In The Name Of Progress…

Pimp My Batmobile 4 Comments

elite batmobile surgery  Well we had to do it. What started out as a quick, minimal disassembly of an Elite Batmobile to grab the batphone for molding for the upgrade kits turned into a full exploratory session. And we uncovered some interesting finds in the process.

First off –   All the sonic welds are MUCH easier to rip through for parts removal than on the Standards I’ve tried. All these parts popped out with some simple scraping of their weld divots.(note the detect-a-scope inner round screen remains as part of the dash and the housing around it pops off. Good to know for our new scope upgrade)

elite batmobile parts

Next, as you can see in the upper left corner of the photo below – the turbine engine is part of the front wheel assembly. Easy to remove but interesting physics going on there. I know it’s a fictional engine but  – yeesh. The sooner I get a Ford 390 in there the better.

elite batmobile engine

Next, we had heard this but hadn’t experienced it until now – the Elite seat-tops are rubber and removable. And the silver trim bottoms come off easily as well. All the better to try some of Futurabat’s new seat designs out on them.

elite batmobile seats

After removing several of the soft rubber pieces, we find that many items are much different than the ones on the Standard. Here you can see the subtle differences between the Elite center console and the one we cut out of the Standard. (you can see evidence of the trouble the older phone gave me)

elite batmobile center console compare

Probably the most interesting thing we discovered was that the 2-piece chrome dash pops right off. This will make installing the photo-etched dash panels that much easier.

elite batmobile dash

I’ve got to say – I’ve ragged on Mattel a bit but they really optimized this model for upgrades! They should put all the parts in a box and call it the “Custom Batmobile” edition.

  1. Wayne Faucher

    September 29, 2008 at 11:30 am

    Hey Scoot, are you making an upgrade for the ELITE only or will it work on the STANDARD as well? I’ve got a couple of spare STANDARDs, but I’m not investing in any more ELITEs thank you! And OK, I know this is a dumb one: Any ETA on the upgrade kit?

  2. admin

    September 29, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Hi Wayne, how goes the comics biz? All our upgrades will work for any of the cars, it just depends how much yanking, cutting or chopping you want to do. :) Obviosuly seats etc. will go more easily into the Elite than the Standard, but it’s all a matter of effort. The first upgrade parts set (due out by Tiki Con hopefully) will have parts that can be used on either car, some in conjunction with the PE parts etc. For a great thread discussing the upgrade parts in detail – go to the PMB board to this thread: http://pimpmybatmobile.yuku.com/topic/413

  3. FANofBATS

    September 29, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    Shoot! Now that all of the thugs on the street will know that a “stripped” Elite is much more valuable than a standard one, I better keep mine off the streets at night and locked up in my Batcave (err…carport).

  4. Bruce Bishop

    September 30, 2008 at 1:08 am

    The differences you found underneath are really interesting! I sure wish the Standard was as easy to work with as the Elite apparently is, because I plan on doing almost nothing to my Elite for upgrades. But even as lazy as I am, I still have a bunch of changes I want to make to the Standard I have disassembled.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *