Pimp My Batmobile! » Batmobile

1:32 Batmobile Slot Car from Polar Lights

PMB Contributor — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:30:49 +0000

Well, these guys are just slamming the Batmobiles out these days. Check out the first reports of 1:32 Batmobile and Black Beauty slot cars.

New Batmobile Spotted In Pittsburgh

radioscooter — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:51:52 +0000

Most days it isn’t a bonus to live in Pittsburgh. Not to sound all anti-black n’ gold and all – but seriously, it’s usually a shot and a beer kind of town. (and I’m NOT a shot and a beer dude) But here we are emulating Gotham for the time being and I’m like a pig in um…guano. Just spotted a few miles away from where I live, it looks like we’re seeing the original mil-spec Tumbler again, at least for the time being.

“In combat TWO of these would jump over a river carrying cables, never could get the damn bridge to work, but this baby works just fine”
- Lucius Fox, Batman Begins

More news as I get closer to the fray next week. And no, that’s not a mirror behind it so yes, there are multiple filming cars here.

Oh, Snap! The Batmobile!

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:51:10 +0000

The Polar Lights 1966 TV Batmobile 1:25 scale SNAP kit arrived on my desk a little while ago from the folks at Round 2/Polar Lights. Thumbs up all around. Full review shortly. For now, groove on this hastily shot and cobbled video. (NOTE: I mistakenly mention that the slot car set is available from “AutoArt”, it should be “AutoWorld”. Will fix later.)

A Visual History of the Batmobile…ish

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:25:46 +0000

Well, it’s got a few more Batmobile types than necessary, and missing a few that I think are more prominent, if we’re going back through the history of comics, shows, movies etc. And they’ve used a -ahem- familar typeface treatment, cough, cough (fair enough, it’s an obvious choice) But – they’ve also offered this artwork up for anyone to use on their websites, and it’s pretty cool – so what the heck. How about some no-prize kudos for whomever identifies the most legit missing versions of the Batmobile?

A Visual History of the Batmobile (ish)

UK Eaglemoss 1966 Batmobile Video Look

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:01:47 +0000

Thanks to our friend and UK Correspondent Ken Partridge, we received the new Eaglemoss 1966 1:43 diecast Batmobile from their Batman Automobilia series of magazines that come with vehicle premium dioramas included. Here’s a first video look at it. Yes, as we reported here weeks ago, it is a completely different model than the Hot Wheels 1:43 car. It is smaller than the HW 1:43 but larger than their 1:50. Once the Hallmark ornament comes out next Christmas, we will have quite the little growing garage of little-mid scale Batmobiles. I think it’s ironic that of all the officially released Batmobiles in the past 3 years, arguably the worst of them all has been the 1:24 DC Direct statue version which I got to finally see in person a while ago and was NOT impressed. Who would have thought, a few years back that we’d be actually passing up officially released Batmobile models?! Thankfully – this isn’t one of them. This is a MUST-have. The detail and professionalism is top notch. Accuracy wise – it shares about the same percentage as the Hot Wheels car – but with a few different areas that they got more right or wrong. Note that in the video I mention the cardboard bottom – I have not removed the whole display case from its blister pack at this time. This is still just outer packaging. The inner hard shell case, along with the lenticular grid cave background and the diorama are all safely packed inside this form-fitted blister pack. I didn’t have a lot of time this weekend so I just did a quick phone vid. In Part II, I’ll take it out and compare it to other similarly-sized Batmobiles a little closer. I did talk to Eaglemoss directly last week and there may be some light coming at the end of the US distribution tunnel, but not for a while.

Adam West & The Batmobile at the Steel City Con This Weekend!

admin — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:56:51 +0000

So, some of you have noticed we haven’t posted in a while. Well, you’re right. There are some big changes in the works for the PMB! site. In the next few weeks, you’ll be seeing them. Plus we’re launching a sister site and re-launching an old favorite site that people have been asking about since it went dark in 2005.

