LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box review

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box is the most unusual, interesting, brilliant and creatively challenging LEGO Batman set, all wrapped up in the one big box.

Packaging a Batman Returns-themed Batcave, Batmobile and line-up of characters into a big box-like structure and punching a huge Bat-symbol window through the front, 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box certainly manages to tick a lot of boxes for LEGO Batman fans, all the while being a big box itself.

Creatively, first impressions have this large LEGO set as all over the place, perhaps trying to achieve too much with too many LEGO pieces – and while there are few sets that have us as curious to build as this one, asking £344.99 / $399.99 / €399.99 for 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box puts it under immediate scrutiny. How does it shape up? Aside from being shaped like a box.

— LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box set details —

Theme: LEGO Batman Set name: 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box Release: June 5 (VIPs), June 8 (wide), 2023

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Price: £344.99 / $399.99 / €399.99 Pieces: 3,981 Minifigures: 7

LEGO: Available June 5 (VIPs)

— Where to buy LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box —

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box releases on June 5 at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores for VIP members, and June 8 for everyone else. Don’t forget to use your Bat-Credit Card.

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— LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box build —

It’s very easy to just focus on what is unusual about LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box and criticise it almost solely for being so different, yet in spite of having some reservations about the validity and cohesiveness of this one-of-a-kind concept, there are few sets of recent times that we have been so eager and interested to build. Whether you buy into what this LEGO set is trying to achieve or not, there’s not another one like it, past, present or perhaps even future.

Let’s try to understand the concept behind 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box by listing through what it is. Primarily, it is two separate things: a large, flat, almost comic book panel-style straight-on build of the Batcave from Batman Returns, complete with Batmobile and seven minifigures of six different characters from the 1992 Tim Burton sequel. Alongside this or rather – all around it – is a box structure with a large Bat-symbol window at the front to allow you to see the Batcave on the inside, and hinges on one side to allow you to also access said Batcave.

It’s Batman x Batman, it’s at once both a huge tribute to one of the best Batman movies of all time (six months after its 30th anniversary) and it’s a gigantic LEGO Art piece inspired by the character, packaged together in a way that feels as meta as it does immersive.

While there are these two distinctive creative forces that shape 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box inside and out, it’s primarily the inside that you’ll feel like you are putting together for most of the build. And even though it’s a sizeable piece count, large in scale and most of it is made out of literally just the two colours – black and very, very dark grey – at no stage is the build anything other than enjoyable and interesting.

Granted, having almost all the bricks come in just the two colours will make the entire process much longer as distinguishing between them is a challenge – it genuinely took us longer to pick out each piece as we needed it and even had us counting studs on bricks and plates like it was our first LEGO set all over again – but at no stage did even that experience make things feel laborious, and we’ve built 10276 Colosseum so we know what we’re talking about

Interestingly, though, in part through the exterior shell – and perhaps where you most feel the outer build’s influence the most – this is a LEGO set that offers a more, shall we say, industrial building experience. That is, a lot more brick on brick, vertical building more akin to older LEGO sets. It’s not to take away anything from the design nor devalue any of the details or intricate LEGO moments that are apparent throughout the build, but in sections it will feel way more traditional a LEGO experience than a) a lot of other LEGO sets around at the moment and b) what you’d expect from this set in particular.

As mentioned, the set is packed with detail across the Batcave, offering credible little LEGO versions of the Bat-computer, Batsuit storage area (Bat-wardrobe?) and weapons storage area, as well as a large, long platform for the included Batmobile to sit on. Each area is nicely designed and circumnavigates the building-in-just-two-colours challenge with aplomb – in short, you don’t notice any creative compromise in the monochromatic nature of the finished model, you only get those gothic Tim Burton vibes that such a build should give you.

Each area to the Batcave also has its own play feature (even if this is a grown-up set let’s call it what it is – we’re all going to be turning the dials at the back of the box regardless of age) that can swivel Bruce Wayne’s fancy chair; lift up and down the door to the Batsuit; turn on a light to illuminate it; open and shut the weapons display area, and open out the Batmobile platform between the rest of the Batcave and the front window of the box. As a combination of touchable moments in the final model they each add good value to builders of any age, in terms of playability for those wanting a more hands-on traditional LEGO experience and those prioritising something for display but still offering a bit of novel interactivity.

As a collection of items these are at once both fun and recognisable features to the Batcave as we saw it in Batman Returns, except in composition, which has been determined by the decision to encase the whole set into a specific box shape so as to offer that curious Bat-symbol viewing window at the front.

