Batmobile in the Spotlight at Detroit Auto Show

Startled Detroiters were abuzz as the night sky over the city glowed with an iconic symbol.  Emblazoned against the top of the city's towering Renaissance Center landmark was the Bat Signal.  Was the Joker on the prowl and would the Caped Crusader be on his way to save the day?!  Actually the signal displayed against the backdrop of GM's corporate headquarters was to alert us all that the batmobile was on its way ... to the Detroit Auto Show the next day.



Holy Plastic Bricks Batman there's a life-size LEGO Batmobile at the Chevy exhibit! Yes its true! Chevrolet unveiled a life-size LEGO® Batmobile to correspond with the first day the 2017 North American International Auto Show being held at COBO Center in Detroit, Michigan was open to the public and will be on display until the conclusion of the event on January 22.

Measuring 17-feet long and featuring exclusive stud shooters, the LEGO Batmobile from Chevrolet was designed to strike fear in the heart of any villain. The vehicle was inspired by Batman’s Speedwagon featured in “The LEGO^® Batman Movie,” which hits U.S. theaters on February 10, 2017.  In this exciting new animated LEGO^® adventure, Batman, DC’s iconic Super Hero who famously prefers to work alone, must learn to cooperate and connect with others to save Gotham City from the villainous Joker.

Designed and assembled by a team of LEGO Master Builders at the LEGO Model Shop in Enfield, Connecticut this real-life plastic brick Batmobile took 222 hours to design and 1,833 hours to build.  This life-size model weights 1,695 pounds with each of its tires weighing just over 100 pounds.  While Chevrolet humorously promotes the vehicle as being available in 12 different shades of black to appeal to aspiring Dark Knights, the model actually consists of 17 different colors of LEGO plastic bricks. In total 344,187 LEGO bricks were used to construct Batman's Speedwagon.

Chevrolet has created a funny mock up of a vehicle schematics page promoting the "All-New LEGO Batmobile from Chevy" that promotes it to potential buyers as "perfect for a night out saving the town."  Filled with information about towing capacity, horsepower, and wi-fi connectivity, this website even compares the Batmobile's features to The Joker's Notorious Lowrider and The Riddler Racer.  You really need to check this out! If you aren't scared off by a $48,000,000 price tag please CLICK HERE to find out more info about LEGO Batmobile from Chevrolet.

In addition to being displayed at the Detroit Auto Show and shown on the big screen in "The LEGO Batman Movie," this Batmobile will also appearing in Chevrolet’s “Real People, Not Actors” campaign. In the new spot, real LEGO^® Minifigure^™ figurines discuss what kind of person would drive the all-new LEGO^® Batmobile from Chevrolet.



The LEGO Batmobile from Chevrolet is a partnership between General Motors, LEGO, and Warner Brothers to celebrate the upcoming release of "The Batman LEGO Movie."  For more information about the movie, please visit legobatman.com

Going Car Watching: Our Roadtrip to the Woodward Dream Cruise

This year is the 20th anniversary of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE, an annual event in Metro Detroit that is like a combining a parade, block party and carnival together to celebrate classic cars and the area's automotive heritage.  This Saturday event gets to be very congested with more than a million people clustering along Woodward Avenue for the day and we normally feel it is a little to hectic to take our young children to, but this year I decided to take the twins over to see the cars the Friday morning before the official event to check out what was going on before all the crowds arrived.  So we took a road trip just a few blocks down the street from our house to go car watching.

I have to say taking a wander along Woodward Avenue the morning before the event was great...we saw lots of classic cars without all of the crowds.  While many of the exhibitor displays were still being setup and not all of the cars were cruising around yet we still saw a lot of cool stuff and had some great experiences.  For example, Chevrolet had just unloaded a few of the cars that were used to portray the Autobots in the movie Transformers: Age of Extinction from a tractor trailer but hadn't set up the exhibit display for them yet.  The Chevy staffers let my son jump in the original car that had been used as the stunt vehicle in the movie to portray my son's favorite Transformer, BUMBLEBEE, and pretend to take it for a spin.

Chevy did have one of its exhibits all set up where we could look at some of their different race car engines and an Indy car.  While walking around this display my kids snagged some really nice car themed color books and Crayola crayons while I got my hands on a t-shirt compliments of Chevrolet.

We also saw a Monster Truck, a few dragsters on display, and some cars drag racing down the strip.

 

You don't always need to drive far away to have a fun and exciting road trip with your kids...sometimes the adventure can just be a few blocks away.  For more information about the Woodward Dream Cruise visit www.woodwarddreamcruise.com