Bat-pod!

The Bat-pod first came to life on the big screen during a spectacular car chase scene in The Dark Knight. Batman was on the Tumbler and he had to shield the truck carrying Harvey Dent from a missile from Joker’s bazooka by using his vehicle as a shield. The Tumbler took massive damage but fortunately it had a feature where Batman could actually use parts of it as a badass weaponized motorcycle. The Bat-pod made it’s second appearance during The Dark Knight Rises. In that movie though it was more of Selina Kyle (we’re not complaining) riding it especially in the final half of the film.

Ever since we started collecting 1/6th scale figures from The Dark Knight trilogy, we knew that we would eventually buy the vehicles in the series. The Bat-pod was a natural first pick since it was the most affordable compared to the two Tumblers. It was also a great compliment to one of our earlier buys, Selina Kyle.

As expected, The Bat-pod is a gorgeous collectible that will make any Batman fan drool. It’s authentically detailed and it’s a spot on mini-replica of the bigger bike in the movie. Hot Toys even made sure that they used some sort of rubber for the tires!

At the middle we have the riding area, engine, and handles. Setting up the handles can be initially tedious though, especially when you try connecting the rod to the hand guards. That took us over 20 minutes, lol. Up front we have the first rubber wheel and it’s built-in machine gun and grappling hook. At the back we have the pedals and the other tire.

Hot Toys also put in LED light bulbs in the headlights of the vehicle. If you slap in 3 pieces of 3A batteries in the engine you can actually have the headlights light up! Pretty cool especially if you’re showing it to someone.

By the way, this Bat-pod is quite massive! It measures 6.5″ (height) x 7.0″ (width) x 25.0″ (length). It weighs in at around 8 lbs which is still quite manageable.

No matter what angle you look at it, the Bat-pod looks amazing. However we do have two concerns with it. First is how ridiculously hard it is to mount either Batman or Selina Kyle into the bike! It was just a frustrating exercise even with the help of a variety of YouTube videos and online tutorials. We eventually got Selina Kyle in but not a perfect fit.

Secondly, and we already mentioned this earlier, is how flimsy the hand guards are. Hot Toys should seriously look into creating more stable rods that keeps them in the proper position.

Over-all we’re very happy and satisfied with the Bat-pod. It gives so much more life and versatility to both the Selina Kyle and Batman figures. It’s also designed well and has a stunning likeness to the bike used in the actual movie.

Here are a few more photos for your reference and appreciation:

There are only limited stocks left of the Bat-pod in stores. This is despite the rather high price point at over Php18,000. If you’re lucky though you can probably find a better deal in the various Toy Forums that I joined. If you want one just head on over to the different toy groups online or check out the various toy shops and stores in Shoppersville.