rob t's batcave

Hi Woodsy,

I've had a few Batman Bits too.. one of my faves was this Keaton Standee... it looked great, wish i would have kept it now. I still have the Batman Returns stand part you can see in the pics, and a couple of the Games

Rob

Adam West - The Batman of our Generation by tony k

A Tribute from the Haunted Toy Box

The bat signal flickers unanswered over Gotham City... a windy silence echoes through the deserted batcave... even the bats have gone.  All that remains are a few dog-eared comics, some old broken toys... and a few film-reel memories of a camp-as-hell TV series which made us laugh out loud, and cry for more.



 Across the world middle-age kids who perhaps never grew up, now reflect and remember their own era and incarnation of Batman, immortalised by actor, Adam West, who passed away on the 9th of June, this year. 



Filmed in a kooky Pop Art style, with its Dutch angle camera tilts, and characteristically crazy cartoon-punch inserts, the 1966 Batman TV series defined the caped crusader for years to come. Adam West's hipster Batman was equipped with a utility belt of tongue-in-cheek morality quotes, and comical capered cliches. 



He soon became the caped king of cliffhangers and choreographed fist fights.  His Gotham City was an artist's palette of bright colours straight from the pages of a comic book... populated with bumbling cops, hired henchmen, feline femme fatales, rubber shark props, an amazing car, a catchy theme tune, and a loyal sidekick called Robin.  



In 1966 tellyland, Batman's Lichtenstein landscape was consolidated by the hilariously eccentric rogue's gallery of reoccurring supervillains who were just plain old-fashioned crackers.  There was no menace or noir... the show was fun and entertaining.  It went from the ABC network to global syndication...  and is now a pop culture zeitgeist of the groovy and tuned-in television driven 1960's. 



A consumer cause-and-effect followed. The success of the TV series created a feeding frenzy for Batman toys and merchandise.  A lucrative market evolved, spilling over with licensed and unlicensed Bat-products. Some toys were top quality and made to last... others were cheap and cheerful, simply put out there to cash-in before the next mania caught the public's imagination.

  

Many of these Batman bygones are sought after by collectors today.  A worldwide search for Batman toys on eBay will generate thousands of results. The majority are modern toys based on the popular and contemporary Batman and Dark Knight movies, graphic novels, and of course, computer games. 



However, a growing number of modern market leaders, such as NECA and Hot Toys, have released a retro range of outstanding Adam West Batman toys and collectibles for nostalgic Batfans. Eaglemoss is one such company. They produced an incredible Bat-fest of display-cased automobilia, as collected, beautifully photographed, and previously reviewed by Scoop for the blog.

 Often hidden amongst the auction listings for these wonderfully sophisticated and modern Batman toys and games, are a few simpler 1960s Bat-bits-and-pieces... many arguably popularised by Adam West's Batman TV series!  Many of you reading this will have had some of them as kids.  



There were so many treasures out there back then - Batman toy cars, boats, planes, helicopters, action figures, capes, cowls, colouring books, comics, annuals and utility belts, puppets, pencil cases, guns and gum cards, rings, robots, stickers, models, masks and merchandise. Adam West made Batman so popular, so colourful, and so wonderfully cool. 



But perhaps without the influence of Adam West's Batman on yesterdays toy merchandising world, we wouldn't have had the pleasure to play with these things as kids, or the privilege to collect and enjoy them once again as adults.  Adam West was the Batman of our generation...  the Batman who made us laugh out loud... and cry for more!

Tony K

its baturday!

As a lifelong Batman fan its been a poignant year for me and no doubt many other bat fans.

I suppose the new Bat year started for me with the huge movie that was Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice. I loved its epic scale as the two Kings of DC slugged it out like caped titans. It was a real thrill. I know not everyone agreed.

Twelve months later I received a rather crusadingly good Easter gift from little Miss Moonbase, her man and Baby Base: a wonderful Bat Signal Projector pictured here taken out of its nifty box with classic graphics.

My next bat chapter came when just last Sunday little Miss Moonbase gave me this Waynetastic Father's Day card, again with a classic Bats pose showing off his six pack and bulging utility belt.

This obviously followed the very sad news of the original Batman's death, Adam West, beloved by bat fans world-wide.

It is to Adam and all his fans like me that this Baturday is dedicated.

Like the citizens of Gotham City, we shall shine our Moonbase bat-signal for one more day of Kapows, Kerrangs and Caped Crusading.

To

Adam West

Batman

1928 - 2017

mini bat-con on moonbase central tomorrow

Tomorrow is Bat-urday!

Watch out for Caped Crusading 

and 

Dark Knights!

throw down the sword this midsummer: wishbone ash's classic album argus

As the weekend closest to Midsummer approaches and the bustle of fairy folk can be heard in the hedgerows I can do but one thing: celebrate the old world's turning with the soundtrack of the solstice itself, Argus by Wishbone Ash, the lords of Avalon when it came to Seventies rock.

Argus, with its beautiful and mysterious cover depicting an ancient soldier, perhaps Greek, perhaps Arthurian, as he or she stares out at a verdigris sky tumbling over a dark forest. Glorious.

This immortal image heralds what is to be found on the album itself, a veritable banquet of Excaliberesque epics and Warrior ballads. It's as if Ash recorded a festival live in Middle Earth and mixed it at Camelot, it really is.

Wishbone Ash were often labelled a college or uni band, their double flying-V guitars an electric novelty. I think this belittles them as they were so much more. I listened to all their classic albums incessantly in the Seventies and still enjoy them all now: Wishbone Ash, Pilgrimage and Argus to name but three.

For me Ash captured a moment, a zeitgeist utterly unique to that decade when a fascination for Tolkein, Arthurian legend, the Ancients and tapping into the green mythos fused perfectly with a brilliant rock lyricism and towering  harmonic guitarmanship. They were like wizard kings with strings!

Below is one of many You Tube links to the whole album but if you have never heard any of it before or indeed any Wishbone Ash then I implore you to sample just one song to start with, Throw Down The Sword, the quintessence of Ash's genius, which can be found by clicking below:

and the full Argus experience can be found by clicking the album cover below beginning with Time Was [sorry about the ads!].

Let me know what you think and enjoy your estival weekend, your Juhannus, your Midsummer's end.

wrecking a scramble bug: the movie

Here's my latest home movie.

Its me destroying my Scramble Bug!

Part 2 to follow this summer.

Enjoy!

thank god its friday!

There's a cold beer with my name on it in the fridge. I just need to go to work, do my irksome job and come home to drink it in the garden!

Can't wait!

What are you up to today readers?

saucers at dawn: mattel v colourforms

There were two alien toy contempories who enjoyed a flying disk ride.

Back in the late Sixties flying disks were all the rage.

Mattel gave Major Mason a disk launcher but more intriguingly furnished their cute blue alien Or with the mythical yellow Orbitor in their 1970 catalogue.

Over at rivals Colorforms the Outer Space Men range of figures tantalizingly pictured Alpha 7 with a neat space saucer on its superb backing card.

I had wondered if Mel Birnkrant, Outer Space Men creator over at Colorforms might have admired the diminutive Or and its Orbitor despite it never being produced.

However reading an interview with Mr. Birnkrant about his thoughts on Mattel's Callisto I doubt it!

You can read the interview yourself on Mel's own fabulous website. It starts at the top of Page 3 complete with satirical gif!

http://melbirnkrant.com/osminterviews/page2.html#

I do have a little green man on a saucer in the attic. Well actually he's a money box or bank made by Ever Last toys. Wonder if there's any money in it?

What are your favourite flying disk and saucer toys readers?