It was 1992, and the long awaited sequel to Time Butron’s Batman was released: Batman Returns took a left turn on the tone set by the first film, and felt like Tim Burton was well and truly establishing the franchise as his own. While 1989’s Batman was a single villain romp, retaining a bit of campiness thanks to Jack Nicholson’s portrayal as the Joker, this film felt more serious, introducing Catwoman, the Penguin and the self-serving Max Shreck. With a more wintry setting, it was a darker film to watch, without the same bursts of colour that we saw from the Joker in the earlier film. We have seen a couple of releases related to Batman – the 89 Batmobile and the ’89 Batwing, along with a smaller version of the Batmobile, but we have not ventured further in to franchise yet.
Today, we see a unique display model with play features unveiled: the Batcave Shadow Box. With 3981 pieces, and priced at $USD399.99 /£344.99/€ 399.99/ 599.99 AUD/8999.9 TRY/3699.0 CNY/169990.0 HUF/519.99 CAD, this set pushes the boundaries of what has been previously attempted with LEGO Batman, and brings us a new format for displaying such models.
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Sometimes, I forget about the importance of Play. And the way that it can be a fun thing to do with your LEGO® Bricks. I don’t just mean take a couple of bricks and roll them around until they click together in a novel way. I mean, let my imagination kick in, and have stories unfold in front of me, with no idea where they might be going or how they will get there. Some sets set themselves up for rough and tumble storytelling, where kids can assemble them quickly before getting on with all the serious zooming and swooshing that comes with putting a vehicle together.
After looking at the box art and instruction booklet, I realise that today I have returned to an world of instant gratification. A world where a vehicle can be put together in seconds. From memory. After only a cursory examination of the box art. And it’s all in the first bag, along with our hero mini figures. The second bag contains the second vehicle, and the villain. And the third contains a building. And there are precisely NO stickers. That’s right: would a sticker slow down the time it takes to produce a playable toy? Leave it out. Include a printed element instead.
Let’s look at the figures first: Lex appears with the Power Armour first seen in 30164:Power Armour Lex, a poly bag released at the same time as the Lego Batman 2 video game. He has changed his shirt and trousers, however. 
So much Green and Purple, you’d almost think he was one of the Joker’s henchmen (or vice versa). Neither superman or Batman have new printings on their bodies: Batman is a carbon copy of the figure that appeared in 10672: Defend the Batcave, although on that occasion we had Batman and Robin, as well as the Joker. The cowl, smirk and cape are all identical (even if i didn’t take the cape out of its box!). Superman’s body is a copy of the one seen in 6862: Superman vs Power Armour Lex. Although, here he has the same face as seen in Batman vs Superman: 76044: Clash of the Heroes. Old ‘comic style’ body, ‘new movie’ head, complete with angry heat vision eyes.