Scanlens' Bat Laffs movie gum cards from 1967

[Therin of Andor]

Scanlens Bat Laffs movie cards 1967 by Ian McLean, on Flickr

Even though my brothers and I were discouraged from chewing bubble gum, I managed to scrounge a full set of 55 (Bruce holding his tea cup and saucer was elusive!), and I even had an empty gum card box (which I had to swap a "TV Week" poster of Batman & Robin to get). Here's a photo listing of the Topps' cards: http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/R710-16c/go.html

I recall the fateful day my mother suggested I send my cards "to the poor kids with no toys" in a clean-up campaign in about 1970. I always regretted it, and just found a full set of Scanlens' Bat Laffs cards on eBay. Oh well, it's only money...

UPDATE: Someone stop me! I only heard about the 38-card "Riddler Backs" movie cards a few years ago. Just snatched a full set of them off eBay, too. Are any of the pics duplicates of the "Bat Laffs" set of 55 movie cards?

[Jimmy L. 66]

Thanks for sharing this awesome collection.
#16 looks more like Peter Deyell than Burt Ward.
Plus doesn' Burt part his hair on the otherside?
Am I crazy? Did he test with West? Take some promo shots?
Also, why is there 2 backsides to each one?

[John Mack]

Yes, that does look like Deyell. Freaky.
The reason the backs have other photos is to make a larger picture. It's a photo puzzle.

[AndyFish]

Hey John
I think he meant why are there TWO back images for every front-- it's because there is an alternate set with no ad for the movie-- and the ad is a simple line that says "SEE THE BATMAN MOVIE"

These are great to see-- I can imaging kids fighting over who had to keep duplicates of #37-- who wouldn't want a Madge Blake card??

[John Mack]

Hey John
I think he meant why are there TWO back images for every front-- it's because there is an alternate set with no ad for the movie-- and the ad is a simple line that says "SEE THE BATMAN MOVIE"

These are great to see-- I can imaging kids fighting over who had to keep duplicates of #37-- who wouldn't want a Madge Blake card??

Thanks Andy, I was unaware of that.
Yeah, the Aunt Harriet card was always unpopular, but as an adult, I'm glad it's there.

[Tom1980]

Plus doesn' Burt part his hair on the otherside?

Some of the photos are printed back to front. Card no.15 is also the wrong way around, the R on Robin's chest is on the wrong side.

[AndyFish]

It also looks like the buttons on Adam's vest are on the wrong side too in that photo.

[Jimmy L. 66]

Yes, Here it is flipped and it looks a little more like burt, but still.
I did notice the other flipped images and was using Adam's hair part as reference, but here they match.

[John Mack]

Yeah, those photo cards I'll tell you. In the Riddler Back set, there's a photo of Batman and Robin near the Batmobile, and Burt has his mask off! Not flipped, but just a weird photo taken after or before filming.

[Therin of Andor]

I only heard about the 38-card "Riddler Backs" movie cards a few years ago. Just snatched a full set of them off eBay, too. Are any of the pics duplicates of the "Bat Laffs" set of 55 movie cards?

To answer my own question. The "Riddler Back" set is all different images.
http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/R710-16f/go.html

My Scanlens set of the 55 Australian "Bat Laffs" arrived last week and I am feeling very geeky/satisfied about replacing my original set, given away in 1970. The eBay listing mentioned that cards #1 and #4 were creased, but #1 actually looks pretty good to me. #2 is water-stained (giving Robin an aura) and #42 was not terribly good quality, but I've already replaced #42.

I have a "Riddler Back" set coming from eBay. I can't wait!

BTW, a funny, true, gum card story! The last gum cards with actual sticks of gum were imported into Australia in 1989, promoting the Tim Burton "Batman" movie. A comic shop, here in Sydney, Australia, ordered in cases and cases of packs, but our import regulations had changed and the pink dye used in Topps' gum for decades was now illegal to sell in Australia. The Customs agents gave the manager three choices: send it all back at his expense, allow all the packs to be destroyed, or sit in a corner and remove every stick of gum. He opted for #3, but when he tried to hand over the large garbage bag of banned pink gum, Customs didn't want it! He was free to take the gum with him, he just wasn't allowed to sell it. The manager was giving free gum out to customers for weeks and Aussie fans bought their gumless "Batman" cards to collect their set.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

These are great to see-- I can imaging kids fighting over who had to keep duplicates of #37-- who wouldn't want a Madge Blake card??

[Therin of Andor]

I have a "Riddler Back" set coming from eBay. I can't wait!

My Riddler Back cards arrived... from Germany. They seemed like a good deal - and I'm rather thrilled with them because it was a very fair price for a rare set, and cheaper than full US sets I researched - but it didn't occur to me that the text on the cardbacks would be in Dutch! No matter, because the English translations are on the online scans I mentioned above. (The cards are also smaller than Topps' cards, my original reasoning for rejecting a UK-printed - but very cheap! - set of the previous wave when I had a chance to replace my lost 1967 Scanlen's set of 55, way back in 1980!)

I had also gone searching for Topps' decoders for the riddles on eBay, but the postage prices on such a tiny item are prohibitive. To my delight, the Dutch cards have a completely different "reveal" technology for the answers. I think the idea is to rub a coin over the answer, and it changes the colour of the "invisible text. At an angle, you can also read what is there. So I'm glad I didn't bite the bullet on a decoder!


Dutch "Riddler Back" movie card reverse by Ian McLean, on Flickr

I just ran the Riddle instruction through Google Translate: "The magic answer shifts when you rub with a gold piece over the spot below." So, as I speculated, a metal coin reacts with the invisible ink and turns it grey. I recall similar puzzle cards in the 60s and 70s.

Here's the same cardback, in English, from Topps:


Topps "Riddler Back" movie card reverse by Ian McLean, on Flickr

And the super rare decoder, printed on transparent plastic film:


Topps "Riddler Back" riddle decoder by Ian McLean, on Flickr