Background, cover & transfers by Peter Archer.
First we'll look at the Panorama (because even though it isn't specifically referred to anywhere by that name, it has all the standard features shared by each of the other Panoramas), & then we can review the Nabisco cereal promotions — for Shredded Wheat & Vita-Brits — that accompanied it.
Make your own GIANT action-packed BATMAN Instant Pictures
When John Waddington Ltd. took on the Panoramas from the 1st of January 1966, it seems likely that they thought they had agreed with Letraset to a monopoly on the format. So it may have been a bit of a shock to find that Patterson Blick were distributing this set in an essentially identical format to cash in on "Batmania"…
You will notice that one of the buildings on this background is called "Ben's Wharf". This is in honour of Peter's son, Ben Archer.
I think that when I mentioned this to Ben, he seemed surprised! Perhaps he did already know, but had forgotten.
The big breakthrough is referred to on the front cover: "Now in Colour". All Letraset's previous Instant Pictures had been silkscreen printed in one spot colour, but the toy & promotional industries were familiar with waterslide transfers in full colour, & naturally they would want to know if Letraset could deliver.
In fact, Peter Archer told me that the move to colour was his own idea, which he persuaded Letraset was technically feasible at one of their famous business lunches.
Letraset had already printed products using up to three spot colours, in particular for use with model railways & suchlike; but there is a world of difference between three spot colours & full colour, which normally requires not only four colours (plus, for transfers, an additional backing colour), but also proper colour separation.
Letraset had been using a Kippax Pneuminor silkscreen press, but they bought a new Svecia SemiMatic press from Registerprint which they believed could handle the accurate registration needed to produce four spot colours. Only one of the transfer sheets is in colour; the other is still monochrome, possibly as a safety measure in case the 4-spot process decided to go horribly wrong. Or perhaps it was just a quick way to provide another sheet to make up a full Panorama. Or perhaps they had started out with two monochrome sheets in mind… which might explain some of the colouring difficulties. We'll review these options in a minute…
The colours chosen were black, white, red & blue. The bizarre consequence is (among other things) a pink Batman.
If you look carefully at the back panel artwork (on the left, above), you will notice that the cover artist anticipated that the transfers would be in full colour, rather than spot!
Normally Letraset's Panorama transfer strips were divided into four panels, but this time the strip divides into six, in order to accommodate the Nabisco commission.
Here's a detail of the Panorama with the transfers applied (it looks like some more of the rub-down handiwork of Mike Cosford to me, what with the crayoned-in bullet trails, smoke, etc.). Note that around the transfers you can make out a 'halo' of clear film; it appears in this scan as a thin line outlining a bubble around each Batman figure. This is the first appearance of the halo, which is always used with colour transfers from now on. Monochrome transfers did not originally require one.
Nabisco Shredded Wheat Cereal Promotion
Looking at the top panel (cut from a Shredded Wheat box) in the scan below, you can see the exact same figure of Batman with a red cape as in the Panorama scan above. This corroborates the fact (which is evident from the colour transfer sheet shown above) that the Batman Panorama was designed with the Shredded Wheat promotion in mind. In fact, it may even be that the promotion predated the Panorama (holy anticipation!), in which case it would have been Nabisco providing the pressure for colour transfers, & Patterson Blick benefitting from Letraset's favourite habit of re-using their materials whenever they could get away with it.
We know the Shredded Wheat featuring this promotion was in the shops by 5th October 1966 at the latest (see next page), which is not all that far off the 21st May first transmission date for the TV programme. Perhaps the two transfer sets were released simultaneously?
But it's easier to imagine a timeline in which Nabisco asked for another Letraset promotion to follow 1965's "Moon Battle", wanting more than one Free Gift transfer this time, & in colour as well. And Peter already wanted colour; these Batman transfers were his first attempt: the 4-spot Waddington's Panoramas came AFTER Batman. Then, since the TV show was the media sensation of the decade, why not bring out an Instant Picture set in the same manner as the monochrome Waddington's Panoramas to capitalise on that fact? Simply provide a background, & add another sheet of monochrome transfers… if Waddington's with their "jobbing" hang-ups turn it down (which does sound just like them), try someone else: Patterson Blick, for instance. — Bingo!
The "one sheet black, one sheet colour" has always been a bit of a conundrum, & this would explain it.
In many ways, this seems much more plausible than the traditional 'Panorama first' timeline. I'm convinced; what do you think?
Nabisco's Welgar Shredded Wheat promotion (Welgar stands for 'Welwyn Garden City') involved three different panels onto which transfers could be rubbed: the Tower of London, the Post Office Tower (which opened the previous year), & the Houses of Parliament. Yes, it's Batman in Swinging London. One panel was printed on the backs of boxes of Cubs, one on Shredded Wheat '12 biscuit' size, & one on Shredded Wheat '18 biscuit' size.
You can see examples of used, cut out, panels above, & an unused example in situ on its packet below.
Shredded Wheat was recently taken over by Nestlé, & several unused, flat, boxes which turned up in the archives were sold to the public. This photo of a Shredded Wheat box from that source is courtesy of Nick Symes:
The particularly good news is that this Shredded Wheat promotion has been converted into one of our online games: Renegade Robots!
But don't stop reading here; there's plenty more to come on the same Bat-Channel…
• Next Page — Shredded Wheat vs. Batman Vita-Brits →