You Can Drive The Penguin’s Duck Car for Just $16,000
Are you in the market for a stylish, lightly used all-electric vehicle? Do you have a fondness for iconic movie props? Were you raised by aquatic birds in a sewer beneath Gotham City? Well, you’re in luck. It seems that The Penguin’s vehicle of choice, the so-called “Batduck” from Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns,” is up for sale on Facebook Marketplace for a measly $16,000.
Not sure whether to buy or lease your next duck car?: Check out this guide
The details
The Facebook Marketplace listing isn’t overly descriptive, but it does have some information worth knowing. The seller states that they acquired the duck from a company in Spain that deals in movie vehicles, a representative of which told him it was one of seven models used in the film. He also states that it’s powered by an electric motor and can move forward and backward. Stef Schrader from The Drive believes that the wheels on the one seen in the film look like what you’d see on an amphibious 6×6 ATV, so it might have some get-up-and-go if it still runs.
Before you reach for your wallet, it’s worth noting that there are a few irregularities with the listing. The first is that it’s riddled with typos — the seller lists the vehicle as the “Butduck,” repeatedly refers to the film as “Batman Return,” and calls its driver the “pinguin.” Of course, they live in Barcelona, so it’s reasonable to assume that English isn’t their first language. The more troubling factor is that it doesn’t come with a certificate of authenticity, which means you have no way of knowing if it’s a replica or something that was actually used in the production.
A well-traveled duck
On the off-chance that this is a screen-used prop, I think it’s worth the $16,000 just for the story. If you haven’t seen the film, here are some of the scenes it could have appeared in.
- A corpulent and unfortunately drippy Danny DeVito (The Penguin) uses it to rise out of the sewer to return the mayor’s baby after an acrobat kidnapped it and backflipped into a maintenance hole.
- Danny DeVito rides it sullenly through the sewers after his mayoral campaign comes to an abrupt end.
- Danny DeVito uses it to literally crash the mayor’s masquerade ball, at which point it’s filled with penguins wearing metal vests and back-mounted missiles. He then kidnaps Christopher Walken.
- Danny DeVito attempts to use it to outrun the Batmobile, which ends about as well as you’d expect.
Can any other EV claim those feats? I think not. Then again, this duck probably isn’t street legal.
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