BATMAN WALLPAPERS - Inspired by the Art of Alex Toth

For this week's "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday" I'm proud to say that the artwork for these 2 Batman Wallpaper Backgrounds were supplied by a friend to the Bat-Blog named Tom DeRosier. He said that when drawing them he was being inspired by the Comic Book Art of Alex Toth. Looking at them I can totally see the influence, especially the "painted brushstroke" black line. Toth worked in comics, on & off, for many decades. He was also a Lead Designer for Hanna-Barbera Animation. He worked on the 1970's SUPER FRIENDS Cartoon & this is where our friend took inspiration. Mr. Toth died in 2006 at the age of 78. I met him once, at a Comic Book Convention in the late 70's. He was extremely nice & a lot of fun to talk to. Plus, he was a GREAT Artist.

BATMAN - SUPER FRIENDS Model Sheets by Alex Toth

OK, this is pretty cool! In response to a few SUPER FRIENDS Model Sheets we posted recently another Bat-Blog Fan named Nick sent in some more that he has. These feature the artwork for Action Poses or "what Batman looks like in action", the dashboard of the Batmobile, & another mock-up of the Batmobile car (full-length). Of course the artwork is done by none other than the master, Alex Toth! Thanks goes out to Nick for submitting this wonderful pieces of bat-history.

THE SUPER FRIENDS Batman CARTOON ANIMATION MODEL SHEETS By Alex Toth!

I opened my email box recently & nearly cried! What made me almost cry? These extremely beautiful Batman animation drawings by Alex Toth, that's what! Our friend Scott sent these pictures of some real-life ANIMATION MODEL SHEETS that were created for Hanna Barbera Productions, Inc © 1973. They were made for THE SUPER FRIENDS TV Cartoon. "Model Sheets" are basically a blueprint for all the different Animation Artists to use as a guide. They help keep the artwork consistent & perfect ( In size, scale and color ). These show the Basic Batman Figure ( in costume ), The Batmobile Car, & The Batplane... or is it Bat-Plane? ha! Now, readers, you might check the Bat-Blog Archives ( located on the left-side of this page, near the middle ) because I have posted more of them in the past & they're always fun to see. Plus, I wanna thank Scott for sending these, they're beautiful! These really bring back a ton of wonderful memories of my childhood. I totally loved this TV show. OK, I'm crying again, all over my keyboard. I need a minute.

New Batman Toy - JOKER'S FUN HOUSE Imaginext DC Super Friends Playset

Fisher Price has come out with a new DC Super Friends Playset called "Joker's Fun House". It's from their Imaginext line of toys so it's made for very little kids but I gotta say that I think it's pretty cool & wouldn't mind having one myself, ha! Here's what the official FP website has to say about it:

Imagine a showdown between Batman and The Joker! There are plenty of traps and surprises around every corner of The Joker’s Fun House—Batman better watch out! The giant hammer slams down, the cannon fires, and there’s even a secret jail behind the moving hand! Will Batman end up The Joker’s captive, or will he be able to have it the other way around? Includes The Joker figure and getaway car; Batman figure not included.

SUPER FRIENDS - BATMAN MODEL SHEETS Animation Artwork by Alex Toth

Here are some amazing examples of the fantastic artwork of Alex Toth! Most of his fans know him for his Golden Age Comic Book Art but he was also a leading Graphic Designer in the World of Animation. In fact, he created most of the visual look for the Super Friends Cartoon TV Show back in the early 1970's & here are 3 totally awesome "Model Sheets" to prove it! A Model Sheet is something used by an Animator to keep an exact idea of what certain things are suppose to look like. It helps to make artwork consistent & sets the correct scales, sizes, & colors too. In these examples you see the ones for Batman himself, his Batmobile Car, & the famous Bat-Jet! I totally love this old animated cartoon & when I was a very little kid I really loved it too. I wanna thank our friend Scott for sending these great pictures & reminding me of my childhood. Also, I'm a HUGE Alex Toth Fan so seeing anything by him is a great treat.

