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Founded in 1941, Hartland Plastics
produced the 18 classic statues of star
Major League baseball players from 1959
to 1963 when it was then purchased by
the Revlon Cosmetics Company. Revlon
decided to stop the production of the
sports figures to solely concentrate on
cosmetic perfume cases and containers.
In 1987, Dallas attorney William Alley
secured the rights to produce a
commemorative set of the original 18
players. In 1988 celebrating the 25th
Anniversary of the original release,
the full series
In 1990 Hartland created six new statues; Roberto Clemente, Lou Gehrig,
Dizzy Dean, Whitey Ford, Bob Feller and
Ty Cobb. They were scaled perfectly to
display with the original Hartland
Plastic baseball player statues. The new line of figures were
authorized for a production run of
10,000 for each player, but only two of
the figures ever reached that mark:
Whitey Ford and Roberto Clemente. Lou
Gehrig and Dizzy Dean each reached a
production of approximately 600.
Ty Cobb had a finished run of only 45,
leaving Bob Feller, with 25 units
produced, as the scarcest of the modern
Hartlands. The main reason for the
limited production of the new Hartland
statues
was the mysterious (and still unsolved)
disappearance of company owner William
Alley while on a business trip to New
York. The two piece figure that depicts
Ty Cobb sliding into a base, came in a
thick stock green cardboard box, and
included a watercolor mural of Ty Cobb
"The Georgia Peach" on the front panel.
In August of 1991 Bill Dunlop purchased the Hartland name, and had
announced he would try and make good on
all the orders that Alley hadn't
filled. Dunlop formed U.S.A. Hartland
incorporated and accepts advanced
orders for Nolan Ryan, Cy Young and
Honus Wagner statues. USA Hartland was
then purchased by Steven Manufacturing
and moved the to Hermann, Missouri.
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