07 January 2015

Countdown to Christmas Day 3: 1975 Batman and Joker

After an extended holiday illness, we can finally wrap up our Christmas Countdown!


Here's about what we remember:

FACT 1: In 1975-ish, we got a play-do knock-off.  It came with a few cans of "shape & play" and four plastic molds: Batman, Joker, Robin, & Penguin.

FACT 2: We *think* the idea was to stick the "shape & play" into the mold, stick your finger into the "shape & play" et voila: you had a ... finger puppet? bust?  mess?  loss of interest?

FACT 3: Our Dad cast -at least- Batman and Robin in plaster of paris and painted them for -at least- one of us.

FACT 4: It's 2015 and we now have these molds in our hot hands:


Shape & Play Batman and Joker (1975)


With some trial and error, I was able to get pretty decent plaster pulls of these molds.  One container of silicone rubber and 4 liquid oz of resin later, we made magic happen this Christmas:

Batman Shape & Play (1975)
Batman looks a little Toth-y.  Definitely not looking back to the Infantino New Look comics and by no means a lantern-jawed Dick Sprang.  The sky blue over a dark blue base helps make the cowl details stand out.

Joker Shape & Play (1975)
 I think Joker *might* be a bit Dick Sprang.  The Sprang colors, including the grey eyelids, from the early Forties certainly fits the sculpt well.  It's not Caesar Romero by any means and it's not yet Neal Adams/ Jose Garcia-Lopez.  

Christmas 2014
All in all, I love them.  The casting process went well and the resin pulls came out nicely.  Thanks to my brother for finding these lost relics of a cool Seventies childhood.  I look forward to making more!

Catch up with our Christmas Countdown:

Day 12 is here.
Day 11 is here.
Day 10 is here.
Day  9 is here.
Day 8 is here.
Day 7 is here.
Day 6 is here.
Day 5 is here.
Day 4 is here.


1 comment:

  1. Fun! Nice to make the childhood dreams a reality.

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