Pimp My Batmobile!

Just heard back from our first giveaway winner Mnbatman (also known as Kent Themmes) that he received the 1:50 Hot Wheels Batcycle and Batmobile set safe and sound. Thanks for the photo Kent. Nice shirt!

If you guys haven’t checked out Joe Kelly Jr.’s Playing With Cars website (the web component of The Car Room magazine) you’ve been missing out on the most informative, best-produced model car entusisast resource there is in the world. I’ve long admired Joe’s informative and entertaining video reviews of some of the coolest die-cast models and this weekend he produced a video on the Elite Batmobile!

One of the best things about Joe’s videos are - him! His attitude and delivery are a breath of fresh air in this hobby. I was trying to get him a couple shots he needed of the undercarriage but I missed his deadline and he still gave us a shout-out on the video! How cool is that!

One of the other great things is that Joe does his own music for his videos and produces them himself. I composed and recorded music for commercials professionally for 12 years, own a small studio and I’m still stealing Queen songs for my You Tube vids. LOL Maybe next time!

Anyway - I highly recommend bookmarking his site if you’re a fan of automobilia at all, and specifically going there to watch the Batmobile video that’s up right now. He also has great sponsors and lots of accessories that would go well with the Batmobile.

-Scot

So the official announcement of the 1:50 Batgirl Cycle as the SDCC promo vehicle is now okay to talk about. There may be photos on Friday. Check on the 1966 Batmobile board for more info. Looks like it’s part of a three pack at least at the show, which leads me to believe they might do a mass release of it on a single card. Here’s hoping, anyway.

See, people were moaning amount my hints, but really all you needed was the very first one:

We have a winner! Of the 167 registered users we had as of 6/1 our random number generator selected mnbatman as the recipient of the 1:50 Batmobile and Batcycle set! If you’re out there, mnbatman - give us a shout.

So let’s see what else…The seated figure samples just got here and they look better than we had hoped for. Production starts rolling and we should be shipping those out very soon. Thanks for all your patience.

And we are almost set to start production of the Parts Upgrade set #1 which will include a modified version of the Elite’s newly resized batphone. So some of you wanting to stick to customizing the standard edition can get the only useful part from the Elite version for your mod job. And it will be better. How? Wait and see.

Hang on to your hat folks, I’ve got some scoop. It was just divulged to a high-ranking official at the 1966 Batmobile website that the upcoming mystery SDCC promo vehicle will be…

…not revealed until 6/10. Sorry. LOL. But since Eric doled out some hints on his site, I will too. How about a hint everyday until it’s announced?

• It’s a TV bat vehicle that was seen on screen.
• There was more than one version shown on screen
• It had electronic ignition
• It had modifications by the Fox props dept.
• It had bat emblems on it

New video slide show of the dealer’s sample sent to us courtesy of Replicarz.com (Replicarz still has Elites for ordering) Actual video footage coming up in the next day or so. Comments below. 

Overall - lots of nice upgrades. Sadly - most of them just make the model look more accurate to the #1 car IN ITS CURRENT STATE, in Barris’ garage. Not how the car looked on screen or in 1966. Here are some interesting hard to see new differences from the standard model to watch for:

• Flocked carpeting
• New detectoscope with inner decal (not accurate at all)
• Aluminum painted rocker panels and door-wells (no texture detail)
• Chrome, UN-segmented dash with open Futura radio(?) and other odd guage
• Parachute pull ring (black plastic)
• Resized batphone with cord
• Chromed inner door trim
• Light lenses under front and rear gills
• Compass decal
• Steering wheel chrome inner struts and center decal
• Photo-etched door handles
• Photo-etched bat radar
• Full fire extinguisher
• Clear red antler lenses
• Routed and painted chassis
• Seatbelts and bat buckles

 More photos courtesy of Pennyworth (Mike D.)

Just received this morning from Brian at Replicarz. More details later. Pics for now.  Check out the bent Bat-Radar. (Just like the resin models!) It’s NOT photo etched exactly, but it is detailed finer than the standard model. The phone has been shrunk down! Still big but MUCH better. More later tonight.

It’s an exciting bat-time.

1. We just heard from our casting factory about the seated figures. Molding is done.  We should have our final approval samples here tomorrow and orders will be rolling out directly after that.  Thanks for everyone’s patience. We also MAY have some standing figures coming in for these a bit later as well.  

2. Andy is still working on instructions for the Photo Etch parts set. When they’re done they will be downloadable here. or By email.

3. The parts upgrade set has grown into a group effort and coming along well. We expect to show those sets very soon.

2. The elite Batmobile models have hit several dealers already. We should have our sample ready for review very soon.

From my post on the 1966 Batmobile website from 5/14/08:

I am exploring this a little with some detective work. Eric said originally:
“For Comic-Con 2008, Hot Wheels will have an exclusive Bat-vehicle like they did last year. I’m sworn to secrecy of which one it will be, but I can tell you it is a ‘66 Batman related item and it does have wheels & probably 1:50th scale!!” So -

It’s our first giveaway! And a first look video at the 1:50 Bat-vehicles with some size comparisons. No, we’re not pointing out all the flaws and taking them apart…yet.

Here are the rules of the giveaway. They’re pretty simple. It’s not a contest. No purchase is neccesary.  If you’re already a registered PMB! user - you’re already in the ring. If you’re not - go register. Here are the ridiculously few and simple rules:

• You must use a real email address. (Because that’s how we’ll notify you)
• You must be registered by 12:00am June 2nd.
• The offer includes shipping to lower 48 US States only. If you are from somewhere else - sorry - you’ll have to pay postage. If you don’t want it - it will go to the next person.
• On June 5th, after organizing my registrants, I will draw one registered email at random. That person will get the vehicles.
• I am giving away (1) 1:50 Batmobile and (1) 1:50 Batcycle, carded. 
• If I contact you by email - you have 48 hours to respond and “claim” your prize.
• That’s it. Except - you need to send us a photo of yourself with the  toys when you get them.