Xtreme Customz Batmobile

As a huge fan of the Batmobile in all it's representations I am always pleased as punch to discover a new Batmobile toy.

I tend to find out about these things early (thanks Internet!) and am able to haunt the toy stores (impatiently) for the toy's arrival, but I have to admit that this one caught me completely unawares:

This is the Xtreme Customz Batman Special Edition. Nowhere is this called a 'Batmobile,' oddly enough, but that may be due to licensing with other toy companies. But they can't fool me!

This vehicle is approximately 1:48 scale. It wasn't until I got this car and did some research that I discovered the company that makes these - Ridemakerz - have been making 1:18 scale vehicles for a while now. You may have seen their 1:18 Pixar Cars toys and accessories in stores, which gets me to one of this Batmobile's finest features...

"Oh Jason Todd, you scamp!"

...like the cars of 'Cars,' this guy looks like an anthropomorphised Batmobile! Fans of Cars and Batman have longed for such a thing for decades!

The Xtreme Customz's schtick is that you can customize your ride in dozens of ways. To that end, you can raise and lower each axle as well as remove the chassis and add any number of custom parts:

The Special Edition Batman set comes with all this!

The wheels are reversible, and my favorite look ended up being black rims with turbines on the side and a massive machine gun on the hood.

Because BADASS!

You'll notice this Batmobile is clearly inspired by the 1989 Burton film Batmobile. In fact, it's a near exact representation from the rear.

The front end is a little more stylized, but that's fine, especially if you want to think of this as a Cars-esque Batmobile. Which I do!

I must also add here that the piece of hood that covers the add-on hole (sorry, can't think of a more scientific term for that place at the moment) is a great design solution - you can have a nice smooth unaltered hood or pop a custom piece in there - either way you don't end up with one way or the other looking 'wrong.' Or, in Transformer terms: 'kibble.'

"I hate guns...except for massive rotating turret types that pop out of hidden compartments in all of my vehicles.Those I'm cool with."

All parts easily pop in and out and the plastic this toy is made from is sturdy and strong enough to do so often. I did accidentally over-stress one side-piece's attachment component by pushing too hard on first attachment, but it only bent; it didn't break or crack, which is nice.

But I do recommend you be careful when attaching the side-pieces.

I don't know what this piece is. Crowd-control tear-gas canisters? Binoculars?

When Batman cruises the south side of Gotham he likes to go in prepared.

You can buy the components of the 1:18 scale Ridez separately; I'm not sure if you can for the 1:43 scale cars (yet,) but if so I will surely buy some more parts for my Batmobile. It could really use side-pipes.

Ooh look, a Joker car is coming out too! Love it!

I have to admit I am more impressed with this "Xtreme Customz Batman Special Edition" (aka Batmobile) than I thought I would be. I knew the toy looked neat in package, but upon opening and playing with for a bit I am impressed also by the car's fun and functionality. The whole vehicle is well built, the parts go on and stay on strong, the wheels and tires roll smooth, the axles stay in position and pops up/down quite well. And when pieces are added on or removed they don't look like they are added on or removed. They all flow well with the vehicles design. Well, except for the spoilers, but I'm not going to remove the batfins for a spoiler anyways. The 'Bat-ears' are also removable but again, I want my car to look like a living Batmobile, so they stay.

But wait...there's more!

This Spider-Mobile is one of XtremeCustomz's "starter kits." There's a Batman starter kit too. The starter kits come with different pieces than the larger kits, and in Batman's case the starter kit has white eyes/windshields as opposed to the 'chrome' of the special edition.

But back to Spider-Man!

Spider-Man's ride comes with all you see here. Again, the wheels are reversible, and those web-shooters are just plain awesome!

They even rotate up and down! And fire! Great stuff!

With great power comes great MPG.

I slapped the Batmobile's blown big block into the Spider-Mobile to show that the parts are all interchangeable. Cool!

Toyriffic's intern gave the cars the Mr. Goodwrench once-over and was quite impressed...even though she's well below the recommended age range for these cars.

That's okay, I'm well above the recommended age. Between the two of us we average out.

"The Batmobile is my favorite, daddy. Can I have it?"