This weekend we’ll be at the Pittsburgh Steel City Con with Adam West, a licensed full-sized Batmobile replica and loads of display items. Hopefully, we’ll be blogging from the show, with some great looks at whatever we see that looks cool!

Stay tuned for first of our new plans will be revealed soon

R2 Batmobile, more new looks.

admin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:05:41 +0000

The new painted sample pics of the Batmobile model have made it to the web. This thing is going to be such great fun.Looking forward to everyone’s nitpicking and squabbling very soon!

Click here to go to the R2 website and see more pics of the snap-kit.

1:25 Batcave Project: Lake Effect

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:11:59 +0000

Editor’s Note: The following post has been migrated over from our now defunct Batcave Blog and dates originally from September, 2008:

Our goal is to mix elements of the 1966 TV Batcave with some of our favorite comics stuff and some of our own inventions as well. So -

The TV Batboat is super cool but never lived in the Batcave on TV. They had to drive to the marina to get to it. That seems unlikely and awkward to us. Just slightly less goofy than having the Batmobile actually trailer it. (a la the Corgi gift pack) I always loved the idea that the cave housed EVERYTHING. So we are borrowing from the comics the idea of an underground Grotto that is a tributary to Gotham harbor. Our back-story is that perhaps Batman expanded an already existing grotto to his needs.

In the diorama – I wanted this far enough away from the center TV Atomic Pile area so we are placing it to the far right. And since that’s our cave exit, we needed a bridge for the Batmobile. And a grotto or cave lake for the Batboat that could actually handle real depth.

We started by creating a light but rigid base for the lake out of slices of pink insulating styrofoam (home depot) and used Project Glue for Foam to put them together.

Then we needed to seal it up to be able to actually support our “water.” We used these great products to seal up the seams and then provide some underwater lake effects.

We decided that the Batcave grotto would be a typical East Coast limestone based cave lake and so most of the ballast (rocks) got the grey/green mossy treatment that we see around PA a lot. It was a challenge to remember and plan for all this to be sealed underwater. We also decided that perhaps the Atomic Pile would need a cooling system so there are intake and outake pipes in the lake walls. Made from trimmed pieces of silver cable hiding hoses and then weathered and decals added.

Grotto/Lake bottom with coolant pipes and drainpipe

We built the bridge after a design that Alexander drew. I liked it because it was a little Burton-esque yet not unrealistic. We made it out of balsa, painted it silver with hammered aluminum for the texture and then weathered it and added the big rivet bolts and the non-skid surface. We dropped it into place and then foam-puttied around the struts.

We planned to fill the lake bed with clear railroad water effect resin. I wanted the Batboat to be immersed realistically in “water” but I also did not want to permanently embed my Jim Apitz-made batboat model in clear resin. So we decided to grab a spare Polar Lights Batboat hull, and mount it in the lake bottom, seal it with plastic wrap for easier removal later, then pour the resin in around it. The theory was that when we had the right water level and it had hardened – we just pop out the spare hull and put the Batboat model in its place. Well it was a great idea that we didn’t think through completely. More on that later.

More Exclusive 1:25 Batmobile Model Shots

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:33:39 +0000

We were just sent these shots. Better quality and lighting than the last batch. Because inquiring minds wanted to see some other angles.

NOTE: Please do NOT remote link or copy these photos to other websites.

Batmobile, you ignorant, misguided slot…

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:29:56 +0000

Just a funny headline opportunity – nothing ignorant about it. Looks like we might be getting slot car Batmobiles. Autoworld is an imprint of Round 2/Polar Lights etc. so – fingers crossed. Whatever the final slot cars look like – they had me from the retro catalog design. Here’s a description of their “4 Gear” slot car:

Auto World’s new 4Gear chassis is based on a classic extended “pancake” design. It features an extra gear on its lengthened power transfer plate. The extended wheelbase and narrowed rear end fitted with gigantic dragster-inspired wheels make it perfect for custom applications and totally wild specialty vehicles! And that’s not all… Flip the chassis over and you’ll find two neodymium traction magnets to make these dynamite racers grip the track for super high speed racing excitement!