TheBatstan

Well this was a first. I decided to order a second 76181 Batmobile set and the box has taped sides instead of the two finger hole punch openings that was on the first one I got back in November. Now I'm not complaining since I vastly prefer the taped sides method over the hole punches (I want to keep the box in as nice of a condition as I can, especially with how the back of it pays homage to one of the official reveal pics of the car back in March 2020 and it looks so clean), this just never happened to me before when I bought a duplicate set.

If there was any rumor that I desperately needed to be true, it's this Tobey Spider-Man sets one. Not only could Lego capitalize on the hype from his return in NWH, there's no better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Spider-Man 2002 (and the release of the first ever Marvel sets with the Spider-Man sets that were released under the Studios theme). Imagine modernized remakes of the 2002/2003 sets but with flesh toned minifigures instead of yellow and all the advancements that Lego have made since the early 2000s when it comes to designing sets. Revamped Spider-Man 2 sets would be a welcomed bonus too, even though they still hold up pretty well IMO. But the biggest positive in this rumor is that the pipe dream of getting Lego Spider-Man 3 sets could finally become a reality after Lego missed their chance the first time when they handed over the rights to Mega Bloks in 2004. As someone who spent way too much time as a kid in the late 2000s looking at custom Spider-Man 3 figures online, getting a Raimi black suit, New Goblin, Venom, and maybe even a Sandman that has a normal green striped shirt with no sand on it would be a dream come true. Hell, throw an Emo Peter figure in there as well since the hairpiece for him exists now.

Leaked pics for 3 of the Spidey and His Amazing Friends sets have finally showed up in the usual hashtag on Instagram and you can actually see them if you type in the set number in the Lego Instructions app, whoops. Besides the figures and builds being SUPER kid-ified...Rhino is surprisingly pretty good. He has this new (?) shoulder and helmet combo piece with a horn attached, and he and Hulk are the only ones that have regular sized legs (and Hulk appears to have dual molded legs with purple shorts) while the rest are all using the mid-legs. He honestly looks like he would fit great with the regular Spider-Man minifigures if the problem wasn't that he's supposed to be a big fig.

Well, isn't this is a surprise. I was kind of hoping that we'd end up getting Guy Gardner, but Val is a unique choice that no one saw coming (probably with the recent Michael B. Jordan series being announced). Ironically, I think I might end up getting two copies of him so that I can use the spare for fixing up some Marvel figures, namely Blade with that hair, and Robbie Robertson with that new face.

Here's all the ones that I could find that use the MCU design from 2015 onwards: 76038 Attack on Avengers Tower 40334 Avengers Tower 76166 Avengers Tower Battle 76152 Wrath of Loki 40334 and 76152 are a mini build GWP and a 4+ set respectively, but I chose to count them since they reuse the same design from Age of Ultron. It's probably my personal bias of the comics over the movies, but I'm just a little tired with seeing that be the go-to building for an "iconic" Marvel location when it hasn't even been used by the Avengers in the MCU since 2015, with Tony having sold the place during Spider-Man: Homecoming. It's why it was a huge breath of fresh air for me when the D2C this year was a comic Daily Bugle, a huge Marvel landmark location that should've been made years ago.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Well if that turns out to be the case, then my mind's pretty much made up now. But I guess the first big question that needs to be answered is if this is going to be Marvel or DC related before reaching that point.

If this D2C turns out to be a Marvel set, I hope it's another comic related one after Lego saw how well the comic inspired Daily Bugle set is STILL selling out like crazy. Unpopular opinion, but it'll be an easy pass for me if it's an MCU set, especially Stark/Avengers Tower. I'm starting to get real sick of that building being the only noteworthy location that Lego seems to know along with the Helicarrier. It's never going to happen, but a comic Baxter Building or X-Mansion/Xavier Institute would drain my wallet so fast. Out of those two, I think the Institute has a better chance since Lego is starting to dive back into the X-Men side of things with the Wolverine mech, and an X-Mansion would be a perfect tie-in set for the X-Men '97 cartoon. We probably won't get anything comic Fantastic Four related till the MCU gets their movie out first (because that seems to be the only way Lego will care about making comic minifigures...).

Can't believe I missed this. You're very much welcome, I should be thanking you for the excellent design. After working on it for a while, I think I've finally arrived to a satisfying combination of the official set and your MOC. I can't wait to actually build it to see how it looks:

When I saw that he had the "mask" in the trailer, it just made me even more excited and confident about finally getting a classic comic Electro since Lego HAS to make that as an actual piece now instead of avoiding it for years and substituting the Ultimate Electro design as compensation.

