A quick box-ticking exercise this one; That too-famous (in my opinion) bunch of mop-topped beat musicians John, George, Ringo and the money-grabbing one were immortalised in plastic several times, both in Hong Kong and the UK, but also in Spain.
Whence this set issued-forth, it was apparently a mail away premium offered by a Spanish Comic which I'm assuming was called Emirober? But it may have been several comics and such-like in different European countries? The figures were probably made by someone else...Jecsan maybe? The comic obviously thought they would sell like hot cakes as they ordered what seems to have been hundreds of thousands of sets, with the result that a quick Google will reveal them to be as common as anything, with whole stock boxes regularly going through auction houses, while FeeBay and it's contemporaries always have a few sets kicking around.
The trouble being that despite it's availability, dealers seem to think that all things 'Beatle' must carry a premium, and tend to price it to reflect that. Fortunately there was an ethical dealer at the recent Birmingham Toy Soldier Show, who had a bunch at a couple of quid each ($3/4 or Euros), so I picked one up to 'tick the box' here.
Each card is different, having identical sides, which differ from the other three to be sought if you are that level of completest, The cards each having a different Liverpudlian balladeer as the central theme. I went with the one I think is meant to be John Lennon. Figures also come in orange, sky-blue and dark green plastic, giving the same completest 28 figures to find!
Cool figures! I knew them from ebay and todocoleccion, although I have never heard of Emirober before. According to "soldados de plástico" Emirober is not a magazine or a comic but a small toy company producing cheap kiosk toys. http://soldadosdeplastico.blogspot.co.at/2011/10/varios-emirober.html
ReplyDeleteYou're right that the prices are incredibly high, but yes, they're the beatles, there are many crazy collectors out there to rip off, I guess. There are, by the way, some colour variations, and one painted version...
Cheers to you Gog...I thought you might drop in with a clue or two!!
ReplyDeleteHugh
PS - I do have both the Subbuteo set and the red-plastic Hong Kong ones, but they are all in storage, so they'll be another day!