I'm not usually a massive fan of Super Heroes, but when I saw this set and the details in it, I knew I had to have it. The last big building I had bought was the Haunted House and I really enjoyed building it, so I thought this set would be a great addition to my buildings collection. The building took me about six or seven hours over two days to build and the build is challenging yet enjoyable. Not much in the way of anything fiddly, the main gate is probably the fiddliest to construct.
Right, the minifigures. You get eight: Batman, Robin, The Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, The Penguin, Dr. Harleen Quinzel and a security guard.
Batman: He's a standard black, and comes with a bat wing attachment instead of a cape and comes with Batarang accessories. Nothing too unique to this set.
Robin: He has a unique outfit for this set, which is good. He comes with a small cape and a staff accessory, and has a double-printed head to change his expression.
The Joker: Just for this set, he comes in his 'prisoner' outfit, and has a double-printed head to change his expression. A nice minifigure.
Scarecrow: Another character which I think is unique to this set. He has a detailed head and torso, but plain brown legs.
Poison Ivy: This character also appears in the Batcave set. She has a double-printed head with different expressions, a detailed hairpiece decorated with ivy and detailed torso and legs.
The Penguin: He comes with his umbrella and fish accessories, and has a detailed torso. His head is only printed on one side, but with good reason.
Dr. Harleen Quinzel: Truly a character with double personality! One face is her 'work' face, but you can remove her hair, turn her head around and put the jester hat on her and turn her into the villain Harley Quinn. She has an area in the building where you can store her jester hat when she's not being a villain, a nice feature. Her detailed torso also suggests her double personality. A very good unique minifigure.
Security Guard: Nothing too special, just a standard security guard, but is unique to this set. Perhaps this set could have done with two security guards?
The van: Perhaps a bit small, but it works. The front and back doors do open, but I found the back doors a little tricky to open. If you have this problem, let me suggest using the included brick separator (they're very versatile, aren't they?) to lever open the back doors. The roof of the front cabin is removable for you to put a minifigure in the driver's seat. The van only has one seat in the front. The back can hold a neat-looking stretcher with a minifigure in it and it simply slides in and out. Beware, though: the van won't fit minifigures like Scarecrow or The Penguin in the back.
The gates: Like the rest of the set, it has wonderful gothic detailing. The opening gates themselves are interesting to put together and wonderful to look at. I particularly like the two statues either side of the gates, constructed with minifigure torsos and wings, the same wings you can also see on the Chima Raven minifigures. The use of spears as railings on the sides of the gates are good. The gate also features a security camera, simple yet effective. The gates are great, but are a bit flimsy especially when you move them, e.g. to put them away.
Now the building itself. The attention to detail is absolutely amazing, everything from the walls to the gargoyles to the plant material growing on the walls. The windows are fiddly to construct but they absolutely do work, so it's worth it.
The main entrance doors: Lego could have easily just used a door mould for this, but I'm glad they didn't! There's a certain quality to the main doors and look amazingly good.
Now the interior. There's eight rooms spread throughout three levels. Four of the rooms are cells and are generally all found on the same side of the building. One cell is for The Joker, one for Scarecrow (both on ground floor), one for Poison Ivy (the cleverly designed transparent cell on the first floor) and one for Mr. Freeze (the only room on the third floor, the top of the tallest tower). The set could have also come with Mr. Freeze himself if there's a cell for him!
Apart from cells, there's also the security reception (first room beyond the main doors) with phone and a desk, a treatment room with a work table and a bed, Harleen's office and her changing room below that. The changing room is cleverly disguised, which I suppose is necessary!
There's wonderful exterior and interior detailing in this set, and for that I give top marks. But with regards to size, it's big, no denying that, but it's a bit flat in depth. The building could have done with a set of stairs leading to each floor and perhaos extra roof elements. Apart from that, it's an amazing building.
Overall, I absolutely recommend this set to not only Batman fans, but general Lego fans looking for a building with amazing detail and that is enjoyable to build. Yes, it's expensive, but when you buy it you won't regret it!
