1:25 1966 TV Batcycle

We picked 1:25 scale for this diorama. That is my favorite scale for modeling and I have some nice pieces done in that scale. It does offer some challenges however. There has never been an officially licensed 1:25 Batmobile model . (In fact the only Batmobile model ever released officially was the 1966 Aurora one that was in 1:32 scale.) Nor was there ever a Batcycle, Batcopter or Batboat until very recently. There was a Batcycle in 1:19 scale and a Batboat in 1:32 (again made by Aurora in 1967) There was never a Batcopter made (though one was planned)

That may seem like a plan-killer but as custom modelers, we usually make what we need anyway. And over the years some garage kits have been offered to fill in the gaps. We'll talk about all the vehicles separately. Up first - the Batcycle. Nobody has ever bothered to make a garage kit Batcycle, I suppose they figured that the Aurora 1:19 was nice enough. But we need one much smaller than that so it's time to scratch-build.

I've known Mike Stutelberg for years. He's a great artist and craftsman and has designed many bat-models for Horizon and Polar Lights etc. over the years. If you have the Polar Lights Batmobiles or the smaller Johnny Lightning bat-vehicle diecast kits, he designed many of them and the box art as well.

Mike has built his own batcave before though it doesn't feature all the TV acoutrements that we're trying for. I knew he had a 1:25 handbuilt Batcycle that he never finished. I contacted him and he graciously lent us his master to possibly have molds made and get cast. We are cleaning it up and will hopefully get it out to the caster soon.