1.) We migrated our server today (Yay!) so if there are some little glitches with the new site or how it is behaving – let me know. It seems fine but ya never know.

2) The place to subscribe to our email list for sales updates etc. is not the same as the WordPress registration. It is over in the right hand sidebar under “subscribe to our mailing list”  You can just click HERE to get there too.

3) A little trash talk time. A couple people have sent me links to these Bat figures that heroes Club is selling on ebay. And I just have to spout off a bit. Firstly – I would hope that you folks that call yourselves bat-collectors would recognize that they just recast the Polar Lights Batboat figures. Here are the two sets of figures:

1. Polar Lights Batboat:

2. Heroes Club Figures:

Now, it really doesn’t take too much of a detective to realize these are the same figures. That would be fine too.We certainly borrowed some existing figures to make our gen 1 sets. But here’s the deal. Do the math. the Polar Lights Batboat is a 1/25 scale model. So these figures are (as you can see) much too small for the car. And the ones I saw were cast in a static posed hard vinyl and just look very comic booky, not like Adam and Burt at all. Comic Booky, small, poorly painted and crazy bright. And they did a piss-poor job of switching Robin’s bent arm to boot. I think these look ghastly.

So hey – if you want to chalk this up to trash talk – feel free. We’re going to be all out (for good) of our figures by April so it doesn’t really impact us at all. But if you’re buying these because you think $50 is a bargain – just be forewarned: You get what you pay for.  Not only that but our new run of figures is almost as affordable. (shhhh don’t let that out yet – it’s a sale secret!)

It’s the beginning of a new year and I’m cleaning out some old stock (as well as some cobwebs). I’ve got a very few sets of painted figures that came from our supplier a teensy bit off from our specs. Whether it’s a missing paint app. here, or a snapped off hand there, they are just not up to our standards. And so, rather than having us refurb. and resell them, I thought we’d open them up to anyone who may have been eyeing these up and was waiting for a drastic, unprecedented drop in price. SO – here you go, I’m not going to list all the little defects, but these are all only very slightly ‘off’ from the premium sets in quality but at least 50% off the regular price! You may have to reattach an arm or hand, or repaint a belt or something small, but that’s really about it.  If you’re handy with glue or a little paint and want to save some jing, this deal is for you. Contact me via email.

Pictured is our prototype set. They’re a little beat up from traveling to Tiki Con and we made a couple little tweaks to the final ones based on a few comments people made at Tiki. I know everyone says this but honestly – pictures don’t do these justice.  They are really, really cool in person. See our upcoming youtube commercial to see them in video.

Info on the figures:

• Produced in Asia by a professional toy design company
• Multiple articulation points at wrists & shoulders (or can be glued)
• Unfinished sets – No clean-up needed, and they are pre-assembled
• Pressure pot cast in clean lightweight urethane
• Sidekick’s hand can be made to hold the PMB! Batphone handset.

How are those for improvements?

So, does he FIT? Yes! With a few disclaimers. The Caped Crusader will not simply slide in behind the wheel, now that he has legs. Sorry. Blame Hot Wheels and their interesting take on the interior space. If you don’t do anything to the wheel – yes, you can squeeze him in there, but it will be a tight fit and he won’t be coming in and out much. But wait – you have options

Here’s the skinny on the fit.  The physics of the thing are such that Hot Wheels simply didn’t give us enough space to achieve natural looking, seated figures that would fit under that steering wheel in its current configuration without a bit of a squeeze. Sorry. Ain’t gonna happen. Believe me we tried. The figures just didn’t end up looking right.

BUT There are a few workarounds to this problem going from the very, very easy to the more involved. There are some easily achievable quick-modifications that will allow much more leeway to the fit. Some involve the wheel, some involve the figures, some involve the seats.

Read about those options HERE (you can also access this page from the main right-hand sidebar under “Pages”)

Hot Wheels Fire Extinguisher on the left.
Pimp My Batmobile custom Fire Extinguisher on the right.
You decide.

(See the message board for recipe)

Sorting, sorting, sorting…

Peter Smith from Screaming Tiki Con just announced that Mattel/Hot Wheels are going to be at Tiki Con next week (wow, next week) and as you may already know – PMB! is going to be there too.  So maybe we’ll get to ask them some questions about some of their batmobile decisions… Hmm.  We don;t know what they’ll be doing there but we heard they might be selling Batgirl Cycle 3-packs.  Our educated guess is that since Yvonne is going to be there – they’ll have some signed boxed sets for sale.

Anyway – just a reminder that we will be there as well. Tim Meyer from “TPM Customs” and Tara Taylor from “T-Wear”  and I will be at the show. And we expect to have some surprises (hopefully) but I want to dispel any rumors here and now:

1. We will not be showing/selling the completed new upgrade parts sets. We will be showing some of the new parts, but we are waiting for some parts to come in from a few more vendors still.

2.  We probably won’t have a complete fully-modded Batmobile on hand. Sorry. We’ve been too busy lately.

Hopefully the stuff we DO bring will suffice for a little while. Oh did I mention we’ll be giving away some cool stuff each day of the show?

Hope to see you there. Niles Ohio, October 17/18/19 Click on the sidebar image to find out more about the con.

-S

 Here’s the Dealer sample version:

And the more detailed production version that came out later:

Here is the original dealer sample Elite that I received from Replicarz.com. Note the mostly barren driver’s side dash. And the smaller detectoscope.

Now here (below)  is the current, regular production Elite. Note the new additions: Above compass lights array, Bat-Ram lever, 2 pushbuttons, the larger button. And the detectoscope has had a scalloped base added below it and the inset panel is up closer to the outer ring. Also note that the rollbar antlers are no longer made from the soft flexible rubbery material of the standard version but are a rigid plastic now.

I like the bat-ram lever, the 2 pushbuttons and the compass array lights but the detectoscope is still too small and the configuration with the buttons is all wrong. And we can only assume that maybe they’ll all be painted in the Super E. version? To date, for me, the single best upgrade that Hot Wheels has achieved is the smaller batphone.

So what’s remarkable or at least interesting is that – like with the older Corgi variations - there are some Elites out there that are slightly, but signifigantly different than the others. These aren’t just stuck on pieces, some of them are molded into the dash now. So the dealer sampler being a hybrid of sorts has to be Preeeeety rare. There were only rumored to be a handful when they came out (I only knew of 3) So do I have a unique one? I don’t think so. I think there were probably a few more that might have shared this lack of details, but we never heard much about it.

So anyone else out there got one missing these new Elite dash details? Let us know.

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