Batmobiles – Part 10

I know it’s been a minute, but I ain’t forgot about the Batmobiles! Welcome to Part 10, the first of 2 installments that we’re just gonna call The Big Guns. Parts 10 and 11 are all 1:24 scale Batmobiles from JADA and they’re the biggest ones I got – excluding LEGO, but we’ll get there later. I will say these are pretty good quality for only being ~$20.00; a lot of these realistic replicas are super uber laughably fragile. Most of these have a decent ratio of metal to plastic, though I do take issue with the way the fins on the Batman Forever Batmobile are made and I feel like the paint jobs in general are far too susceptible to scratches.

I’m dividing this into 2 parts because I don’t want to put more than about 5 to 7 large-ish pictures per entry, and there’s 10 of these Batmobiles, plus group shot, ergo 11 just seemed like a few too many for a single article. So we’ll bust out 5 right now, then do the back 5 with the big ol’ group shot reveal, for what it’s worth.

Also, I realized that scale means very little when these vehicles are shown in a vacuum and are all approaching that 400 to 700 pixel-wide range. So I got smart this time, and each and every 1:24 Batmobile is shown alongside its 1:64 counterpart. I’ve also “activated” any features these larger vehicles have, i.e. hinged doors, opening cockpits, and the like. Each of them also comes with a costume-appropriate Batman metalfig…for whatever reason didn’t think to include them in these pictures but I did get a pic of all the Batmans lined up.

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1960s TV Series Batmobile (1:24)
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At this size, this Batmobile is impressively long. I love the detail here but the seated Robin permanently affixed to the passenger seat sort of bugs me. Now if Batman were included, it wouldn’t be so bad, but the included Batman Metalfig can’t exactly “sit,” so no matter what we’ve got Robin stuck over there and no driver, ever. Either make Robin removable or give us a Batman we can plop behind the wheel.

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Desert Camo Tumbler (1:24)

Although pretty easy to find nowadays, I remember when this was the one I was missing! It was advertised, and I had gradually gotten ahold of the rest, but I just never saw this one until I’d had the others (minus the newest of course) for at least a couple of years. I think it’s a little weird that this always gets lumped in as a distinct Batmobile because Batman never had any use for a desert-camo vehicle. One of the first requests he makes of Lucius back in Batman Begins is that he wants it in black!

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Batman v. Superman Batmobile (1:24)

The BvS Batmobile was a Batmobile reimagined. I prefer the sleeker, flatter style of this version over the JL Batmobile war machine successor but who cares ‘cuz I bet we’ll never see either of them again. The cockpit doors have an interesting hinges; as the door lifts up it also kind of rolls to the outside. It’d be perfect for placing figures, but I don’t think there are any figures made for these things…oh well.

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Justice League Batmobile (1:24)

I figured we could go ahead and get this one out of the way since it’s just the BvS Batmobile with a big-ass cannon. It seems like overkill for the man that doesn’t kill people, though I guess it’s acceptable taking context into account. Look I really don’t have any hatred towards this or the BvS-mobile, it just strikes a sour chord when I think about how under-utilized – nay, wasted – their live-action appearances were.

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The Batman (2022) Batmobile (1:24)
(Click for full-sized image in new window.)

The latest 1:24 offering from JADA, this release coincided quite well with the release of the film. It trades in some of the usual length for width and tries hard to ground this vehicle in reality. It ain’t my favorite, buds;t we do get a pretty good scene with it in the movie and that’s about all I can really ask for. For the life of me though, I cannot figure out why the hood opens the way it does and on the edges no less.

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And there’s half of the Big Guns! Stay tuned for the rest, comin’ up real soon!

Part 10 Total: 5
Grand Total Thus Far: 237

2022 Treasure Hunt: The Dark Knight Batmobile

As the first wave of the 2022 Hot Wheels Mainline starts to trickle onto shelves this holiday season, one in particular has caught my eye: a shiny blue Dark Knight Batmobile (why won’t they just call it it the Tumbler!?) with a few jagged gray streaks…I’m not sure what the design is called. It’s like an artsy version of camo or something.

I managed to find 2 of ’em!

At any rate, it’s pretty much the same Dark Knight Batmobile we’re used to thus far but I do like the upgraded color. And seriously, one day soon we are whippin’ out all these 1:64 Batmobiles….

