Set #70908 The Scuttler: This was one of the first releases from The LEGO Batman Movie or LEGO The Batman Movie, or however you’d care to say it. It’s also a set that is Retiring or has been Retired and is now quite difficult to find. The large draw of this set is the inclusion of Poison Ivy in her TLBM design, the rest of the characters included here are relatively common though Barbara and Commission Gordon are both unique to this set in the prints and bodies represented here.

Box/Instructions

Box: This box is huge and carries the same design and colour aesthetics as found in the rest of The LEGO Batman Movie boxes. It’s quite large though and actually has a bit more empty space than I expected.

Instructions: The manual and sticker sheet are protected from creases by being included in its own tightly enveloping plastic bag, the manual is thick enough that it does not require cardboard backing, so even though it was bent in the box it did not remain so once I pulled it out. A very sturdy manual paper stock.

Parts

You will find a lot of common black and gray parts in this set, but there are also a few unique pieces, such as the gear based tiles used for the large leg extending feature, a black Astromech dome piece for an R5 droid, multiple brown and green vine elements and the half-sized plate which looks like half of a hexagon shape or oval, not entirely round unfortunately.

Minifigures

Barbara Gordon: With limited printing on the legs, Barbara has no real detailing on her torso unless she’s wearing the SWAT vest first introduced in The LEGO Movie theme. She has dual-molded arms, but again the torso is completely plain with no detailing, which means you could use the parts for somebody else, but removing her vest means she’s going to be rather plain standing next to the other more highly detailed figures.

Her head features two expressions, happy and angry at being interrupted by The Joker and Ivy. She has no hand-held accessories.

Batman: This figure is pretty much identical to other releases from other sets in the Theme. I believe his head may feature unique expressions, though I'm not 100% sure on that, still he’s the titular hero so having him absent from the set wouldn’t make much sense.

Commissioner Gordon: Dressed in his best uniform to receive his reward for retiring, Commissioner Gordon has a double-sided face with a happy and angry expression and is holding the LEGO pistol accessory from the Western theme, he also has some nice side-arm printing for further detailing and fits in quite nicely with the rest of the GCPD figures from the line.

Dick Grayson: Dressed in his tuxedo, Dick looks quite nice with some very good printing on his face and torso, his legs have no printing to speak of, but that’s ok. He has a new necktie accessory, but nothing for him to hold in his hand.

Poison Ivy: Here is the main draw for the set, at least for me. Poison Ivy has a very intricately detailed print showing off her unique new look from this version of the character, she includes a lower soft-goods skirt piece which compliments her leg printing quite nicely and a gorgeous new hair piece with a lot of personality and detail.

Her face features two expressions, one for smooching and one for taunting her enemies. Her accessories are limited to vine pieces, but these look fine and work out perfectly. Overall a great looking villain character and the only way to get her in this look.

The Joker: All of his parts are shared with fellow releases from the wave, he even includes a buildable gag gun with the little bang flag, which I think was also included in the Lowrider set for an accessory. He’s very nicely detailed and I do enjoy the purple outfit he’s wearing, but if you’ve already bought a lot of sets you’ll have an abundance of Joker and Batman in your collection.

The build

Bag 1: Batman and Dick Grayson leap to action as you begin constructing the bulk of the Scuttler’s main body. This build is relatively quick and easy, there are a few instances of stick application, but the rest is pure brick-built fun. Though you may question why some empty areas are left open, as I did, it’s for a purpose I assure you.

Bag 2: Commissioner Gordon must defend himself from Poison Ivy while you’re building more of the Scuttler’s main torso. Now those empty spaces get filled in with some Technic elements and everything makes sense, this build was very quick and fun as well adding further to the model’s main body. Additionally you get to build a little floating vine covered platform for Ivy to stand on, this little model is a quick and relatively easy build, but the bottom stand piece likes to pop off easily as you continue building, so perhaps leave that to be put on last to avoid having to constantly reattach it. Oh yes, and there was a lot of sticker placement on parts in this bag.

