He was known by several names. “Lamborghini Batman”, “Baltimore Batman”, and in real life Lenny B Robinson. The Maryland resident is best known as a Batman impersonator who had made it his life’s work to visit kids in hospitals and cheer them up. Robinson was killed in a traffic accident when his replica 1966 Batmobile quit running on the highway and while looking at the car it was struck from behind by another driver. The high speed impact essentially drove the Batmobile into Robinson, killing him. This is a very sad story and while other places may want to crack a joke about the circumstances of the man’s death they shouldn’t. Robinson was a successful businessman who sold a cleaning company that he had started years ago and went full time in bringing joy to kids who need it most. He was best known for his Lamborghini but in 2012 he had a Canadian company called Unique Movie Cars and Props build him the machine he was inspecting at the time of his death.

Initially we were confused by the reports of his demise because of the circumstance of him being essentially struck with his own car. We assumed he was in the Lamborghini but we were wrong after looking into the story further. Apparently he had just left a gas station on his way home from a car show in West Virginia. He had met a family at the station and they witnessed the scene of the accident with Robinson stopping on the left side of the road partially in the lane of travel.

The car was a visually perfect copy of the machine used in the original series starring Adam West. It shot fire from the three exhaust pipes behind the driver’s area, had the unique bubble type top on it, no permanent roof, and no windows. It had a small block Ford engine in it and a C6 automatic transmission. He drove the thing across Canada and all over North America to visit children. He was obviously one of the most serious Batman enthusiasts the world has ever known and we find the whole situation to be pretty much heartbreaking. He loved the car and loved his work with kids.

If there is anything to be taken from this tragedy it is that if you suffer a problem with your car on the highway and you are not in a safe position to move from it, stay in the car. In this case Robinson was broken down on the fast lane side of the road and was looking at the car where it sat. There is no telling how well he would have fared inside the car but obviously his changes would have been (even is marginally) better in the car.

We have video below of Robinson in the car not too long after he took ownership of it in 2012. We’re very sorry to hear of his passing and we hope that the kids he so loved to visit remember him well.