It means that instead of 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box being a whole-hearted large-scale replica of the Batcave composed in either a friendlier way for younger fans to play with, or in a more impressive, juxtaposed set-up more reflective of the cave-like nature that we saw on screen 31 years ago (which is part of the iconography of that interpretation of the Batcave), or even something in between these two possible directions, we have an almost comic book panel-like presentation of the key areas of the Batcave.

Section to section, they in turn draw your eye across a still-impressive internal build, but it’s one that does flatten the entire perspective of the Batcave, so does take a bit of getting used to and that for better or worse is completely different to every previous LEGO Batcave we have seen before.

It’s still a great Batcave LEGO set and it very much feels in keeping with the tone of the Tim Burton Batman films, and offers that same wow factor any such LEGO Batman set with this sort of piece count can. Yet it also still feels creatively compromised – and at least initially, confused – all so as to allow for this other, more meta inclusion in the build of the large Bat-symbol.

Which, by the way, is an excellent and suitably massive recreation in LEGO bricks, expertly realised, even if relatively simple to piece together (sometimes the best design works out this way). It is genuinely exciting to gradually put together as you work through building the set, and it looks truly impressive as a final piece. It’s very Batman, it’s very on brand, it works marvellously as this recreation of the most iconic Bat-symbol we’ll perhaps ever know. Yet it would be all that as a separate LEGO Art-style set too, released as its own façade, even if that meant coming in slightly smaller than the size it is here.

It would only need to be a brick or two thick – just as it is in 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box – and would be just as desirable for any LEGO Batman fan wanting a truly unique and special display piece, be that for their wall or for the middle of their Bat-brick collection. To make it LEGO Art-y (and more expensive) there could even be swappable backgrounds to build – one all yellow, one dark grey, another a comic-book style mash-up of Batman artwork or something. In any scenario, this Bat-symbol could have been its own set and would have been just as popular, if not more so.

Instead, it is part of 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box and sits front and centre, serving as a literal framing device for the core Batcave build housed within the resulting box build. While you could break it from its hinges and place it separately, you’d still be left with a boxed-in Batcave with no front cover, and that’s a very expensive way to get a cool LEGO Bat-symbol build.

So, we have a Batcave that could have been something more in keeping with what we have had in the past and we have a giant brick-built Bat-symbol that could have been something all on its own and just as good. In both cases, what could have been would have been far more aligned to what we’ve previously built and enjoyed in LEGO form and would have far better met most LEGO fans’ immediate expectations and hopes.

But is that the entire purpose to the LEGO Group, and to LEGO as a creative medium? Release what we can most immediately predict they’ll release? Produce LEGO sets following clear, immovable guidelines? Arguably not. The LEGO Batman team has puzzled together something completely new and unique in imagining 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box, and in doing so challenges us as its fanbase to, yet again, reconsider what it is to build with LEGO. Instead of offering us something we expect, we have the chance to build something completely different that while still fulfilling a lot of what we need from such a LEGO Batman set creatively asks us to look at an 11-year-old theme with new eyes and new ideas.

Any review of another more typical LEGO Batcave could just as easily have pulled us into a ‘yet another Batcave’ rhetoric that would question the creative direction of a LEGO Batman theme that – not necessarily through any fault of the LEGO Group – has been light on pretty much anything this past few years. Instead, we cannot say what’s around the corner with this theme many of us love and thought we knew so well, and from a creative viewpoint, that’s nothing but exciting, and wholly down to what 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box offers as a LEGO experience.

— LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box Base characters —

While most of LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box consists of bags of black and very, very dark grey LEGO bricks, one mixed bag is certainly the minifigure line-up. Across the seven included minifigures – and six characters – here are some brilliant, some half-finished and some forgettable LEGO designs.

Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth are who really shine in this set, for just how well Michael Keaton and Michael Gough’s respective expressions are caught in LEGO form. Their designs are so good that you instantly feel that same on-screen dynamic that the characters had in Batman and Batman Returns, when placing them next to each other in 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box. Spot-on design like this really adds to the set’s all-round play and display potential too.

Likewise, the rubber cape Batman minifigure is nigh-on identical to the one we have had twice before and is just as at home in this Batcave. The other Batman minifigure, though, is a little more jarring to get used to. Whilst the dual-moulded headpiece is nicely realised and nowhere near as brash in real life as the artwork suggests, it’s not the right Batsuit for this Batcave, even if its inclusion is so the character can drive the included Batmobile. We get the reason for this guy being here and he feels like a bonus inclusion. Easy to ignore/rehome without detracting from the set.

