by Alex Kunce

Since I was very young, I have loved LEGO. As a fairly creative person, I enjoyed and continue to enjoy every singular piece of virtually indestructible plastic that collectively make up the incredibly diverse world of LEGO’s highly sophisticated interlocking brick system.

I’m also a big Batman fan, and the surrounding worlds of the DC Universe. I love to write stories about my own superheroes, but sometimes I wish I could work for DC and create Batman and The Flash comic books, too.

From both of these interests, I have a LEGO MOC (My Own Creation) to join them together. Out of the pieces of some deconstructed kits (a lot from the 2010 Hogwarts castle) I have built something the DC Comics licensed LEGO theme has never made before. So, may I present…Wayne Island!

I am exceedingly happy with what I have done here: from the highest peaks of the ornamented rooftops, to the vast cave system below that conceals a surprising secret, to everything in between like the rocky cliffside, estate grounds, and bridge onto the isle. I worked really hard on this whole thing, spending careful hours on every detail, so I hope that you enjoy and appreciate my time and effort! I want to take you through each part of this project and beyond, showing you my construction. I will let you view a little bit of my process, what it took to build this, and some cool techniques that you can learn from. Let’s begin!

Part 1: The exterior

In the exterior, I felt rather free to flow with the design and utilize the pieces that I had handy. In the end, it came out a primarily tannish color like that of the 2005 Batman Begins manor, but the architecture style, particularly the roof, seems to fit better with the 1989 depiction. I’m also a player of the various LEGO Batman video games, which have similarities in places. When I was constructing it, I started with the manor part, and then suspended it over the baseplates so that I could fill in the stoney cliffs of the island.

On the bridge, I built the long, light tan pathway, stuck it out from the manor construction, and then added pillars in the middle. From there, similar to the house, I built the rocks around it. It seemed pretty simple in that way, with a little bit of time and effort in actually putting the terrain together. Unfortunately, the basic car I constructed to drive down the road has tires that are just, seriously, a 1/4 inch too big to go on it correctly. (I probably should have measured better.)

The bridge leads into the shiny black door on the extended middle section of the house. Originally I had the same door in white, but after I began to add the roof it just didn’t stand out enough. I changed it to black to better match the roof color, and to contrast against the lighter tan. Above it is a window to the bedroom, which looks out over Gotham River and the driveway. The corners between the notched out part and the farther back parts are decorated with pillars, which I actually used because I was running short on tan bricks. I think that in the end, though, it added something interesting and broke up the otherwise flatness of the walls. There are also more windows, which help with the flatness too, on either side of the bumped-out bit. The whole bottom is covered with leaves, which I’m using as vines and ivy, to add some natural green to the build.

The center part of the building edges forward from the hallways on the left and right, heading to the West and East wings. They are pretty plain, but that helps them drop into the background and let the middle and side parts be more in focus. The roof of that part isn’t there; it is flat like that of the 2005 Wayne Manor, but adorned on the top with a little bit of gold in a crenelation style (a crenelation is the up-and-down part archers shoot out of in traditional castles). The bottoms, to conform, are covered with tree leaf pieces, too.

On either side, I added octagonal wings for additional space. One of these houses something secret; I’ll tell you more later! They have the brick pattern decals that came with Hogwarts castle, so they don’t match perfectly, but it does bring in a little bit of the texture on the regular bricks that is lost on the flat piece. These also bear windows, which match those in the middle of the building. The whole of the build has the dark stone gray plates that are used as flooring inside sticking out on the outside; I could have used pillars inside and built the wall independently, but I wanted to make this building structurally sound, so I decided against it.

The rocky base was rather simple; I grabbed a load of gray bricks and started building. I made sure to vary it a little bit, and make it incline inward as most rock formations tend to do. At the bottom, I added some greenish pieces to look a bit like sea foam or algae—some sort of ocean vegetation—to add color. I also added this to make the curve into the water a little more gentle, while still letting the rocks plunge straight down as they might in real life. I could have added depth with a variant tone, or texturized with another color, but I chose to let it have one color so that it would bring the manor out from the background. I also put in some greenery with the leaves, so that it wouldn’t be entirely monochromatic gray.

