Tastee Freez figure question
 

Anyone out there collect the Tastee Freez (and Big League Stars) statues from 1955? I have always picked these up over the years and have enjoyed collecting them.

Anyone know if they were originally distributed attached to the plastic ice cream cup? I have seen similar figures issues by TF that were attached to the bowl

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1956-Tastee-...item484238f3bc

I have never seen a baseball figure attached - just wondered if anyone has. The baseball ad doesn't show it clearly either way -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TASTEE-FREEZ...item1e6da890c1

Thanks for any info!

I don't know much about these either. Was Tastee Freez somehow connected to Dairy Queen? The Baseball Figure in the ad looks just like a Dairy Queen Figure. Hope someone here knows more about these...

Perhaps Lou from ITPC can provide some expertise, and chime in. This topic should be right in his "wheelhouse".

These are often called Dairy Queen statues, but I am not sure if Dairy Queen also distributed them. All of the ads I have ever seen have only been from Tastee-Freez.

The player selection was interesting. It seems that the players in this set were exclusive, causing the Robert Gould set from the same year to use all different players (and a weaker roster!). One would have thought that players like Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Whitey Ford, Nellie Fox, and Warren Spahn would have been included in one of the two sets, but maybe contract issues prevented it. Or maybe just looking back it's easier for us to pick out all-stars that became hall of famers.

Heres the way I remember it.
We had a local hamburger stand in our neighborhood.
Don't really remember the Name of it, I think it changed names a few times over the years.
I just recall getting these figures from the lady at the window.
Probally had to order something to get them but I remember her distincly just handing me them threw the window.
I was only 7 yrs old in 1955, so memory is foggy but I do remember being excited about getting a Berra (catching Pose) as I was a Pee Wee Little League Catcher at the time.
Wow am I old

Thanks, Jerry! Just the type of info I was hoping for. The figures don't look to have a standard base width that would allow them to slide into a common slot on a bowl, like some of the other figures I have seen.

And the Yogi catching pose still looks cool!

Thanks for sharing the info Jerry!!

My pleasure,
Childhood memories are some of the best memories.

Tastee Freeze immortalized forever.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feeHTm-dYGg


Anyone growing up in the mid west and over 40 probably remembers the summer only walk up DQ and/or Tastee Freeze.

They used to give out sundaes in mini baseball helmets where I grew up in Peoria, Illinois in the 70's. I think each week or so they had different teams. We all wanted Cardinal or Cub hats, but for some reason I remember getting a lot of Padre/Giant/A''s hats, so maybe they had a distribution issue.

Those 70's hats were used for a long time and from different ice cream places. I was really into them at one time, up to about 1986 or so. They had painted on logos, or stickers and even followed the addition of teams and logo changes. There's a 26 team display to put them in too.

I only have a couple of the older figures, both pretty beat. I haven't seen any attached to the cup, but finding one like that would be interesting.

Steve B

I'm afraid my memories of DQ are much more innocent than Jack and Diane's - I should probably be sad about that!

I remember the NFL helmets at DQ, and the baseball helmets being sold with slush puppies at different stores, as I recall. Always thought it was strange to go get a hot fudge sundae in the middle of football season - something about cold and snow just don't lead to a craving for a frozen treat.

Come to think of it, a majority of my childhood consumer decisions were shaped by my collecting bug - Slurpees, DQ, Slush Puppies, more Hostess and Kelloggs cereal than I care to admit to, Pop-Tarts, Gatorade, Chiquita Bananas, Slim Jims, Wonder Bread, Sugar Daddies, Burger King, McDonalds... Not great nutrition, but great memories for sure!

I built this box several years ago, and finally got around to rounding up my statues and filling it up (just in time for their 60th birthday!). In reading my ad in the middle (and back to my initial question), it states "ALL STAR SUNDAES...with your favorite fruit toppings or flavors, in colorful plastic all-purpose dishes - mounted with lifelike statuettes of big league baseball stars."

I am including a picture of the bowls with (non baseball) statuettes attached, since the original links are long gone. The baseball statues in the ad sure seem to have those guys uncomfortably close to the sundae cups, if they are not attached!

Great display, Marty - nice work!

Very cool display Marty. I like how you have the dark figures silhouette the white figures - adds a nice depth and dimension to the display.

Great display! Very well done sir.

Never been to a Tastee Freez, not sure if they have them in the Pacific Northwest. I remember Frisko Freeze in Tacoma, and a poorly thought out combination teriyaki and ice cream parlor named Dairy Freeze in Sumner. They both had baseball promotions such as the helmets, but never something as nice as these figurines. My apologies for the tangent, but thanks for bringing back some great memories....

