LEGO has certainly done many a Batman set before. I’ve personally enjoyed putting together and displaying the now-retired 1989 Batmobile. But this time it’s definitely “bring on the bad guys” with their latest Batman set, featuring a whole rogue’s gallery of minifigures.
What Is the LEGO Arkham Asylum?
Arkham Asylum, set #76300, is a 2,953-piece LEGO set featuring a whopping 16 minifigures. When completed, Arkham Asylum measures 13″ high, 10″ wide and 11″ deep. The set retails for $299.99, and is a LEGO exclusive so is only available at LEGO’s webstore or at their retail stores. As of this writing it’s currently on backorder, with orders expected to ship within 60 days.
Arkham Asylum is also a modular building, which means it has multiple, removable floors, and can be connected to any of the many other LEGO modular buildings like the LEGO Icons Natural History Museum.
Included in the box are 24 bags of LEGO bricks, two instruction manuals, a grey baseplate, a curved piece for the Arkham gate sign, and 2 sheets of stickers.
Besides giving clear, step by step instructions on how to assemble Arkham Asylum, the two manuals also have background on the asylum itself, as well as the comic book characters represented by the included minifigures.
LEGO Arkham Asylum – The Minifigures
As usual, the minifigure builds are stretched out throughout the entire build. There are 4 heroes, 10 villains, and 2 security guards.
The heroes and villains all come with their signature accessories. The majority of the villains are inmates at the asylum, and wear matching jumpsuits.
Assembling the LEGO Arkham Asylum
While there are just two instruction manuals included, there are really 4 stages to putting together Arkham Asylum: The ambulance, the ground floor, the second floor, and the roof.
Arkham Asylum – Ambulance
Here’s a look at the ambulance assembly, which is the first couple of bags:
And here’s the completed ambulance:
Arkham Asylum – Ground Floor
Now we get into the meat of the build.
Here’s what the completed ground floor looks like:
The ground floor is crammed full of Easter eggs, like this nod to the classic Frank Miller comic The Dark Knight Returns:
There’s plenty of other amazing details on this floor, which really help bring the build to life:
Arkham Asylum – Second Floor
The second floor follows the same basic layout as the first.
And here is the completed second floor, locked onto the first floor. If you’ve never built a modular building before, the floors securely attach to each other, but are also easy to remove without damaging the build.
The main locations on the second floor are the psychiatrist’s office, the guard tower, and inmate cells. The cells can be opened and closed, just like the ones on the first floor:
Arkham Asylum – Roof
The roof is the final bit of assembly for the set, and also contains plenty of detail.
Here’s the roof placed on the building:
The last bag of the set adds in the final exterior details and extras, such as these homicidal minions of the Penguin:
As well as the Arkham Asylum gate sign:
There are also several translucent flying stands and studs, to help with placing the minifigures on and around the completed asylum:
Here’s a closer look at all the different characters on display. Obviously, you can also create scenes with them inside the asylum. But for just displaying the set on the shelf, you’re probably going to want to be able to show off the minifigures.
LEGO Arkham Asylum – Final Thoughts
Arkham Asylum was a fun build, especially as a Batman fan. There’s so much to enjoy here, with tons of fun little details from a Doctor Hugo Strange diploma hanging on the wall, to a small hole “dug” into the base of the asylum, with a spoon resting in the hole. There are some very fun build techniques at play here, like with this ingenious little water cooler:
Unfortunately, time constraints also mean size constraints, and this is not exactly an imposing asylum. Still, it’s impressive what LEGO has managed to fit into the space. And an added benefit of the size is that the set is to scale with other modular buildings, so you can easily create your own Gotham City. Though to be fair, the rest of the LEGO modular building are probably much nicer than any buildings you’d see in Gotham.
While the build went well, there were a couple of hiccups. First, one of the bags had a missing piece, and it was unfortunately not one that I had at hand. Usually, LEGO is very fast shipping replacement parts, but this time it took almost two months for the new piece to arrive. And second, for some reason the roof doesn’t quite fit right with the second floor. I had originally placed it slightly off, as you can see in photos above, but even after relocating it, things are just a bit askew:
Considering the relatively small footprint of the Arkham Asylum set, LEGO managed to cram in a ton of details. With minifigures like Batwing and Damien Wayne, this set is definitely geared more to the comic book fans than those of the movies. But really, if you’re a Batman fan, and especially of his rogue gallery, then you’re going to be very happy with this set.
LEGO provided this set for evaluation, but had no input into the review.
