Officially recognised as the world’s first Batmobile, this 1963 Batmobile references the caped crusader’s car from the comics of the 1940s and ’50s.
YOU’VE GOT TO love blokes in sheds. See, a good two years before noted Batmobile builder, George Barris, created the first TV Batmobile, a 23-year-old Forrest Robinson completed his officially-sanctioned Batmobile in 1963. And you can buy it.
The 1963 Batmobile, which is claimed to be a more authentic ‘Batmobile’ by comic lovers, is going under the hammer on the 6 December. Click Here. According to the description of the car by Heritage Auctions, Robinson’s design “has features seen in DC’s Batman Comics from the 1940s and ’50s, including the prominent front-end bat-nose and rear-end single fin”.
“The ’63 Batmobile was custom-built from the ground up. Starting with a 1956 Oldsmobile 88 frame and the famous 324 Rocket engine — a predecessor of 1960s muscle cars — Robinson replaced the Oldsmobile body with his custom-designed body, measuring 17 feet by 83 inches, sporting the Batmobile’s iconic dorsal fin, bat-nose front end and pocket sliding doors,” a statement read.
Expected to fetch more than US$180,000, the 1963 Batnmobile was leased by Robinson to ALL STAR Dairies and Green Acres Ice Cream, which was a licensee of DC Comics. It used the car, painted in official Batman colours for promotional purposes.
Robinson eventually sold the for $200, which he used to establish a fabrication business. But, once replicas of the George Barris TV Batmobile began to appear, interest in the original comic Batmobile waned and it was parked up in a field and left until 2008.
In 2013 the 1963 Batmobile was treated to a full restoration with all its original parts retained, restored and refitted. You could almost call it a case of, the dark knight rises … see what we did there?
