This come from ex shop stock from a retired toy shop owner !!!

Corgi 038 Batmobile Robin accessory figure in sealed original envelope

As you can see from the pictures the Robin figure is original and in mint condition. This is for the Corgi Batmobile no.267.

This is a very rare item, as they are sealed in an original sealed un-opened corgi envelope and were issued by Corgi in individual 'dickinson & sons ltd. Seal- easi' envelopes with the relevant accessory number stamped on it.

Batman and Robin were painted more carefully than they were later in the 70s and 80s

From "1973 Black Wheels", Robin were painted less carefully than in previous versions.

What else is not commonly known is about the first version, the matt black. This was available in 1966 for 2 months only, and contained a very rare Robin figure. The Robin figure was a lot bigger than in later versions, and was very hard to fit in the car (unlike later versions, when you just tipped the car upside down and he fell out!!). He was like this in the matt black ONLY, when the gloss version came out 2 months later, the Robin figure was slightly (but not very noticeably) smaller, whereas in the matt black he was impossible to get in or out of the car without cracking the glass. His head was above and rammed against the glass and very hard to get in the car !!! In later versions, he got a lot smaller !!! The last Robin figure made was made of pink plastic, and found in the last version of the Batmobile, the wide whizzwheels version. When the wide wheeled was put into its last box, the yellow black and red with detachable header card Robin was no longer included in the car.

Just another short note, the Batcopter, when it was released in 1976, was originally to be included with a Robin figure. Since they made it to scale with the Batboat and Batmobile, they included a second seat in the Batcopter. However, it was found that the seats were too small to include a scaled Batman and Robin, so the answer was simply to get rid of Robin. They also followed suit later on with the Batmobile. Since Robin no longer worked with Batman in the comics (he did very rarely) there was no point in having him in the vehicles, and was another good cost cutting exercise for Corgi!!! This is why Robin was a lot smaller in later car variations. He was intended for the Batcopter. When that didn't work, they simply used him for the Batmobile instead. Batmans pose was changed entirely as the car version couldn't sit behind the Batcopter seat properly.

The Robin figure was available all the way upto 1981, the only boxes he never appeared in were the last ones, the red black and yellow boxes, which were the wide whizzwheels on its own and the duo pack.

What else is not commonly known is about the first version, the matt black. This was available in 1966 for 2 months only, and contained a very rare Robin figure. The Robin figure was a lot bigger than in later versions, and was very hard to fit in the car (unlike later versions, when you just tipped the car upside down and he fell out !!). He was like this in the matt black ONLY, when the gloss version came out 2 months later, the Robin figure was slightly (but not very noticeably) smaller, whereas in the matt black he was impossible to get in or out of the car without cracking the glass. His head was above and rammed against the glass and very hard to get in the car !!! In later versions, he got a lot smaller !!! The last Robin figure made was made of pink plastic, and found in the last version of the Batmobile, the wide whizzwheels version. When the wide wheeled was put into its last box, the yellow black and red with detachable header card Robin was no longer included in the car.

The Robin figure was available all the way upto 1981, the only boxes he never appeared in were the last ones, the red black and yellow boxes, which were the wide whizzwheels on its own and the duo pack.

1966 Corgi Batmobile matt black - Exactly the same as the 66-67 version, apart from Robin.The Robin figure was a lot bigger than in later versions, and was very hard to fit in the car (unlike later versions, when you just tipped the car upside down and he fell out !!).

1966-67 Corgi Batmobile gloss black - Batman and Robin.

1967-72 Corgi Batmobile gloss black - Batman and Robin.

1972 (LATE) ONLY - Batman and Robin (Batman now blue though, Robin slightly smaller).

1973-76 Corgi Batmobile - The Robin figure was now not as bulky as in previous versions. He retained most of the height, but looked like he'd lost some weight. Batman was blue in every version of this car. For some strange reason which i haven't figured out is when i hold any version of this car, it feels heavier than the following version.

1976-79 Corgi Batmobile - Robin very small, I notice this car a lot on ebay with the WRONG Robin figure in. He was about the same size as the pink Robin, but not made of pink. Early versions of this car he was slightly bigger and his cape was a bright gold, as opposed to a dark brass colour like it had been in previous versions. His legs were a lot thinner and his colours were generally brighter, and his hair was now a light brown, not dark as before. His cape wore down a lot easier than previous versions, so to find a mint one is extremely rare. The Batman figure now started to wear lipstick (lol !!) in this version onwards.

Box type 4 - 76-79 All of these definitely had Robin in, or at least were meant to. It wasn't uncommon to find that he'd fell out of the car into the box, or he'd simply been robbed out of the car, along with the missiles usually. The easiest way was to just tip the box up, and wiggle it and you'd find that Robin just falls out. Since the boxes weren't sealed it was quite an easy thing to do. This is why the Batboat came with Batman and Robin tied together with a piece of elastic, but no-one thought to do it with the car !! Because of Robins size, he was lost very easily so i guess people really didn't want to buy the car again, or at least the parents lol !!! This Robin, along with the later pink one, are the hardest and the rarest to find today.

1979-83 Corgi Batmobile - Early versions that came with the pink Robin. This car DEFINITELY had Robin, this was definitely the last version to contain the Robin figure though.

When the box itself changed in 81, Robin was no longer in the car.

The Robin figures i have seen many different versions over the years. The pink Robin was the last one to be issued in the wide wheeled car, and the last gift set. The grey Batman never appeared in any car after 1970, so any car after tthis with a grey Batman in is wrong. He never appeared in the red tyred and any red hubbed Batmobile that went into the 1970 box. They also changed the beacon at this time to gold. The matt black Robin was massive, i do have that here with me, and you can see the difference when hes in the car compared to the gloss black Robin. He's exactly the same size as Batman, which in the tv series he was nowhere near, so they adjusted his size. He got less and less chunky with every version of the car.

Theres a different version of him for 66, 66-70, 70-76, 76-79, and 79-81. Im pretty sure there was a different Robin for 73-76 too.

Front Robin for example, i cant tell if hes pink or its a camera flash. If he's pink, its the last issue Robin. If not, he belongs in the 76-79 model. Top row, 4th from the left, is an early 76-77 Robin. Top row, second in from the right 70 -72 and 3rd in from the right is a 72-75 Robin. 2nd in from the left top row is also a 76-77 Robin, 2nd in from the left middle row is a 75-76 Robin. The rest, from what i can tell are red hubbed 66-70 Robins. He got smaller all the time, his legs shrank, his head shrank and his body shrank. Robins cape from 1970 changed to dark gold. It was what i call a dark brass to begin with, then a dark gold, then a bright gold. However, i have seen later Robins that had earlier paint jobs.

For example, Robin top row 4th from the left is definitely an early 76-77 Robin, yet his paint is of an older paint type. The paint differences in the Robins with the same year depended on who was painting them at the time. Some were a lot more careful ,than others!! When they changed the car to whizzwheels, the number corgi wanted produced per day went up, to make more money. This is why later Batmans and Robins were painted less carefully. Corgi wanted more Batmobiles out per day, so the workers had to rush them!! This is why in the last issue Batmobile, when they had no Robin to paint, the Batman figure was painted a bit better, as the number the workers had to paint was halved with the loss of Robin.

As for why they painted Robins cape Brass/Gold instead of yellow, i never asked them and i wish i had!! Corgi had the yellow paint for sure, as they used it on the headlights!! Knowing Corgi, it was probably a paint mix up!!

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