Pimp My Batmobile!

Posts Tagged ‘elite batmobile’

Just wanted to announce that we are now a community of 500 strong Batmobile collectors/modelers/enthusiasts! Now, that doesn’t mean we only have 500 viewers. We have thousands upon thousands of viewers to this blog, the forum etc. But as far as registered, card-carrying users go – we just turned 500 last night. I know this because I had to go on to our rolls to try to see if someone was there. This brought me to a point I’ve been lax in discussing – that of the log-in issues to the Products Page. So here is a quick FAQ to hopefully deal with all this. I’ve posted this info elsewhere before but the problem is that people just expect stuff to instantly work in this web 2.5 world and I am right there with you on that. However – we have some valid reasons for what we do and once you complete everything correctly – you can set it and forget it, so bear with us. Here are the facts, jack:

1.
Q. “What’s the difference between the ‘Products Page’ and the ‘Custom Shop’?”
A.  There is no difference! It’s just two ways to refer to the same section.

2.
Q. “I got my username and password but I still can’t get into the products page. What’s up? Help!”
A.  You missed the little memo on the security pop up that told you you’d be getting a first set of UN/PW for The Site and a second set of UN/PW a little later for the Products Page/Custom Shop.

3.
Q. “Okay, but it’s been an hour and I still haven’t received that second set of info!!?”
A. That’s correct. I actually screen every single registration and send out the second set of UN/PW myself, by hand. that means it might take me a little while to do so. Please hold tight and be patient. I have never gone more than 48 hours without responding.
- Also, please check your spam folders – we have heard that our replies have sometimes gone there.
- Also – sometimes people discard the second email, thinking they’ve already got the log-in info and that it’s a duplicate email. It isn’t. They’re different.

4.
Q. “Okay but that sounds like super overkill. Why do you do it like this?”
A. There are several reasons. To make sure we don’t get spambots flooding us and that everyone is a real person is one. But the main reason is due to some of the sensitive licensing zones that some of our products veer into. As we phase some of the more uh…contentious stuff out and feature all original artwork, that issue may go away.

5.
Q. “Okay, I understand the need for security but then why are there TWO sets of UN/PW’s? That’s a pain!”
A. Well, actually there are THREE.  Don’t forget the forum/message board. The reason for this is that we wanted to go cheap and easy on the message board and shopping cart to keep costs down so we grabbed what was out there instead of custom coding things that take time and money. And so the makers of these things all need you to buy into their systems. So we end up with multiple log-ins. We set up the Message Board log-in so that folks coming from the 1966 Batmobile site wouldn’t have to re-register for another message board. 

6.
Q. “I can log-in to the forums, but I can’t get into the other areas.”
A. Right. There are THREE different log-in scenarios. If you like - set-up the same username and password for all of them. That should help. Also – use autocomplete or have IE remember your passwords so you never have to type them again.

7.
Q. “AaaaarrrggHHH! It’s frustrating!”
A. I know. Sorry. We can spend all our time streamlining and revising the way the site works, or we can work on new modeling ideas, customizing batmobiles, and parts.

Hopefully we’ll be able to fix some of these issues some time in the future when we don’t have as many projects going on and products in development.

-S
    

1. Back From Chicago. We took a quick trip to Chicagoland over Labor Day weekend to meet our future in-laws and take A. to the Legoland Discovery Center (the only one in this country) The lego place was pretty cool, though over-valued for what you got. The Lego stores however were amazing. Imagine being a 7 year old and being allowed to buy replacement Lego parts from bins… Oh yeah, they had this cool thing to pose with:

2. Crimefighter Figures. The second and last batch of finished/painted crimefighter figure sets are going out this week. That’s it for the first gen. figures. We are working on a follow-up set but we don’t expect to have news on them for a little while yet. Our thanks to everyone who’s been patient and supportive through us finding our way with these.

3. Upgrade Parts Set #01. Well the Super Elite came, saw, but sadly didn’t conquer. Not even close. But we said we were waiting and we did. So now the wait is over. We are now moving forward with the first parts upgrade set. Hopefully we’ll have news on ordering and what’s in the final set very, very soon.

4. Products Page Updates. These are coming this weekend. We promise. Other new items and corrected pricing and photos. Sorry but we’ve been BIZZY. If you’re still having problems logging in – read one of the many helpful explanatory articles peppered here and there on this site.

Last year, this ad appeared in some trade magazines showing the then prototype Hot Wheels 1:18 Batmobile:

Since then, we waited patiently as the Standard, Elite and Super Elite editions have been issued. It might be interesting now to take a look at things that changed (other than the previously well-discussed rollbar/canopy revisions) as the production cars came out. (This topic was sparked by Tim, thanks)

1. Bat Ray Trim Striping
Well this is one aspect of the prototype that we all naturally expected to get carried through to production but for whatever reasons – it wasn’t. What first seemed like an error of omission has since bloomed into an obviously economics-based intentional gaffe. They had too long to fix the paint apps and too many people have been complaining for 6 months for this to be acccidental.

2. Barris & Ford Badges
When HW laser-scanned the car, they brought along many placards and badges. These seem to indicate that both the Barris shield and the Ford oval badge that lingered on the #1 car as a reminder of Barris’ Ford sponsorship was intended to be part of the final product at one time. Maybe HW was trying to get Ford to pay for some of the tool-ups and the deal never got inked. Either way – they are both gone by the time we got the toys. It has been indicated elsewhere that Barris was only paid a consulting fee for this project. Maybe they tried to sell him ad space as well. 

3. Bat Radar  This just looks like a proto-mockup that they would eventually replace with either the plastic piece on the Standard or the photoetch piece on the Elites.

4. Rear Antenna Not a big thing but the prototype’s was taller and more accurate looking than any version that we got. Amazing because a guitar string looks better than any of their versions.

5. Non-Rader Wheel Rims This is pretty interesting because it shows that originally the rims were much closer to the ones on Barris’ car NOW (which are not Raders). One of the few times they seemed to skew toward 1966 versus the current condition of the car. (Though the new ones seem to be tri-ridge as opposed to just center ridge)

Are there more differences that we can’t see from this shot? Are there ones that YOU see and we missed? Let us know.