Arkham Asylum - Poll Results...

For the last week or so a poll has been running, as I am sure many of you are aware, to decide which of my four initial concepts was the most popular.

The winner, in something of a landslide victory, was my Arkham Asylum Based Concept with 69% of the vote (210 votes). This came as little surprise to me as it is by far the most visually interesting and versatile of the four ideas in my opinion.

Arkham Asylum - Batman Arkham Asylum Inspired Design

The other designs came in with the following percentages of the vote:

The Batman: The Animated Series inspired concept - 17% of the vote.

The Hospital inspired concept - 9% of the vote.

The Castle and Batman Forever inspired design - 5% of the vote.

Now I can begin considering the layout of the asylum in more detail, and tomorrow I will kick things off by posting a sketch of the proposed layout on Arkham Island of the various buildings which make up the asylum. Following that, I will finalise the layout and shape of the actual island and consider what can actually be placed beneath the asylum (a small satellite Batcave, the sewers and Killer Croc's lair to name just a few) while still retaining a strong enough structure to support the large building on top.

I have already been given some ideas over the last few days, but if there are any elements of any of the other three designs which you feel should be incorporated in the final model, please leave a comment below.

DC Super Heroes Exclusives Part Two...

In the second part of my look at the Super Heroes exclusives which have been released over the years, I will be focusing on the five newest of those, which have become available in just the last couple of years upon the release of the new DC Super Heroes line.

The first three of these were released in 2011, Batman in his costume from The Dark Knight film, Green Lantern as he appears in his own feature film, and Superman, who is in fact identical to the Minifigure that appears in set 6862, Superman Vs. Power Armour Lex. Batman and the Green Lantern were both available at the New York and San Diego Comic Cons, limited edition to 1000 at each convention. Superman however was only present at the New York Comic Con. Each figure comes mounted on a piece of card which advertises a stop-motion animation competition in the style of a newspaper. These figures tend to sell at around the £130 mark, and are superb Minifigures (particularly Batman) in my opinion.

The next year, two more DC exclusives were released alongside a couple of Marvel comics Minifigures as well, Shazam (or Captain Marvel) and Bizarro. Once again, both were placed on card backing and were limited edition to 1000 at both the San Diego and New York Comic Cons. These Minifigures also tend to sell at a high price, anywhere upwards of £100 generally, although there are bargains to be had out there of course if you can find them.

The Minifigures are indeed excellent, but the fairly extortionate cost is rather off putting, so quite what is it that drives people (including myself) to pay these kinds of prices? Well my response is two fold, more obviously most Super Heroes Minifigure completists are going to view these items as must haves or their collection will obviously be left incomplete. However, if you buy at the right time (or of course are simply lucky enough to win them in the raffle), a great deal of money can be made on these I think. If you purchase the Minifigures soon after their release, you often find them at lower prices in my experience.

I have luckily been able to pay under £100 for each of the Green Lantern, Batman, Bizarro and Shazam Minifigures (since the Superman Minifigure is not exclusive, I do not see that as a must have personally), in the main due to the timing of my purchases, which was very soon after their release.

This summer the New York and San Diego Comic Cons will be running again as usual, but whether we will see any more exclusives this year remains a mystery for the moment, we will just have to wait and see.

In my next article I will go back to discussing my progress on the Arkham Asylum MOC, as the final hours count down on the poll running, if you have not voted yet and plan to do so, make sure to do so soon!

DC Super Heroes Exclusives Part One...

Since 2005 DC Super Heroes exclusives have been released to coincide with both the original Batman theme and the new Super Heroes line of sets. For many, despite commanding huge prices on sites such as eBay and Bricklink, these items are true must haves.

The first such exclusive was, as I already mentioned, released some time ago in 2005. Packed in a special commemorative box, this included Minifigures of Batman and the Joker and a sound chip with a recording of the Joker's maniacal laughter and an announcement concerning the upcoming release of Lego Batman. This item was limited to only 250 and was available at the San Diego Comic Con, you would be lucky to find one now for any less than £100.

In 2006 a Lego comic book entitled Batman: Secret Files & Origins, was released, which contained a short comic strip showing Batman in action against his foes. This exclusive is the least expensive of the lot and costs only about £5 to purchase online as it is by far the most common.

