Like many others who were the right age at the right time, as a child, Craig Warren was bitten by the Bat through the 1960s Batman TV series. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he has seriously pursued this interest and turned it into an amazing collection. Scoop talked with Warren about collecting The Bat.

Scoop: What got you interested in Batman?
Craig Warren (CW): In 1966 when the Batman TV show debuted, I was 11 years old – absolutely mid-point for the intended target audience. The vivid color of the show, the first series to air twice a week in full color, was a big draw, but the characters, the gizmos and that unbelievable car were what kept me coming back.

1966 was a culturally magical year for the nation, with the “Three B’s” of the 60’s, the Beatles, Bond, and Batman, taking center stage. Yet all around there was activity, weirdness, experimentation and incredible energy, and it all seemed to coalesce and zenith in 1966. At that time, I was nuts over monsters and not a fan of comic books, even though my brother was an avid fan of anything published by Marvel.

In any event, the Batman TV series just lit me up from the first moment of the debut episode. Blanket marketing had made everyone well aware that the show was coming. It captivated me like nothing else, even if I was just an impressionable child. Unlike most of the viewing audience, my loyalty did not wane in the later years of the series and when it finally went off the air after three years, I was deeply saddened. But, older and wiser, I just moved on, taking a new, deeper interest in fast road cars and racing, amongst other favorites.

Scoop: When did you begin to collect Batman memorabilia?
CW: While I had a ton of Batman toys when they were in fad and fashion, none of them survived my growing up. It wasn’t until the 1980s that I realized just how great those old toy packages had appeared. To me, the graphic design of the toy and especially the packaging were the best part of it all. Looking back on it, the “cool factor” of some of these pieces was just off the scale. Sure, the look of many items contains more than a bit of nostalgic whimsy and, in retrospect, perhaps even naiveté, but then there are some that just can’t be beaten, regardless of the age, genre or subject.

Once I had stopped collecting Beatles' records, I looked to find some other subject matter that, I hoped, might have a more finite number of items within it. I stumbled across an early copy of Toy Shop magazine at a collectibles/comic shop on a trip out with my son, who had shown an interest in comic books and comic art. That issue of Toy Shop reopened my eyes to all these old cool things from my past that not only were available, they were now coveted and becoming valuable! A few years later, the Tim Burton “Batman” movie centered the Batman iconography once again in the public’s short term memory and the incredible wave of marketing and merchandising that followed the success of that film brought forth a collateral swell of interest in the history of Batman. Those old Batman mementos once again came to the forefront within the much broader scope of the renewed interest in collecting old toys and memorabilia.

I began collecting just about everything and anything related to Batman but quickly realized that this subject was far greater than I had imagined. Within a short time, I came to understand that those toys from my own childhood were what held the most interest and memories for me. Thus, my collecting refocused primarily on the Batman related items sold in the U.S. from 1966 to 1969. As the package graphics were so important to me, I strove to only obtain items that were MIP (Mint In Package) or, better yet, still factory sealed.

Scoop: What was the first item you remember buying?
CW: As I had built (several times over) virtually every character model ever made by Aurora, one of the first things I purchased for the collection was a still sealed Aurora model kit of Batman. Having a sealed item meant you could never view the contents, but that didn't matter. The comic book style illustration on the box lid was, in my opinion, far better than the insides, anyway. Here, again, was a truism that proved to be accurate so many more times: by wrapping the product in sensational packaging, the marketers had done their jobs in creating interest in an often times pedestrian toy. And those sensational packages jazzed me to no end.

Scoop: What were the circumstances (where, when, etc.)?
CW: That first kit came from an ad in Toy Shop by Toy Scouts, the landmark toy purveyor helmed by Bill Breugman. So, right off the bat (no pun intended), I had returned to scouring hobby magazine ads once again, just as I had been straining my eyes for years reading the miniscule print in Goldmine.

Scoop: How long from the time you first bought a Batman collectible until you considered yourself a collector?
CW: Well, that would have to be immediate, unless you want to go back to those 1966 Batman purchases.

Scoop: What were your early favorites?
CW: I absolutely adored, and still do, that George Barris Batmobile. The impact of that car was immeasurable and it must not have been just me, either, as Corgi sold over a million of their die-cast Batmobiles. Dozens of other Batmobile toys in many differing sizes followed into the marketplace. In particular, though, the Batmobile slot cars really caught my eye.

