About a minute and a half of Batheaven outside the supermarket…
Once upon a time, I lived in a place called Ocean Township, N.J. I was quite young and loved Batman to no end.
Nearby, on Route 35, there was a Grand Union supermarket, and right outside the door was the Batmobile.
Not the exact one on the TV show starring Adam West, mind you, but one that was close enough: a junior-size ride with bubble windscreens, pointed fins, open canopy, yet with a somewhat different paint scheme or decoration. (It may have been black with yellow trim, though perhaps that’s my imagination.)
I’d get in the driver’s seat, Mom would put a coin or two into a slot box — a dime? a quarter? I don’t remember — and that baby would take off.
This is a different time. This is when the Batmobile picked me up at my house. For real.
The car wouldn’t actually go anywhere, of course. Just stay planted on a big box, moving forward, up, down, and back, over and over, attached to its gyrating struts, accompanied by a loud, thrumming mechanical sound. In my mind, though, I was chasing the Joker, or the Riddler, or the Penguin, or whoever.
It was the best 90 seconds of the day.
I don’t know what made me think of these coin-operated wonders recently, but it sent me on a quest to find pictures of 13 different ones, some with similar body types, all with different designs. Their ages are unclear but some are clearly refurbished with modern flourishes.
Nevertheless, they’re all the Batmobile and, damn, I wish I could ride in one of them again.
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MORE
— The Day the 1966 BATMOBILE Came to My House. Click here.
— I Rode in the Original BATCOPTER — and It Was Everything I Hoped. Click here.
