No Mr Freeze polybag. I guess that's coming at a later date.

I'd love to own just that car and some of those figures!

289.99€ on the french shop... :(

40 € more than the German price !!!!

Not live in the USA?

Spoke to the manager at my local Lego Store yesterday, and he said the Mr. Freeze polybag would be widely available as an April promo.

Another £200+ play set (excellent minifigs aside)...I can't see this selling particularly well. Too expensive (and wrong era) for kids and too ugly and piecemeal for display. One for the diehards and resellers I think.

Hm, the Belgian store shows it at 289,99, not 249...

Nice nostalgic set, but expensive, imho. Not sure I'll bite (I want the bat mobile though :))

Well over priced for a relatively poor set.
I'll just bricklink the bat mobile which is the stand out part of the set. Gotta have one of those.

@ Huw

Yes, more and more. If you look at the Ghostbusters set: Germany = € 249 - Belgium = € 299.
But there are more differences found, even for the lower priced sets like the Brick Bank (GE = € 149 | BE = € 169).

It's CHF299 in Switzerland. That's actually not too bad looking at the EUR prices.
Still, I'd better wait for that review before I buy this; I think it's cool, but also that it may just be a bit overpriced...

I am waiting for the Mr Freeze polybag promo...

There is a German review of this set on promobricks:
http://www.promobricks.de/review-lego-super-heroes-batman-tv-klassiker-bathoehle-76052/12883

Seems silly to not give Early VIPs the Mr Freeze Poly. What is the point of VIP early perks if waiting a month is a much better reward?

Also € 289.99 in the Netherlands, I'll pass. I would have loved this set if it had been just the car, most of the minifigs and maybe a small vignette of the office with the red phone and hinged bust. I don't like the rest of the set and definitely don't like the price.

The price differences are insane for a set that is already overpriced for the cheaper regions... I complained many times at Lego and I always get the same crappy answer about market regions blah blah...

Wait two weeks for Double VIP points if you really want it

Price discrimination within the EU is currently being investigated by the EU. Basically, the argument goes, Lego should not be allowed to prevent people in the EU from buying from any of their EU online stores - so, those of us in Belgium should be able to purchase from their online German store, thus getting the cheaper price. Still a long way to run but I have high hopes it will result in more consistent pricing at the very least.

It looks better from the back than from the front... Still, the price qualifies it for die-hards only. It's about the same as Hoth "UCS" isn't it?

It almost feels like a test to see how far AFOLs are willing to pay. Even €250 is way too much. This is a €200 set to the most.

@merman: That's what I thought as well...

too expensive. i like only the minifig and the car

I might buy this in March but look forward to the review in the mean time.

@aleydita Good to know this practice actually has opposition. I am not sure how or if this is addressed by legislation, but it certainly doesn't sound fair on a moral level. I understand, that different markets have different pricing, but here in our geographically small Europe it shouldn't be this bad.

One thing springs to mind though - is it maybe possible that they are compensating for the shipping in other countries? At least for Czech Republic the sets are shipped from Germany (I assume this is where they save on German shipping and lower prices) and shipping is free on orders over 1400CZK. This wouldn't be the only case of prices reflecting free shipping.

@fred157 why would they ship from Germany? The Kladno plant in Czech Republic is one of the places where the bricks are packaged! And for instance the 40 euros difference between Germany and Belgium/Netherlands cannot solely be explained by transport costs (there are enough examples of German webshops that charge very little shipping costs to the Netherlands). TLG simply knows that people in some countries are willing to pay more than people in other countries and they use that. Would love to see EU legislation so that I can pay the German price, but my guess is that the price in some countries will also go up then.

In the Swedish store this is 2990SEK witch equals about €315 so way overpriced!

I was thinking I might get this if it was the only way to get the Mr Freeze polybag. I'm actually kind of relieved because now I can either buy the figs on bricklink, or pick up the set for less than the ripoff UK price when I go to Germany or the US later in the year.

I can't get it to be available to order through the US site. Just shows as available in March, even signed in with my VIP login. It looks though that you all are saying no poly bag. I'll wait in case you have to pay for the Batcave to get it. March brings double VIP points and tttwlam is saying April for polybag?

