Reviewed by Gary James (SAFOLs Member)
The Jim Lee Batman collection Lego Art set was release in March 2022. The set consists of 4167 pieces, the bulk of which is made up of the coloured 1×1 round tiles. That being said, as with all Lego Art sets, not all of these will be used. The set allows the builder to choose one of three portraits: Batman, Joker or Harley-Quinn. The artwork itself is based off the drawings of legendary DC artist and current publisher and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee, coloured by Alex Sinclair.
The set consists of the default 9 16×16 black panels that are assembled into a 3×3 grid and locked into place by a border made of black bricks and making your final portrait 40cmx40cm. The image is created by using 16 different coloured 1×1 round tiles. The set also comes with a large black brick separator for removing multiple tiles at a time and a smaller separator for removing specific tiles for those inevitable moments when you mix up your colours and place a piece in the wrong location.
The instruction manual does a good job of breaking down what could be a very intimidating, complex build into small manageable steps. You start with building the all-important colour key that assigns each of the 16 colours a number. A good idea is to decant the different colours into their own container and arrange them in numeric order to minimise your time searching for the correct colour.
Next you need to decide which of the 3 portraits you want to build and find the appropriate starting point in the instruction manual and start building. The build itself is very much like painting by numbers and can be very monotonous at times. This is not necessarily a bad thing as sometimes after a long day you just want to relax, building some LEGO® that does not need a lot of concentration. The experience is added to by downloading and listening to the unique soundtrack for this LEGO® Art set, which is an interview featuring both LEGO® designers and DC artists, the link for which can be found in the instruction manual.
I loved watching the image develop as you add each completed tile to form a row, and then adding each row to form the completed image. Of the three picture options from the single set my favourite is The Batman™, that is in no way influenced by me being a huge Batman™ fan 😉
In addition to the three options out of the box, there are two further image options available. Using two sets you can build an image of Batman™ and Catwoman with the Gotham City skyline in the background. Combining three sets you can build a large profile image of The Batman™
On the downside, due to the number of pieces and possibly the IP involved these sets are not cheap and go for round R2000 each. This means that to build all 5 possible images at once you would have to purchase 8 of these sets; 1 each for the default options, 2 for the Batman™/Catwoman portrait and a further 3 for the large Batman™ portrait, and since you will never use all the pieces for any particular image it does mean that you will end up with a huge excess of coloured tiles. This however is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you fancy yourself a little creative. There is plenty of software on the internet that will produce a pixilated version of any image, giving you the opportunity to make your own art piece with the left-over pieces.
Overall, I am a fan of the LEGO® Art series having collected the previous Star Wars Art sets, but the Jim Lee Batman™ collection is definitely my favourite. With a build time of 2.5 to 4 hours per image, depending on how quickly you can find and place tiles. I find building these sets very relaxing and is a great way to spend the evening and when you are finished you have a new piece of art to hang on your wall.
