Thursday, May 12, 2011

173. Hey, hey it's: THE MONKEEMOBILE

"Hey, hey we're the Monkees!"
In 1967, the American-assembled boy band, THE MONKEES, was launched on TV and took the teen world by storm. Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, Mark Nesmith and the diminutive Davy Jones became instant bubblegum celebrities and their songs and music became known worldwide--from "Last Train to Clarksville", "Daydream Believer" and "I Wanna Be Free" (which we used to sing to death in our high school songfest).

Aside from their hit records, there were Monkees lunchboxes, Monkees puppets, Monkees books, Monkees Viewmaster---and Monkeemobiles-- toy replicas of their funky tour car. The more common ones were the small diecast Corgi toys made in 1966, but rarer still is this 1968
tin batter- operated and friction 1968 Pontiac GTO Monkeemobile car made by ASC of Japan.
Unfortunately, this Monkeemobile--found in a Cubao junk shop, has lots of missing parts. Of the band members, only the vinyl body of the driver remains. The car used to have a plastic windshield and comes with soft rubber tires with chrome hubcaps. There also used to be a battery operated sound box, which when switched, plays the TV show theme song. One example of this rare Monkeembolie in pristine condition and with box intact sold for a whopping $1, 191.78 in an auction! Why, I can buy a real, driveable car with stereo for that amount!

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