I have always been a fan of Batman, though more because of the 60s TV show than the comics. Back in the 1980s a friend of mine by the name of Amanda Chalkley was a collector of Batman merchandise, unfortunately her collection was destroyed in a fire while it was stored in her friend's backyard shed. As you can imagine she lost a lot of great merchandise in that tragic incident.

Then in 1989 a new Batman film was released and I was determined not to become a collector after seeing what had happened to Amanda’s collection. But the character of Batman in that film was too appealing for me to resist: black, mysterious and with a flowing cape. With an image as strong as this, I couldn’t help but at least buy the 1989 Batman calendar ……. and I used it. I then bought the Batman board game in the same year ….. and I used that too. After that, I started buying a bit more Batman merchandise, but this time to keep in mint condition – as a collection.

This is a photo of my collection as it first looked in 1989 after I had been collecting for a few weeks.

My main focus was always on Batman himself and never the villains nor the other characters (Robin, Batgirl, etc). For example when it came to buying figurines, I just purchased the Batman ones. The only time I ever bought other characters is when a particular set was available that looked really good (eg: the four sculptured Batman Forever glasses and the Batman Returns neck pen set both of which came from McDonalds). In instances like this, I own the other characters but they aren't on display.

As fate would have it, I was the only Batman collector amongst all my collecting friends, so when it came to Christmas or birthdays I would do really well out of it (girlfriends especially were very accomodating in this regard). In fact I would say that well over 10% of my collection has come from gifts or donations.

My collecting finished after the release of Batman and Robin in 1997 because I deplored the film immensely. I was already disappointed with Batman Forever but I kept on collecting merchandise as I was also focusing on Batman: The Animated Series at the same time. Yet when Batman and Robin was released I found it difficult to spend money on merchandise as I hated the film so much. In fact it was a tumultuous moment when I picked up that B&R collectable from the store shelf, looked at it, then put it back and walked away - something I had not done in all my collecting years.

These days it's easy to walk past anything Batman related, though I do admit that the 2006/2007 Batman TV, DVD player and tape deck/radio did peak my interest for a while, but I've long past the days where I needed to grab each action figure as it was released along with yet ANOTHER Batcycle or Batmobile. Batman collecting is too expensive a hobby to continue full time and although a part of me misses the thrill of grabbing everything I could get my hands on, I am rather content with the extra dollars I been able to save (and storage space in my house) as a result of stopping.

Fortunately my collecting stopped long before eBay came into being which has proved to be very beneficial as there is a LOT of good things available there. If I was a collector using eBay, I'd probably be living on the street surrounded by tonnes of merchandise looking for something to eat. With that in mind though, I still avoid the Batman section of eBay just in case temptation takes over.

One unexpected side effect of not collecting any longer is how my friends react. Even though I haven't been a collector for over 10 years, my friends find they can't help themselves and will still buy the odd Batman item for me from time to time.

As an essentially "late start" Batman collector, I always found it difficult to find items pre the ‘89 film, mainly due to the increasingly rare availability as well as their high cost (a mint in box Corgi die-cast Batmobile from the 1960s still eludes me), so in the end I could only concentrate on the newer films. As a result of this I acknowledge that most of my collection isn't worth much.

My methodology was that I would happily spend money on many cheap and nasty items rather than the same amount on one really expensive item. In fact I still recall how shattered I was when Warner Bros opened up their first Movie Studio Store in my city and literally every Batman item they had was out of my price range.

One area I did not look at was the Batman comics or graphic novels. Due the huge amount in production, I found that they were an entity unto themselves so I had to choose between just collecting them or concentrating on other merchandise. Because I enjoy the look and feel of three dimensional objects, I chose to bypass collecting the comics - unless I could get them really cheap - even though I do thoroughly enjoy reading them whenever possible.

Sometimes collecting was fun and other times it was just downright annoying, if it wasn't the never ending action figures it was the trading cards. When Batman came out in 1989 there were only two sets of trading cards released (series 1 and 2), by the time Batman Forever came out a few years later there were like 5 or 6 different sets, not including rarities and chaser cards and the like. Trading cards ended up being a painful expense, which wasn't helped by the fact that they could only be stored in special sleeves within folders that no one would ever look at - and of course their value plummeted when a particular film had passed on. Needless to say it was a joyous relief when I didn't have to buy another set of cards ever again.

