The debate is animated within the various communities which try to guess what will be made of the second wave of DC sets for 2012. We already know the DC sets of the first wave and they are based on the comics, and largely inspired by the 2006/2008 Batman line.

Many believe that this second wave will be based on the upcoming July 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises. Personally I am not convinced: LEGO made no mention of the film in its press release as was the case for The Avengers about the Marvel range.

But let's admit that's the case, then we should be able to get a few vehicles from the movie, like this (s) Tumbler(s) with a nice camouflage effect seen on the set or the batwing frankly nice design. A Tumbler in Tan and Dark Brown, why not after all ..... It also seems that the scenario of the film incorporates a story of stolen technology allowing Batman's enemies to reproduce chain Tumblers to better destroy Gotham City .. ..

And all this without counting the batpod of Catwoman who, it must be admitted, really has something to end up in a LEGO set with her forms .... I digress, but it will take a lot of imagination to make a Catwoman minifig fit coherently on this batpod...

Make no mistake, I would of course be delighted to be able to afford these machines without having to spend a few hundred euros on bricklink to invest in 2008 sets like the 7888 The Tumbler: Joker's Ice Cream Surprise which is sold over 400 € in MISB ....

I would be happy with a set of the type Tumbler chase with an Tumbler black one Camo Tumbler, Batman, Bane and some extras .....

You have to put back this photo on which I just spent long minutes trying to recognize each character and which dates from 2010 in its context: Julian Fong alias levork created all of these minifigs long before LEGO announced the Superheroes range .... 

Aquaman, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Red Arrow, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash and many more are gathered here in a family photo that we would love to be able to do soon with the official LEGO minifigs. But let's not dream too much, the Superheroes range is not going to be so exhaustive ....

To learn more about these minifigs and their design, visit levork's flickr gallery, you will learn a lot about these creations that have inspired many fans to in turn create custom versions of the most famous heroes of the DC Comics universe.

Special mention for the version below of SuperGirl, cousin of Superman ...

I may alienate some of you, but I have to write this article. You probably already know, MegaBrands has had the Marvel license since 2004 in its range. Mega Blocks. I would not launch the debate here on the quality of the range Mega Blocks but I would venture on the other hand to a comparison between two ranges of direct competitors.

The Marvel range at the direct competitor of LEGO is clearly oriented towards mini sets sold at an affordable price and composed of either a minifigure and a vehicle (Marvel build vehicle) , is several miniatures from different factions and various and varied gear or backgrounds. There are also characters sold blind and individually in a bag under the name Marvel Character Building, on the same principle as what we know with the series of collectible LEGO minifigs.

LEGO arrives in 2012 in this Marvel niche and will have to consider what its competitors are doing. Today, an original idea is quickly taken up or even plagiarized outright: Playmobil has just been released a range of characters to collect whose bag is strangely similar to that of the LEGO range.

LEGO will he mind the aging license of Mega Blocks for its Marvel Superheroes range? I think so, to a certain extent. Yes Mega Blocks is very poorly distributed in France, even in Europe, we must not forget that the brand is a hit in the United States and Canada. LEGO must take this into account and offer affordable products to those countries where the culture of superheroes far exceeds that of other licenses, Star Wars included. 

Will we see characters sold in sachets? Mini sets with a single character and a vehicle? I think so if the license lasts beyond the first year of operation. The sale of super heroes in sachets would make it possible to offer a very wide range of characters from the Marvel team, which has several hundred of them, beyond the most famous. Vehicles are also a good way to offer small sets at competitive prices. If we look beyond traditional and historical comics and are interested in cartoons for example, each super hero has his motorcycle, his flying machine, his car, his jetpack or his jet-ski ...

With the arrival of Disney at the helm, the Marvel license should take, in the opinion of all specialists, a turn even more general public than what we know and generate a cohort of derivative products intended for the youngest who do not. weren't necessarily the intended audience for the original comics. LEGO, like all manufacturers holding this license, will have to follow suit and meet market expectations. After all, who predicted that LEGO would launch a Star Wars range based on mini planets resembling a pokeball?

Still in the series: We are given names of sets but we do not really know what they will contain ..., The Marvel range planned for 2012 offers us the set 6868 bearing the extremely mysterious name of: Hulk's Helicarrier Breakout translated by Amazon in French by: The Hulk's Helicarrier Escape.... And there, I think Amazon made a big mistake while translating the name of this set.

Indeed, the Helicarrier is a very well known machine in the world of the Avengers and SHIELD It is a species of flying aircraft carrier (and helicopters) built among others by Tony Stark and declined like the Quinjet in multiple variants (8 in total) over the various comic book publications.

SHIELD headquarters, the Helicarrier, originally slated to make an appearance in Iron Man 2, will play a role in the upcoming film The Avengers as evidenced by these artworks which were published on many sites then hastily removed and these informations about a scene in the film whose script would have filtered.
This script describes the dialogues of a scene in which the visibly pissed off Hulk and Black Widow struggle to get out of trouble aboard the Helicarrier which comes under attack. In the same scene, Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Captain America make their way through the debris-strewn hallways towards the engine room.

You see what I mean ? A playset with a hallway, a machine room, 4 minifigs .... Or not. 

Despite everything, there remains the possibility that the Hulk will escape with his acolytes in a helicopter, which would give us a flying machine in this set which should still contain several super heroes.

It's hard to draw conclusions based on so little evidence, but one thing is certain, these sets will reveal a lot of the film's elements if released before the official release, which I doubt.

On the other hand, the inevitable stolen photos which will undoubtedly be found on the Internet within a few weeks will certainly deliver slices of scenario.

In the expected list for 2012 of sets of the LEGO Superheroes range based on the Marvel license is the reference 6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle. Presumably based on the film universe The Avengers whose release is scheduled for the month of May 2012, this set will therefore contain the famous Quinjet, the machine used by the Avengers to move.

Many versions have been proposed in various comics retracing the adventures of the Avengers. Designed by Black Panther's Wakanda Design Group, this craft was assigned to members of SHIELD and the Avengers. Tony Stark aka Iron Man was also in possession of three experimental copies of the most recent version of this device.

But if we consider that this set will be directly inspired by the film, then we must turn to these preliminary artworks to have a first idea of ​​the shape of this airplane equipped with Turbojet engines and capable of reaching Mach 2.1.

As usual with LEGO, we must base ourselves on the selling price of the set to try to guess the density of its content ... With a price of 83.30 € for 735 pieces, we are therefore entitled to expect a machine fairly detailed accompanied by 3 or 4 minifigs. As this is an aerial battle, we must also expect a priori another flying machine, that of the bad guys. Unless LEGO gives us the shot of the crash zone defended by the super heroes against the villains in Loki's pay: shooting photos of the film confirm that the Quinjet crashes in an urban environment. However, the word Aerial in the name of the set reassures me a little about this, but you never know ...

For information and for comparison with a flying machine we all know, the LEGO Star Wars set 9493 X-wing Starfighter is sold at 69.70 € for 560 pieces and 4 minifigs.