Holy WishBook, Batman! It's the Captain Action TV Batmobile!
A Review of James DeSimone’s “JoeMobile” for 12” figures

by Wes McCue

     If you asked any kid watching “Batman” in 1966, the show had only three real stars: Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin and their glistening black, chrome and red-trimmed, Bat-bedecked, gizmo-laden, faster-than-any-old-speeding-bullet Batmobile.  And many of those the same kids, if they were dyed-in-the-wool Bat-tykes, were gifted at some point with a Captain Action doll and his Batman uniform and equipment. It was cool enough swinging him from his teeny Batrope, sure, but the dream of dreams was to have that Batmobile to race him down the driveway and through the sandbox.

   Thirty-something years later, James DeSimone has made that dream reality with a giant Batcar scaled for 12” action figures. He calls it the ‘JoeMobile’, a case of misguided Hasbro loyalty, I'm sure, but we Cap fans know who this car is really made for!

If you've seen the car for sale on eBay (Picture 1), it looks pretty keen all painted up with CA behind the wheel. But, being the Bat-stickler I am, I hadda have mine minus the pinstriping so I could put it in the right places and - not one content to leave well enough alone - do a little fine tuning of the details on my own down the road.
At any rate, here's how it comes outta the box. (Picture 2, 3 and 4). The first thing to say about this car is...it’s HUUUGE! I mean, it's like the freaky Bat-zilla of the toy shelf! Its 28” long from Batfront to Batfin and 11” wide. You better make some room if you plan on displaying this monster. And its heavy to boot! I expected the plastic to be rather thin but instead its very sturdily molded; the car itself and the wheels seem like they would take a lot of abuse in the backyard, were you so inclined.

   Mine already had the wheels in place although the instruction sheet does give directions for attaching them with the screw-end axles and little nuts that are included. I'm sure the tires are molded after whatever wheels came with the original but they're more than a little outsize, esp. the rear wheels which are bigger than those on the front. In fact, I'd suggest using just the front wheels all the way around. Of course, there are no mag wheel-type details and no bat-hubs so I'm hopeful of finding a mag-type wheel that's more in scale with the body to dress up the car.

The interior (Pic 5) is plenty spacious for the Cap figure and features some minor detailing, still plenty of room for customizing with maybe a Batphone and fire extinguisher. Included is a sheet of stickers to dress up the cockpit and dashboard (Pic 6). It doesn't look as if these were included with the original toy because the molding of the dashboard isn't specific to the sticker designs. Still, a little ingenuity might make them useful along with a coupla Bat-labels which anybody with a computer and printer could make up fairly easily.

   The rear deck rocket tubes (Pic 7) are cut from heavy metal stock and are somewhat roughly finished on both ends. There are long screws that, according to the directions, are supposed to be screwed into the deck and then the tubes are to be fitted over those and hot glued in place. Since I’m planning some refitting and didn't want to cement them in place to get in the way later, I simply stood them in place for the pics herein. 

  The rollbar is a simple, painted piece of plastic stock, curved to sit over the cockpit with what seems to be a rather hastily constructed separate siren assembly hot-glued on top. Its adequate as a basic representation of the shapes atop the Batmobile...but that's it. The one with this set had a pretty obvious glue gun melt on the driver side. Like the rocket tubes, this piece would need to be glued in place.

   The window canopies (Pic 8), easily one of the coolest details on the real article, also could be improved upon in this model. Again, I don't know what the original toy offered as a pattern, perhaps no windows at all, but even the cheap small 70s versions at least managed some resemblance to the real thing. Each of the four individual windows included has just one post to fit into the body and ultimately needs to be glued into place. The directions repeatedly emphasize careful handling of the windows and I proved the necessity of that by carelessly handling one of them, snapping off the post on the right front. I think these, along with the rollbar and siren, will be the major replacement project to be addressed in stylizing the car.

   James sells these for the first bid of 150.00 on eBay and, even with the work that it'll take to make it “just so”, that's not a bad ticket by any means when you start to think about how much blood and sweat must have gone into creating a thing like this. Besides, the bottom line is: Where else are you gonna get a CA-sized Batmobile?!? If you're an experienced modeler, its a super cool body to start with and you'll have a blast filling in the gaps, so to speak. If you're not, putting it together as it comes out of the box and dropping Cap as Batman in the driver's seat is still gonna be a treat.

   Hey, remember when you were six and dangled your CA Batman off the porch while your sister pushed Barbie and sissy Ken around the yard in her little orange roadster? Holy Green-With-Envy, Batman! Now you can call her up and tell her you've got a Capt. Action Batcar that'll run rings around that old rattletrap of a Barbie car! And your Cap will love you for it!

Editor's Note:  Wes McCue runs the Classic Plastick website, where you can find custom masks, repro Capes and Uniforms, info and much more.