Saturday, October 13, 2012

Lego Creation: Bat Cave

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"This Bat Cave was first displayed at Emerald City ComiCon in late March of 2012. It then made an appearance at Jet City Comic Show and then BrickCon 2012. After Wayne and I built it we took it to ECCC and then it sat quietly in my living room.

Some statistics: We spent 400 hours each over three months building this. We started in Early January and finished in late March. We estimate over 20,000 pieces but it's probably much more. It weighs in at 100 pounds. The entire roof lifts off and then the rest splits into three sections for ease of transport."
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The lighting is a combination of off the shelf battery powered LED Christmas lights and LED flash lights cannibalized and rewired to run off one battery.

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The builders. Carlyle on left, Wayne on the right.

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How the Batcopter gets out.

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This shot shows how the rock meets the roof. Oh, and you can't have a Batcave without bats!

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Batcave!

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Wayne built the waterfall and I added some final touches...

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Robin is ready to refuel the Batboat. See if you can find the LEGO piece that is used in a very different way from how it was intended... (of course, most of our LEGO parts are used in a unique way but this one should stand out)

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The Batmoible started from the current LEGO set #6864. We made extensive changes.

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The Batboat was our own design. Influenced by the 60's TV show.

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Bat Plane is based on a design by 'The Shadow' found here: legionsofgotham.proboards.com It appears we were both influenced by the Tim Burton Bat Wing design.

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Batcave!

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After a tough day of crime fighting, Alfred gives Batman a nice refreshment.

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This shot shows how we tried to make everything at different heights and angles for better composition.

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This is a good shot of how the roof of the cave looks. Many people, especially adults, never see this view as it is typically displayed on a table so kids can easily see inside.

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This poor devil never made it out of the Batcave...

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The Screens on the monitors were created in Photoshop and printed on Avery labels as stickers...

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Our own Bat Boat design influenced by the 60's TV show.

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Bat Plane is based on a design by 'theshadow' found here: legionsofgotham.proboards.com It appears we were both influenced by the Tim Burton Bat Wing design. Also, the Batplane raises and lowers on the launch rails and the jet blast deflector behind the engines goes up and down in unison with the Batplane! Wayne did an awesome job on all the mechanics and they are still functioning after three public displays and about 7 times being dismantled and moved.

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Adding Final touches!

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Top Left Side of Bat Cave

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Top right side of Bat Cave.

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Rear view of Bat Cave. Lots of wires running around. We used the LEGO Power Functions motors and battery packs. The Batplane is elevated by a mechanism Wayne built and is operated by an Infra Red remote. The battery in the lower right runs most of the lighting...

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Bat Cave ready for transport!


Here is the motion of the Batplane and the jet blast deflector. This is also a glimpse of the MOC during construction.


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Here is some video shot with my iPhone. it's a bit shaky and grainy at times but you can get a feel for the movement Wayne built in to our Batcave and some of the features that 2D photos just don't show very well...


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Part two of the Video Tour - Can't fit much time on Flickr... :-(

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