Column: Rumoured LEGO Arkham Asylum D2C needs to end the love affair with modulars
The biggest LEGO Arkham Asylum to date is rumoured to be on the way later this year, but if it wants to reach its full potential, it needs to break free from the cult of modular buildings.
Let’s get this out of the way first: I’m all in on modular buildings. I’m only missing three of the mainline sets, NINJAGO City is slowly taking over my entire house, and 76178 Daily Bugle is easily the best LEGO Marvel set in my collection. There’s absolutely a time and place for this format. But trying to cram everything into its relatively narrow template is a recipe for disaster.
It’s all about using the ingredients at hand in the right way. A museum can credibly be represented across a 32×48 baseplate, because you do occasionally see museums sandwiched between other buildings. Skyscrapers don’t always butt up against their neighbours, but the Daily Bugle compensates for that with a slightly smaller footprint within its 32×32 baseplate.
But things start to go wrong when you take a building that ought to stand alone and try to shrink it down into this preconceived and rigid template, regardless of whether it’s actually appropriate for a given location. If you’ve been paying attention to LEGO Marvel for any period of time, you already know I’m talking about 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion.
Here is a building that in pretty much every comic, TV show and movie adaptation of the X-Men sits alone on acres of land. It’s a safe haven away from the prying eyes of society for mutants who are only just beginning to understand their powers, and who may feel like outcasts or disconnected from their peers. It isn’t bunched up against the Sanctum Sanctorum and a jazz club.
But that’s exactly what 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion delivers, crunching this sprawling location down to a 32×48 footprint and hemming it into the same modular format as the previous three LEGO Marvel flagship buildings. The result is a cramped design that’s fallen victim to difficult decisions around what to keep and what to cut, while begrudgingly hooking itself to the tropes of a tiled-off pavement and a dumpster around the back alley. In what universe should Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters even have a back alley? (Okay, probably one of them – there’s an entire multiverse out there, after all.)
There is another universe, however, where 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion was brave enough to bend away from the modular format. Designer Justin Ramsden said last year that the model was originally ‘going to be this tan building and it was going to live by itself’, without even a baseplate in the box. But the reaction to 76178 Daily Bugle apparently convinced the team to try it out as a modular building, and the rest is history.
The story gets a little more convoluted when you consider that a preliminary image of the X-Mansion was floating around the internet in early 2023, showcasing the version of the X-Mansion Justin references there. This photo was apparently part of a confidential survey asking consumers for feedback on proposed designs. It’s not entirely out of the question that the feedback to the X-Mansion was to make it modular.
The LEGO Group will probably never tell us either way, but given the non-modular design was on the table as late as 2023 – long after 76178 Daily Bugle and 76218 Sanctum Sanctorum hit shelves – it’s not quite tin-foil-hat territory to say that the survey respondents may have helped to shape 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion into the finished set it is today.
What really matters here is that whether through internal decision-making processes or taking on board (or ignoring) consumer feedback, the LEGO Super Heroes team needs to be braver with 76300 Arkham Asylum, trusting that it can find an audience without following the modular format.
The superhero direct-to-consumer set is now rumoured to include 2,953 pieces for $299.99, a budget that easily unlocks the opportunity for the first modular building from DC. And there’s scope for that possibility within iconic buildings from the wider DC universe – the Daily Planet, Gotham City Police Department and so on – but it shouldn’t be with Arkham Asylum.
Like the X-Mansion, Arkham Asylum is a building that should 100% stand alone in a wider LEGO city layout rather than being compressed into the modular building template. The source material makes that obvious enough, but perhaps even more so than the X-Mansion there’s a narrative justification here to Arkham Asylum standing independently.
This is an institution for Gotham’s criminally insane. From a certain point of view, Arkham serves the same purpose as the X-Mansion, only with the reverse motivation: rather than keeping its superpowered characters safe from society, it’s keeping society safe from its superpowered characters. Minifigures of Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Riddler and the rest of the Rogues Gallery seem pretty much nailed on.
Now just imagine locking up those notorious villains next door to a British pub or a boutique hotel. It’s not a credible representation of Arkham Asylum, which absolutely should not have street-level access through a front door. There’s just no conceivable way to make this work as a modular building without completely sacrificing authenticity at the altar of adherence to a wider standard.
I wouldn’t really need to say any of this if 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion hadn’t already taught us that the LEGO Super Heroes team is willing to play fast and loose with its source material to box its builds into a specific format, whether through their own choices or under duress from fan feedback. And of course, if Arkham Asylum really is on the way in September it’s probably locked in by now.
But if and when it is revealed (and remember as a rumour it shouldn’t be treated as gospel until officially confirmed by the LEGO Group), I’ll think back to this moment. Here’s hoping it’s with a sense of relief rather than disappointment…
LEGO DC sets confirmed and rumoured for 2025
| LEGO set | Price | Pieces | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 76300 Arkham Asylum | $299.99 | 2,953 | September 9, 2025 |
| 76301 Batman & Batmobile vs. Mr. Freeze | £17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99 | 63 | January 1, 2025 |
| 76302 Superman Mech vs. Lex Luthor | £12.99 / $14.99 / €14.99 | 120 | January 1, 2025 |
| 76303 Batman Tumbler vs. Two-Face & The Joker | £54.99 / $59.99 / €59.99 | 429 | January 1, 2025 |
| 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile | $99.99 | 909 | Summer 2025 |
Featured image: DC Comics
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