One great reference for Vintage Batman Toys (other than the Bat-Blog of course, ha ha! ) are very old Sears & JC Penney Catalogs. You would be surprised what extremely RARE bat-memorabilia you can find there! Here's an example: In the mid-1960's they made a BATMAN PUNCHING BOP BAG that now is very hard-to-find, especially in MINT shape since these were all destroyed by kids playing with them. Also, once they leaked air then out in the trash they went! If there are any readers who collect these catalogs then please send us some scans. Thanks.
Short video from www.ibelieveinharveydent.com where Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) shows her support for her boss, Harvey Dent. Do you believe in him? I do, I believe in Harvey Dent.
They just keep creating them, ha ha! Here's another viral marketing site for The Dark Knight Batman Movie called CITIZENS FOR BATMAN! It seems that politics are getting kinda heated in Gotham City & some politicians want to have Batman placed under arrest! This page was made for all of the concerned citizens who don't want Batman arrested. In other words, it's for people who believe in what he's doing & actually care! At the bottom of their website you can send an e-mail & since I just signed up I don't know what they're planning to do just yet but it doesn't matter because Batman needs us!! So, be a good citizen, and sign-up!!
Our friend Guenter, who lives in Germany, recently sent us these photos he took at an outdoor event in 1990. The cute kid is his son who, at the time of the photo, was 5 years old. His name is Meik & it must have been a great experience for him to see the real 1966 Batmobile! In fact, in the last photo, it looks like he's trying to steal it, ha ha! I don't know why, but I love it when people share their personal photos & stories. It really puts a human touch on the whole "Batman Fan" thing. Guenter, Thanks for sending the wonderful photos, I appreciate that. They're great! Readers, be sure to click the above photos for a larger, more detailed, version. Also, be sure to send us some of your favorite pics! The e-mail button is always on the top right-hand side of this blog.
Even though I enjoy ALL the many different pieces of Batman Memorabilia that's out there, from the past to the present modern-day, some of my favorites are the ones from the 1960's when the 1966 TV Show was popular. Here are some examples. The 1st photo is an extremely RARE Batman Slide Puzzle, Mint on Original Card. As a little kid I remember enjoying these a lot but most of the time they were very frustrating, ha ha! The next item is pretty RARE also. It's a Stardust-Batman Paint-By-Numbers Kit made by Hasbro, still in it's original box. It had 2 velvet-canvas pictures that you could paint with acrylics...groovy! The last photo is a Bat-Fan favorite. It's the Flying Batman Figure by TransOgram. Basically it's a vaccum-molded glider in the shape of the Dark Knight himself. It had a launcher with a rubber band to shoot him into the air. As a vintage toy dealer I have had a few of these & they are always wasted! The plastic they used to make it was very fragile & always cracked from use, very hard-to-find in mint shape. I know that many of you readers probably have some RARE 60's or 70's items so please send us a photo if ya have one. The Bat-Blog is all about sharing our love of the collecting hobby.
The Cartoon Network as announced that they will be doing a new Batman animated cartoon TV series called BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. It looks like they're giving the franchise a whole new look & it will be modeled after the original comic book series where each episode they will feature a different DC Universe character teaming up with the Dark Knight. It's scheduled to be released later this year in fall 2008. This, of course, will create a whole new reason for new toys & merchandising so be sure to check with the Bat-Blog in the near future for that information...we're excited! Oh yeah, about the 2 graphics featured here, they're both Batman Desktop Wallpapers! Please feel free to decorate your PC desktop or use them in a MySpace layout!
"Holy Scavenger Hunt, Batman!" When the News Anchor Shauna Lake ( Channel 2 News ) said that phrase I laughed so hard I almost shot coffee out of my nose, ha ha ha! Anyway, here's an original TV News broadcast from Salt Lake City, Utah of a story about the recent "CLOWN TRAVEL AGENCY" Viral Marketing Campaign for The Dark Knight 2008 Batman Movie. This is, of course, about some Batman Fans who hit some bowling alley to find the Joker Bowling Ball, Joker Playing Card, Joker Cel Phone, & other promo materials hidden in a locker.
I wanna thank our friend Dave for sending this really wonderful vintage photo he recently found. It shows some early Bat-Nerds circa 1966! ( I mean "Bat-Nerds" in a good way, ha ha. ) The costumes are home-made but they look great. Thank you Dave. Be sure to click on the photo for a larger, more detailed, version. We wanna invite all our Bat-Blog Readers to send in their Halloween memories. You can find the "e-mail button" on the top right-hand side of this page.
Today, April 4th, would have been Heath Ledger's 29th birthday. He was born in Perth, Australia in 1979. This is his 1st birthday since his death & I thought it would be nice to do a small tribute. He was a great actor but was also a person who was loved by many. All the reports I have ever read said he was a really nice guy, that's cool. He will be missed. My warmest & most sincere thoughts go out to his friends & family members who must be having a really hard time today. Happy Birthday Heath!
