1/22/13

Nananananananana Four point two million!


The Batmobile...THE Batmobile - the original first ever started life as a '55 Lincoln Futura concept car and was customized by the legendary George Barris and crew for 1966's Batman TV show starring Adam West and Burt Ward - was auctioned off by Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale Arizona, selling for a WHAM POW HOLY BANK ACCOUNTS BATMAN $4.2 million dollars on Saturday January 19th 2013, and I WAS THERE! (Barrett-Jackson are reporting the car sold for $4.62 million which I assume includes their fees etc. The bidding itself on the auction floor reached $4.2 million.)

And so was my Hotwheels Batmobile. To think, I paid 1/4,200,000 the price of the real Batmobile for this little one!

Here we are enjoying a nice cup of coffee and a very Sprang-esque scene at the hotel before heading off to see the legend.

And OMFG there she is. A thing of absolute beauty, it was all I could do to stop myself from flinging my body across the hood and handcuffing myself to the car like some Batmobile preservationist.


I took tons of pictures from every angle, as one is apt to do for their greatest love.


I knew the car would go for a lot - my estimate was between 1 and 2 million, but when it passed 3 and then 4 million even I was stunned!


The new owner, Rick Champagne of Champagne Logistics will certainly never look at my blog, but if he ever does, and he needs a butler or a sidekick in tights, I'm your man!


Here's my Dad and I in front of the legend.




And finally, tiny Batmobile meets first Batmobile.

Mr. Champagne said after the win that he intended to put the Batmobile in his living room. Of course, his living room is probably bigger than the apartment complex I live in, and probably includes a mile long oval racetrack for all I know. But you've got to respect a man who wants to look at the Batmobile every single day of his life.

That also means that this #1 Batmobile may not be seen in public for a long time, so I am glad to have gotten the opportunity to have been in the presence of such a legend.

I also saw more classic cars than I can even wrap my head around during my time at the Barrett-Jackson auction, so I'll post some of those in the future. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

16 comments:

  1. Tiny Batmobile!! I want Tiny Batmobile!! (It's because I just needed a few(?) dollars to buy the Original Batmobile)
    1966 Batman series was aired in PerĂº in early 80s. I don't remember if I watched it on Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings.

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    1. I don't know how hard it is to get Hotwheels in Peru, but they do have the Batmobile in the 2013 line-up.

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  2. How cool you and your dad were able to go see it before it was sold. Am pretty sure I saw it once a long time ago at a Car Show when I was a very young man and I also got me Adam West too! Again that was so long ago and I was so very young.

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    1. Yes, very cool. I have a pic of us in front of the Keaton Batmobile from a few years back too!

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  3. Such a beautiful car. I read that he's going to have it placed in his living room.

    Seems like such a waste.

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    1. I'm sure his living room has an Indy sized racetrack in it. He won't be leaning around it to look at his tv and resting his feet on it, I'm sure ;)

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  4. Great post! That you got to do that with your dad is cool, too!

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  5. So awesome that you got to do that with your Dad !! You shouldve bid 4.3 .... It would have been worth it !!

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    1. I bid $4.3 dollars, but only because I was able to get a loan for half that ;)

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  6. I should have met you down there to check it out. We could have gone halves on it.

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    1. As long as your half covered 4.19999999999999999999999999999 million, I think we could have made it work!

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  7. Great photos Eric! I'm glad this car went to someone who appears to be a super-fan and not just an investor/collector. Let's hope he takes good care of it until I can buy it from him. ;)

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    1. You'll have to buy it from me, because I'm buying it from him! ;)

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  8. Nice pics, looks like you had a great time. You shoulda just licked the bumper and yelled "dibs!"

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