I have a good friend named Chaz who is a major Batman Toy Collector and his main focus is the Vintage Batman Toys made by Ideal in the 1960's. Over the years he has acquired a few different Official Batman Utility Belts ( Ideal ©1966 ) & he wanted to share the information with Bat-Blog Readers. Now, as a collector myself I knew there were a few minor variations. But, not as many as Chaz as discovered, it's crazy! OK, it's gonna be a lot easier if I just allow him to explain the information so this is what he wrote to me recently:
Yes, I found many variations to the Bat-Gun Launcher. One has black holes, some have no bat, with an all gray diamond rigged handle. One has a red trigger with no bat, one has a black nose, etc... There's 7 different versions of the gun. I'm missing one...the one with the red trigger WITH the bat.
The Bat-Signal Flashlight was Red or Yellow vinyl with embossed X's on the body, then there's a hard plastic square body version w/translucent cap and aluminum switch. And the most rare is the metal one with the bat airbrushed to the body and the caps came in purple, black, and red...most Bat collectors don't know that the stub at the top where the ball chain runs through doesn't move...the top part is not a button or switch to turn on the light..it does not move. and there's no switch on the metal lights..so when there was a battery in those for use..they ran dead. so when the battery ran out, the kids tossed it, making it very rare and Ideal switched to the plastic & vinyl flashlights.
I got the purple cap flashlight for just $9.99 on eBay in 2004...the dealer didn't know what they had, it was listed as a Bat Light Key Chain! ...no mention of 1966 or Ideal Utility Belt, as it's an unmarked piece. It was the happiest day of my collecting life..I think. But then I went to the Goodwill Fashions Store in Bensalem, PA and found the black cap metal light for 47 cents! They must have thought it was a Halloween flashlight, LOL!
Oh yes, the white belt is a prototype belt and the raised copyright information on the back, the lettering is different than the final product. And with that belt was the Grappling Hook in translucent white and Batarang also in translucent white and Batcuffs outlined in white..these were never played with, left in pristine mint condition.
One of the sets has a rarer version of the belt, where Ideal cut of the loop that holds the Bat-Rope and in it's place they punched a hole near the Bat-storage pouch, and hung another metal clasp ( like the 2 on the other side ) to carry the rope.
There's 3 versions of the Dummy Transmitter ( buckle decal ) one with squares, and one with dots, and it's got a section factory cut out at the top for your thumb, when you go to open the buckle. Then there's a smoother finish tin foil Bat Radio..which they called it sometimes.
In one pic is the rare silver logo Helmet w/Cape.
There's the Helmet in the package with the header card which is extremely rare, unlike the more common solid box. and behind it is the most recent set I bought in an original box..I have 2 original boxes, one of my boxes has rice paper overlays & light color touch up because it was restored. One of my boxes I reproduced myself ten years ago. I think there could be less than 20 boxes known to exist. I have counted only 15.
The Batman Message Sender ( dart bomb ) came with a black or red dart shaft.
The set pictured in your cool top ten list has the more rare Equipment Set Belt, it is more flexible, the Batrope loop is different and most importantly, it has no puncher holes for staples to mount it to the cardboard insert tray.
Whew! That's a ton of great information Chaz! I know that many serious toy collectors are gonna really appreciate that, I do. This one example of a Vintage Batman Toy is a total classic! For many collectors this Bat-Belt ( in the original box of course ) is the Holy Grail! In fact, I don't have one of these at all & have been looking for years. Thank you for taking the time to take all these photos & write the info down, I really appreciate that, thank you. It's insane how many variations there are!
