Technic frame. It's no surprise that a UCS set utilizes Technic for most of it's structure to achieve a sturdy structure, and at this stage you can tell already that it is going to be very sturdy.

Construction 2

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We continue on by building up part of the interior, which has two seats and a variety of control panels. Already at this stage we can see some interesting Technic beings used to build the very unique shaping of the tumbler. We also build the rear axle mount.

Construction 3

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More of the rear is constructed, and we begin to build up the side of the Tumbler. It's at this point when the build begins to get very repetitive, because essentially you keep building something for one side of the Tumbler, and then build a mirrored version for the other side. After I got to the third set of instructions I just started building both sides at once.

Wheels Added

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We build up the front windows, front wheel mounts, and slap on the tires. Of the entire build, putting on the wheels was the most satisfying moment. You really then get a sense of how big this thing will be, and it begins to actually look like a Tumbler in progress.

Intake & Cover

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While the mirror-building of the set can get tedious, I must say I really enjoy seeing just how Lego managed to build some of the wacky angles of the Tumbler.

Construction

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We build up the sides, and get ready to finish up the top. It's almost there!

Side Panels

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These large side wings that get added on are mounted by a balljoint, and are quite sturdy as a result. As you'll see soon, some of the other wings on the top are not mounted nearly as well, and end up being quite fragile.

Exhaust/Thruster

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The rear exhaust is built, once again adding a sense of accomplishment when you place it on. By the way, the suspension on the back is purely cosmetic. It does not offer any working suspension.

Detailing

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Some more elaborate layering of mini-constructs are applied to the front.

Roof and Missile Pods

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Here we can see the builds of the roof panels and the missile pods.

Roof

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The roof panels are not actually held on by any studs, but are rather stuck in place with friction for easy removal later.

Finished Set

Front View

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The front of the Tumbler is a menacing sight to see. It captures the look perfectly, and having the special front wheels really give this the life it needs.

Rear View

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The back gives us a bit more in the way of greebles, with the faked suspension and the workings of the exhaust and fuel tanks. Of course your first thought when you see the back is likely "WHEELS."

Side View 1

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Again, the side bears a lot of resemblances to the real thing. If I had to make any change, I would have liked to see Lego create new tires for the back as well. The ones that are there look okay, but on the actual Tumbler, the tire portion is very large, with a proportionally smaller rim. Given the tires that Lego used on the set, the rims look far too large. I guess Batman decided to bring the Tumbler to an episode of Pimp my Ride.

Side View 2

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Both sides are of course the same. I think my favorite design feature would be the vents right in front of the rear wheels.

Top-down View

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The top view looks nice, again you can really appreciate some of the intricate shaping here.

Exposed Interior

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The roof panels can be removed to allow some limited access to the interior. Limited is the key word here, however, as you can see there isn't a whole lot of room..

Rear Wheel

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A shot near the the rear tires. Again you can see some interesting shaping around the area.

Side Intakes

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The side vents are a bit boxier than on the real thing, but I really like how they pulled them off. They are certainly one of the more eye catching parts of the build, and were a nice change of pace from the repeated panel building.

Front Windscreen

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Sure, the set doesn't have working suspension or a removable batpod...but hey, it hand windshield wipers!

Front Angle

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Of course, it's not a perfect representation of the Tumbler, but it's got a very interesting aesthetic in it's own way.

Display Base

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The finished display stand has the info panel, as well as spots from the two minifigures.

Complete Set

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Conclusion

It's easy to sum up my thoughts on this beast: It's a great display piece. It does a fantastic job of capturing some of the intricate angles and shapes of the on-screen vehicle. With that said, that's about it. It can roll forward and back, and you can remove the roof panels to see some of the interior. I'd love to have seen an extra $100-200 dumped into this to make it larger and throw in a functioning removable Batpod, but i'll take what I can get. It's quite sturdy, although the rear wing panels don't have the most secure connection. If you love the look of the Tumbler, I wouldn't miss out on picking this monster up. Otherwise, it's a great source of black parts, and of course there are a few things that are exclusive to the set including the front wheels and the fantastic minifigures.

What do you think of this set? Do you already own it, or are you on the fence about buying it? Share below in the comments!

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An excellent, well written and detailed review VBBN, of one of 2014's coolest sets.

