“VROOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!”– Batmobile, Batman: The Animated Series (1992)
If the deluge of amazing DC Collectibles Animated figures these last few weeks wasn’t enough for you, DC Collectibles upped their game with… a friggin’ Batmobile.
If you’ll permit me to reflect a moment. I distinctly recall how difficult it was to collect DC figures back when I was in high school. This was before DC Classics. Before JLU. A DC Collection was clinging to Super Powers decade and a half glory and a handful of Animated figures. Then DC Direct came to “save” us.
I gobbled up those figures for years. Some great, some not so, but it was awesome. Swamp Thing. Hard Traveling Heroes. Silver Age 2pks. The Endless. The Crime Syndicate. Kingdom Come. I was so happy to get so many of those figures. To get something different than Animated figures that, while cool, dominated the pegs. My attention turned towards DC Classics during recent years, but, ironically, DC Collectibles has gotten real friendly with my wallet again by going Animated.
I bring all this up because DC Direct was revelatory in the 90s. And I really feel like they’re being that again. They’ve always made larger, high end stuff; some great props, tons of statues, etc. But this is something different.
They’ve made a Batmobile. In 6” Scale.
First of all, we’ve been told umpteen times how “impossible” Batmobiles are to do in that scale in this day & age. Mattel made a funky one years ago, but for the most part Batmobiles are relegated to small scale toy lines. It’s just the way it is and so here comes DC Collectibles again to turn that on its ear. They may never make a vehicle again, but they’ve shown it can be done – and in the direct market, no less – so I don’t ever want to hear it’s impossible again. At least with Batmobiles, I get that Supermobiles & Invisible Jets might not have the necessary interest, but Batmobiles do. Even with various iterations, they’re collectively one of the most iconic vehicles of all-time.
And, of those iterations, the Animated one tends to find its way into many folks Top Fives, so it’s no surprise that DC Collectibles set up shop with this one. If I had to rank them personally… its Super Powers, Keaton, and then this one. The Animated Batmobile, thanks to Bruce Timm & Eric Radomski, is one of the most timeless. It’s both retro & futuristic (like most of the show). It’s ridiculously long and sleek as hell. It’s kinda one of those designs where you might say it wouldn’t work well in three dimensions, but thanks to Kenner & now DC Collectibles, you’d be wrong. It looks great in person (even if it might be hard to drive).
The sculpt on the car is amazing. It was done digitally through cooperation with Kushwara studios. They’ve done a ton of fantastic work on Star Wars & Marvel figures and that same attention to detail transfers over to this car. I’m not going to get out the spec sheets and make sure it’s 1:12 to the letter, but its 24” long and it looks spot on, so I’m a happy buyer. No matter the angle, the car looks great. Where detail is needed on the exterior: the grill, the exhausts, the hubcaps, and the various lights are all sharp and look great. The tires are real rubber and I just point that out because it’s pretty awesome. They’re also huge.
The interior is similarly well done. The various panels sees simple, but that’s consistent with how the car appeared in the majority of episodes. Little details like the headrests are present and it makes it tough to display the car with the canopy closed.
There is a little paint work here and there, but it’s thankfully well done at the $85-100 price point. It kind of harkens back to Mattel’s MOTU line where all the details are sculpted and painted, no matter how small, and gives an overall consistent and finished look to all the good bits. The car has an appropriate matte finish, but I’ve noticed that I’ve managed to scratch here and there just form taking pictures. I don’t think there’s much you can do about it with these large swathes of black plastic, but that might be the one thing that worries me long-term. More importantly, though, the car is black! It’s not a really dark grey, blue, blue with bat-camouflage, etc. I loved the old Kenner toy, but we never did get this car in the right colors and it’s awesome to finally have it in black and without the Bat-logo plastered on the hood. Continue to Page 2…
Looks really nice, but I still prefer the “Knight Striker” from TNBA.
http://mygenerationtoys.com/images/TNBA%20Batmobile%20Knight%20Striker%20MISB.jpg
the “90s Repaint button” gag is hilarious, btw.
also, slightly annoyed, as I NEVER saw a TDKR John Blake figure. not even on secondary market. here or during two trips to Louisville when they were hitting, and there are a LOT of toy reseller stores there, for some insane reason. :/
(at least six, while StL only has V-Stock, Neutral Zone (soon to be Time Warp Toys) and the ToyMan show every 6-8 weeks. and we’re down to two TRU.)
