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.
I don't know what my fascination is with "Foreign Batman items" but that sort of stuff is really cool! Plus it's very hard to find. Here's some great examples: The 1st photo shows a JAPANESE POTATO CHIP BAG with a 1989 BATMAN movie promotion. Now, how wacky is that! Speaking of "Japanese", right now my heart goes out to all the people of Japan. The recent events there are such a tragedy. Let's hope things get better soon. The next pic features a 1980's German-Language BATMAN Comic Book... from Germany ( Duh!, ha! ). The the last group of photos are vintage Batman items from Australia. These Australian comics are from the 1970's. So, what do you think? Is this stuff kinda cool!? Hey, I got a question, Do YOU have any foreign bat-items you would like to share? If so, then please send us some pics today. Remember, the Bat-Blog is all about sharing information about the joys of collecting.
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.
Everybody who grew-up in the 1970's will recognize this stuff, it's a Jigsaw Puzzle in a Can! Oh yeah, as a little kid I used to love these. I think I had 2 or 3 of them, Superman & Batman. But here are some that were sort of an unusual series, The SUPER-FOES! These puzzles featured major Batman Villians: The Joker, The Penguin, & The Riddler! These are all the pictures I could find of these super-rare toys & I'm wondering if they made more of them. I mean, it seems sort of logical that they might have made one with Catwoman too. But either way, the artwork on these are wonderful.
Here's a fun video sent in by our friend Michael. He and his wife made their cat, DONUTS, a Batman costume for Halloween. They did a really great job on it and, personally, I like that it's the older "vintage 1970's retro-style" outfit with the blue & gray colors, very cool! So, Here's DONUTS IN ACTION!
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.