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Wow, great review 'VBBN!' I have to say I'm on the fence about this one. It's definitely a very slick looking model, and the figures are nice. In a perfect world, I would buy it, but there's so many other things demanding my money! (Looking at you 76042...) We'll have to see how things work out, but I feel I'll end up passing up and this one and regretting it later...

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Nice review!

As an owner of this set (which I received as a prize from Lego) I have to say it's rather nice. I'm not sure how my perception would change if I bought it myself, but it's nonetheless good. For myself I do know the best part is the minifigures, specifically Joker--but the Tumbler itself is well designed (although I do wish it had suspension). I did have issues building it--largely due to the fact that one wrong placement (due to multiple instances of carelessness) of a technic pin (even just one hole off the correct location) resulted in having to rip the thing apart almost back to square one.

As a display piece it's ok I suppose. Being all black makes it sort of blend into one blob, so most of the details are indeed lost--even at short distances. I don't know--I'm not upset I own one, but I really wouldn't be upset if I didn't. Although the Joker is nice...

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Excellent detailed review, thanks for posting it.

As much as I love this set it retails for the same price as the Nexus 9 in my country, so I'm not sure if its worth it.

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Thank you for the review! I think Lego did a great job with this set, and I hope they do more large models like this for themes other than Starwars

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Outstanding review and outstanding set. I am looking forward to have this in my collection. :wub:

Thank you VBBN for taking your time to do up this mammoth set review.

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While I do like mine, I'm less concerned with the rear wheels than I am about the incredibly fragile rear wings/flaps. I wish they had come up with a way to have two connection points for each.

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Fantastic Review - Great pictures

While I admire the techniques used in this model, I am not considering buying it. This is mostly due to the subject itself as I feel that black models loose a lot in exposing their details.

I do really like the Joker though

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Nice review! I would have liked to have seen more description on the techniques and components included in all of those booklets. A bit pessimistic too, but overall a good review of a cool set. :thumbup:

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Lovely review and set. I can't wait to buy one. I just hope it doesn't go away before the end of the year. I'm looking at Christmas for a present.

But I like the shaping overall. I think LEGO did a good job with the limitations they have. The figures of course are stunning. I think I may have preferred different green hair for Joker, but nice that we get an old piece with a new color either way.

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That's a really informative review VBBN; thanks for taking the time.

I'm torn over this set - it's an impressive piece of design, but ... just not for me. I enjoyed the Nolan films, but they're pretty dark for TLG to be using as a source of sets. So I was a bit surprised when the regular movie sets appeared. I was very surprised when TLG decided to make this model though because I didn't think there would be the demand for it at that price. Maybe it's more iconic than I realised, I'm not sure. It doesn't grab me.

Like the new Boba Fett in UCS Slave 1, the minifigs are great examples of TLG's printing genius. I prefer mine to be less alarming, so I'll stick with regular Jokers.

If anyone wants to start a poll to decide which minifig would be voted most likely to come to life and go on a slasher rampage, this Joker would win hands down.

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I'll second the motion: Joker is the most eye-catching an interesting part of this set. I particularly like the Anakin hair in green (I tend to enjoy unusally-colored hairpieces), and the printing works really well. Otherwise, it's not really worth it to me. I'm not a fan of "display only" LEGO sets, so it's not that attractive to me as a potential buyer.

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Model looks great. It has a good combination of studs and flat surfaces. No mechanical functions but I don’t think that is what this model is about.

As a technic fan I consider this set a good source of non-technic pieces that are very helpful to model cabin details in trucks, for example.

The 10x 6x8 technic bricks are always useful.

I really do not like that the instructions come in 5 think booklets, this set deserve a better quality book; the same for the printed sticker with the tumbler specifications.

It’s a bit expensive set, I guess because it’s a licensed product but Lego is an expensive brand, anyway.

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Thanks everyone!

This set had me "whelmed".

Parts pop off, just by looking at it.

I don't really have any issues with parts falling off other than the rear wings that are only attached via a clip...not the best choice of attachment to be honest.

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Great review! I still don't know if buy it or not.. The main thing missing is in my opinion the steering!!!! As a technic guy I miss it..

Despite that the price is very very high considering parts used for the set...

Don't know if I wanna spend 200euro on this set or save them for the future technic sets as the Mercedes truck comin' out in August.

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