First Official Batmobile Sells For $137,000

Back in early November, Comicbook.com reported that the first officially licensed Batmobile was going up for auction. The first official Batmobile was not one that was created for a TV show or a movie. This particular Batmobile actually preceded the Batmobile created for the 1966 Batman television series by three years.

The first Batmobile was created by Forrest Robinson, who was only 23 years old at the time. The '63 Batmobile was a custom job, using a 1956 Oldsmobile frame and a one-of-a-kind body that Robinson created. All-Star Dairies, which was a company selling licensed Batman ice cream, leased the vehicle for a promotional campaign.

After the lease ended, Robinson wound up selling the car, and it lay abandoned for nearly fifty years, before it was discovered and eventually restored.

The '63 Batmobile auction begin on November 17, 2014, and it ended on December 6, 2014. According to information that Comicbook.com received from Heritage Auctions, the '63 Batmobile sold for $137,000.

Of course, this amount is quite a bit less than the $4.2 million that the '66 Batmobile wound up selling for when it was auctioned off. But famous cars that have appeared in TV shows or movies tend to command premium prices, so $137,000 is actually a pretty good price for an abandoned ice cream promotional vehicle.