THE LEGEND

          Not too long ago in a land beyond the blue sky and a green sea dwelt the people of Pepperland.  The people of Pepperland lived under the domination of another more sinister people, the Blue Meanies.  These meanies controlled all manner of expression and ruled Pepperland without any regard for color or music. One day in the lives of the Pepperlanders, a vessel arrived from out of the sun.  This was no ordinary vessel such as a plane or ship, but a submarine.  And this was no ordinary submarine, dark gray and black with torpedoes and nuclear missiles but a Yellow Submarine.  After the Yellow Submarine landed in Pepperland, four heroes emerged.  These heroes were not military men dressed in uniforms for battle but resembled a marching band dressed in uniforms the color of a rainbow.  Nor were these heroes wielding weapons of mass destruction but musical instruments!  The heroes began to play these instruments and almost spontaneously, color returned to Pepperland.  As the heroes continued to play, the Blue Meanies, unable to cope with the return of color to Pepperland, feared for their unhappiness and left Pepperland for good. 

     THE REAL STORY

          By the summer of 1966, The Beatles became dissatisfied with the demands of world touring and retreated to the recording studio to concentrate on the quality of their music.  They were under contract to provide two more movies but by 1967 the strains of popularity began to crack the foundation of their success.  Unable to agree on any format for another movie, The Beatles left the job to NEMS.  NEMS contracted an outside firm that chose to do an animated film based upon Beatle’s music.  One of The Beatles releases was a fantasy based upon a pharmaceutical product popular at this time.  The street name for the product was “Yellow Submarine”. It took the imagination of John Lennon and Paul McCartney along with the studio effects of George Harrison and the vocals of Ringo Starr to produce a whimsical tune about the Yellow Submarine as fantasyland vessel.  The production satisfied a contractual obligation of The Beatles and provided the world with a treasure of music.

 The model of the Yellow Submarine is molded in gray plastic.  The hull is in two parts and there is a sprue of additional parts comprising periscopes, screw, motor assembly and wheels.  The kit also contains a rubber band powered motor launching the model in a pool or bathtub. The decals are of the various windows and rainbow logo.  There are two etchings of characters from the movie that can be views through a porthole when installed.  While the model does require paint, the colorful finish would best be achieved with an airbrush.  There are no facsimiles of The Beatles in the kit even though they are portrayed on the box top. 

      If I recall correctly, there were model kits of The Beatles available when they became popular in the U.S. (There are kits of the Fab Four available from Polar Lights, Ed)  This model of the Yellow Submarine is the most recent effort to recapture that popularity in plastic.  The Yellow Submarine is a limited run kit that corresponded with the re-release of the video/movie and CD a couple of years ago. While designed primarily for the collector, it is a nice tribute to The Beatles

     YELLOW SUBMARINE, UNITED ARTISTS. 1968

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