Titans Paul McCartney Beatles Figure and Happy Birthday Paul

  If you read the blog you'll know I'm a Beatles person. To celebrate Paul McCartney's 76th birthday today, we're going to look at a present I got for my birthday,back in March. My friend Lori got me this Paul McCartney figure.

He's the black and white version of one of the series of Yellow Submarine figures Titan has done. He's posing in front of a photo I took in 1986.

Titan has made several different series of Beatles Yellow Submarine figures,in various sizes and outfits.

He has the Titans mark and the yellow Sub on the bottoms of his feet.

 

Titan makes these stumpy cartoonish figures that bear more of an actual resemblance to their subjects than similar figures by Pop Vinyl. You may have seen Emma's titans figures in my posts on her collection HERE and HERE.

His head can turn side to side. He's in front of another of my photos.

His arms can move too.

He measures about 3" tall. 

 

 

Lori assures me the matching John Lennon is on his way,but he has never shown up.

You may have seen my other posts on my Beatles figures and dolls. If not, and you care to check them out,you can do that HERE, HERE,HERE,HERE,and HERE.

A Show, Skippers, Skooter,and Squeeze (Well, Glenn Tilbrook anyway.)

  Well, I have done alot of traveling in the last week.I was supposed to be doing a doll show in Cincinnati on what I thought was Saturday the 6th of October. I had it in my head that the show was Saturday and that Saturday was the 6th. I got everything ready for the doll show on Friday night, got up at 5:30 Saturday morning and Ivy and I set off. I got about half way there and passed a sign advertising a fall festival to be held "Saturday October 5th and Sunday, October 6th." "What?!" I said. I quickly turned around to recheck the sign, and yes, the 6th was indeed a SUNDAY, not a Saturday. I pulled off the road and called Ken to have him look on the internet and verify the day for me. There was a reason I was confused. He found listings for the show that said Saturday, AND Sunday, but the general consensus seemed to be that it was on Sunday. Pooh! I got about 2 hours sleep in the end! For nothing! Ivy and I headed home. We passed Young's Jersey Dairy on the way. I pointed it out to Ivy who said, "Do they have CHEESE?!" I said, "They have ice cream, and they probably have cheese." Ivy has been on a search for great fried cheese curds since last year when we bought some at the Circleville Pumpkin Festival, so we stopped to find out. They did indeed sell fried cheese curds. We ordered some and shared them. They were good, but very greasy and not nearly as good as the ones from the pumpkin festival. Ivy also talked me into sharing a cream horn as big as my head. I'm not much for cream horns, as they are usually mostly dry shell, but this one was actually good. I managed to cover the table and myself with powdered sugar, while Ivy didn't make a mess at all. Very embarrassing. We stopped at a few yard sales on the way home, but there wasn't much to be had.
  So we had to do the whole thing over again on Sunday. Of course, on Sunday our alarm didn't go off, so we were already a half hour later than I wanted to leave when we got up. Once again we drove all the way to Cincinnati. When we came to the road where we were to turn off to go to the show there were no doll show signs and we couldn't even find the right road. We drove up and down the same street for ages. Finally we spotted the road about 20 minutes before the show was to begin. When we reached the Holiday Inn  where the show was to be held there were still no signs! I started to think maybe the show was on Saturday. It might as well have been for all we sold.
  When I entered the room I couldn't believe how small the room was. I'm used to doing the huge Columbus, Ohio doll shows. Those shows are gigantic. One doll artist (Sorry, I can't remember her name!) who did the Columbus show last year told me the show was bigger than the United Federation of Doll Collectors show, which she had also done.(The fall show is at The Aladdin Shrine Center on Stelzer Road,on October 27th if anybody wants to make the trip. It's totally worth it. There are dolls of every era and type. BJDs and their clothes and accessories have been gaining space at the show in the last couple of years, but there are still plenty of antiques, new dolls, including Tonner,R.John Wright,Mattel, Monster High,etc. And I'll be there if anyone wants to say hello!) We hardly sold a thing. Competition with the pouring rain and the Cincinnati Bengals game that day was too much for the show.
  One nice thing about being a dealer: people try to sell you stuff. At the end of the day, shortly before pack up time, a lady came around with a luggage cart belonging to the hotel. It was filled with Barbie, Ken, and Skipper cases and a box of furniture from the first Barbie Dreamhouse. I asked if that was her shopping, but she explained that she was trying to sell the stuff. They were hers and her sisters childhood dolls.She had two Kens,an Allan, an American Girl Barbie,a Twist and Turn Barbie, and a case of Skipper stuff. I zeroed in on the Skipper case.

