“Another challenge for the Green Hornet, his aide Kato, and their rolling arsenal, the Black Beauty!”
“Holy double Black Beauty.” Oops... this isn’t the show with Robin on it but the car on the left is the Black Beauty from ‘The Green Hornet’ TV series produced by William Dozier who was also responsible for the ‘Batman’ TV series. The tagline above was used during the opening sequence of this series.
But wait, what about that other Black Beauty lingering on the side?
That other Black Beauty was based on the movie version of ‘The Green Hornet’.
Let’s first explore the car from the TV series. The car was a 1966 Imperial Crown sedan customized by Dean Jeffries at a cost of $50,000 USD based on the Green Hornet wikia while wikipedia cited the cost at $13,000 which is a big discrepancy.
The Green Hornet television series first aired in 1966 and ran for 26 classic episodes.
The TV series Black Beauty Die cast was first made by Corgi in the 60's. Then it was reissued again around 2001. This one is the reissued one.
Now let’s take a look at the play value of the Corgi ‘Black Beauty’.
This extended metal below the driver side is there for a reason.
Once press, the Black Beauty is now in ‘rolling arsenal mode’ which displays the hidden weapons at the front with missile firing capability.
The extended metal below the trunk has a different purpose
This one when pressed opens the trunk and releases the radar scanner. And if you haven’t notice, this also comes with a Kato metal figurine but unfortunately no Green Hornet figurine.
The Corgi released car also comes with the Green Hornet logo.
Now let’s explore the Black Beauty movie version.
The movie version car which uses the 1965 Chrysler Imperial was converted by Dennis McCarthy of Vehicle FX.
The movie version of ‘The Green Hornet’ was released around 2011.
The Black Beauty die cast was made by Factory Entertainment and comes in both arsenal and stealth mode.
Now let’s take a look at the play value of the Factory Entertainment ‘Black Beauty’.
If you noticed I previously mentioned that it comes both in arsenal and stealth mode since Factory Entertainment did not make any moving parts for their die cast but instead you need to buy two variants of the same model. There are no delicate parts for the stealth mode so there is some play value on this collectible toy. By the way the big Kato figurine did not come with this model but was given to me by a co-worker who got it at Carl’s Jr restaurant during their promotion of this movie.
Now enjoy the rest of the pictures.
