Here's a very well-made video featuring our friend Yuji Ueda. He's a big Batman Toy Collector & his main focus is the Japanese items from the 1960's. In fact, the video is sort of a tour of famous Vintage Toy Shops in Japan ( Yes, that would be my dream vacation, ha! ). But, as you'll see from this interview, he also likes the modern day stuff as well. OK, get ready to drool!
OK, This week's "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday" is gonna get really really weird, ha! First off we have a very nice piece of art sent in to us by our friend Gary. It's an image of one of the strangest Super-Villains in Comic Book history, COMPOSITE SUPERMAN! This weird character has developed sort of a cult following over the years & keeps making appearances from time to time. Basically, his costume is half-Batman and half-Superman. I don't know, I've always thought it looks pretty cool! If ya wanna learn more about this guy then just click HERE, it's pretty interesting stuff. Also, a special "THANKS!" goes out to Gary for sharing his awesome artwork with us, good job!
Next up, the Bat-Blog is mostly known for being a place where Serious Batman Toy Collectors show-up. The history of merchandise for the Caped Crusader is vast & we love all the cool vintage stuff that's been made over the years. One area of collecting that I have always loved are the Mego Dolls from the 1970's. In this wallpaper I used a simple clean photo of THE RIDDLER Figure. Go ahead, try it as a background, you'll like it, ha!
OK, The more I look at this image, the more I want to cry! The Bat-Blog has a cool friend over at facebook named Jean Baptiste. He lives in Belgium & is also a major Vintage Toy Collector. His main focus are old Japanese Tin Toys & Robots from Japan. He recently sent me this photo the other day of a beautiful 60's Batmobile Tin Toy Car from his collection. Now, I'm not sure if he was just sharing to be nice, or if he was trying to torture me ( ha ha! ). But either way, thank You Jean for the great pic. I love this old toy so much that I made two BATMAN WALLPAPERS out of it! Just choose the color you like, then POW! You got an awesome desktop background, ha!
Down below is an awesome Vintage 1960's Toy TV Commercial for the 1966 BATMAN AND SUPERMAN SPARKLE PAINTS Play Set made by Kenner Toys! It also includes an advertisement for another Kenner's Product, the See-A-Show! Now, up above I've included a reference photo of a different Kenner SPARKLE PAINT SET. This one featured just Batman. These babies are extremely RARE to find now a days because, back in the day, kids totally destroyed them, ha! I wish I had one of these because I totally love the vintage graphics on the original boxes.
If you have ever read the Bat-Blog for a few days or longer then you know I love the Batman Toys, ha! I like everything from the 60's all the way to today. But the stuff that's the most special to me is the merchandise made in the 1970's. You see, I was born in 1964 so I remember most of the bat-products on the shelves around that time. I guess you could say they were "the toys of my childhood". So, I'm sort of nostalgic for them. Now, in the 70's there was a "retail-marketing thing" called RACK TOYS. They were usually extremely cheesy plastic toys that were sold inside a clear bubble-pack on a thin-cardboard header card.
You would see them all the time at Grocery Stores, Drug Stores, & especially 7-Eleven! They were inexpensive & some modern-day Toy Collectors call them "Shut-Up Toys". You know, you would whine that you wanted it & Mom would say, "OK, here, get this one & be quiet!", ha ha! So, this post is dedicated to those wonderful collectibles from the past. Most of the photos are pretty self-explanatory so I'll just let you check them out. Also, if you have any special memories of this stuff then please share.
Here are some wonderful photos sent in by a Bat-Blog Fan named Neal who has some extremelty cool BATMAN items in his Toy Collection. Shown here are just 3 shelves of his stuff & it makes me wonder what other cool stuff he has, ha! But I really like this collection & love how it's all displayed, looks cool! ( Be sure to click on these small pics for larger, more detailed versions ).
There are some 13" Dolls, Misc Action Figures, Hot Wheels Batmobiles, & even some Vintage Toys like the 60's Vinyl Hand Puppet & Ideal Bat-Helmet Mask. Oh yeah, and the last photo should make you drool for days because it mainly features those beautiful MEGO 8" Dolls from the 1970's, plus a few more modern-day Custom Figures. ( Thank you for sharing this Neal, great stuff! ) If any other readers want to share their pics then please send us an email. That offer is always OPEN because the Bat-Blog is all about the joys of Bat-Collecting!!