Then, in 2008, a similar set to the initial 2005 item was released, with the same Batman and Joker Minifigures, but entirely new packaging and no sound chip or accessories for the figures. This time it heralded the release of the Lego Batman video game, which of course went on to be very popular. This exclusive is a little more affordable than the earlier edition, but still will set you back a cool £50 at least.

In my next post I will conclude my discussion of the Lego DC Super Heroes exclusives released over the years with the most recent of them, from 2011 and 2012. After that, I will return to bringing you updates on my Arkham Asylum MOC and the progress I have been making concerning the design side of things over the last few days.

DC Super Heroes 2012 - My Thoughts Part Two...

Following on from the first part of my views on the DC Super Heroes sets which were released last year, I now present the second half in which I will discuss the larger sets from the first wave.

The first of these is The Batmobile And The Two-Face Chase. Five Minifigures are included in this set, Batman in his black costume, my personal favourite outfit for the Dark Knight, and a simple Security Guard for defending the small bank. Naturally we also get Two-Face, a particularly brilliant Minifigure and my second favourite of all the villains after the Joker. Finally, a pair of Two-Face Henchmen are included, who wear the same clothes, but have different faces, both of which look suitably tough and rugged.

There are three components to this model, a small bank which contains a green safe for Two-Face to steal, a lovely new Batmobile, and a large truck which Two-Face uses as his getaway vehicle, painted in his unique orange and purple colour scheme. Both vehicles include flick-fire missiles, and Two-Face's Jeep has a crane arm on the back which can be hooked onto the safe. There is a nice selection of pieces in this set, but for the the best has to be Two-Face's coin, which is printed with some excellent designs.

Next up is the largest of last year's DC Super Heroes sets, The Batcave, and a wonderful set it is too. Being the largest set, it also contains the most Minifigures, six in all, including Batman in his comic book Batsuit, Bruce Wayne in a rather dapper looking blue suit, and the Boy Wonder himself, Robin, who is based on the Tim Drake version of the character from the comics. For the villains, we get a superb Bane, which is printed with huge amounts of detail on the front and back, along with Poison Ivy, who is imprisoned in the Batcave according to the box artwork.

Bane is equipped with a huge red Drill Tank, on which the drill turns as you turn the caterpillar tracked wheels and you can launch a couple of flick-fire missiles. Batman rides a Batcycle, one of two released in the first wave of these sets, and my personal favourite. The Batcave itself has some rather nice blue and yellow highlights and includes opening doors to let Batman's vehicles in and out of the cave, the Batcomputer with a chair for the Caped Crusader to sit on, and a brilliant costume changing feature, which is ingeniously designed and works perfectly. A prison cell is also included as well as some crime-fighting equipment for the Batman to use and a red telephone with which he can contact Commissioner Gordon.

The last of 2012's DC Super Heroes sets is perhaps the most popular with most as it is the only one which is not a remake of an older model, that being The Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape. Five Minifigures are included, from Batman and Robin in their comic book guises, to the Joker (who is identical to his appearance in set 6863, The Batwing Battle Over Gotham City). Two new figures also come with the set in the form of the Joker's loyal sidekick, and fan favourite, Harley Quinn and another of my favourite villains, the fiendish Riddler, who here wears a charming bowler hat and his classic green costume.

Another Batcycle is included, this one with some nice tail fins and exhausts and a nice sleek design.The Funhouse itself is divided into sections, a flight of stairs and winch for hoisting the Boy Wonder into the air over a deadly purple vat of Joker Toxin (and a fish). Here Riddler has a trapdoor and of course a hidden clue for the Batman to escape from this particular trap, a single arrow pointing out the danger among the numerous arrows on the wall behind. In the centre is a huge mural of the Joker's face and a section of wobbly floor, and on the far left is a falling hammer, a riddling machine obviously installed by the Riddler and a small roller-coaster so that Harley Quinn can escape Batman's clutches if you so wish. The huge number of fun play features and a great selection of Minifigures make this set a winner in the eyes of most, but for me the highlight set of the first wave has got to be set 6860, The Batcave.

In my next post I will look at the exclusive Super Heroes Minifigures which have been produced over the last couple of years, and quite what the fascination is, which I and many others suffer from, surrounding them.

DC Super Heroes 2012 - My Thoughts Part One...

I almost entirely missed out on the original Batman theme, and the news that another theme was going to released, which would also feature many other DC Universe characters, was very well received by me. Although many of the sets released in 2012 were in fact updated versions of older sets, they were nevertheless an excellent selection of models, and gave us many of the most popular characters in Minifigure form for those who missed out on them the first time around. In this article I will give some of my thoughts on the smaller sets in the first wave of DC Super Heroes models, stay tuned for the second part where I will discuss the larger sets.

I will begin with the smallest of the six sets, the Catwoman Catcycle City Chase which despite its small size, makes for a great introduction to the Super Heroes theme. It features both the wonderful comic style Batman figure, in this set equipped with a winged jetpack, and the legendary seductress Catwoman, both of which are wonderful.

The set itself lacks anything particularly outstanding, but Catwoman comes with a rather nice motorcycle for her to ride, and we get a small section of pavement which includes a nice feature in the form of the falling traffic light as well as some boxes which are ideal for crashing through. Finally, we also receive some outstanding accessories such as a Batarang, a diamond, and two newspaper tiles which complete the set.

The next smallest set, Superman Vs. Power Armour Lex is the only one in the first wave not to be centred around Batman, but instead the hero here is of course the one and only Superman. His Minifigure is, as you would expect, the highlight of the set and looks fantastic, being highly detailed right down to the famous 'S' curl in his hair. We also get a wonderful Wonder Woman Minifigure, although it does suffer from some poorer quality plastic issues unfortunately. Still, this is a superb Minifigure and a welcome addition. Last of all, we get Lex Luthor, Superman's arch enemy and a wealthy businessman of the Metropolis high society which is an equally marvellous Minifigure in my opinion, despite its rather simple design.

The power armour worn by Luthor is a lovely model with plenty of playability and poseability, as well as an absolutely brilliant Kryponite gun for taking down Superman. The set contains some very useful and rare pieces as well, including several purple parts and a few translucent green components to boot. My favourite piece however is Wonder Woman's lasso of truth which looks absolutely fantastic.

The final set for this half of my review of DC Super Heroes sets last year is the excellent Batwing Battle Over Gotham City, which is the smallest set to include Batman's most famous enemy, the Joker, who is captured in Lego form spectacularly, getting just the right balance between his comic book and film appearances. We also get a Henchman to assist him in his nefarious deeds, who is highly detailed, especially on the back of his torso where one finds a lovely image of the Joker's grinning face. Of course, we also get a Batman Minifigure to pilot his lovely Batwing, who here is dressed in his black Batsuit, which is much like the one he wears in the 1989 Batman film.

Two vehicles are included in this set, Batman's Batwing jet, as well as Joker's helicopter which looks suitably crazy. There are plenty of fun features, from a dropping bomb on each model, to the obligatory flick fire missiles which also feature on both vehicles. Perhaps best of all however is the white rope ladder which the Joker can hang from to bring chaos upon Gotham as he shoots manically with his trick gun.

Next time I will continue to document my thoughts on the larger three sets from the first wave of DC Super Heroes sets, and after that I will be discussing the curious craze that is collecting chase Minifigures such as the six Comic Con exclusives, which I am in fact guilty of myself.

Arkham Asylum - Initial Concepts Part Four...

The last of my four concepts which I am going to present is based around the asylum as it appears in the fantastic Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. This version took a significant step up away from others, splitting the facility into separate buildings and also placing it on Arkham Island and while my design here is not entirely split up like the asylum in the game, I have aimed to capture the differing appearances of each section.

Arkham Asylum - Batman: Arkham Asylum Inspired Design

So, that is the last of my four concept drawings and now I leave it up to you. You may notice a poll which I have opened at the top of the page on the right hand side, there you can vote for your favourite of my ideas. Please look back over the four, select your favourite and vote. The results will decide which direction my Arkham Asylum MOC takes and while the final model will not look exactly like any of my initial ideas, the general theme and main basis of the design will be chosen from your votes.

The poll closes on the 31st of January at Midnight (GMT + 0.00) so make sure to cast your vote before then. Also, I would appreciate any messages on which aspects of each design in particular you like or dislike so please do not hesitate to contact me personally or post a comment below.

Arkham Asylum - Initial Concepts Part Three...

Following on from my previous concepts for my upcoming Arkham Asylum MOC I present one inspired most heavily by a traditional castle, as well as the asylum from the film, Batman Forever (which is perhaps my favourite element of that entire film in fact). I very much like the idea of including towers in my final model as they really sell the Gothic look in my opinion, as well as helping to break up the rather basic and unattractive central section of the building.

