FAMOUS TV & FILM FACES
Remembering collectables that found fame through the silver screen.
So we sailed on to the sun, ‘Til we found a sea of green, And we lived beneath the waves, In our yellow submarine... Possibly one of the most famous opening lines of any song, sung by one of the most famous groups in the world, the words conjure up a picture of four animated musicians and their magical adventures in the land beneath the seas, in their Yellow Submarine.
Yellow Submarine was a hit film in 1968, as well as being the Beatles’ 10th successful album and a number one single in the charts. It tells the story of Old Fred who enlists the help of Ringo and his friends to join him in a trip in his yellow submarine. They sail away to Pepperland to defeat the Blue Meanies (a name now applied to traffic wardens up and down the country). They go to the rescue of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, whose song begins with the words: ‘It was 20 years ago today…’ It’s scary to think that it was actually over 50 years ago now.
The Beatles themselves were not enthusiastic about participating in a motion picture at the time. They had a contract with United Artists for three films, and following the disastrous Magical Mystery Tour, they viewed the animated film as a way of fulfilling their contract without actually having to be filmed. Indeed, even the Yellow Submarine song was nothing new as it had already appeared on an earlier album in 1966. Voice actors were hired to imitate the Fab Four’s voices in the film; Geoffrey Hughes voiced Paul McCartney, John Clive voiced John Lennon, Peter Batten voiced George Harrison and Paul Angelis voiced Ringo Starr. The film also included Dick Emery and Lance Percival.
However, The Beatles were impressed after seeing a rough cut of the film, and agreed to make a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene. The cameo was originally intended to feature a post-production psychedelic background, but due to time and budget constraints a blank, black background remained in the final film. But the film was a success and the imagery of the
Yellow Submarine has become synonymous with Liverpool.
Corgi released an excellent model of the Yellow Submarine in 1969. It was one of these rare examples when the model is specially tooled as a one-off release, and not issued in any other format. However, there is a rare variation. The first batch released had white and yellow hatches, that neatly blended in with the paintwork of the submarine. However, there were production problems at Corgi, and all the yellow submarines made after that first batch had red hatches. The rarer submarines are about 50 times harder to find than the more normal red hatched ones, making them much more expensive in value.
The original model has a number of weak points in its construction, so always check the condition of the periscope, propeller blades and tyres as all of these areas are prone to faults. The figures of the Beatles, two in front and two at the back, are easily replaced if they become loose or lost.
The Yellow Submarine was the only Beatles-related model released by Corgi until 1997, when Corgi released a nice set of Beatles’ models to coincide with the resurge of interest caused by the release of the Beatles’ Anthology works. The set consisted of six models, neatly packaged in Beatles boxes with Corgi certificates. The models were the Beatles’ newspaper Taxi (with lovely Rita, the meter maid); Magical Mystery Tour coach; Routemaster double-decker bus; Bedford roadies van (with female groupie figures); AEC Billboard lorry and, of course, the Yellow Submarine.
Since then, Corgi has released several other versions of Beatles‘ models; the hardest one to find being George Harrison’s psychedelic Mini. Also rereleased are a model of the Yellow Submarine, along with a model of the Magical Mystery Tour bus, a range of Beatles’ taxis and a range of Beatles’ Routemaster buses; all in different album cover-related designs.
There were lots of other Yellow Submarine collectables which came out at the time of the film. Highly collectable is the tinplate lunchbox and thermos flask by Aladdin, which will set you back around £400 for you to carry your sandwiches in style. Possibly one of the rarest Yellow Submarine items to try and track down is a set of Goebel ceramic figures of the individual Beatles in costume. A full set sold for in the region of £1000 at auction.
Most memorabilia relating to the Yellow Submarine is quite pricey because it wasn’t made in huge quantities. Jigsaws by Jaymar can cost around £80 each, and even the Gold Key comic, with its pull-out poster, could set you back £75. Anglo produced a set of 66 trading cards which generally sell for about £10 each, while Primrose produced a set of sweet cigarette cards (50) which will cost around £150 for the set, if you can find them.