One of my collecting laws was never to take anything out of its packaging, ever! Subsequently I ended up buying some great items (like the Batmobile telephone) which came in a sealed box with no plastic window, as a result of this I have never seen what these items look like in real life. The same applied to the car racing sets and other cool games which remain forever sealed despite my friends constantly hassling me to have a play with them. At one point I was really tempted to buy the children's bicycle, however, brand new bikes are shipped in a box so I would've been forced to leave it like that especially if it had a Batman logo on it.

In the grand scheme of things, I think I’d be lucky to have 0.02% of the entire Batman range of collectables ever produced from 1939 to the present day (and getting smaller by the year). What blows me away is that I have a magazine article written about Joe Desris, who would easily have to be the biggest Batman collector in the world, and aside from his display cabinets looking totally awesome, I looked at the pictures and realised that I barely had any of the stuff he has.

Well I remember buying my first Batman Forever items - four jigsaw puzzles that had just been released in K-Mart - which cost me around $35 and I didn’t even like them! There were LOTS of such impulse spending sprees like this. As for the total cost…….. who knows (perhaps I don't want to know), but it did force me to keep driving my old 1973 Datsun because I couldn't afford a new car.

(Oh, and I was able to re-buy the '89 calender in mint condition back in '99 and then I received an even better mint condition one in 2008, unfortunately I have never seen another mint condition ’89 Batman board game - much to my loss).

Yes I would. I always said if I had to move house again the collection would not be coming with me. In previous house shifts, it required many boxes to carefully store everything away and there's no way I could be bothered going through all that again. As for a price? Well I'd be willing to sell it all now if the right offer was made.

• I once bought a Batman T-Shirt from a guy at a collector's fair ... while he was still wearing it! Initially he thought I was joking but when he realised I was serious, he accepted the sale and at the end of the day he surrended the shirt which was washed and put in storage.

• I once bought this loose Batman figure from a store in the USA only to find once I got home (Australia) I already had one mint in box on my shelf. Doh!

• Friends once bought me a mint in box Batman frisbee (knowing I already had one) and forced me to open the packet in front of them. It felt really weird doing this as I had trained myself never to take items out of the packaging so it was like going against my natural instinct. The irony is that I kept that frisbee in the back of my car for years so it could be used at picnics.

• I bought a set of Batman Animated trading cards from a US collector's fair only to find when I got home that one card was missing.

• I once saw a whole stack of really cool Ralph Martin Batman neck ties in a catalogue. When I rang them up to place an order for about 8 of them I was informed that absolutely none were available.

• To prove that I was always in the collecting "zone", I was walking down a street one day and just happened to glance into a really big store and noticed on their back wall was a Batman cooking apron. Now this thing was miles away from the front door but sure enough my collecting eye spotted it immediately. Needless to say that was a "must have" item.

• Someone in Adelaide was marketing some products called "Gotham City Originals". I have a great T-Shirt from them and wanted to check out their store, so I made a special trip to Adelaide (approx 800 kilometres) only to discover they had closed down two weeks previously.

• I had a "kid in a candy store" moment when I came across the Batman dressing gown in the Warner Bros Store one day, it really was a case of blubbering at the mouth when I found this. So I bought it right there and then, took it home and hung it in my collection room's wardrobe and it has remained there ever since - still with the tags attached. Pretty sad huh?

• I once visited a local Batman collector who was selling some really good stuff, trouble was that he was asking top dollar for it. I bought the few items that I could afford - which still cost me a bit - and the look on the face of my wife at the time was simply "you paid HOW MUCH for that?!" (and no this wasn't the reason for us separating)

• My friends saw it as a challenge to buy me things I hadn't seen before. In one instance I saw some really neat mousepads that had just been released so I grabbed them. A couple of days later a friend gave me a gift saying proudly "you won't have this" and sure enough it was one of the mousepads I'd grabbed two days previously. She was seriously upset about this and said "but they only just came out two days ago!"

