The Bat-Blog has a friend on Facebook who sent this amazing photo! Scott said, "My sister in law sent me this, apparently they're shooting the Dark Knight Rises outside of her office in London." In the photo we can see a Gotham City SWAT Van... AWESOME!! ( Thanks Scott ).
This is a very quick post to share some extremely cool Batman Collectibles from the UK. These wonderful pics were kindly send in by a good friend named Kevin who is lucky enough to live near there. What are they? These are beautiful display boxes for Batman Easter Candy ( Milk Chocolate Eggs with Fruit-Flavored Gum ). One is in the shape of the Dark Knight's head & his eyes are die-cut open so some happy kid can see the goodies inside. The next one is more of a "box shape" with a great scene of Batman and Robin in Gotham City. Both of these boxes came out during the existence of the "Animated Series" cartoon on TV so that explains the cool graphics. I have a few of these UK items in my collection & they're different ( They would be added here if they were not so deep in storage right now ). So, that makes me wonder how many variations they made. But that's what is so great about being a Batman Toy Collector. There seems to be a TON of stuff out there to find & you can stay busy for 2 lifetimes, ha! ( Thanks Kevin for sending in these photos ).
Well, it looks like the BATMAN ARKHAM CITY Video Game is showing up, like crazy, on covers of some UK Gaming Magazines in England. Here are 2 examples: Playgamer and 360. Of course each magazine covers different consoles, the Playstation 3 ( PS3 ) and XBox 360. If anyone, anywhere in the world ( ha ), sees some other covers soon then please let us know.
I guess this post is sort of a "photo reference". These are some pics I collected awhile back where it's the Vintage 1966 BATMAN TV SHOW and MOVIE Paperback Books, but these are all "foreign-issued" copies. The 1st five are from England & were reprinted by Four Square Illustrated. These special UK editions have slightly different covers than the US versions. My favorite one is THE JOKER with all the weird "Pop Art" colors. I'm not sure about THE CATWOMAN Book & I'm wondering if it's from the UK too. It looks like it was reprinted by some other publisher. Now, the very last photo, is THE PENGUIN Book that was made in Argentina. It appears to be wayyyy more thin than an actual paperback. What's up on that? OK, I'm wondering if anybody has any other versions of these. If so, then please let us know. I think it would be cool if there were German, Spanish, or French editions, ha!
You're not going to find these BATMAN AND ROBIN Mugs ( Coffee Cups ) in any retail store today. These babies were made in the 1960's by Washington Pottery of the UK... probably around 1966, to capitalize on the popularity of the TV Show. In fact, they were only sold in England & are kinda hard to find. Well, thanks to the Internet they're not extremely rare. Here are some pics sent in to me by a friend of mine who collects pottery. He knew that I would love these. I do, they're great! Now all I have is one mug & somewhere I have a small platter. Unfortunately they're in deep storage. Yes, they also made Batman Plates, Patters, Bowls, and ( I think ) even an Ashtray! But for now we have these photos to drool over ( Thanks Dave ). The graphics are totally vintage & completely wonderful. Seriously, I love the sharpness & color. The one with the Batmobile car is just beautiful.
Here's a recent newspaper advertisement run by a company called "Circus Space". They work with the BATMAN LIVE TOUR that will be starting in England & they need both Aerialists & Acrobats for their show. If you have these skills & live in the UK, then this is THE job for you! For details just check out the ad.
BATMAN LIVE is a new all action live arena show - with Batman and Robin fighting The Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, The Riddler and a host of other top villains. It begins it's world tour in the UK next summer, 2011. Watch The Star's exclusive chat at the world launch press conference, at DC Comics, New York, with Executive Producer Nick Grace, DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee and DC Entertainment's Chief Creative officer Geoff Johns.
I know that some Batman Memorabilia Collectors like to focus on collecting magazines with the Dark Knight on the cover. Well, here are 2 great examples: The 1st one is totally vintage & is also pretty dang RARE! It's the June 1966 issue of HOT ROD Magazine & the cool thing is that they did an exclusive interview with George Barris, the Custom Car Designer who created the Batmobile car for the 1966 Batman TV Show / Movie. I have never seen an actual copy of this in real-life but imagine that it's gotta be very interesting. The next cover is wayyy more recent. OK, it's totally "modern-day" but it's gonna be sort of hard to get because it's sold in the UK. This is a recent issue of 360. It's cover story is about the brand-new BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY Video Game. I hope you have enjoyed seeing these. Do you have any RARE Bat-Mags? If so, then please send us some pics, thanks.