CLASSIC 'Bat-stuff' from JAPAN! (The COOL, the ODD-BALL, and the JUST PLAIN WEIRD!)

Oh the CRAZY stuff one can find, if one cruises the 'ol 'info-super-highway' long enough! Especially if you're a 'Caped-Crusader-JUNKIE', like the Loydster----and you're ALWAYS on the look-out for not ONLY cool Batman-related stuff, but even the out-right GOOF-BALL, 'laugh-out-loud'-funny-type of 'Bat-oddities', that are floating around out there! Particularly if you focus on stuff produced in the 60s, over in Japan!

That's why this here post has been put up, my friends! I've managed to find enough material, over the past couple of months, to practically FILL-up a 'coffee-table-sized' book! (Wait, The GREAT book, by Chip Kidd-- 'Batman Collected'--- has already done that!---- and YES, I do INDEED own a copy!--LOTS of 'Japanese-Bat-GOOFY-NESS' to be seen there!) Just a 'Google-search' for 'Japanese Batman toys from the 60s' will take you on a photographic journey you'll NEVER forget! 

This collection of pics I'm sharing, are just a couple-dozen of the BEST.... of the not ONLY neat-o-nifty-cool, but the silly, the truly ODD.... and the truly just plain WEIRD!  

I haven't done any kind of research on these items, and I certainly DO NOT read or speak any Japanese! So, I'll just share the collection with you in no particular chronological order! (More or less the way I stumbled across them!) I'll also just throw in my thoughts and occasional nit-pics / mental-brick-a-bracks, as we go along! AWAY we GO!!!----

Here's a few pretty COOL items first! Package art, for toy Batmobiles! Of COURSE--- The artwork BARELY resembles the ACTUAL products! As we'll see down just a few pics below! But, hey---- the artwork STILL ROCKS!--

The Batmobile in the artwork below IS pretty slick! (Dig those CRAZY wire-wheels & white-wall tires!) Bats and Robin, though... appear a little.... 'off'! The 'Caped Crusader's costume seems to fit a bit strange, and the 'Boy Wonder' almost looks middle-aged! (Check-out the receding hair-line!)---And--- here's the ACTUAL toy, out of one those SNAZZY boxes above!--- a bit of a let-down, to say the least!--- Cool, in it's own quirky-kind-of-way though!---Another 'Bat-ride,' out of it's box! Why is it.... gold??? With HUGE, light-up pistons, sticking out of it's trunk???----

The 'Bat-Boat'! Another let-down from the nifty box-art! The Bats and Robin figures are also 'reversed' from how they're shown on the box! Not to mention they look a little.... deformed!---I'll just let these following items 'speak for themselves'! Definitely items that were QUICKLY hustled out into a market that was HUNGRY for 'Bat-toy-product'!--- 'Bat-mania' INDEED!---

Now, for the 'so GOOFY it's still-kind-of-cool' section! The likenesses of both Adam West and Burt Ward are 'spot-on'! But why are they so.... happy???---No 'exact likenesses' happening with the package art below, that's for SURE! Batman, in fact... looks a bit... oriental!---If you can't come up with an original piece of artwork for packaging, you can ALWAYS swipe some original comic book-cover-art, (by Carmine Infantino, no less!) to sell your product! AND hey.... why NOT slip a RED Batmobile (with YELLOW highlights!---the 2nd one seen here, if you're keeping count!) into the background??!!??----Well.... I'll say this for the artwork below: it SURE is... 'original'! Check out Batman's 'Superman-pose', and... GREEN & RED costume!  Not to mention the (VERY cartoony!) depiction of yet ANOTHER RED Batmobile! (3rd in this series of packages!)--- Here we have a couple of items that are BOTH: quite GOOFY, and just a bit.... creepy! (more on THAT in a bit!)--- Wind-up Batman 'robots'!---

So..... WHY am I saying the 'Bat-Robots' are a 'bit...creepy'? Take a CLOSE look at their WEIRD, over-sized, 'baby-doll' heads!-----

TRY, just TRY to tell me those weird, 'black-pupiled'-eyes wouldn't follow you around a room, when ALL the lights were OUT in your house!!! (I can practically hear the main theme from the movie: 'Psycho' here!)

'Light-up' Bat-target-practice, anyone?----Another product, that I'll just let 'speak for itself'! ODD-BALL is an understatement here!---  

Finally, just so none of you would think that the 60s were the ONLY era of the ODD-BALL and STRANGE, when it came to Japanese-produced 'Bat-goodies'! FIRST---we have the 'wind-up-Robot'-version of the '89 Batman!----AND--- no kid's Christmas morning was complete, unless THIS unique item was standing proudly next to the 'ol Christmas tree!!!---

Back to the cool-Japanese-Bat-stuff, to wrap-up this post!--- Just as we kicked it off, we'll give it a 'send-off', with some GENUINELY super-neat-o-nifty versions of the Caped Crusader's logo! In the lingo of the 'land of the rising sun' of COURSE!-----

See you NEXT time, gang! Same 'Bat-time', same 'Bat-channel'!-----