Batcave In Progress (Part One)

There are quintessential playsets in the life of every action figure enthusiast. There are the playsets from childhood, those that fulfill every aspect of your fascination with a particular franchise. And then there are the playsets that don't live up to the promise of the idea. To me, the Batcave was one such playset. And believe me, over the years I have collected every single iteration. In the end, they are never large enough, never durable enough, never ... well, cave-ey enough. But never has there been a playset that encompassed everything that was the Batcave. After the SHIELD plane set and the Iron Man Hall of Armors, I decided it was unfair to give Marvel so many perks.  

I started out with a basic layout. I wanted this thing to be huge, but accessible. And most of all, I wanted a cave. Accounting for a massive ceiling, I built this upper platform first as a test.

The most important part of the Batcave is the computer. Besides for parking, the cave serves as a nerve center for Batman's operations. It needed to be central and yet in the dark. With the multi-tiered layout, it seemed to work perfectly.

Building from the top down helped with the over-all cave-like appearance. The tubes are there for support. If you excavate a cave to fit a crime fighting arsenal inside, you're going to need reinforcing structures to handle the 8 tons of jump-jet you plan on landing in a hurry.

As for the computer itself, the setup is pretty fun. I've always been partial to the many-monitors approach to the batcomputer.

If you don't mind the two that are sideways, its an overall effective display. Still needs keyboards. And scanners and tech... more to come.

 Of course you need the spiral steps into the next tier. (rock carving attempt to the right)

 Finally you see the different tiers, building from the top down to ensure that everything can be easily reached and interacted with.

Here you see the addition of the spiral steps up to the right the access Wayne Manor (Not included)
And you can see the water features there in the center.

Before construction could begin on the ground level, I had to ensure that there was ample space for a certain mechanical dinosaur, giant penny and giant joker playing card. So there it is! Something of a 3-dimensional test for what I wanted to do. Far from finished, this is a good foundation.

More in Part 2 ...