c.1966 Unknown Origin Salmon Colored Batmobile with Figures
To cash in on the growing success of the Batman TV show, products both licensed and unlicensed made their way to the market. This Salmon Colored Polyethylene Batmobile is one of the strangest I've seen. It has no manufacturing marks and it could have been produced in several countries (possibly Japan, Argentina, Spain, or whatever). The toy was hand-made from all soft plastic polyethylene. Only the axles are metal. The unevenness, a melt mark, excess plastic where it wasn't needed, and the presence of air bubbles suggest that it most likely was privately produced from a hand-made mold. In fact the salmon coloring material was so unevenly mixed that several areas of the body are almost completely clear. Secondly the amount of plastic wasn't controlled. Unequal amounts of plastic were poured into the mold. Compare the left and right front fenders and left and right sides of the front bumper. In both cases the right side was not given enough plastic to fill up the edges! This gives it an uneven lopsided appearance. Also unevenness in the amount of plastic used to produced the blue cowl are unequal. The right horizontal support (just in front of Robin) did not have enough plastic to connect it to the windshield. It's not cracked. It just never filled in properly. The wheels, blue double cowl, and Batman and Robin figures are also all polyethylene. The figures still have little sprues sticking out of the top of their heads. The individual parts were pegged together. All of these characteristics are why I thought this toy was so neat; because it's so ugly. Purchased from an old Batman collection where it resided for many years. Size: 5½". Sold: Dec. 2011
Price Sold: $ 15
