This was the second project I started after the end of my "dark ages". I had acquired quite a few black bricks to be able to finish the bodywork of the BMW Coupé. But although the BMW was still unfinished, I thought that I just might have enough black bricks to finally build the 1989 Batmobile as it was meant to be: in black!

For "version 1.0" of the new Batmobile (pics on the left and beneath) I used the "air filled" wheels of the 8479 set instead of the old 20x30 technic wheels I had used on the old blue and yellow colored Batmobile (above).

The new 62.4x20 wheels had the same size, but looked better due to a finer more realistic profile. After some minor changes (exhaust pipes, color of the headlights, rear lights) my friend criticized that the model didn't have any steering (just like my original blue & yellow one). I wasn't satisfied with this version of the Batmobile either, because the white rims didn’t really fit to the rest of the "all black" Batmobile. I tried to cover them with 4 black radar dishes, but wasn't pleased with the resulting look. But then the 8428 set was sold at half the price at our local TRU.

I saw an opportunity to finally solve the wheel problem once and for all. But these set's futuristic wheels were slightly larger than the ones used before. So I had to rescale the whole chassis, which became a bit longer. But during the rebuilding process I took my chances and fitted in a steering mechanism also.

You couldn't really build any other realistic looking car with the wheels of the 8428 "Turbo Command" set, but a Batmobile was certainly futuristic enough to go along with this kind of tires. Despite these rather wide tires the Batmobile has the narrowest wheel casings of any model with steering I have built so far.

In contrary to the early blue & yellow Batmobile, I tried to make use of all those special shaped pieces that were available now. Thus I was able to create a shape even more closer to the original.

Model dimensions:
width: 17.5cm, length: 52cm

The steering is operated by the turbine exhaust at the back of the car (?!) and the rear wheels drive the front turbine (should be the other way 'round, right?).


I used the old huge technic chain pieces (with 2 studs on top) for the rear exhaust.

So this Batmobile really went through quite a few revisions. The first blue & yellow model from my childhood, followed by the first "past dark ages" black Batmobile, and finally the slightly longer & higher version with steering and the 8428 wheels.
This revision history is only beaten by my "Optimus Prime" Transformer.