Saturday, May 31, 2008
Ghost of Bat Toys Past
I want your help figuring out/finding something that I haven't been able to, even with the magic of the internet.
And, when I say "you" I mean you, too.
When I was a little boy I had a Batman toy that I can barely remember, but that haunts me all the more for it. This would be contemporary with the Adam West television show. It was a set of cutboard or paper cut-out figures that stood up by means of a cross-piece in their bases. I think they would have been about 2 inches tall, perhaps.
I really don't remember exactly whether there were Batman and Robin figures, but I particularly remember that there was an Alfred, a grandfather clock, and the Hot Line on telephone stand.
Honestly, that's all I can remember, but I've never been able to confirm the existence of this pieces, let alone what they were and where they might have come from.
Can you?
I didn't have a Batman set, but I did have a Marvel Universe circa 1966 or so version (I got it in 1978, but there was a Jane Foster character and all of the designs were Kirby/Ditko/Heck/Colan). There were 3-D cardboard assembled versions of the main Marvel buildings (Baxter Building, Daily Bugle, Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, Avenger's Mansion, and a few others) and every Marvel Character in a 2-D cardboard cutout with the secret identity on one side and the hero on the other. There was a Negative Zone in the Baxter Building and some other neat little features. I must have re-enacted every Marvel story I knew and I kept looking for a DC version...
ReplyDeleteI have a vague recollection of Batman and Robin figures matching that description, and in my mind's eye I see them on an even more vaguely remembered gameboard (I can't call up the other pieces you described in my memory, though...)
ReplyDeleteWould it be this:
ReplyDeletehttp://bp0.blogger.com/_2kjisMm3M9Y/RlY4vJmEMRI/AAAAAAAAAxk/sAU2ku7_ask/s1600-h/activity.jpg
Sorry if that's not hyperlinked, but I can't figure out the tag format for blogspot.
OH MY GOD.
ReplyDeleteTHAT'S IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where is that?
I found that image at a collectibles site:
ReplyDeletetomztoyz.blogspot.com
A quick google search shows that Whitman made a few of these in the mid-60's (I've seen them in G.I. Joe and Zorro varieties, as well).
It looks like a couple of the Batman sets sold on ebay recently for about $200. So, good luck with the hunt... and glad I could help you out.
Hey Scipio,
ReplyDeleteI'm Ethan Kaye from Wizard Magazine. I dig the blog and I'm blogrolling it on the Wizard site, on my blog, Feed Me A Kitten (http://feedmeakitten.wizarduniverse.com/). If you'd like to add me to your blogroll, I'd appreciate it! And hopefully a few people will jump on the Absorbascon from the Wizard page!
-Ethan