For the last 13 years Eaglemoss Ltd has been wow-ing fans with their various licensed lead figurine partwork lines. Their latest line is called Batman Automobilia, featuring, you guessed it, Batmobiles (and a few other Bat named means of transportation)! These vehicles are 1:43 scale and die cast. Along with the overall review of this current product line, I will also specifically be reviewing Batmobile #3 in the series, the recent release of the 2005 Batman Begins Tumbler.

I have been a fan of the Eaglemoss collections for years, having collected various Marvel and DC Heroes as well as the full collections of their Star Wars Character line, their DC Blackest Night line, and their current DC Chess Pieces line, so I am familiar with the quality of these products. Having the 1st 3 vehicles in this line already (#1 being 1989 Batman Batmobile and #2 being the 1966 Batman Television Series Batmobile) I can tell you that these things are FANTASTIC! It took a lot of strength to not rip it out of the package, and play with it ha-ha.

Each vehicle comes in a nice hard plastic case, which is easily removable if you wish to display your purchase in a different manner. Along with the vehicle comes a rather nice diorama style setting. In the Tumbler edition the vehicle appears to be sitting on a rooftop structure next to a skylight with an epic Gotham City skyline in the background. The 1966 edition has the vehicle parked in the Bat-cave, near some of Batman’s classic computers and machines from the film and TV series. The vehicles themselves look marvelous, every attention to detail paid. They are well molded and beautifully painted, a very high quality die-cast representation of these very iconic Batmobiles.

As is the case with the rest of their lines, every model comes with a 12-page magazine filled with interesting facts, history, great pictures, and background/behind the scenes notes. In the Tumbler magazine we are given a brief summary of the appearance of the Tumbler in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, leading into the story behind its design by its creator Nathan Crowley. When opening the 4-page fold out from among a mock up blue print/schematic of the Tumbler we are treated to the “Under the Hood” section, which gives us detailed specs and functions of the Tumbler from engine information to weaponry. We are privy to every little function, detail, and hidden surprise this Batmobile has to offer. The one aspect about the Automobilia magazine that I really liked had nothing to do with the Batmobiles themselves, but actually focused on the Caped Crusader who owned these vehicles, Batman. Each magazine includes a section that tells us about what was happening in comics/TV/Movies involving Batman the year this Batmobile debuted. Since the year of this Batmobile was 2005 we are given a history lesson in what happened to Batman that year in DC Comics. I loved this, a great way to be reminded of stories you had read, or an even better way for new fans to learn some history on the Dark Knight.
If you love Batman and are looking to collect some cool, fun and high quality items that also happen to be fairly inexpensive (each standard sized model is around $20 and well worth it) then these are a great start. I cannot recommend them enough; the quality and detail are awesome, more than worthy of any collector’s shelf. Several models have been announced for future release like the 2009 Batman & Robin comic’s Batmobile, the Batmobile of Detective Comics #400, and the Batman Forever movie Batmobile. There will be plenty to choose from if you don’t want to collect them all.

For fans interested in going after the entire series of Eaglemoss’ Batmobiles, I recommend going after a subscription from their website. Fans who subscribe to the Batmobile Automobilia get several free gifts immediately for subscribing. The subscription includes a Batman binder for your magazines, free digital editions of the magazines available to download every fortnight, a fullsized Batman license plate, a limited edition amored 1988 movie Batmobile (complete with Joker goons), and the Batwing from the Batman movie! Finally, as an added bonus, we have a special look for you below of the behind the scenes crafting of Eaglemoss’ 1966 Batmobile diecast prototype. Find out more about Eaglemoss’ Batman Automobilia collection by going to BatmobilesOnline.Eaglemoss.com/