17 July. From that day a new set numbered 40748 will be available, which lets us build a Batman figure, but it will be an unusual set. And that isn’t good news at all.
It’s customary for new BrickHeadz to appear on the first day of the month, so it’s strange that this time the release will be in the middle of the month, on a Wednesday. But the set itself isn’t one of the “ordinary” ones either, because it lets you build a Batman figure in as many as 8 different styles. No, no, we won’t get 8 figures, but the bricks in the set will let us choose which version of Batman suits us best, and that’s the one you’ll be able to build. And then another one, and again, and again, 8 times in all 🙂
So we can have one of these Batmen:
Bronze Age Batman
Batman from the classic TV series
Batman (1989)
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman from The Dark Knight Trilogy
Batman v Superman
The LEGO Batman Movie with glow-in-the-dark eyes
Batman
We’ve already had similar sets in which you could build many characters, for example Wedding Bride 40383, Wedding Groom 40384, Go Brick Me 41597 or the sets with footballers (here and here). This time, however, there’s something that worries me a lot. The previous sets like this didn’t have their own individual BrickHeadz numbers, and this one does. And not just one…
On the front of the box the set mainly shows the Bronze Age Batman and BrickHeadz number 245. But if we turn the box over, we see more numbers. Every character got its own number. To make matters worse, and I didn’t mention this earlier, at least the photos suggest that the LEGO Batman is an exact copy of BrickHeadz set 41585, which has number 1 in the BrickHeadz numbering. So they decided to repeat the figure and its number…
I don’t know how to comment on this. I have criticised LEGO many times for various decisions, but I don’t even know how to comment on this one. I understand that those who didn’t get the chance to buy BrickHeadz number 1 at a sensible price may even be happy, but does this mean we’ll now be re-releasing all the old sets in some bundles? Isn’t messed-up numbering a slap in the face for all collectors? Am I now supposed to buy this set 8 times (okay, 7) to have the complete numbering? Does this mean I’ll now have 10 Batmen on my shelf? Not to mention the cost, this set will cost PLN 109.99! Sigh…
Update: 2024-07-19
Two days ago, on 17 July, we were supposed to get this set in our hands. And from the few reports out there, the sets did show up somewhere, but I don’t know what the situation is in brick-and-mortar shops right now. On the other hand, lego.pl says the set will ship from 24 July inclusive. And the information I’ve come across suggests this is the result of an error found in the instructions. I wonder when, at what stage, the error was found and how costly the mistake was. And the most interesting question is whether defective sets reached the market. As a collector I’d happily see such a rarity in my collection 😉
Update: 2024-07-22
Everything is clear now. The set contains only one paper instruction booklet, and you can build figure number 245, the one shown on the front of the box. The other instructions are available in the app. Correction: they are NOW, but they weren’t at the time of release. Hence the halt in sales. Only once they had prepared digital building instructions for the other figures did they unblock online sales. In brick-and-mortar shops, however, the figures were available to buy.
And one more (unfortunate) piece of news. I already have this set at home and unfortunately the printed bricks have symbols printed on both sides. This means the cost of building all the figures will go up, because you can’t buy one set and buy the missing bricks online or even add them from your own private bricks. These printed bricks will probably become available to buy eventually too, but first, you’ll have to wait a while for that, and second, availability may be limited and nobody knows about the prices. To sum up, expenses and problems await you if you dream of putting all these figures on your shelves at the same time.
Update: 2024-08-12
In the article Build all the Batman figures from set 40748, as the title itself suggests, you’ll find a list of LEGO bricks that will make it easier to build all 8 figures.