One of our friends from Germany, named Guenter, recently sent us some great photos where he wrote this e-mail, "I would like to show you some pictures I took in the year 2005 during a comic convention in Essen Germany called "Comic Aktion". Always a nice convention and a "I must be there" for me . Comic Artist Eduardo Rissow was one of the special guests there. So I was able to show him one of my favorite cold-cast statue figures. The 1st Batman Black & white statue, the beginning of an amazing series of great sculptures. Sculpted by Tony Cipriano. This first-in-a-series statue designed by Eduardo Risso, known for his work on 100 Bullets and Batman. The true essence of a complex hero is captured in this black-and-white sculpture inspired by Batman: Black and White, the mini-series of short stories by some of the top award-winning talent in the industry, showcasing noir-flavored tales of the Dark Knight. Mr. Rissow was very pleased and astonished because he saw his B&W-Statue for the FIRST time. Yes, the first time!I could not believe it! So I did take some pictures of the first meeting. At last, Mr. Rissow signed the statue on the base for me." Whew! Thanks Guenter, the photos are really wonderful & I like the details of your story. That's pretty cool that this was the 1st time he had seen the finished product. That must have been really nice meeting him. He sounds like a nice guy. Of course all the Bat-Blog Readers know about these statues & many collect them. I think it's a great series & there are a few I plan on getting for myself. Thanks again for sending the great photos & sharing your story. We want to invite ALL Bat-Blog Readers to do the same!
The NECA Toy Company, well know for their very detailed action figures & bobbing-head nodders, will be releasing a ton of different Batman & Joker products for the 2008 DARK KNIGHT movie. Shown here are 2 Bobble Head Nodders of Christian Bale as Batman & Heath Ledger as The Joker. Wow! The sculpting on these are amazing. They look exactly like the actor's faces! ( Be sure to click on the above photo for a larger, more detailed, picture ). They are also planning a few other wacky pieces of bat-memorabilia. We'll have to wait & see but I like these so far. Stay tuned with the bat-Blog because we'll always keep you up to date on new toys.
There's been a lot of hype about the Joker website CLOWN TRAVEL AGENCY but one that has sort of been missed is CONCERNED CITIZENS FOR A BETTER GOTHAM CITY. This page is a negative campaign against Harvey Dent. Done by the Police Officers who have been wrongfully accused by Harvey Dent for being corrupt. Well, last week I signed up for the heck of it & was very surprised to find this Harvey Dent Campaign Button in my postal mail box. The funny thing is that half of it was burned. I was kinda mad at first because I thought this was part of the package I have been waiting for & somehow they sent me a damaged button, ha ha! Then I turned it over & on the back is a sticker for the "CCFABG.ORG". Hmmm, 1/2 his face is burned, is this a clue? Down below is a link button to sign-up. You should just so you get this FREE piece of "The Dark Knight" Batman Memorabilia!
Since it's time for the weekly FREE Batman Desktop Background Wallpapers I thought I would post some that are a current marketing event for The Dark Knight Batman movie. Here are some "Political Campaign Posters" for Harvey Dent. He's currently running for District Attorney in Gotham City & he needs our support...I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT!
OK, I was recently outta town & couldn't cover the whole "Joker Website" mess but our friend Zdravko ( from Bulgaria ) was on top of it. He wrote an e-mail saying, "Although it was night here when the Clown Travel Agency scavanger hunt started, I took part in it. It was all about picking up packages and following instructions in the addresses that appear on the site (2 new addresses per hour) and one of them was in Las Vegas, where my cousins live. So my cousin tried to get the Vegas package, but someone was there before her. After all the stamps were placed on the site, the list burned down and there was a message from the Joker telling you a new site - www.acmesecuritysystems.com/delos and a password - NEEDLE. He said that he needed you to crack the security system for him. If you could get through, you get a phone call from Jim Gordon...They even called me, in Bulgaria!". WOW! Thank you Zdravko for sending the report. Readers, he even made an audio wav of Jim Gordon's message but right now I don't have a way to post it so you'll have to go to the ACME Security Systems page & use the password NEEDLES to hear it.
A new friend to the Bat-Blog, named "Crusher", has given us special permission to publish some photos of his amazing Batman tattoos. It seems he's a very loyal Batman Fan so he went & got a cool arm-tattoo of Batman, shown here, down below.