In 1966, there were several scale Batmobile slot cars produced. One fan favorite is the HO scaled Aurora Thunderjet slot car. Well detailed for its diminutive size, the Tjet car was jewel-like but fragile, with those clear plastic canopies and roof paraphernalia just waiting to be damaged in a roll-over crash. Surprisingly, a lot of these cars did survive and finding a clean copy costs only about $125 to $150 loose, or $225 to $400 when still boxed. In my collection, I have a rare Aurora factory dealer’s shipping box, full with six unused Aurora Tjet Batmobiles.

But much more special are the larger scale, 1/24th scale Batmobile slot cars. America’s youth were still very enamored with the slot car hobby in 1966. Leapfrog advancements in the track speed of new releases from the varying manufacturers made some slot car models essentially obsolete upon release. In essence that was true, too, of the Batmobiles; they were great to look at but quite easy to beat. In increasing order of desirability, three different companies produced those RTR (Ready To Run) Batmobiles: BZ, Classic and K&B. Each came distinctively packaged and each had its attributes and faults. In my collection, I have never run examples of all three, a very difficult trio to complete. Of the three, a never run K&B car, with its wheat germ bulb in the top emergency light, is a cornerstone piece that is not a part of many of the world’s best slot car collections. A K&B slot car still in its clear plastic sales case brings well over $1000, with $1500 and up not out of the question. Perennially one of my “Top Ten” wants, it took well over a dozen years before I finally obtained one.

Scoop: How did your collecting develop from that point?
CW: When Toy Shop arrived each month, life in our house came to a grinding halt as I devoted full concentration to every word of every ad, trying to ferret out those rare Batman items for the collection. Augmented with live toy shows, especially the Atlantique City show in Atlantic City (at that time the source on the East Coast for upper tier toys, as vendors from the world over would come to sell their best items), the collection grew steadily, if not substantially.

You might be surprised to learn that I had no display space at that time, so all the pieces in my collection resided simply in storage boxes. Our son was an infant then and his boundless curiosity meant that no collectible was safe until he was a bit older. One parameter when we eventually moved was that I required a space to display my collection. At about this time, eBay was in its bare infancy and the collection grew by quantum leaps and bounds during these formative years of online auctioning. It was like walking through an orchard alone, picking left and right at will at all the best items - there was no online competition then and plenty of product at great prices. As internet sales progressed and eclipsed first printed and then live sources, the pace of acquisition slowed, for the pieces I needed were also coveted by other diehard collectors, with prices to match their rarity.

Scoop: Did you have other collecting habits, too? If so, what?
CW: Besides the previously mentioned childhood collection of all of Aurora’s model kits, I collected Beatles' records in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A true obsessive, I went after every variation of U.S. pressings, many of them undocumented at that point. A scenario that has now occurred in my collecting first emerged in that collection. Even back then, once a certain threshold was passed, the remaining pieces needed hardly surfaced and carried truly lofty price tags. When John Lennon was murdered, it was like a piece of my life had been ripped away, and I lost interest in the records, selling my collection which had grown to world-class status by that time.

So, yes, I admit that I have the collecting disease in my blood, perhaps even as part of my genetic makeup.

Scoop: What got you interested in your various other areas of collecting?
CW: It was always an interest that spiraled out of control. Mostly, it was/is a drive for new knowledge fueled that it all. What did these things look like? How did they differ? Why are they rare? What specifics are known/not known about the pieces? How can you spot a reproduction? Surely, it is a bit obsessive.

Scoop: Is your family involved in collecting?
CW: My wife has no interest in collecting and, frankly, does not understand the “logic” behind collecting. Why someone would pay excessive money for an old item does not register with her as a rational act. I counter that much the same argument applies to the jewelry she owns and wore (before they were all stolen in a recent burglary). Why would otherwise stable people pay thousands of dollars for some Earth minerals and metals? They do it because others have established a perceived value, paid these amounts. Others are willing to follow because there is a recognized and agreed price point for those things. To enter is to abide by the going tides of supply and demand. It is all a manufactured and manipulated arena. Few know that the diamond mine owners themselves promoted the idea and indoctrinated the public to our cultural custom of giving a diamond ring upon engagement. Collecting is a bit different in that supply and demand also help to establish relative values.

