There are few joys in life that can match the simple pleasure of freeing Aquaman from an icy prison made of exploding LEGO blocks. That’s why as soon as I saw the first winter storm coming through, I knew that I’d soon be out in the snow taking photos for my first-ever LEGO Batman set review: the 2013 LEGO Superheroes Arctic Batman vs. Mr. Freeze: Aquaman on Ice 76000. I’ll get the obligatory pun out of the way right now: this LEGO Batman 2013 set is far too cool to miss…

The Right:

I don’t get to say it very often with licensed LEGO sets, but LEGO 76000 is a fantastic deal! For about $20, you’re getting 198 pieces including three amazing minifigures. My sweet spot for LEGO sets is about 10 cents per brick, and this is right on target for that price.

You get three minifigures in this set, and all three are out-of-this-world great. First off, you get a rare LEGO Batman figure wearing one of his gimmick costumes from the LEGO Batman video games: Arctic Batman! I know some people may not be in love with the Batman LEGO minifigure costume variants, but I think they’re a ton of fun and I’d love to own every single costume from the games.

Arctic Batman is clad in white and light grey, with a white cape and two Batarangs. Batman has a reversible Bruce Wayne head so that he can be grinning or stoic under the cowl, and I really like the look of the whited-out eye slits on Arctic Batman’s mask along with his white cowl. This is easily the most striking and unique version of a Batman minifigure we’ve ever gotten before, and a major reason that I decided to purchase this LEGO set.

Though it’s not the first Mr. Freeze minifigure LEGO has ever released, the LEGO 76000 Mr. Freeze is easily the most detailed. Whereas older LEGO Mr. Freeze figures merely had their armor printed onto the minifigure’s torso, this Mr. Freeze has an actual sculpted armor piece that fits over the figure’s body, including a see-through visor. His freeze gun is vastly superior to older LEGO weapons, and really shows how far LEGO has come in the last few years with buildable accessories.

Lastly, the biggest superstar of this set is easily the LEGO Aquaman minifigure. I honestly never believed that I would ever, ever own an Aquaman LEGO figure, so just looking at this guy puts a big, dorky grin on my face. Aquaman is in his signature orange shirt and green pants, and has a trident accessory. He also features a reversible head that’s either battle-ready or neutral and friendly-looking. It’s not the most extravagant minifigure ever, but I sure am glad to own an Aquaman minifigure.

If an exploding ice block that you can trap Aquaman or any other minifigure in doesn’t sound like fun to you, then you have no heart. I wasn’t convinced that the LEGO ice block was going to work properly until I actually built it and pulled the lever down to explode it for the first time, but doing so really is a blast. It’s just a little piece of buildable diorama, but it adds a lot of amusement to this set.

Finally, we come to the Batboat itself. Funny as it sounds, the largest portion of this set, the Batboat, is the piece of this LEGO DC Universe set I was least interested in. Of Batman’s entire fleet of vehicles, you’d think a boat would be the least compelling. But shame on me for thinking so–the Batboat is actually quite impressive.

The firing discs have been ingeniously designed to hold the discs tightly until you choose to fire them, and they both look and function a lot better than the flickfire missiles LEGO is so in love with. The deployable bombs that attach to the back of the Batboat are very colorful with the translucent orange bricks on every side of it, and I get a real kick out of releasing the bombs from the back of the boat. And the exhaust flames and batwing fin on the rear of the vehicle make it look downright awesome.

The Batboat took me about half an hour to build (I’m a very slow builder), but was very straight-forward. I didn’t make any mistakes in the build, which is a testament to how simple this set is. Ordinarily I loathe decals on LEGO sets, but the sheet of stickers with this LEGO Batman 2013 set adds a ton of color and detail to a set that’s otherwise primarily all black. I still don’t like applying the stickers, as it makes my OCD go insane, but the definitely increase my enjoyment of this set.

The Wrong:

The only thing about this set that really bugs me is that Mr. Freeze doesn’t have a reversible head. This 2013 LEGO Mr. Freeze minifigure will be forevermore yelling angrily with no goggles on. For me, the iconic Mr. Freeze is calm and composed, wearing his trademark red goggles.

The Mr. Freeze in LEGO The Batcave: The Penguin and Mr. Freeze’s Invasion 7783 from 2006 was my ideal Mr. Freeze minifigure. As that set is now astronomically expensive and unobtainable for most folks, it would have been nice if we got that head here too.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

LEGO Arctic Batman vs. Mr. Freeze Aquaman on Ice 76000 is one of the three early 2013 LEGO Batman sets. It’s available for purchase online right now as well as from the official LEGO Shop and should be available in most stores in the next few weeks.

Overall: I’m going to give LEGO Super Heroes Arctic Batman vs. Mr Freeze: Aquaman on Ice 76000 the highest praise I can–I’d happily pay more than the suggested retail price for this set. All three minifigures for this set are must-haves for my collection, and I especially love the Aquaman minifigure. The exploding LEGO block ice prison is far more fun than it has any right to be, and the Batboat is loaded with more features than I’d imagined it could have. My only complain with the set is that the Mr. Freeze minifigure doesn’t have a reversible head and his only facial expression doesn’t really look the way I’d like it to. Otherwise, this is a near-perfect set at a great price. The 2013 LEGO Batman Arctic Batman vs. Mr. Freeze 76000 set earns a well-deserved high recommendation.

GRADE: A