DC Superheroes 2023 - Rumors & Discussion

[GoldenNinja3000]

I've got mixed feelings on this set but I'm leaning towards liking it. The figures are definitely a letdown but I've never seen the Burton movies so I'm not really in this for the figures anyway. I just think Catwoman needs more printing and a better cowl. I like the shadow box concept and I think the build looks great, but as others have said there's not enough contrast/light-up features to make the interior stand out when it's closed. And even though I like the shadow box, I still would've preferred a proper gigantic comic-based Batcave at this price point over this unique concept. I wanted this set to be something that reminded me of running through the Batcave in the LEGO video games, and this isn't anything close to that feeling. 

That being said, I really like the Batcave wall and what I've seen of the moving features. The Batmobile is an amazing build although I'm surprised to see it included here. The bat logos are designed pretty well, but no matter how good the big one looks it still feels like a waste of pieces. I wish LEGO would invest in new light brick designs because this set would be so much cooler if it included lights that could remain on to illuminate the interior when displayed. 

[RichardGoring]

2 minutes ago, GoldenNinja3000 said:

...this set would be so much cooler if it included lights that could remain on to illuminate the interior when displayed. 

Definitely. The concept of a shadow box is awesome, but the lack of contrast here just spoils the impact. I'm such a fan of these ones on Ideas - LEGO IDEAS - Member Contributions

I think it's the same person, who also did this one:

If LEGO had a decent lightbrick that was bright and could be permanently on, it would make such a difference to the Batcave set, and make it far more appealing.

[bricksbyjim]

Any idea if there will be a GWP with the Batcave? As I have thought about the set I will buy it at some point, but without a GWP (Batman themed ofc) it is hard to rationalize spending $400 on release, when I could wait a few months and likely get it for $300. 

They could do some really cool GWP for this set though. Like for the UCS Batmobile 89 they had a really nice minifig version. Imagine if they did a small section of Wayne manor like they did with the Eiffel Tower GWP. Anyways hopefully someone has heard a rumor of this because without one this set is NOT a day 1 buy!

[Mandalorianknight]

8 minutes ago, bricksbyjim said:

Any idea if there will be a GWP with the Batcave? As I have thought about the set I will buy it at some point, but without a GWP (Batman themed ofc) it is hard to rationalize spending $400 on release, when I could wait a few months and likely get it for $300. 

They could do some really cool GWP for this set though. Like for the UCS Batmobile 89 they had a really nice minifig version. Imagine if they did a small section of Wayne manor like they did with the Eiffel Tower GWP. Anyways hopefully someone has heard a rumor of this because without one this set is NOT a day 1 buy!

I haven't seen so much as a whisper. The 1992 polybag exists, but it seems it'll be available for sale normally.

(And would also be really dumb as a batcave GWP, as it's the same batsuit)

Edited May 18, 2023 by Mandalorianknight

[cehnot]

The best choice for a GWP would be the duck boat with an army of penguins or a batskiboat.

[Legocentrico]

superhero fans dont deserve a gwp!!! :-D

[RedHoodPug]

I’m not buying this set as it’s too much money and an aspect of Batman I’m not overly into, but I think it’s ridiculous that the figures for this set don’t get leg printing but Boba Fett gets a new fully printed figure in a mech set. 

[mirkwoodspiders]

I'm a novice Batman fan, so I don't have a strong opinion on the accuracy or detail of the figures. That seems to be a big gripe of many of this set's detractors. If I were a bigger fan, I'm sure my gripes would be the same.

On the set's own merits or flaws, I think LEGO tried too hard here with the shadow-box concept, and even then didn't execute it will for what shadow-boxes are supposed to look like. I like the detail of the rear wall and the functions, but don't like the shape of the set, the entire front wall, or the shadow-box concept in general.

I'm honestly not sure what I was expecting/wanted, but it's not this. If I had to say at this point, I'm 60/40, with the 60 being I won't buy it.