Bag 3: In this build Barbara faces off against Joker while construction of the left front leg is built, this was a relatively short build and focused a lot on making a solid looking portion of the model. What is interesting to note is that this bag did not include any of the typical spare pieces, no extra studs or technic axle pieces, very unusual for sets using the numbered bag approach as I will typically find at least a few spare parts in case of missing pieces.

Minor sticker application in this stage of the build, only a few compared to the large number found in bag 2. Joker’s large coat tails may also require some help in putting on properly.

Bag 4: The rear leg construction is handled entirely in this bag and there are no stickers to apply, there are also no spare parts aside from a single cheese slope, which makes me wonder why. The build is relatively simple and a bit repetitive, but it works and works pretty well.

Bag 5: Here’s the final front leg, or at least the first half of it. What I thought were the front legs are actually just the upper thigh portions of what would be considered legs on a four legged animal, The Scuttler being meant to represent a large mechanical bat, these would naturally be the limbs found attached to the wings. This build is a mirror of the one found in Bag #3, so you’ll find that there isn’t much different here. And yes, a sticker placement will take place, we’re almost finished with all the stickers on this set. Spare parts were actually found in this bag, at least for Technic pins, no spare studs, which I still find odd after years of seeing spare studs in every bag from a set.

Bag 6: The rest of the front leg assembly is built in this bag, it is a x2 situation where you are tasked with building both at the same time, get a friend and enjoy building the large wing-like claw dealies that The Scuttler has for front legs, again because Bat or Bat-Themed vehicles. Ahem, it’s a bit repetitive, but extremely satisfying and I do enjoy the design of the vehicle so building it is all kinds of fun. A few spare pieces this time, which is more in keeping with what LEGO typically does. Also a lot of stickers placed here.

Bag 7: The bat shaped cockpit is last, with a few minor additions to the front legs, the last of the stickers are used here and be sure to pay close attention to which plates go where as the angled plates must be put into place without any real issues. Once it’s all put together it’s a very solid little number, and again quite satisfying to build.

The completed model

The Scuttler: This vehicle is a massive mechanical bat, which I believe was built out of the parts from the Batwing at one point during the movie, although I could be wrong about that. The thing is very large, and comes with some very interesting elements, it also features some nice play features. There’s the usual stud shooters and an older net launcher for battle functionality and then there’s the very impressive looking walking function, you can angle the legs however you want for dynamic action poses and the front legs can extend outwards on top of the click hinged joints used for the shoulder joints.

There is definitely a lot of fun to be had here and I’m truly amazed at the creativity used in this vehicle build. Batman also gets a jet-pack style device which can be stored in the rear section of The Scuttler.

Overall opinion

Praising this set is definitely not hard, it features a lot of great play features for the younger crowd and the set in question is just all around brilliant. The Minifigures are mostly ok, the only real duplicates in this set are Batman and Joker, everybody else does not appear with these prints or in these outfits in any other set, so if you’re going for every Minifigure from the Theme you will definitely need to get them.

I am a huge fan of this set, The Scuttler is a very unique and impressive looking vehicle, I may have started out only interested in Poison Ivy, but the vehicle in question is stunning and unique compared to other DC based sets were we mostly find Batwings, Batplanes, Batboats, Batmobiles or Batcopters. I would strongly recommend finding one before it completely sells out, if you’re extremely lucky you may even find it on sale. Don’t pass this opportunity up, or you may just end up regretting it. Strongly recommended.

This set was and potentially still is a great one. I'll never forget opening this baby up for my 9th Christmas because, let's be honest here, Batman is just the best. This definitely isn't the best Lego Batman Movie set, but it's a decent contender as it offers a decent assortment of minifigs. It has some cool playability features and the extending front legs are just really cool. The sad thing is that 2017 was 7 years ago, so it's not exactly the latest Lego set. For $90+, you do pay a hefty price as it's far greater than the $70 I paid for it back in 2019 but hey, in my opinion, it's not that bad of an idea to buy it.

