And Y'ALL thought Tail lights were EXPENSIVE!

[Victor Laury]

Just think... in 66, if ya filled your DatMan coin bank with quarters, that would just about cover the cost of a brand new PL410!

[S30TRBO]

Dan Banks asked me to post this here, as he is not a member (yet) but soon will be.

Anyways here's his comments:

The story behind Datman is that Fred Jordan, General Manager of Escondido Datsun (a part of the Art Lemke group of Datsun Dealerships in San Diego) decided to initiate a campaign circa 1970 with his advertising manager to put their dealership in the map. They wanted a way to advertise their dealership and offered $1000 to whichever grade school student could come up with the winning idea. One little girl did, having observed the Batman craze of the late 1960s and saying to use the same idea but with the name “Datman.” They gave her $1000 and had a local artist make up the prototype Datman (which I have in my collection along with a few originals, I have owned 3 others but gave them all away as gifts). Actually, I bought my first Datman when I saw it on eBay circa October 2002. It was how I first came to know Fred.

Fred Jordan comes to all the Z Conventions, owns a 1980 10th AE Gold/Black 280ZX, and is devoted to all the old crowd surrounding the Datsun (Usami-san, John Parker, Johnnie Gable, Robert Link the NMC vp under K). I believe that Mad Mike told me to contact him because I had asked Mike about Escondido Datsun (I too was also unable to locate it. Don’t remember that story off top of my head but I think that they closed Escondido and merged back into one of Lemke’s other dealerships by the early 1970s). I have saved all the emails with Fred and during the period November to December 2002 Fred filled me in on the details.

Datman became a comic strip like advertisement campaign. There were Datman, Datwoman, Datboy, and Datgirl comic strip characters. If you bought a Z you got a Datman and they had contracted for 1,000 of the little coin banks. Today it represents one of the nicer pieces of authentic American Datsun dealer memorabilia you can find. Presumably many of them were broken over time but the ones in my collection weathered well. The one up on eBay right now is clearly authentic and looks to be in good condition. They are made out of a hard synthetic material. Mr. K actually quite fell in love with them and offered to buy the entire campaign from Fred but it was no dice. Escondido had business cards made up for their sales staff with the Datman image, made up pens and pencils with the image. Usual stuff that a dealership does with a campaign.

I obtained a second Datman on ebay and mailed that to Fred as a gift. Though I had been speaking with him about the campaign, and he knew that I had one of his little guys, it was the first time he actually held one of them since the very early 1970s. Turns out it arrived on his birthday that year, January 14th. (Fred will turn 85 on January 14, 2007). These days I always forward the eBay “sightings” of more Datman to him and we keep track. I no longer bid on them. Depending on who is in the running, a Datman in good condition will sell from $75 to $125. The one on eBay right now is ahead of market at opening bid and extreme at the Buy it Now price. It is being offered by a savvy and long time eBay seller using a lot of hype. See his other items, such as the Speedy Alka Seltzer coin bank. He uses much the same textual description. I would avoid telling this seller anything about Datman. He probably does not care and is simply interested in finding the highest buyer. Wait till he re-lists it at a price you or someone else in the Z community believe to be fair and go for it. For anyone who does buy this Datman, let me know and I will arrange to have Fred Jordan sign and date it for you!

Best regards and safe driving to all. Dan Banks, Ellicott City, Maryland.

Attached is a scan of a 1966 Datsun dealer directory that shows Escondido