 
  Soon there were another couple of ladies digging through her stuff with me. No one else was interested in the Skipper things, so I hung on to the case. She had a couple of beautiful Skippers, a lipless Skooter,messy Tutti, and some clothes and shoes, and the Ken baseball bat, which was the only thing I was missing from the Ken baseball set. I sorted through the Barbie case, the two Ken cases and the other Skipper case.I moved everything I wanted into the Skipper case and prepared to make her an offer. At first she refused to sell anything separately.She discussed it with all of us and repeatedly took advice from the lady in charge of the show as to how much she should ask. (Who was apparently giving her retail, and not dealer prices.Dealers can't pay the same as the public because they have to make a profit. A lot of people don't understand that and think they are going to get the same they'd get selling on Ebay or to individuals. The one lady who was looking at the stuff with us said she only pays 20% of what she's going to sell it for.)
  Finally the lady decided, at the prompting of her husband, to sell what she could, since nobody wanted to give her what she had been told to ask for the whole lot. She had a particularly pretty American Girl Barbie, which she was going to sell if she could get $300. She finally let it go for $250. She asked her 'source' what to ask for the Skipper stuff again, and asked $100 for the case full. I discussed it with her husband while she was running around trying to sell her American Girl. When she came back I offered her $60. Her husband said he was going to tell her to take $70, so we split the difference and she took $65. I was very guilty, since I had barely made that much in sales, but also very thrilled, because the Skippers were gorgeous! I figured I could sell the clothes that were repeats in my collection,use some of the others to upgrade my collection,and hopefully come out even at least.

As you can see, I got a few Barbie items too, and a cool raincoat. It's probably generic, but if anybody recognizes it I'd love to hear from you. The white and pink flats are Hong Kong, not Japan.

  When I got them home I was a bit disappointed. The beautiful colouring on the dolls faces was not what it seemed. The lip paint was removable with a little water and some rubbing.(The eyebrows might be fake too.)
I did the test carefully, because even if it isn't original, the dolls were still beautiful, and since I was going to keep them,it doesn't matter so much. I like them the way they are.I didn't want to remove enough of the paint to ruin their appearances. And I'm not NEARLY as disappointed as the buyer of the American Girl will be when she finds out, because  I suspect her lovely face can be attributed to the same thing. At least I didn't pay $250.I don't know if this was something the lady or her sister did as kids, but it doesn't look like kid's work. Ok. In that case,was she trying to cheat us?She seemed genuine."Buyer beware".

"Does she,or doesn't she...?", as the old commercial went. In this case, "...have fake lips?"

  The case is in pretty good shape. The blonde Skipper belonged to Karen, the lady who sold her to me.

  The other Skipper has magnificent two tone dark auburn hair.

To remove the rest of the lips or not. That is the question.

  She belonged to Karen's sister Linda, who has passed away.How can I possibly separate these sisters? I'll keep them as a family. It's nice knowing who they belonged to.
  There was one positive thing about the fake lip paint. What looked at first like Skooter had lost her lip paint was in fact, what was left of the fake lip paint on top of Skooter's own light pink lips. She's not bad now that I have removed the leftover extra paint.

