Now we’re getting somewhere… in style!
When I last left off, I had taken it upon myself to make Batman a new ride. And I had decided to go “off-model” and basically create a hybrid: part Bat-Tank, part Tumbler, and a little bit of Arkham Knight for good measure. I even crudely sketched out a shape for what I wanted to end up with. Then came the fun part: finding some fodder to make it work.
In this case, I had an idea of what I wanted to use, or at least where I could start. Initially, I thought the base might be a Ninja Turtles Battle Wagon from the early 2000s.
The Playmates Ninja Turtles lines have always been like a last bastion for vehicles, when other scales and formats have run screaming from them. The current crop are a little small for 6-inch figures, but even then, there’s the zipline playsets, the sewer set… Playmates is far from perfect, but they at least always bring the good on the “play” stuff. Anyway, the Battle Wagon had the proper beefiness to it, but would need a new suspension. I liked the big, open interior, and the top hatch worked well enough, but I started thinking it might be a little too “truck-like” for my Batmobile. While sufficiently gnarly-looking for Batman, I started thinking instead this vehicle might be a better base for a GCPD Wagon, or something along those lines.
It was also around this time I remembered another classic Ninja Turtles vehicle: the Hyper Shell. I’ve used this guy for lots of stuff over the years and had an extra I’d messed around with, but had not committed to a vehicle. I got this one from Amazon UK years ago, so 33% B-Boy, if you’re still out there somewhere, thanks brah!
The Hyper Shell has really cool body lines and paneling that reminds me of an F-117. I mentioned before that I wanted to keep it 1980s, and in those days, nothing was cooler or more high-tech than a Nighthawk.
The tank treads didn’t fit what I was going for, so we were back to suspension. I picked up this very cool Imaginext Batmobile for their 5-inch figures at the thrift store, and knew it would come in handy someday. Hell, I even grabbed a second one because I like the look of it so much.
From there, I just needed to bolt on those awesome tires and axles. Everything fit together nicely, and I was able to incorporate the spoiler from it as well, to hide the rear door button.
The Hyper Shell is an excellent platform to work on, thanks to all the opening panels. I have really good access to the interior, and after removing the action feature turret, I was able to add an additional top hatch.
For that interior, I went with some 1/10 scale racing buckets. I’ve used these before too, and they look excellent and recline, making fitment very easy. I decided to mount them together on a styrene plate and then added some thin metal rails to the seats and to the floor. Instead of hard mounting the seats, I went with some strong magnets — this allows me to fit the figure in the vehicle without worrying about breaking anything, and the big plus is it means I can move the seats to fit different sized figures — so now Mezco Batman, Figuarts Batman, and any in between can pilot this thing.
I built the console out of a chunk of Swinetrek playset, and then started fitting other little tech bits to fill it out. The part I’m really pleased with is I used a chunk of clear plastic to create a HUD that hangs over the console — I just added some clear G.I. Joe stickers to it. Once I start adding lighting, that will look really cool. And yes, the HUD screen is a 1980s-era invention used in fighter jets. It just didn’t show up in your Pontiac for a couple decades.
One the outside, I started some of that lighting with a big LED push-button headlight. Years ago, I made some castings of a Bat-mast off of a Batmobile model kit, so I went with one of those and drilled some big light holes in it. Initially, I did the classic slant-eyes, but it was hard to click the light, and it really cut down on the illumination. The big, round eyes feel more off-road truck, like a couple of Bat-Hella 500s or something.
Lastly for this part, I wanted to start the armament. I like the idea of the turret in Akrham Knight, so I fashioned one from a Cobra Rattler turret — any excuse for a little clear plastic turret is a good one. Since the scale jump makes the guns on the turret really puny, I fitted a Vulcan cannon from a 1/6 accessory set. And because the cannon was so big, I actually drilled my turret hole off-center in the roof, to keep it more centered. As a total afterthought, I set a TIE Fighter hatch on the front and instantly loved the look of it, so that’s going on there too.
So now I’ve got my shape, I’ve got seats, and I’ve got a big-ass gun on the roof. The next part will be fitting some minor details and then the hard part — the paint.
