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Topic starter
18/08/2022 11:59 am Â
In 1966, I was working swing shifts at a chemical plant so I was able to watch 2 out of 3 weekly episodes of that campy fun series of "Batman". What really drew me in was that fabulous George Barris creation, the Batmobile. It was amazingly built within the 3 week deadline allowed by producers 20th Century Fox ans Greenway Productions. To accomplish that miracle, Barris bought the 1955 Ghia built Lincoln Futura from Ford for $1.00 and then worked his magic. I enjoyed the show, but I was absolutely hypnotized by the car. It was just the coolest thing I'd ever seen. The car was constantly upgraded on the fly as the old car overheated, the battery was constantly going dead and the Mickey Thompson tires kept blowing. Mid season, the engine and transmission were swapped out with a 429 Galaxy V8 and transmission.
Anyway, for years I wanted a precision model (forget the Corgi) so bad. Because the licensing involved DC Comics, George Barris and Warner Brothers, it was just too expensive for all those years. I found resin garage kits that took forever to properly finish along with aftermarket photoetched and resin parts that the project sat on my desk for years. Finally. deep pockets Mattel paid the freight andto amortize the tooling, created 3 levels of the model: a cheap one for the Big Box store, an upgraded "Elite" and the supposedly limited to 1966 units, the "Super Elite" which turned out to be an open ended run despite their pre-production promise. The Super Elite model was ALMOST everything I'd hoped for, except for the fact it's not 1/18 scale. It's about 1/19 which definitely show when I park it next to its predecessor, the Futura. The model faithfully recreates all the gadgets and gizmos as well as offering a phantom turbine engine that, of course was never seen on the show. The overall build quality is quite good as well as a significant parts count. What I never understood was the decision to slightly downsize the model from its purported 1/18 scale.
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18/08/2022 12:28 pm Â
Rich, like you, I find it odd that Mattel correctly tooled up proper 1/18 scale replicas but literally fell short on this car (which was so expensive to license). Also, I'm properly one of a handful of guys that doesn't flip out over the Batmobile. It's cool for sure and I've seen full size replicas but given a choice...I'd rather have the stock Futura or even the Munster's coach.
Glad you're happy though! 😉Â
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Rich Sufficool reacted
18/08/2022 2:18 pm Â
What I never understood was the decision to slightly downsize the model from its purported 1/18 scale.
I wonder if it was similar to Bburago's reasoning (many of their old models are off scale), in that they wanted it to fix in a certain size box. Seems dumb to me, as most collectors want the correct scale, but from a business stand point, it could make sense.
Great looking model, Rich...I forgot that Mattel did 3 different levels.
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Rich Sufficool reacted
18/08/2022 3:26 pm Â
Incredible detail! Thank you for another great story Rich. The car is no slouch either.
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Rich Sufficool reacted
21/08/2022 11:00 am Â
Rich, soooooo much of your story mirrors mine! When the Batman series was announced in 1966, I was very excited. The camp production element of the show disappointed me. I hated the show but loved the car! Indeed, that's an understatement! The car blew me away!!! It didn't look stupid like they did in the comic books, and I was just enthralled with the Barris Batmobile!Â
I also wanted a quality model of it. I found an already built (poorly, I might add) resin model on eBay that I purchased. It certainly wasn't worth what I paid for it! LOL. Also, it was 1:25 (or 1:24 scale), and I desperately wanted a 1:18 scale diecast version.Â
When Mattel announced they were going to produce the Barris Batmobile, that enabled me to cross another Holy Grail model off my list! I was unbelievably enthusiastic about it being released. Like you, I opted for the Super-Elite version. I actually had two of 'em, but I donated one to The Zone when the site was doing fundraising campaigns to stay alive. Â
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Topic starter
21/08/2022 3:48 pm Â
@marty-johnson I worked on that resin kit seemingly forever and never got the body to my liking. It was one of those early polyurethane castings full of micro-bubbles. Oh yeah, I also bought two. I paid full freight for the first and later picked up an NIB for about half the MSRP.
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Marty Johnson reacted