The Toy Company HOT TOYS announced they will be coming out with a new line of 1/6th and 1/4th scale collectible figures based on the 1992 "Batman Returns" movie which stared Michael Keaton as Batman, Danny DeVito as Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. The Release Date is not set in stone but expect something towards the end of 2012.
OK, Mattel keeps cranking out all these cool Batman products I can't afford to keep up with, ha! But, here's something pretty cool that I might have to go without food for!
Here's a specially Boxed 4-Pack of some brand-new 2011 HOT WHEELS DC COMICS ORIGINALS NOSTALGIA SERIES Diecast Cars. Inside the cool window box are custom rides for Robin, The Penguin, Catwoman, and Batman! The designs are pretty cool, click on the photo above for more detail. Now, I don't really have any more info on these right now. Like, are they in stores now? But they're popping-up on evil eBay so I guess so. No idea on price either, but I'm guessing the retail price is probably around the $25 range.
We featured some of the earlier ones here on the BAT-BLOG.COM and if you'd like to see those then just CLICK HERE!
Yesterday, a Friend on Facebook suggested the idea of creating a few BATMAN Wallpapers using the "Golden Age Artwork" of Jerry Robinson as sort of a Tribute. Wow, what a great idea!
So, here are some backgrounds I made last night. The first two are images from 2 different comic book covers drawn By Jerry Robinson that featured the Joker. I thought these were appropriate since he created that character.
Then, the next two are a comic book cover he did with the Penguin ( That Villain's 1st Appearance! ). They also feature ROBIN, The Boy Wonder, another character Mr. Robinson created. It's also important to note that the last one is the Original Art for the previous image.
Just recently, on evil eBay, a Rare ROBIN The Boy Wonder PEZ CANDY Dispenser Prototype sold for $1540.00, wow! Back in the 1970's the PEZ CANDY Company came out with a set of DC Comics Superhero Dispensers. They made Batman, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and The Penguin. Now that was not a big deal really. They came out with new characters all the time. But the thing about these that were special were that they had "rubber heads" instead of the regular hard plastic ones. PEZ experimented with this on occasion & there are a few "Rubber Heads" out there. I don't know if they were created for safety reasons or to lower the cost of production, who knows.
But as a manufacturing company PEZ needed to create promotional literature to send to Retail Store chains so these places would order their product. So, from time to time, they would make these "fake PEZ" for the photographs, usually, before production happened. Most of the time they had already created a mold in which to make the product. OK, for a promo photo they added some ROBIN PEZ that they were considering. Why he was dropped nobody knows but my guess is that they thought he would not sell very well ( everybody will want "Batman" ) or they wanted a "Girl PEZ" to make sure that Moms bought these toys for their Daughters too. That might explain the weird fact that there is a "Wonder Woman" mixed in with all these Batman characters.
So now this long-winded story ( sorry ) gets to the modern-day Auction. This eBay Seller had somehow come across this RARE "Robin" Prototype that was still "MINT in Original Package" & never produced on a large scale. Like, I don't know the exact numbers, but they might have only made 10 of these & then how many of these exist today? So, in both the PEZ collecting world and Batman Memorabilia this ROBIN PEZ is super-rare!
In recent BATMAN AUCTION NEWS everybody is totally excited about a new piece of Original Golden Age Comic Book Art that has hit the market, it's the Cover Art to DETECTIVE COMICS #67! HERITAGE AUCTIONS of Dallas, Texas is offering it on October 27th,2011. The sale ends around November 15th-17th, 2011. This masterpiece was drawn by Jerry Robinson back in the "Batman Golden Age" era. It's also important to note that this cover was the very first appearance of a character named THE PENGUIN. It's an extremely important piece of Bat-History & my guess is that it will set a record price. Also, if you click on the photo of the artwork up above you can see a very high-def pic with great details, check it out! Oh yeah, if you wanna bid ( or maybe buy this for me as a Christmas gift, hint hint ) then just click HERE!
Our favorite Bat-Reporter, BATMOBILLY, spotted some very cool BATMAN Toddler Baby Books recently at a FAMILY DOLLAR Store! I think he said they were about 6 pages deep & the pages are very thick so they're safe for tiny children's hands. The artwork on these look pretty awesome! And at $1.00 each they're not a bad deal. Please be sure to click on the above photo for a larger, more detailed, version. ( Thanks Batmobilly!! )
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.
Well, it looks like Famed Pop Artist Christopher Franchi has done it again! He has just released a brand new Art Print that celebrates the 45th Anniversary of the 1966 BATMAN TV SHOW. The details are amazing & it features: Batman ( Adam West ), Robin the Boy Wonder ( Burt Ward ), The Joker ( Cesar Romero ), Catwoman ( Lee Merriwether ), The Penguin ( Burgess Meredith ), The Riddler ( Frank Gorshin ), and even the Classic George Barris Custom 1966 Batmobile Car! This is a High-Quality Art Print, Full-Color, measuring about 24" X 36". It will also be very limited to only 66 prints available. For more information, click HERE!
The Bat-Blog was recently blessed with a preview of a brand-new illustration by famed Graphic Designer Christopher Franchi. He's the Art Director for Metaluna 5 Media, which handles a lot of licensed properties like: KISS, Bettie Page, Alice Cooper, Star Trek, Superman, Spawn, Peanuts, Evil Dead, Betty Boop and the list goes on & on. Here is an EXCLUSIVE & Super-Awesome 1966 BATMAN WALLPAPER Chris created for the BAT-BLOG! Well, he did all the artwork & I put the Bat-Blog Logo on it, ha! Now, of course, this image relates to the 1960's BATMAN MOVIE because it shows Lee Merriwether as Catwoman. Plus, it's got the other Super-Evil Villains: The Joker ( Cesar Romero ), The Penguin ( Burgess Meredith ), The Riddler ( Frank Gorshin ), and the Hero himself, BATMAN ( Adam West )! The artwork is extremely amazing! The illustrations were all done on Cold-Press Art Board with Gouache and Colored Pencil. Then, they were scanned and assembled digitally. I like how each character has their own colored-outline, to make them sort of pop-off the page. There is also that "light ray" effect that's pretty freakin' cool!! ( Thanks Christopher, I know everybody is going to totally love this incredible Bat-Art!! )
Check out this great music video. Well, there really are not any visuals, just a still photo, but the audio is good. This is Burgess Meredith, as the Penguin from the 1966 BATMAN TV Show, singing his "Penguin" song titled "The Capture". Also pictured up above is the original paper sleeve cover for the super-rare 45rpm record. The music is actually pretty decent, WWAACCKK!