I also added additional details to tie into the Batman lore. I made a little cliff with an old broken well like from Batman Begins where Bruce fell in as a child (above right). This is also connected to the inside of the rocks, because of what will be found in there…. I also made a little shack on the side of the cliff, where Gerald Crane (The Scarecrow’s father) performed his experiments in a fan fiction story I made up (above left). I thought it would be fun to add that. The building is made out of extra brown pieces, and, yes, some of them are broken. But only ones that were snapped accidentally, not on purpose, as I know some people (including me) don’t like harming pieces in such a way. I thought I would use these, since they were damaged anyway, to build the house. And I have a shark to fight in the waters beneath the island; Alfred will have to use some Spray-On Bat-Shark Repellent (from the classic 1966 series). The butler gets all the hard jobs. I actually really like how it came out in the end, despite that I feel it’s a little close to the manor and a little big for the scale I wanted. I liked it especially because of the techniques I used, which you don’t often see in regular LEGO buildings, like putting pieces crookedly or not attaching them all the way to give it a disheveled look. Around the side, you can see an array of pipes heading out of it, which held fear gas, down into the cave system.

On the right side, I added a little more of the rocky cliffside to hide an additional part where I put the battery pack. I’ll tell you more about that later. This is a little stuck-out and doesn’t seem to flow quite as well as the rest. But I did my best, and it’s acceptable for now. Maybe I’ll come back and tinker with this later.

Part 2: The Manor

The manor…. So much of the time went into the construction of this! I have poured over the interior for hours, meticulously balancing out the shapes and the colors and adding details where I could. Being one of my largest projects, I learned a lot about interior designing at a big scale. I went for a very fancy, expensive look, both bringing in dark wood colors, the tan stone from the outside, and plenty of shiny gold (because Bruce doesn’t have anything else to spend his fortune on).

Welcome inside! This is the entry hall, where all of the manor’s guests can…enter. This first room is a little dark and cramped, because of various things, so it isn’t my favorite in the house. First off, the stairs shadow the doorway, which isn’t ideal, but they wouldn’t fit anywhere else. Also, the dining table is a little oversized, but I wanted everyone to be able to actually sit at it. I know, the dining room table wouldn’t normally go right where you walk in the door, but I’m working with the space I have. Otherwise, I think it turned out well. The fancy wooden tabletop is covered in food and drinks, and the staircase provides an inviting passage into the upstairs. I couldn’t help it; I did hide a table behind the stairs, where no one can see, with a skeleton head on it.

To your left sits the kitchen. Along the short hallway is a small table laden with trophies (yay, gold!) before you reach the manor cooking space. The floor is covered with black and white tiles, since that added to the kitchen feeling. Since they were raised up a little, though, I needed to substitute some of the plates with studs for smooth ones so that the doors and drawers would open properly. I had fun designing the little food-related items on the nice, white countertops; I have salt, pepper, a ton of fancy cups and dishes, and a fire extinguisher, just in case Alfred’s Lobster Thermidor becomes Lobster Flambé, haha. The wraparound counter provides lots of room for this. I made sure to include as much kitchen-like stuff in the space as I could: a sink, an oven, a stove, and some cabinets. I couldn’t fit a fridge, however, so Bruce will have to call up Mr. Freeze if he wants something cold. Hey, or maybe the fridge is on the other side of the kitchen, the one that’s cut away to see the interior. This is a trick LEGO, among other playset makers, uses a lot, removing the back wall so that the inside is available to use.

On the right, we can stroll over to the living room, with its flaming hearth and comfy chair. In the hallway in between, there is a nice micro piano. It’s not quite a proportionate size, but it looks nice. As we enter the room, you may notice the large fireplace against the back wall. It takes up a lot of space, but it really sets the tone for the room. There is a big chair across from it; I really liked the design, but another one wouldn’t fit in the house. I actually used a plain seat brick in the middle, because it contours to the minifigure frame, but I built bricks around it to bulk it up. It is not made out of stone, although it is the same color. Beside it is a short little drawer with a lamp on it. Things like this can fill space easily to add bulk to the room. After a while of looking at the room, I felt like the floor needed something interesting to fill it. I went with a little 2×4 rug, with a variation of browns, to give it some decoration. This is an important feature, because although other furniture is important, the rug can add that little bit of detail the center of the floor is missing. Paintings can work similarly for long, high-up stretches of wall, where furniture wouldn’t be tall enough to comfortably reach. If you notice the small space behind the translucent fire, I will get back to that in a minute.

