“It’s all in the mind.”
The ubiquity of the Beatles can be a bit overwhelming at times. It seems as if there’s nowhere those four lads from Liverpool haven’t made their mark. With twenty-seven #1 singles to their credit (and another twenty as solo artists) the Beatles remain the best-selling musical group of all time. They have eight Grammys, an Academy award, plus group and individual inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their faces have appeared on everything from postage stamps to toilet paper. There have been Beatle films, Beatle books and Beatle bed sheets. Of course, sooner or later, there would have to be toys.
40 years after the landmark animated feature’s release, McFarlane Toys produced its The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine line of action figures. The line consisted of the four Beatles, each packed with a smaller secondary character. John came with Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D, Paul with Dreadful Flying Glove, George the Yellow Submarine and Ringo with the Chief Blue Meanie. Later assortments switched the Dreadful Flying Glove out for the Yellow Submarine’s captain, the ever-reliable Old Fred. The four Beatles and the Yellow Submarine were also released as a Musicland exclusive box set. It was an amazing time to be alive. All you needed was love — and $50 plus tax.
So why Yellow Submarine? Thanks to a contract signed by their late manager Brian Epstein, the Beatles were obligated to star in three films for United Artists. While their first two efforts (A Hard Day’s Night and HELP!) were hugely successful, the band had grown resentful at having to make another film. By 1967 they had stopped touring, released the landmark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and produced their own hour-long special for the television. The fact that the film (Magical Mystery Tour) took a critical drubbing probably didn’t encourage them, so the group set about to find a way to meet their obligation without having to actually do much.
A story was written based on the fan-favorite Revolver track “Yellow Submarine” and the film was rushed into production. It was helmed by noted animation director George Dunning, who had experience with the Fabricated Four thanks to his involvement in the popular Saturday morning Beatles cartoon. Originally the Beatles were meant to provide their own voices, but ultimately they only appeared in a brief live-action segment tacked onto the end of the film. Amusingly enough, by that time the audience had long forgotten them, having been mesmerized by the unique visuals and characters.
On a budget of less than a million dollars, the film’s animators labored for two years, using techniques such as collage and rotoscoping to give the film its wholly-unique look. The film went on to be another notch on the band’s belt and is considered a classic today. But enough backstory — let’s get to the toys!
Based on the looks they sported in the film, each Beatle is attired in the colorful fashions of the time. John is wearing purple trousers and a flowered shirt, while Paul sports pants with different hued legs and a poly-chromatic tie. George is wearing bell-bottom trousers and a collarless Nehru jacket and Ringo… well, Ringo is colorful. He’s rocking a red-and-blue striped blazer, a purple and orange tie and grey trousers with yellow and red piping. I guess he put on whatever fell to the bottom of the closet, as he’s noticeably shorter than his band-mates.
Sculpting a three-dimensional representation of a two-dimensional object is a daunting task, but McFarlane Toys did a decent job capturing the film’s aesthetic. One might argue that these look “off” but the fact is, the animation in Yellow Submarine was kind of all over the place. No two drawings of the characters ever look exactly alike, so there’s a bit of wiggle room here. That said, no short cuts were taken. Areas that might have simply been rendered with paint (the stripes on Ringo’s jacket, the piping on John’s trousers) are actually sculpted, giving the animation-based designs some depth.
The paint here is all very nice. The lines are straight and clean and there is almost no slop to speak of. Little details like Ringo’s rings really stand out — sure, they’re just little dots of paint on a raised bump, but the suggestion is more effective than trying to cram in detail that wasn’t present in the original design. While some might argue that facially these figures don’t look like the Beatles, one can’t honestly deny that they look like cartoon representations of them. if you want more realistic Beatles you’re going to have to make them yourself.
Obviously the articulation is minimal. There are swivels at the neck, shoulder, wrist, waist and ankles. Anything more would have affected the streamlined look of the figures. The articulation that’s present basically allows you to tweak the statue-like poses — no one is going to be running or high-kicking anytime soon, but they can certainly stand together in a group and look as if they’re interacting. The McFarlane website claims the figures are 6″ scale, but these actually measure in at 7 1/2′. Odd — you think you’d want to get that sort of thing right.
The pack-in figures mirror the Beatles in aesthetic and design. They look dynamite and seem slightly closer to their animated counterparts than the lads are. Jeremy Boob moves at the neck and shoulders, the Blue Meanie at the neck, hands and boot-tops, while Glove is stuck with a single ball-joint. The real winner is the Yellow Submarine itself. Each of its four periscopes move and, if you choose, you can wind it up and watch it race across the floor. obviously its not big enough for anyone to ride in, but its nifty nonetheless.
The success of the first series of figures led to a second, featuring the Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band guises. And while fans of the Fab Four gobbled the figures up like jelly babies, the general public was cool on the idea. and the figures sold poorly. Series One was later re-issued in 20004, driving the price back down. They can all be found for reasonable prices on amazon.com. In the end, these are fun and colorful additions to either your toy or Beatles display. Personally I keep mine close at hand — you never know when those Blue Meanies will strike next!
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