Tea with the Beatles

I once blogged about brown and white stripey mugs and a milk jug we once had, which also appeared in the Hammer horror Quatermass and the Pit.

https://share.google/BYJk5v3rdM60h6alW

Turns out that the mug from the same set as the jug, maybe even the jug too, have a much more famous product placement.

They were used for tea breaks by the Beatles in the late 1960s at their Get Back recording sessions.

Their sessions and the mugs too have been included in Guillerme Del Toro's Get Back documentary. 

https://youtu.be/Auta2lagtw4?si=r-4TQYe6RNyvze-Z 

The web is full of copies! They'll make great stocking fillers! 

Have you any of them readers, copy or original? 

WINGS OVER MOONBASE

 Awaiting for Evri to arrive and collect my daughter's Sindy sales, I'm currently listening to an old fave LP, Band on the Run, by Wings.

I always found Wings pleasantly melodic and wistful. Paul and Linda McCartney, young husband and wife, playing together in the band really counted. You could feel the warmth.

I guess I'm nostalgic about them, reminding me of the Missus and I as was in the Seventies, a shaggy loved-up couple, although we've been apart much more. Paul and Linda were apart for a single night before she sadly passed away I've read.

Anyway, enough soppy stuff. Band on the Run is one of many fine Wings albums. Wildlife and RAM are two more I really enjoyed as a teenager in the Seventies and still do.

They released loads of singles too: Jet, Juniors Farm, The Frog Chorus, Live and Let Die to name a few.

Do you like Wings?

Not everyone's cup of tea I know, can you name the people on the cover of Band on the Run?

WE ALL LIVE IN A ....

Not sure if this is bigger but I liked this plastic Yellow Submarine I saw on auction, so I saved the pic.

Not the same as the die-cast we loved as kids, it still has that Fab Four pulling power.

The logo of the seal and umbrella looks familiar, yes, its Tai Hing Chun.

Waiting for Gobot

 My beloved Wednesday off garnered a few nice morsels at the local boot sale today:

Some 90's action figures, Arnie Terminator 2, Barry Windham and Nasty Boy Knobbs. They're stood on an old tape reel including SNAFU, CAN and the Beatles.

A lovely trio of metal, a 1983 Gobot, a Matchbox Camper 1979 and a Hot Wheels American Van Lines 1973  - partly painted white! 

What dya reckon?

HERE'S TO LIVERPOOL AND KYEV'S EUROVISION! HOT WHEEL'S YELLOW SUBMARINE

After a very quiet spell for new Hot Wheels models, my latest hunting expedition proved successful, and I was able to pick up several new models.

One of these is another version of The Beatles Yellow Submarine. The colour scheme is the same as before. It seems the only possible variation with this model is the colour of the portholes.

On this 2023 version from the HW Screen Time sub-series, the rear portholes are grey with red outlines, but the forward portholes are rather different. Look closely, and you can just see tiny (and I do mean tiny) portraits of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, in red and white.

This is also shown on the backing card. I do not think any previous versions of this model have included portraits of the Beatles.

What do you think? Have you a yellow submarine?

Paul Adams

New Zealand

LEWIS'S HOT WHEELS: STAR WARS AND THE BEATLES

Hi Woodsie,

I have some pics for your ongoing Hot Wheels thread. 

I'm intrigued how the marketers at Mattel have managed to keep the line "relevant" for 50 years now. 

One assumed it's was all about kiddies getting toys to roll down tracks, but I'm surprised how they've been keeping a nostalgia thread for the kids who grew up with the brand too.

Marvel Comics, Star Trek (the original series) and obviously Star Wars get a look in, but who would have thought of a "Grateful Dead" line of toys?

I've collected a few of these sets and put them in custom designed display units which take full advantage of the appealing packaging.

This is my "Yellow Submarine" set from 2016.

But there's also a Beatles ALBUMS series from 2016. Here's that set, in their display case under construction...

The choice of vehicles as "canvases" for the art is often fairly random, but as George Harrison actually had a mini (as featured in the Yellow Submarine series) it's nice to see a mini van for Sgt Pepper. (although John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls Royce has yet to be featured!)

