There’s now a full size, working Batmobile made out of LEGO. The latest video from Jake Laser and his team shows them putting together this feat of engineering. From a 2D rendering all the way through test driving it on a suburban street. No Batmobile would be complete without gadgets. Flames out the back and a missile launcher are a must. It also drops LEGO pieces on the ground so people have to walk over them barefoot. The ultimate weapon.
The chassis and engine are from a dune buggy. But the skin of the car is LEGO sheets laser cut into the right shape. Laser and his buddies took design aspects from different Batmobiles, including the iconic fins from the 1966 movie. There’s also blocky aspects from the Tumbler, which is apparently what Christian Bale’s Batmobile is called.
No engineering project comes without some sort of mistake. And Laser never shies away from sharing his false starts or missteps. In this one, he realizes he measured and cut dozens of pieces to be twice as large as they needed to be. There’s nothing for it other than to start over.
The early version includes LEGO bricks of many colors. But they decided to change that to all black (or very, very dark grey) to fit the Batman aesthetic. They added smoke bombs, which are apparently a thing you can just buy. All of the accessories were tested in a suburban backyard. What must the neighbors think? Then they took it out to the desert for some amazing shots.
The JLaservideo YouTube channel has other great pop culture builds like Thor’s hammer, Shuri’s silent sneakers, or Doc Ock’s tentacle arms. And from the sneak peek of what’s to come, looks like the team has some great content in the pipeline.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. Her favorite Batman is LEGO Batman. Melissa also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.