One of the lies I tell myself is that I don’t buy Lego that doesn’t contribute to building. But if you’re a few dollars off the free shipping on the Lego Store online, and you need a torch keyring for your fuel cap key anyway….
And don’t be saying I have a thing for Barbara Gordon Batgirl either.
Brickheadz are collectable po
p-culture characters along the lines of the very popular Funko vinyl figures. They have disproportionally large heads – presumably this is a psychological hook into humans’ sensitivity to faces as well as the cute factor of baby animals’ heads being oddly large.
There were a few incarnations of Batgirl in the DC comics, but the original and most instantly recognisable is Barbara Gordon. Her defining characteristics were her confident stance, intelligence, resourcefulness, red hair, dark purple costume with yellow utility belt and cape. She rescued Batman and Robin as much as they rescued her. And if I’m thinking of the 60’s TV series (and I definitely am – she was created for the TV series and made it into comics later), much of her crime fighting oomph was kicking henchmen in the head. She was deliberately written to be a figure of female empowerment at the time as well as having obvious male appeal.
This “Brickheadz” captures many of those defining characteristics, and with that red ponytail and purple suit she’s instantly recognisable.
When this line of collectables was announced, I wasn’t a big fan. I can see the appeal of pop-culture collectables, but personally I’m immune to them. The trade-off of ‘uncluttered house’ to ‘physical item I have an emotional attachment to based on experiencing it through media’ is one that doesn’t usually work for me. Additionally, I have some sort of (unjustifiable) feeling that LEGO is a toy company, and should be making toys for kids – and the Brickheadz, that are so obviously intended for display rather than play, don’t fit into this.
However I absolutely give TLG a free pass for these based on:
Even though I suspect the building experience is not the main reason someone would buy this set, it was interesting to me to see how it was put together. I imagine the internal build of all the Brickheadz (hate that name) are similar. Also, “Holy SNOT elements Batman!” The inside of the head is built up from fourteen 22885 Brick 1x2x1 2/3 with 4 knobs.
One design decision I’m not a fan of is the 2×4 printed tile that shows a stylised headz (yeah, I went there) and the series number that sits at the feet of the figure. a) it looks stupid, and b) because of the size of the tile, the figure has to stand in the back half of the 4×6 plate stand instead of the middle. That’s already not great, but then the Batgirl’s cape and ponytail move her centre of gravity to the back edge of her feet, so she falls over all the time. Nothing in her canon suggests she should fall over easily. One assumes this is part of the marketing to the collectables crowd. They should have made do with a 1×4 and stood the figures in the middle of the plate.
I did appreciate the printing of the bat symbol onto a brick rather than a sticker, and the ponytail is great – suggestive of some movement. I’m not sure why she doesn’t get a utility belt when Batman does. I guess it’s the age old problem of clothes designers not letting girls have pockets.
Beam 'n' Pin 