In contrast to my wife’s feelings, during his younger years of adult idolization, my son would love to travel to shows, shops, and meets. Trying to find a niche in which he, too, could participate, he quickly came to the realization that it takes bags full of money to play in this pool. His interest waned both because of this inability to participate and as he grew to become an individual. A positive result, though, is that he does appreciate the collecting spirit now.

Interestingly, despite press stories that items from the subsequent Gen-X and Gen-Y generations will become the collectibles of tomorrow, we see a different story as active dealers. Perhaps it comes from living in a digital and completely disposable society, perhaps from a need for instant and frequent gratification with whatever is newer and better, but we find that very few members of later generations care to collect anything at all. One might argue that they do collect old video games, CDs and the like, but we feel that it simply is that there is no viable outlet for disposal of these things, for there is currently no value in such used items.

That lack of “new blood” entering into and sustaining interest in the hobby has many doomsayers braying about the imminent collapse of collectible values. While that may be a far reaching eventuality, the current interest in old tin toys, mechanical banks, character watches, early rock’n’roll, the Beatles, and even upper tier Elvis items makes for a strong contrary argument. The generations who first loved those items in their childhood have now passed beyond the age of active collecting, yet these categories remain very active today due to the interest of subsequent generations. However, we can say with absolute authority that the current stratospheric pricing of so many collectibles is definitely preventing potential younger collectors from participating in collecting. They view it as a “grey haired rich man’s” hobby.

No one else collects, thankfully, for if they did, there is no room for another collection here! That is the single most common complaint we hear from others about collecting - there isn’t enough room. We can tell you of the scores of collectors that have told us of additional display space they added, in some cases constructing dedicated whole wing additions to their homes, only to have the new capacity filled to overflowing before they knew it.

It’s much the same story here. What started as a collection of a few stored boxes that initially got displayed easily within a walk-in closet is now five layers deep with a full height display glass case also filled to capacity. There are drawers filled, stacks of magazines, rows of posters, filled record cases and now far too much overflow onto the nearby tables. We could fill several more display cases, if not the complete room, with ease. But my wife, as tolerant as she is, decreed that she was NOT going to live daily in a Batman museum that engulfed the house.

Scoop: Are there any Batman items you don't collect?
CW: I do not collect Batman comics at all and never have. That is an adjunct collecting genre all to itself. While collecting comics is entirely legitimate and even validates the origins of how the character first sprang to our conscious, such an undertaking is far too massive for me to fathom. My hat is off to those collectors that try or have succeeded to integrate both. Certainly with the current values of the very early comics, such a collection would be a significant financial investment, well more than I could, or would, dedicate to my hobby. I am content enough that I do have some representatives from the comic book world with a few of the Batman “Comic-Pacs”, specially packaged groupings of comics distributed for rack jobbers in 1966.

Conversely, I do have probably the finest collection of U.S. Batman records, both 45’s and LPs, a very extensive branch of the hobby that is even more obscure, overlooked and forsaken than are the comics.

Scoop: What are the prizes of your collection?
CW: Wow, what a loaded question. Among the heavy hitters are the boxed and unused Ideal Utility Belt, an unused and boxed 1967 only Sears exclusive Barbara Gordon/Batgirl Superqueen doll, both the Batman and JLA Ideal Playsets, the beautiful Batman Micro Radio complete with the outer sales box and slip cover, the previously mentioned slot cars, boxed Marx Ride-On Batmobile (complete with the always missing tools and cape), full unused SPP Batman wallet store display, Phoenix candy counter vending box…the list goes on. I love the many original TV scripts and pressbooks I have and the extensive group of regional newspaper TV insert guides, too. I found the only three known copies of the Batman balloons in a window frame packaging, keeping one for myself, naturally. I also have a virtually unknown photo picture sleeve for the 1966 Adam West “Miranda” 45 single. When I showed it to Adam, he had never seen one before and got very excited. It was difficult convincing him that his autograph on it would actually deface and devalue the sleeve.

Above all others, though, the one other piece that I will never part with is a simple painted pot-metal Batman lapel pin from 1966, still on its backing card. This piece was given to me by my son when he was only 8 years old. He had found the pin by himself at a collectibles store and paid for it with his own money, all without my knowledge. A comparatively easy piece to find on the internet now, it was a more than welcome new addition to the collection. To this day it is front and center in the collection where everyone can see it. You can take everything else away and I wouldn’t care, as long as that one pin is still on the shelf.

