Everyone has a talent in this life, even the people you can’t stand (they have a knack for pissing you off, after all). Movie fan Bob Dullam’s special talent, on the other hand, is to make your jaw drop, and if you don’t believe it, consider this: He built that Dark Knight Batmobile (AKA The Tumbler) in the photo there. By hand. By himself. Without a kit or blueprints. And it’s drivable. Dude, this thing belongs in a fan film.
Working with photos and DVD stills from Batman Begins, Dullam single-handedly conjured up this behemoth in his own garage, spending between $50-70,000 on it—and he’s still not done. Next on the agenda? Some nagging exterior details, then the interior, followed by a matching Batsuit—and then the insane, stunt-man-plastering Batpod motorcycle from The Dark Knight.
Posting on Superherohype.com’s forums, Dullam (as YoungBat) remarked, “[I’m] not building this to sell. You wouldn’t want to sell this if you had one, believe me. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime project.”
Sure, of course, but why would he want to build the Tumbler alone? Wouldn’t some extra hands lighten the load? Nope. “I have found with other things in the past that if you have help, the help often does not get it (parts) right, and you have to do it over 95 percent of the time, plus I like to work alone. All parts are scratch built, except tires, rims, brakes, engine, etc., meaning all bodyparts, brackets, just about everything external on the car…. I love building this stuff.”
It’s not the first movie-related poroject he’s taken on; indeed, a visit to his company’s website, www.dullam-causey.com, reveals that in fact, Dullam fabricates all kinds of things for a living, including some impressive Hellboy and Superman replicas. As might be expected, all this has lit up the web in the last few days, garnering stories in places like Wired.
So, to a single-minded blogger like me, all this fairly well screams, “Make a fan film, buddy!” And if he’s not the fan filmin’ type, well, if you ever wanted a picture-perfect Tumbler in your flick, well now you know where to go and who to bribe. In the meantime, visit Dullam’s site for a drool-worthy gallery of Tumbler photos.
Funny thing about this story… I was trying to get a hold of the Bob to use his Batmobile for “The Dark Knight Project” back in June but never heard back. It would have been cool, that’s why we relied so much on the GPD car for authenticity.
Jerry Vasilatos
hey that is a cool car do you have a blueprint for it if you do can you give me a copy because i am doing a school thing on the Drak Knight and i would like a blueprint of it
place
Nathan Hamm