I’m taking a break from reviewing polybags this week because the weekend wiped me out and my dog had health concerns so I’m gonna be catching up on some open tabs I have.
LEGO announced a new Batman D2C set last week, 76252 Batcave Shadow Box, and I’m not sure it’s really all that great.
First of all, the price tag is a whopping $399.99. For that, you get 3,981 pieces, a lot of which goes to making an actual box.
Now this Shadow Box set seems deceptively small. Because when it’s all folded up, it looks compact enough to put on a bookshelf, bookended by some Batman graphic novels or something. You can peek inside and and get a taste of some of the mysterious inner workings of Batman’s operational headquarters.
But really, you’re going to want to open this up to fully access the interior and reveal the Batcave from the 1992 Batman Returns movie. It’s complete with a Batmobile that was previously only available as a GWP with the larger UCS 1989 Batmobile though slightly upgraded.
And this is where the amount of space you need to actually do this goes up a notch. Imagine this thing on a bookshelf or any other narrow display space, like a mantle:
Opening this up and you’re gonna have a bad time. On a bookshelf, it’ll literally stick out like a sore thumb. On a mantle like the one in the picture, it’ll fall because of the weight of the front panel just hanging out over the edge. Or, you can have a display area that’s big enough to show it off opened or closed:
I don’t know what kind of shelf that is, but it looks gigantic. Don’t have a gigantic shelf to display it? How about a spare table:
That looks like it takes up half the table, and it’s not even fully open. Given the length of the set is about 20″, that looks like a 3-foot table.
Look, I am clearly not in the demographic for this. It’s one thing to build this, one thing to look at it closed and nicely buttoned up, but it’s an entirely different thing to really enjoy the set since it requires an inordinate amount of space. I think the shadow box idea is neat, but I can’t get around the size of this thing and question where most normal adults are supposed to display it. It’s probably best to keep it as a shadow box and never open it up.
I thought the Catwoman minifig was briliiant, the way the they used the horned minifig head topper and the printed head. The torso looks great but someone in our discord pointed out how they cheaped out and didn’t include printing on the arms nor legs. I couldn’t get past that and think the horned head topper should be printed as well. Now I consider this minifig half-assed.
Yeah I’m crapping all over this set. I honestly think the biggest draw is the minifig scale 1989 Batmobile. It needs to be released as a standalone set already.
If you’re not deterred at all by my negativity, the official release date for 76252 Batcave Shadow Box (that’s an affiliate link because I have to say so) is June 5 for VIP members, and then June 8 for everyone else. The price is still $399.99.