One of the main functions of the Bat-Blog is to celebrate the joy of collecting Batman toys and memorabilia, both old & new. So, it was really great to get an email from a reader named Robson who wanted to share a few pieces from his Vintage BATMAN Toy Collection. Shown here is the 1960's Aurora Batman Model Kit, a couple of 1966 Coloring Books, and a 1966 Twistable Batman made by Marx Toys. The Coloring Books are kinda common but I have always loved the graphics on them. The Marx Figure is so extremely RARE that it's almost what Vintage Toy Collectors call a "Museum Piece". ( One last thing, I made the photo of the Model Kit into a BATMAN Wallpaper Background you can use to brighten your desktop - Click on it to see it's full-beauty! ). Robson, Thank you for sharing these cool pics. If any other Bat-Fans out there who have any pieces they would like to share then please send us some photos too!
I have been meaning to post these picture for awhile but here they are at last! Shown right here on the Bat-Blog is this totally amazing Vintage 60's Batman Toy. This is the BATMAN ACTIVITY BOX Play Set made by Whitman in 1966. Basically it's a very large paper place mat (you can color) that comes with cardboard punch-outs of Batman characters, building pieces, & vehicles. Oh man, this old toy is so beautiful!! The graphics are really great. Just look at all the photos and you will start to cry, ha! I love the stand-up people here, characters like: Batman, Robin, Alfred The Butler, Commissioner Gordon, Joker, The Penguin, a Policeman, & even Batman and Robin as their alter-egos, Bruce Wayne & Dick Grayson! There are some pieces for the Gotham City Police Station, the Bat-Cave, Wayne Manor, and also the Batmobile Car and Bat-Plane!! They just don't make toys today with this sort of imagination & quality. Especially since this thing was meant to be sort of inexpensive. So, I gotta know, what do you think about it? Please leave comments.
Here is a cool vintage Corgi Action Toys TV commercial from 1981 from Australia. It features popular heroes like Batman, Buck Rodgers and James Bond. It shows the Batmobile on the verge of falling off a skyscraper ( How did that car get up there? ). But don't worry, it's saved by the Bat-Copter!
I saw this incredibly beautiful Vintage Batman Toy on eBay the other night & knew it had to be shared. This is the BATMAN 2 Way Electromagnetic Battery Operated WRIST RADIO Play Set made by Remco in 1966. Even thought the actual toy is kinda cheesy, the BOX graphics are totally awesome! Check out the photos & get ready to start drooling.
Here at the Bat-Blog we have a friend named Ed who writes a blog called "Toys & Stuff". Basically it covers his vintage toy collecting obsession. He is also totally into creating extremely detailed train set scenes. Well, recently he did a blog post all about "How to Make a Batcave". It's pretty interesting, if you would like to check it out then just click HERE! Also, be sure to watch the video I posted here down below. It shows a lot of the details to his train layout. You can see the 1966 Batmobile 1:43 Scale Corgi Car around the 2:20 mark.
This week's "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday" is made-up of some Batman Backgrounds sent in by two very cool Bat-Blog Fans! The 1st one features a group of Batman Cos-Players in New Jersey known as "The BatSquad!" In costume, we see Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman and Robin... Now, that's serious fandom! The next pic was a photo shot by our friend Stephen of SMJART.COM. These are some older vintage Batman toys from around 1989. I think they were made to capitalize on the Tim Burton BATMAN movie craze. I remember these, they're great! They were very BIG Vinyl Figures of Batman, Robin, & Joker made by a toy company called Applause. The cool thing was that they went with a "retro comic book" look. ( I have the 2 Crime Fighters but I'm missing the Villain, ha ha! ) Now, when I say "BIG", they were around 13" tall, maybe a little bigger, & came with a display stand to hold them up. So, what do you think about these wallpapers? Love them? Hate them? I think they're kinda fun & I wanna thank the people who submitted them.