I got John Blake, Ras al Ghul, and Commissioner Gordon off of Walmart’s website. I never saw them in stores, and really wanted that Bat Signal. I think they were even below MSRP, something like $17-18, and free site-to-store shipping.
Excellent review, even better than your usual standard.
And, man, my appetite is so very whetted for this thing to arrive!
Looks great! But there were a few other DC lines in the 90s too (granted, opinions vary on them) like Total Justice and the Legends of the Dark Knight. They were definite McFarlane wannabes, but I liked them well enough at the time.
Excellent review. I really want to get this line. 😀
Great review, as always!
I freakin’ love my Batmobile! So far, I’ve been pretty happy with every release in this line. I especially like Roxy with her rocket, something I never thought I’d see. And when Harley arrives tomorrow, I’ll be up-to-date and complete with the line. Killer Croc is still m.i.a., however. I’m hoping they’ll get him out by the end of the month.
Oh how I wish I wish that I could collect this line. Just the Batman:TAS figures as I hated the new batman adventures designs, but I just don’t have the money or room for it. Ive pretty much dropped down to just MoTUC these days except for the random bounty hunter from sw black. Maybe one day Ill pick up a figure, but the Batmobile will just have to be a no go for me. Sadness really.
Great review though!
Man, it is a buet though dunno where I’d put it thats for sure. Only funny is if can get Kamen Rider Drive and thebTridoron know I’d have a race setup going on or chase. Then RX’s Ridoron also on the way.
So many 6″ vehicles so lil space. Why the cool toys always outta my range.
Great review and funny comics. Always my go to review site.
HA! I was going to post something about how this review was pushing me to pull the trigger on Ridoron!
Arrggghh where will I put that and I’ll have to get both Roborider and Biorider and try and find their damn bikes as well and…oh hell did they ever make a Roadsecter for Kamen Rider Black? AARGGH again! 🙂
(it’s the OCD applied to Kamen Rider. If I get a Rider I want his bike, and his partner/alt form, and boy does that add up in both cost and space eating)
On the B:TAS Batmobile. It’s a beautiful thing and Nosiy, as usual, provides wonderful, fun and quite ‘self aware’ photographs. It’s impressive they took the figures capes into account when designing the interior.
I was always under the impression the design dictate was “Make it like the Keaton Batmobile but simplify it for animation. Make sure to keep the same visual dynamic of power”
It’s a very impressive piece. It seems to be exactly what it needs to be. 🙂
Think this answers the Road Sector question
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6QnYszNRx4A
well, HECK! *sigh*
So, Road Sector, BioRider, RoboRider, their bikes…still want that Rider Amazon and his bike combo, I just noticed they released the (basically a stock off-road motorcycle) bike for Riderman.
It’s a damn addiction is what it is.
And yes, I just ordered Ridoron. I need new shelves. 🙂
(I might sound upset. I’m not, really! I do appreciate the heads up, OK? 🙂 )
Being a massive fan of the ’89’ I really wanted to love this, but after seeing it in person…I don’t know. It’s a sea of long flat panels – devoid of detail, and without a shapely form; just doesn’t work as a 3D object for me. Anyway, I hope to eventually come around, as it would be nice to have Batmobile in this scale. Glad for everyone that digs it.
This.
This is the thing that broke me.
This is the toy that got me to dive full into the Batman: The Animated Series toyline DC Collectibles has been putting out.
It’s just so amazingly awesome. From it’s huge size to the bright light up features. If they had added some features like you mention I don’t know if the sculpt would be as good as it is.
I also have issues trying to figure out where to put it much like my MOTUC Wind Raider and TMNT 2014 sewer lair as they’re so big.
But the Batmobile is just so awesome and with it being the thing I recall hearing they put out to “test the waters’… I wonder if we could maybe look forward to a Batman: The Animated Series Batwing in the future.
If so…my wallet will be probably committing suicide.