Maybe someone with neon skills could bend them for me?
I think that would not be possible with hot cathode lamps. It is, because the emmission mix require an activation after the tube is sealed and the oxygen pumped away. And after the activation the surface is destroyed when exposed to oxygen.
To prevent the glass from collapsing, there shoud be positive pressure during the bending, but at the same time there should be no oxygen allowed to enter the tube (to avoid cathode damage). Well, I could not imagine any technology to fulfill both requirements.
So the only way to get a lamp of the original spec I could imagine is to use new cathodes - but I don't know, if Neon tubing shops have access to the hot cathode technology.
Maybe converting the tube to cold cathodes (available technology for Neon tube shops) could lead to somehow glowing tube, but then the resulting lamp would not work on the original ballast anymore (and would have way lower operating current and the light output)