A Cave for a Cave

My entry in this year’s LEGO competition at S.W. Randall Toyes & Gifts won Third Prize in the adult division!

Predictably, the First and Second Place winners were models of local landmarks. Those are always popular. (These were nicely done: they didn’t win just because of the local angle. For that matter, I put a local spin of sorts on mine, too…though more tangentially.)

What was particularly cool about coming in third this year, though, was the prize: my entry was The Batcave (circa 1929), and third prize was Set 6860: The Batcave! Perfectly appropriate!

My old-timey Batcave was based on the idea that, after all, Bruce Wayne is insane. He’s an obsessed vigilante who hangs out in a cave. With bats.

Bruce Wayne broods in my LEGO Batcave.

Therefore…why would he care if his cave doesn’t have a floor? I envisioned an upside-down office, clinging bat-like to the roof of a vast bottomless cavern beneath Wayne Manor.

A top view of my LEGO Batcave, showing its bottomlessness.

He doesn’t need to lock his file cabinet: Batman’s about the only guy Ninja enough to reach it. (It’s on a swivel arm…but he’s got the only key to the controls.)

The hard-to-reach filing cabinet in my LEGO Batcave.

Anyway, I had a great time in the contest again this year! (If you voted for me, thanks!)

…apparently my model was even on TV! The contest got a fair amount of publicity from the local media this year, and here’s a clip (seen here on YouTube) from a TV news broadcast:

My entry is featured around 1:10 – 1:13. They got a beautiful close-up of brooding Bruce Wayne, expertly framing one of the model’s best angles. Woot! (And a good view of my Batmobile around 1:42 – 1:45.)

To commemorate my Third Place-ing, I built myself a little trophy using (mostly) parts from my prize:

A LEGO trophy made with Batcave parts.

While I was at it, I built myself a trophy for last year too, utilizing more new parts from set 6860:

A LEGO Trophy with a crystal cave theme.