Heading upstairs, we enter the master bedroom. Like the room below it, the staircase hogs some of the space; I tried to work around it, though. Yes, it is a little bit awkward that the stairs lead straight up into the bedroom, but I needed a large space, one that would only fit above the main room. The decoration, however, I think I got spot-on. The enormous bed is positioned above the place where the door protrudes, still giving it a large scale appearance but not filling the room too completely. The woodworking was difficult, but I did my best with it, and it really turned out. Beside it is a chest, filled with all sorts of stuff a wealthy mansion-owner requires, and on the other side is a little table with a golden goblet, ’cause, well, why not? In all seriousness, this one-stud deep table easily fills the minimal gap the staircase leaves, adding detail even in a tight spot. Like in the living room, I decorated the floor with a rug design I really like. I used dark red plates in the middle, but grill pieces on the edges to mimic tassels. Even though the lines actually go the opposite way of how tassels would protrude, it still adds the sense of lower opacity without using a glass-like transparent tile. In the corner I included a little table I built that I liked. I am honestly not quite sure what it is—it’s like a globe, or something—but the colors and shape fit the scene.

To the left we can stroll down to the bathroom, which every house needs. I chiseled a sink out of the stone in the wall, since I thought that would appear to fit the style, and constructed a toilet beside it. The toilet took some time to complete; I just couldn’t get the design right. I think it turned out in the end, though. I feel like the floor could have used some decoration, but I didn’t have the pieces to make the whole thing tile and I didn’t want to just throw in another rug, especially with one running down the hall beside it. In the hall, I also built another 1-stud deep table, which I put a candle on. I love building candles and torches, and this was one of my designs.

On the other side, you can head to the study, where Bruce Wayne does all of his most important work. I decided I needed a bookshelf somewhere in the house, so I built one and fit it into the hallway. I like the thick wooden look, and the orange crystal on top helps add some mystery, fanciness, and color. I also like the potted plant in the corner; the fronds are rather large and didn’t fit well anywhere but here, but I think this also helped integrate some colorfulness and nature. In the center of the room is a big wooden desk, which is simple in design but works well in the space. I wanted the tabletop to be nice and smooth, so I covered it with tiles and only used plates with studs beneath the things I stuck on top. On it is a local newspaper (the Daily Planet, perhaps?) and a coffee mug for long night hours at work. I dropped in a little brown chair, and most of the room was complete. In the back wall, I integrated some water damage, making the bricks dark tan instead of light. I don’t remember how much of this I made up and how much is true to the comics, but I determined that Bruce would break into part of the wall and inadvertently find Thomas Wayne’s (Bruce’s departed father’s) secret diary. There is, in fact, a book hidden within the space, and I made part of the wall detachable for access. The one piece of furniture I left, the grandfather clock, I will return to.

In the bedroom, I placed a ladder in the ceiling with a robot arm like a hanging chain. This is meant to simulate one of the ladders that drops down and allows access to the attic (and sometimes careens into someone’s waiting face). Up here, you’ll find a casual attic bedroom with a little bookcase on the leftmost wall, a mini-fridge with a pop can inside, and a black-and-red-checkered bed. I knew that Dick Grayson (Robin I) or Tim Drake (Robin III) would need a room somewhere, so I made a second bedroom for one of them. It took some work to construct the bed, finding all of the tiles and curved pieces of the right color, but I think it certainly looks nice. Removing the footboard and adding a casual checkered blanket helps to differentiate between it and Bruce’s fancy millionaire bed. Beside it is a small-scale nightstand with a little lamp I designed; it was hard at that size, but I think it adds a little something to the room’s environment. I would hope that one of Bruce’s wards would appreciate this space being built. (Alfred probably does not, because I didn’t build him a room, or even a bed to sleep on. Sorry, Alfred.)

This is a small detail, but in each of the pointed wings’ roofs, there was a little bit of room for something or other. In the end I just loaded it with extra junk: an extra dining room chair, a filing cabinet with a bunch of old papers, and the coat hanger that didn’t fit in the foyer. On the other side I put in a sort of workshop, with a few tools and bits that could be helpful in that area. I really just wanted them to be anything but empty, so I compiled some of the furniture designs that didn’t make the cut for the rest of the house. I do want to mention a few of the things I put on the roof. There was a touch of space outside on the roof area, and I knew I had to fill it with something. I put a black cat prowling around, something like a radiator (you sometimes see stuff like that on rooftops, I guess), and my favorite, a big air conditioner with fans on the front.

Finally, we descend back into the study. Spin the clock’s hands around to the time Bruce’s parents died, and suddenly, the grandfather clock shifts aside to reveal…A Bat-Pole‽

Part 3: The Batcave

Welcome…to the Batcave! It seems Bruce Wayne has been hiding something more than Lobster Thermidor in his house! Beneath, in the great caves lying under the surface grounds of Wayne Island, is the stupendous home of Batman, Gotham’s brave superheroic protector. This construction took a great deal of time to complete and the supporting was rather awkward, so I’ll take you through every part of it.

