(( Side Note: These pictures seen here can be used for desktop wallpaper )). One of the things I really love about doing the Bat-Blog is getting unexpected messages from Batman Fans who have some special angle on the character. Everybody seems to love the character for different reasons. For some it's the Movies, Comic Books, Toys, Animated Series, TV Show, Graphic Novel or Book, etc...and then there are the "Batmobile Fans"! They are totally CRAZY about the car! They love all the many different variations & eras. They love the "real cars", ones made custom for Movies or TV. They especially like the toy cars too! Here's a wonderful example: A Bat-Blog Reader recently shared some photos of a few cars in her Diecast Corgi Toys Batmobile Car Collection. In the 1st one we see the 1940 Batmobile. This car is one of my top favorites, very art-deco in design, beautiful. The other interesting thing about this pic is the use of the "Dick Sprang - Batcave Lithograph". Mr. Sprang was one of THE major artists of Batman's Golden Age! By accident, the same car is shown in this artwork depicting the early era of Batman. I like the ironic juxaposition here, kinda funny. In the next pic the art direction is pretty cool too. Basically it's a shot of the Corgi 1966 Bat-Boat ( from The '66 Movie! ) but the lighting is really harsh, like on a super-bright sunny day at the lake, & the boat is sitting near actual water. It kinda gives the scene an unusual amount of "fake realism"...but, very well done. Actually, they're great, thank you for sending them. If there are other creative people out there who have some Bat-Info, Pics, Art, Customs, etc...please send it!
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!
Yesterday, we did a post ( Part One ) that celebrated the Batman and Joker Toys & Statue Collection of a friend to the Bat-Blog, named Niko. He lives in France and is a very serious BATMAN Toy Collector. Well, this is "Part Two". It's focus is on a Display Case that appears to have been built-in to a wall ( See the 2nd photo ). All the other pics show the collected items on each shelf. The collection is very eclectic with a lot of variety so it's really fun to see. There are some Batman and Joker Statues, Lego Toys, McDonalds Happy Meal Toys, DC Direct & Mattel Action Figures, UK Eaglemoss Figures, Animated Series Diecast Vehicles by ERTL , Some CORGI Toy Cars & much much more! ( Thanks Again Niko! )
While surfing through YouTube the other night I came across this cool "Vintage Batman Toy Collecting" Video that features some wonderful Corgi Toys from the 60's and 1970's. Then, last night, I found this old CORGI TOYS 1966 BATMOBILE Store Display Advertising Sign, it's.. so... beautiful! Anyways, I thought these 2 items would go together nicely for a post to celebrate the super-awesomeness of Corgi! (Is "awesomeness" even a real word? I think I just made that up, ha! )
