Toyz Review - Mattel Batman Transblast Batmobile

Everyone remembers The Tumbler, right? It's the new, intimidating-looking Batmobile that's featured in the rebooted Batman film franchise helmed by Christopher Nolan. It's that powerful looking ride that Batman uses to soar the streets of Gotham City in his war against crime. Anyone who forgot how it performs, don't worry, this sequence from the movie Batman Begins should refresh things:

The Batmobile chase sequence from "Batman Begins"
A cross between a Lamborghini and a Tank, The Tumbler is a prototype vehicle originally intended for military applications and bridge deployment over terrains, but budget concerns and failure to perform its intended purpose forced the car to be shelved in the bowels of Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences division. Lucius Fox, a trusted associate and former board member of Wayne Enterprises, was transferred to this department to "keep him away from trouble", but many underestimated his penchant for technology, and his experience in the field helped Bruce Wayne equip himself with "the tools of the trade" to become his crime fighting alter ego, Batman. In addition to providing the Nomex Suit, Utility Belt, and Memory Cloth that formed the Batman's primary equipment, Fox showed and road tested The Tumbler to Bruce, who was more than impressed with the results, even going as far as to make one simple request: "Does It Come In Black"?

The Batman Begins/ TDK Batmobile, aka The Tumbler

Batman: Transblast Batmobile
Made by: Mattel

Reborn as the Batmobile from Batman Begins/ The Dark Knight, The Tumbler is probably one of the most sought after toys in recent years. It's been released in several scales and variations, with one of the toys even being a Transformer in disguise! As a big fan of Batman, this is one of the best vehicles to have ever debuted throughout the character's long history in comics and media. Sure, we remember the classic looking Batmobiles from the past, like the 1960's version from Adam West's Batman show, and the iconic, sleek looking roadster from Tim Burton's films, but The Tumbler comes off as a different case that's truly appealing to most Batfans out there. Probably it's because of the realistic design, or the fact that the car is based and created from existing technology. Whatever the case, the bottomline is that the car just reeks of awesomeness too much. As such, this will be my first major toy review in quite a long while. It's a cool collectible, and since acquiring the thing last weekend, I can't seem to pry my hands away from it.

More than a year after the release of The Dark Knight, toy making company Mattel decides to re-release several of their toys and action figures based on the Nolan Batman movie series under the simple "Batman" banner. The cards and packaging remain consistent with the original TDK merchandise, but otherwise, it's a completely new wave that's now available to fans who just couldn't get a piece of the action last year. Pictured below is the box of the Batmobile, officially named as Transblast Batmobile. Why it's called this will be explained as we go on with the review. For now, what's included in the package is the car, plastic missles, an instruction manual hidden inside, and a complimentary 6" figure of Batman himself, garbed in his new costume as seen in the 2008 movie.

Transblast Batmobile Box (Front)
Any fan of toys in general will notice at first glance that this is a pretty good looking Batmobile. It's considerably close in appearance to the movie version, and had great detailing to boot. However, while the vehicle is a neat piece of work, It's not the first time Mattel released a toy version of The Tumbler. Back in 2005, a "Deluxe Batmobile" was released in conjunction with the Batman Begins toy merchandise. A second version of the car, released as Stealth Launch Batmobile, was an entirely different toy in itself, released for the TDK toyline and being a two-in-one vehicle that launched the Bat-Pod at the press of a button located at the back of the vehicle. Recently, Hong Kong based toy manufacturing company Hot Toys released a 1/6th scale Batmobile, which is the biggest toy replica of the car to date. Its detail is almost unparalleled, and it even includes functioning headlights! The big trade off of the latter, though, is the price. VERY PRICEY.

Transblast Batmobile Box (Back)

Anyone with a good eye on toys will notice that the Transblast Batmobile is the exact same Batmobile from the Begins toyline, albeit with a couple of changes the company made to separate it from its predecessor. The most prominent change is the removal of the electronic sounds that gave the vehicle its unique "Deluxe" features. The flashy areas that emitted light are still present, but the removal of the two buttons and sound features render them useless. A single button remains to open both sides of the Batmobile to put it on "Attack Mode", but this too has the sound output missing. In the end, instead of rebuilding the car from scratch, Mattel recycled the shell of the 2005 version and repainted several areas to give it a close resemblance to the movie's look. It sounds like a harsh trade-off if you're the type to look for dynamic interactive features, but this is still one of the best looking sculpts of The Tumbler to date, and it's packed with a Batman figure to boot.

