When my daughter was about 2-years-old, on a trip to the local soft play centre a rather confused looking older boy asked me “Is she a boy or a girl?” about my daughter.
Resisting the urge to point out he’d already answered his question I simply replied “She’s a girl.”
“Why is she wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt then?” he retorted. Continue reading Superheroes are for Girls (and Boys)
My daughter recently declared that two of her favourite superheroes are Batman and Robin. As luck would have it, a few days later this was delivered.
We set to building it right away!
The first thing we noticed about this set is that it is almost like a series of LEGO play sets, which made it great fun to build and to play with.
The story behind ‘Jokerland’ appears to be an ordinary theme park has been taken over by the clown prince of crime and some of his villainous allies. Each of them has their own twisted theme park ride to torment our heroes.
The set has eight minifigs in total – Batman, Robin, Starfire, and Beast Boy are the heroes, while the villains are The Joker, plus his accomplices Harley Quinn, The Penguin, and Poison Ivy.
There are also a couple of bonus figures – a freaky clown robot and a penguin with some dynamite!
The Joker’s theme park is made up of these four main ‘attractions’:
My daughter and I construct these big sets in a few sessions, each one usually just one numbered of the bags these sets are divided into. That usually means we end a building session with only a part of the vehicle/set constructed.
While this set has over a thousand bricks, four of the six numbered bags contain one attraction each. We built a bag a session initially, so what was nice about this set was that each one ended with a finished attraction.
My daughter’s singing “I want to build the Batmobile! I want to build the Batmobile!” Oh, alright then 😊 #jokerland pic.twitter.com/sPE63Kah5b
— Man vs Pink (@ManVsPink) August 29, 2015
The exception is the Batmobile, which is two bags. We saved this one until the end as it was the most complex build.
A rainy bank holiday Monday morning – perfect LEGO building time 😊 pic.twitter.com/Y0Qfg1Hwri
— Man vs Pink (@ManVsPink) August 31, 2015
She’s only 3-years-old, and this set is recommended for 8-14, so it is pretty advanced for her age. But with a bit of guidance and encouragement (as well as patience!) from me, she eventually put together her very own Batmobile.
Overall, this set was a really fun build that was a great joint activity for us – especially on a rainy bank holiday Monday.
It has great playability when completed. Each attraction has interactive elements – The Jokerland slide into the Toxic Tank, as well as revolving eyes and tilting hat; Harley’s motorcycle launches down towards the flaming barrels; the Penguin’s Deadly Duckies turn; Poison Ivy’s ride falls suddenly to the ground when triggered; and there’s a cannon that fires cannonballs – or the Joker’s custard pie! Oh, and the Batmobile had spring loaded missiles too.
Jokerland’s also a playset – so it’s a great environment for children to create stories with the characters. We’ve had everything from Batman arriving to rescue Robin, to everyone enjoying a day trip to the theme park. Another big attraction for us was the number of female character minifigs included – even just one in a superhero set is a bonus, so getting three is fantastic. My daughter loves having more female characters to us with her LEGO.
“Everyone’s happy in Jokerland” stated my daughter. Not sure that was the Joker’s intention, but we’re very happy to have added this set to our LEGO collection.
Despite appearances :/
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This giveaway has now ended, but the LEGO Batman – Jokerland set (76035) can be purchased from Amazon.
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Disclaimer: While I was not paid to write this review, we did receive this LEGO set free of charge.
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