This is the second most aggravating polybag I’ve built thus far. The first one, in case you’re wondering, was 30461 Podracer back in early January. Today’s polybag though, 30522 Batman in the Phantom Zone, really gives it a run for its money.
It kinda looks like it would be a neat build. I mean that thing on the right, which, for the record, I do not remember ever seeing in the movie, has all sorts of interesting angles and doohickeys sticking out. That’s the impression I had before actually building it.
There’s a black octagonal plate on both sides that serves as the main attachment point for the bars and clips. Those bars and clips can be oh so easily misaligned during assembly it did nothing but provoke my OCD for these things.
There’s a square tile assembly that is attached on both ends. One 1×1 tile on top of a round plate on top of a 2×2 modified tile on top of a 2×2 dish. Getting the square tiles to align is another test of the limits of my OCD. I just hate this thing.
Batman is Batman. Not unique to this set. It’s the first time I’ve seen it though since I didn’t open a lot of LEGO Batman movie sets.
The head is double-sided and has the cowl eyes printed on the headband. I’m not even sure why they bother with regular eyes. Can you really use this head with a regular hair piece and have it not look stupid? No, no you can’t.
The other side is a bit more interesting because it has a print of Batman’s closed eyes. It’s really hard to see while the cowl is on though but it’s nice option to have.
Does It Suck or Does It Rock?
This set sucks! Batman is not unique to this set but that’s not the worst thing about it. The big spiky red thing you build is just annoying as hell. I’d extract Batman from the polybag and toss the rest into the sorting bin. It’s terrible.
You Can Win This And Every Other Polybag I Review This Year
I’ll be raffling every polybag I review this year in one big lot, all 260 sets (with the possibility of more). Each set will be individually stored in a ziploc baggie complete with the extra pieces, instructions, and the actual polybag bag it came in. The cost of a raffle ticket is just $1 USD and you can enter as many times as you want. Send a PayPal payment to paypal@fbtb.net for $1 USD for every ticket you want to purchase. DO NOT send one payment for multiple entries i.e. do not send one $5 USD payment for five tickets; five $1 USD payments must be made insteavd. Raffle is open to everyone in the world except where raffles are illegal. Be sure to put “POLYBAG RAFFLE” in the notes section of the payment in order to be entered successfully. Winner will be drawn sometime early January 2023 and contacted at the PayPal email address the payment was sent from to arrange for delivery. For a running list of all the sets that you can win, check this Google spreadsheet.