The Penguin and Catwoman are where the set’s minifigure line-up begins to disappoint, though, and it’s for the details. Catwoman’s head and torso design are purrfect, but the lack of any leg printing in a LEGO set this expensive is ridiculous and does leave the minifigure feeling half-finished. The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot, meanwhile, has a great and screen-accurate torso, yet his face print and head piece are the wrong colour, with an expression/design that could be any version of the character rather than Danny DeVito’s iconic take, while the top hat included is the stupidly-disproportionate one.

Why not a smaller, new mould for his hat, perhaps? Maybe even one that included a dual-moulded monocle that could slot over the minifigure’s eye too? For such an expensive, special LEGO set, these two characters in particular needed more than they offer.

Meanwhile, the fact that power-hungry industrialist Max Schreck is included in 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box is fantastic. The fact that his minifigure is an amalgamation of parts previously used in other themes already is definitely not fantastic. What’s the point of pooling together almost random pieces and naming it after such a character? It comes across like a minifigure from another theme has crawled into 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box and is impersonating Max Schreck until he is found out. Well, we’ve found him out. And here we are left with another minifigure that needed something unique, particularly in the hair department.

— LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box price —

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box comes in at an eye-watering £344.99 / $399.99 / €399.99. There’s no batting around the fact that that’s a significant investment, the likes of which will take months to save up for, all the while avoiding looking at any of the other LEGO sets priced around that mark or lower.

For the divisive nature of this LEGO Batman set and the mixed reception it has had, saving up for it will be even harder for those who aren’t the most die-hard of LEGO Batman fans.

Yet for those of us mad enough to own most (if not all) of the previous LEGO Batman sets, or those looking for something truly unique within the shadowy world of The Dark Knight, or anyone looking for a LEGO experience one-of-a-kind in build and final display piece, 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box ticks a lot of boxes (and is a box). And for those of you who can realise what this LEGO set represents creatively and can recognise that we won’t see another set like this again, there is even more enjoyment and exclusivity to be felt here.

A tough one to save up for, but one that will hold a special place in your collection once added.

— LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box pictures —

— LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box pros and cons —

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box may take a little while to adjust to, both visually and conceptually. It may not be the perfect marriage of two strong ideas, too, but there’s never been a LEGO set like this, let alone a LEGO Batman set like it, and the creative challenge it presents to us as LEGO fans is a fascinating one.

Beyond anything existential, as a simple LEGO Batman set, this is truly one-of-a-kind and delivers an intriguing LEGO build and a visually unique final model. The minifigures may not be the most perfect line-up, but can be forgiven here. 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box may not be a day one purchase for most, but it will catch you looking at it a good few times and don’t be surprised – nor disappointed – if it pulls you in.

Years from now after we’ve had four more LEGO Batcaves and we’ve had a whole collection of LEGO Art Bat-symbols, we will all look back at 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box with nostalgic eyes for just how outside of the box this big old box of black bricks really was.

76252 Batcave – Shadow Box pros76252 Batcave – Shadow Box cons
One-of-a-kind conceptPutting two ideas into one set risks alienating some fans
Immersive Batcave buildThe minifigures are the ones we need, but not the ones we deserve
Excellent Bat-symbol window looks great on displayExpensive

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your boxes of Bat-LEGO through one of our affiliate links.

— Alternatives to LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box —

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box is most comparable in budget, rather than in LEGO experience. For the same money, you can pick up the excellent 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle, 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina from the LEGO Star Wars range, or even Ideas’ 21323 Grand Piano, for something completely different but still mainly black.

— LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box FAQs —

How long does it take to build LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box?

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box is an extensive LEGO build and – thanks in part to an all black and grey colour scheme – will take around six to seven hours to put together.

How many pieces are in LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box?

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box contains 3,981 pieces, including seven minifigures for Batman (rubber suit and moveable head versions), Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Max Schreck, Catwoman and The Penguin.

How big is LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box?

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box is the simplest, surest LEGO set to measure, coming in at 51.5cm wide, 15cm deep (including the play-feature dials at the back of the box) and a shade over 19cm tall.

How much does LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box cost?

LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box releases on June 5 for VIP members at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores, retailing for £344.99 in the UK, $449.99 in the US and from €449.99 in Europe.

Author Profile

Rob Paton
As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

Rob Paton

As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

One thought on “LEGO Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box review

  • 02/06/2023 at 18:50
    Permalink

    I wonder if the binoculars at the rear of the Batmobile is a new mould, because if it isn’t, that’s a very illegal build.

    Reply

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