5 Feet Lego Batman Out of Household Junks

Batman my most favorite superhero of all time and I hope it will be the same for many of you reading this. Drawing inspiration from the movie Batman the Lego movie, I got an idea of building a Batman resembling the Lego blocks which can be assembled and dismantled with ease. For this purpose I have used some carton boxes, plastic bottles and other junks which has been sitting around in my home around long time.

I hope this instructable will convince/influence DIY’s on recycling and re-purposing junks lying in their home.

Step 1: Sketch Your Lego Batman

Apologies my sketching skills are not impressive. I started out by sketching the lego Batman which I need to build. This will give some rough estimates on proportions the leg, torso, hands and head of our Batman is going to be.

For example from the reference image. (Update: the height of torso should be 85% of the leg). And the height of hand need to be 90% of torso. The width depends upon the type of skeleton we are going to use ( explained below)

Step 2: Choosing Materials

Junks lying around in our houses are the materials that we are going to use for this project. To be more specific, we are going to use Old carton box, plastic Bottles, thermocol and other junks.

You are gonna need some tools such as Glue gun, Scissors, knife, measuring tape, scale and compass for building it. So gather these materials from your living place. Am sure that these materials were not hard to find at all. Now we are going to start with building the Lego leg block.

Step 3: Bottle Skeleton

For our whole Lego Batman, bottles are gonna be the Skeleton to support and keep the whole setup stable. Not only that bottles allow us to screw and unscrew from each other which makes this whole structure detachable(coolest feature of this project).

Use sturdy bottles for this purpose, finding identical and appropriate bottle sizes will be necessary. To increase height stack bottles above one another by putting hole at bottom of bottle and insert bottle inside it. Then glue it later, refer the image above.

Step 4: Building Lego Leg

Pick big and sturdy bottles among the ones you got. I have picked these two big bottles for this purpose (1st photo). Add some sand into the bottle which is going to be placed in the bottom. This is to keep the whole leg and structure stable. Then put a hole in the bottom of this bottle and stack as explained in previous step. Measure the height of the bottle structure (leaving the bottle thread that screws to the cap) and width of the base. I will be mentioning the measurements in terms of inches throughout this article. The leg skeleton measures about 25 inches in height (adding the buffer space).

Start by marking the appropriate measurements in the carton box. Once done cut out the markings using a knife or scissor. Just a tip, try cutting out from the corners of carton box, to obtain pieces which is already linked or you can try drawing the four boxes with appropriate measurements and then bend the over the sides to form a cuboid so that bottle skeleton can be placed inside it. I prefer the first method since the carton i chose was bit rigid.

Once all the pieces are cut out, put it together using Glue gun to form a cuboid. Place the skeleton inside the cuboid. Now cut out a square out of a card board with dimensions same as the width of bottle skeleton(photo 6). Measure the radius of the opening of a bottle and put on the appropriate size hole in the center of card board. Insert the bottle into the cardboard until the cap thread appears on the other side. Seal the cardboard over the cuboid leg and one leg of your lego Batman is ready.

Repeat the same and prepare the second leg.

Step 5: Building Torso

Torso part goes above the leg, set the legs by a optimum distance. I measured 7 inches from one leg bottle opening to another. Measure the total length from one leg to another leg and cut out a cardboard of this dimension, this will be the base of our torso. The breadth will be similar to the width of leg.

Now we need to make a hole on the cardboard to place the bottle caps on it in such a way the leg can be screwed into the base of torso. Now determine and mark the points where the bottle caps need to be glued in. Place the cardboard over the legs and mark the points by drawing a horizontal and vertical line on it (photo 3). Cut out the board so that the cap can be placed (photo 4).

Draw the outline of front and back of torso. Cut it out and you will obtain two pieces (photo 5) , front and back of torso. Place it on the base of the torso which we had prepared earlier. Now cut out the sheets for placing on the sides of torso(photo 7). Make a hole at the sheet about 0.5 inches from the top in the center of sheet. Glue the bottle cap to it, this will be the connecting point to hand we are about to make next.

Add few bottles into the torso area with sand filled in it. Make the packing tight by adding thermocol and other fillers as shown in the photo 8. Now close the torso by adding the back piece to it and glue it together. Now the torso part is done (photo 9).

UPDATE: For better results keep the height of torso as 85% of the leg.

Step 6: Building Hands

Pick two small bottles as I did, to achieve the sleek look for the hands. Crush the top part of the bottle and bend it so that it will look right angled. This is necessary to enable them to screw and unscrew to the torso.
Now start cutting the carton box to wrap around the bottle as we did with the leg. I have used a single sheet of carton box and segmented into four parts as shown in the image. The top and bottom square marking is meant to be flaps that close top and bottom part of the cuboid.

Bend the four segments using a ruler to form a cuboid. Cut out a hole on a segment to enable the bottle opening to protrude out of cuboid as shown in the image. Apply some hot glue to fix it's position but make sure the opening is horizontal or you might not be able to screw or unscrew it to the torso. Repeat the same to create another hand.

Step 7: Building Head

Start by picking a carton box that will fit the head of your batman. Stuff it with appropriate bottle for the locking mechanism, I have used thermocol and other junks to stuff it and keep the bottle stable in the center. Once done measure the cardboard that suits the size of carton box and put a hole in the center of it. Once done make the bottle opening protrude through the board and glue it altogether.

At this point you need to prepare the top cover of the torso as well. Find the cap for the bottle which you have used to make the head. Once done measure the top of torso, cut a cardboard of appropriate dimensions and put a hole in the center to glue the cap to it. Once done cut out from the super cool bat ears from cartons.

Step 8: Making the Cape

I have made a simple cape out of a black cloth, nothing fancy. You need scissors, threads, thread, needle and a Velcro patches. I have never done any sort of stitching in my life but still managed to get some decent finish with this cape, no fancy or complicated sewing process involved in making this one.

I had the cloth cut out in appropriate length in which I want the Cape to be. Make a tapered cut from the bottom and then leave out small patch at the top so that whole cut out piece resemble letter T (Refer Photo 3). This is going to hold the cape to your Lego Batman.

Once done with the cutting, I have picked a slender, flexible rod and placed it over the top portion, rolled it over and stitched it (Refer photo 4). This is to offer some rigidity and easiness to attach with your Batman. Stitch/paste the Velcro patches on each sides and your Cape is ready.

Step 9: Wrap It Up

Wrap the whole thing up with black plastic sheets and black tape. Make the connections correct and see if its rigid since we are gonna mantle and dismantle many times. You can use any kind of sheet or chart for this purpose, its upto you to decide. Handle with care since the Lego blocks can tear off if handled improperly.

Step 10: Belt and the Logo

Now take a yellow color chart and cut out in oval shape. Then choose your favorite batman logo and starting cutting it out on black chart paper. Once its done paste it over the yellow chart paper and your symbol is ready.

Next take out the yellow chart and cut it out on a slender and long shape. Cut it out neatly with a buckle shaped structure in the center. Now stick it to the torso which we have built early. Your Lego batman is now ready to be assembled.

Step 11: Assemble the Blocks

Now you have everything ready and only thing left is assembling the Lego Batman. Start assembling the torso initially by setting the head and hands to it. Assemble a simple cape out of any cloth of your choice. Prepare the webbed look for cape which is necessary.

Once the torso is done Set it up on the lego leg blocks which we have made. Screw the leg to the appropriate position and Lego batman is ready!

Hope you all like this Instructable, do try it out and post the results, thanks.