Toy of the week, Monday, November 2, 2009

If you were to think back, what would you vote for as the coolest movie vehicle of all time?  The Delorean time machine from Back to the Future?  How about the Ghost Busters' vintage ambulance also known as Ecto 1 ?  Or, for fans of the more obscure, maybe the giant twelve wheeled truck, known as the Landmaster, from Damnation Alley?  This month I begin a special series of toys, all representing famous movie vehicles.  These vehicles have captured movie goers imaginations and now the vehicles themselves are captured in miniature size in die cast metal and plastic.  On with the show...

The 2005 movie Batman Begins told us some important details about the caped crusader.  First of all, he was trained by ninjas in a secret compound in Asia, second of all he gets his cool toys from a defunct military technology division of his own company, and finally, all the whacked out bad guys he fights are the product of a hallucinogenic drug that was dispersed through the water supply of Gotham City.  OK, cool, now Batman is grounded in reality right?  In one scene in the movie he discovers a vehicle prototype under a tarp and takes it for a test spin.  The vehicle, called the Tumbler, looks like the bastard child of a stealth jet fighter and a military truck.

Historically batman drives a dragster like car that, while fast and powerful, actually makes very little sense for a vigilante crime fighter.  A military vehicle is a much more reasonable choice.  Batman Begins' production designer Nathan Crowley designed the Tumbler through an organic process of clay models and plastic model bashing.  The actual movie car is quite impressive.  It is capable of speeds over 100 mph. and was jumped 30 feet as part of the production.

Today I have for your consideration a 1:18 scale model of the Batman Begins Tumbler in it's original military prototype camouflage paint scheme.  This toy was released primarily as a collectible item several months after the films theatrical release.  A regular black version was available first.  The black version is still quite easy to find on EBay for around $35  The camo version is considerably more rare.

Many of the details of the movie vehicle are featured on this toy, and I have included many notes about the actual movie vehicle, so roll into the Vehicles Gallery of the Cabinet of Curious Frivolities and take a close look at the many details of the Batman Begins Tumbler.

Full steam ahead...