Scoop: What was the most difficult item to locate for your collection?
CW: The most difficult to find? Any of the items I still don’t have! There are many I have yet to obtain, perhaps as many as fifty to a hundred pieces. Batman collecting is a very vast field. A great many vintage items were created, with many done simply as “cash-in” modifications to existing toys that gave them a Batman connection. Many of those sold poorly and others had spotty distribution and variable sales, making them tough to find at all today.

One item that proves elusive, even though there were over one million printed, is a 1966 Burry’s cookie box with a mail-away ad on the rear for the Aurora Batmobile. I found the much rarer Green Hornet Burry’s box with a similar premium offer and even a promotional brochure for the entire Burry’s Green Hornet campaign, but never a Batman box!

One particularly difficult piece that I did finally add was a boxed Remco “Working Batmobile Dashboard”, a toy that I had to purchase loose and luckily marry up to an empty box more than a decade later. That will never happen again. I, like almost everyone else, still need a few minor brittle plastic parts to complete the Ideal JLA playset, but these never seem to turn up.

To be honest, I have several pieces that I had resigned myself would simply be in the “Never Gonna Have” column. Among those are the Ideal Playsets, the Utility Belt, a sealed accessory Switch N’ Go Batmobile, a boxed Hazelle Batman marionette and a still sealed Irwin Batcycle. They are too rare and just never surface, even as a collector to collector sale. That I was able to obtain these “Holy Grails” remains an absolute miracle to me. I still shake my head in astonishment that they are in the collection.

Scoop: If you could only have only Batman collectible what would it be and why?
CW: I have a large vacuum-formed, in-store display for that 1966 Burry’s Cookies/Aurora Batmobile campaign. Rare, but not unobtainable, it is more than just a Batman piece but a classic example of true pop-art. Fully in the spirit of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, the painted relief images of Batman and Robin swing above a huge relief rendering of the Barris Batmobile. What makes me never want to part with my display is that discretely added, as if he had just drawn the entire work, is a large autograph by Bob Kane, the actual creator of Batman. It just doesn’t get any better than that, a single piece that unites the Batman’s comic origins with the TV show and the pop sensibilities of the Sixties into one giant, four foot tall masterpiece. It will stay with me forever.

Scoop: Do you have any stories about the one that got away?
CW: There are too many stories of the ones that got away and they hurt too badly. Instead, I have a great story of the one that got reeled in.

In short, in 1966 a father ran around buying up what seemed like every Batman toy and memorabilia he could find at discount stores. Despite having a son and daughter, he stored all these items away, unused. Flash forward almost four decades later and the man has unfortunately died. His property went through a full public estate sale that mostly cleaned the house of all contents over a weekend. An antique dealer came in late on Sunday, the last day of the estate sale. He negotiated a deal to buy anything and everything that remained, in exchange for a small fee and the labor to remove all that was inside, down to the bare walls, agreeing to sweep up before he left the premises.

As he is cleaning the garage, he stumbles across several very large boxes, previously unnoticed and tucked tightly against the upper eaves. An old roof leak had ruined a small percentage of the contents, but inside were those hundreds of NOS Batman toys that not even his wife or children knew had been stashed over the garage all these years.

By the time we had gotten in touch with this dealer, some impressive items had already been sold for pennies on the dollar; Marx Talking Batphones mint in the box for $4, Ideal carded four-pack painted playset figures for $9, it was criminal. But we were the only ones there when the second half of the lot was unloaded from the estate into the dealer’s store. The hoard took my breath away and I was able to come away with several boxes full of store stock new 1966 Batman items, not to mention some never before seen pieces. My collection grew more than 10% in one day with absolutely new toys! We later brokered the sale of full box loads of some of these unused Batman toys for that antique dealer, who clearly had no working knowledge of the toy hobby.

Scoop: What do you find the most rewarding about Batman and collecting in general?
CW: Like all collectors, I love the hunt. There is that rush of anticipation that this next show, page, auction, estate sale, just might hold that one golden nugget. Every expedition brings new hopes. Frankly, now, failure is too often the final outcome. There are too many others scouring the same sources and too little vintage product out there left to be discovered anymore. Now, computer searches have become the norm with similar pangs of anticipation at every mouse click.