Batroom 2

I haven't got a whole lot more done on my Batroom this week because it has been WAY to hot here.

I did get my giant Batman night light hung up.

I also got some more of my Bat-things in my other case.

I would like to say that I am impressed with these cases.
I have figures standing in these cases and after a week and a half none of them have fallen over due to foot traffic.
This is the first room that you enter when you come into the house. (Why wouldn't it be?)
So it sees a ton of foot traffic and figures that I had had trouble keeping upright on a shelf are standing firm in the Detolf cases.

Elaine also had the brilliant idea of mounting the Batman Brave and the Bold race track on the wall!

This looks awesome!.
This is something you want to keep out but takes up room and the longer it is up the bigger the chances are that something will break.
Not if it is on the wall. There it becomes part of the whole display if not modern art.

I had worried about attaching the cars to the track but that ended up being no big deal at all.

The cars internal magnets hold them in place perfectly.

No, I haven't tried to run them while attached to the wall....... yet.

More updates to come.
(No, I am not taking any modeling jobs at the moment.)

Brian B

Mattel Superfriends Batman

Look at this guy! Doesn't he just make you want to smile? Just a few years ago, Mattel produced a somewhat short-lived line of of Rescue Hero-esgue figures and vehicles under the "Superfriends" label (Batman has a copyright date of 2007). Batman, naturally, is my favorite from the line. Several other characters like Superman, Aquaman, and even Hawkman were produced.


Even though this version of Batman is meant to be kid-friendly and stylized, he's one of my favorite Batman figures that has EVER been released. He stands proudly on my shelf and exudes classic "Bat-goodness" day after day.

I guess he's kind of a reminder of how fun Batman was to me as a kid and how fun he still can be today. Sure, I like Batman to be menacing and scary as much as the next guy, but you can't deny that there's something very cool and fun about Batman being depicted as he is with this toy.

Mattel also produced a very cool Batmobile to go with this figure, as well as a MattyCollector exclusive Robin. I'll probably do a post on each of them in the future.

New Batroom!!!

For my birthday my wife said we would redo or do up my Batroom/office!

I thought I would document the progress here for other Batfans to enjoy.

First thing we did was gut the room.


She wanted me to paint the room in Batman colors.

I thought I would use the colors from the Batman Mini figures. I really like these little figures and the blue and gray Batman figures are my favorite, mini's or regular size.

We started with the ceiling and gave it a fresh coat of white.

Our house has a picture railing through out the house so we decided to paint this section of the wall Batman gray.

(There is one section of wall that will not be painted. It is where we marked the kids growth at the beginning and ending of each school year for the 12 years we have lived at the house. That section of drywall will come with me if we ever move.)

The biggest parts of the walls we did in Batman blue.

(We were going for speed too so the shelves to the right I am going to paint later.)

We pulled out all of my books and painted the wall behind them Batman gray.
Even my ladder goes with the room doesn't it?

Now we are ready for the new addition to the room and the reason we have been rushing to get the painting done.

Detolf cabinets from Ikea!!

Elaine bought me one and the kids bought me another one. Two Detolf's!!!
Elaine wanted me to get three total but I thought two would be enough. (We will see!)

These look great in low lighting! (But hard to take decent pictures of)
I thought they would be cool to have but they were so much cooler than I expected them to be.

You had to buy the lights in addition to the cabinets but they are well worth it.
As a matter of fact the lights are what make the cabinets awesome!


The shelves filled up way faster than I expected them to.


One shelf done but it is still not in its finished state. ( I am sure they will change as I get out more and more of my collection)

Stay tuned for future updates on the room as I get them done.

If you have any suggestions for the room please send them my way too.

Brian B

DC Direct 13" Classic Batman

This is DC Direct's 13" Deluxe Classic Batman from 2007. DC Direct has produced quite a few characters in this format over the past 5 years or so. Some collectors love them, and some collectors aren't too happy about the line. The main problem most detractors have with this line is the scale of the figures. They are produced at 13" rather than the more traditional 12" sixth-scale size. This means they don't "fit in" too well with figures from other lines that are produced in the smaller 12" format. This point has become less and less valid as DC Direct continues to release more and more figures in this scale. They are their "own club." so to speak, and look great on the shelf together.


Classic Batman was produced as the 15th figure in the line and utilizes Batman's more classic blue and gray color scheme. Batman utilizes the standard hero body that DC Direct has used for most of these figures. This body has very good articulation but falls short in a couple of areas. It uses an odd cut joint at the mid-bicep point instead of hiding the articulation where the shoulder meets the bicep as most sixth-scale bodies do. So, turning the arm at the bicep usually leaves an odd looking "seam" around the bicep. The wrist articulation is limited, as well, as it is just a turning swivel joint rather than one that can also flex forward and back. However, I've been impressed with the general musculature and "super hero" physique that these bodies possess. Wrist articulation aside, this body has quite a bit of posing ability. For instance, there's even a well-hidden joint under the ribcage that allows the figure to hunch forward and arc backward in a very realistic fashion without the waist and ab details looking odd under the costume.



The costume on the figure is excellent. The bodysuit is fitted well enough that the musculature of the figure body underneath shows through to give Batman a very fit, heroic look. The boots and gloves are made of vinyl and look great. The boots even have small working zippers running up the calves. The classic looking capsule-style belt is nicely detailed. The cape is a nice material but I would have preferred it to be a bit longer. All in all, DC Direct did a great job of producing a high-quality costume for this figure.