  The Tutti had some of the paint on her face and arm. She actually cleaned up well.  She doesn't have all her bends, but she's presentable.For some reason I didn't grab her sun suit amongst the Barbie stuff, or the Skates to Skipper's Skating Fun. I know I saw them. I think I hadn't yet seen the Tutti and didn't think I'd bother with the sun suit.
  I also got this Skooter from one of the dealers.

  She was only $6, probably because her toes curl up a little. She must have been kissing somebody.

  Wednesday night Emma and I went to a concert, and guess where we had to go? CINCINNATI!! That made three times (Well, two and a half.) in 5 days.The show was very good though. We went to see Glenn Tilbrook, who was and is in Squeeze, one of my favourite bands. Squeeze were never huge stars in America, in spite of great songs and songwriting that was constantly compared to Lennon and McCartney. Most people who remember them will remember them from their songs Hourglass (Great video to that one too.), and Tempted, which was used in Burger King Commercials. Ironically Tempted, probably their most well known song, was sung primarily by Paul Carrack who was then holding the place of 'revolving keyboardist', instead of Glenn, who did most of the singing, or Chris Difford,who wrote the lyrics and only occasionally sang lead.

Thanks to Emma for the picture.

  Fortunately, although Glenn is a little grayer, and a little...larger than he used to be (and who isn't? I know I am. Larger anyway. Still keeping the gray away so far.) he can still hit those high notes and has an overall very strong voice. I was pleased he did my favourite Squeeze song,Up the Junction,(Something like the British equivalent of 'up the creek'.), a whole sad story arc in a pop song.
  After the show he obligingly signed autographs and I got my favourite Squeeze album, (which is also one of my all time favourite albums in general) signed, along with a CD by Glenn's other band, The Fluffers.

Drummer Simon Hanson, who played that night and is in the Fluffers also signed it.

  He still has several tour dates left in the U.S. and then moves on to England. I highly recommend seeing him if you get the chance. 

Auction Fever (Well, auction nausea anyway.)

  I wrote this last night, but then was too tired to take the pictures, so it's outdated by a day.
  Well, here I am again at the end of another auction day. I'm absolutely exhausted from watching other people win stuff. Ok, I did win a few things, which is the reason for my other malady: auction blahs. When I spend money I get nauseated! I am going to have to move some of this stuff to justify going, or else I'll just have to crawl into a hole and die.(Which is entirely out of the question.)
  There were some beautiful Stacey dolls today, none of which I won. There was a really nice Todd with blushy cheeks, which I also did not win. None of the Skippers absolutely bowled me over, but there was a very pretty brunette Skooter: which also did not come home with me. Ditto the Father of the Bride Elizabeth Taylor. (Crossed fingers on my absentee bid for Elizabeth as Cleopatra tomorrow.) I almost did better at Goodwill on the way home from visiting my Dad last night.

  I swear this isn't my fault. The computer's acting weird. Not even my computer illiteracy is to blame for this one.

 I got this bunch of dolls, including a vintage Allan,with shoes,this Tangled doll in all her original stuff, Maxie,and these other more boring ladies, all for $3!

  Today I did score a Gene I've been wanting though!Creme De Cassis is mine at last.

   Thanks Ken for the early anniversary present!
   I also got a great Skipper/Barbie case.

  I have been needing some more cases to keep my stuff in. Missed out on the Ken and Midge cases though.
  Nice graphics on this Barbie and Skipper electric drawing set.

  I love dolls of real people that really look like them. Even people I don't especially like. (That's why I have two different Frank Sinatra dolls and a Clark Gable.)

I loved all the little guitars on the other Elvis'...Elvis's....Elvi...but this was the only one I could afford.

