Review - 4526 Batman

[LuxorV]

Theme: Super Heroes (DC Universe)

Set name: Batman

Set Number: 4526

Price: 16.99? $, 16.99? Euro

Pieces: 40

Year of release: 2012

Links: Peeron, Bricklink and Brickset

The Box

Front

The front of the box shows the Dark Knight watching over Gotham from the rooftops. The background is comic-styled, with the scantly lighted buildings providing a somewhat lighter base for Batman’s figure.

The pose is pretty effective, with the double katana weapon in plain view, and the cape/wings spread behind the body. I pity the fool who’ll have to face him tonight.

The LEGO, DC Universe, Super Heroes logos, set number and age range (plus probably more info in the American version) complete the front together with Batman’s name and symbol.

Back

The back shows Batman in an alternate version. Moreover, there are images showing the ball-and-socket building system and the new joint with friction (more on it later).

Again, the LEGO, DC Universe, Super Heroes logos, set number Batman’s name and symbol are present.

A small ad for the LEGO Super Heroes site is in the lower right corner, probably connected to the combiner model of Batman and Green Lantern shown in the lower half of the back.

Sides

The sides show a variety of legal notices and ads.

Contents

Inside

The bag contains two bags of parts, a loose torso bone piece and an instructions’ booklet. I was pleased to notice that the booklet was not bent, even if it is not card boarded.

As expected from Batman, blue is the main colour, complemented by some gunmetal. The bones are mainly black, with some dark bluish grey and bluish grey pieces.

New pieces

The new parts, largely anticipated, are the upper torso piece, here decorated with Batman’s symbol, the new joint with friction, the katana and Batman’s head.

The upper torso piece uses the standard two pin connection to attach to the classic torso piece.

Batman’s head is made of hard plastic, covered with a hood of soft, rubbery plastic.

The joint with friction is made of plastic, and not rubbery plastic as I first thought. The only rubber part is the trans clear dot in the middle, which is what generates the friction.

Re-coloured parts

The re-coloured parts include the torso piece, appearing here in blue and the longest bone piece, here in black for the first time.

Instructions

The front of the booklet shows the same image as the front of the bag, minus the ads and some other info.

The first page is occupied by a short comic featuring Batman and Joker.

Random page – every step is accompanied by its pieces’ call out box. Nothing too complicated, but useful to tell one shell piece from the other. The background image, in blue/aqua tones, does not distract the eye, but give a pleasant surface on which the steps are displayed.

The usual parts’ list. The right side is lined with the head shots of all three DC Universe Super Heroes sets.

Lastly, there is an ad for the minifig scaled Super Heroes sets.

Building

Start

Contrary to what happens with standard Hero Factory and Bionicle builds, the Super Heroes’ building start with the head. This gives the hero a creepy skeleton with fleshy head feel in the first steps.

Adding armour

We proceed to make the character bulkier…

… give him arms ...

… and add the jet-/back-pack.

Finished set

Batman looks ready to take on any enemy. I can envision him using those wings to fly above the city, ready to stop criminals. His bulky appearance and deadly weapon are a sight to behold.

Size comparison

These Super Heroes can really dwarf the Hero Factory standard heroes! This, along with the heavy torso and back-pack, is the reason why they were given the special joints with friction, I suppose.

Bonus images

Family shot

Here is a comparative shot of Batman, Joker and Green Lantern. Pick your favourite.

Final comments

Overall, Batman is a great figure, but, then again, who does not love Batman? He’s bigger and better equipped than ever, and can take on any opponent. The new and re-coloured pieces are a good addition to anyone’s collection and are excellent MOCing pieces. His design is unique, but still in line with his classic comic style, and the colour scheme is excellent (though I prefer his black costume, personally).

Design & Colour scheme – 10/10 (Very well proportioned and efficient. Blue & gunmetal work well together. He has a somewhat mechanical feel, but way less then the HF sets, so it’s good in my opinion.)

Parts – 10/10 (Great variety of useful parts, a reasonable amount of new pieces, and even a cool printed one, not to speak of Batman’s head!)

Playability – 7/10 (The movements are smooth, but somewhat limited, due to the bulky armour, especially on his legs.)

Build – 8/10 (Nothing too complex, but some efficient solutions are used.)

Price – 9/10 (I believe it’s a good compromise between number of pieces, their size, the number of new parts in this set and the fact it is a licensed set.)

Overall: 8.8/10 Very good.

As always, questions, comments, and pic requests welcome!

[K-Nut]

Much Better than I thought it would be! I like the look of Batman in action figure form, and looks much better than Green Lantern or Joker. Nice work!

[Rocketbilly]

So far this Batman is my favourite of the Superheroes figures as a completed model (though Joker has a better selection of useful armour pieces) I just love those new blades he has and think his colour scheme is the best in the line. It would be nice if he came with a fabric cape though, but his wings are quite a nice alternative. Thanks for all of these awesome reviews - the picture quality is superb and they're well written too.

