Let me say this again : I’m a big Batman fan. It’s a pretty easy thing to be a fan of. I feel like it’s just become a part of my everyday life at this point – wake up, be a Batman fan, eat, sleep. I’m relatively subtle about it, though, and only introduce this fact after my acquaintances know that I’m a pretty decent, well-adjusted human being and that my admiration of a superhero doesn’t preclude normal social functions, as it sometimes might.
I collect Batman stuff, and until recently, I only collected official, quality, brand name Batman. I skip lots of things, like the movie action figures and things that I don’t feel fit into the Batman ideas that I have. Recently, I’ve purchased Chip Kidd’s ‘Bat-Manga’, a collection of 1960 Japanese Batman comics, and traded for an original Batman drawing from an artist friend. A few weeks ago, I broke my own collecting code, and it’s all because of a completely random find on eBay. I wasn’t looking for Batman – and even if I was, the item wouldn’t have come up, because it wasn’t ‘Batman’. It was Batdude.
What I’d found was a 12” action figure that someone had very carefully and meticulously dressed up as a customized Batman. It wasn’t completely professional, and certainly a little goofy, and the costume colors weren’t technically correct, but I immediately knew that this once could have been a more than suitable Batman for some kid to tear around the dining room with, fighting crime, large pets and houseplants which were surely turned evil by Poison Ivy. With a few minutes left in the auction, and less than $12 out of pocket, I had won my vintage Batdude.
Because this wasn’t an official Batman toy, and Time / Warner is very protective over their copyrights, eBay had actually pulled the auction during its first go-round, as the seller had listed the item as ‘Batman’. The second attempt at a listing used the ‘Batdude’ moniker, which made it seem even more appropriate for the slightly awkward figure.
The auction included a 12” vintage Mike Power action figure with loose joints, dressed up in a much more recent Captain Action outfit with the original bat-logo mounted on the front. The maker also created a bat grappling hook at the end of a long stretch of string, and a Batarang of sorts, both cut out of hard plastic – one of them being a hang-tab from some old package of something-or-other. Also included was a delicately sewn vinyl cowl with giant ears and a snap. At one point, the cowl had a cape attached to it, but it had fallen off from years of use, so that also had a modern replacement. The package also included the original black vinyl Batman suit that originally adorned the figure, which was far too delicate to re-dress the figure in. Impressions were left where the original bat-logo had fallen off, and where some color of shorts had been attached.
It’s difficult to date when the suit was made, as it’s no longer on the original figure and the suit itself has no markings, but the shape of the Bat-logo places it somewhere in the early 60s, as the familiar ‘yellow ellipse’ Batman logo was introduced in 1964, and probably took a while to catch on, and was used fairly consistently until the early 1990s. The Adam West Batman TV show kicked off in 1966, so Batman’s popularity was also rising.
Apparently, the seller that I had bought this from had also previously bought The Batdude off of eBay from a lot of toys which had been customized by a costume designer. The rest of the info has been lost to time, as everything previous to my purchase was handled by a third party.
I don’t consider this an ‘action figure’ as much as I consider it a piece of art. Before I saw it posed in any figural display, I saw it rappelling down the wall of Batman paintings and drawings that I’ve been collecting. Someone’s mom made them this, they loved it to pieces, and now, I think it’s found an honored place in my gallery as one of my favorite, completely unique Batman things.
