Welcome to Batman Week everyone! This Saturday, September 17th marks Batman Day 2022. You know, Batman Day? The most beloved superhero holiday of the year? Where we all gather on moonlit rooftops to read comics and brood by gargoyles? Alright, maybe it’s not that universal a day – not yet anyway. But we here at True North Bricks are big fans of LEGO®️ and Batman. So much so that we’re dedicating an entire week to it. And since it’s Monday, that means today’s post is about minifigures – my minifigures to be exact. Join me as I recap my LEGO®️ Batman Movie minifigure collection. It’s the pride-and-joy of my minifigure collection, so I hope you enjoy.
Batman Day
Before we deep-dive into my Batman minfigure collection, here’s a quick recap of Batman Day. The first ‘official’ Batman Day was back in 2014 marking Batman’s 75th anniversary. He first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. DC Comics celebrated the occasion at San Diego Comic Con that July. Since then, the day has moved to the third Saturday in September, for….reasons? In any case, it’s a fun pop culture day for a great character – one of my favourite’s at that.
The LEGO®️ Batman Movie
My Batman minifigure collection is all about The LEGO®️ Batman Movie. Oh maaannn do I love that movie. I watched the movie with my partner on Valentine’s Day. Not exactly your standard romantic outing, but it was perfect for us. 😊 I couldn’t hazard to guess how many times I’ve watched it, both intently and in the background. After enjoying the movie to bits, I picked up the first set of the Collectible Minifigures. Then I grabbed a few core characters. And then some more….and more…and more. Before I knew it, I was in too deep to stop. So I ended up getting every unique character that appears in the film.
Bat-Contents
So what do I have in this crazy thorough Batman minifigure collection? It consists of 134 characters, mostly minifigures but also a few animals. I acquired everything while the waves of tie-in sets were new and still releasing. But since I wasn’t interested in getting the actual sets, a good chunk of these figs were bought off Bricklink.com. Of the approximately 40 or so sets released across three waves, I got 12. I bought most of them just for the minifigures of course. And of these few sets, they are mostly the smaller builds like The Joker Balloon Escape (70900) and Egghead Mech Food Fight (70920). The largest set I picked up was the Killer Croc Tail-Gator (7090). And on a sidenote, I absolutely LOVE the Egghead set – it is hysterical. Eggcelent one might even say….
I of course have both series of the collectible minifigures which consist of 20 characters per series for a total of 40 unique figs. Both series are fantastic, but I think the first is just ever so slightly more interesting. What I did love in the second series is the inclusion of so many villains. Literally every villain that appeared in the movie was given a minifigure – that’s 40 villains! Nearly every hero did as well, but more on that soon. The rest of the minifigs came from the odd polybag, book, keychain or special release item. The best of the the latter being the Toys R’ Us Bricktober pack for the film. That is definitely a highlight in the collection thanks to four very awesome Batman outfits.
Bat-Display
As my Batman minifigure collection grew, it quickly became apparent that I was going to have display issues. I was determined to put everything in a nice case or frame as I wanted it on my wall. But with over 130 figures to display, what on earth could I use? The answer lay at Michael’s craft/hobby shop and the purchase of a very large Shadow Box frame. This sturdy black frame measures 24″x30″ with a depth of 2″ for display. The back panel is removeable allowing you access to the sturdy frame and glass.
That’s the outside, but how about the inside? I needed to create a series of shelves to place rows and rows of figs. To do so, I used the same technique as that done for my Star Wars Trooper minifig collection. I glued several black 4×12 plates to the top of balsa sheets that I first painted black. Each row is the full width of the frame and supported on either side with evenly spaced balsa panels to separate each row. With a bit of mathmagic I was able to put 10 rows of shelving inside with room to nicely display up to 14 minifigs on each. A depth of 4 studs is just perfect for any figs with accessories or larger parts/molds.
