Victor Buono for your shelf!
Have I told you I love living in a world where something like this can exist? I have? That’s OK, I don’t mind repeating myself.
Diamond Select will be soliciting orders later this month for their next Batman ’66 mini-bust — and we’ve got the first official pix to show off.
Not only that, designer Barry Bradfield and sculptor Jean St. Jean are here to give you the behind-the-scenes look you dig so much. (Oh, and the bust will run in the $60 range, as usual.)
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For the full INDEX of stories about Diamond Select’s BATMAN ’66 line, click here.
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Dan Greenfield: There’s a lot of extra detail on this one since Tut’s costume is so ornate. There are also variations throughout the series. How did you come up with this design?
Barry Bradfield: Personally, this is the outfit I always picture him in. I like his crown/helmet look as well, but this is what I consider most classic. I had done some roughs with him a bit more hunched over, looking a bit more… scheming, I suppose? It wasn’t really working though. (Jean) suggested the crossed crook and flail, and that just seemed right.
I began roughing him out way back, but the little details were hard to pick out. Once the Blu-rays were released, the details became much clearer to see. I found some old press photos that helped with all the ornate details as well.
Dan: Jean, is the extra detail something you dig as a sculptor or does it make you a little crazy?
Jean St. Jean: Over the years I’ve sort of become the ridiculous-detail guy, even in the age of the digital-sculpting apocalypse. So I thrive on high-detail work. I was looking forward to Tut for just this reason, especially since the other two in this batch, Hatter and Bookworm are a little drab in their threads!
Dan: Tut’s still kind of a polarizing villain. I didn’t like him at all as a kid, but now I think he’s hilarious. Where does he rate for you?
Barry: As a kid, I only liked the villains I knew (Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and Mad Hatter), so any other villain had to prove themselves worthy of my then-limited attention span. I think Tut was the first one to win me over. I loved seeing the ways they would come up with to have him transform in and out of his Tut personality. Now, I think he’s simply fantastic! (Along with a lot of the show’s original villains, for that matter.) You can tell that Victor Buono really had fun playing the role, and it helps makes his episodes shine.
Jean: As a kid I thought he was an annoying jerk, and I still do, but I love the misguided-pharaoh theme he has going on! He adds so much color to the show and like many of the villains, such a distinct series of episodes.
Dan: Either way, what’s your fave Tut episode or moment?
Jean: I like how he is transformed into Tut by a blow to the head — pretty amusing spin on the Napoleon-impersonation complex from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. I like King Tut’s Coup, where he believes he has found Cleopatra … in Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend!
Barry: Along with when he transforms from professor to Tut, I would have to say when he gets Batman to dance for him after driving him insane with the pebble torture. (Of course, he kept his sanity by reciting the multiplication tables backward…) It’s great how Tut specifically asks for BAT-music to be played. You can’t have your captives dance to inappropriate music!
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For the full INDEX of stories about Diamond Select’s BATMAN ’66 line, click here.
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