First off, as you slide down from the study on the Bat-Pole, there is a small landing. Instead of a generic staircase, I used a ladder with clipped-on plates swiveled horizontally. If you step down, you will find a few stretches of pathway heading around to each section of the interior.

Beneath the landing pad sits the forensic’s lab, which is riddled with details. I added a little table with a flask on it, and beside it is an equipping station loaded with batarangs and a zip-line grappler. Next to it is a canister of Spray-On Bat-Shark Repellent (from the classic 1966 series). If you round the corner you’ll find a large working desk with a bunch of colorful chemical flasks (of course—science!) and some other items. I installed a magnifying glass on a swiveling pedestal, that can articulate over the chemicals to, you know, see them better. I guess. Comic book science isn’t always the most realistic. Behind the desk I included a pair of tall lights, in a transparent blue color. Exactly what they do I’m not sure, but I felt I needed to add some trans-blue to this side of the building, and this design seemed the least awkward way to deliver.

Over here is the core of the Batcave, the Bat Computer. I built a bat-like swiveling chair and a control panel with a lot of buttons. I didn’t have hardly any futuristic computer-like tiles, but I did my best to cobble together one using what I had. I think it isn’t bad, in the end. On either side of the computer are the super suits for Batman and Robin, which are lit up by the lights in the ceiling to give them an on-display appearance. I also stuck in a little batarang holder in the front of the area, because, why not. Batman likes his batarangs.

On its left lies another section of the cave, with a lot of the technical items. As you enter, you’re met with a stand holding a breathing apparatus, in case some toxic gas ever crosses Batman’s path, a medical desk, with some syringes and medicines to heal wounds, and even a water cooler. It has cool pipes and dials and valves, and it’s trans-blue. What’s not to like? I built in some supports, as you can see in the background and on either side of the center section, to hold up the manor build sturdily. They seem to work fine structurally, and they still fit with the building style. As we move leftward, you will see Batman’s trophy area. Here I included all of the famous Batcave trophies: the Animatronic Dinosaur, the Giant Penny (which is smallish but still larger than a normal penny), and the Joker Card. I also threw in some villain references, such as The Mad Hatter’s Hat (The Mad Hatter is one of Batman’s villains, based off of the one from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) and Lex Luthor’s Kryptonite Ring, which Batman keeps should Superman ever go bad (true story). If you noticed the big chunk in front of the building, it’s the power generator. I actually have a bigger power generator in the Batcave, but this is just the switch turning the power on and off. I believe I disguised it pretty well, and the switch will actually power on the four built-in lights fixed to the ceiling.

If you head up the stairs to the left, I have built a small-scale sparring arena (with a second, matching water cooler), complete with a weaponry rack and a kendo mask. This is an interesting addition, but it is really just a creative way to cover up the battery pack I put underneath. The pack powers the lights above, and while it’s a touch out-of-place, it was necessary to complete the look. It took some work to cover the exterior, but I did my best.

Overall, the batcave is a large space providing plenty of room for Batman’s superhero needs. The interior was limited to the space between the rocks, and it would be too hard to make it immensely scaled vertically. Some depictions of the iconic cave have the space descending far into a chasmic ravine, having lots of stacked platforms. I tried to mimic this with the battery pack area and the elevator exit, while still conforming to the height restrictions. Most of the cave fills in a darkened background to the floor and decorations, but on the sides they become more prominent. On these, I made sure to detail them sharply and keep them nicely shaped, even if they are mostly for suiting my structural needs. On the ceiling I attached some stalactites of varying sizes with green-tipped ends to add a little bit of “cave” to the middle of the area.

In the end, I think the whole structure turned out incredibly cool. This might just be the best MOC I have ever designed and followed through with building. Doing it was super fun, and an excellent way to relax and pick over the details to improve them. And I am very excited to play in the large interior with all of my custom superheroes, villains, and supporting characters, and to (possibly) shoot a comic book, made out of pictures of positioned minifigs, inside the walls. Thank you so much for coming along on my documented journey throughout my building of this! And I hope that, along with letting me blabber about my LEGO Wayne Island, you learned some valuable LEGO design tips & tricks from a somewhat experienced builder. Thank you, and happy building!

Da-da-da Daa Da. Da-da-da Daa Da DUM!