Seems early access is for folks who just have to have it NOW!

Just console yourself that however ridiculous the price in Euros may be in some markets, it will surely be worse in Aussie dollars.

Lego for me, are having a
very poor start to year; this set divided opinion, Hoth has been universally panned and now silly things like this. Why would you not release the Mr Freeze polybag for VIPs it makes no sense in rewarding loyal customers, they're just trying to fleece us for more money in April. Very poor Lego.

I also drove to Germany to buy Brick bank & Ghostbuster HQ due to the differences in price, unfortunately GB HQ was sold out :)
Luckily I can drive my car for free thanks to my employer...

Would be crazy to not do the same for this batman set, although not planning for the moment due to its steep price

Am I the only American who hasn't been able to order yet?

Woke up this morning with every intent to purchase but it wasn't showing available. After patiently refreshing the page over the last hour and making sure I was logged in, it now says "Pre-Order this and it will ship by March 1st." The hell? EDIT: Went ahead and pre-ordered. Is this standard for VIP Early access that it's considered a pre-order?

@Plymp It's true what @fred157 is saying. If you've ever placed an order on LEGO Shop @ Home and followed the Track and Trace link they provide you will see your package travel history. I have made about five orders last year and all were sent from Germany.

I'm at a loss to understand where Lego is going with its big flagship sets at the moment. I can't see how this set appeals to AFOL or children - it's ugly, badly designed, hugely overpriced, and relies on a brand (60s Batman) with very niche appeal. Who's seriously going to buy it? I'm only really into the construction/model Lego sets and there seems to have been a drop-off in the number of these during the last year, at the expense of these kind of £200+ "play sets", which I really can't see the appeal of for anyone (even as a kid I would have thought this sucked!).

Went in to the Lego Store in Leeds yesterday and the cashier chick mentioned this coming out today. Sadly I was buying the Ghostbusters Firehouse and that is far better value/more time consuming. Maybe one day. Might just pick up the batmobile and a few minifigs on ebay

Ridiculous that the Mr. Freeze promo is being held until April...I don't see the benefit of buying it now when you can wait a few months to get a free minifigure who, considering the overpriced nature of the set itself, frankly should have been included in the first place (along with Batgirl, let's be honest).

@aleydita Yes, the lego store should sell at the same price to every citizen of EU. If they want to justify the difference in the price they should bill it as shipping. That's customers' right.

More info here: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/price-discrimination/index_en.htm

^ This is a bit different case.

With all the comments about the price in various countries, I think it would be an interesting feature of Brickset to tabulate the prices of new sets in various countries together with a currency converter.

I know people have ordered sets from e.g. Amazon in different countries to get better prices but there seems to be such disparity in some cases that I bet there are instances where it would be less costly (except in time) to get a budget flight to another country, buy the set and fly back

p.s. I don't really have any interest in this set, but I would totally buy that Batmobile if it was a separate set

Well that's very cool :)

I don't know why anyone would buy it now when in less than three weeks there will be double points.

^ For the same reason people were paying $60 on eBay to get the new Batmobile for Christmas when it was released a week later on New Year's Day for $30. Impatience and the instant gratification culture.

US site says it's "Coming Soon on Mar 01 2016". Did you receive and email saying it was going to be available today?

Either way, we're several weeks away from purchasing.

Very strange, because clicking either the Canadian or USA link in this article takes me to the page, which says available now.

Just double-checked and clicking on the US, UK, or Canada links all say the same thing: "Coming Soon on Mar 01 2016". The UK and Canada links have additional text in red: "VIP Members: If you would like to purchase this set but don’t see the Add To Bag button below, please sign in to your account."

I have just realized the potential for the possible re-sale value for one of these,, or at least parts of it, in the future considering the above comments.

The degree to which it feels like Lego is losing the plot is worrying me. For a company which, up until last year could do no wrong in my eyes, they seem to be following a bizarre strategy this year. With the pricing of sets such as Batcave and Hoth I would say they are starting to take advantage of the AFOL market in an unsavoury way.....however I can't see them selling the units of such sets as they are so poorly conceived and designed...what is in the water in Billund at the moment?!!