Batman and his ride, standing side by side...
The figure is your standard looking 6" Batman toy, dressed up in his TDK costume. The detailing is pretty good, and unlike the dynamic, articulate heavy Movie Masters line of action figures, this Batman toy's cape is actually cloth, not hard plastic. Speaking of articulation, there's not much to say about this Batman when it comes to movement or posture. All you can do is move the arms, elbows, knees, and legs. There are limited ways to pose this figure, but its intended use really is to just serve as the driver to the Batmobile. Most of the other 6" Batman movie figures fit in here too, but if you're thinking of using the Movie Masters figures, forget it, they won't fit at all.

Shot of the Batmobile's hood swung open to reveal the cockpit. Looks good from this view.
The hood of the Batmobile can be swung open to reveal a control console and a seat for a single occupant. This is where the line is drawn between the toys and the car depicted in the movie. The Tumbler seen in the films is a two-seater car, and there were several more instruments inside that Batman had to operate to get the car rolling, such as a throttle and turbo booster button.

Up close shot of the Batmobile's control console. Pity the features are lacking somewhat...
Furthermore, whenever the car went into "Attack Mode", the driver's seat would instantly move to the middle of the car and position the driver face down in the center section between the two front wheels. This is non-existent in the Transblast Batmobile, so all Bats can do is steer and drive. It's a bit disappointing, but then again, once you close the lid, you can't see what he's doing inside, so one can always use his/her imagination.

The Tumbler in "Attack Mode". This never happened in the movies...
As I mentioned earlier, Attack Mode has the car's sides burst open to reveal two missle launchers. The accompanying two sets of plastic missles the toy has in its packaging can be utilized along with these launchers, and each has a button in the middle that fires the inserted piece in a straight trajectory. Reinserting these launchers back into the chasis of the car returns it to normal, and personally, I much prefer it this way. The "Attack Mode" function is really intended for kids to play with, and once again, this was another device that wasn't featured in the movie version of the car either. Pity the sounds for the Turbo Booster were removed, I could have enjoyed using that instead.

The Tumbler/ Batmobile looks really impressive. Wish I had it in real life, hehe
As far as detail goes, I have to give a big thumbs up to Mattel for their work on the Batmobile here. The sculpting of the car really looks like The Tumbler from the movie, give or take a few minor discrepancies. Hard plastic actually makes up most of the vehicle's structure, with only the tires and windows being different overall. The former is made of actual rubber; the kind that simulates what a real tire feels like. These roll on the floor smoothly and allow the car to go on a straight path. Unfortunately, there's no axel to go left or right, so you can forget making the Batmobile do smooth turns. The windows have a tint like feature to them that prevents anyone from seeing the insides of the car without opening the hood.


The Tumbler and its "offspring", the Bat-Pod.
Taking all things into consideration, the car looks perfect, and while I have some nitpicks about how it could have been made, I have no major complaints about it. It's pretty much a "made to display" collectible that you can fiddle around with once in a while, and it looks good when you pose it next to your collection of other Batman stuff. I also happen to have the Batmobile from the first Batman movie, and posing these two side by side is just a kick ass testament to the whole franchise itself. Overall, I can definitely recommend this for anybody who loves the Nolan Batman flicks and Batman in general. Gotta thank Chris Nolan and Nathan Crowley for making this masterpiece of a vehicle. It's a pity that it was destroyed in The Dark Knight, but that's how the Bat-Pod was born in the first place, and it's another vehicle that's just a thing of beauty. So, is this the best Batmobile? For me, The Tumbler certainly is up there with the best on my list.

Batman and his rides. "Where does he get those wonderful toys"?XD

Paint - 5/5
Packaging - 4/5
Articulation - 4/5
Fun Factor - 5/5
Score - 4.5/5