Bat-Organization
What’s the best way to organize a Batman minifigure collection? Grouping all the versions of the same character made the most sense in the end – pretty much a no brainer really. The real struggle was fitting all the characters evenly in nice groupings and not spilling onto the next row. Starting with Batman was, well, obvious and his 23 unique figures fit quite perfectly on the first two rows. I even made room for a Bat signal light! I stuck to just one generic Batsuit among the many that were made. With only differences in facial expressions, it seemed beyond redundant.
The next two rows are the Bat family and their allies. Alfred is first up with five variants, then Barbara Gordon/Batgirl with a whopping 8 unique prints. Dick Grayson/Robin starts the next row with 6 different costumes and our only Bruce Wayne beside him. Next we see Commissioner Jim Gordon and the ‘citizens of Gotham’ including the Mayor, Chief O’Hara, Aaron Cash and our generic security guard friends.
Heroes Unite!
The Justice League are up next and this section took a bit of work. Our JLA heroes appear in a hilarious segment at Superman’s fortress of Solitude. This awesome scene was turned into a small set called The Justice League Anniversary Party (79109) and came with 4 great minifigures and DJ Wonder Dog. Well you can’t have half a JLA so I picked up any remaining figs that were already released in other sets. Thankfully the designs in the film are the classic looks that have been used in many DC comics sets and therefore, screen accurate. Sadly the character of Samurai didn’t get a minifigure release so it’s just shy of complete. And for a bit of fun, Jor-El, Wonder Dog and my own brick-built Phyllis round out the team next to the DJ booth. Last up are the officers of the GCPD.
Villains Also Unite!
Last and most fun of all are a full roster of villains. Naturally Joker and Harley get ALL the variations so they take up nearly an entire row. I love these villains designs – especially those C list villains like Condiment King and Polka-Dot Man. Four rows of cornball villains makes for an awesome display in my books. You’ll notice that three villains are hanging out on top. Killer Croc, Bane and Clayface couldn’t make it into the frame because of their size so my solution was to let them chill up above.
What’s it Bat Worth?
Although the theme is retired, you can still purchase quite a few of these figs for reasonable prices. Like any after-market valuation, the prices vary wildly. For fun I put my collection into a BrickLink wanted list and hit “buy all” to see if I could get all or most of the minifigs at once. The best I can find from a Canadian seller is 45/135 figs with a crazy high total of $800+ CAD. Casting the net globally I can get 109/135 from a US seller for the ever so eye-watering cost of $6,035 CAD (converted). That’s absolutely insane and that seller has priced everything way out of whack. So beware of highly inflated pricing and just plain greedy people.
Quite a few characters are fetching decent prices online. Minifigs from larger sets and/or big figs are of course faring better for price increases. The most expensive minifigs come from The Joker Manor (70922) D2C set, which is not at all surprising. This big, fun set released in December 2017 for $300 CAD and featured 10 minifigures, 7 of which are exclusive. The most desirable by far is Disco Batman. He’s currently averaging $150 CAD minimum online with some sellers asking for $500+ CAD….guys, come on. Let’s be realistic here haha. And to think I felt silly buying one loose for $25 CAD at the time.
Bat’s All Folks
And that’s my collection friends. It was equal parts fun and fury to complete this. As you should know by now, I’m all about the minifigures. I grab a theme and stick with it until the end. In this case there was a nice clear finish line. But with themes like Marvel and Harry Potter there’s no end in sight lol. Harry Potter is 200+ figs at this point so even a giant shadow box won’t suffice. I’ll have to get real creative with that collection.
I hope you enjoyed this look at my Batman minifigure collection. Drop me a comment below and let me know what you think. Did you enjoy the LEGO®️ Batman Movie? Do you have any of the sets or minifigures? What’s your biggest minifig collection? And please stick with us for more Batman Week. We’ve got some fun reviews for you all so keep it tuned to this same bat channel, same bat etc, etc, etc. Thanks for reading and until next time, keep on brickin’. 🧱
-Frank
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Wow. Nice.