The Batsh*t History of the Kenner Batcave Playset!

The musical sequence, absolutely hysterical and perfect 😂😂

This was actually intended to be part of the Dark Knight Collection. Many Kenner vehicles and playsets would come with those little booklets/catalogs showing off their other products from various toy lines. There was one that showed this off as part of the Dark Knight Collection and intended for release in 1991. The back of the playset is intended to be Axis Chemicals. The idea was to fill that little bucket thing with water of the correct temperature to make that Joker figure's face change color, with the action feature of the cat-walk collapsing meant to reenact that scene from the movie. The layout of the computer monitors is based on the '89 movie (and is pretty accurate looking), as (roughly) is the bat suit vault, and of course those skylights. Kenner decided to hold off releasing it until 1992 and did so under the Returns line, likely figuring they'd get better sales tying it into the release of the then-new movie (rather than releasing it in 1991, two years after the the '89 movie came out). So the great irony of this is that 7 versions were released over the years, and the only version that we never got was for the '89 movie, which is what the design was intended for. I look at this playset from two perspectives. On the one hand, I do agree with what is stated in this video about how odd certain aspects are. When looked upon literally and at face value, the villain hide out is right behind the batcave, the garage door opens into the living room, and the skylights are breaking into Wayne Manor (and the zip line is there, too), all of which come across as questionable design choices in that context. But on the other hand, it seems to be designed with the intent for kids to use their imaginations to "fill in the blanks", so to speak. Being that it was designed after the '89 movie, it is meant to function as something that represents various scenes and aspects of the movie. The cave is, of course, supposed to be under Wayne Manor, even in the context of this playset (it just isn't literally how it is laid out). So that's why one side of that wall is the clock to enter the cave (which would descend down under the mansion), and the other side is the garage door. Axis Chemicals (or whatever version of the villain hide out on the various releases) is not meant to be literally behind the cave or the mansion.... it is meant to be a separate location entirely and a way to allow kids to play out that scene from the movie. And even the skylights and zip line allow recreating the art museum scene, if kids want to use their imaginations to allow that part of the playset to represent different things at different times (the museum or Wayne Manor). On the one hand, it is kind of odd, I do admit that. And I fully understand someone taking a critical stance towards it as a result. On the other hand, it is kind of brilliant IMO. They weren't going to make several separate playsets to represent these different things (especially not the art museum). So this does give all of these aspects in one reasonably sized, affordable playset that can be folded up and closed for convenient storage and to be easily moved around (when closed up, with the roof windows open, it forms a convenient handle to carry it with). The actual cave interior, while not 100% perfectly movie accurate, comes fairly close, particularly with the look of the computer station and suit-vault. Where as the Toy Biz version (while otherwise a cool playset) looks like it was more of a generic cartoon or comic based Batcave playset that they added movie images to for that computer station (even if that wasn't the actual intent). It looks nothing like the cave from the film. All of that being said, with it doing a decent job of representing the '89 movie, it stinks that it wasn't released as part of that line, and it also stinks that so many other movies and cartoons got low effort re-releases of it, rather than playsets made to properly represent each of their respective versions of the Batcave and other respective environments.

You just never had this playset as a kid. This thing was the cornerstone of every DC themed playtime and where all the superheroes met up and strategized.

Joker - This Playset Needs an Enema!

Kenner - let’s destroy every single mold of all the glorious toys (M.A.S.K.) we ever made in the 80’s … wait wait wait except the batcave we gonna need it..

I love that you included an entire musical sequence, I couldn't stop laughing 😂😂

With all these supervillains somehow knowing where Batman lives, I guess he needs to crash through those skylights on a regular basis. I just imagine Alfred with a broom and dustpan sighing every time.

I will never, ever get tired of you slipping a well-placed Wilhelm Scream into your videos 😂😂

The Musical Bit actually WORKS

I honestly love the Kenner Wayne Manor playset. It's definitely an essential 90s playset, even if it has some genuine flaws. My copy is from TAS and is missing the weapons rack and cup, but i still love it so much. I also use the costume chamber to set Batman up into different colored outfits for different scenarios! Also, that musical segment was unironicly amazing!

God thats Funny! "Master Wayne please stop driving the batmobile through the living room im running out of excuses of what to tell the construction crew on how this occurred!"

I had the Mr freeze one and thought the added bad guy hideout on the back was genius. As a kid most of us never got 2 playsets and as a parent I'm thinking 2 platsets for one price, awesome! Crazy that it was used so many times.

Ok you really outdid yourself with that Broadway sketch. 🤣🤣

Clicked video for some random toy chat. Accidentally opened a parallel dimension in which Kenner Batcaves are replacing human beings.

Legend says Michael still speaks of this playset after the fade out.

It’s bizarre how oddly Batman was handled by toy companies for so long. Even as a kid you could tell the recycled toys mixed in with cool ones and endless variants of Batman in new suits. In spite of its size though the full Batman Forever Batcave playset was EPIC. It totally made up for how truly weird the recycled tripanel Manor/Cave set was. So of course they only made it once and never tried anything that creative again. Every idea in the crappy set was bettered: the Batmobile had a rotating turntable it could move on and off, the quick change elevator was an actual elevator, the zip line ran the entire set, the look matched the film’s Cave and all three vehicles could dock…if you counted setting the Batboat next to the bottom platform.😂

The Batcave was suposed to be released for the dark knight collection .Its on a old kenner catalogue from 1991 !!! So every set up is suposed to represent the 89 movie and the back is the Joker chemical scene !!!

"But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved the Kenner Batcave." - Orwell circa 2003

Michael, PLEASE give us a "Batman Follies" with a whole Batman musical number on different playsets

The Kenner Batcave playset was sculpted/Designed for the 89 movie originally. The backside was meant to be Axis chems Factory. It unfortunately was released later for the Returns film.