They Still Aren't Dolls...

Last month, I featured some pictures of baseball players who were found in the toy aisle as plastic figures in 1969 and '70. While they predated the Starting Lineup figures, they weren't the first plastic statues of players. These came out between 1958 and 1962:

 This is Nellie Fox, and he was one of the 18 baseball players who were made into plastic keepsakes that we now call Hartland Statues.

Hartland Plastics was a company based in the Midwest that made bottles to hold perfume. During the holiday season, they offered these treasures (evidently during the Holiday season) to fans. There are collectors who assign values to the statues based on the presence of the original box, the tag that originally came with the figure, and accessories such as the bat that came with many players.

The Hartland name has been resurrected a few times over the years. A 25th anniversary line appeared in 1987 and look a lot like the originals. Dealers who offer the statues will be able to identify the originals from the newer models. A "new" series of the statues appeared in the 1990s featured more realistic-looking players, but as with most "manufactured" pieces of memorabilia, their value is nowhere near the originals.