Batman's head and face sculpt is very nice, as well. He has a somewhat neutral expression that expresses determination without giving him an odd grimace or a look of constipation.





Classic Batman comes with quite a few accessories. Included are a black plastic logo stand to help keep him upright on the shelf (although, you probably won't need it), a pair of "bat cuffs," an extra pare of "bendy" hands that can be posed in various positions, various batarangs (including a larger folding one), and a grapple gun, of sorts, with an enclosed rope. That's a pretty good assortment of extra "toys" that come with this figure.

With all that being said, this is one of my favorite figures in my collection. It captures Batman's blue and gray classic color scheme without looking silly or old fashioned. This is still a Batman you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley despite the bright blue duds. I understand why so many incarnations of Batman, in recent years, have gone all black or even black and gray. However, for my money, THIS is Batman's definitive look and the image that comes to mind when I hear the word "Batman." In a lot of ways, this 13" figure is what a lot of us had in our heads when we played with our old Mego 8" and Super Powers Batmans as kids.

Power Records: Batman, The Scarecrow's Mirage

This is mine from when I was a kid.
Power Records" Batman: The Scarecrows Mirage".

We didn't have DVD or VHS players but we did have ears and imagination.


This one is a 45 size but played at 33 1/3.
It is labeled a little LP.

This is just a jacket and the record but I do have a couple of the Power Records that came with a comic book attached too. I will post on them in the future.

I know it is hard for the younger people out there to imagine but we only had four channels to watch on television back then.
Those channels shut down around 1 a.m. and didn't come back on until 6 a.m. or so.
We only got cartoons for a half hour at lunch and maybe an hour after school during the week.
Then the big day for kids was Saturday morning.
It was kids programing until noon every weekend.


So if we wanted to see our shows we had only a few options.

• View Master reels
• Records
• Fisher Price Movie Viewers
• Comic Books

Most of the time we opted to just act it out and play.

I did find this record on the web.
You can download to it HERE
You can find just about every Power Record HERE.

Brian B

The Adventures of Batman and Robin, C6

The Batboat leaves freezing Oceana.

Be Like Bob

It is 1989 and I remember sitting in my seat waiting for the movie, Batman, to start.
I was excited to see Batman on the big screen but waiting was made easier because I had something in my hand to look at. The brochure that Brian A. posted earlier.

"Look at all the Batman stuff!" Was going through my mind.
I felt like I was twelve again and we had just gotten the new Sears and J.C Penny catalogs on the same day.

We were expecting our first child and money was being pinched until it screamed but I had a brochure to look at and that was satisfying enough. I enjoyed the pictures in the catalogs too even if I didn't get many of the toys featured there either.

I did get a ball cap though. Not through the brochure but at the mall.

I was wearing a Adam West style Batman shirt to the movie because the black shirts didn't look right to a boy raised on the 1966 series. The crowd was buzzing waiting for the show to start.

I did like the jacket that Bob Kane was wearing brochure but who could spend $50.00 on a jacket?

The crowd let out a cheer as the camera pulled back to show the Batman emblem on the screen.

•••••••••••

Time passed.
Some 15 years later I spotted an item that I remembered being in that brochure that they had passed out back in 1989.
It was at a house in our addition. They were having a yard sale and hanging up high enough for me to spot from the road was the jacket that Bob Kane had worn in the brochure.

I pulled over and looked around at other stuff that they had for sale. I didn't want to give away that I had stopped for the jacket. I would loose all bargaining power if I went right to it and drooled all over it.

They had quite a few superhero things and I picked up a set of Captain America mugs for fifty cents.

I asked the lady standing on the porch if she was the collector.
She said no all of it was her husbands. Poor guy.


I finally moved over to the jacket and saw that it had a reasonable price on it!
It didn't really look worn either. It was in great shape.
The Bat-emblem on the back was awesome!



I tried to talk her down a little but I was pleased with the price on the jacket and felt sorry for the guy whose stuff was being sold while he was at work.

Man was I proud of myself. I had THE BATMAN jacket from 1989!

I couldn't wait to get home and model it for my wife.

My boys were with me and thought that their Dad had the find of the century. They were probably just gauging that from my reaction of owning the jacket.

I already had the hat so now my assemble was complete.
I think we were going to a cook out that afternoon and I couldn't wait to wear it and show my friends.

I decided to surprise my wife so I told the boys not to mention the jacket to their Mother.

I got ready to go and came upstairs with my jacket on.
I had never worn a silk jacket before, it was styled in the eighties and it fit a little funny but I didn't care.

The look on my wife's face was priceless. But not in the way I had imagined it.
She said she refused to be seen in public with me in the jacket and told me never to wear it out in public.
I thought she said she would divorce me if I wore it in public but she says she never said that.
Well that was the impression that I was left with.

I see it when I dig for a shirt in my closet every now and then.

I asked my daughter, now 20, to take my picture for the blog.

My wife reminded me that once it is on the web it will always be there to haunt you.
My daughter tried to talk me out of having my picture taken and laughed at me in my jacket and hat. My wife kept telling me not to do it.



I brought up the picture of Bob on the computer to try to strike a similar pose and my daughter said "Mom he is trying to match something else. That is why he looks that way."

I posed and my wife shook her head.

So I have worn the jacket in the house three times.

I think I will put it on Ebay. Maybe my neighbor will by it back.

Brian B
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Buy this baby. HERE You know you want it.