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| Whether it's customizing another toy-vehicle into one, OR-- building and collecting models / replicas of one of it's various versions....the 'ol Loydster DEFINITELY just KEEPS 'Bat-rides-on-the BRAIN'!! So... why is the 'cartoon-version-of me' thinking about the '66 version of the Caped Crusader's wheels so deeply? Just keep reading & scrolling downward, you'll FIND OUT!! |
As I've no doubt talked about before, here on the bloggy-woggy-thingy-thang, I've had to keep MOST of my toys, doo-dads and gee-gaws in deep-cold-storage, for a WHILE now! Right at this moment--- that's approaching 3 YEARS! BUT-- that doesn't mean I don't occasionally stumble across something that just GRABS me! Some (usually 'Bat-guy'-related) item, that I just DIG so much, I end up latching onto anyway! Even though I know that it'll have to be 'stashed-into-storage' shortly after I get my little paws on it! (The 'living space' here at the 'ol 'cracker-box' is already pretty TIGHT!)
Speaking of stuff I've snagged, tinkered-on, AND already had to stash-away: ---starting just before Christmas-- and going on into late last month, I've tinkered-around with the following 3 projects--- of COURSE they're BATMOBILES! I would / could go all into how much my LOVE for that vehicle has DOMINATED my brain for a good CHUNK of my life! If you've been following me here for any length of time though---- well, you ALREADY know that!
SO--- without any further 'rattling on', let's just have a look-see at the latest 'Loydster-toy-Bat-ride-customizing-and-MAD-SCIENTIST-experiments'!----
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| Just before Christmas, I stumbled across this 'action-figure-scale' Batmobile at a thrift store-- for a 'whopping' dollar-and-a-half! (The above pic is a 'company image' from a web-site! Mine was a bit more beat-up / played-with by a kid!) It's a bit 'cartoony', and a little 'tank-like'! But-- it still has a VERY cool, almost 'steam-punk' vibe to it! (check out ALL those exposed rivets!) Of course, I saw LOTS of 'customizing potential' in it, so--- out came the screw-driver, (you HAVE to take these things apart, to customize them RIGHT you know!) clear-sheet-plastic and paint! |
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| This particular version of the 'Gotham Crime-Buster's' ride, (put out by 'Spinmaster' a year or two back, I believe) came with a kinda neat 'transforming' feature! The hood-sides, 'cannon-thingy', and front-fenders all popped-up and out-- whenever you closed the canopy over the driver's seat. My ideas for customizing this toy, of course, would do away with ALL of that! Mainly because I wanted this to be JUST the Batmobile, not a 'transformers' vehicle! I can understand why a little kid would think that would be NEAT-O though! |
Finally, after thrashing on it-- for a bit over a day-and-a-half or so--- that's a fairly QUICK turn-around for me on this kind of thing!--- HERE are some images of the finished-up, custom-painted (dark metallic bronze-- VERY cool!) 'semi-tank'-Batmobile! I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!---
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Next up, the project that relates to the cartoon up at the top of this here post! During my time-off from work, between 'C-day' and New Years (a MUCH-needed break from the 'ol work-place, trust me!!) I finally managed to snag--- through the WONDER of E-bay auctions-- some items that I'd been DROOLING over for well OVER a year-and-a-half! The action figures (from the 'Mcfarlane toys' line) of the '66 TV Batman & Robin, AND of course--- the Batmobile!
They were sold / shipped to me 'loose' / out of the packaging, which saved me some SERIOUS cash! ( I snatched-up ALL 3, for a little more than what the Batmobile alone would've normally cost.) Thankfully though, they were ALL in GREAT shape!
This is more-or-less what they looked like when they arrived! (Again, I'm utilizing a 'company pic' to illustrate here! Mine actually came wrapped-up in bubble-wrap, in a plain old cardboard box.)----
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| The Adam West and Burt Ward-versions of the 'Dynamic Duo', seated in their famous ride! Notice anything.... uh, WEIRD??? |
Generally speaking-- the figures are great (for 6 inch figures, the likenesses of the two actors are pretty dead-on!), and the 'likeness' of the Batmobile itself, is pretty faithful to the real car! It suffered from some fairly serious issues though! Thankfully, NONE of them were anything that a 'mad-scientist-type' like myself couldn't resolve! I recognized 4 pretty GLARING 'defects' in it altogether! In NO particular order then, let's look at those factory GOOF-UPS!-----
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| I checked-out a few 'toy-review' videos (on YouTube, natch!), where pretty much ALL the reviewers INSISTED that the figures were 'out-of-scale' with the car! I don't feel THAT is where the problem is! While the scale MAY be 'off' a VERY slight amount (5 - 10 percent, at most!), the ACTUAL problem is--- how HIGH the figures are sitting inside the car! More on this problem--and my solution--- below! |
OTHER issues were----
Once AGAIN-- out came the trusty screw-driver, paints--AND-- a JUST purchased 'rotary-tool'! (THAT is a 'generic'-type-term for a Dremel, folks!) I took the following steps to get this baby ready to CUSTOMIZE into a more RIGHT-ON & RIGHTEOUS '66 Bat-ride!---
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| There was a couple of REALLY good reasons for 'blowing apart' this Batmobile!-- 1. It was pretty much the ONLY way to be able to get at the 'bottom-half' of the interior bucket-- where all the modifications needed to happen! 2. It also made doing the painting on the interior items (not to mention being able to paint the trim on those front & rear 'bubble' windows!) WAY more simple! |
