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Here's a wonderful photo sent in to us by our friend Yuji. He had a BATMAN Birthday Cake with a graphic of his favorite Vintage Toy, a 1970's Batman MEGO Doll... I mean, Action Figure! This cake looks goooood & it's making me hungry, ha! Plus, I totally love Mego Toys so this is great stuff! ( Thanks Yuji for sharing your pic ).
OK, I know that this is really not "Batman -Related News" but I'm a HUGE FAN of the Christopher Reeve SUPERMAN Movies from the 1970's, so, here we go! HOT TOYS has just released a teaser photo of one of their next major figures they're going to release. It's the SUPERMAN THE MOVIE Figure, a Classic Christopher Reeve version! The pic doesn't show his face, but knowing this Toy Company, it's gonna be awesome! Now, let's just hope they do every single character in the film, "KNEEL DOWN TO ZOD!"
If you have ever read the Bat-Blog for a few days or longer then you know I love the Batman Toys, ha! I like everything from the 60's all the way to today. But the stuff that's the most special to me is the merchandise made in the 1970's. You see, I was born in 1964 so I remember most of the bat-products on the shelves around that time. I guess you could say they were "the toys of my childhood". So, I'm sort of nostalgic for them. Now, in the 70's there was a "retail-marketing thing" called RACK TOYS. They were usually extremely cheesy plastic toys that were sold inside a clear bubble-pack on a thin-cardboard header card.
You would see them all the time at Grocery Stores, Drug Stores, & especially 7-Eleven! They were inexpensive & some modern-day Toy Collectors call them "Shut-Up Toys". You know, you would whine that you wanted it & Mom would say, "OK, here, get this one & be quiet!", ha ha! So, this post is dedicated to those wonderful collectibles from the past. Most of the photos are pretty self-explanatory so I'll just let you check them out. Also, if you have any special memories of this stuff then please share.
Just the other day I got an email from a Bat-Blog Reader asking me about a Batman Promo Glass he found at a Garage Sale. He sent a photo of it and as soon as I saw it I knew what it was. I mean, I totally remembered these from my childhood in the 70's. It's a glass from the 1976 DC Comics Superhero Pepsi Series. If I remember right, they were a promotion at Burger King, the Fast Food Restaurant ( or was it Arby's? ). But either way here's a photo that shows the complete set of 6 glasses ( Click on the pic for a larger sharper version ). OK Rob, you now need to find Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam, and the Flash!
I recently got a message from a guy named Steve who is searching for a piece of his childhood. Well, he's looking for a Batman Rain Coat that he had as a kid in the 1970's. He wrote me to see if I had any information but I have never seen this bat-product before. The cool thing, he made these 2 awesome drawings to represent what he's looking for. Yeah, he got into heavy detail here, ha! the Coat was made out of Heavy Black Latex Rubber & was sort of like a Poncho. It had a Bat-Cowl Hood with a Clear-Plastic Visor. On the back was a Large BATMAN Logo ( 1970's Style ) inside a Yellow Oval-Shape. So, has anybody ever seen this thing? If so then please let us know. Thanks.
If you're a real Bat-Fan then you know about the debt we all owe Bob Kane. I mean, he "created" Batman, our favorite superhero! So, here's a few vintage photos of him. The 1st one is sort of a fake promo showing him "painting" a Pop Art Masterpiece with a model dressed-up in a Catwoman Costume...MEOW! The next one is more candid ( real ). This is an original photo taken by a fan at a 1970's Comic Book Convention. I think the year was 1973 & you gotta love that groovy purple silk shirt, ha! Of course he's holding up an issue of Batman #1. I thought I would post these because they're images you don't usually see of him. If you know of any other ones that are rare then please let us know.
WARNING: Here's a couple of pictures of part of an amazing Batman Tin Toy Collection that will make you drool for hours. I'm warning you now that if you stare too long at these pics then you will start to cry...this stuff is that cool & that rare, ha! These photos are from our friend "BAT-CAT" who lives in Thailand. There are many examples of some super-rare Japanese Tin Toy Robots. I love that the Dark Knight has been so popular in Japan! Well, the pair of Batman & Robin Bubble Bath SOAKY Containers ( far left ) are from the USA, ©1966. So is the "Jack Nicholson Joker" & "Michael Keaton Batman" Tin Toy Robots on the lower right-hand side. I remember when those came out around the time of the 1989 movie. Also, the 2 vinyl figures on the very far right, where Batman & Robin look sort of like cute little children, those are from the 1970's & were sold in the USA. Everything else is pretty much from the 1960's & "Made In Japan". WOW! What a great selection of very hard to find bat-collectibles!! ( Thanks Bat-Cat ).
The main focus of the Bat-Blog is to share the joy of collecting Batman Toys and Bat-Products, both old & new. OK, I know we also cover the TV Shows, Cartoons, Movies, Video Games, etc...but we're mainly all about being a collector. Now one of my personal favorite areas of collecting is the neat stuff they made in the 1970's. I was a little kid during that period so they have a lot of nostalgia for me. Plus, they made a lot of wacky items back then, ha! Here's just a small example: Check out this Original Batman PEZ Store Display Box. The vintage graphics are wonderful. Back in 1976 the PEZ company made a set of PEZ Candy Dispensers of Batman, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, The Penguin, & The Joker. The cool thing, also, was that they had rubber heads ( instead of the regular hard plastic ). Today, these babies are extremely hard-to-find! Plus, why isn't the Penguin shown on the box? Strange.The next item is RARE too. Here is a Batman Finger Puppets Play Set made in 1976 by Ideal. Basically it was a set of molds where you could make some superhero character heads out of Modeling Dough. The next item is a Batman Toy Watch made by MARX Toys. It's from around 1977 & I totally remember having it as a little kid, ha! I have one of these in my personal collection ( but NOT in the original packaging ). The last item is one that I didn't even know existed until about a year ago & I've been a serious collector for 20+ years. It's a Batman L'il Zips Bat-Cycle made by AHI. OK, I knew there were one of these Bat-Cycles out there ( a larger one ) but this one is very small, a different scale. Hence the name, "L'il Zips". Someday this baby WILL BE MINE! I hope some of these pics bring back fond memories. I have a question...Do YOU have any RARE Batman Toys you would like to share? If so then please send us some pics today. Our email button is always on the top right-hand side of this page.
