Batbot Changer
| Class of Bootleg | Class 3 - Concept Bootleg |
| Class Notes: | This is REALLY REALLY CLOSE to a Class Two - the design on the Car-Form is IDENTICAL to the Movie Batmobile. But they used original molds to make this puppy. |
| Bootleg Source: | Batman Returns Batmobile |
| Bootleg Rating: |
 (Five out of five stars)
|
| Sightings: | Canada, Austraila |
| Vintage: | Early 1998 |
Batbot Changer - The name says it all. Sure, it's enhanced with the "Form Changer" sub-title, but "BatBot" really tells us all we need to know.
The fun begins when you see just WHAT they've chosen as the target of their transformation.....The Batmobile!
And not a bad looking repoduction of the Batman-Returns Era Batmobile, either. Cast in black plastic, the car has painted blue highlights and working wheels. The two missile-like items on the hood are removable, and the front-end turbine is cast from the same yellow plastic. This is a cool looking toy!There's a yellow and black sticker on the roof that has a bat-like logo on it. (Not the Batman logo, however). You can see it fairly clearly from the "on-card" image at right.
Speaking of the card, it is printed on high-quality paper stock, and printed on BOTH sides for a change. The graphics are original and quite colorful. Note that the deco on the car and robot (below) are slightly different from the enclosed toy...in particular the wheels were supposed to be the same yellow as the missile and turbine. Personally, I'm glad they stuck with basic black.
There is also a circular logo on the left with the word "Interchange" in it....just to drive home the point that this is a transforming toy.
The back of the card is printed in a matte/three-color format (probably a cost-saving move) and features instructions on how to convert the Batbot from Auto to Robot Mode:
The instructions read:
Interestingly, they left out part of the steps! In order for Batbot to have hands, they need to be extended from the arms after step two.
Assuming you converted him properly, the Batbot looks like the figure at left!
Despite the illustration on the card, Batbot's head is fixed staring straight ahead, and he is not articulated at the elbows.
In fact, he's pretty cheesy in the Robot form.
The turbine part of his car mode looks...well.....questionable when left dangling from the bottom of the Robot mode. The missiles are also useless....you think they'd have put holes in Batbot's hand so he could use them as weapons...but no such luck.
Despite these shortcomings, Batbot stands well on his own (No "Needs Hand Support" Wuss-outs here!). The articulation at the shoulders (needed for the transformation feature) allows for some poseability. As seen in the close-up below, Batbot has a good, tough expression on his face, that says, at least to me:
Portions of this site make extensive use of Macromedia Flash. |
RSS Feed: 
| Bookmark at 
Del.icio.us | Read updates on your 
Livejournal Friendslist