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This has fast become everyone's favorite of all my Bat-kits. The subject is the older Batman from Frank Miller's groundbreaking 1986 Dark Knight Returns mini-series. This is a Batman who has just come out of a ten-year retirement; he's bigger, bulkier, and a lot nastier. This Batman also wears the simplified gray-and-black costume, with no yellow oval around the Bat symbol.  

This kit, like most of the newer kits I'm building, is categorized as a garage kit. This means that it was sculpted and cast by a small company (sometimes literally in someone's garage), and as such is available in very small quantities. Many garage kits, while featuring dynamic poses, are of questionable quality, with much touch-up needed before construction. Unlike the Aurora model kits of old, most garage kits are made from a solid resin, and actually have few parts. The major challenges are making the parts fit together (they don't always fit well), cleaning up the loose resin (called "flash"), and filling in any holes or missing pieces.

Fortunately for me, this particular garage kit was very clean. It was simple to construct (the only parts to attach were the two arms), and didn't need a lot of cleanup. It came with the Bat symbol base, which (unfortunately) was extremely warped. I had to file and sand it down to get it to lay flat, then I spray painted it metallic gold. The Batrope is simple nylon thread (thick), attached with Zap-a-Gap (superglue) to the Batarang.   

This kit was sculpted by Shawn Nagle, who does some terrific work . It's available from any  number of online garage kit dealers; you can find this kit listed on eBay from time-to-time.