5/23/11

Empire Strikes Back Lobby Card (1980)

The Sphinx re-opens once again, this time I have an oddball entry for you. This is a lobby card for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and it's a really cool semi-off-screen shot of the Rebel base hangar on Hoth. I love this picture--there are lots of neat details to see. It almost quallifies as a behind-the-scenes shot: is the person tending to the astromech droid, or setting up a prop for filming? There's a Treadwell droid and lots of other cool details to see as well. Also, there's an interesting bit in the fine print that says something along the lines of "This lobby card must be destroyed"! Indeed!

5/5/11

Godzilla Lobby Cards (part one)

And now we come to the Lobby Card area of the Collectibles Storage-Unit that I call a house. On this part of our tour, we will look at a few vintage Godzilla lobby cards. All of these are framed, which explains the matte around them. This first one is from my favorite film, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. It's a non-movie paste-up that Toho was good at doing, and they got seven monsters AND a UFO in one scene!



Here's a Mexican lobby card for GHIDRA THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER. Mexican lobby cards are prized for their unique artwork and vibrant colors, as well as being primers in Spanish for the uninitiated. You can keep your Mona Lisas and your one-eared Van Goghs...this is one of the most beautiful works of art I've ever seen.


You may know it as MONSTER ZERO, but it's INVASION OF THE ASTRO MONSTER in some parts of the world. This Mexican lobby card is not only gorgeous, and not only includes the scene of kaiju being transported in UFO bubbles, but it contains the word "vomitando" which, in my childishness, cracks me up endlessly.