The section between the den/bookcase area and the batpoles seems unnecessary. It looks like a lot of extra space just to make the set look bigger.

As much as I'd really like to have the batmobile and the figs (still a fan of the 60s TV series) the pricing on this is really outrageous, the Batman license must have cost them a fortune. In Australian Dollars -
2526 pieces, 9 minifigs - $400 as compared to GBHQ - 4634 pieces, 9 minifigs - $500, so that's only $100 for 2,100 pieces. For comparison, Brick Bank - 2380 pieces, 5 minifigs - $250 (same price ration as GBHQ)
At least our price isn't too bad and works out to around 250€

dstrohmeng, I believe that is just due to the length of the poles used. The alternative would be a new part, or have the poles sticking out of the roof.

I'm very relieved the Mr. Freeze poly won't be tied to this and will be readily available because I didn't really want this set but DID want to continue my Mr. Freeze figures collection as he's one of my favorite Batman villains.

It's a shame this isn't 3 sets, I'd have liked the Batmobile and can pass on the rest. I guess people didn't love the "really cool stickers" like they thought we would.

This was a set I really was looking forward to, and planed on buying it no matter what. Then seeing it and the price attached, the "no matter what" became just "what?"

Lots of negativity on the boards today. I agree with the price being a bit high, but that seems to be the Lego plan across the licensed sets these days. Is every element of this set mind blowing? Yes, no, depends. There was enough in it for me to feel good about hitting my local Lego store today to pick it up, and my oldest son (5) loved it when he saw it. But he's a huge DC villain fan, and had recently watched the movie that was produced during this era. I do wish I had known about the March double points before making the trip, but Lego is usually good about retro adding points, and I still have the GB Firehouse to pick up.

I also agree thta the two most recent UCS sets are not very attractive. There are many different lines and TLG may be drifting off course. But consider this before shouting doom:

The year started off great with Ghostbusters HQ and Brickbank. There are some really great Technic sets coming like the Porsche.

The prices in EU have always been different. Is indeed annoying but nothing new. The differences do seem to be getting higher but maybe that is because some sets lately have been very expensive.

For years it has been common practice that early VIP access hardly gave any freebies and that if you waited a coule of weeks you would get the promotion as well. It's just now there really is no anticipation for these 2 ucs sets so it rubs extra badly.

These 2 ucs sets represent risks for TLG as well which is a good thing. They are trying out new ideas rather than simply sticking to the tried and tested formulas like a big bulky display piece only (what most of us do like heh heh). But I am glad they are taking risks and doing fan service with obsolete licences like early batman sets. They did that with doctor who as well and that paid off. So what if these didn't. The market will do its work, as well as the lack of enthusiasm on these sites. We have all learned, TLG escpecially.

I think price is beside the point - the set just doesn't look good.

If this looked great on a shelf (with some play features too), and instantly captured the feel of the 60s Batcave, I think a whole pile more folks would buy it.

I also wonder why most rock formations look symmetrical. They could have at least put in some variation.

I bought this set yesterday because I have two batman fanatics at home. They recently started watching the old tv show and they laugh histerically because it's so ridiculous.

As for the set, the price is steep, and I still don't feel great about that. But after building it and seeing it in person, I am a huge fan. It was a really fun build that took me far longer than I expected. The minifigures are amazingly accurate, the bat mobile and bat copter (printed canopy) are two of the best batman vehicles produced so far, and the set fits together better than any of the promos indicated. I am plesently surprised by how much I like this set.

After getting an email today that specifically saying the set was available for purchase, I opened it on my phone (a different device than yesterday) and the page still says ""Coming Soon on Mar 01 2016". Something is very wrong with Lego's website.

@jdworley I find your comments very interesting, especially as you have the actual set and have built it. Some Lego sets do not look good in photos or on video's no matter what the resolution, and yet look great in real life. I am hoping for more reviews from people who have the set, so that I may form a rounded decision. So far I am leaning heavily to the no camp for this set, but that doesn't mean I won't change my mind.... :)