Detroit, Michigan – There have been many Batman movies over the years in both live action and animated format, but nothing like this.
Opening on 10 February in cinemas across the United States is the Lego Batman Movie, featuring “real Lego figurines, not actors”, as the publicity material for the film proudly states.
It’s a spin-off from the original Lego Movie, featuring the voices of Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson and Ralph Fiennes. In the this spoof of the Batman legend, there are big changes brewing in Gotham and, if he wants to save the city from the Joker’s hostile takeover, the Caped Crusader may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up a little.
And each version of Batman has its own Batmobile, which is where Chevrolet came in, helping to design the Lego Batmobile – named Speedwagon – for the film, which will, of course be available as a kit from Lego stockists so that children of all ages can build their own.
To publicise the tie-in, Chevrolet got the Lego League to build a full-size version of the Speedwagon with special stud shooters, which was displayed on its stand at the recent Detroit Motor Show. And when they say “full size” they’re not kidding.
It’s 5.2 metres long, 2.8 metres wide and 2.1 metres high, contains 344 187 Lego bricks in 17 colours and weighs 770kg; each tyre alone weighs 45kg. It’s built on a frame made from more than 26 metres of rectangular aluminium tubing, weighing 128kg by itself.
The full-scale Speedwagon was designed and assembled at the Lego Model Shop in Enfield, Connecticut, and took 222 hours to design and 1833 hours to build.