Huh, I always thought the belt buckle was an inconsistency due to whoever was doing the artwork at the time. I didn't know it was actually classified as its own suit, the more you know.

Well, this was a great surprise to wake up to. Though the original information about the minifigures that came with the mechs seemed to be misinformed. Out of the 3 of them, only one is an actual classic comic version while the other two are clearly MCU/MCU inspired figures, so they're easily a hard pass from me. I was really hoping we'd finally get a classic comic Iron Man and Black Panther, but on the bright side, it saves me some money. Now for that Wolverine figure, whoever first reported that it would be an updated version of the 2012 figure appeared to have gotten their info mixed up since this is Wolverine's classic yellow suit from the 70s instead of the modern Astonishing suit from the 2000s. A part of me wishes it was an updated Astonishing figure, but this is the more iconic design. I'm just glad they brought back the cowl piece from the 2014 set and didn't resort to using something like the First Appearance Batman cowl as it doesn't really fit as well as this piece. Shame there seems to be no hairpiece included, but it's a lot cheaper to buy as opposed to if it was the other way around where the set included the hair but no cowl. What irks me is the fact that Lego really cheapened out with the legs. I can understand not doing any short sleeve printing or dual molded boots, or even leg printing, but they REALLY couldn't give this version a blue hip piece to represent the "trunks" that were on this suit? It's like whoever designed this figure forgot that this wasn't the Astonishing suit where the trunks were gone, now it just looks severely incomplete without them. And what's worse is that there is no existing set of legs in this Bright Light Orange color that have a blue hip piece, the only hip piece colors that come with these legs are in Black, Dark Brown, or Bright Light Orange itself. I guess you could make them yourself by pulling the legs apart and switching the hip piece, but I've heard that damages the legs and makes them really loose once they're put back together. Right now, the best substitute I'm going to have to use is the Bright Light Orange legs with the black hip piece and hope a version with the blue hip piece happens eventually. At least the Chinese New Year set has the shoulder pad piece in blue, so that's getting Bricklink'd for sure. Regardless, it feels so great to finally see an X-Men set after so many years (even if it's Wolverine again). This one is guaranteed to sell out for sure. And however ugly that giant Iron Man buildable figure is, it gives a perfect template to rework it into a Sentinel.

Glad to be of service! I still consider it lucky I managed to find that design after searching for MOCs of this Batmobile, this one shared a LOT of similar design elements in common with the official Lego version, which was even better. I've actually been tinkering with Henkvdl05's design in Stud.io for the past few days now along with building the front of the official design to compare how it would look, and it's amazing how similar they appear. I love how Henk made the sides for his front, it looks just like the real thing with how curved it is, compared to what Lego did with just throwing in a bunch of slopes and calling it a day. I'm not entirely satisfied with the front grill area though. I really liked how Lego made theirs, while the custom design looks a little too chunky. I might change the bottom grill part to black instead of keeping it all dark bluish grey, but I'm not 100% certain on that yet. I also took some added liberties with Henk's design by lowering his version by one stud, giving it a lower profile that I feel works very well, and it's something I'm going to do with the official design with the back wheels to slightly lower how angled it is:

A commendable effort, but the main goal I'm trying to maintain here is keeping the front sleek, and this was a little too bulky with all the pieces. I think I'm just going to stick with the idea of keeping the sticker, I'm starting to see why the set designer went that route instead of making it brick built when you look at the real thing:

Oh damn that is really nice. Normally I'd go the brick built route too but the way that the set designed the front build to be slightly angled, I think I'll have to keep the sticker instead since angling this would make it look odd.

That's probably the one I'm going to go with. The other one is great, but it feels like it's missing something without the 1 x 3 plate underneath. And of course, it looks a lot better in black instead of that jarring light bluish grey that sticks out immensely.

Yup, very easy. I'm still waiting to see if anyone will modify the Batcycle though. I've been trying every single combination I can think of in Stud.io to make the front slimmer after seeing how it was built, and so far these 2 are my favorite ones (the middle one is how it's built in the set). I think the best solution for it would be to get rid of some of the 1 x 3 plates that make up the front build:

Looks like the sets are starting to show up in the wild ahead of their November 1st release, as expected. Ashnflash found this set and the Batmobile at a Walmart in Canada (good news for us fellow Canadians), and the Batmobile review is coming out tomorrow. The two bike builds are really well detailed, but I'm still going to streamline the front of the Batcycle to fix that blocky-ness. The most surprising thing about this set for me is the Bat-Signal symbol is actually a sticker, and a transparent one at that. That means I can easily switch out the 3x3 glow in the dark round tile for a white one, or hopefully a yellow one if it eventually comes out in that color since the Bat-Signal in the trailer definitely has more of a yellow lighting to it.

