Batman Begins Hotwheels Batmobile Contents: Batmobile, Display base.

Well I think this is probably the closest any of us will get to owning a Tumbler for ourselves, this thing is awesome. Die cast (it's a lost art) and plastic with plenty of detailing this is probably the most accurate representation of the Batmobile out there.The multilayered aspect of the armour is realised very well here, the only thing missing are the side windows underneath the roof section.

As one would expect from a die-cast toy the toy/model is on the whole solidly built. Apparently there is another version of this toy availible, identical except for a Desert camo paint job, the same one when the Tumbler is introduced in the movie. I personally haven't seen one, but I've seen it for sale online.

There aren't many features on this Tumbler, free rolling wheels and opening cockpit, and that's it. One thing I noticed, when packed the 1:18 Tumbler has a small rubber band inside it. It's accessible from underneath, and I assume this is to hold the cockpit firmly closed during transport. Since the toy doesn't come with any instructions and I don't know any better, I unhooked and removed it.

The cockpit itself is quite fiddly to open, to do so you need to slide the windshield back, then firmly pop the whole plastic roof upward slightly. Once the rear is clear the whole section slides back. The front windscreen doesn't swing up though, so you never get a completely clear opening into the tumbler.(See fig. 2) The missing side windows allow the roof to open, and make it easier to manipulate, but even so its still quite fiddly, and to be honest, I thought I was going to break it. I'd recommend being really careful with it as I get the feeling it would be all too easy to break this bit of it.

Even so, this tumbler is great, and since it's more of a model than a toy, any durability issues I might have with it are irrelevant. And at around £25 (cheaper than the toy version) it's well worth it.