BATMAN Gets a New Hot Wheels 5-Pack in Late 2021

See, I told you more Batman was in store! Hot Wheels is constantly putting out these little 5-pack sets of similarly themed cars and Batman has been a staple of these releases for years, though it’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen a new one…until now(ish)!

Technically, here’s what we’re looking at:

• ’11 Dodge Charger R/T
• Batcopter
• The Dark Knight Batmobile
• Bedlam
• Velocita

The Charger is sort of the black sheep of the bunch…it’s a freakin’ cop car…a police car from Metropolis at that! I mean I get that Batman and Metropolis are all existing in the same fictitious continuity and all that jazz but it feels random. Why not the damn Gotham City Police Department!? Not only is that reflective of where Batman actually lives and operates, but the inclusion is reinforced by the fact that our Caped Crusader often works alongside the police in their endeavors to thwart crime. It’s tantamount to throwing a Keystone City firetruck in a set of Green Arrow vehicles. Don’t make no damn sense.

Ok, so we’re 0 for 1, but we do have the tried ‘n’ true Batcopter coming up. I still don’t know where this design was sourced from, but it’s been around a hella long time and even though we don’t think much about Batman in helicopters this little trinket persists.

In the middle we have the Batmobile that was used in the Dark Knight Trilogy, perhaps better known as the Tumbler. The gimmick here is that it’s presented in a dark blue color, which yeah, we’ve seen before, but maybe this is the first time they’ve stuck it in a 5-pack.

Next up is the Hot Wheels Original Bedlam, an aptly named car decorated after the Joker. This wild and unconventional take on a pickup truck is well-suited to the villain.

Last is another HWO, a Velocita, done up in the style of Harley Quinn. The sleek curves of the Velocita are a great compliment to Harley. The artwork is simple but effective and I can appreciate using different colors on opposing sides much like her older outfits. Even the front and rear tires are different colors.

The Harley tribute car is the reason to pick up this 5-pack. It’s a solid artistic vision on a design that feels Harley-ish, a mark that these tributes sometimes miss beyond reproach. It’s also a good way to add a blue Batmobile to your collection if you don’t already have one!

1:24 Scale Tumbler Batmobile (Desert Camo)

I’ve never really understood why the pre-black paint job Tumblers is regularly counted as “Just another Batmobile.” Batman never even drove it like this – he specifically talks with Fox about it “coming in black” and we don’t see this desert-camo variant until Bane essentially pilfers the Wayne R&D department and uses the model in his own army. Yes, this thing exists, but it was never really a Batmobile.

Nevertheless, here it is. And I must say, I was really, really surprised when I first ran across it. It was literally 2 or 3 or maybe more years ago when I first saw the 1:24 scale JADA Batmobiles on shelves. They trickled out fairly regularly and eventually grew to a line of 8 Batmobiles: the ’89 movie, Batman Forever, the 60’s TV series, the black Tumbler, Arkham Asylum, BvS, Justice League, and of course the camo Tumbler. As time went on I got the first seven but never even saw the camo Tumbler for sale.

About a year ago I noticed that JADA snuck in another 1:24 – the Batman Animated Series Batmobile. So that’s cool.

But then, probably no more than a couple of months ago, I just happened to spot that camo Tumbler and so without question I got it! I was hoping to see evidence of something totally new on the back – especially that new “The Batman” (2022) Batmobile – or even something a tad less prolific like the 40’s Batmobile, the version from Batman & Robin, or even the design we glimpse briefly in Arkham Asylum. No such luck. Instead the advertised selection seems to be capped at 8; Animated Series has been added but the BvS iteration has vanished…which I sortta understand…it’s just Justice League Batmobile sans mad guns, but whatever. I’d argue that those 2 are less redundant than a black Tumbler and a desert camo Tumbler.

Anyway, the diecast model itself is all fine and well. It’s nice and solid, the plastic and metal get along, and it rolls well. Included is a nicely detailed Batman figurine as well. I do appreciate that JADA manages to pair the correct Batsuit with the correct Batmobile.

JADA, if you’re listening, why not throw us a Battle Mode Arkham Knight Batmobile?