Art Asylum's C3 (DC Minimates)
Batwing and Bat Glider
with Mr. Stinkhead

Before reading this review, it wouldn't hurt to be familiar with Minimates in general, and specifically, the new C3 building sets.

I head out for the beach last weekend, and to my surprise, located the Batwing and Batglider at the KMart near the shore. What luck, what luck, I snagged the last two sets in the store. We took them back to the beach house, and I lasted roughly 23 minutes of saving them until we get home. These two sets are fantastic, unlike the rainy weather we had at the beach. By this point, you should know that by purchasing a Minimate (or specially C3) set, you will not be disappointed, however with these two sets I was pleasantly surprised as well.

Batglider
The Batglider retails for $10, and comes with enough building pieces to build a jointed glider, Glider-Batman, and Catwoman. I'm going to pause right here and explain this difficult situation. It is true, the Batman that comes with this particular set does not look like a traditional Batman. He has straps, night vision goggles, and a different overall look and feel. Besides the ears and emblem, there's not much Batman about it. We here at MPb rail on alternate jungle-attack-riot-grrrl-burger-flippin variants all the time. But here are two very important points that make this particular Bat-set great.

A) The overall Bat-color scheme is used, the acceptable palette is black, gray, purple, blue and a hint of yellow for the logo and bat belt. Remember, Batman is the Dark Knight, and he lurks around at night.

B) Those great folks at Art Asylum and Play Along have included a back-up chest and cowl in Burton-style black. Sweeeet!.

That's right, you can pop off the flight helmet, the Bruce Wayne head and the chest apparatus, and slide on the all-black with yellow emblem torso, and then put on the new cowl. This is the smartest thing of all smart things that have come down the way in the world of Bat stuff. I was even more impressed that they did not put this on the box. This was a great surprise when I dumped out all of the pieces.

Hey Mr. Stinkhead, what a surprise-ruiner you are. Well, maybe, but c'mon, how close were you to buying this set before you knew about that? Some people, and granted, maybe not you, but some people are changing their tune.

So how much fun is a hang glider? Well this is no ordinary glider, multiple joints and axis allow you to get some cool angles out of the wings. They also fold up pretty compactly for Batman to perhaps stick in a battrunk some place. Once it's put together, it's tough to just toss it aside to play with your new Batman and—

Catwoman
To many people, the draw of this set will be the Jim Lee era Catwoman. With large, clear goggles, this Catwoman resembles nothing of the atrocity put forth to movie goers just a few weeks ago. And I would appreciate it if we never reference such a piece of festering shit on this web site ever again. This Catwoman comes with a whip, grappling hook, and small booty bag, most likely from snatching booty.

Like the other Minimates, she's got great articulation, and the use of the clear goggles has a great effect. There is an interesting sculpt to her gloves too, giving her claw like fingernails. Overall, this set will not disappoint, and is clearly worth $10.

Batwing
I am a Playmobil guy. I like my playsets pre-built, and I've come to expect a certain level of quality and ingenuity. LEGO is great, and I dig their product, but I'm not a big collector like Lando has become. I like putting together my playsets once. However, I have found that I am really digging these larger sets (here-to-fore I had only put together the $10 level sets, this one was $20). I am enjoying the greater challenge, and larger number of parts. At the same time, it's level of complexity never leaves the realm of enjoyment, i.e. you won't get bored or frustrated with this set.

Once it's put together, the Batwing looks really sharp. Closely resembling the Burton Batman Batwing, it also comes with a back up chest and cowl to turn Pilot Batman into a traditional Batman. This Bat-flight-suit is pretty cool. The visor is connected to the ears, and you can slide that up to reveal Bruce's eyes below. The helmet also has an oxygen hose connecting to the torso. Again, this non-traditional Batsuit adheres to an established palette, and doesn't go too nuts. I also dig the attention to detail, and the amount of sculpted detail.

The Batwing itself features an opening canopy, two firing missiles, retractable landing gear and an ejecting escape pod. Press the blue button just behind the canopy, and the whole cockpit gently disengages from the rest of the ship to take Batman to safety incase of someone with a really, really long pistol.

I also enjoyed the little flaps and panels that can be lifted and lowered, and the attention to detail. There are also some really great parts here, including engine intakes, and jet-parts, you could use this set (or combine it with others) to make some really sweet looking custom vehicles.

I'm digging this set, and it's so far, my favorite. I am even more excited now for the Bat cave, and Joker's Chemical Plant. Some people are saying they just want to buy the figures, and as far as having to use a plan B, I think we're pretty lucky. The playsets are well thought out and well executed. The addition of a traditional Batsuit to accompany the more imaginative Batmen is a great way to support the fans.

For the future
I had an impulse the other day. It would be great if they could release a four or five pack of minifigures that were simply goons, henchmen, victims, damsels etc. Think army-builder sets. I would buy a few.

Stay tuned for more Batmania during MillionairePlayboy.com's Bat-Week. We will have something new all week long!

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