Personally, i love the idea of a giant bat-vehicle, it's original and refreshing, and the realization of this is very impressive. Although the enormous amount of stickers, the build itself is good. It took me about two and a half hours to build it, and in the end it's really big! It's really cool for displayability. The articulations are nice, the net-cannon is fine, and you also have 4 stud shooters pointed down to the ground. The jetpack is nice, although we've seen probably too many of this. The head, with posable ears and two more stud shooters, is really sweet. The minifigures are great, especially Poison Ivy with her roots. Also only here you can find Gordon and this elegant-suit Dick Grayson.

The problem start when you try to play with it. I think Batman designed it to take on massive numbers of enemies, because the pilot is well protected inside and there's a lot of firepower all against floor-level opponents, especially the net have a feel of taking down multiple opponents, in moments of dire need, just like in the movie scene during the party, when Bruce is suddenly surrounded by a swarm of villains. But a big, cumbersome walker which is just supposed to move slowly forward, that's a little boring in superheros world, were there's a lot of jets and fast and compact cars.

All in all the price is kinda good considering the amount of stuff you get, and the minifigs and the main vehicle himself are good, but playability is really low for me. It's more of a display piece rather than a fighting vehicle.

The reason I got this set was the lovely lady in green, so did the rest measure up?

Parts

None too notable here- there's some red and black and very very dark grey.

Minifigures

Batman- Standard fare for the line- it's the face and belt that make the figure.

Dick Grayson- He's a pretty neat figure. I love his hair/huge-glasses piece, and here, the lenses are "clear" for his civilian wear. The face underneath is usable, too, so it's a good design. He comes with the great new bow tie piece, and his outfit is a glittery suit in powder blue with a pink shirt underneath.

Barbara Gordon- She's a pretty plain figure, to be honest, but she's in SWAT gear, so it makes sense. She has a great new hairpiece in dark red and her facial expressions are good.

Commissioner James Gordon- He's a great figure, with his classic mustache and he's wearing an official police suit with medals and gloves. This may not be his regular "meeting-Batman" attire, but it's nice.

The Joker: I really like him. He's got a very animated charm to him in this film. His hair is a great new piece, being messy and vertically-oriented, and his face, with the huge mouth, messy makeup, and jagged teeth, is a lot of fun with both expressions. His suit is similar to previous versions, but he has a cloth piece representing ridiculously-long coattails- they really could be ridden! He's not exclusive, though.

Poison Ivy: Unquestionably the star of the set, especially since this is the only way to get this complete-costume version of her. She feels so elegant and refined and Ivy compared to versions past, and it's nice that we finally got a new one after four years. Her hair is new, with a swirly flowing shape, and has a white flower and leaves in it, and it's the red color of her previous version. Her face recalls Uma Thurman's Ivy with its winged makeup, and her expressions are just as misanthropic and cold as her character. Her outfit is also beautiful, with dark green tones and opera gloves, and she has a leafy skirt to go with it. I feel like there might be too much green, considering it's a bodysuit with a skirt, but I've tried to change her look and I do think the official design is the best.

The completed model

First to be built is a jetpack, which feels extraneous and confusing. If Batman pilots it, then who uses the Scuttler? And where does it come from?- it can't be stored anywhere. I do like that it's a standing one, so there's no need to take figures apart to use it.

Ivy gets a small vine platform, which also feels like filler, but at least she finally gets something to fight with.

The Scuttler itself is a very odd model, meant to look like a crawling bat. The main body is built, then the arms and legs are added. The majority of the back is a large engine compartment, but the windscreen piece that covers it leaves sizeable gaps in the vehicle, and there's a lot of wasted space inside. The arms in the front extend, but they look sloppy retracted, and the back legs feel too short. The problem is that the model is too heavy to be really sturdily supported on its legs, and it's hard to find a dynamic pose for it.

Oh, and there's a net launcher, but we all know how well those work.

Overall?

BrickLink Ivy. The model itself isn't interesting or well-designed enough to justify a purchase.