So, yeah – that’s the 1966 version of the Batmobile in that picture (well, a tire from the 1966 version of the Batmobile). I’ll post a bigger gallery later or tomorrow after my CE Week exploits, part deux. Mezco Toyz rolled out this awesome treat infront of then partially inside the Ripley’s Believe or Not! er, Museum? as they also rolled out an awesome new Mez-itz set featuring a vinyl version of the classic ride along with The Dynamic Duo (that would be Batman and Robin) that’s due for launch in July (go  pre-order one NOW or the even cooler Summer Exclusive Mez-itz Bundle!)

I wanted to snap about a hundred more pics of this George Barris-engineered wonder, but there were SO many people on 42nd Street that started gathering that I had to get in the 30 or so shots I took pretty quickly and (DUH!), I actually didn’t take any movies of the car outside thanks to my surprise at it being rolled out of a trailer about 25 or so feet from the museum. Uh-Oh! Would I get at least close enough to that Batmobile so it was actual 1:1 scale… or would I end up underneath a few too many shoes and sandals with socks before I reached my destination (damn tourists!)…

Tune in below the jump, dear reader…

(hey, I was going to say “Tune in next week… same Bat time, same Bat channel…”, but some of you would take that TOO literally and NOT come back until next week. I can’t have that, so… look down and click, puh-leease)

(Yeah, it’s smiling…)

By the time I got over (and almost got run over by a small pack of tourists, cameras out and flashing away), it was pretty amazing to see tourists, fellow Gothamites, a few cops and loads of cars all stop and take notice. The funniest bits were from a few ladies in the crowd, one of which was smugly snapping away and telling the two girls with her “See? Daddy didn’t want to go with us. He wanted to stay in the hotel because it was COOL, right? Now, I get to show him this and he’ll just burn up because he MISSED it!” Priceless. The other moment was from an elderly tourist couple who lit up like two formerly pale Xmas trees and as the husband tried to lean against the Batmobile, the wife says “Harry. don’t lean on the car – you don’t want to get “POW”-ed or whatever!” Priceless, too.

There was a Batman as well, and he looked like Adam West (well, circa 1996), but there was not a Robin to be found save for some guy with a yellow cape, red Chuck Taylors, a Robin mask and five o’clock shadow that made him look like a bogus Hamburgular without the striped suit. Still, he must have been important as before you knew it, he was all chummy with Bats and then, IN the Batmobile as it took off and well, did a stop-start, then long U-turn into traffic to zip around the block as we headed into the Believe it or Not! building to wait for its return.

Of course, a few odds were laid on either some cranky-ass cabbie wrecking into that expensive ride (ouch), or some bummy denizen of the area seeing that car and freaking out because NYC finally got a damn “superhero” riding around with The Caped Crusader plus a sidekick that looked like a homeless guy in a cape and mask (ha ha). Er, I hope that guy wasn’t the owner of the car or some rich dude that dresses up like a dollar store Robin because he CAN (and can also afford to ride shotgun in one of the coolest TV cars ever with his thumb out, making everyone winder who the hell he is behind that mask to be so damned lucky)…

Anyway, after a bunch of shifting inside with other media and a growing crowd, Mezco folk unpacked a bunch of cool DC Comics-related toys from the Mez-itz lineup from this year’s lineup for display along with that cool Mez-itz Batmobile and Dynamic Duo set and a big 18″ Batman they were going to give away later in the event. As the inside of Ripley’s lobby was cramped, by the time that Batmobile rolled back, it was REALLY hard to get good pictures or movies.

There were freebies for all in the form of Dark Knight Rises Mez-itz figures (cool!), so that was another reason a lot of people were packing into this place on such a blazing hot Tuesday.  I actually shot a few quick (and probably shaky as hell) movie clips that I’ll post in a day or so on the DAF YouTube Channel (yeah, I have one! It’s crappy! You should go look!), so expect those along with the rest of the Batmobile pics I referenced earlier and some more droll commentary. I’d write more, but I’m starving and need to grab some dinner and pass out, as I’ve a REALLY long day tomorrow at some CE Week events (as in leaving here at *eek!* 6am or so… Bleah!).