Well, I guess he really liked it so he decided to go totally nuts & had many many more Bat-Tattoos made. And when I say "totally nuts" he went crazy! He now has The Joker, Riddler, Catwoman, Scarecrow, The Penguin, and The Riddler too! They look really amazing & he said the next step will be to have then all totally colorized. You can already see that he has had the Riddler colored & it looks very cool. We can't wait to see the final finished color art. I know it's gonna be great! The artwork is sharp & clear with nice coloring. Thank you "Crusher" for sharing these photos of your ART! We really appreciate that, they're very nice.
There's this really funny Comedy TV Show called ED & RED'S NIGHT PARTY that is sort of a talk show. The main hosts are "Ed the Sock Puppet" & a pretty girl named "Red". Uhhh, she has red hair, ha ha. Well, for one episode they hired a special effects company called Universal Designs to make a custom BATWOMAN Costume for Red. Down below is a video from the actual show where they present the final product & also show it being made, it's pretty funny but I gotta warn ya there is some cussing ( not kid safe )! The finished costume is extremely awesome & Universal Designs did a great job on it. If you would like to see more designs by this company then just click on the button below the photo of "Batwoman".
OK, I checked the Warner Bros Viral marketing Website THE CLOWN TRAVEL AGENCY today & there's a message from the Joker, "Ready to have a ball? A special bag of fun awaits the first to claim it, but you'd better strike fast, there's no time to spare!" Then, if you click that you get this page...
I hope you guys get this information in time to see it! Warner Bros has released a new "Joker Viral Marketing" website for THE DARK KNIGHT Batman Movie called The Clown Travel Agency. It will have some kind of special feature that will happen on April 1st, 2008! For right now there's only a picture of a suitcase with an envelope that reads, "Departure Date 4-01"...Hmmm, I wonder what the Joker is up to now!? Here's a link button to check it out!
Some people arrive at this blog by reading & clicking on a post title in an RSS feed so if you think we're giving away a real 1966 Batmobile you're crazy, sucker! Ha Ha! But we are giving away, for FREE, the next best thing. This contest is for an Original 2007 Mattel Hot Wheels 1966 Batmobile, Mint In Package. It's the car we all love from the classic 1960's TV Show that was designed by George Barris & it's really beautiful! All you have to do to enter is e-mail us your full name/address ( Please put "1966 Batmobile Contest" in the title ). We never sell or give away any information so it's totally private. The Bat-Blog Contest ends on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 11:00 pm - Central Time. Just be sure to send your name/address before then. I guess for legal reasons we need to state that this contest is in NO way associated with either DC Comics, Warner Bros, or Mattel. It's just that the Bat-Blog is very generous & we care about our readers! Oh yeah, one last thing: PLEASE ENTER TODAY and GOOD LUCK!!
CONTEST RULES:
The contest is open to the general public as well as anyone currently reading the BAT-BLOG on a daily basis. Employees of the Bat-Blog and employees' immediate family members and persons with whom such employees are domiciled are excluded from this contest.
The prize is not redeemable in cash and must be accepted as awarded.
Decisions of the contest judges are final - no substitutions will be available.
By claiming the prize, the winner authorizes the use, without additional compensation of his or her name and/or likeness and/or voice/photograph and municipality of residence for promotion and/or advertising purposes in any manner and in any medium (including without limitation, radio broadcasts, newspapers and other publications and in television or film releases, slides, videotape, distribution over the internet and picture date storage) which Bat-Blog may deem appropriate.
In accepting the prize, the winner, and any reader(s), acknowledges that the Bat-Blog may not be held liable for any loss, damages or injury associated with accepting or using this prize.
The person whose name is drawn as being the winner of the specific prize will be required to send us their correct mailing information before the prize is awarded to them. Postage to be paid, free of charge, by the Bat-blog.
Detailed contest rules applicable to this contest, including contest entry dates, how to enter, and prize value, number and any restrictions applicable to these prizes are available upon request by reading these Contest Rules, ha ha!
The Bat-Blog retains the rights, in its absolute and sole discretion, to make substitutions of equivalent kind or approximate value in the event of the unavailability of any prize or component of the prize for any reason whatsoever.
This contest is subject to all federal, provincial and municipal laws.
The Bat-Blog reserves the right to withdraw or terminate this contest at any time without prior notice.
A friend of mine told me about an artist who must really like Batman because he has a few examples of Batman-related artwork in his online portfolio. The artist's name is Mark Wolfe & this guy is pretty talented. Here are a few examples of some graphics he did that look like real-life playing cards. I think they would make an awesome card set. They feature Batman, Joker, & Harley Quinn ( The one of Harley is my favorite ). Down below is a link button to check out his page. If you check it out please let us know what you think about his work by leaving a comment down below. Also, be sure to BOOKMARK the Bat-Blog before ya leave!
"Born Laughing" was written to chronicle the early crimes of Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger's incarnation of the Joker character. The acting is pretty good for a fan-film. Also, The Joker's costume, hair, & make-up look very much like Heath Ledger's version...nice!
