More on the DC license - official website

Quick follow-up to my previous post. On FBTB (From Bricks to Batman?)* Ace posted a link to the official theme website, LEGOSuperHeroes.com. In addition to seeing three of the figs (and on the site you can rotate the Batman and Green Lantern figs and see that at least Hal is printed on both sides (Bruce is wearing a cape, of course), they also announce a monthly contest to create either a video, photo or drawing of a LEGO DC hero. It looks like you can use either your official Batman theme figs "and/or other LEGO Minifigures in Super Hero style" - I do not know if they mean that you can customize, or that you must use only official elements. Anyway, check out these great figs:

Multi-character official DC license!!!!!!

Huge news for ComicBricks fans! LEGO has announced a greatly expanded DC license. The full article follows, but the highlights are:
-January 2012 launch of the line
-First 13 characters will include Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Joker, Bane, Harley Quinn and Lex Luthor
-Exclusive promo Batman and Green Lantern figs will be available in limited supply at ComicCon in San Diego this weekend
-A release of new Batman sets will come out in summer 2012 in connection with the movie The Dark Knight Rises (in theaters exactly one year from now)
Thanks to Mariann of Model Building Secrets for finding this news.



Here's the full article from Variety. I expect we'll learn more this weekend from ComicCon.

Warner Bros. has expanded its relationship with Lego, granting the toymaker access to DC Entertainment's complete library of comicbook characters and stories to launch DC Universe "Super Heroes" as figures and playsets.

The multi-year licensing deal, made through Warner Bros. Consumer Products, will start rolling out the new line in January, starting with 13 characters, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and villains the Joker, Bane, Harley Quinn and Lex Luthor.

The first toys will be shown off at the Lego booth at Comic-Con Intl. in San Diego, where 3,000 exclusive Batman and Green Lantern minifigures will be distributed to launch a promo that runs August-December, enabling fans to create and submit videos, photos or illustrations of the characters to win trips to Legoland and Warner Bros. Studios.

WB and Lego had already been producing toys and videogames around the Batman franchise, and will launch a new set of playthings around next summer's "The Dark Knight Rises" through the Lego Batman collection. The "Lego Batman: The Videogame," published by WB Bros. Interactive Entertainment, has sold more than 12 million units since 2008."This partnership gives builders a chance to recreate the characters, vehicles and worlds of some of the most iconic super heroes, so they can relive the action and even customize it, a proven and winning formula in Lego construction," said Jill Wilfert, VP, licensing and entertainment for the Lego Group.

Just a personal note - I am generally not a fan of licenses, and have posted this repeatedly on forums like Classic-Castle. On various LEGO forums, people are always saying 'LEGO should license this or that movie, TV show, or video game.' I've written that the main criteria for licenses is that it should be for something that fans cannot create themselves and that the subject should be something with decades of history and a built in fan base. So, for instance, Star Wars has been a very successful license, in that it has included many new elements and minifigures, and taps into a huge customer (and collector) base spanning from people like myself who saw A New Hope in theaters as a kid to today's ten year olds watching the Clone Wars cartoons. OTOH, the oft-requested Lord of the Rings license is unneeded, as fans can and have made tons of great MOCs with existing elements. Given that the books existed decades before the Peter Jackson movies, there is no 'official' look for the characters or locations that you absolutely need LEGO to create special elements for (heck, in my imagination, the characters all look like the Bakshi cartoon). The one exception that I have consistently called for is an expanded comic book hero license, in either the DC or Marvel universe (building on the previous more limited Batman and Spider-Man themes). Yes, there are great customizers out there, and I've tried to feature them often on this blog, but most of us aren't that great at customizing. So it's huge news that we'll be able to get official figs. I'll be interested to see what vehicles and locations they come up with. In the past people (including LEGO reps?) have said that the big advantage of Batman, from the sake of designing sets, is that he is so vehicle-driven - so there are obvious set ideas for a Batmobile, Batwing etc. Of course Wonder Woman has her jet. What does Superman have? I guess we have iconic locations for him - the Daily Planet, the Fortress of Solitude - or maybe what they'll do is have a set with some big attack vehicle driven by Lex Luthor and Supes will be fighting it. Of course they have tons of material to draw on - from almost 75 years of comics, to live action and cartoon TV shows, to blockbuster summer movies dating back to Christopher Reeve and Michael Keaton (though it does seem we see more Marvel movies than DC movies).

Anyway, I'm all excited about this. As some of you know, I'm mostly a Castle guy, but I'm sure I'll be buying all of these sets. Yay LEGO!

X-Men

More Mike Napolitan: X-Men vs Magneto. BTW, isn't Magneto the best villain ever?

Magneto

Mike Napolitan has such great stuff that I'm going to spend a few days featuring his work: Magneto vs Tank (he notes that the tank is by BrickMonkey).

Silver Surfer

Mike Napolitan has made some great pictures, including this Silver Surfer.

MegaCon

Here are some MOCs from the recent MegaCon gathering in Orlando. I think that Insidethemagic was a convention attendee, so I don't know the builder.

City scenes

When LUGs and LTCs put on large displays, you can often find fun little details hidden in there. Look close at the side of the building in this display by the Perth Adult Lego Society at a recent display in Australia.

Happy Birthday, William

Have a slice of Batman, by Wedding Delicakes.

Covers

ZeRadman has been reproducing classic covers like Detective Comics #27 and the Amazing Spider-Man #14.

Mosaics

Dave Ware made a number of mosaics to display at the recent Calgary Comic Expo, including Cyclops, Colossus, Green Lantern and the Thing.

Oa

One more from Chris Doyle - the Central Power Battery from Oa.

Firestar

Burakki62 has made a great number of custom figs, including this Firestar.

Supes

And we might as well take a closer look at Chris' Superman.

In brightest day ...

Chris Doyle has been busy. In addition to the logo mosaics that I've featured here before, he also made some cube-dudes, like the classic Hal seen here (btw, that Superman I noted yesterday was indeed by Chris).

Mjöllnir

Chris Doyle made Thor's hammer to display at the recent BrickWorld fest. He says it was thrown together at the last minute, but the result looks great. BTW, those are also Chris' stained-glass-window sculptures, some of which I've featured here before, and I'm not sure but maybe that Superman cube-dude is also his.

Batcave

Check out this great Batcave by Orion Pax. Via the Brothers Brick.

Batman

A few days ago was the Brick Fiesta fan gathering down in Texas. One of the large sculptures on display was this Batman. I had assumed when I first saw it that this was provided by LEGO, as we've seen full sized sculptures of the Caped Crusader from them in the past, but amazingly it turns out this was by 13 year old Evan Bacon.

On the road with a big rubber duckie

Dave Smith made a number of vehicles for Batman and friends.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's an AFOL

Roy made this Superman S.

Mmmm, batty

GrannySweet'sCakes made this great looking Batman cake.