Shanghai mechanic builds life-sized replicas of the Batmobile entirely out of scrap metal
Apparently, the Dark Knight's famous vehicle was made in China
The replicas, all based on the “Tumbler” version of the Batmobile in director Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, were designed by 26-year-old Li Weilei and a small group of assistants in a workshop in Shanghai’s Minhang suburb.
Photos of one of the Batmobile models went viral earlier this week on Chinese social media.
According to local media reports, Li and his team constructed the car entirely out of ten tonnes of scrap metal and shoe polish, with total costs amounting to only about 70,000 yuan (HK$ 87,000).
Despite their true-to-the-movies exterior, Li’s scrap metal Batmobiles all lack proper engines and must be transported via hoists.
“We’ve built a dozen Batman’s cars,” Li said. “Two of them are in Shanghai, while the rest are on display in other parts of the country.”
Superhero cars are not the only full-size replicas that Li has constructed. Recently, the metal worker and his team built two fighter plane models.
The Batmobile originally appeared in 1939, in Batman’s first appearance in the 27th issue of Detective Comics.
In the decades since then, the vehicle has gone through various iterations, dramatically transforming from an ordinary sedan to a bat-themed tank.
