I hope this post brings back a lot of fond memories for many readers. I grew-up in the 1970's & was totally into comic books at that time, a super-collector! I even liked toys & action figures too but was not really a big toy collector like I am now ( In hindsight I WISH I would have bought a bunch of stuff then, ha ha ). I remember one day, in the mid-1970's, I saw an ad in the back of one of my favorite comic books. You could get a catalog for, I think, 50 cents + postage that promised to be filled with all kinds of superhero goodies. Because I was a big fan of this kinda thing I mailed away for one. WOW! Was I ever happy I did! This is the 1st Issue of The SUPERHERO CATALOG OF GAMES, BOOKS, TOYS, & PUZZLES!! This catalog was pretty unique for 3 main reasons. One, It was published in a comic book format. Two, instead of photos for all the products they were hand-drawn like comic book art, and Three, it was jam-packed with tons of very cool superhero items that, at the time, you would NEVER SEE at all the department stores or even the best-stocked comic book shops. Now, I'm mainly sharing the pages that are "Batman-related" but this baby was filled with Comic Books, Specialty Books about Comics, Star Wars Toys, Super Hero T-Shirts, Action Figures, Micronauts, Novelty Clocks, Mego Dolls, Clothing, and many many other pieces of merchandise with all the DC & Marvel Comics Characters you could ever dream about!! And, oh man, I used to totally drool over every single issue. It was just filled with magic & I would fantasize about buying everything in it. I remember that I did buy a few pieces from it. I used to (still do ) totally love those HUGE Treasury Comics that DC made. I collected them & the ones that were harder to find I would get here. I bought a few weird Star Wars items. I fondly remember getting a Star Wars Stormtrooper Costume Helmet. I also remember buying a few Mego Dolls ( in the original boxes! ). One neat thing about the art was that the whole catalog was done by art students from the Joe Kubert School of Comic Art ( still in business today ). Kubert even drew a lot of it & the stuff he didn't was still sort of drawn in his style. I was a big fan of his artwork at the time ( really loved his Sgt. Rock books ) so this was just a bonus! So, does anybody else remember these? If so then please leave a comment & share your stories. I know there's gotta be a lot of people who loved these as much as I did. Also, I guess, if you have never seen one of these RARE catalogs before then there are some really great collectible toys to drool over, ha ha!
I know this post has a ton of photos but I promise that if you look at them closely, one at a time, you'll see a lot of really cool stuff! These photos were sent in by a Bat-Blog Fan named Jason who has been collecting Batman Memorabilia for a little while , mainly carded action figures, but he has acquired an extremely excellent collection so far! Not only is the stuff he has pretty cool, but the job he does on displaying it is very nice, well done Jason. Thanks for sending us the pics. Now, I really like each & every item shown here but I gotta say my favorite pieces are the Mego Dolls & Super Powers Action Figures. I guess, mainly, because they remind me of my early years. I also love all the vintage comic books & posters too! You seem to be mainly focused on Action Figures, which is really great, but I like that you have some other items too like the Batman Board Game, Some Older Model Kits, & many Batmobiles...excellent! I want to invite all our readers to please share your collection photos. Sharing the joys of collecting is the main purpose of the Bat-Blog, thanks!
Alright, alright! I know that lately the Bat-Blog has been kind of crazy over Batman Costumes, Artwork, & Crafts but the retail stores are sort of lame right now with the New Batman Merchandise so there's not much to report there. So today I decided that I gotta do a post about Old Vintage Batman Toys because "Collecting" is a major part of this fan page. So...Here we go! This selection of items are all from the 70's. The 1st photo is a hard-to-find paperback Book published by Tempo Books in 1978. It's title is "Batman's Super-Villain Mazes". I love that Joker graphic on the front. Even without showing his face you know it's him, ha ha. The next item is from around 1976. It's a MIP ( Mint-In-Package ) Batman PEZ CANDY Dispenser. But the weird thing is that this one has a Rubber-Head. Yes, most PEZ have a solid hard-plastic head but in the 1970's they experimented with a few rubber heads. Maybe it was a safety issue thing or a "make more profit" thing, who knows. They released a few different characters with these & then they stopped. This PEZ is pretty RARE, especially in the original package. The next item is probably the rarest of the whole bunch. This is the BATMAN SOFTIES DOLL made by Mego. It came out in 1974 & it's sort of just a 19" plush doll with clothing. Now, I have been an extremely serious Batman Toy Collector for over 25 years & I have NEVER even seen one of these, loose or in the box! As a Vintage Toy Dealer I have found a few of these that they made of Superman ( loose, no box ) but that's been many years ago. If one of these pops-up in your hunt then be sure to grab it, ha ha! The last item is kinda cheesy but that's a big part of it's appeal. It's one of those "Grocery Store Toys" where the only thing that makes it "collectible" is the fact that the header card has graphics of Batman & Robin. OK, Now actually, this Rocket Toy ( 1979 ) does have a Batman Sticker on it. But I bet you can never find that in decent condition. It's very cheaply made! I hope you have enjoyed some of these blasts from the past. If you're a Batman toy collector, with any size collection, then please shoot us some photos! Sharing the love of collecting is what the Bat-Blog is mainly all about!!
Here's a quick post to share a few photos sent in by 2 Bat-Blog Fans named John & Mike. They're both very creative people & have made some really cool Custom BATMAN Toys!
John's story goes like this:
For awhile he's been into finding old broken action figures & improving them. He said he has always wanted to do a Custom "Comic Action Penguin" & he recently found a broken one he could work on. Now, for people who don't know, "Comic Action" Figures were made around 1976 by MEGO & they practically have a cult following. One thing about them, that gives them a lot of charm, is that they were kinda cheesy, ha! But John gave his figure some new legs & custom paint job. The result is pretty impressive. 
Mike's story goes like this:
Mike is a Father of 2 kids who totally love Cartoon Network's BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD animated series. They love to play with the toys and action figures of the characters from the TV show. But the problem was, no matter how hard they looked, they could never find the "Robin" figure & really wanted one. So, their Dad made them the 2 shown here. The 1st photo shows how he made a Robin figure to go with the regular Batman Action Figure from the toy line by Mattel. The 2nd photo shows a custom "Robin" toy of an "Action League" mini-figure. So, 2 different toy lines are covered here. Plus, Mike did an amazing job on these & the kids totally love playing with them! Thanks to both Toy Custom Artists for sharing their work. We want to invite all other Bat-Blog Fans out there to do the same.