Display
 

Very Nice Display Marty! I like it a lot! Thanks for showing it! Marc

Marty that display is fantastic, great job!

Great display
 

Great display Marty!

Enjoyed reading the promo ad where they mention prizes could be one for painting the figures!

Patrick

Marty- That display is really nice! Please forgive my ignorance but how were the painted statues issued?

Thanks for all of the kind words! I was always pretty good at math, but wood shop, not so much! I was a little surprised that this turned out as nice as it did - 2 pieces of wood and a miter saw. Been doing my own matting for many years so that's pretty easy.

When I first found the original ad, I was surprised that they sponsored a painting contest using these as well. I have enjoyed these and the Robert Gould figures for many years, and occasionally would find them painted, although most of the painted ones I have or have had were, to be kind, never in contention for winning any prizes! The painted figures in my display I have picked up from the 'Bay in the past several years - there is a seller who sells a small handful every once in a blue moon. I am guessing they have some type of airbrush or are extremely talented, as they look really nice and are very detailed. Lately when they come up, they have been going for much more than I think they are worth, so I am stalled at 11 or 12 of the painted ones, but I have patience. In fact, I'm not sure as a pure collectible if the painted figures really have much value - I think the value is aesthetic as opposed to collectible, kind of like a very nicely custom painted Hartland statue.

Mystery solved? This auction just finished, and I am thinking this might be how they were intended to be distributed. The bowl looks very similar to the others I have a picture of, but the tab seems to be more able to hold the various shapes of the bases in place.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-Marx-Ta...-/381536903002

And here is the picture, in case it disappears off of eBay...

Hi Marty:

COOL STUFF!! Did you win the auction?

Fred

Hi Fred!

Had thoughts about going after it, but the Mick was pretty discolored, and there were a number of spirited bidders, so I would have been paying at least a couple hundred for the bowl, basically. Since the bowls are sturdy plastic, they will probably last a millennium or two, so the trick now is just tracking some of them down! I'm a patient man! :)

Marty

In regards to the "discolored" Mantle, is it discolored or did some come in a cream color. The reason I ask is that I picked up two Mantles (shown on the left in the attached picture). I had the white one on the right previously. The one on the left is the Big League version. I assume the one on the right is the Dairy Queen version. But what about the one in the middle? The colorization is too consistent to be a discolored Dairy Queen version. It had to have been produced that way. Anybody else have any cream colored statues that were identified as Dairy Queen/Tastee Freeze?

Love the bowl and ad! I also have a cream colored one. I was never sure if it was issued that way or just lived in a smoker's house. At first glance it looks completely uniform, but on close inspection there are a couple white spots in the creases.

http://www.collectingbrooklyn.com/net54/statues1.jpg

I also have a metal Campanella (center). It might have been cast after the fact because the face detail is off, but maybe it's a proto-type. I talked to a dealer at the national last year that said he had seen others (used to own a Mantle), but he wasn't sure where they were from either. Does anyone know anything about these?

http://www.collectingbrooklyn.com/net54/statues2.jpg

Nice Mantles and Brooklyn figures, guys! I have found that when I pick these up, sometimes they will be a bit yellower than some of the others. I too have generally chalked it up to either sunlight or a past life in the house of a smoker. Assuming they were standing up, I would guess that the bottom of the base would be a little whiter, but looking at a few of the off-white ones I have around, they are still a little yellow on the bottom as well. Could be a different mix of the plastic that yellows a bit as they age. Fred is the man when it comes to Hartlands, and I know they seem to follow a similar pattern, and have heard that attributed to sunlight/ambient light, smoke, or the plastic used, but maybe Fred can shed some light (no pun intended) on the subject.

That being said, the off-white Mantle looks pretty nice, and the facial features seem to stand out a bit better in that shade.

As Marty says, Hartlands do yellow over time. Mostly due to sunshine and smoke.

Supposedly, at times they used a reground plastic that yellowed faster.

There have been some "dealers" who have tried to sell some VERY BADLY YELLOWED Hartlands as an early test "GOLD" set. Only thing is Hartlands are hollow. If you take a cap off and look inside the plastic is white!

I don't collect these Tastee Freeze figures but I think I recall they are a solid plastic? If so the only way to be sure is to have a badly damaged statue or a dupe of some kind and cut into one of the cream ones to see what it looks like inside.

Fred

Thanks for the input! I looked at my Hartland and the yellowing is consistent throughout (except the sanitary hose which seem to still be fairly white). So the Dairy Queen/Tastee Freeze yellowing could be from environmental/production factors. It would be interesting to get a discolored DQ/TF and cut it in half to see the insides. In regards to the Hartland being hollow inside, you mean like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTL...cAAOSwX~dWsQXq

I'd never seen one without the hat before, very interesting.