• A girlfriend bought me a box of Batman cookiees which I naturally kept in the box. A few weeks later she broke up with me so in a fit of spite I bought another box of the same cookiees to keep in the collection and ate the ones she gave me. How tragic is that!

• When I bought the Batmobile phone, the sales guy insisted I take an adapter so the US plug would connect into an Australian socket. I tried to tell him that I was buying the phone as an investment and wasn't planning to use it, but he didn't understand that and kept repeating "it won't work without the adapter, it won't work without the adapter". After a few minutes of this back and forth discussion I gave up and said "fine give it to me". Ayyy kurumba!

• I wanted to paint a Batman logo on the roof of my house so it would be identifiable from planes flying overhead and Google Earth.

• Collectables appreciate in value when less and less of them exist, so whenever I saw kids buying mint in box Batman figures at the toy store I'd be saying to myself "go on open it" that way I'd have one less collectable in the world to worry about.

• When Batman Returns came out I went to the cinema to buy the drinking cup. Being quite serious I explained to attendant behind the refreshment counter that I was prepared to buy the cup at full price, but I didn't want anything in it. As you can imagine the attendant simply couldn't grasp the concept of selling an empty cup and insisted that it needed to be filled with something even after I said it was for an investment. I got my way in the end but geez talk about a saga ... and all for a meazely cup!

• I was once given a really great Batman birthday card from a friend of mine, unfortunately my first thought was of sadness as I realised the collectability had been ruined with the birthday message written inside. So imagine my utter delight when I found that they had written their joyous comments on a removable Post-It note instead!

• I had a spare set of Batman band aids along with normal band aids. The rule in my house was that if you needed one, then the Batman ones could ONLY be used if they were going to be visible (eg on a finger). The sad thing is that the "stash" is now running dangerously low.

• I really wanted to get a T-Shirt made up that said "Pity me ... I'm a Batman collector".

The pictures below were taken in January 2008 and show the collection as it appears today

It's worth noting that I have a lot more action figures and other things, however, a lack of wall space has prevented me from putting them all on display.

The white Batman Returns coffee mug on the top right is one of two I have, the other I use at work as my actual coffee mug and have been doing so for over 13 years.

Got the special Hong Kong Commemorative figure in the back along with the 100th issue Batman figure which was a big deal at the time. God knows how many figures they have now!

In the middle at the bottom is a Batmobile in a box that was damaged whilst my collection was being moved around in storage. Not happy Jan!

Next to the Cola can was something weird, a tightly sealed Batman towelette that expanded to full size when placed in water. Who thinks of these things?

What's the deal with the little '89 figure on the top left hand corner above the videos?

Speaking of videos, they're of the 30's Batmand and Robin serial and next to them is the DVD of the same thing.

At the back is a Batman Returns cereal packet, this was bought for me as a gift but alas it was empty.

On the right is the McDonalds release sculptured glass which was made in France at a time when the French were out of favour due to their nuclear testing - a pity because the glass sculpture itself is pretty impressive.

In the front are the only '60s Corgi Batmobiles I own - a pretty tragic menagerie huh? Not a mint one in box to be seen anywhere.

Note the Batman toothpaste at the top right.

Believe it or not, the tall item in the middle is talcom powder which goes to show they'll market anything.

Just above the McDonalds glass is a four pack of candy sticks. In the old days these were called Fags and were meant to look like cigarettes.

The while mug over the left is one of the few "vintage" (ie: pre 1989) items I own.

Got a lot of really nice trinkets here like rings, buttons, the pewter figure on the left (which is pretty heavy) and so on which make for a neat little collection unto itself.

That pink tube at the back is a whole paper roll full of Batman logos, what you're meant to do with it is beyond me.

At the top in the middle is a real cheap ass looking Batmobile. Just what I need ... not.

The cufflinks on the right were nearly used once. I was Best Man at a friend's wedding and we thought our shirts would need them, but nup we had buttons instead so these babies went right back on the shelf untouched.

