Ted Dymer was a humble toy-shop clerk who went on to emulate the bombing spree of a television villain, The Mad Bomber from the televistion series The Gray Ghost. A toy collector obsessed with The Gray Ghost, Dymer threatened to destroy Gotham City by recreating events from old episodes of The Gray Ghost unless paid a ransom.
History[]
Ted Dymer was a toy collector who parlayed his hobby into a shop called Yester Toys, where he bought and sold classic toys and items. Dymer was obsessed with all different types of toys, and had invested substansial amounts of money to acquire them. Though his collection was vast, his funds were low, and he needed something to fill his pockets. As luck would have it, Simon Trent, the actor who played the Gray Ghost in the television show, had begun selling his old memorabilia to Dymer to make ends meet. Recalling an episode of The Gray Ghost, Dymer realized the other uses his toys could have.
Emulating the style and tactics of The Mad Bomber, Dymer placed bombs within remote controlled cars, designed and modeled after the same cars used in The Gray Ghost. Some cars were even actual models from the show, which he had bought from Trent. Dymer first blew up a plastics laboratory in Gotham City. From there, he began a bombing spree, leaving threats at each site demanding $1 million or a new location would be destroyed. His tracks were mostly untraceable, leaving both bomb squads and the Gotham Police Department stumped.
Batman, however, was a different story. Recalling the same "Mad Bomber" episode of The Gray Ghost, he began to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, and tracked down Trent. Trent professed ignorance, but just before the Gotham Art School was destroyed via arson, Trent recognized a sound—the sound that Dymer's cars made as they drove. From this, they were able to deduce Dymer's tactic, and his next bombing attempt was averted.
The Mad Bomber's downfall
Though his attempt to destroy the Gotham Library had failed, Dymer wasn't through yet. He used the toy cars to chase Batman into an alley, and a dead end. Things looked grim, but the Gray Ghost cast a rope down and pulled the Dark Knight to safety. When the two returned to the Batmobile, however, Dymer was ready. He had several of the cars in the area, and chased the two heroes. The cars were no match for the tools of the Batmobile, and Batman and the Gray Ghost eluded danger.
The two tracked Dymer to his toy shop, and discovered the control center Dymer operated from. Though he tried to defeat the Dark Knight, Dymer was stopped, and his toy shop and control center were destroyed as well. Dymer cried over the loss of his toy collection and was subsequently arrested.
Notes[]
- The Mad Bomber's character design is based on the produced of the show, Bruce Timm and name is an amalgamation of Ted Blackman and John Dymer. Blackman was a background designer on Batman: The Animated Series and John Dymer worked in the animation department of Tiny Toons, alongside Bruce Timm.
- This article uses material from the Mad Bomber article at the DCAU Wiki and is licensed under the CC BY-SA License.