  Now here's my question. If Barbie loves Frankie AND Elvis, when is she going to love The Beatles?! Now that one I would buy new! (Well, probably not, because it would be 5 dolls and cost a fortune. But I would stalk it until it became affordable.) If they could make a set of Beatles dolls with head sculpts as good as the Frank Sinatra and Elvis dolls they've done that would be amazing! And they have to be next. (And where does it stop? I don't see anybody else that is on a popularity par with those guys.For the 70's, Barbie loves...? Kiss? The Bay City Rollers? The Bee Gees? See, it just doesn't work. For one thing, I don't think Mattel would let her love Kiss.
  Ken (Husband, not the doll.)loves Coca Cola stuff. He never buys himself anything though. It took me saying that I really like this Coke Barbie for him to make a winning bid.

We had already lost out on a whole box full of Coke Barbies, the Coca Cola soda fountain, (So Cool!!),and Coca Cola Ken. (I said, of all things, we should have a Coca Cola Ken. Other than Ken that is. Actually, Ken can't be Coca Cola Ken anymore, because he drank SOOO much pop that he now has mild diabetes. He used to drink almost nothing but pop, and he's a thirsty guy, so that was A LOT of pop. The guy could drink a whole 2 litre bottle in seconds, and frequently did. Drinking a highly caffinated beverage probably added to his thirst, which made him drink more pop, which made him thirstier...well, you get the idea. These days he is a good boy, (well, a better boy.) who drinks mostly water.
  I got a few stray pieces of vintage stuff, including the rare Sears exclusive Red Fantastic, which is actually not red.

  After finding the Tammy house, last weekend---remember I said I'd never seen it in person? Well, there it was in tomorrow's auction stuff. And better than mine. It had stuff inside and parts of it looked like they'd never been put together. Oh well. Mine was only $5....
  And because the auctioneer was begging me to take it I bought a Barbie Dreamhouse. Unfortunately not the second one. We had that one as kids and I'd love to have that one. Anybody want a Dreamhouse? 

Summer Reading Assisgnment #3: Sea View Secret by Elizabeth Kinsey

  I hope everyone is having a chance to get some reading in this summer. We haven't had much of a chance ourselves, but that doesn't mean we can't push others to do so! "Do as I say, not as I do!" My latest 'summer reading with your kids' suggestion happens to be one of Ivy's favourites, Sea View Secret' by Elizabeth Kinsey. Ivy has insisted that we read it every summer for the last few years. This year, even though she's 13 now, she still wants me to read it to her. I am glad to do so, because I know that these days are soon coming to a close.
  "Sea View Secret" was originally published in 1964.

 I'm sure it's out of print. I spent years trying to find a copy. This one is much harder to find than the other two books I have talked about so far. It was always one of my favourite books though, and has turned out to be one of Ivy's too. The story is set one sweltering hot summer, when two kids around 10 years old move to the suburbs with their parents and toddler twin siblings. They befriend the family in the only old house left in the neighborhood and discover a mystery surrounding some valuable rings that have been missing for decades. The rings, it turns out, could be just what's needed to save the old house from destruction by a greedy land developer, so of course they have to find them. My kids have pointed out that alot of my favourite books have to do in some way with saving someone's house. Hmm... I wonder what that means?
  The book is full of mystery, nothing scary though, some humour,and a warm story about friendship and family love. It's a nice old fashioned book, but I think kids will still enjoy it. The kids in the story all have respect for adults and take responsibility for doing chores and helping out, so maybe something like this is just what kids these days need to read! There's nothing inappropriate, and the search for the mysterious missing rings is something I think kids can really get caught up in.
  The only copies of this book I have ever seen are Scholastic paperbacks, but I'm sure it was printed in hardback at some point. As with the other books, the age recommendation depends on your child's attention span and interests. I would say you could possibly read it to them from age 6 to 10. As I said, Ivy still likes to have it read to her, but then, it's one of her special books, and this will probably be her last summer to have me read it to her.
  On another subject, the cake topper in my Beatles post was described as being made by Gay-Gem. While Gay-Gem did indeed make the exact same cake top figures, and the ones I found in my research were mostly by them, mine does in fact say Wilton on it. Just saying.