[lightningtiger]

Ah, Batman....excellent figure....I'm usually not one for these action figures, but I'm impressed and I can see this been a monster seller and even better than Ben10.

Thanks 'LuxorV' for this review.

[Aanchir]

Great review! Before reading it, I felt that Green Lantern was the best of the Super Heroes action figure sets, but now I feel Batman might be a competitor for that position. Part of his appeal is his simplicity. It works to his advantage, making him appear more human and less robotic than either of the other two figures. There's also obviously an advantage in that Batman has been known to wear lots of alternate costumes including "power armor", so even if he did have a semi-robotic appearance it wouldn't look quite as out-of-place as on the Joker figure.

Of course, the alternate versions on the back of the canisters all seem very ugly besides Green Lantern's. The Batman/Green Lantern combi model is gorgeous-looking, though, so that helps salvage the back of the box.

The new friction elements are very neat and could prove extremely useful. Incidentally, do they work with older joints like the Glatorian head piece used on this year's Hero Factory sets? I'm particularly interested because if they do it could allow for HF figures with larger bodies but lacking the "giraffe-neck" that afflicts Fire Lord a bit if you don't have his head hunched forward at all.

[LuxorV]

The new friction elements are very neat and could prove extremely useful. Incidentally, do they work with older joints like the Glatorian head piece used on this year's Hero Factory sets? I'm particularly interested because if they do it could allow for HF figures with larger bodies but lacking the "giraffe-neck" that afflicts Fire Lord a bit if you don't have his head hunched forward at all.

The new friction joint can be connected to the Glatorian head, but it makes the nexk look blocky. I think it could work with bigger helmets that cover the back of the head like Fire Lord's, but would look ugly on characters with smaller helmets or just masks like the Glatorians themselves.

[Aanchir]

The new friction joint can be connected to the Glatorian head, but it makes the nexk look blocky. I think it could work with bigger helmets that cover the back of the head like Fire Lord's, but would look ugly on characters with smaller helmets or just masks like the Glatorians themselves.

I was mostly concerned with how it would work with bulkier Hero Factory helmets like Fire Lord's myself, so that's cool to hear.

[Ceroknight]

Outside the box, these superhero action figures look better then I thought they would!

Thank you for the review!

[Shakar]

So many titanium metallic...and those blue Hero 2.0 torso armour pieces, the new friction joints, and those lovely Breez katana pieces (they look even nicer than I thought) in black...I may pick this up once the price goes down a bit, it has so many good parts but I don't feel like spending 17 Euro or so for them.

[SpiderSpaceman]

Thanks a ton for the review, LuxorV! think you left the wings a bit lower than in the instructions though.

[LuxorV]

Thanks a ton for the review, LuxorV! think you left the wings a bit lower than in the instructions though.

Probably I did; it just looked better in my eyes.

[earl grey]

This set could be ok, but the 'wings'... personally, I don't understand it. They make him look more like a monster.

thank you for your review

[Taaron]

I find it so interesting that Lego decided to screw the heads together. Is this the first time they've used screws in a set? (I suspect they might of done so in Galidor, but I never had any play experience with those.)

Anyone else look at Batman's jawline and think: That's not Batman! That's Superman in Batman's costume! Wear your own costume, Clark! ?

[Aanchir]

I find it so interesting that Lego decided to screw the heads together. Is this the first time they've used screws in a set? (I suspect they might of done so in Galidor, but I never had any play experience with those.)

Anyone else look at Batman's jawline and think: That's not Batman! That's Superman in Batman's costume! Wear your own costume, Clark! ?

No, the Ben 10: Alien Force sets also had screws in the heads. And of course in non-action-figure sets there are countless electronic parts that contain screws, as well as a few McDonalds promotional sets and the current style of magnetic LEGO train couplings.

I don't know of any screws being used in Galidor, except possibly in the Kek Powerizer, which if so would again be because it was an electronic toy.

[ZORK64]

I'm actually tempted to get Batman once he's released here. His design and look works also quite well with the slightly robotic look of the various LEGO pieces. However, I'll try to put Jayko's cape on him and if that's too short, I'll make my own for him. I think he'll look much better with a cape. Nevertheless, he comes with a fair amount of neat pieces.

And thanks for the review, Luxor!

[ShadowWolfHount]

The set is really good and the combiner was meant to be the Green Lantern batman, Anyways i do like that they made Batman blue but i don't know why they used gunmetal, can't they just used dark gray . The legs and body are good, like that they used that Batman logo on his chest armor. The arms i don't like because the upper arms are too bulky but hey at least we get be recolor. The wing, jetpack, backpack what ever it's called I don't like but I Hate Those Wings SO MUCH . The head well I don't like it that much but it's okay I guess.

Also why did you even all that Torso Armor a classic because the last time i check the armor is not that old to be called a classic because it's still here and it at 3 years ago (or at the time this topic was made almost a year old) not 10 or 7 years old plus it's still being used.