An Australian man who struggled with an addiction to collecting Batman memorabilia has said he still has chocolates from 31 years ago in his fridge.

Darren ‘Dags’ Maxwell began collecting Dark Knight merchandise in 1989 when Tim Burton’s 'Batman' was released.

His obsession grew for nearly a decade until, with the release of the much-maligned ‘Batman and Robin,’ he decided to get out of the game for good.

He is now the subject of ‘Batman and Me,’ a new documentary examining Mr Maxwell’s experiences with what he views as an addiction.

  

Speaking to Tom Dunne on Moncrieff this afternoon, he said he “got really hooked” on the 1989 film when it came out.

“Maybe because of the imagery and the logo and the way it was all presented with the black costumed character and all the rest of it,” he said.

“I didn’t actually want to collect at the time, it was something that just took hold. Ultimately it started from there and off she went.”

He said he eventually “started to lose control a bit” until it got to the point where if he had money in his pocket, he would spend it on memorabilia.

“It didn’t even matter what it was and the worst part was that I was aware that I was buying things I didn’t even like but I was buying them because I was in that collector mindset,” he said. “That lasted for eight years.”

He said he still has a 28-year-old chocolate Batmobile in his fridge.

“I bought one and a friend of mine bought one and that was all well and good,” he said. “But a few weeks or a few months later my friend rang me up, because you know, chocolate turns white over a period of time, and he said his had just crumbled.

“So I quickly put mine in the fridge in the butter tray and, even though I have shifted houses a lot of times since then and had a lot of refrigerators, as of right now, it is still in the butter tray in the fridge.”

His freezer, meanwhile, contains 25-year-old ice-creams from ‘Batman Forever’ and ‘Batman and Robin.’

“They would be the only ones left in the world,” he said. “I can’t imagine anyone else was as silly as I was.

“I mean it started as joke more than anything else. They have lost their shape a little bit but other than that they are still complete. They still have their sticks; they still have their packaging.

“I have also got some chocolates in the fridge as well along with some Batman jellies and they have been in there for 31 years now – so that’s pretty impressive.”

Addiction

He said the element of his past-time that turned it into an addiction was the lack of control.

“There was no off switch,” he said. “I was walking around shops just looking all the time and it was the type of thing I just couldn’t retract from.

“If I saw an item, I just had to have it – even if I didn’t like it. That is the key thing between someone who is addicted and someone who buys for enjoyment of it. I was buying things I didn’t like.”

You can listen back to the full interview here: