Wednesday, January 11, 2012

GIANT PENNY WEEK, epilog: The Batcave map!

Our epilog to Giant Penny Week is a Heroclix map of the Giant Penny's home: THE BATCAVE!


Bruce's study has three points of access to the Batcave:
  1. the service elevator behind one of the bookcases (which originated in the Silver Age);
  2. the bat-poles (!!!) behind another bookcase (from the TV show, natch); and
  3. the long winding stone staircase behind the grandfather clock (the usual means of descent during the Golden Age and early to mid Silver Age)

Rather than separate "rooms", the Batcave's areas are distinguished by levels (marked with numbers) as the cave floor terraces down to the waterline at Elevation 1. Batman's central 'work area' with the Batcomputer flows directly into the Batmobile's turntable area and the causeway out of the Batcave. Note the stone stairs go over the causeway and open up there to form a balcony looking out on the Batcave. As for how the Batplane gets out of the cave, um.... I dunno. A tunnel. Or a winch. Yes, it's usually a winch of some kind.

Most of the areas of the Batcave are pretty sparse, with just enough "stuff" to make each area unique. The exception, of course, is the hoarder's paradise, the "Hall of Trophies", home of the Giant Penny. I tried to use only trophies that I've seen appear there (or can reasonable infer). See if you can spot:

  • Diver Jones's tiger-headed diving suit
  • the giant eight ball (from a Two-Face story, as we've discussed)
  • Thomas Wayne's bat-man costume
  • a statute of the original Robin
  • a statute of Ace the Bat-hound
  • the Penguin's machine gun umbrella
  • the Joker-in-the-Box from "The 1,000 Secrets of the Batcave"
  • Mr Freeze's freeze-gun
  • The Red Hood's helmet and cape
  • the Tinytown house that saved Batman's life when he battled Dr. Doom, and the sarcophagus Doom died in
  • the harpoon cannon, giant die, and giant chess rook from that same story
  • trophies from the Killer Moth, Mad Hatter, and the Riddler.

Special thanks to Michael Bielaski for the robot dinosaur pic!

11 comments:

  1. Please, I'm begging you. Fix the aspect/stretching of your logo picture. It looks like my mothers TV set where she stretches 4:3 shows to fill her widescreen.

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  2. It corresponds well enough with this:

    http://www.comicvine.com/batman-the-1000-secrets-of-the-bat-cave/37-120833/

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  3. I don't have any idea what you mean, Odkin; and it looks fine on all of my browsers.

    Nathan, yes, that story was one of my principal references.

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  4. steve mitchell1/11/2012 4:50 PM

    I ran a 9,000-point HeroClix battle in the WizKids Batcave map once. I pitted heroes (from all sources) against villains (from all sources).

    One of the many epic encounters that played out in the Batcave involved my Ace the Bat-Hound conversion fighting Parallax. Amazingly, Ace survived the game; Parallax did not.

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  5. What dial does your Ace sit on?

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  6. steve mitchell1/12/2012 9:53 AM

    I'll have to check when I get home tonight. Not real powerful, if I recall; somewhere in the mid-teens. But it always does my heart good to see Ace out on the table!

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  7. steve mitchell1/12/2012 10:49 PM

    Hi Scipio:

    I had Dale put Ace on an Experienced Ashleigh dial from IndyClix, worth 18 points. That gives Ace Stealth and Blades/Claws/Fangs on the first click, no other powers beyond that.

    I also had Dale add a Batman Ally team symbol. That means Ace should really be worth a little more than 18 points, but the team ability only applies on the first click--and Ace was part of the Bat-family, darn it!

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  8. steve mitchell1/12/2012 10:51 PM

    Er, it means Ace gets Stealth all the way down the dial, of course. He just gets double-Stealth on the first click!

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  9. Heh, that's what my Ace use to sit on, too. Now he sits on the 20 point Talia dial from Batman Alpha.

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  10. steve mitchell1/13/2012 10:52 PM

    So that's Rookie Ace and Experienced Ace; we should look for a 22-point dial for Veteran Ace!

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