LEGO Legends of Chima fans have had to sit and wait quietly and patiently while LEGO 2014 news and photos leaked out for every other branch of LEGO collectors. From 2014 LEGO Star Wars to LEGO Super Heroes 2014 to the 2014 LEGO The Hobbit sets and even next year’s LEGO Simpsons sets, there’s been nada new for LEGO Chima fans to chew on. But no longer! The first of the LEGO Legends of Chima 2014 sets has finally appeared, and it features the all-new Chima Bat Tribe–it’s the 2014 LEGO Chima Bat Strike Speedorz 70137 set!

It’s been widely rumored for months now that several new LEGO Legends of Chima Animal Tribes would be appearing in 2014, and today we got confirmation of and our first official look at the LEGO Chima Bat Tribe minifigures! K-Mart mistakenly posted early images of the LEGO Chima 2014 Bat Strike 70137 Speedorz set!

The set will consist of a Bat Speedor, a “giant bat” construct for it to jump over, six CHI Crystals, four small bat wings (two for the minifigure and two for the Bat Strike Speedor vehicle!), two types of LEGO weapons (a spear and a CHI Trident), and the first-ever LEGO Chima Bat Tribe minifigure: Blista!

The Bat Speedor is built out of vibrant purple and turquoise LEGO bricks. On paper it sounds like that color combination would be really tacky, but I actually like it quite a bit! It reminds me of the Transformers Generation 2 Ramjet color scheme, which is just about the only toy I can ever remember with these colors. The crazy colors of the Speedorz Bat Strike vehicle really complement the dark colors of the Bat Tribe minifigure well.

I wasn’t really sure how I was going to feel about bat people in the Legends of Chima LEGO theme (bats kind of freak me out), but now that I’ve seen the Blista minifigure I’m okay with it. The teeth and winds and bumpy head do make the bat tribe minifigures a little bit scary, but the comical-looking pig snout-like nose definitely takes off the edge. Blista is cute and scary, which is all we could really ask for in a LEGO Bat Tribe minifigure!

The LEGO Legends of Chima Bat Strike 70137 Speedorz set should be available in stores by January 1st, 2014. It’s very likely that some of these LEGO Legends of Chima 2014 sets will be found at retail or online before next year, though, and I’ll post an update when and if that occurs.

What do you think of the first of next year’s wave of LEGO Legends of Chima sets, Chima fans? Is the Bat Tribe all you’d hoped for, or did you picture the Bat Tribe minifigures looking differently in your head?