Tag Archives: grappling

NECA 1989 Batman Grapnel Launcher: Ever Dance with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight?

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When Tim Burton’s Batman came out in 1989, I thought it was the best version of Batman yet. Michael Keaton made a great Bruce Wayne, Jack Nicholson was an awesome Joker, and Burton’s dark vision of Gotham was a fresh take compared to the campy 1960s Batman I grew up with on TV. Plus, a soundtrack by Danny Elfman, with songs by Prince? C’mon. The movie had lots of quotable lines, too, like Joker’s “Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?” Well, in the case of Batman’s Grapnel Launcher, the answer is NECA, who is now making a screen-accurate replica of the Dark Knight’s handy gadget.

The plastic Grapnel Launcher toy can launch its shiny gold grappling hook and makes sound effects and would look great as part of your Batman cosplay. Ixnine posted an unboxing and demo video which shows off its basic functionality:

It looks really cool, and for just $15 I think it’s a steal. But given its flimsy string attachment, I wouldn’t recommend using this to scale buildings or to wrap up criminals and toss them off of catwalks. At the moment, these are hard to find, but if you poke around your local Target or Best Buy store, you might be able to find one.

[via Toy People]

Guy Builds Working Version of Batman’s Grappling Hook Gun

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If you have ever wanted a grappling hook gun like Batman uses, you’ll want to check out this video in which engineer James Hobson of Hacksmith Industries built a real working version.

batman_grappling_hook_gun_1
The finished gun is actually nice and compact. It took several tries to get it to fire properly while indoors, and James even got hit in the face by the recoil, but once he took it out in the field for testing, he found that it shoots nice and smooth, and works very well. James doesn’t share the exact details of the firing mechanism, but you can watch him build the Bathook and fire his creation in the video below:

He even used it to shoot a usable zipline between structures:

For his next project, James plans on building an ascension device so that he can climb up the building.

[via Laughing Squid]

Batman Grappling Hook Gun Created at BYU

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Of all the gadgets and gizmos that Batman uses to fight crime, one of the ones I always thought was most interesting was his grappling hook gun that he can fire up onto ledges or the top of buildings to climb. If you’ve ever wanted to have that sort of grappling hook gun, some student engineers at BYU have created one that actually works. The students dreamed it up based on what Batman uses.

grappling gun byu

The students created their grappling hook gun for an Air Force competition. The device the team created uses a launcher to shoot a grappling hook as far as 90 feet in the air. Once deployed, the system uses pulleys, and other tech to automatically pull the user up the building or other surface with little effort.

The contest the team will be participating in gives them 20 minutes to demonstrate the tool and then train military representatives on its use. The goal of the competition is to get three people up a 90-foot vertical incline while carrying 300 pounds of gear each. The device designed by the BYU students is able to climb 30 feet per minute. Check out the video above to see the system in action.