Okay, I know I drove speculation and intrigue a bit past the level of “fun” with this. Oh well. It’s my nature. :) The model in these photos (and the ones that showed up in earlier photos) is a 1:25 garage kit that was completely modded with unique details like a machined aluminum dash, a 16-part beacon, rear-mounted camera, custom decals and many other screen-accurate (season 3) details. It was built and finished almost a decade ago and I purchased it after many months of begging,  and at great personal expense, from master-modeler Jim Apitz. (I couldn’t pry his season 01 version away from him) So, NO these are not shots of a new built-up RII Batmobile model kit. To be fair – I DID make the statement that the photos weren’t from any toy company and I did not lie, these photos WERE just taken a  few weeks ago. Yes, I teased. No, I didn’t make any untrue statements or claims.

To answer some other questions, NO it would never have been a Blackstar and NEVER the Lunar models as a base car as both of those were about as inaccurate as you could find. I owned every single 1:25 Batmobile kit that was released back in the day, no matter how briefly, and was a distributor for several of them. There are not many things I consider myself an expert on, but the garage 1:25 Batmobile kits (and conversion kits) of the 80’s and 90’s and 00’s are one of them. I can tell you what each of them was based on (a couple of them, including the Blackstar, were just recast from earlier garage kits, while some were cast from modified Revell Futuras and still others were scratch-built) So no, no true modeler worth his salt chose a Blackstar or a Lunar kit to make a Batmobile back then, and if you did, you eventually upgraded to a better kit. I owned and built all of them, usually for customers. I had the Lunar because it was the first and there were no other options in 1988!

This model however, was started on a version 2.0 Caped Custom (designed by David Creigh under the Phantom name) and then heavily modified to become the thing of beauty you see here. I was lucky enough to purchase it from Jim Apitz in 2004 and I always compare it to other high end Batmobiles and it STILL smokes them all.  In person, it is even better.  There are a couple small areas that I’d have changed. Probably a couple others you might change too. But overall – this is the nicest Batmobile model I’ve ever seen. The dozens of hand-made custom details are all icing on a tasty, tasty cake. I have had the pleasure of working with some great modelers. Jim is the at the top of that list for Batmobiles, simply because this entire model is just all-around breathtaking.  If you ever get to see this in person, you will be flat-out amazed.  I was also lucky enough to buy his Batboat from him, which I’ll feature in a future post. In the past 7  years, Jim has retreated from the Bat-modeling-world. With the new Round II coming out with a much more accurate body, it would be a dream of mine to see what he could do with that kit.

I set these posts up to stir interest and elicit speculation because I believe that if a 90’s era resin garage kit can be made to look this good, then a new, mass-produced 1:25 Batmobile model with the resources we have in 2010 should have the potential to surpass it. And I hope that RII comes close. Clearly, what we builders do with it afterward is up to us. but lets hope for an accuracy level to allow us to do our best without having to fabricate so many parts from scratch as this one has. This is also the first in a series where I will try to spotlight legendary Batmobile customs by master-modelers. Up next is Scott Kappellusch and his “Milwaukee Winner”.