[MOC] Batmobile: The Animated Series

[Werlu Ulcur]

Being in a "Batmobile phase" for the last month or so, I thought I could try my hand at creating the Batmobile seen in Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) TV show. I have the full series in a DVD collection and really enjoyed the style of drawing, that to my eyes had a noir look to it that reminded me of the classic Batman, before Warner Bros transformed (and ruined) the character into a children's cartoon. And I specially like that Batmobile, with it's 1930's locomotive look, with that huge bonnet and small cabin.

So the idea was to make it look like the car seen on the show but in minifig scale, and swooshable - no, I don't go around playing with my models making "vroom vroom" noises but I have to make them swooshable (according to my wife, I have the mind of a 12 year old, and she's ALWAYS right) .

It is too tall for a minifig, but it was just impossible to make it shorter in height and in minifig scale, since I wanted to make the bonnet with the taller middle section and with the exhaust manifold showing. I guess I could make it one plate shorter if I used the new Speed Champions tires and wheels, but then the wheels would have looked too small. In the end, as a real car it looks totally ridiculous and huge, but I think it's a half decent representation of what you saw on TV. What do you guys think?

PS: Looking at the images now I think I'll swap those vertical 1×2 black slopes on the sides of the cabin for two regular 1×2 tiles...

[Sir Gareth]

Quite the beast, but certainly screen accurate!

[r5-j2]

Now you`re just showing off! ! ...but it looks great!!!

[Werlu Ulcur]

Thanks!

As I said, totally cartoonish, but I think it looks similar to the screen version. At least when I showed it to my wife and asked her where it was from, she immediately said "Isn't it from those DVD cartoons?", so that's got to count for something, right?

Now I have to stop being lazy and start to think about MOCing my least favorite Batmobile: the Tumbler... Or at least, my least favorite version other then the ones from the Really Bad Batmobiles Era - anything between the Keatonmobile and Tumbler.

[Pellaeon]

Good to see another BTAS Batmobile, nice work!

(My take on it, from several years ago, is linked below)

[BaneShake]

Very screen accurate, I like it!

[Werlu Ulcur]

Thanx guys!

Good to see another BTAS Batmobile, nice work!

(My take on it, from several years ago, is linked below)

Being truthful, your use of those arches on the back was what inspired me to make my version - of all the versions I found on the web, everybody made the rear wings with a vertical curvature (under the wings), while you made it horizontal. I really liked that approach, and when I checked my parts bin, I found exactly two of those arches, and for the first time ever, I built a car from the back forward . But I couldn't find a solution (with the parts that I had) to your so slick and thin rear bumpers, so I just went the traditional way and "brick built" them. Therefor, a BIG (and belated) thank you for the inspiration! And if I may be bold to make a suggestion, change the title of your thread to "Batman: The Animated Series" because here was the first place I looked for ideas but I couldn't find your thread. I never though of using the acronym on the search.

And it looks like I wasn't totally done with it... I'm thinking that I should use the silver metallic versions of the front slopes, wheels and Technic connectors, so that there's a bit more contrast from the total blackness that is the car. Unfortunately I don't have those parts, so I ordered them and when they arrive I'll make an update here to show how the car looks.

[Francesxjoe]

Cool and I have worked on this animated version a few weeks ago.

Nice work~~

[FTG Prime]

Ah TAS Batmobile is one of my favorites, and you captured the look really well ! I specially like how you did the back

good job !

[Werlu Ulcur]

Thanks! But as I said, the merit is all Pellaeon's, he gave me the idea .

[Werlu Ulcur]

I was a bit bothered by the dimensions of the car. When compared to my other Batmobiles, this one was way too huge. And also, the tiles on the hood looked a bit off. If I substituted all the 1×4 by 2×4, I would still have to use one 1×4, and it looked wrong. So I decided to shorten the front one stud:

Being one stud shorter I also had to reduce the pipes of the exhaust manifold from 5 to 4 (so now the engine is a V8 instead of a V10 - much better fuel mileage now ) and changed the wheels so that I could use those silver hubcaps. I know that the grill up front should be black for accuracy's sake, but in the brick I think the silver slopes made the model look better overall. Next week or so I should receive the flat silver Technic connectors that I ordered, and I think that the three details (grill + pipes + hubcaps) will give the whole car a better look.

PS: It's hard to shoot black shiny models like this .

Edited September 8, 2016 by Werlu Ulcur

[yg33]

When looking at that drawing in the first post, the windshield is almost 100% exactly the same as the windshield piece included in the recent batmobile and batwing builds. Any reason you didnt use that one?

[Werlu Ulcur]

This one?

It's too wide and the top part is too long.