BTA are claiming another new world record after an extremely rare 1960s Batmobile sells for a staggering £4500 plus buyer premium at auction on 24th April 2023.
This particular version of the famous crime fighting car is probably not the one you’re picturing regardless of which incarnation of Batman you grew up with; in fact this plastic toy car which was made in Swansea by the Marx Toy Company was not a Batmobile that many would recognise as such. The Marx car is really a model of the 1951 General Motors Le Sabre concept show car designed by Harley Earl which the toy company had already been making in several different colours and with or without a remote control for a few years so they saw an opportunity and decided to dress it up as a Batmobile and cash in on the success of the 1966 movie with Adam West and Burt Ward.
All they did was to change the original Le Sabre’s wrap around windscreen for a split canopy style with an additional rear screen and add figures of the Caped Crusader himself and his trusty sidekick Robin. The friction drive and siren features touted on the box were already part of the previous model incarnation so adding a couple of Bat logo stickers on the doors and some new box artwork and the job was done for minimal outlay.
Not many of these Marx models come up for sale, and when they do the prices have been steadily climbing with one selling in the USA in 2020 for a touch over 3000 dollars and that example lacked its original box so the price for the one currently heading from Cheshire this week to a new home in Singapore shows just how much value can be in a cardboard box and a childhood memory.
