Lego Super Heroes 1989 Batmobile™ (76139)

Product Information

I did this film called High Spirits that was directed by Neil Jordan, and by that time I had pretty much decided I didn’t want to be in makeup anymore because there were people better at it and I wasn’t getting on very well with the chemicals. I was getting headaches and whatnot. On that film I arranged to go and meet Anton because I wanted to get into the art department and he looked at my folio, my illustrations. I didn’t really know very much about how the art department worked. It was my first art department so I wasn’t reading the script and seeing what was asked of the Batmobile in the way that one should, I just made this cool-looking thing. But there were a lot of hands on it. I can’t claim the Batmobile was mine, it was really Anton’s baby. Anton was such a generous designer, just letting you run with an idea. He was fabulous – well, the whole crew [were]. Lots of the people I worked with on that became designers in their own right, so it was a talented bunch of people. Another rather interesting discovery is a couple of new tires. The new front 68.6х27 tires are designed to fit the regular 43х26 rims. Basically, this is a smaller version of 94.3×38 ‘Unimog’ tires. These will be popular among LEGO Technic builders, but it’s a shame there are only 2 of the new tires in the set. As for the rear tires, 81.6×44 ‘Tumbler’ tires make their first appearance since 2016. In this exclusive interview, Julian explains how he came to be a part of the ‘bat-gang’ and developed an entirely new take on the Batmobile. Another special thing about the set is the front of the white box, which stores the building guide and the first half of all bags. We have seen similar line arts in exclusive LEGO Star Wars sets like 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon and 75252 Ultimate Collector Series Imperial Star Destroyer. Now, it’s the Batmobile’s turn.

This particular steering system is called virtual pivot point steering. By using a system like this one you can use much narrower mudguards around the steering wheels and build a lot more realistic models. For a scaled model like the 1989 Batmobile, the empty spaces between the tires and the wheel arches are crucial, so this kind of steering works exceptionally well for the model. Bravo, design team!Although we tend to save all the thoughts and conclusions for the final part of a review, it would be better to start the story with the following idea: this set is not a LEGO toy, but rather a fantastic showpiece. Since 1999 when LEGO introduced its first mainstream-licensed product with Star Wars, the company has made a very long journey from selling all-original products to the introduction of licensed themes and finally on to releasing exclusive collectibles and memorabilia. The target audience of the latter includes not just kids or even adult LEGO fans but also the fans of the creative content the set is based on. As for the more experienced LEGO builders, be patient as you will have to open another bag every 10-20 minutes, which will be fairly irritating. I haven’t bought any LEGO for about 15 years. My kids are grown up now. I remember buying a whole bunch of Phantom Menace LEGO. [My son] had some great models but I don’t think he even built them all. Some of them are still up in the loft somewhere.You spend all this time getting all this stuff for Christmas, then they forget about it by Boxing Day. A little interesting anecdote… I had made sure I knew the height of Michael Keaton so that he could sit inside it – it was a very, very tight fit because it was quite low. Because of my inexperience what I hadn’t taken into account was his bat-ears, and I don’t even know what solution they came up with. I think they may have lowered the seat and taken some padding off the ceiling… I’m not quite sure. I remember thinking, ‘This is my introduction to the art department and Batman doesn’t actually fit in his own Batmobile.’ Julian: When I was a kid doing LEGO stuff myself, you kind of had to imagine all those curves. You might have been able to get away with the Nolan one but not this one. It is pretty big.

One of the sides of the box features a striking graphic featuring Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Batman. It’s a shame it can go unnoticed by many customers depending on the way the boxes are placed on store shelves. The scale of the model is one of its strongest features. Thanks to the modern variety of slopes, the design team managed to convey all the iconic curves of the original car. It’s only after you finished building the model that you start to notice how sleek and elegant the design of the original is. The new 1989 Batmobile is among the sets that you wish you could go on building forever, but at the same time, you want to see the final result as soon as possible. With the final tile, the dilemma is over, as the glorious two-foot long (60 cm) masterpiece stand complete in front of you. Do I need to search for epithets to tell you how breathtaking the design is?The majority of the pieces in pearl colors are used for mechanical elements on both sides of the car. I refuse to give away any details on how it is built as it would be morally wrong to spoil one of the best part of the set. Of course, many pieces can be identified by a couple of pictures, but I guarantee you will be very surprised about certain building solutions. This model doesn’t have any bad angles. To fall in love with the Batmobile again, you simply need to rotate it slightly in any direction. The pictures on the box and online do no justice to how magnificent the set appears in the proper light.