Happy Beatles Birthdays Part 2

    Finally, here is the second half of my Beatles dolls and figures review!(See the first part HERE.) It's been a while, but since there was going to be a gap anyway I thought I might as well make this one a Beatles birthday post too. Today would have been John Lennon's 73rd birthday. It's also Sean Lennon's 38th birthday. (And although it's not a Beatles birthday, it would also have been the 69th birthday of John Entwistle, bassist for The Who, one of my other favourite bands.)
  I have a couple of my doll sets in rather unaccessable boxes at the moment, so maybe I'll get to the Sgt. Pepper Applause dolls by February and do a part 3 for what would have been  George's 71st birthday.(See that post by clicking the link.)
   There is another set made by Applause that are slightly shorter than the Forever and Pepper dolls. The shorter dolls wear the gray collarless suits. They came in a box made to look like a stage, and they also have instruments.The faces look the same as the Forever dolls. I never even saw those in the stores and I don't own any. I wouldn't mind having a set though.   There's a new set of Yellow Submarine 'rag dolls' out now that would make a nice continuation of a collection of the Applause dolls. I haven't seen them in person, but they are for sale on The Fest for Beatles Fans page. (Used to be Beatlesfest.) One of these days if  I come across them at a cheap enough price...
  There is another set of vinyl dolls made by Hamilton in the early 90's.They are about 9 1/2" tall, and the set comes with bases, microphones for John and Paul, and Ringo's entire drum kit. I have these, but, like the Sgt. Pepper dolls, they are in hibernation right now, all but Paul.  Paul has need of some medical assistance at the moment, as his arm keeps falling off. This seems to be one of the problems with this set. The arms are only glued on and the glue has dried out over time. Paul is a multiple amputee, but it's all been the same arm...over and over again. The arms pop back on, but they should be reglued. The resemblances to the actual Beatles are pretty good though, and the little instruments look good. Ringo's body seems a bit concave. There is one other problem with this set. The legs turn red. Not a dark red, but it looks as though the legs were made of red vinyl and eventually it shows through the paint. In my set it was George's legs that turned red. 

I still think this set is worth having though. The likenesses and the little drum kit override George's legs and Ringo's body (Sorry guys.)
   This item isn't a doll or a figure, but it's doll related. 

  The Ya Ya Ya sweatshirt was made by Ideal in the 60's for their Tammy doll. It isn't licensed by Seltaeb,(the Beatles' licensing company.),but it's so obviously meant to be The Beatles. 

It came in a package by itself, and came in various colours, including white and mustardy yellow. It's just about the most valuable piece of Tammy clothing I think, because it's sought after by both Tammy and Beatles collectors. I've seen one sell for as high as $75! It's crazy! I got mine online for much less. It was in a bunch of Barbie related stuff that didn't even list it. Luckily I spotted it in the photos though. 

Tammy looks a little wary of Hamilton Paul, but she needn't fear him. To use one of Ken's old English jokes, "He's 'armless." (HARMLESS, that is. Use the Accent.)

  There is also this set, which technically are not dolls or figures. 

The glue dries out on ornaments too easily. One of my drums has jumped ship.

They did get the stances down pretty well.

   They are Christmas ornaments made by Hallmark  in 1994. They aren't very good likenesses, although they have John and George's,(especially George's), stances down pretty well. Unfortunately George's accurate stance makes it nearly impossible to keep the figure standing up! (Wonder how the real George did it...) He does tend to fall over and I have to resort to leaning him against the drum riser. Even that doesn't work that well. Of course, they are meant to hang on the Christmas tree, not stand, but I like mine out all the time. They stand on our piano (which none of us can actually play.) since they are musical guys. (I wonder how they feel about being accompanied there by The Three Stooges, playing a violin, the spoons, and an upright bass. Well, at least Larry did actually play the violin and the piano. Go Larry! He was one up on us. At least he could actually play the piano.) 
 

John: Being a musician makes it so easy to get chicks. Larry: It does?

  Again, I love the little instruments. I also like the fact that the instruments are separate pieces, and not part of the body mold. Unfortunately one of my kids, or maybe our cat, (Kitten off the keys.) broke one of Ringo's delicate little drumsticks off. Ringo also recently suffered a decapitation when the glue holding his head on dried out from age. Don't worry. As you can see he has gotten himself together.
   And while we're talking about ornaments, I also have the Hallmark Yellow Submarine ornament.

 And while I passed up the Hallmark mini lunchbox ornaments, (I think Hallmark made a dome top Yellow Sub and the early rectangular box.), last year I got both of the non Hallmark mini lunchboxes.

  

  I saw them first at a fancy ornament store in a mall and balked at the $6 price. I held out and found them at Walgreen's for a couple of dollars. There is a Please Please Me lunch box out this year, so I'm already on the lookout.
   I got really excited last year when I saw that there was a mini Beatles record player ornament, which was a replica of an actual Beatles record player from the 60's. It was made by Kurt Adler, and was just the right size to use with Barbie sized dolls. Then I got a good look at it and was VERY disappointed. The paint job wasn't very good and it was molded all in one piece. I passed it up. I was hoping the company that made the really good light up, music playing, mini record player ornaments last year, (They had Elvis, Marilyn Monroe--but not her voice! Boo!---Peanuts, Rudolph, and Disney Princesses.), would make a Beatles record player this year. But it looks like they have given the licensing to Kurt Adler for a while. This year is a Beatles record case, (to go with last year's record player I guess.) It looks a bit better than the record player, but it's also molded one piece resin. That's disappointing. It would look good from a distance in a display I suppose, as it's fairly 1/6 scale. I just wish it would open and have a separate latch instead of being molded. That's me though. I like realism in my miniatures. Maybe I'll have to make one myself.
  As I said in the first half of this post, I love the cartoon Beatles and my husband got me this ornament made by Carlton Heirloom. 

  I have no idea why they are yellow, and I think it should have played music, but other than that I love it. It's from a few years ago. Heirloom also made a Yellow Submarine ornament in a similar style, but as I said before, Yellow Submarine isn't my favourite Beatles thing, so with budget restrictions I let that one go.
  There were a series of Beatles cars ornaments last year too. If I were rich I would have them all, but I'm not. The Kubrick figures are pretty cool. They are sort of like large Lego people, only with detailed heads. The bodies are still squarish though. I might think about obtaining some of those someday.  There are loads of other Beatles figures, dolls, toys, ornaments etc. There is no way I am ever going to own all of them.

   To conclude, here I am with my favourite Beatles figure, and a fine one it is.

1986. I'm a bit stunned. I had just been thrown at Paul. I don't think he was happy about it. For the story behind the picture you can go HERE.  

 It's an old picture. My figure was finer then too...