Review: 40203 Vampire and Bat
Posted by MeganL,
The seasonal sets this year, 40201 Valentine's Cupid Dog and 40202 Easter Chick, have been met with varying levels of enthusiasm so far.
Does the Halloween offering, 40203 Vampire and Bat, move things in the right direction?
The front of the box shows the vampire and his bat. It also has a stylized skull drawing to the right of the vampire, and some creepy looking spiders in the bottom left corner. All of the colours of the drawings are in purple, which complements the tie and cummerbund of the vampire. In what is unusual for a LEGO set, the sides of the box and background for the back of the box are also purple, and not the traditional LEGO yellow.
The back of the box shows closeups of the vampire and the bat, and one of the vignettes shows the vampire apparently whistling or singing. The box is one with the thumb tab opening. Inside are three unnumbered bags and a folded instruction booklet.
The bat is built first. The finished product is rather cute, even with the small white horns used as his fangs. At first I thought the wings were too large, but I think they're actually a representative size.
The lower part of the cape is built first. Purple is used in the lining of the cape more than what is seen on the pictures in the box art which I think is a nice touch. For the wrists/hands, dark grey ball joints are used. For once I won't complain about the colour of the ball joints since they fit with the monochromatic scheme of the build.
The legs are built next using the same pieces for the vampire's feet as for the bat's feet - perhaps this is not a coincidence? There's an interesting use of the sloped bricks for the legs, which on their own don't look quite right, but when inserted into the cape look much better.
The torso is finished with a ruffled vest and a nice use of a 2x4 wheel arch with a complementary 1x2 slope for the vampire's raised cowl. A last detail for the torso is the dark purple bow tie represented by two cheese slopes. The hands - or rather, white gloved hands - are 1x2 plates with three teeth. It's a very interesting choice but I think it works.
In building the head a 1x2 red tile is used, which I originally thought was filler. However at the end of the build you can barely see a touch of red inside the mouth, so the placement was purposeful. Next are placed two 1x1 plates with spikes which are intended to be fangs. This is the one part of the model I don't like - the fangs don't look right. Instead they look like exaggerated buck teeth, or perhaps a very spiky moustache. Putting the 1x2 ridge tile in grey to serve as the nose right above the fangs just adds to that impression.
Continuing up the face, we add the eyes, and I rather like the use of the small black horns for the eyebrows, though I am not a fan of the silver 1x1 plates with spikes for ears. (I wasn't aware that vampires typically had pointy ears; I thought they were reserved for elves and Vulcans.) The head is finished with the hair complete with a white streak.
Overall thoughts:
I like the intent behind the model - a vampire is a great add to a Halloween collection. The sparse use of colour makes a lot of sense, and being a big fan of purple, I'm happy to see it used as the accent colour. I wonder if another colour (such as red) would have made more sense for the accents. I love that the vampire is resplendent with a sweeping cape that has the accented colour as the lining. The choice of grey for the skin colour is right on. The bat is very cute.
However there are couple things about the model that are troublesome to me. The head is too big compared to the rest of the body. Just a brick height or two on each the torso and the legs would have made for a much more proportional model, while still keeping the 1x2 plate with spikes for the hands. Large heads aren't that unusual for these kinds of sets, so having it here isn't that surprising.
I love the detailing of the head, particularly the eyebrows, but wish that there was a better way to represent the fangs. There are limits to what the designer can do and I recognize this is a troublesome issue but a gap between the fangs would have been more appropriate.
For those who are fans of Halloween or purple, this is worth considering picking up. Otherwise, you may want to wait for the next seasonal.
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20 comments on this article
The musical notes on the back of the box are odd. To someone not familiar with LEGO, they would likely give the impression the model makes a sound of some sort.
I would say that the model looks much better in person than in most of the pictures that I have seen. While I agree that the proportions are off but remembering the ones from two years ago it seems to be a better representation of the subject. With that being said I really like it and am actually more excited for the pilgrim, even though it is a little creepy.
I think that the notes are to just make it seem as if he is whistling.
I wish they just stuck to doing little scenes, like last year, instead of these brick-build figures. :/
I want to talk about the new series of Holiday Builds, I think some of us think they are made for the sophisticated adult-wrong! They are aimed at kids to enjoy, the Dog, the Chick, now the Vampire and in November the Pilgrim sitting on a Pumpkin, and finally the Reindeer for December! I think they wanted to suggest he's whistling for his pet bat! My opinion!
I like this guy. He looks very cute and silly with his oversized fangs and expressive eyebrows. At $10 for 150 parts he's a very good value as well! Not necessarily planning to pick him up, though — I'm not a collector of the seasonal sets, and there are too many other themes I'm more interested in collecting for me to start getting sets like this on impulse.
It seems pretty clear to me that the vampire is whistling for his bat to return to him.
@MrMouth1117 and @kumasawa - I think you're absolutely right - he is whistling for his pet bat! I don't know why I didn't see it before. Thank you!
What would've made it better is if instead of black horns for the eyebrows, they were black sausages.
@Monkeyman3838: Black sausages, also known as black puddings. Which are made of... blood! Very appropriate.
I like him - mine has been delivered today. Not as good as last year´ s halloween vignette, but it´ s cute. And it will be the only of this year´ s seasonals, I am going to buy - just don´ t like the others.
It's a neat idea, and I'll buy it if I can find it. But I really wish the face were designed differently. He looks like he has nose fangs. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the top lip wasn't visible behind the fangs.
Pass.
@MrMouth1117 The age range for this is 7+. If it was specifically aimed for kids, it would be 7-12 or 7-14. I think your statement is correct, but I'm just saying. Also, if I was a kid, I would still prefer seasonal sets with minifigures over these, but that's just my opinion. ;)
I think this set is tremendous simply as a parts pack, it comes with tons of great parts: a great amount of slopes (tall, incl. inverted, some 45 deg. double convex, plus a host of other ones), corner bricks and plates of several varieties, other good slopes including 6 shoulder bricks, a number of SNOT plates and bricks, plus purple is always great to get.
That being said, we will enjoy the Vampire and Bat for the season too.
To me the vampire looks like a standing bunny more than a cool Dracula, maybe due to the big front teeth
The bat is nice though
I don't mind the fangs being close together - it makes him look like a Nosferatu-style vampire and they're generally depicted with pointy buck teeth. Like the effect of the purple/black/grey colourscheme, too!
I'm more excited for the creepy pilgrim than this guy, but last year's Halloween vignette set wasn't very good either (compared to the other seasons.) Halloween seems like such an easy holiday to make an awesome set. I don't get why it keeps getting half-arsed.
To me it looks like a mouse in a vampire costume.
I got it, like it, and think its a good deal for 10 bucks. Kids and wife think its cute, plus some good parts in there for after Halloween.