Shown here are a few vintage TV commercials showing an older Kenner action figure toy line called "Legends of Batman". I remember when these came out around 1994 & I was not a very big fan of them. Well, there were a couple of figures that were neat ( that I did buy ) like the Joker & Catwoman. But most of the figures were totally awful, ha! They showed the Caped Crusader in many different eras of history. We got stuff like: Guardian Batman, Cyborg Batman, Future Batman, Dark Rider Batman, Night Quest Batman, Silver Knight Batman, Samurai Batman, Flight Pack Batman, and the Sleek Batmobile. So, I guess I'm going to the trouble to post all of these videos here more for a historical reference than pure nostalgia...enjoy!
The main focus of the Bat-Blog is to share the joy of collecting Batman Toys and Bat-Products, both old & new. OK, I know we also cover the TV Shows, Cartoons, Movies, Video Games, etc...but we're mainly all about being a collector. Now one of my personal favorite areas of collecting is the neat stuff they made in the 1970's. I was a little kid during that period so they have a lot of nostalgia for me. Plus, they made a lot of wacky items back then, ha! Here's just a small example: Check out this Original Batman PEZ Store Display Box. The vintage graphics are wonderful. Back in 1976 the PEZ company made a set of PEZ Candy Dispensers of Batman, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, The Penguin, & The Joker. The cool thing, also, was that they had rubber heads ( instead of the regular hard plastic ). Today, these babies are extremely hard-to-find! Plus, why isn't the Penguin shown on the box? Strange.The next item is RARE too. Here is a Batman Finger Puppets Play Set made in 1976 by Ideal. Basically it was a set of molds where you could make some superhero character heads out of Modeling Dough. The next item is a Batman Toy Watch made by MARX Toys. It's from around 1977 & I totally remember having it as a little kid, ha! I have one of these in my personal collection ( but NOT in the original packaging ). The last item is one that I didn't even know existed until about a year ago & I've been a serious collector for 20+ years. It's a Batman L'il Zips Bat-Cycle made by AHI. OK, I knew there were one of these Bat-Cycles out there ( a larger one ) but this one is very small, a different scale. Hence the name, "L'il Zips". Someday this baby WILL BE MINE! I hope some of these pics bring back fond memories. I have a question...Do YOU have any RARE Batman Toys you would like to share? If so then please send us some pics today. Our email button is always on the top right-hand side of this page.
It's time once again at the Bat-Blog to post a few photos of some extremely RARE Batman Toys & Merchandise for Bat-Collectors to totally drool over! So, start drooling now. The 1st item is the 1966 BATMAN FLYING COPTER by Remco. It's shown here in the original box & I completely love the retro-style graphics. Next up, is the 1966 BATMAN FLIP-FLASHLIGHT. Now, talk about amazing graphics....this thing is beautiful!! It's amazing that it is still on the original blister card & never opened. As a little kid I would have ripped this puppy open at the store! You know, I have been an Antique & Collectibles Dealer for over 20 years, mostly toys. One day, along time ago, I bought an extremely rare toy, in the original box still shrink-wrapped, from a lady at a garage sale. I thought it was totally crazy that it had never been opened. I asked her about it & she said that she had bought the toy for her son for his birthday way back in the 1960's. She said that she had hid it from him, in the very back of her closet, & when it came time for her to give it to him she had totally forgot where she put it, ha ha! She said she panicked & ran over to Sears to buy duplicates of the toy she had previously bought! Then, about 35 years later ( around the time of this garage sale ) she found it. So, this sort of explains how items like this end up existing after all these years. Speaking of MIP ( Mint in Package ) items, our last item in the list is super rare to find unopened! This is the 1966 BATMAN BELT BUCKLE made by the Morris Belt Company. I've seen this buckle "loose" many times but I've only seen it like this maybe once or twice. Do you have any super-rare Batman Toys in YOUR collection that YOU would like to share? If so, then please send us some pictures, thanks.
I have a friend on Facebook named Gene who posted this amazing photo the other day ( and you guys know how I totally love vintage family pics ). Well, Gene was really BATMAN back in the 1960's & if you don't believe me then here's some photographic proof! He's shown here in his costume & it looks really cool! This was the 1966 Batman Helmet & Cape Set by Ideal Toys... ya gotta love it!! ( Thanks Gene ). Speaking of Facebook, if you're a member there then please join the Bat-Blog page by clicking the link button down below:
