Two years ago, I was about to lay down over $700 on the beautiful Hot Toys Sixth Scale 1989 Batmobile. I always wanted this thing as the centerpiece of my collection and had waited patiently for a re-release so I could avoid the high markup everyone on eBay was asking me to pay for the original version that came out over a decade ago (or maybe it just feels that long). However, just as I was adding the pre-order to my cart, I learned that a Hot Toys competitor named JazzInc had thrown down the gauntlet and announced its own, supposedly far more screen-accurate 1989 Batmobile. I looked up JazzInc’s offering and, sure enough, it appeared bigger and better. Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy," and that was ringing true. I felt conflicted. Deeply conflicted. With Hot Toys, I felt like I was acting a fool by making such a large purchase on what’s now potentially the 2nd best model '89 Batmobile, but if I go with the super accurate one from JazzInc, I’m foolishly spending twice as much cash on what is most definitely not a household essential purchase. And didn’t the Hot Toys model look perfect to me before I saw this new hotness? Comparison, man...
Then I found videos from Joost Assink, the founder of JazzInc, and in those videos I saw Joost point out every detail that the Hot Toys version got wrong but his crew was working to correct so that fans could have the most true-to-film sixth scale model imaginable and… it swayed me. He was even working with the fan community in a facebook group brimming with the most nitpicky of die-hard fans, which are exactly the kind of people you want giving notes and advocating for the things going on your shelf. So I allowed myself to splurge. If I’m going to go big, I might as well go all the way. I spread the bill out over a year and made monthly payments and waited and waited and waited... And all that time and over $200 in shipping fees later, the JazzInc 1989 Batmobile is finally here in my home and I’m feeling… mostly great about it.
Design and Features
A masterclass in design accuracy, the JazzInc 1989 Batmobile is about as perfect a rendering of the iconic car as you're ever going to get at this scale. From the hint of green in the paint to the brand of tire, everything looks oh so right. They were such sticklers for detail that they even put effort into areas that will mostly go unseen. Example? The pedals are a match. And you can’t even see the pedals without removing the canopy and shoving a camera down to the floorboard.
Exterior Highlights: Functioning headlights and taillights, sliding cockpit, machine guns that can extend and retract, a rotating turbine intake, diecast metal components, grappling hook, removable Batman Returns shinbreakers that you’ll probably never use, Batman Returns Bat-discs that'll probably go unseen as you store them away in the side compartments, and it boasts a rear afterburner that illuminates a stream of mist for a stunning albeit short jet propulsion effect. JazzInc also included the platform that emerges from the base in Batman Returns. Remember that? It allowed the car to spin 180 degrees before burning a man alive. The vehicle doesn't have the glossier paintjob of the Batman Returns vehicle, but I appreciate that JazzInc. included so many Batman Returns specific accessories anyway, because why not?
Interior Highlights: Detailed dashboard and control panel with light-up features (I can't stress enough how much I love the attention to detail on every switch, button, and screen), diecast metal steering wheel, foot pedals, leather upholstered seating (although the upholstery is coated in silicone to preserve the leather and results in the material not feeling like leather anymore), and, somewhere, there’s a hidden speaker that, when triggered by an included remote control (that looks just like the one Batman uses in the movie to command the car), plays clips from the 1989 film. That remote also controls the exhaust, turbine, and lights, by the way. And the whole thing is plugged in for power, so no batteries required. Oh, and the floorboard is carpeted.
Size
What does 1/6 scale mean, exactly? It's hard to picture. It's 43.6 inches long, 17.87 inches wide, and 9.21 inches tall. I still don't have a good place to display it-- lay off, we had a baby this year, I'll get a cool setup eventually. The point is, if you are interested in getting this, have a gameplan. More than likely, it's not going to fit on the shelf you're thinking about using. I had a dream of building a lazy Susan that the car is perpetually rotating on, but once I actually had the vehicle in hand (or, more appropriately, in arms) I saw just how hard that'd be to achieve from a square footage standpoint. It'll take up most of the room if you want to have it spin around. I just believe like displaying it on a shelf where only the profile is in view would be doing it a disservice. It's a beautiful vehicle and I spent a lot of money on it. Oh, it's $1,499.00 by the way. And that's not including shipping, which is another $217 or so. And if you're thinking of an enclosed display case so you can keep dust off this dust-magnet, you're more than likely going to need to custom order that.
