Creebobby News

My artwork for ‘The Empire Strikes Back Uncut’ was used as the cover image for the new teaser trailer, and even popped up on the official Star Wars blog!

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2013/04/23/the-empire-strikes-back-uncut-new-trailer/

Not to forget the trailer itself.

You can watch it here:

https://vimeo.com/63830672

Vroom!  Vroom!

What’s that coming down the street?  It’s a Batmobile!  No, it’s not a Batmobile.  It’s the 1971 Hot Wheels car #6179: Jet Threat!

Previously, I discussed the interesting resemblance between the 1973 JVZ Cereal Car and the 1989 Batmobile.

Well, there’s another early 70s toy car that pre-invents very specific design characteristics of the 89:  The 1971 Hot Wheels Jet Threat.  (I custom painted this one flat black to highlight the similarities.)

This car was designed by legendary Hot Wheels designer Larry Wood (aka ‘Mr. Hot Wheels’).

Note the similar wedge shaped cockpit.  Also, the 89 has very similar visible jet engine workings, but shrunken and moved to the sides.

The main thing we’re interested in, of course, is the nose.  It’s the same nose, complete with the same pointy turbine … thing!

 Tim Burton was 13 when the Hot Wheels Jet Threat came out, and 15 when the JVZ Cereal Car might have plunked into his cereal bowl.  Was he too old to be playing with Hot Wheels and eating sugar cereal?  Did he own these particular cars?  Did he bring Anton Furst a box of toy cars from his childhood and tell him, “Combine this toy jet car with this toy jet car and give me a Batmobile!”?  I don’t know.

Maybe Anton Furst came across these toys while searching for inspiration for his design.  There may not be any connection at all.  But I think the similarities are tantalizing.

I’d like to introduce the Batmobile world to JVZ cereal cars.

JVZ Co. was a plastic company that made cheap cereal box cars in the 60s and 70s.

Around 1973, they produced a series of four cereal box race cars including one magical car that seems to have accidentally (or maybe not so accidentally) stumbled upon many of the 1989 Batmobile’s key design features, a full sixteen years before Anton Furst designed the Batmobile we all know and love:

 It came in red, green, yellow and blue.  The black one on the right is a custom that I painted.

Here it is next to the Hot Wheels 89 Batmobile:

Here are all four cars that came in the line, two unused sticker sheets and also two ‘Gyro Cars’ JVZ made that came in Captain Crunch and other Quaker cereals.  I was told by cereal collectors I contacted that the line with the proto-Batmobile came in POST cereals, but I haven’t been able to find a box image advertising them.  It may be they were so cheap and simple that they came as a random toy in Raisin Bran or some other non-sugar cereal unadvertised.  One of the NOS cars I bought from ebay came from the original owner who confirmed that he pulled it out of a cereal box in the early 70s.

It sure looks like a Batmobile to me!

Coincidence?  Probably.  But the parallels are pretty amazing:
Front jet scoop with two side buldges, fastback cockpit pod pushed to the rear of the car, two stubby fins mounted on buldging rear fender modules, air intake vents on each of those rear fender buldges, the general proportions and feel of the car.

For this and other Batmobile posts (including my DIY Batmobile building adventures), check out ‘The Batmobile Show’ at:

http://thebatmobileshow.blogspot.com/

On March 7, 1990, Production Designer Anton Furst gave a lecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles.

He spoke about his career leading up to work on Batman, ending the talk with a description of the thinking and ideas behind his Batmobile design.

You can watch the full video here:

http://sma.sciarc.edu/video/anton-furst/

Thanks Nick for the heads up on this video.

What follows here is a word for word transcript of the Batmobile part of the talk.  He may have been bit drunk, which the transcript reflects, but the concepts are all there.

ANTON FURST ON DESIGNING THE BATMOBILE

(Transcription starting at 1:30 or so.)

And … . .

(Picture of Batmobile)

That’s my new car.
Uh . .
What I wanted to do with the car here is to, um,
I wanted it,  and  I, …
I wasn’t very interested in looking at cars,
You know, to, to try to come up with designing it,
Cause what I thought was

It’s like an extension of his armour,
It’s an extension of him.

Every time you know you came up with a concept car …
Heh!  
A few, you just …

It’s the sex is the shit!

I wanted to .  .  just … .
I mean I thought if,

If you don’t make it rude you’ve really … failed.

You know,
So … .
And …
Then I thought … thought that,

You’ve got to have this knight in armour feel.

You know,

With a sort of visor look to it. 

And, every …

Anything to make it very an agressive war machine.

And paid very little attention to any designed … cars
Apart from looking at what had had generally over the years,
Looking back to the sort of … .

40s 

… the 40s um …

Speed machines, 

the

Utah Salt Flats,

Through to the,

Muscle cars of the 60s.

Through to … .

And then putting a bloody great rocket engine down the middle!

You know, I … . .

It just really is a war machine.

I didn’t …

I must say, in terms of the … producers or the production if you like of this, um …
John Peters …  animal, you know, that, he is …
He blew out six million dollars from General Motors,
They wanted to do the car,
And they came up with various designs,
They said, ‘We think we can improve upon this design’,

And John just said, “Are you going to do that design or not?”
And they said “No,” and he said, “Well, let’s just shake hands, it’s very nice of you to suggest it, see you later.”

An … and uh … that’s strong producing, I mean, that’s certainly support,
That is, uh …

(Slide changes to a picture of the rear of the Batmobile.)

… And the back.
Uh …
So, he … blew out six million dollars, uh …  just to …

Maintain the original design.

… his … . .

And we built it.
Uh, which was a magnificent job by the way by Johnny Evans, uh …
Who … had done ‘Full Metal Jacket’ with me,
He, he, uh … this, uh … if you imagine building a functioning car that does … has a …

Blistering performance.

 … and, uh … is gonna run for months and months and months with a …

Seven point seven liter engine …

 in it, with uh …

Guns . . 

Gattling …

Thing we didn’t like … we didn’t like high tech stuff … very much,

Laser guns and all that, doesn’t fit with Batman.

You know all the sort of mechanical elements and all of that sort of thing …
So even when, he comes out and zaps something … you know la-ser gun? …

It’s a dirty old gattling gun! 

You know, how it comes out,

Always try never to position the thing in time.

You know …
it’s the 40s or the now, whenever …
Uh, but it … worked magnificently, it never went wrong,
We built two, one of them’s under wraps at Pinewood,
And the other one’s in John Peter’s garage in Hollywood,

And that’s it.

…

For this and other Batmobile posts (including my DIY Batmobile building adventures), check out ‘The Batmobile Show’ at:

http://thebatmobileshow.blogspot.com/