A New Air Refinery? (Part Two)

So I got the Nano Metalfigs Batcave Collectors Enviroment! in the mail recently. Folks might remember an earlier post about it being a great substitute for the Air Refinery. It came a while ago, but I just didn’t have the time to assemble it and give it a good look until now.

Well, it’s here and it’s a very cool toy. I have some thoughts:

As said in the earlier post, it is smaller in scale to Air Raider figures but not to the point where I think it’s unusable.
There is a Batman symbol on the top level that I will probably cover with some styrene board and paint over. In addition, neither elevator (up to Wayne Manor?) or that glass chamber on the top level open or move. I’m hoping I might be able to add some working features but I’ll probably need a Dremel saw.
The blue glass elevator also doesn’t have moving parts or features. In fact, it is split in half by the floor so it is not one tall shaft from top to bottom.
The lower level platform with the light-up feature does have a raised Batman logo on top. I’m debating what to with this. Ultimately I may just cover the whole thing with a styrene mask with some Tyrant symbols cut out so only they glow.
Some of the computer sticker have bat symbols on them but I plan to fix that with my own graphic design and then glue them in. No big problem there.

None of this is a dealbreaker for me, just details that have to be reworked.

So what’s the good news?

Well, it’s reasonably priced. (Or at least it was, it’s doubled in price on Amazon but I’m sure you could find it on ebay for something better.)
As I’ve said, it’s a good stand-in for the Air Refinery. My son has already spent hours using it as the Tyrant base and it’s probably been blown up a dozen times. I plan on someday trying to model my own Air Refinery, but for now, having a home of any sort for the Tyrants of Wind just feels good.
It also comes in a series of pieces, so if you were interested in using these for your own custom model, it would be possible. In the picture below, you can see the rock walls and floor (three pieces). That alone is a good foundation to build off of if you didn’t like the rest.
And if you like Batman and Robin, they have little metal figures in the packaging.