Build Quality
It looks immaculate upon a casual viewing, which means that if you're not the one who bought it and you're not scrutinizing every detail, it's positively breathtaking. But when you're the one buying it you're going to agonize over any possible imperfection. For this price, I want exceptional build quality and the combination of high-grade plastics, rubbers, leather, and die-cast metal lends the car a highly authentic appearance and a mostly sturdy feel except for a few areas. I find the sliding canopy to be kind of janky, which it ought not be since it's such a defining feature. Anytime I slide it, I feel like I’m going to break it.
The process of opening the canopy feels like an afterthought. I have to grip it with my fingernails between the windshield and the roof, lift, and then carefully pull the thing across the hood where a support beam rides along a trench. As I mentioned earlier, the gorgeous, highly accurate paint is an absolute fingerprint/dust magnet and I want to touch it as little as possible, yet here we are using our fingers and nails to pry and pull at the canopy. It would’ve taken away from the screen accuracy a bit, but I would have preferred it if the canopy operated on drawer glides for smoother operation and, rather than a remote control turbine (something you don't even see in the movie), having the canopy open and close with remote control would have been far more impressive. And don't say it can't be done. I've seen what those Robosen Transformers can do and one of those costs less than this car-- all I'm asking is for a canopy that automatically slides forward and back.
When it comes to the body of the vehicle itself, I found that there was a gap between the passenger side headlight and its housing, but when I presented this and a gap between the windshield and canopy, to JazzInc they said that it was well within specifications. Browsing around YouTube, I discovered a few other collectors who noticed the same problem on their Batmobile as well as catching various dents and subtle bulges from the molding process, but thankfully my car shows none of that.
The wheels are a lesser, but still noticeable problem. And I'm not talking about the rubber, it's a good-looking tire. It's the wheels themselves that don’t feel all that solid even if they do turn on metal axles-- they feel kind of wobbly. And while they look great, I still wonder if the tires will eventually take on flat spots over time. More than likely, I will position some furniture pads beneath the already low-riding body of the vehicle, distributing the weight across the pads rather than the tires and hopefully avoiding flat spots.
Lastly, the only other problem I ran into was the remote control. Making the remote match that of the prop used by Michael Keaton in the film was a masterstroke. However, I couldn’t get mine to work initially and the instructions that came with the car weren’t very helpful. Paperwork showed a single screw to be removed but mine had an empty hole and then two tiny side screws. Those tiny side screws stripped immediately because they’re merely decorative... oops. I reached out to JazzInc, who explained that due to customs, some cars would arrive without a remote battery or a screw. I had neither. They also sent me a video on how to stick a screwdriver into the hole and pry at the lid without cracking the housing. I wasn’t impressed by this clumsy battery compartment design, but I like the look of the remote and it functions well now that I have it operational.
The biggest problems I had, though? Well, this is where my experience gets more specific to the model that I received. It's where we get into some quality control issues like the aforementioned YouTubers who complained about dents. While overall, the build quality on this ginormous car is excellent, it's translating that excellence into every car they make and send to customers that seems to be the problem. The quality control at JazzInc makes me hesitate to tell everyone that they're the go-to provider of Bat-vehicles. If they can improve their consistency then they're unquestionably the best manufacturer of 1/6 scale Batmobiles, but for now I'm hearing conflicting reports from those around the web and within my own friend group.
The Things I Hated
My car arrived with a couple of problems that it shouldn't have.
One, the canopy had some imperfections on it so I asked JazzInc for help. At close inspection, there were swirls on the glass when the light hit it right and the frame around the glass had a crumpled look, as did the edge of the glass. These are things that nobody I showed it to in person noticed, but when you're looking for something wrong, you're going to find it and I'm writing a review on the thing. JazzInc sent a replacement, no questions asked. It arrived about three weeks later, but the replacement had its own problems: scuffs on the roof and a deep scratch on the glass. I let JazzInc know about it and they shipped yet another canopy right away. It arrived, three weeks later, and this time the replacement looked flawless. So it's reassuring that their customer service is responsive, but I received the car in December and it was late March before I felt like it was truly complete.
The other big problem I had with my car and the one that caused the most consternation? It had scratches. Two scratches near the front fender, right on those beautiful curves where I would always be looking. When I reported them, JazzInc recommended using Jescar Correcting Compound to buff them out and they acted like it was no problem at all. A bottle of this costs about twenty bucks, which I had to pay for out of my own pocket, and it removed one of the scratches but the other is still faintly visible to me. Would another application and rub-down fully remove the other scratch? Maybe. I'm afraid to try any further. See, the cloth and compound remove a bit of paint as well, that's just how the solution works. And risking any additional damage to that beautiful paint just isn't worth it for something only I can see in the right light and when I'm looking very, very closely. UPDATE: a friend and fellow Batman News alum who also purchased the car but received theirs a couple months after me is reporting that their vehicle came with a touch-up kit that includes a cloth and a tiny jar of polish/correcting compound, so I guess I wasn't the only one complaining about scratches.
