The world’s first officially recognised Batmobile has gone under the hammer and realised a miserable US$137,000. Shame.

THE ORIGINAL BATMOBILE has sold. And not for very much, either. Shame. The car you’re looking at here was the very first real-life car (Batmobile) to be officially licensed by DC Comics as a Batmobile, and it sold at auction last Saturday for just US$137,000. This Batmobile predates the George Barris TV Batmobile by a good few years and yet that car sold last year for US$4.2 million. Kapow!

This 1963 Batmobile was built by Forrest Robinson and was based on the car Batman drove in the comic book series. It only had a short lifespan as a Batmobile before being retired to a field to gather dust, moss, spider webs and just generally be totally forgotten about. Eventually the thing was rediscovered and faithfully restored from the ground up. The story behind it alone was expected to help it realise a bigger sale. Watch the video below for interviews with the restorers and former owners.