Oh man, this New Joker Cop Figure is totally & completely INSANE!! Hot Toys continues to deliver more superior 1/6 collectibles to you with their new MMS-DX series. The first one will be a new version of The Joker from The Dark Knight Batman movie ( Heath Ledger ). This Police Honor Guard Joker costumes in Gotham City police suit and hat, wearing Gotham City cop badge and holding a M1 Garand Rifle. Moreover, this figure also comes with an interchangeable new make-up head sculpt and an improved original Joker costume with grenades rig. The intensive improvements include: additional suspenders, shirt and jackets, screen-accurate material of purple coat, re-painted shoes, and more... Now, hold your breathe and read this very carefully! The most valuable gimmick of the MMSDX series is the newly invented "Parallel Eyeball Rolling System (PERS)", which features Translucent Iris, Simultaneous Positionable Eyeball Function in all directions, they work naturally like human eyes. With this PERS, you will experience a perfect living 1/6 figure which you have never had! Take a closer look on the prototype images, you can clearly define his black pupil, clear iris and blood vessels on the tiny white eyeballs! Even more good news! A high-end figure stand with LED light-up function as well as a deluxe packaging will be added for all MMSDX collectors. OK, there's not an exact release date on this figure yet but as soon as we know, you know, so stay tuned to the Bat-Blog for more news.
WOW! There's some Batman-inspired artwork on eBay right now that I am totally loving! The artist's name is TOMMERVIK & his work is amazing! He does oil paintings of Batman and Robin in a cubist style & the color palette is completely beautiful. He also sells older pieces as a Giclee Art Print ( "Robin" example shown at bottom ). The "giclee" process is basically an art print made with an extremely high-end printer, very nice quality. Personally I would prefer the actual paintings...they're GREAT!
This video from Action Figure Times is a cool demo for the MY FIRST BATMOBILE from Mattel's DC SUPERFRIENDS toy line. It showcases all the sounds & functions of this awesome toy car...enjoy!
Shown here is an old advertisement for a special BATMAN 45 rpm RECORD that was "supposedly written" by Bob Kane, the "creator" of Batman. This ad appeared in the back of comic books in the late 1960's. Bob Kane wrote the main song "Have Faith in Me". It was performed by Hank Leids & the Bat-Group COURAGE. The song on the B-Side was titled "You've Got Me Crying". As a BONUS, when you bought this record, you also got a 4 X 5 photo of Bob Kane sitting in the original Batmobile Car, signed by him of course! This product was published by Downing Records. Now, I'm wondering... has anyone EVER seen this record or the autographed photo? It's gotta be super-RARE as, in my 20+ years of obsessive bat-collecting, I have NEVER ever seen it! If anyone has a photo of this rare gem I would appreciate you sending a pic of it to share. Remember, the Bat-Blog is ALL ABOUT the love of collecting Batman Memorabilia!!
When I was a little kid I used to totally love a special DC Comic Book titled, "PLOP! The Magazine of Weird Humor!" It had silly goofy horror humor & always featured really great artwork. Speaking of that, the covers were usually drawn by Basil Wolverton or Wallace Wood. The insides were mostly drawn by Sergio Anagones & that probably made me think of Mad Magazine since he was mainly known for being an artist there. Anyway, I would take my money I earned mowing lawns or what ever & walk a few blocks to the nearest 7-Eleven store. Once there I would get a Candy Bar, some Topps Non-Sport Trading Cards ( Wacky Packages! ), & a few Comic Books...sometimes an Icee Drink, if it was hot outside. It's kind of a stupid thing but these little trips are now some of my most fond childhood memories. I remember the feel of my fingers as they grabbed the metal spinning comic book rack. You'd give it a turn & it would make this squeeking sound that I can still hear today, "squeek, squeek!". When you spun the rack around you never knew what treasures would pop-up. I would mostly buy Superman, Batman, The Justice League of America, & sometimes an issue of PLOP! Yeah, good times, good times. Oh yeah, be sure to click on the funny Batman "Comic Strip" up above for a larger, more detailed, version.
Eidos has released a new trailer from Batman: Arkham Asylum, a dark, action adventure game developed for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. In this new video game, the player assumes the role of Batman as he delivers The Joker to Arkham Asylum. There, the imprisoned super-villains have set a trap and an immersive combat gaming experience unfolds. Developed by Rocksteady Studios, Batman: Arkham Asylum has an original script penned by Emmy Award-winning Batman writer Paul Dini. The game will hit the store shelves in summer 2009.
There's a new Batman Product that everybody is going totally crazy over, but is actually kinda hard to find, & that is these very cool "Batman & The Joker: Notebook & Video Game Console Skins". Basically they're a very high-quality vinyl sticker with custom graphics that you can use to cover your notebook or gaming console. They are made sort of like Post-It Notes where you can stick them on/off. A company called FATHEAD has made a few recently to tie-in with the Dark Knight Batman movie & they're pretty cool. I'm just showing a few examples here but overall they make them for the DS Lite ( Animated version ), 15" 16" 17" PC Laptop Computers ( The Heath Ledger Joker ), Playstation 3 PS3 ( 4 different TDK versions ), Nintendo Wii ( Joker ), PSP ( 2 Batman, 2 Joker ) & the XBox 360 ( Batman and Joker ). There might be some other formats at their website I have not listed & the only place to get them is there. Please use this link button to get there:
Here's an awesome Paper Craft Toy Figure of Adam West as Batman from the famous 1966 TV Series. The instructions are pretty easy. 1. Print it on card stock, 2. Cut it out, 3. fold & glue. It's an easy as pie. But I gotta warn you that once you start making these paper toys you're gonna go crazy & want to make more, more, more!((( You have been warned ))).
I received this e-mail yesterday, "Hi, I'm sending you some photos of me & my best friend with Joker make-up. It was difficult, this work took about a hour. We are both huge Batman fans and we love the Joker! And we are soooo crazy too, ha ha! We are daily readers of the Bat-Blog, so we are sending you this. It was kind of fun" Thank you "Joker Girls". You did a great job on the make-up effects, it looks great! Also, I appreciate the cool photos too...remember, y'all stay out of trouble!
I got an e-mail the other day from a female reader who said, "OK, so I go to a Vo-Tech School and I finished all my work early so I decided to use this time to work on my own personal piece. I designed and created it myself, out of metal using a band saw, drill, mill, and sanding belt...enjoy!"
WOW! Bat-Knuckles! Ummm, I don't think Batman would actually use these because they look pretty deadly, if ya ask me, ha ha! But the overall design is awesome!
Shown here is an awesome Custom Batman Mighty Muggs Figure made by an artist named Nico Deacosta. This one is inspired by the comic book art of Mike Mignola. Nico runs a blog where he showcases his talent for customizing Mighty Muggs figures. He's made a ton of them like Hellboy 2, the X-Men, Masked Rider, Hitman 2, Red Hulk, Predator, & many many more! Here's a link button to check it out:
The Bat-Blog is famous for it's "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday" event that happens, you guessed it, every Wednesday! Ha Ha, this week I thought I would try to mix it up a little bit & have 3 wallpapers ( we usually post 2 ) because I'm all crazy like that. Plus, I wanted to mix it up another way & have them all be radically different...or as different as possible but still keep them all Batman-related, whew! So, HERE...WE...GO! The 1st one uses an amazing piece of "Heath Ledger The Dark Knight Joker" artwork that was submitted by a reader named DC Miller. His work is incredible & I knew it had to be presented as a wallpaper. In order to place the image on the right-hand side I had to flip it but it looks great! ( Thanks DC for sending the art ). The 2nd one is a photo of Adam West from the cover of the March 11th, 1966 Issue of LIFE Magazine. This image is totally iconic...a masterpiece! The last one uses what is probably the most recent version of Batman & that's the character from the new BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD cartoon. Please be sure to let me know which one you like the best plus please send a link to all your friends or talk about it on some message board ( we're always looking for new traffic ).
While surfing the internet the other day I came across this photo of some Batman Vending Machine Figures. There was absolutely NO information about these & I'm wondering if any readers know anything about them. I seriously don't remember ever seeing them before so I think they're totally new & maybe not even out yet. It looks like they're gonna have 7 pieces to collect: Modern Batman, Retro-Style Batman, Robin, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, & The Penguin. If ya ask me, I think they look pretty AWESOME! If anyone has ANY info on these then please contact me...thanks.
Batman Action Figure Collectors will need to be on the look out for this brand new series of BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT Movie Masters figures. The set of four will include: Two-Face, Joker Thug ( Bank Robber Goon ), The Jail Cell Joker, & a very weird "Batman Proto Suit". I'm really liking these, they're very cool!
You might remember this video, I posted it here at the Bat-Blog about a year ago ( it's buried in the Bat-Archives now ). But a friend sent it to me recently & this one is a way better version, very nice quality! The basic story on it was that Blur Animation Studios created this CGI movie for Warner Bros to use in one of those "Virtual Ride" events at one of their Six Flags theme parks. It shows "you", as Batman, flying around Gotham City in a Bat-Jet chasing after many different villains like the Joker, Catwoman, & Mr. Freeze. I love the little Bat-Jet planes because they look a lot like the one from the 1989 movie. The video is extremely well done & is actually very fun to watch, enjoy!
As an obsessed Batman Toy Collector I totally love the "foreign stuff". A lot of collectors do because this merchandise, even with eBay's influence, never reaches the USA that often & when you come across it it's always super-RARE. I have always loved Japan & Japanese culture so to see bat-products made there has always been a treat. Here's just a few examples: The 1st photo is one of those wind-up figures of a "Movie Version Batman". From the look of it I would guess it was made during the "Batman Returns" period. I love the goofy look of this figure, it's great! The next item, this wonderful Batmobile Toy Car, came out during the 1992 Batman Returns movie. I love the graphics of the Bat-Signal shining over the skyline of Gotham City on the original box, very cool. The 3rd pic is something that's a little older because it came out during the first 1989 Batman Movie. They really went nuts merchandising that movie & even today there's a ton of products from that era. This wacky toy is a SOUND ARM Costume Piece. It was a bat-gadget thing you wore on your arm & it made a lot of different sounds. I bet it drove parents completely crazy with the bing bing boing boing sound-action, ha ha! The last photo is something that just came out maybe a year or two ago, in other words, it's pretty new. It's a pair of Batman Snow Boots. I always love the little kid's Batman slippers & shoes...they're so cute & great for display. Plus, if you don't buy them brand-new most of the time they're kinda hard to find on the "secondary market". Mainly because children totally wear them out! The graphics on this pair are AWESOME! I guess, as a last thing to say, if ANY Bat-Blog Readers have any photos of "foreign items" ( Both new or Vintage & not just from Japan, but from anywhere ) then please send them in to us. Remember, sharing the love of collecting is what the Bat-Blog is all about!
This Vintage TV Commercial will bring back fond memories to anybody who is over the age of 30! It's for a famous product called UNDEROOS which were basically little kid's underwear made to look like superhero costumes. I know that I personally had the ones of Superman, Batman, & The Flash, ha ha! My sister had the Wonder Woman set & practically lived in them, ha ha!
According to a report at the Newsarama website DC Comics will be publishing a new comic book format that is basically like a set of large newspaper pages. "Wednesday Comics" will be 14" X 20" broadsheet-sized, 12-part series featuring 16 stories starring DC characters told in a “Sunday Comics” style. It will be a weekly series & they're bringing out some major writing & drawing talent for this project. Also, each character, like Batman for example, will get a full-page story. Here's a list of the amazing art talent working on this: Kyle Baker, Neil Gaiman, Mike Allred, Brian Azzarello, Paul Pope, Walt Simonson, Dave Bullock, Dave Gibbons, Ryan Sook, John Arcudi, Lee Bermejo, Joe Kubert, Ben Caldwell, Kurt Busiek, Eddie Berganza, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and Karl Kerschel. The characters will include: Hawkman, Batman, Adam Strange, Metamorpho, Catwoman, Demon, Deadman, Kamandi, Superman, Sgt. Rock, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, Supergirl, Flash and the Metal Men. Whew! This really sounds like a pretty cool idea. Let's wish DC Comics some success with this! Oh yeah, almost forgot, this will be coming out this summer...so look for it then or stay tuned with the Bat-Blog because we'll be reporting the release as soon as there is a date.
I came across these the other day & knew I had to share them, they're totally hilarious! Here are a few MY LITTLE PONY Figures that have been completely customized to look like Batman, Robin, and Batgirl. These custom toys were made by an artist named Jodi K. Moisan & her work is extremely excellent! In fact, I wish that Hasbro would make these for real! She has done a ton of these & they are all really great but I thought I would focus on the Batman-related ones for this blog. But, if you're a comic book fan she also did many different Marvel Comics characters too & even some TV stars like Mr. T!
A new friend to the Bat-Blog, named John, sent us some very cool photos of some amazing action figures he has customized. They all have a cool retro silver-age look about them & he did a great custom job! Check out the pics of the toys he made. You'll see Superman, Batman, Red Tornado, Hawkman, & The Joker too! The detailing in the costumes is very accurate & these figures look AWESOME! Thank you John for sharing these, you did a great job on them.
Recently there was a Documentary Film I wanted to see but it had very limited distribution & I missed it. Well, I'm pretty happy to say that now it is on the Hulu website & you can watch it for free. It's about an 1 1/2 hours long & is pretty fun to watch. The basic story is about these 4 real-life people who make their living working as superheros on Hollywood Boulevard. I thought I should post it here because, besides being a very interesting movie, it has Batman as one of the characters. The four "actors" portray Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, & The Incredible Hulk. I should also add that Ghost Rider, Margot Kidder ( Lois Lane ), & Chewbacca make brief appearances. Here's a link button to check it out, enjoy. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention that since it has a slightly adult theme to it you will have to register with Hulu but it's not a big deal, you can do that in just 5 minutes.
