Building a 1966 BATMOBILE for 8 inch MEGO Batman

[Chris]

This is such a great project. It must be near impossible to do yourself.

[THE FALCON]

Was this ever finished? Was looking amazing.

[LonnieFisher]

Maybe same time next year...

...or even longer! September '09 was a long time ago. Anything else ever happen with it? I'd love to see this car finished. Maybe we could help out with whatever caused the project to stop.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

Ja, I have been patiently waiting to see this project completed...it's so great.

[Meule]

Would love to see it too

[TrueDave]

I have a plan I want to try to do it.

Enlarging resin.

I was wondering on an experiment with new stuff and I'm inspired!
I had that Futura Kit! Awesome idea. Like Crimson Ghost I really hope you molded those parts !
Awaiting the next part !!!!!!

[darklord1967]

Hi gang!

After some much needed rest from customizing MEGOs, I am back and ready to hit things hard again.

I am planning to mainly focus on the 1966 Batmobile project that I began a couple of years ago.

I should explain the long delay...

The project went on hiatus due to limited funds. Seems like a LOT of us were hit hard by this recession.

But even more importantly, the limits in prototype technology at the time I began the Batmobile, (and the fragile nature of the resin material that my one-off prototype was being made of) forced me to put this project aside temporarily. I wanted to wait for advances in prototyping technology to catch up to my vision so that the production of this car could be high-quality while remaining reasonably affordable .

I think that time has come.

Exciting new developments in 3D printing technology have come up over the last two years that look to be able to produce some parts with nice strength, multiple colors of available resins (including clear and black!), and parts with really smooth surface textures (requiring virtually no sanding). This is very exciting stuff, that looks really promising, and I am very close to making the investment.

I cannot say much more than that right now, but if things pan out the way I think they will, this project could get a MAJOR shot in the arm very shortly...

In the meantime, I spent the entire day in front of my computer yesterday working to create the final packaging design for The Batmobile in Adobe Photoshop.

I wanted to create a graphic that functioned as an updated tribute to MEGO's original Batmobile comic book art box design.



The main challenge was the fact that the 1966 "Futura" Batmobile has only had very, very limited exposure in the pages of Batman comics. So finding a suitable image actually became a very daunting research project.

In the late 1960's, the Batmobile of the comics was only loosely based on the design of the TV show car. It was not exact. No doubt, this was due to the legalities of George Barris's ownership of the TV car's design patent... and DC Comic's unwillingness to pay him royalties for the use of his car.

But somehow, in recent years, the Barris '66 Futura Bat has been occasionally snuck into the pages of several issues of Batman Comics, no doubt by baby-boomer artists who watched and enjoyed Adam West's and Burt Ward's adventures on TV when they were children. Unfortunately, virtually all of these artists seem NOT to be overly concerned with accuracy whenever they draw the '66 TV Batmobile. Many important details are typically forgotten, omitted, or altogether changed by pencilers / inkers who are working with poor model / photo references, OR (even worse) working with no reference at all.

To make matters worse, most of the actual Futura Bat's comic Book appearances were NOT usable for my box artwork due to (either) the angle that the car was drawn in, the minimal size of the drawing in the panel, the car being partially cut off or obscured within the panel, or some other unworkable issue.

Back in the year 2000, I began an Excel database spreadsheet of all known comic book appearances of the '66 TV Batmobile to aid me in my research. The database, covered the car's earliest appearances (however minor) from comics dating back to the early 1990's all the way up to present.

In the end, it was finally in a Booster Gold comic book, of all places (published in September of 2008), that provided me with the base image I needed. It was a bizzare storyline where Booster and his sister Michelle travel back in time and end up in The Batman's secret Batcave. They steal the '66 Barris Batmobile to make a hasty escape from Bruce Wayne's shotgun-toting butler Alfred!

As usual, the issue's (outstanding) artists (Penciller: Dan Jurgens and Inker: Norm Rapmund) were not 100% accurate in their rendering of the Futura Batmobile. Their few drawings and compositions of the car, while beautiful, would nevertheless require some serious graphic art alterations in Adobe Photoshop in order to turn them into accurate representations of the 1966 Bat. There was also the matter of replacing Booster Gold and his sister as the driver and passenger of the car with the more appropriate Batman and Robin.




4 days later (10 hours each day), (after I initially scanned the original comic art image into Photoshop and began my graphic alterations), the toy's box front panel had developed into this...



I thought it would be humorous (and totally MEGO-appropriate) to have box art where one of the characters (Robin) is looking directly out at the viewer. This is reminiscent of MEGO box artwork like the rope swinging Batman and Robin figures on the Wayne Foundation box, or the rope swinging Baman and Robin figures featured on the Batcave and Photo Batmobile boxes.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

^ Glad to see you are still alive.

[Captain_Mego]

Dude ...I love your concept art and your custom work Roberto. Simply outstanding as always. Not surprised this looks fantastic after seeing your box art. I remember seeing your customs years ago and was blown away but the detail and all out look of them all. Then I seen the box art and was like damn this is outstanding. Yeah I became a fan Still am.

[sprytel]

Very excited to see new updates on this project. That is a great image for the toy box.

[Janson]

This is super sweet!

[SeattleEd]

Awesomeness!
So looking forward to the final product.

[CrimsonGhost]

"Electronic vehicle"???

Hmmmmmmmmm.......

[Meule]

I am soooooooooo glad to see this project back on the tracks. Great art for the box for sure

[darklord1967]

Thanks so much for the encouragement, of my return guys. I never strayed too far, but I definitely needed to recharge my batteries by taking a break from my work bench.

But I must say, I'm excited to jump back into the thick of things!

"Electronic vehicle"???

Hmmmmmmmmm.......

Oh yes. That's always been the plan. It won't be an RC car or anything (in that regard, I'd like to keep the car "MEGO-esque" as a free-rolling toy). But the siren beacon, dashboard monitors, and rear flame exhaust will all light up with the flip of a switch.