However, I am looking to steer away from having my version of the asylum as a single large building like it is here, but to move more in the direction of Arkham Asylum from the game, Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is multiple buildings linked via underground, and occasionally overground, corridors.

Arkham Asylum - Castle/Batman Forever Inspired Design

Tomorrow I will present the last in my series of initial designs, which is perhaps the one which I want my final model to be the most similar to. I will also be opening a poll to discover which of the four designs is your favourite. I hope that will help me decide which elements I wish to bring forward from each one.

Arkham Asylum - Initial Concepts Part Two...

My second concept drawing was probably most significantly inspired by Arkham Asylum as it appears in Batman: The Animated Series. The towers are something I really want to include in my final model, and I think that the wrought iron 'ARKHAM' sign over the gates is a feature which has to be included, as it has been one of the few mainstays of just about every incarnation of the asylum. If I were to construct this particular design I would want to add a couple more stories to the model as at the moment I don't think the intimidating feeling I am hoping for is quite captured. Finding a compromise between the height of my design and the footprint will be a key element to look at later on I think.

Arkham Asylum - Batman: The Animated Series Inspired Design

At this point I should explain that the only element of the design which I am certain will be included is the fact that I want the asylum to be located on an island as it was in the Batman: Arkham Asylum game. This has heavily influenced many of my initial ideas and there are many aspects of that design which I will look to include in the final version I decide upon. The building itself however will likely be an amalgamation of my concept designs, all of which have advantages and flaws in my opinion.

Tomorrow I will present the penultimate of the four initial concepts I have produced, and after that I will introduce a poll to see which of the four is your favourite and what elements I ought to bring forward from each model to the next stage of the design process.

Arkham Asylum - Initial Concepts Part One...

When making larger MOCs, it always seems advantageous to me to plan before you begin building to avoid underestimating or overestimating the difficulty or volume of parts required. Therefore, once I had pinned down what I wanted to make, naturally I moved on to creating some initial designs on paper. Here I will display some of the earliest concept artwork which I created.

The first of these is perhaps the most realistic of my designs, based very much on photos and paintings of Victorian hospitals and asylums. It would doubtless be the simplest to make, as the shapes which form the building itself are particularly regular. However, I felt that this idea was perhaps a little too simplistic, and would perhaps look somewhat bland, not doing justice to the building. Nevertheless, there are certain elements of this design which I hope to bring forward to the next stage of the design process, including the Satellite Batcave and quite possibly the small area of Gotham City itself where I might place some kind of Police barricade. This image is displayed below:

Arkham Asylum - Hospital Inspired Concept

In my next couple of posts I will continue to reveal some more of my initial design ideas, so stay tuned for those over the next few days...

Arkham Asylum - The Beginning...

Welcome!

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Christopher Pearce, but perhaps I am better known as CapnRex101 on such fantastic Lego fan sites as Brickset. I am seventeen years old and have been a huge fan of Lego since I was first old enough to smash Duplo bricks together. This is my first post on this blog or any other, so here goes...

In the months leading up to Christmas and New Year I decided that rather than simply building and enjoying sets produced by Lego as I have for many years, it would be nice to truly embrace the spirit of Lego and construct my own models. The next question of course was what to build? As a huge Star Wars fan, a Star Wars MOC seemed like the obvious choice, but many of the vehicles and locations are a bit bland for my liking when translated into Lego and I thought for my first large MOC, a really interesting and eye-catching model was what was required, so that idea was quickly dismissed.

At that point, two very clear options came to mind, either the legendary Batcave, or the equally famous Arkham Asylum. After some research I found that there have been numerous incredible Batcave MOCs which have been produced, including this amazing model. However, despite being such a spectacular building, I found no really definitive model of Arkham Asylum anywhere, and while many of the existing MOCs had their own charms, particularly this one, which, despite its small size, in my opinion really captures the (naturally) insane atmosphere of the place, I did not think any of them combined all of the elements which go towards making Arkham Asylum a truly fascinating building.

The fact that no one incarnation of the asylum exists, and its style and appearance changes between the comics, TV shows, films and video games, allowed me a great deal of freedom on what I made. Rather than simply recreating a location from a film or TV, I could really put my own stamp on the building as I imagine it to be.

So with that, the decision was made, and I began the design phase of creating the enormous MOC which had been bouncing around in my head for so many months. Over the next few days I will post some of my initial plans for Arkham Asylum, and further discuss the various versions which have inspired me.

Thanks for reading!