Hot Wheels' 1:50 Batman line originally caught my eye with The Penguin's Duckmobile but since then it kind of fell under my radar until I noticed that a new wave had hit my area. The new selection includes two variations of the Tumbler Batmobile (camo and black) from the Nolan films, a 1940s Batmobile from the old serials that preceded the Adam West series, and finally the infamous Batman Forever Batmobile (from which we get Robin's "I want a car! Chicks dig the car." and Batman's "It's the car, right? Chicks love the car.").

The Tumbler is probably my least favorite "Batmobile" design. It's clumsy-looking and lacks the eloquence of, well, almost every other Batmobile. Sure, it can do all sorts of cool stuff and is basically an armored tank but style counts, darn it!

I'm not terribly familiar with the 1940s Batmobile (I never got into that series) but the design really makes me chuckle. It just looks like a normal car with pieces glued on. The only item in the wave that interested me was the Batman Forever Batmobile, which seems to have had a decent rendition.

I imagine that these probably won't be too hard to find at retail, but if you can't get them offline there are pre-orders available (albeit many are sold out). Keep in mind that these are more expensive than typical Hot Wheels items.

[ Pre-order  Tumbler (Camo) Tumbler (Black) 1940s Batmobile Batman Forever Batmobile Set of 4 from Big Bad Toy Store or a Case of 8 (2x each style) from Entertainment Earth ]

Apparently wave 6 will also be out and BBTS describes the selection for a set as:

1x DARK KNIGHT BATPOD
1x 89 KEATON BATMOBILE
1x BATMAN & ROBIN BATMOBILE
1x DARK KNIGHT RETURNS VEH
1x 1980s BATMOBILE

Th wave 6 set can also be pre-ordered from BBTS.