[TheRedBarron]

:^)

Edited October 12, 2023 by TheRedBarron

[PGBQW]

6 hours ago, Legocentrico said:

superhero fans dont deserve a gwp!!! :-D

Superhero fans don't deserve sets at all, acording to Lego

[Mandalorianknight]

6 hours ago, RedHoodPug said:

I’m not buying this set as it’s too much money and an aspect of Batman I’m not overly into, but I think it’s ridiculous that the figures for this set don’t get leg printing but Boba Fett gets a new fully printed figure in a mech set. 

Star Wars sells. DC doesn't.

Whether or not that's because lego's absolutely bungling the DC line doesn't seem to matter to them. Point is, you sell worse, you get a lower budget.

[TheRedBarron]

:^)

Edited October 12, 2023 by TheRedBarron

[Mandalorianknight]

38 minutes ago, TheRedBarron said:

The issue with that is the cycle of DC not doing well so less effort is put into sets because they won’t sell well could’ve been easily broken if the team behind Lego Superhero’s weren’t helplessly stupid. They said in interviews that they only focused on the movies because that’s all kids talk about failing to realize kids watch far more tv than they do movies and Teen Titans Go almost singly handily occupied all of CN’s air time for a decent stretch of time. As we saw with just how successful Shang Chi, Eternals, and Wakanda Forever were at loading up every clearance section of target/Walmart. If they put a bit of effort into DC it would be successful again. 

Like I said,

49 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Whether or not that's because lego's absolutely bungling the DC line doesn't seem to matter to them.

. I totally agree with you that DC doing poorly is on lego, but so long as lego fails to realize that, it isn't gonna get a bigger budget.

[RedHoodPug]

3 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Like I said,

. I totally agree with you that DC doing poorly is on lego, but so long as lego fails to realize that, it isn't gonna get a bigger budget.

It's not just the handling of the theme, it's the robbing Peter to pay Paul mentality for design budgets. They threw money at Hidden Side and it went nowhere. Same with Vidiyeo. I think they've got enough scope to allow new moulds and leg/arm printing across the brand, and do things like make smaller sets for themes. Monkie Kid is full of large sets and a few mediums scattered throughout. Dreamzzz looks like it's going to be a similar tale. This whole, "oh but IPs cost money and that comes out of the budget" is inane because it's one company that acquires the various licences, not a series of franchises. The business model is what they make of it, and they are restricting themselves. Star Wars is an unstoppable force (excuse the pun), and rather than churning out mechs with new/exclusive minifigures, spread that love elsewhere. It smacks of having a massive budget and needing to spend it all before year end, like local government services. That little bit of mech budget could have to prints on those Batcave figures. 

[PGBQW]

Crazy shower thought I just had, but I might as well share it with y'all:

So, in theory, we're supposed to get a Keaton Batmobile standalone set, in addition to the one featured in the Batcave, right? 

There's just no way the small one is better, so it's going to be either the exact same, or a worse version.

IMO, they should've kept this version of the batcave to be the standalone version, as it's pretty much 89's batmobile.

And then, the version from the Batcave should've been able to split and turn into that weird bat train thing from returns. You know, like the movie the set is supposed to be based of?

 

[Legocentrico]

I remember the designer was not talking about sets inspired by movies, but he said that if there is no big DC/Batman movie in the last 3 years, the whole license is penalized. This thing does not convince me, because in truth there have been many films. No comparison to the Avengers, okay, but enough to push a few vaguely movie-inspired set comics every year, like they did with Suicide Squad. And I also think that if DC sells less it is Lego's fault: I remember the lineup of the set with Killer Croc, they were fantastic minifigures, yet the set sucked, with that horrible tricycle / crocodile. I would have bought two copies of that set for the minifigures, but those builds were detrimental, not the movies at the theatre. I hope you understand what I mean :-D 

[NovaBricks]

The thing that I still can't figure out is the need to base this on Keaton. Think about it; is someone who is liable to purchase a $400 set based on a movie sequel from 30 years ago going to turn their nose up at a comic-based one? Of course not. Those people are likely already Batman superfans like myself. However, there ARE plenty of people for whom the opposite is probably true; they would buy a $400 generic Batman set with a ton of figs, but have no particular attachment to Batman Returns. If LEGO wanted to target the Batman Returns superfans, why did they go so low effort on the figs?

