Holy toy collection, Batman! Heritage is hosting the Ultimate Batman Collection Signature Auction on August 4-5, 2023, featuring rare 1966 toys, action figures, vehicles, robots, puppets, games, and models, plus more from other time periods, including one of a kind pieces. The collection encompasses items from the US, UK, South America, and Japan, as well as the only known piece from India.
“Without a doubt, this is the most comprehensive Batman collection ever to come up for auction, containing many beyond-rare and unique items,” said Ed Kelly, who spent 40 years assembling most of this collection before parting with it in 2015. “It would be almost impossible to put a vintage collection of this magnitude together today.”
Several desirable pieces were produced in 1966 to coincide with the popular Batman TV show starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as his sidekick Robin. A few of the highlights from ’66 are the Marx bendable Batman figure on card, the Remco Batman working Batmobile dashboard with the original Box A, an Ideal Official Batman Utility Belt with the original box, and Topps Batman red Bat “A” series sealed wax cards PSA 8.
One lot is filled with Batman TV show cast autographs, featuring the signatures of West, Ward, Cesar Romero, Julie Newmar, Frank Gorshin, Yvonne Craig, Burgess Meredith, and Alan Napier. That lot also contains three pictures signed by John Duncan, who played Robin in the 1949 movie serial, Batman and Robin.
Additional vintage toy highlights are the Tada 1960s wind-up Batman tin robot with the original box, a ’67 Ideal Batman Captain Action Robin outfit for Action Boy, and a ’76 Palitoy Fist Fighting Batman figure on card.
One of the modern centerpieces is the Hot Toys 2016 one of a kind 1:6 scale Batcave diorama with a Batmobile and four costumes recreated from the cover of Detective Comics #165. The diorama recreates the ’66 Batman TV series set with the Batcomputer, Anti-Crime Eye Checker, and Batanalyst, along with the Dynamic Duo themselves. The large diorama, which was first displayed at the Hot Toys exhibition in Tokyo, is 9 feet wide, 5 feet deep, and 4 feet tall.
Another Hot Toys standout lot is the one of a kind 1:6 scale Axis Chemicals diorama from Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie. The scene at Axis Chemicals shows the Caped Crusader standing beside the Batmobile looking up at the Joker and his sidekick Bob who stand beside a helicopter and one of the Joker’s gas-filled clown balloons.
Heritage is also selling 23 original paintings by Walt Howarth that he painted for toy, scrapbook, and puzzle packaging. According to Heritage, they are also one of a kind pieces.
