Seize the Day

The incomparable African-American artist Thomas Blackshear is about to do it again. He is about to offer a Michelle Obama figurine to complement his previous Barack Obama statuette.

When I first saw mention of this product, I said to myself, “Self, what a novel concept! A companion piece for a presidential collectible.” Much like the typical Commander-in-Chief himself had during his stint in the White House. After all, as far as collectibles are concerned, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Behind every great man is a great woman. No man is an island. He who findeth a wife, findeth a good thing.

(Must…stop…cliches…)

So I started to wonder if there were other sets of President/First-Lady tandem collectibles out there. Well, it turns out that I wasn’t paying attention. There are quite a few of these sets out there, other than that of the Obamas. (And for those of you who’ve known about these others for a while now, act like my Momma and pretend as if I’ve made a profound series of discoveries… )

Before I get started, I’d like to point out that many of these collectibles have been discontinued in stores and/or are no longer for sale at online e-tailers. To get these products, you will have to pick them up from private sellers at your favorite auction site. For any item that is available to the general public, I will point you to it, via link or otherwise.

As Good as Gold

The United States Mint has started a First Spouse Program that features every one of the presidential mates on her very own $10 pure gold coin. As you can see, the issue year of each first lady’s coin coincides with the respective release of her husband’s $1 coin. You can read the rest of the details of this program at the usmint.gov page.

I mentioned before how a lot of presidential collectibles use the presidents’ portraits as starting points. Well the same truth holds for the men’s wives: check out the following gallery and see if you don’t notice a strong correlation between the official portraits of the First Ladies and their minted coin depictions.

In my opinion this gold set is, in a word, “sublime.” From the sublime, let’s now move on…

Billary

…to the ridiculous.

In the not-so-flattering-but-funny-as-heck department, we have the Hillary Clinton nutcracker and the Bill Clinton corkscrew. Apparently, they’ve both been around for a minute. How I missed them all these months/years, I will never know.

The former plastic device is related to (I can’t think of better words; “in honor of” is just so wrong.) the former first lady, former senator, and current Secretary of State. You can obviously see what it does. I guess the item is a bit of a ball-busting reference (I’m very naive).

The latter item, in homage (that doesn’t sound quite right either) to the 42nd chief executive of the United States, is also a plastic contraption. As you can imagine, it can be used for uncorking wine bottles. I believe that you have noticed by now where the metal screw originates, so I will now pause a moment and allow you to insert your own joke(s) here.

…

You can find both of these irreverent items at the place where a mighty South American river flows in the rainforest. (*hint*)

The Adams Family

If you go back to the US Mint website, you will notice from the presidential spouses product description that the mint will also be issuing bronze (non-legal tender) medals for each first lady’s coin. You will also see that Abigail Adams, the wife of the 2nd president John Adams, was honored with her coin and bronze medal in 2007. What you might not know is that several of her struck medals erroneously pictured Louisa Adams, and not Abigail, on their reverse sides. And in case you didn’t follow Louisa Adams link, she was Abigail’s daughter-in-law; and married to the future president, Abigail’s son, John Quincy Adams.

As you can imagine, these “mules”, which are basically rare mistakes in minting, of the Abigail Adams’ coin are worth a lot of money each. (I heard that one sold for nearly $1000 at auction. That’s a lot for a collectible barely three years-old.) And needless to say, they are very hard to find.

You might have better luck finding a John Adams Bicentennial Silver Medal. Why not? It only debuted about 36 years ago and has not been minted for most of that time.

Guy and Dolls

That Jackie O was an absolute doll when she was alive…

Actually, she still is today. The Jacqueline Kennedy Porcelain Heirloom Bride comes dressed as the First Lady of Camelot was on her wedding day.

Apparently, at one time, Franklin Mint also sold a John F Kennedy doll or two including a Heirloom Groom to go with the Jackie Bride. The groom figure, also made of porcelain, wore…well, exactly what Jack wore when he got married.

But, alas, Franklin Mint stocks JFK dolls no more. (I searched the site. And besides, you’d think his dolls would be listed under the “You May Also Like” section if they were available.) I did find one of his dolls on craigslist. If you search, you might find one also, depending on where you live. (Unfortunately, transactions at that site go rather quickly so it would be pointless to link to any particular listing; it would probably have expired by the time you got there, anyway…)

Oh look, a Marilyn Monroe Doll is also available.

She’s not going to wear that, is she?

If you take a look at the product description for Michelle Obama’s figurine, you will see that her dress is yet to be declared. But, in case you didn’t know, Mr Obama’s figurine is wearing the ensemble he wore on election night of November 4, 2008 (you can tell by his tie and his flag pin). So I wouldn’t mind seeing Michelle’s figure dressed in what she wore that night. Or what she wore during her husband’s inauguration ceremony the following January.

As a matter of fact, I, personally, have only one request wardrobe-wise: please put her in anything but the gown she wore to the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball (left).

Michelle Obama is a dignified, smart, and stately woman; a first lady befitting any President. So with all that said, what was the thought process involved in designing something for her big night? “Let’s take one of the (soon-to-be) most admired women in America and put her in a gown. But not just any gown. The top half of the dress, with one thick strap and an overall fuzzy appearance, should like a caveman outfit. And the skirt of the dress should look like curtains you hang in your home’s guest bedroom…”

And I know I’m probably in the minority as far as opinions about that dress are concerned. Many people actually liked it.

No R-E-S-P-E-C-T

However Blackshear decides to dress Mrs. Obama (and by the time you read this post, you the reader might have the advantage of knowing what I don’t already know), this porcelain commemoration is well-deserved. As a matter of fact, it’s nice to see the first ladies, in general, finally get their just dues. For a while there it was starting to look as if these women were the Rodney Dangerfields of American history.

Somewhere, Aretha Franklin, in her inaugural hat with the big-ass bow, is smiling…