At the end of the day I do still think the cave is a really tricky build regardless of how you approach it. And they actually did a pretty decent job here with some elements. But this theme still needs its Daily Bugle and I fully believe the only realistic way we'll get that is with an Arkham. 

It's also wild that next year's big set is also a gimmicky set. It'll probably sell well because its BTAS based, but man LEGO is making some bonkers decisions by going with shadow boxes and art sets at $300+.

[Mandalorianknight]

9 hours ago, RedHoodPug said:

It's not just the handling of the theme, it's the robbing Peter to pay Paul mentality for design budgets. They threw money at Hidden Side and it went nowhere. Same with Vidiyeo. I think they've got enough scope to allow new moulds and leg/arm printing across the brand, and do things like make smaller sets for themes. Monkie Kid is full of large sets and a few mediums scattered throughout. Dreamzzz looks like it's going to be a similar tale. This whole, "oh but IPs cost money and that comes out of the budget" is inane because it's one company that acquires the various licences, not a series of franchises. The business model is what they make of it, and they are restricting themselves. Star Wars is an unstoppable force (excuse the pun), and rather than churning out mechs with new/exclusive minifigures, spread that love elsewhere. It smacks of having a massive budget and needing to spend it all before year end, like local government services. That little bit of mech budget could have to prints on those Batcave figures. 

It doesn't really make economic sense to take the budget of a theme that's doing well and dump it into one that's doing poorly. It's punishing success and you run the risk of lowering the sales for the theme that's already doing well. It's not worth the risk. (Also, are we really saying that if the keaton batcave had, say, exclusive prints for max shreck, it'd sell much better? I really doubt that's the issue.) Similarly, it doesn't make sense to spread IP costs out over all sets, as I don't think, for instance, ninjago fans would be happy about their set prices going up slightly because lego just bought the license to Avatar.

11 minutes ago, NovaBricks said:

they would buy a $400 generic Batman set with a ton of figs, but have no particular attachment to Batman Returns.

This is me. If I had $400 sitting in my bank account and it was between food on the table and a comic batcave, it'd be the comic batcave (Joking, obviously... I'd just sell my kidney and do both!) 

But actually. A comic batcave feels like it would be objectively more popular.

[RedHoodPug]

31 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

It doesn't really make economic sense to take the budget of a theme that's doing well and dump it into one that's doing poorly. It's punishing success and you run the risk of lowering the sales for the theme that's already doing well. It's not worth the risk. (Also, are we really saying that if the keaton batcave had, say, exclusive prints for max shreck, it'd sell much better? I really doubt that's the issue.) Similarly, it doesn't make sense to spread IP costs out over all sets, as I don't think, for instance, ninjago fans would be happy about their set prices going up slightly because lego just bought the license to Avatar.

This is me. If I had $400 sitting in my bank account and it was between food on the table and a comic batcave, it'd be the comic batcave (Joking, obviously... I'd just sell my kidney and do both!) 

But actually. A comic batcave feels like it would be objectively more popular.

Checks and balances. There are ways of doing things without it being black and white.
And no, no amount of additional printing would make Max Shreck a desirable figure for me, but Catwoman’s costume is absolutely covered in stitches, not just her torso. 