I think at the end of the day, if you're like me and you've always been responsible with your money and you're choosing to drop a mortgage payment's worth of dough on what's essentially a toy, you’re going to find yourself scrutinizing everything because deep down you're experiencing guilt over treating yourself for once. There's a part of you seeking evidence that your worst nightmare is true and this was a waste of money and here's the proof that you should never reward yourself to this frivolous extent again. But at some point you have to stop picking it apart. Realize you found this flaw or that flaw by holding your gaze an inch above the surface while shining a flashlight and if you weren't acting crazy you'd never have spied that defect in the first place. Just enjoy it. And now that I have the scratches and the canopy fixed, I am thoroughly enjoying it.
We Bought a Second Car
JazzInc knew we were reviewing their Batmobile, but they didn't know that a friend and former member of our staff had ordered the car for their own personal use. Curious to see if this far more eagle-eyed reviewer endured similar problems as me or the YouTubers I mentioned, I asked them for a full report and here's what they had to say about their own JazzInc 1989 Batmobile:
The power cord just hangs out the bottom of the Batmobile. From certain angles it is visible and when you roll it across the floor it scrapes along the ground. Something as simple as a trench the same width as the cord on the undercarriage that would hold the cord in place with nothing more than tension would have been an acceptable fix if they didn't want to get all fancy with it.The canopy has two struts that support it when in the open position and at the end of the struts are two rubber caps. These caps fit into a trench that is in actuality the top of the armrests. On the passenger side there are no buttons on the armrest. But on the driver side there are buttons. If you open the canopy all the way it causes the rubber to rub against the buttons. Over time I could see how this might cause damage to the buttons. Also, when you have the canopy open all the way it means the driver side of the canopy sits up higher than the passenger side since the rubber cap is sitting on top of the buttons and the passenger side cap is sitting on the armrest directly. It is noticeable when you look head on at the car that one side is higher than the other. But only in an open position. The simplest solution is to simply not open the canopy to its fullest extent, but at the same time I don't think they should have made it in such a way that the functionality of the canopy is impeded by the design they chose to implement it with.
Context on pics...
The first six are just the Batmobile in a well lit room with natural outside light coming in. Next four, direct light with the sun shining directly on it. Last four, in my trophy room with no natural light and just regular light bulbs. The pic with the scratches actually are not scratches at all. You can feel them when you run your finger over them so they are surface level but they are not scratches. What they appear to be is crack lines left behind after the paint dried and shrunk. To be fair, you do not see them unless you really look for them as should be obvious from the other photos. My Batmobile came with a care kit that I have not tried yet but it is filler for scratches. The other pics are of the Batmobile alongside the original 89 toy, the Super 7 Thunder Tank, and The Millennium Falcon. For size comparison and considered they may be things other collectors would have.
So, in the end, are you happy with the Batmobile? Still feel good about paying double the price of the Hot Toy?
Hell yeah. The thing is ****ing awesome. No regrets here. I think they should make a version without all the bells and whistles though. Like take out the sounds, turbine spin, and smoke effects to bring the price down for other people who would rather just have a pretty shell.
Overall
I was upset about a couple of minor flaws that have since been resolved and I have ultimately accepted that JazzInc's 1989 Batmobile is amazing and even though it cost as much as mortgage payment, I deserve it. It's the thing everyone talks about when I show them my collection now. And if you order one (it's waitlist only now) that arrives without any quality control issues I think you'll be in heaven. Absolute bat-heaven. There's a risk of getting a car that has imperfections that could prove irksome for more discerning collectors, but thankfully most complaints I've seen reported on the web and what I've experienced for myself has been relatively minor and JazzInc has proven willing to work with customers to make sure that any and all damage is addressed. Both and I and a friend ordered a batmobiel each and one arrived practically pristine and its owner couldn't be happier, but the one that came to me for review had defects that have now been corrected. And now that I am satisfied... yeah, I'm glad I spent more on the bigger Batmobile.
Disclaimer: Batman News bought the Batmobile at cost for the purpose of this review, the second Batmobile was purchased for personal use at full price.