At the back is the Animated Series Batmobile. I really wasn't a fan of buying these items as they were quite big and naturally I never got to see what they looked like in real life. Still as a collector what do you do???

Gotta love the gumball machine on the right.

Some cool things here, like the Batman floppy disks at the top which I was rapt to get.

On top of the floppy disks is an example of meaningless merchandise - the Batman figure on the purple base - sometimes you wonder why anyone buys this stuff (I was a collector so that's my excuse).

Over to the left is the Batman pen from McDonalds. I have the other characters that were released but they aren't on display.

The metal figures at the middle-back were something I bought really early on in my collecting days. Over 20 years later I still have no idea what they look like.

Next to the gumball machine is a toothbrush, you'd think I'd display this with the toothpaste huh?

The Batman Returns jigsaw puzzles have boxes that can't be resealed once open. In my time I ended up buying a number of jigsaw puzzles which really were a waste as most of them were quite ugly.

At the back is the Batman Forever jigsaw puzzle. I really didn't like the Forever stuff as the colour was always a yucky green/yellow. Yech.

The Visa Bat Cash thing was for $20 ... naturally the card hasn't been used

Bottom left on the main shelf is one of my personal favourite items, Batman bandaids!

The white mold things in the centre, I have no idea what they are for.

The Japanese box on the left is a costume of sorts - going by the pictures on the back. Must be damn small!

More jigsaw puzzles, at least the boxes aren't square.

The blue Batman head on the top right still has the candy in it.

I love the three packs of badges in the back, they made for a really nice set and I was rapt to get them - though I can't remember where or when that was.

The mug set in the box was another good score. Sometimes you buy items because you're a collector and other times you buy items because you REALLY like them. This was definately the latter.

Note the jigsaw puzzle to the left, one of many unimpessive jigsaws I own - and an example of something I got simply because I was a collector.

At the bottom on the right are some Batman logo iron on transfers. I actually bought a couple of packs of these and made myself a Batman toga to wear at parties - see it here.

The Pez dispensers at the bottom are all unopened.

I have no idea what the flat head Batman is meant to be in the middle. Somethings I really should just get rid of.

The bottle on the left including the Batmobile in the front is bubble bath. It's funny how you end up with multiples of the same thing as you go along.

The big Batman Animated head at the back right is a shower curtain.

The Batman Animated bottle on the right is shampoo.

You wouldn't think it, but that playhouse at the back is quite heavy. I have no idea what's in it ... a playhouse I guess.

On the right (side on) are the patterns to make a Batman costume with the most dodgy looking cowl you can imagine. I don't know how they managed to con the guy and kid to pose for the cover photos, mega embarrassing.

I actually have a bed sheet to go with the pillow case.

All the candy boxes are full and unopened.

The pinball game at the back was a great find, but alas I've never seen it outside of the box. Items like this are a blast to buy because they are just so different and unique.

The little plastic container in front of the phone has nothing in it. Got no idea what it's for.

Ironically The Batman Collection box cover on the left is empty. The comics weren't included when I got it.

Do you like the 60's Batman cassette tape in the middle, one guess who doesn't have a tape player in their house.

The Batboat on the right is the only Dinky item I have still in a box

Despite their highly inflated prices, the Warner Bros store did sometimes have some really nice and affordable stuff - like the clock in the middle. I once had a vocal argument with a WB staff member in Qld after they were selling a towel and face washer set for $90. I said how could they believe that this price was justified and her response was "the collectors will buy it".

Sometimes getting a collectable from a friend is a joke at your expense. In the middle in front of the clock is a stack of slide strips that are designed to go into a small slide projector. The guy who gave them to me (about 30 in total) laughed his head off when I discovered that all of them had exactly the same pictures.

Yes that is a Batman AM/FM radio to the right, they created some weird things with that Batman Forever head piece mold.

At the back is one of my two favourite jigsaw puzzles. Unlike most of them which were just crap, this one was class all the way - you could almost call it a "mature" edition. Can't imagine making it though, all those black pieces. Yikes!

