Just over the past couple of weeks, the 'Mad Scientist' mentality has once AGAIN struck me smack-dab in the middle of what little 'gray matter' I may have left, in the 'ol Loydster-brain! This time, my 'raw material' was a 'Bat-ride' I'd already customized a number of years ago!
If you've seen the TRULY goofy flick, 'Batman & Robin' ('WHEW'! What a MIXED-UP MESS of a movie!)--- then you'll know that THIS little set of wheels is based on the Caped Crusader's ride in that movie. When put out onto toy shelves, in 1997, it looked like this----
Of COURSE, my own version of that particular toy, looked NOTHING like the PRIME, nearly-mint-condition-example above! Mine was more along the lines of the pretty SAD, pathetic-looking example below!----
This rather beat-down, sorry specimen of a toy, was actually given to me by some of my in-laws, who--- knowing that the 'ol Loydster was something of a toy-tinkering / customizing MANIAC--- figured I could do SOMETHING with it! This is what I ended up with, shortly after getting my grubby little paws on it!---
That's pretty much the way the car's looked, for the past nearly 15 years or so. When I first customized it, I slapped some custom-made (cutting the patterns from, if I remember right, coffee-can lids) fins on the rear fenders, as well as a 'Bat-head' / shield on the front. I also made a 'canopy' (for the cockpit / driver's compartment) from an old water bottle. I then recessed the wheel centers, sprayed it with some flat-black primer---- did some paint-detail work on it in a couple of spots, and 'WHAM', I had a fairly unique 'action-figure-scaled' version of Batman's 'big black car'!
That was the car's status, like I said above, for the last decade-and-a-half! Then, after doing all the re-vamping on the former R/C car, that I featured in the previous post-- as well as tinkering around with the two (roughly 1/64 , 1/50 scaled) teeny-tiny Bat-rides (also in the previous post!).... I kept looking over at this particular car, sitting RIGHT next to those others, on the SAME shelf. Next thing you know, the 'Dr. Franken-Loyd' side of my personality is taking over!
Before you can say : 'HOLY art-deco-inspired Batmobile, Batman!', I was scribbling notes and little sketches on any scrap of note-pad paper I could get hold of! After a few days of letting the ideas I had kinda 'stew & brew' around in the 'ol noggin---- I tackled the 'revamping / ZOOPING-out' of this car! I managed to complete all the tinkering on it, in a little over a week-and-a-half or so. THIS is what the Caped Crusader's 'Dark-Winged-Chariot-of-Justice' looks like NOW!----
Gee, I wonder WHICH previous Batmobile's color-scheme, just MIGHT have inspired the way this car is decked-out? Hmmm? There's just something VERY cool, about the combination of black & red! (With some 'gun-metal' gray here & there too, of course!)
The mods / revamps, to the ALREADY customized Bat-ride, went pretty much like THIS!----
----And, here's some more 'car magazine'-type 'beauty-shots'!----
Once again, another trip was made to the local 'Wally-world', for another brand-spanking-new Batsy-figure, to have 'standing at the ready', next to the car! Well, truth be told, the figure HAS to be standing OUTSIDE of the car----since the canopy is GLUED in place! (A figure CAN'T be placed INSIDE!) Oh well, it STILL looks WICKEDLY COOL, if I don't say so myself!
Now that we've spent a GOOD CHUNK of time here at the 'ol 'blog-a-wog-a-rang-a-dang-thang', visiting the world of the 'Gotham Guardian', and those crazy 'big-black-cars' of his--- I PROMISE the next post will focus on something COMPLETELY different (that I'm JUST as hopelessly GEEK-A-ZOID about,though-- no doubt!)! But, we WILL revisit the subject of the Dark Knight's wheels in the future! You might as well say, it's part of who I AM, and-- practically in my DNA, after all!
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