2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, which was ostensibly a soft-reboot of Tim Burton’s Batman universe that started with Batman (1989). To coincide with this anniversary, companies like McFarlane Toys and Sideshow Collectibles have released figures and vehicles to commemorate the film. The LEGO Group has also offered a tribute with set 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile, a version of the car that has quickly become one of my favorite on-screen Batmobiles.
Today, I’d like to survey the history of the Batman Forever Batmobile, namely its influences from prolific artist H.R. Giger, as well as some small changes I’ve made to the set for my own preferences and to better represent the alien look of what might be the coolest on-screen Batmobile to date.
The Biomechanical Batmobile and Its Influences
HR Giger, the Swiss artist known best for the Xenomorph from the Alien series, was approached to design the Batmobile for Batman Forever early in its production. It’s definitely in line with the rest of his work. This Batmobile has a very sinister and alien look to it. It’s strange mandibles built into the car would seemingly be used to catch villains on the streets of Gotham. The Bat-Tank from Arkham Knight has nothing on the fear factor of this monstrosity.
Fandom.com
It reminds me quite a bit of the Derelict, the ship the crew of the Nostromos explores at the beginning of Alien (1979). But is it a Batmobile? Not really, or at least I can’t see this thing driving through the streets of Gotham in a major blockbuster film.
Source: IMDB
The Batmobile we saw put to screen in Batman Forever was designed by Barbara Ling, a production designer recognized most recently for her work on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) with an Academy Award for Best Production Designer.
Though Giger’s concepts for the Batmobile were ultimately scrapped, his biomechanical design sensibilities can still be felt in Ling’s design, namely in the “ribcage” of the Batmobile with its exposed, glowing inner workings, and my favorite aspect of the Batmobile: the grill, which looks awfully like a Xenomorph grinning. It’s so weird and so cool.
Early concept model for the Forever Batmobile | Source: 1995Batman.com
Though criticisms have been levied against Ling’s Forever Batmobile (as well as the one featured in Batman and Robin as being too “toy-like” to sell merchandise), a visually distinct Batmobile, both in 1995 and today, was achieved. Arguably, no Batmobile since Ling’s work on-screen has so directly captured the heightened, gothic sensibilities of Batman through the sculpting and shaping of the car.
Mark Stafford’s Batmobile
Translating Ling’s Batmobile to LEGO could not have been an easy feat, given its distinct, biomechanical look. Prior to this new set 76304, it had never been adapted to LEGO—despite Batman being a staple of The LEGO Group’s lineup of products since 2006. Then Mark Stafford got his hands on it…
The first UCS Scale/Display Only Batmobile The LEGO GRoup Released | Brickset
I can say without a doubt that Mark Stafford is a real Batman fan and a dedicated LEGO designer. Growing up with 90s Batman comic events like Knightfall with Azrael as Batman as well as Miller’s quintessential work, The Dark Knight Returns, Mark was absolutely the designer to be put to task to design Barbara Ling’s Batmobile (or any Batmobile, really).
Mark’s LEGO Batman collection is just as impressive as his work at TLG
In an interview between BrickNerd and Mark on the development of the Batmobile, Mark stated that he used Batman Forever as the primary reference for his design process, rather than conceptual art or toys that had been released in the past or recently. Here are a few excerpts from our conversation with him.
Mark: I went straight to the source. I watched the movie—parts of the movie far too much. That grimace by Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face towards the Batmobile when he’s firing a rocket… I’ve seen that grimace so many times. It just drives me nuts.
Previous movie Batmobiles like the Tumbler and the ‘89 Batmobile have been designed in a large, UCS-like scale. However, the new Batman Forever Batmobile is far smaller than the other two, serving as a midpoint in size between minifigure scale and the display/UCS scale.
Mark: The scale is dictated by the wheels and the arches over the wheels. We didn’t have elements that were bigger than this that we could make the wheel arches with. So going to a larger scale wouldn’t really have worked. To some extent, we were just trying to be like a Batman version of Speed Champions.