All the trading card boxes are full and unopened - which means all the bubble gum is still there too! I only ever bought these when they were selling cheap.

The tin Batmobile is probably the most expensive item I have. I bought it off my best mate for $40 but apparently it's worth $400+. The car itself is gold in colour even though on the box it's blue. I actually met a collector once who was selling two of them - neither of which were gold - at $500 a piece.

The Batman item above the tin car is a stubby holder.

The three motor bike/trike looking things are called a "B Car with Rider" and is essentially a black Batman ... with a turtle shell on top.. Got love them unauthorised knock offs.

The Batman Returns item at the middle-back is a punch out display, I've kept this one unpunched but geez it's damn fragile.

Notice the 3D View Master? Well guess where the slides are all kept, yep on the other side of the room. I didn't really plan that well did I?

I also have a couple of party items here, including some cups on the left and some blowey things on the right.

Got a few more party related products: drinking cups, plastic cover sheets and invites.

Did I mention how I really dislike the Batman Forever colour scheme? Isn't it ugly.

I was always impressed that the Batman Animated neck tie on the left was in a box.

Once again there's another playset, all sealed up never to be used.

I did make a specific point of getting the Batman and Robin board game simply to complete the set (plus it was cheap).

I actually had a second copy of The Batman Game which was open, so I had a go at it and it was terrible. Considering the size of the box the game play was a real let down.

The Batman head on the right is a View Master and next to that is a calculator

I hate having to display items that don't seem to fit anywhere, and do you think the yo-yo packet above it will stand up by itself? Nope!

The items along the bottom are a series of stamp sets.

I think the Flying Batman is one of the last items I bought before officially stopping collecting

Once again the big toys make an appearance. What a waste of space.

It's not hard to see that the Batman figure at the back is a knock off, in fact on the cardboard cover there are images of Batman and Superman and neither have their chest logos ... hmmm dodgy or what.

Gotta love the Batman football, another wacky gimmick.

The Bubble Magic at the front is only half full as it leaked some time in storage much to my unhappiness.

The loose Batbike was a gift that was given to me on the proviso that I opened it and used it. Don't worry I have a second one still mint in box.

Check out the big flagon mug on the left, who would want to drink out of that!

The item on the extreme left is a zippy Batmobile that you attach it to your wrist, once there you pull the thingy and off she goes! As to how well is goes is anyone's guess.

The Batmobile in the middle came in a showbag from the Royal Melbourne Show back in 1989 and I've never seen this again since.

As mentioned earlier, I got sick of buying the large toys for the films. They were hard to store, expensive to buy, and took up too much space. By default as a collector you have to get them but they simply don't give you any pleasure, only headaches - especially when you end up with lots of them.

To the left are a couple of Batman and Robin items. I'm guessing I got those just before I finished collecting or they were given to me as a gift.

Sometimes the most annoying thing is buying an item you already multiples of except it's a different colour to suit the new film (the action figures did this the most). When this occurs you know you're being exploited but as a collector what can you do?

At the bottom is a some kids stuff from a showbag (a plastic watch and a blue thing), as you can see I've kept these in their packet but you can bet in 200 years they will still be worthless. Honestly my life would be easier if I just threw stuff like this out.

I like how the sunglasses on the right won't actually fit in the case provided - they actually have Batman logos on the lenses too.

You know I have no idea what the big Animated item is on the right. I THINK its a picture frame.

The pink badge in the middle has no pin. Go figure.

The torch on the bottom left is something I ended up with two of. A mate of mine bought one for me but he took it out of the packet to have a look at it, so sure enough I had to go back and get another one to leave as mint.

When Batman Returns came out a number of socks were released for the film, but I only picked up a couple of samples (they're the black and white items on the bottom).

Over to the left is a Batman paddle ball, why do I always feel like watching the original House of Wax when I look at it?

Got both Batman and Batman Returns slime, got no idea how they would look now after all this time. Talk about a bizzare piece of merchandise - and they ended up making two of them!

The plastic items at the bottom are balloons of various types.

Over to the left are a set of Batman rings. Why you need to wear 8 of them is beyond me.

