lego: the lego batman movie - the scuttler

I've had The Scuttler from The Lego Batman Movie sitting on top of my linen cupboard since about March 2017.

It wasn't that I didn't want to put it together, it's just that it looked like it was going to be a massive set, and I really didn't have the room for it.

But then this week happened... and honestly, I needed something else to occupy my mind.

So I got it down and wiped the dust off the top edge of it.

Like with many Lego sets and many other things for children, the whole thing could probably have fit comfortably into a box about half the six. Two thirds the size certainly.

And I do love a Lego set with many numbered bags, seven large bags, and most of them also contained at least one additional bag for the very small parts. As well as a magazine-sized set of instructions.

I mostly did some casual knolling... less rigorous than I've done in the past. It was more what I'd call functional knolling rather than aesthetic knolling. I've often wondered why they don't just put all of the minifigures in the first bag, especially on a set with so many, but for once only dealt with them as the bags came up.

This first bag also comes with Lego Batman (because of course) and Dick Grayson in his sparkly powder blue tuxedo jacket. If memory serves, it may have been better to put Dick in his Robin duds. But I know Lego likes to do the whole "exclusive to this set" thing, and I think this was the only casual Dick outside of the minifigure series.

The first bag was what I assume was the cockpit of the Scuttler (surprise, turns out it was actually the cargo hold). I do love a set with some good Technic connectors (all those blue and grey pieces), and the angle plates for some good old SNOT (Studs Not On Top) building.

The jetpack is kind of ridiculous, Batman doesn't stand up in it very well, his cape gets in the way and it's very grey rather than being black or very dark grey. There also isn't anything that tells you that it will fit pretty comfortably into the cargo hold. It might have been nicer if there was a way to properly secure it there, but at least it looks good once it's in.

The second bag finishes off the cargo hold, adds in the slightly temperamental net launcher (as in the net flies out if you so much as tap the cannon, and it's not secure if you angle to cannon much beyond the horizontal).

However this bag also contains the Poison Ivy and Commissioner Gordon in his dress uniform minis. And while I'm not a huge fan of Ivy's thornmobile (or the fact that in large sets like this they usually throw in a very small and often not well thought out or secure secondary vehicle... this at least feels thematically appropriate), she does have a gorgeous minifig otherwise.

The third bag held the last of the minifigs, The Joker with his very long tailcoat and Barbara Gordon in her bullet proof vest. Also, one of the "biceps" of the vehicle.

I've said before that I really, really love the design of the Joker in the Lego Batman Movie Universe, so much so that I have at least five different versions of him (Brickheadz, Lowrider minifig, Vacation minifig, this version and my minifig torch). I do love finally having one with the ridiculous tailcoat. I also really like the design of the hairpiece for Barbara, as well as the vest. The fact there's no design on the "t-shirt" under it isn't a huge issue, but they could easily have thrown another GCPD logo on there.

Part of the "but why" I came across while building this is the fact that you build the bicep at the front, then the fourth bag contains the two back legs... before you build the other bicep, which makes the whole thing sit all wonky-like, which just irritates me.

I can't say that I was especially impressed with the stickers in this set. Putting them on clear plastic was a good idea in theory and some of them look great, however they don't go on totally clearly, and honestly, for most of them black backgrounds would have just been better.

At last, bag five, and we get to add the other "bicep", as well as possibly one of the coolest Lego elements I've come across in a while, those black tubes. I don't think they're the same as the ones in the R2D2 set, these feel like they'll stay where they're placed better.

I also love the phone handsets as lights. And those "hydraulic tubes" on the outside.

A little difficult to take a good photo of bag 6's parts in situ, but here we have the front legs. Or at least the first half of them. Weirdly, given how quickly they came together, and how strange they look out of context, I like how these ended up looking.

I also managed to put the legs in place without firing the little stud cannons all over the place. I can guarantee I won't remember that later and I will lose studs. But the model does come with a lot of extras for that very reason.

The final bag held the "claws" in front, the decorative moulding on both forearms and the massive extentions at the top.

Also the very bat-like head. Which, when it was finished, was about the point that I suddenly realised which way around the thing pointed.

Overall, I really like it... it was super weird in the movie and it's super weird as a model. It's placing all of it's weight on those two grey cheese wedges on the back feet and one corner of those "claws" at the front. And if you extend the arms all the way out, it very much feels like it could fall apart with the least amount of provocation (and yes, I could pose it with flattened claws and feet, but that doesn't feel as bat-like).

I do love that pulling the arms and legs in gives it this werebat/ape/mech vibe. Because I do love me a Lego mech.

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