An early build of 76304 – Looks pretty great to me
The biomechanical and organic mesh present in the Forever Batmobile is not easy to capture in LEGO, especially the hood of the car, which features a web-like covering over the exposed engine and other inner mechanisms. Early proofs of concepts for Mark’s Batmobile utilized the Swordleaf piece in black, which I think captures the look of the car’s hood quite well (and would have been a fun recolor for the element).
Mark: The hardest challenge throughout was ensuring that the bio-organic look came through. One of the things I hated to let go as a LEGO builder was that the leaf went away, but at the same time, anybody looking at it who is familiar with LEGO bricks would just look at it and go, “That’s a LEGO leaf,” instead of “That’s the front of the Batmobile.” Annoyingly, one of my colleagues sent me a version that some fan had built which used a leaf at the front, which was another reason I decided to drop it. “Oh no, I’m just going to get accused of stealing if I keep this now.” So yeah, that was another reason it went.
An early model of what would become 76304 with the swordleaf piece
Despite the challenges posed by both the source material and LEGO’s own part catalog, I think Mark Stafford did a wonderful job adapting the Forever Batmobile to LEGO. In fact, much of my love for this Batmobile set came about in retrospect because of Mark’s work on this set.
Modifying the Batmobile
As pleased as I am with the final model Mark provided, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement on his Batmobile. I’ve no major changes to offer, but I’d like to think these modifications go a long way (at least for me) to make this the best Batmobile it can be.
Okay, admittedly, my first mod is not to Mark’s Batmobile but to the Batman minifigure provided in the set. The Sonar Suit featured at the end of Batman Forever is… well, it’s certainly not in my top five list of on-screen Batsuits, let’s just say that.
However, I can say that the translation of the Sonar Suit to minifigure form might in fact be in my top five of LEGO Batman figures… if it weren’t for the pearl dark grey rubber cape. A simple change in the cape, face print and hands moves this figure up into the upper echelon of Batman figures I own.
Let’s move on to the actual focus of the set, the Batmobile. While Mark absolutely nailed the majority of the Batmobile’s design, there is one aspect of the model that I think doesn’t quite accurately replicate the on-screen vehicle: the alien mouth.
The shaping of the front of this car is not easily replicated…
As already covered, the grill and hood of the car were a challenge to replicate, especially with the Swordleaf piece no longer on the table to replicate the ribbed shaping of the hood. Creating a grill that looks like a smiling alien mouth isn’t easy, either. In the pictures below, you can see the front of the Batmobile, but in my opinion, the black tile layer doesn’t extend as far as it should to the edges of the silver grille slopes, as shown in the photo of the car above.
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My modification simply attempts to complete the “mouth” around the “teeth” of the car, all while maintaining the rounded shape of the vehicle. While not perfect, I think the added tiles do a pretty good job of accomplishing this, adding to the illusion of a sloping hood and a smiling, alien mouth.
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View fullsize
A Forever Favorite
The Batmobile—in any of its iterations—is a challenge to recreate in LEGO, whether it be the scale, the shaping, or the intricate sculpting found in the body like in the Batman Forever Batmobile. 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile is a solid adaptation of this car, and it ended up being a surprise hit for me. It was a real pleasure and honor to be able to speak with Mark about his work on the model, as it shed some light on this Batmobile’s peculiar scale—one that I wouldn’t mind seeing utilized for other licensed vehicles in the future.
It’s an odd Batmobile from an odd era of Batman, and that’s exactly what makes it interesting. While it may not be everyone’s favorite, there’s something compelling about seeing such a strange, stylized design translated into LEGO form—and pulled off this well.
LEGO Batman 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile will be available August 1st for around $100 US | $130 CA | €100 EU | £90 UK | $150 AU.
DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by The LEGO Group. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
How would you build a more organic car out of LEGO? Let us know in the comments below.
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