Following the trend started with their first wave, wave 2 of Corgi's Bat-vehicles has one 1/24 scale Batmobile. In this case, it is the 1940s Batmobile, most famously seen on the cover of Batman #20. I was unable to find this one in local stores, and ended up ordering it through Amazon.com.
Packaging
The standard blue & yellow Corgi window box is retained for wave 2, with a '40s-style picture of Batman & the traditional DC bullet flanking the name of the car (under the window), and the Corgi logo on the bottom right corner under the DC logo. Windows at either end of the box allow for views of the front & rear of the car, with the name of the car repeated under each window. The back of the box has a photo of the car, repeats of the Batman drawing & name/logo set, and a tri-lingual blurb about the line. There are no cross-sells aanywhere. Four twisties hold the Batmobile into a plastic tray, and a plastic strip hold the doors shut.
Casting/Paint
The body is primarily metal, with a plastic bat-mask and plastic fin. Once again, they have painted both plastic and metal parts, a nice touch (many manufacturers skip painting the plastic parts). The grill, header pipes, and hubcaps are chrome plated, and the headlights are clear plastic set in silver-painted buckets. Paint ops are few, but well done: a red stripe starts behind the bat ears and goes straight back over the fenders, ending in a "V" under the fin. A red stripe also appears on each fender at headlight height, and the eyes on the bat mask are bright yellow. All are done very cleanly, with minimal edge fuzz where the upper stripe curves around the back of the car. The paint on the doors was marred slightly by the plastic strip, but is nice & smooth everywhere else.
I don't recognize the dashboard as any 1:1 car, I have a feeling that this is a total fabrication by Corgi's designers. If that is indeed the case, massive kudos to them. It looks era-appropriate, with a nice mix of satin black, red, and chrome. The red and black on the dash, seats, and door panels, really look like leather, and everything is very neatly painted. Era-appropriate bat logos appear on the seat backs, glove box door, and parcel shelf, with the steering wheel hub cast as a fifth logo. The only thing that detracts from the overall look is a too-thick shift lever, but this is a very minor nitpick. Excellent, excellent work all around.
Features/Accessories
The doors open and the wheels roll - that's it. Nothing is removable, no extra accessories. It looks like all of their budget was poured into making the model itself look good, so I'm happy to make that tradeoff. The communicators of previous 1/24 and 1/18 models aren't missed at all.
Accuracy
You're not going to have a hard time figuring out the source material, but they did take a few liberties. The bat mask is wider and rounder, the windshields are smaller, and the exact arrangement of features is a little off from the comic. I get the impression that the car was made "safer," with the bat ears and fin tips rounded off. Despite all that, I'm still very impressed with the work here.
Overall
I had mixed feelings about the 1/24 1960s car. It was a fun little replica, but it was not as strong as it could have been. Not so in this case: Corgi did a fantastic job on their 1940s car, from the glossy black finish to the detailed interior, this is one cool replica. True, the Danbury Mint car is a more detailed replica, but it's also about six times more expensive.
I've been looking forward to the release of this car since it was announced, and it was well worth it. My congratulations to Corgi, I hope to see this quality continue into wave three. Highly recommended.
RE: Review: 1/24 1940s DC Comics Batmobile -
Posted on 05-01-2006 10:46
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