Batgirl & '57 Corvette

Recently, I added a '57 Corvette, associated with Batgirl, to my Corvette collection. The car was marketed by Jada Toys and came with a figure, just like almost all my batmobiles.

Batgirl, Batman, not a million miles apart, eh?

It turns out that this model car is part of a Jada Toys set of six 'DC Bombshells', each associated with a character from the Batman universe.

You see where this is going ...

Neither the 'Batgirl' Corvette nor the other five can be considered 'batmobiles', not least because the cars never appear in the movies as driven by the characters. Their only association with the characters is in the minds of the people at Jada Toys. But, still, I consider it an additional dimension to the Batmobile collection; watch this space!

Pre-batmobile batmobiles

Batman first appeared on screen in 1943. The car driven by Batman in that serial wasn't a hi-tech, specially customised batmobile as we understand them now, but a black 1939 Cadillac convertible.

The next live-action instalment is from 1949, and, in this, Batman drives a maroon 1949 Mercury convertible. Again, a factory-stock car and not a custom batmobile as in later movies.

Not surprisingly, I haven't been able to find a 1:24 model of either 'batmobile', but I did come across a 1:24 model of a maroon 1949 Mercury!

Yes, I am aware that model is a coupe and not a convertible, but it's close enough for me to add to the collection as a pre-batmobile batmobile.

And as to a 1:24 model of a black 1939 Cadillac, I'll keep looking!