This one is really hidden, even the actual leaked picture has scribbles all over it to cover up the entire picture. I can send you the link to the post if you'd like.

Glad I'm not the only one who instantly thought how perfect those legs would be for the Drifter minifigure. Now if there was just a flesh head that had black circles around the eyes, it'd be perfect. And speaking of the head, at first glance I thought the Bruce Wayne head in all three sets was reusing the Tom Riddle head from this year's Chamber of Secrets set. But after remembering that these sets were supposed to come out this year, I'm pretty sure this head was originally intended to resemble Robert Pattinson instead of Christian Coulson (the guy who played Riddle in the movie). I might be reaching here, but that face is exclusive to the Chamber of Secrets set for now until The Batman sets are released, so it's definitely a new face print that was made recently. I should be thankful that Lego didn't just decide to reuse the Solo Han Solo head here like they did with all the Cedric Diggory minifigures besides the CMF variant. Last time I checked, Alden Ehrenreich looks nothing like Pattinson.

Oh man, if we're finally getting a Batman Beyond figure after all these years, it's going to be a monster hit in whatever set it comes in. Easily the most requested alternate Batsuit that people have been wanting as a minifigure. Continuing the Batmobile trend, maybe a Beyond Batmobile with someone like Blight as the villain of the set, or even the Beyond version of the Joker from the Return of The Joker movie? And with flesh hands with the J. Jonah Jameson minifigure from the Bugle.

Oh yeah, that trailer was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. And it made the wait for the sets even more unbearable, especially since mine was put on Backorder (even though I pre-ordered). I really can't wait to get the Batmobile and properly modify it after seeing how much of a beast it was in the trailer. Though now I'm questioning even more why Lego didn't decide to give Penguin a car as well, considering they love making car chase sets. What was also surprising was Lego not doing anything for FanDome this year. I really thought they'd have some exclusives again like with the CW Supergirl figure and the Wonder Woman diorama set from last year.

It'd be a dream come true if Lego realized they have a second chance now with the Raimi movies and made sets based on Spider-Man 3. It would finally fill that empty hole of having sets based on the entire trilogy instead of only the first two thanks to Lego losing the rights to make Spider-Man sets and Mega Brands subsequently picking up the Marvel license in October 2004. Getting an official Raimi black suit Spider-Man after constantly seeing custom versions of it for years would be a sight to behold. Even if they went back and made updated flesh toned minifigures from the first movie, it would be more than welcome. We're already guaranteed to get a flesh tone version of Dafoe's Norman Osborn with NWH, but an updated minifigure of the Human Spider wrestling costume as well would be amazing.

You are I are in the same boat there. The back looks pretty much perfect without any changes needed, but the spring loaded missiles have got to go. That's half the reason why the hood looks so enlarged and out of place, just to accommodate that feature. Now I'm hoping someone is also able to figure out how to make the front of the Batcycle look much more sleeker like the real thing.

I see I'm not the only one that's very eager to get the sets so that they can be modified lol. I'm still not sure which one of Gervant's designs to upgrade the official version with since he's made 3 attempts of this Batmobile. I guess the last one is the most accurate, but I really like his first two designs with how the wheels make it low to the ground and don't stick out so far like the wheels in the set. The windscreen piece on the first two really gives it that slick look as well. And a part of me is also waiting to see how he improves the official version when he gets it compared to his own MOC's. As for the flames, I think Lego is accurate on this one. I saw that poster image months ago and I don't think it's a good source to go off of because the logo is completely wrong, it looks nothing like the official one that's on all the merchandise. I remember seeing Spin Master's Batmobile toy which also had the same blue flames instead of orange. So either the concept art that all the different toys companies got feature the Batmobile shooting blue flames, or it's actually going to show blue flames instead of the traditional orange in the movie. I'm leaning towards the second one because of this scene from last year's trailer when the Batmobile's engine fired up:

Yup, thankfully they're not super expensive. Now that you mention it, that one also works really well. If it only had the points/scallops at the bottom of the cape, it'd be perfect. Side-note, it's a good thing I waited till today to pre-order The Batman sets because nothing beats Double VIP Points. Now instead of getting 1500 points when buying all 4 sets, it's 3000.