[Battlinpanther]

A major part of the issue is that DC has been getting its butt roundly kicked by Marvel for the past 15 years, which has hurt the brand in a number of ways. A rising tide lifts all ships, so to speak, and the MCU's success has meant there's been a major interest in Marvel as a whole that never quite manifested for DC. People love Marvel, but they don't really love DC: they love Batman and maybe Superman. I agree that a lot of Lego's DC attempts have been kind of lackluster, but it's not all on them. This is a pattern we've been seeing nearly across the board with DC related stuff; the DC Multiverse toy line frequently gets criticized for the absurd level of Batman figures in it, but one of the guys who works for the company had said a while back that it's largely because the execs and retailers don't really know or care about the DC Universe beyond the big names.

1 hour ago, NovaBricks said:

The thing that I still can't figure out is the need to base this on Keaton. Think about it; is someone who is liable to purchase a $400 set based on a movie sequel from 30 years ago going to turn their nose up at a comic-based one? Of course not. Those people are likely already Batman superfans like myself. However, there ARE plenty of people for whom the opposite is probably true; they would buy a $400 generic Batman set with a ton of figs, but have no particular attachment to Batman Returns. If LEGO wanted to target the Batman Returns superfans, why did they go so low effort on the figs?

At the end of the day I do still think the cave is a really tricky build regardless of how you approach it. And they actually did a pretty decent job here with some elements. But this theme still needs its Daily Bugle and I fully believe the only realistic way we'll get that is with an Arkham. 

It's also wild that next year's big set is also a gimmicky set. It'll probably sell well because its BTAS based, but man LEGO is making some bonkers decisions by going with shadow boxes and art sets at $300+.

Before they decided to abandon Flash stuff in the wake of the controversy, it was probably intended as some sort of synergy since the main selling point for that movie right now is "Hey look! Michael Keaton's back!"

[Nylock]

Anyone in the US find the Batman poly bag?

Edited May 19, 2023 by Nylock

[Agent Kallus]

3 hours ago, Battlinpanther said:

Before they decided to abandon Flash stuff in the wake of the controversy, it was probably intended as some sort of synergy since the main selling point for that movie right now is "Hey look! Michael Keaton's back!"

That explains Keaton sure, but what I think is that it's odd that's it's just returns. I mean for a set this size they really should of have things and characters from both movies, in fact for the price they could've done some really bonus figures like stuff from the 1989 comic like Billy Dee Williams two face or even stuff from the other 2 movies with Micheal Gough Alfred.

 

I mean don't get me wrong, they've done the first Keaton movie stuff more and so if it had to only be one, I'd rather returns.

[TheRedBarron]

:^)

Edited October 12, 2023 by TheRedBarron

[CF Mitch]

7 hours ago, TheRedBarron said:

The issue with that is DC sold well until they went overboard with LBM tie ins and JL flopping. They over saturated the market with Batman and friends and then the DCU crumbled. When DC was doing comic based sets they sold on par with MCU sets. If they went back to the previous model of comic based sets with loose tie ins to the films or even once tried to capitalize on TTG (dimensions doesn’t count) DC as a sub theme would be easily on par with marvel. Marvel was doing better due to the infinity saga of films but it’s clear that the hype is beyond dead as seen by the shelf rot in marvel’s product line, the steep discounts on the BP bust and Hulk Buster. 

I agree with the part about DC (I'm not informed enough to say anything about the Marvel part).
I love a lot of aspects of DC Comics, not just Batman or Superman and/or the entire Justice League.
Most of the LEGO DC sets I bought contain characters other than Batman and I'm sure I'd buy sets inspired by the comics in general again, if executed properly, of course.
There's SO many things to draw inspiration from. Even if you want to stick with the Batman Family.

Regards,
Mitch

[Battlinpanther]

If the non-Batman DCU comic stuff was selling that well I have to imagine they'd be making more of it. Again, this is just a historical thing. Marvel's been more popular for quite a while now and while DC has a mega hot property with Batman, the rest of their universe never quite had that same level of interest when it comes to merchandise. Who knows. Maybe the upcoming reboot will reignite mainstream interest if it's successful.