On the right is a Batman Animated floatie too - always loved that logo.

There is nothing more enjoyable than getting something you've not seen before as opposed to buying yet another action figure or another vehicle. Left field items like the pool stuff is what made collecting worthwhile.

Talk about having a second rate knock off for a classic. Since I don't have an original '60s Corgi Batmobile / Batboat combo pack, what did I settle for? A plastic version at the top in the middle. Shame.

Fortunately I have enough space on the top of my shelves for the large figures 'cause some of them are pretty big!

I always found the Batman sculptures were often quite exclusive and quite expensive, so I only ever got them when they were going cheap like the Batman and Robin one on the bottom right. They were such a big deal too when they came out, now you wouldn't look twice at them.

The small radio controlled Batmobile in the middle doesn't have a remote so I can't tell if it works or not.

Yes I'll admit it, both of the Batman '89 movie cups at the top were picked up in the cinema after people left them behind.

On the left is another Rice Bubbles pack which featured a free drink bottle, though we're looking at the back of the pack here.

The Batman figure in the middle won't stand up by itself, what a pain.

The big Batman item on the bottom left is a lunchbox

The Dark Rider Batman was an example of something that was disapointing to get, only because it came in a box. I saw the photo of the figure and was hanging to get it but because there is no see through window, I have no idea what it looks like.

The sculpture on the right was given to me as a birthday gift from a friend of mine a decade after I stopped collecting. The reason for him getting it was because "it was going cheap". He just walked in one day and said "here ya go, happy birthday". When first released, these items used to cost heaps.

There's another "once expensive, now cheap" sculpture of Batman and the Riddler, now you wouldn't look twice at this in a store.

The Batcopter in the middle, though not mint in box, still works.

The Room Defender at the top was one of those "what the hell is this?" item. Look at the size of the box compared to the size of the thing itself. Damn ugly too.

The toy bike was not authorised, but came with some awesome stickers. Lugging it around in storage was a pain but at least it didn't weigh much.

I can't even begin to tell you the saga I had getting the Batman Returns drink cup on the left from the cinema. All I wanted was to buy the cup with nothing in it, do ya think the attendant could figure that one out? Nope.

What irks me the most is the flask in the middle with the crooked logo. Argh!

At the back to the left is a Batman toy crime fighting kit. Items like this never display well because they don't stand up by themselves. I ended up getting a whole range of kids toys like this (too many in fact) and if I was to regret anything about collecting, it'd be wasting money on this sort of stuff. Totally worthless.

In the bottom right of middle are unscratched Batman and Robin scratchies. People used to say in shock "there could be $500,000 in there!" but I didn't care. These stayed mint.

Yes that is Batman swimming goggles down the bottom. Damn uncomfortable to wear - a home made item I think.

The Batman Returns antenna head band in the middle I got from Las Vegas and you've got ask yourself why was it ever made considering it's an officially licenced product.

Unfortunately the packaging for the water blaster at the top was badly damaged when I got it. Never seen another one since.

Next to the water pistols is the only Batman Christmas decoration I own.

I never knew there were so many Batman viewmaster slides to the right. In case you're wondering, I do have a viewmaster on another shelf not that it matters as they're all sealed.

Same applies to Batman tattoos in the middle, didn't know there were so many of them til I got them all together.

You'll notice lots of pens and pencils in the cup, and that's not all of them as others ended up on other shelves (see photo 5).

Next to the cup with the pens is a Batman Returns nite light, a cool item ... if you have a US power socket.

I made a point of displaying one of the loose Batman band-aids which I love. It's in the middle at the bottom.

At the top in the back is a Batmobile Tent. If I recall this item was quite heavy.

The Road Racing set at the back is something all my friends wanted to play with. Nup. Sorry.

Down the bottom are a stack of kids play kits and I ended up getting a number of variations of these and they are all junk, plus they are impossible to display properly.

The Batwing at the bottom was a punch out "flyer" that I got from the video store when ... you guessed it the '89 film came out on VHS - did I mention I have a few copies of that?

The water feature thing on the left was something that never really appealed to me. Another example of "well I have to get it ... but I don't really want it" items.

Shelf 1:

The top shelf is a selection of birthday cards - but just a selection as I couldn't be bothered trying to get all of them. During my collecting hey day some friends got me a great birthday card and wrote their "birthday greetings" on a Post-It note inside so that the card wasn't damaged. I loved them so much for doing that!

Shelf 2:

One thing I thought was really neat was the stamp set on the middle shelf. Sometimes you come across a really cool item and then never see it again anywhere else - which makes me feel glad I grabbed it when I did.

Stashed in the back in the middle (barely visible) is a yellow pencil case, this item I found ... somewhere and the reason for it being in the back is because the original owner (a kid obviously) wrote his name in permanent texta on the back. If I was see him now I'd clout him one for doing that "you ruined my ultra rare collectable goddamn it!" LOL

Shelf 3:

Just a couple of the large die cast '89 vehicles. These are only here as I had nowhere else to put them.

The two logos on the left were made by a mate of mine as a gift.

More jigsaw puzzles on the right, how many does that make now?

Shelf 1:

One of the hardest things about setting up all the pins and badges was getting them all to sit straight. As you can see, there's just no room for any more.

Shelf 2:

Believe it or not, one of the watches has some functions labelled on the front, but the buttons for the functions aren't actually there - including the one to adjust the time. Man that's gotta be a cheapie! I can't believe the watch on the left side came with a brown band. Yuck!

Shelf 3:

At the bottom is a selection of various trading card packs that were released - which actually look pretty cool when put together. Some of the sets I actually have complete boxes of which is pretty neat.

Keen observers will note that only Batman features here and no one else. For the most part I didn't get any of the other characters and if I did they weren't put on display. The REAL hassle of putting these up on the wall was the clips I used, unfortunately there was a chance they would leave an indented mark on the cardboard packaging so I had to sandpaper them down to make a bigger gap. That's four clips per packet ... fun NOT!

Down the bottom is a vintage blue Batman cowl. This one I got from a friend of mine, but I did see one mint in box in a store during the 1990s - for $285! Mega ouch!

On the top left are two cookiee boxes which are still sealed and unopened. The one of the right is mentioned in my Amusing Anecdotes section above.

Off to the right is something a bit odd (and partially obscured), a Batman audio tape deck. Sure, I wanna stick a tape in the back of Batman's head!

Seriously, how cool are those boxed action figures at the top! They're listed as exclusive which means there will be millions of them.

Believe it or not, the conical shaped Batman Forever thing on the left is actually an inverted popcorn container. Don't ask me how you're supposed to stand it up.

The steering wheel cover on the bottom was the very first thing I ever bought on eBay and it arrived in a pizza box. I was so rapt to get it because even though I had long since stopped collecting it was something I just HAD to have. Since then I've bought one or two more items from eBay (one is the barely visible tray table in the middle), now I deliberately don't go to the Batman section on eBay anymore.

Not all collecting stories have a happy ending. The large Batman Returns figure on the right was part of a REALLY big cinema display stand. It was given to me as a gift that I really appreciated, but it was just too large to keep let alone setup. After lugging it around for over 10 years the day came when it had to get the flick because it just wasn't practical to hang onto. This is the only part that I kept.

The three windscreen heat shield covers were all bought for me by the same person for three different Christmas's

The Batman Returns sign on the left is made of polystyrene and is really fragile. Unfortunately I simply have no where to display it properly.

These came out in 1992 and both myself my best mate bought one. Being chocolate they eventually turned white with age and one day my mate rang me up to say that his had just crumbled. I instantly put mine in the fridge and it has remained intact ever since.

My mate cracked me up though because he opted to eat his rather than throw it out. At one point he said "I think this is a wheel".

At one point I considered splitting them up and storing them in friends freezers in the event I had a power failure at my place, but how do you ask someone to store something in their freezer for years that they can never touch nor eat.

I'd seriously love to know if anyone in the world has these besides me. Maybe I should put one on eBay with a $10,000 price tag and see what happens - imagine if it sold! Would have to be "pickup only" LOL