New DC SUPER FRIENDS - BATMAN PLUSH TOYS by Sugar Loaf

Oh Yeah! You know those Character Plush Toys that are made for Toy-Crane Vending Machines? Well, there's a new company called SUGAR LOAF & they're gonna have some of the DC SUPER FRIENDS. In fact, if you're lucky, you might be able to find some right now, & if not, then very very soon! They have already started to pop-up on eBay so I suspect they're, like, totally available! In the 1st Wave of Plushes they made Batman, Robin, The Joker, The Penguin, Aquaman, Superman, & the Flash! These kind of remind me a little bit of the Beanie Babies sold by the Warner Bros Store many years ago...but way more cute. If anyone out there sees any different superheroes or villains then please let us know!

VIDEO: FAMILY GUY - The Super Friends Parody

The other day I did a post about the intro to FAMILY GUY where they made the show look like the old 1970's SUPER FRIENDS TV Cartoon Series. Well, here's a side-by-side comparison to show how great it really is!!

FAMILY GUY Does Hilarious Parody of SUPER FRIENDS Cartoon

In a recent episode of FAMILY GUY, in the beginning of the show, they do an amazing parody of intro to the 1970's classic animated series SUPER FRIENDS. Peter Griffin is Superman, Lois is Wonder Woman, Chris is Aquaman, and Batman & Robin are played by Brian The Dog & Stewie. The animation looks just like the old TV show & the sounds effects are exactly the same. Now, because the Bat-Blog is "all about Batman & Robin", I'm just showing a few screen shots of them. But if ya wanna watch the whole episode, for free, then check out the video on HULU by clicking HERE! One last thing, I know HULU doesn't work in certain countries & I apologize for that but I bet you'll be able to find it on MySpace Video or YouTube.

Vintage 1970's SEA WORLD & THE SUPER FRIENDS Amusement Park Theme Show

In response to a recent post here at the Bat-Blog, where we had a video of this subject, we got this Vintage Comic Book Advertisement. ( You can see the video by clicking HERE! ) I remember this ad! It was always on the backs of comic books in the1980's. It advertised a "DC Superhero" Water-Ski Theme Show they had at SEA WORLD. I always lived way too far away from these things to go & was always bummed-out by the distance, ha ha! But, other than remembering a serious childhood trauma, I do wanna sincerely say Thank you for sending it in, it's really a cool piece of Bat-History, from the "comic book character + Amusement Park" angle. I know lots of people will remember it fondly. Maybe they went. If you're a Bat-Blog Reader who has some photos or stories like this then please share them.

Video: Super Friends at the Water Park Show!

Back in 1979 some tourist shot this video so that, in the future, we could see it! This is the SUPER FRIENDS event at the Cypress Gardens Water Amusement Park. Performers dressed up as Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Mr. Freeze, The Joker, The Penguin, etc. all get totally crazy. Finding video, or even any information, about this event is really difficult. Plus, I don't think there is any audio in this video. That, or my speakers are broken, ha ha! But really I think the best part of the video is seeing the cool Bat-Boat! If you saw this event as a child then this video will bring back some great memories of a fun summer vacation!

Coming Soon: NEW HOT WHEELS Batman Batmobile 1:50 Scale Cars by Mattel

This is just a quick post to let people know about a few brand-new 1:50 Scale Hot Wheels Batmobile Cars that will be coming out later by Mattel in 2009. They are all a part of the WAVE 2 series of vehicles that have already started to come out. These will probably be the 2nd part of that set. Just check 'em out, they're really great! Here's the Super Friends Batmobile Car, the Tumbler Batmobile ( Camouflage version ) from the Batman Begins movie, & the Black Tumbler from The Dark Knight. OK, they're all very cool but I gotta say that I love that Superfriends TV Cartoon version the best!!

Vintage 1970's Batman Toys & Memorabilia - CRAZY!