The White Album truck with white rubber tyres is amusing too!

I've since discovered there is a 2019 Beatles ALBUMS series as well, although the "Yellow Submarine Album" is the only one I really fancy.

There is also a "University of Whales" version of the Submarine - which is pretty esoteric!

There are TOO MANY Star Wars Hot Wheels to even discuss, but I was impressed when they decided to release a 2018 series based on Ralph McQuarrie's concept art! 

I had to make a custom frame for that one! It features a laser etched portrait of the artist on a metallic copper disc, but it looked a little flat, so I covered it with a custom moulded bubble -EVERYTHING looks more spacey inside a bubble!

Anyway, time to do something useful with my life!

Best wishes and stay safe,

Lewis 

Oz

A New Sub Standard........

Hi Woodsie, 

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things... well, not really..." 

One of the odd things about being a cashed up (relatively speaking) retiree, is I can now sometimes have those things that were denied to me as a kid. I remember standing in Boots Chemists looking at a Corgi Yellow Submarine toy. There was no way I could afford it, so I ended up making my own -out of balsawood!

The real thing eluded me however. It is far too expensive to buy on eBay or from antique shops, but Corgi has reissued a 50th Anniversary Edition and at around AU$ 52 it's sort of affordable, so I got one.

As a toy, it's very nice compared to previous versions, it has both hatches in their correct colours, and the red pinstriping that has been absent from past issues.

However, there are a couple of details that really annoy me. One is the Smarties like portholes and the other is the fact that it only has one propellor!

I've decided that as it's a brand new model, I'm not ruining some antique by "improving" on these shortcomings.

Here is the actual toy...

and here is my version which required a bit of metal grinding, repainting and propellor moulding!

The decals for the portholes featuring the Fab 4 are a little small, but what the hell! I was going to make them as waterslide decals but ended up just printing them on glossy paper so they look like factory applied stickers! 

The base references the original vacuum formed plastic seascape, but is actually just paperclay on a wooden plinth.

The Corgi banner is based on the original box art (I have a DVD of die-cast toy boxes which is wonderful, although the image quality is generally poor) My Corgi font is not 100% but it's close enough! 

So what's next? Well the other Corgi set I never had as a kid, but I would love would be The Avengers!

These are of course prohibitively expensive, so I'll make my own (I'm actually already in the process!) however, I thought if I'm going to all that trouble, why not do something a little different, so my set will feature Steed's Rolls Royce and Tara King's Europa!

Stay tuned...... Cheers, Lewis

imagine: john lennon letter hidden in a record!

I was amazed last week to hear on the news and in the papers that someone had found a letter by John Lennon in a Beatles LP he bought - at a car bool sale I think!

The letter was a signed draft of the one he sent to the Queen giving back his MBE! Talk about memorabilia!

The chances of finding anything interesting inside an album sleeve except the record and maybe a lyrics sheet or poster are so small its untrue. I know from my own experience. I have stacks of LP's and all is as it should be inside them.

It can happen though. I remember a workmate telling me his brother had found a letter inside a book on Everest. The letter was by Scott of the Antarctic no less! 

So when I myself found this old book on Everest with some papers inside last year in a charity shop in Llanfairfechan my heart did begin to pound! Alas, no letters from Scott this time but several excuse notes forged by a schoolboy in the Fifties so he could bunk off PE! Just my luck but I do like them all the same. Social history!

Have you found anything interesting hidden inside something else readers?

THE EASTER BEATS

Whilst moseying around Yorkshire over the Easter weekend I saw a die-cast car completely new to me. It was in a cabinet at Crimple Hall Antiques near Harrogate.

[planet die-cast]

Having done a bit of homework it turns out to be an old Corgi die-cast called either the Morris Bullnose Kinky Gear or Kinky Beats.

Looking like a trio from the Evil Dead, the three pop stars are apparently supposed to represent the popular beat bands of swinging Sixties.

With an obvious nod towards the Fab Four this toy would look great next to the die-cast Yellow Submarine or even those other pop cars, the toy Monkeemobile and the Hardy Boys Silver Ghost.

Can anyone oblige us with a picture of them together?