| THIS is where that rotary tool came in VERY handy! After cutting-out the 'seat-bottoms' (unseen, when the figures are in the car!) and a small section in front of where the figure's legs fit into the car--(unseen, under the dash-board!) this would place them nearly 2 INCHES lower into the interior! |
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| 1. The LAST, but VERY important detail, to take care of in this 'customizing-process'! The Batman figure's left hand was a 'clenched' fist! This of course had to be 'opened-up', (utilizing the rotary tool, with a drill-attachment! VERY handy --once AGAIN!) 2. so he would have the correct 'Adam-West-BOTH-hands-gripping-the-steering-wheel'-pose that would be JUST RIGHT! |
After a couple of days worth of thrashing-- (again, that's BLISTERING speed, compared to my usual pace with this kind of stuff!), here's the results of my 'customizing / mad-scientist'-session!----
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| The MOST difficult 'body-opening-line' to get onto the car!--- the HOOD-OPENING! I'm VERY grateful to sites like '1966 Batmobile' (a site devoted to the TV show car, of COURSE!), as well as the 'Jazzinc Dioramas' site! (They had a BEAUTIFUL, super-accurate 1/6 scale replica of the car for sale-- for a VERY brief time! WELL out of my price-range, of COURSE!)-- BOTH have numerous images up of not ONLY the car's exterior, but NICE shots of the interior as well! This helped me figure out --not only interior colors and paint-placement, BUT-- exactly WHERE all the hood, trunk, and door 'lines' SHOULD be on the car's body! With some CAREFUL placement of masking-tape, an X-acto knife, and LOTS of patience--- ALL of the 'body lines' are now where they SHOULD be! |
One more note on the customizing of the toy-'66 Bat-ride. If you happen to be an ULTRA-geek-a-zoid about the 'accuracy' of replicas / models / toys based on THIS particular car--- and, yes--- there's folks out there even more HARD-CORE about their fandom of it that even ME!!---- Then, you'll notice a few things that either I left unchanged (the 'dull finish' look on the wheels for example!), OR-- that I strayed a bit from copying the original 'exactly', here and there! (Like: the 'gun-metal' gray paint I used, on the front & rear 'grill / mesh' areas of the car.)
My response to that is--- I kind of imagine this Batmobile to be a 'season 4' version of the car! In other words, if the show had went for a 4th season--- (there were only 3 in the original show!) this might've been what a slightly 'spruced-up'-for-another-season' version could've looked like!
Hey, the producers of the show actually DID take the real car back to George Barris' shop for 'freshening-up' a number of times-- including between seasons, back in the day! So this kind of 'what if...?' thinking isn't TOO far-fetched!
This last (only for NOW!) project, was brought about through a gift I received at Christmas time! Though I didn't get around to tinkering on it, 'til just in the last week or two!
My son, Wade-- himself a pretty SERIOUS fan of the 'Gotham Guardian'--- gave me THIS!-- (Hint: it's my 2nd-favorite version of 'a certain car'--- of ALL TIME!)-- for a SURPRISE gift! And what a VERY cool gift it is INDEED!---
BUT--- before I go into all of my GUSHING about THAT little 'gift-project', let's pause for a moment, to give a healthy SHOUT-OUT to somebody ELSE who ALSO gave the 'ol Loydster a couple of VERY NIFTY 'Bat-guy'-related gifts for Christmas!!----
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| When I was opening THIS gift up, Shelby told me--'Dad, this was the PERFECT gift for you, because it's SO NERDY!' The remote is about an inch long, the TV, maybe 4 inches wide! you can view different scenes from the classic show with the 'channel' buttons on the remote! VERY neat-o! |
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| This second 'Bat-gift', is even MORE special-- because it's something Shelby thought-up and created herself! (With the help of a 'Cricut printer' she was experimenting with!) It now PROUDLY holds pens & pencils on my little computer-desk, here at the 'cracker-box'! She also, utilizing the above-mentioned printer-- created a 'History of Batman' T-shirt for me! Alas, I didn't think to snap off any pics of it for this post! (Maybe in a near-future post, perhaps!) Thanks SO much, daughter-o-mine! Love you to the moon and back! Even when you're NOT giving me NIFTY 'Bat-related' stuff! |
NOW--- back to that 'nearly-TOO-COOL-for-words' Lego '89 Bat-ride!-----
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| The car (complete with the 'machine guns' that pop-up out of the front fenders!---and-- a SPINNING flame out in the back!) and the mini-figures -- one a 'Lego-Michael-Keaton' Bats figure (of COURSE!) took maybe a grand total of 3 1/2 hours or so to put together! FUN to build, and-- one day-- (SOON, I hope!) a nice item to set up in a PRIME spot in the collection of toy / scale-model Bat-rides! |
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| 'Lego-Keaton-bats' and 'Lego-Nicholson-Joker' posing with one VERY COOL Lego-'89-Batmobile! Like I said--- THIS one deserves a place of HONOR in the 'Loydster-Bat-collection'! |
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All the projects above, have helped the 'ol Loydster keep that MUCH-needed circuit open-- that keeps him in contact with his 'inner-9-YEAR-OLD'! Every time I finish tinkering on some kind of 'toy-Bat-ride' customizing / model-building--- I'm taken back in time! I'm in my parent's living room, on a late weekday afternoon...it's 1973 or '74... and I'm watching THIS opening scene, ALL over again!----
STILL one of the ABSOLUTE BEST 'episode-kick-offs' / opening segments--- in ALL of television! 'Nuff said!!!! See you NEXT time, gang!
