I built the closet, yes, using the absolute cheapest wood available at my local hardware store. 95% of it was built by hand without any power tools. I actually chiseled out 38 divots for the brass pull rings on the faux drawer fronts manually. My blisters were multitide. The boot and gauntlet shelves I had fabricated by a steel company in Washington to my specifications and then I finished them in flat gold/bronze paint. The batarang hangers on the inside of the doors are my own design, made from brass brick hangers sandwiched around a pair of rare earth magnets. It's actually quite clever if I do say so myself. The batarangs hang perfectly stable when opening and closing the doors, but it's easy to grab one and pull it down and throw it, although I'd never do that because they are 1/4" solid laser cut steel and kinda dangerous. The main parts of the outer door handles are stock from an interior hardware company, and I made the rosettes around the handles myself. I also designed and built the locking mechanism that unbolts when you rotate the handles (just like you see him do in the film, except the wooden gears inside the doors are never revealed on camera). The big gold ring on the outside I cannot take credit for. I am not a woodworker really and I hired the expert hands of Brian Millspaw to carve out those details. I finished it with a blend of gold metallic paints.
If anyone is curious, here's one of my reference photos of the original full armoire from the batcave set. The set designer tells me they scratch built this rather than finding something already made. It's a real shame we didn't even get to see the front at all:
As you can see, I'm a bit too small on my overall dimensions and proportions are off. Truth is I had most of the "box" of the closet built before I ever saw these reference photos so I kind of had to put the front detail on after the fact. I'm still pretty happy with it
And YES I know there are supposed to be 2 more handles on the bottom half, to unlock the bottom bolts. I just never got around to it.
So that's really all I can take credit for. The rest of the suit was made by very talented artists that I spent a long time finding and arranging to help me out. There are a couple of places you can look if you want a suit. Start with the Replica Prop Forum (
www.rpf.com) and search for a Batman costuming site called Brotherhood of the Bat. But I'll warn you, this stuff isn't cheap.
My cowl and gauntlets are 1-offs from screen used originals. I believe the cowl is a copy of the stunt cowl worn during the "Lighten up" scene when Crane lights Batman on fire. If you'll notice, my left cowl ear is slightly warped. That's what fire damage can do.
The torso armor was sculpted originally by another fan and is not taken from a screen-used piece, but it's damn close. The boots and cape were crafted from scratch by people who had access to screen used originals and are made out of the same materials. The cape is 100% accurate to the "walking cape" pattern in the film (they use several cape patterns depending on the scene, sitting, walking, gliding...)
The cowl and torso armor are both cast in urethane. The gauntlets, grapple gun, and utility belt are resin with metal hardware.
