Not everyone has seen the LEGO Batman Movie yet. I appreciate this. If you click on this link from Facebook, you will be taken directly to the full announcement.  If you don’t want any level of spoilage of the movie, stop now.  Press the back button, close the browser window. You have been warned.

Out of the blue, just while people are still recovering from news of of the UCS Millennium Falcon, the next Direct to Consumer set was announced this morning. Set 70922 >Spoiler Alert< is the latest set from The LEGO® Batman Movie.  I was surprised to get notice of this set: the rumor mill had been remarkably quiet over the last couple of weeks. Perhaps it had been exhausted in the run up to the announcement of the UCS Millennium Falcon. The new set will be released on Black Friday, 24th of November, and be available from LEGO Brand Retail Stores, and shop.lego.com. You have until then to catch up with the movie in a relatively spoiler free fashion. After then, I would suggest that all bets are off.  It is sizeable set, with 3444 elements, and costing $US269.99; GBP£249.99; $AUD399.99.

This is a large set. You might speculate that it relates to a significant location in the film, or a ludicrously sized vehicle. But we have already seen the Batcave and Arkham Asylum. And they were probably a dead giveaway for being significant locations in the film, if you know anything about the history of Batman in his associated media. Or if you had seen a trailer.   If it were to be a vehicle, its a tough call:  we have already seen the Ultimate Batmobile, a fairly large Batwing, and otherwise most of the villains vehicles portrayed in sets have no major role in the film, with barely a few seconds of screen time each. And indeed, the trailers for the movie certainly gave away the majority of the villains involved in the movie, even if in a relatively insignificant way. Have people been crying out for a new UCS Batmobile (Speedwagon) or Scuttler?

If you have not yet seen the LEGO Batman movie, please recognise that this set ups the level of ‘spoiler’ seen  for the film, and cannot be unseen. So if you cannot bear such things, turn away, fire up your DVD player or streaming service and watch it now. When you return, read more on get details, and see pictures of the new set…. Here Be Spoilers: 70922: The Joker Manor

So much colour! At first I was pretty lukewarm about this. It looks like a bit of a messy mashup between Stately Wayne Manor and a randomly coloured amusement park ride. The set certainly don’t capture the scale of Wayne Manor as it is depicted in the movie

Then as I examined the images more, there is more to be interested in: A great selection of elements to use for a building a serious building: perhaps a modular of some description. A house? A theatre restaurant? A cabaret venue?  And then there is the frenzy of colour: the front door now looking perfect for any layout involving a TV variety show or pop concert (or indeed the theatre restaurant/ cabaret venue…cue the grand piano). There are wedge plates looking perfect for the Heartlake City Airforce,  The brick built Joker face spitting out whoever falls down the trap door and then there is the roller coaster.  Let us let that sink in for a moment.

Here is a roller coaster, with different vertical gradients, and cars that cannot easily fall
off the rails: running on wheels, but having side supports as well. Is this a test run for next year’s amusement park set? We have had the Mixer, Ferris Wheel, and Carousel… It’s about time. The LEGO Friends roller coaster was a great hit, but the lack of lateral stabilisation always increased the risk of carriages coming off the rails if you started to build it to extreme levels.  I look forward to seeing how it might be able to be powered, to get the train to the top, and running under its own momentum.

The set owes a little to some of the great MOCs featuring a Joker themed theme park, and also to Jokerland from 2015, but without the Teen Titans! We do however have Batman, Nightwing, Alfred in the 1966 Batman costume, Barbara Gordon, Joker and Harley Quinn – none of these are completely new, but some are limited in their availability, or need a little creativity to construct. There are some new figures: Batman, Batgirl, Robin and Joker all appearing in bright white disco suits.

There will be no period of early access for VIPs.

The press release can be found after the Photos.

70922 The Joker™ Manor

Ages 14+. 3,444 pieces.

US $269.99 – CA $349.99 – DE 269.99€ – UK £249.99 – DK 2299.00 DKK – AUD$ 399.99

*Euro pricing varies by country. Please visit shop.LEGO.com for regional pricing.

 Dare to enter The Joker™ Manor!

Help Batman™, Barbara Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth™ (in his classic Batsuit) and Nightwing™ regain control of the jokerized Wayne Manor with this massive THE LEGO® BATMAN MOVIE set. The Joker™ Manor is packed with iconic details from the movie and cool functions, including a rollercoaster encircling the whole building, a huge buildable The Joker head with trapdoor and slide, punching boxing gloves, a rocking ‘The Joker’ sign and rotating ‘big eye’ tower. The interior includes a cinema room with a romantic DVD element, kitchen with buildable microwave plus lobster and lemon-slice decorated tile elements, living room with a buildable grand piano, fireplace and bust, swimming pool room, and a music studio with guitar element and buildable mixing desk and loudspeakers. Build this magnificent manor and then recreate your favorite scenes from the movie with 10 included minifigures.

• Includes 10 minifigures: The Joker™, Batman™, Barbara Gordon, Harley Quinn™, Nightwing™, Alfred Pennyworth™ Classic Batsuit, Disco Batman™, Disco The Joker™, Disco Batgirl™ and Disco Robin™.
• Features a grand entrance flanked by 2 buildable bombs with translucent spark-style elements, 2-level and 3-level towers with turrets and flag elements on top, a rollercoaster track and train with 3 cars (each with a minifigure seat), rotating ‘big eye’ tower with lever-operated iris to ‘look’ up and down, huge buildable The Joker™ head with trapdoor and slide, rocking ‘The Joker’ sign, ‘Ha! Ha!’ sign, 2 wheel-operated punching boxing gloves, plus many multicolored, translucent light-style decorative elements.
• Activate the trapdoor to send a minifigure tumbling from the top of the The Joker™ head, down the slide and out through the mouth.
• Interior includes an entrance hall with 4 plastic, bendy ‘mirror’ elements; living room with a buildable grand piano and stool, bust, and fireplace with translucent-red fire-style elements; cinema room with a screen, minifigure seat and assorted elements including a romantic DVD; kitchen with cup, pot and pan elements, and a buildable microwave with lobster, lemon and plate elements inside; music studio with a buildable mixing desk and loudspeakers, seat and a guitar element; swimming pool room with translucent-blue water-style elements; and an attic with 2 buildable boxes and a rat figure.
• Weapons include Batman’s Batarang, Barbara Gordon’s revolver and Harley Quinn’s bat.
• Disco Batman™, Disco The Joker™, Disco Batgirl™ and Disco Robin™ minifigures are new!
• Recreate and reimagine memorable scenes from THE LEGO® BATMAN MOVIE.
• The Joker™ Manor measures over 21” (55cm) high, 25” (66cm) wide and 10” (27cm) deep.

• Rollercoaster train measures over 1” (3cm) high, 5” (15cm) long and 1” (3cm) wide.

A great play set? An interesting parts pack? A set filling a big gap in the LEGO Batman Movie Lineup?  I look forward to seeing how people respond to it in November.  At 3444 pieces and $AUD400 it averages 11.61¢ per piece.  Not too shabby. It may well be on a few Christmas lists this year.

What do you think?

Until next time,

Play Well.