Pimp My Batmobile!

Posts Tagged ‘mike stutelberg’

I always LOVED the 1966 TV Batcave set. Primarily because it was real. You could see it live, two times a week when I was a kid. The comic book Batcave, on the other hand, while cool – was never the same thing twice. It wasn’t real and depended entirely on whatever artist was rendering it that week to be interesting. Consistency was not a watchword.

That said, the comic book Batcave had some pretty cool stuff that they didn’t capture in the TV version: The Giant penny, The Robot Dinosaur, the Villain Trophies, Bat Gyros…the list goes on.

After much consternation about which version we should do, my 4-year old son, Alex gave me the simplest and most obvious (and yes, most challenging) answer: Why not combine them? Take the best elements of the TV Batcave and the best features of the classic comic book Batcave and do a mash-up.  Why not? So we decided to try to blend the best elements of the Batcave over the years. I have no idea how well it’s going to work, if at all. The 1966 TV guys will grumble about the Dinosaur, the comics guys will scoff at the ’66 labels on all the gear – but hey, it’s our project and this is what we’re gonna do.

My friend Mike Stutelberg, who has designed many bat-models for Horizon, Polar Lights among others, did a large scale Batcave diorama some years ago that featured a lot of the comics version, with not as much of the TV elements as we’re going to go for. But his work inspired me to think BIG. And so we’re going to steal emulate some of his work where we see it fitting into our project. When I say “we”, I am referring to my son and I. I have less and less time these days for selfish, time consuming hobby projects. This is something that we both can work on in whatever passes for spare time, and we both get to exercise design and building ideas. If you get a chance to build something, anything, even something as geeky as this with your kids – I say go for it before they turn into teenagers and have no time for you.

Mike Stutelberg's Custom 1:25 Batcave Model

Mike Stutelberg and his Batcave Model, circa 1998 (thanks to CultTVMan)

We roll out another one of our hopefully regular features as we cover custom batmobiles (and other bat-vehicles) as well as the strange, kooky and unique. In this first effort we have a little of all of those.

Some of you may have heard me discuss modeler/artist/designer Mike Stutelberg in the past. Mike is a huge bat-fan and has worked for some major model companies behind the scenes on many projects we’ve all come to love over the years including the Polar Lights comic-version Batmobile kits and the re-releases of the Aurora bat-models. Mike designed the masters for the Horizon 1:25 Whirly Bats and did most of the instructions and artwork for the packaging.

Over the years, I’ve talked with Mike extensively about his work with these companies and there’s a single thread that runs through the stories. Every time Mike has gotten in with one of these projects he’s tried to bring us real bat-modeling fans some new thing that would make our hobby more exciting or easier. And always, he gets really close with some small victories – only to have something big and great get yanked at the last minute like Lucy and the football. I’ve got stories and artwork and photos you wouldn’t believe.

One of the great “almost made it” stories is the subject of this week’s photo and feature. I am a die-hard 1:25 scale fanatic. I am very reluctantly forced to embrace this 1:18 world simply because I’ve been outvoted and outgunned but my heart lies in 1:25 scale. It’s one of Mike’s scales of choice as well. There have been great 1:25 Bat-models offered over the years. But you had to dig for them. In the 90′s we had some very nice 1:25 Batmobile kits and conversions by T&T, Magnetic Models, Skyhook etc. as well as the king of them all – The Caped Custom. I have built and sold scores of 1:25 Batmobiles and decided early on that it was the best scale for a Batcave diorama. Then someone (ahem) convinced Polar Lights to reissue their Aurora Batboat in 1:24 scale instead of its original 1:32 size. Hooray! The next obvious vehicle would be the TV Batcycle.

I remember telling Mike how long I’d been looking for parts for a 1:25 Batcycle and he said “Well, I’ve got something to show you I think you’re going to like.” Mike shared photos with me of this beautiful 1:25 TV Batcycle prototype master model complete with parts broken down for sprue-casting. Shown below is the original master:

As with many of Mike’s labor of love projects, the top dogs at the modeling company at the time took a look at it and said. Nahh. We’ve already got the Aurora Batcycle molds. People like bigger models. You can’t sell a 1:25 motorcycle kit. And so on.

As you can see from the photo of the prototype – it would have been a gorgeous model. But it gets worse. I begged Mike to send me the kit, convinced that I would be able to get enough garage interest in it to justify making a short run of the thing in resin for a select group of modelers.

But I received it right before a lot of things in my life hit the fan and it sat for a couple years. And a lot of things changed in the hobby during those years.

Many people got their hands smacked for selling garage bat-kits thanks to at least one malicious, misguided manufacturer. People stopped making and selling resin Batmobiles. I had a fairly nice big Mego-scale1:8 TV Batmobile kit (that will be featured later) that we just plain could not sell to anyone. It never made its molding and casting money back. Two modelers tried making 1:16 Batmobiles and the longest-drawn-out garage kit in history- a 1:18 batmobile kit – was eeked out by the ones and twos and nearly bankrupted the designer. In all – the garage bat-hobby suffered a major economic and interest-level downturn.

I could not get anyone interested in the idea of a 1:25 Batcycle kit. “Boy that’s small.” people would say. “Yes, but it will match your car and boat!” I’d say. And they looked at me like I was crazy. So I came to realize that nobody would be buying this kit if I were to make it and if I wanted the one-off just for myself it would cost upwards of $1000 for all the parts and decals to be done right. Well. I’m a scale stickler but – hey for that money I thought maybe I’d just scrounge one together on my own. Then Hot wheels came out with their beautiful 1:32 Batcycle (NOT 1:50, say it with me loud – NOT 1:50) and I almost cried. here was a diecast, beautifully done (the best of all their efforts in my opinion) TV Batcycle and it was TOO. F*&#ING. SMALL. But – not too small that we can’t put it in front of a 1:25 Batmobile and hope for some forced perspective action! So – here we are. I reluctantly shipped the Batcycle prototype back to Mike the other day. Maybe someone will turn it into a model someday. But for now – I will be breaking the cardinal scale adherence rule and hoping nobody notices.

So that’s the story of the Batcycle model that nobody wanted. Here below is a scale shot that compares the different Batcycle models mentioned above.