Batmobiles – Part 15 (2023 Begins…)

So between the launch of the 2023 Mainline and the 5-car Walmart-exclusive series, we’ve got quite a few 100% new Batmobiles to take a gander at!

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Let’s dig into the Wal-mart set first. When I first found them, I was only able to get 4 of them (number 4 was not available). Luckily there was a huge Hot Wheels restock 4 or 5 days later and I got a number 4 without issue. I am a little curious though – sometimes Hot Wheels will release all but one of a set, sometimes waiting a couple of weeks before releasing the last one depending on its popularity. The fourth member is actually a non-reflective gold-colored 1989 Batmobile with a few little black lines as accents…it could easily be some kind of special release or commemorative edition, so I could see it being withheld.

• 1 / 5 – TV Series Batmobile
• 2 / 5 – The Dark Knight Batmobile
• 3 / 5 – Batmobile (2022)
• 4 / 5 – Batmobile (1989)
• 5 / 5 – Batmobile (Batman v Superman)

Now it just wouldn’t be a set of Batmobiles without the 60s classic. Like so many others you might just see the black body and move on, but if you take a second, you’ll see the blue flames. I was inclined to think that Hot Wheels has finally replicated themselves because I specifically remembered a black body with blue flames, but I gave it one more hard look right as a I sat down to write this: the blue flames are only outlines!

I don’t get why Hot Wheels won’t just call this The Tumbler but c’est la vie. It looks gray at first glance, but it’s actually got that 2-toned blocky / stripey camo thing going on with both gray and silver. It’s a great combination of colors that I don’t remember seeing before.

Next we’ve got a matte black version of the Batmobile from the 2022 film. This one sports battle damage along the lower edges of the vehicle. The distressed effect is something they should consider using more often.

“Number 4” is certainly the gem of the bunch, a 1989 Batmobile with a non-reflective gold body. As I mentioned before, it has just a few well-placed black lines here and there to give it some definition and comes across as some kind of special edition release.

Finally we’ve got a BvS Batmobile, a model we haven’t seen much in a while. This one has a metalflake finish in a very dark red, maybe crimson or even a deep burgundy color.

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The Batman subset of the 2023 Mainline starts off with the Tooned TV Series Batmobile. The main body is a metalflake dark red, maroon color. It’s adorned with a lot of orange lines, orange wheels, and a clear orange windshield. There’s also a bright Super Treasure Hunt version out there as well…but good luck on that…

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Last up in this batch comes from Hot Wheels’ 2022 line of ZAMACs! (If this is your first encounter with the term “ZAMAC” it’s an acronym referring to the constituent metals used in diecast Hot Wheels vehicle and their unpainted state. It stands for Zinc, Aluminum, Magnesium, and Copper alloy.) These are also Walmart-exclusive, though depending on your store you may see more of these than you can shake a stick at or you might not find a single one, ever. I went ahead and snagged one off of eBay while there are a lot of ’em floating around.

To be honest, the ZAMACs are hit or miss. Some of them look like pretty much what they are – unpainted/unfinished or rather freshly stripped vehicles. This 2022 Batmobile has that general rugged, industrial look to it, but in this case it matches up with the whole muscle-car design.

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Sooo not too shabby as far as new Batmobiles go! The ZAMAC 2022 version is an unexpected highlight as is the unique silver-gray camo on the Tumbler. And naturally that gold 1989 iteration will always remain a standout.

Total Batmobiles in Part 15: 7
Grand Total Thus Far: 257

More BATMAN on the MainLine

Another wave of 2022 was released recently and honestly I’ve see a lot of great vehicles, and that’s right, I’m looking at your “K.I.T.T. Concept Vehicle” and that Lambo Sian. We’ll probably take a closer look when I can get a little more organized here, but for the time being let’s focus on the 2 new Batmobiles we have to say hello to.

We’ve seen it in 4 different sizes, we’ve seen it as a deluxe RealRider, and we’ve even seen a couple of paint jobs. The scope of The Batmobile from 2022 grows by yet one more and now we’ve got a gray version to admire. Subtle for sure, but that’s what Hot Wheels be doin’ with their wheels.

“Tooned” has always been one of my favorite subgroups of the mainline, so to finally see a Batmobile get this treatment earlier in the year was a nice surprise. This time the feat was replicated with the TV Series Batmobile yet again, but now we’ve got that deep blue paint job in lieu of black. The little bit of added color actually helps the “Tooned” aspect as far as I’m concerned, and it looks like something we might see in an alt verse where Bat-Mite is elaborately – but playfully – pranking us all. Note: The “Tooned” TV Series Batmobile needs to officially become Bat-Mite’s thing that he whizzes around in – it doesn’t even have to be on roads, it can just zip around in the air, but I think the aesthetic would be spot on!)

That’s it for now, but as long as Hot Wheels maintains the “Batman” subgroup, we’ll be back before long!

You Want More Batmobiles?! I Got More Batmobiles…

Originally I was going to split this into any number of smaller articles, but being that they’ve all got Batmobiles in common, I thought it might make a little more sense to cover ’em in one single go. So let’s just dig right in!

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The first release I want to touch on is one the most fun and unique Batman-related releases I’ve seen in a while. Part of Hot Wheels’ 2022 Mainline, you might see it simply labeled as “Classic TV Series Batmobile.” But once you actually look at it, well, you’ll see what I mean about just how unusual it is.