The true main focus of the Bat-Blog is to share the love of collecting both new & vintage Batman toys. OK, I have neglected that a little bit lately, ha ha, sorry. So here are some wacky examples of Vintage 1970's goodness! The 1st item is totally crazy. It's a Batman Latch-Hook Kit ©1978. This was an arts & craft project where you had to weave small pieces of yard into a canvas material to make a small rug, it took days to make! I remember in my childhood my grandmother actually gave me one of these of Snoopy...it took forever, ha ha! The 2nd pic shows us the Official Batman Sky-Diving Parachutist Figure, Mint on Original Card. Now, you might have seen this figure before but this extremely RARE packaging was for the British UK Market & is different than the American version. The 3rd item is one of those wonderful "generic toys" where, out of the package, has absolutely NOTHING to do with the character. All the graphics are ON the header card. This product tied into the Superfriends TV Cartoon craze. The last item is one that I never knew existed & I gotta research it later for another post because I have never seen them before. The TOPPS Trading Card Company came out with a series of "Comic Book Cover" Stickers. As you can see there's a Batman Cover shown on the top left-hand side. OK, I hope you have enjoyed some of these wacky-crazy Batman items! If you have any weird pieces like this from the 70's then please shoot us a photo.

NEW BATMAN TOY NEWS: 2009 HOT WHEELS BATMOBILE VEHICLES 2nd Series

Photos for the 2nd series wave of Hot Wheels Batmobile Vehicles are starting to appear. The 1966 Batboat & '66 Batmobile Car with Trailer Hitch are in stores now & the others should arrive soon after. The top photo is from a recent Hot Wheels Collector Convention where they showed off the 1989 Movie Batwing, 1989 Movie Batmobile, 1966 Bat-Cycle ( reissue ), Super Friends Batmobile, & the Bat-Boat with 1966 Car. The next picture shows the back of the packaging for the Bat-Boat & on that we get to see the Dark Knight Bat-Pod Motorcycle, very cool! These vehicles are really great & I can't wait to get them all!!

New 1:50 Scale BATMAN Hot Wheels Batmobile List - By Mattel in 2009

The Official Hot Wheels Collectors website has just released information about their line of Batman 1:50 Scale Vehicles for 2009. It looks like they are gonna have a really great variety again this time too. The list includes:

• 1966 BATBOAT™ ( with trailer ) (SKU# N8016)

• 1966 BATMOBILE™ ( with trailer hitch ) (SKU# N8017)

• 1989 BATMAN BATMOBILE™ (SKU# N8014)

• 1989 BATMAN™ BATWING™ (SKU# P4407)

• Animated Series BATMOBILE™ ( with battle damage ) (SKU# P4408)

• BATMAN BEGINS™ BATMOBILE™ (SKU# N9235)

• BATMAN™ Bat-Pod™ (SKU# P3636)

• Super Friends BATMOBILE™ (SKU# N8015)

Video: Superfriends Cartoon Edited as Friends TV Show

If the TV Show "Friends" were really Superfriends, ha ha!

Looking For a Cool Batman T-Shirt at a Great Price? Try Here!

NEW BATMAN TOY: Fisher-Price DC Super Friends Shake n' Go Batmobile Car!

As one of my birthday presents the other day I got this extremely cool Brand-New Fisher-Price DC Super Friends Batman's Batmobile Car by Mattel ©2007! It's called the SHAKE N' GO BATMOBILE. Who's the cutest little car in all the world? You are, yes you are! This is one of the latest additions to the Fisher-Price line of DC Super Friends toys. Now, this is not to be confused with the "My 1st Batmobile" toy car vehicle that was blue, kinda large, & made for the action figures. This is a smaller kid's hand-size Batmobile & when you shake it the wheels start going & it makes "Zoom Zoom" engine noises like it's being started-up. Then, Batman says, "To The Batcave!" or "Turbo Engaged!". Then there's more engine sounds/phrases...very cool!

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS Model Sheets

Here's the original model sheets for CATWOMAN & RIDDLER done by Alex Toth for the CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS Cartoon ©1978 Hanna Barbera. As a little kid going to comic book conventions I met Alex Toth & he was really nice to me. I regret that I was too young to think about getting a sketch or autograph but we had a nice long talk. He was really impressed with how I was totally familuar with alot of his "Golden Age" artwork & comics. He asked what comics I was reading at the time & he said he read some of those too, it was cool. This was around the same time these drawings were done.

SUPER FRIENDS Animated Cartoon Model Sheet for Batman

In 1973 a famous comic book artist named Alex Toth was hired to create "the look" of the characters for the SUPER FRIENDS Animated Cartoon TV Series. Here's the MODEL SHEET for Batman....a great piece of ART!

Be sure to check the BAT-BLOG ARCHIVES for more original comic art related to Batman!