Well, by chance a few days ago I spotted an advertisement in my Facebook feed that there was a Batmobile on loan for display at a museum about an hour and a half from where I live. So today I loaded myself and my older brother into the car and headed off to the Museum of Automotive Evolution in a city called Shepparton (in the southern Australian state of Victoria).
And sure enough, there it was, full size and in all it's incredible bat-glory, a genuine bona-fide Batmobile! Well, ok, it was a licensed replica of course, but it looked exactly like the real thing.
The Batmobile has haunted my mind since I was a child as being one of life's great man-made wonders, but a wonder that I never ever expected to behold with my eyes in my lifetime considering I live on the opposite side of the world from where the original car and it's licensed replicas were made. I reckon I stood for half an hour just watching it spin around on its turntable. I can finally now check "seeing a batmobile" off my life's checklist!
An unexpected bonus was discovering that the museum had a Tucker 48 (no. 1045) on display. Surely it is a replica I thought considering there was only 50 ever made, why would there be one in a museum out in a country city in Australia? But yes, this is the real deal, the car was bought at auction by an Australian in 2010 for over 1.1 million US dollars, and was currently on loan there at the museum. Seeing a batmobile and a Tucker in one day, what a joy indeed!
To top off a great day we went into the collectables shop next door to the museum where my brother ran into an old mechanical friend from 65 years ago, pics below.
And sure enough, there it was, full size and in all it's incredible bat-glory, a genuine bona-fide Batmobile! Well, ok, it was a licensed replica of course, but it looked exactly like the real thing.
The Batmobile has haunted my mind since I was a child as being one of life's great man-made wonders, but a wonder that I never ever expected to behold with my eyes in my lifetime considering I live on the opposite side of the world from where the original car and it's licensed replicas were made. I reckon I stood for half an hour just watching it spin around on its turntable. I can finally now check "seeing a batmobile" off my life's checklist!
An unexpected bonus was discovering that the museum had a Tucker 48 (no. 1045) on display. Surely it is a replica I thought considering there was only 50 ever made, why would there be one in a museum out in a country city in Australia? But yes, this is the real deal, the car was bought at auction by an Australian in 2010 for over 1.1 million US dollars, and was currently on loan there at the museum. Seeing a batmobile and a Tucker in one day, what a joy indeed!
To top off a great day we went into the collectables shop next door to the museum where my brother ran into an old mechanical friend from 65 years ago, pics below.