If you’re not privy to all of the little tricks and gimmicks Hot Wheels uses to peddle their wares, you might see this and say, “why has this thing been laterally squished…?” In most years, the Mainline contains a subset of “Tooned” vehicles whereby this exact transformation is “performed” on random originals. It’s an obvious aesthetic once you’re aware of it and while it could come off as cartoony and overly toyetic, the choices are pretty tasteful and the idea isn’t driven into the ground.

I like the oddity of it all – like what possesses you to squish a Batmobile? It’s made all the more striking because of how long the Futura actually is (the car that the ’66 Batmobile was based on).

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Not too long ago we got that beautiful Green Arkham Asylum Batmobile, and now it would seem that Hot Wheels is getting to some of their color-swaps very early on this year. Now we’ve got a Red Arkham Asylum Batmobile.

Did we really need this one…> Eh, need might been a strong word, but I do chuckle at the idea of a red Batmobile and the AA Batmobile has always been a tad underrepresented.

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Ok, so do you remember those old Nano Hollywood Rides from JADA? They were/are little tiny renditions of famous vehicles. You can find themed packs like Back to the Future, G.I. Joe, and Transformers among others. Well, way way back, there was a set paying homage to Batman Returns. I covered these at some point and around the same time I also bought the ol’ 60’s Batman set…which I fully intended to cover as well, but then I lost it. I mean I knew I still had it and roughly where it was, but it wasn’t exactly in front of me.

Well a few days I bumped a box and through some kind of Rube-Goldberg-esque sequence a rather large LEGO was working on went splat amid what is basically a pile of old boxes, unorganized instructions, as well as various duplicates and spare parts. Naturally it all came down to me needing to find one or two very small, very specific pieces, and as I searched that forgotten corner piece by piece I found that Batman (1966) set of Nano Hollywood Rides, so yeah. What’s weird though is that around here you can still find that Batman ’66 set without much trouble, though the Batman Returns sets are long long gone.

Obviously the Classic TV Series Batmobile is represented. Tiny though it is, most major and plenty of minor details are retained, such as the 3 rocket launchers behind the cabin.

Also in tow is the old school 60’s Batcycle, complete with sidecar. Motorcycles with sidecars are one of those things that look more and more outdated as each day passes, but its inclusion gives the tiny cycle enough bulk to exist on such a small scale.

Last – and probably the coolest – is the Jokermobile. “Jokermobile” can mean different things in different context, though this version defers to 2 episodes of the 60’s TV series. According to the wider internet, it’s a custom build of a Mongrel T and it was also used in an Elvis flick, so that’s pretty cool. To me it looks a bit like an amalgamation of a roller coaster car and an old rat-rod. No word on what – if any – kind of arsenal was contained between and betwixt the panels, but knowing the Joker, I’m sure he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Since the individual photos don’t do much to convey scale, I wanted some way to show how tiny these damn things are. Sure, I could’ve grabbed a quarter or something, but why do that when my perfectly good 1:24 scale JADA 1989 Batmobile was literally right next to me?

Pretty cool, eh? Again, the big’un is 1:24, but I’m not too sure about the Nanos…1:80 or something like that maybe…? Lemme know if you know.

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Alright, we’re still hangin’ with JADA here, this time to check out the 1:32 scale model of the new Batmobile from The Batman (2022). I guess this popped up between a month and 2 months ago and boy was it plastered eveywhere! It was with the “regular” Batman stuff, it was on display at the end of an aisle, it was over with the other larger JADA models, and one store even had a stack right there in the middle of the Hot Wheels shelf space.

Overall it’s a good looking piece, though noticeably shorter on colors than the 1:50 Hot Wheels version. The build feels a little light, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s an extremely wide vehicle, and the density is somewhat spread out when compared to more compact vehicles.

We also get a nice lil’ diecast Metalfig with the car, celebrating the all-new Batsuit with Pattinson underneath. Just like in the film the Batsuit remains fairly minimal and unadorned.

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Our last piece is more JADA, this time centered on the 1:24 scale model of the 2022 Batmobile from The Batman. It’s big, though it doesn’t feel quite as long a Batmobile should be. (The majority of them are quite phallic, while this one is decidedly not!) It is, however, extremely wide.

If you have the other 1:24 Batmobiles from JADA, you’ll definitely want this one for your collection as well. It’s a solid build, the paint looks great, and my only real complaint involves the exposed engine bits painted a kind of dark gray instead of the chrome finish like on the Hot Wheels 1:50 model…I just feel like a little shiny accent will help all this black to “pop” a little harder. I am a little concerned about the soft plastic that makes up the step under each door. It’s definitely on the soft side, I just hope it’s more flexible than brittle. Some of the plastic extremities on these larger JADA models don’t tend to hold up as well as they should.

We get an appropriately scaled-up Metalfig with this model as well, and no, it’s not just an enlarged version of the one that came with the 1:32 version; it’s a new pose altogether. The figure is balanced enough to stand without the need of a base and the cape is made of some kind of malleable material like rubber (not sure if it’s actual rubber). The cowl accurately reflects Pattinson’s Batman with the exposed cheeks and upturned corner. Also of note is the markedly skinnier bat emblem on the chest.

Considering what some models and replicas go for, this is a pretty dang good bang for your buck at $20. It’s appropriate for display and there are plenty of companion pieces to make a real collection of. The Metalfigs are also a cool bonus and serve as a great visual reminder of how the Batsuits have evolved alongside the Batmobiles.

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Okey dokey boils and ghouls, that enough Batmobiles for you? It’s kind of an exciting moment for the Dark Knight, and I wonder what’ll follow considering the upcoming Flash film and Keaton’s reprisal of the role…will we get a 2022 update to the 1989 Batmobile!?