Destroy All Monsters Ad Slick (1969)

Another great collecting find came in today's mail. A while back, I posted some ad slicks from the 1970's from a series of summer matinees, among them my all-time favorite film, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. I was lucky enough to score an original ad slick for the film's 1969 U.S. release, scanned below for your enjoyment. My two favorite parts are the top left ad's tagline of a nonsensical 'The MONSTERS are in REVOLT DESTRUCTION!" (whatever that is supposed to mean), and the bottom right, where poor Gorosaurus is identified as "Godzilla" for those not in the know. Oh well, since Godzilla's art for the film's U.S. poster bears little resemblance to his actual features, I guess I should just let it go. Kind of reminds me of a Mexican lobby card I had once (see below), where Godzilla's image was borrowed from a Gamera lobby card, with plates added on his back!

Hilarious Hyundai Warning Label

Well, here's the short version. My buddy has a hatchback-type Hyundai with no backseat to speak of. Herve Villachez couldn't fit in there. Anyway, there's a small label behind the driver's seat reminding you that if you are tall enough to see the driver's headrest, you will be instantly decapitated should the raised trunk be, well, closed...on your head. Oh, and don't let your Spanish-speaking friends crawl back there, either, because unlike everything else in this country, Spanish is notoriously absent. But then again, I suppose it's not a problem in Korea. Or French, for that matter. Or Russian. Or German. Or..............?

Jackie Gleason Meets Salvador Dali (1953)

Well, I knew about Dali's team-up with Alfred Hitchcock, and I even was lucky enough to see his aborted (and recently finished) collaboration with Disney, but I had no idea about this one. File under "Recent Thrift Store Finds," I recognized the trademark Dali artistry right away. In 1953, Dali painted the cover for Jackie Gleason's "Lonesome Echo" album. He even bothered to explain his concept on the back of the jacket, comments which are pretty interesting at that. Give it a clicky to read them for yourself.

Batman Squirt Gun (1970's)

A recent additions to my personal archives: a Batman watergun. You gotta love an oversized Adam West head shooting water from his mouth like a schoolkid!

Rare Godzilla Vs. Megalon Comic Scans! (Cinema Shares, 1976)

Another cool item I recently acquired is perhaps the rarest of all American Godzilla comics. This was a theater give-away in 1976 when Godzilla vs. Megalon was released in the U.S. It is newsprint, and magazine-sized. I got an incredibly crisp, dead-mint copy, and I have scanned it here for anyone that's interested, as I've never seen scans of it anywhere on the Internets. A couple of weird points about it...the artwork is a bit schitzophrenic, it goes from really good (page 2's Megalon, for example) to really cheap. The other thing is, a couple of the names are really off. Jet Jaguar is referred to as "Robotman," which I can understand might have been a "placeholder" until they got it confirmed what the character's name was, but Gigan is strangely called BORODAN. I mean, BORODAN? That just makes no sense. Anyway, enjoy! 

Space Needle: Seattle, WA

Got to go up in the Space Needle on a visit to Seattle a couple of weeks ago. Very cool, and very nice view of Seattle from 520 feet.

Amazing Spider-Man Puzzle (Whitman, 1980)

A nifty Spider-Man puzzle from 1980 I found at a thrift shop...amazingly complete! Lastly, an original lobby card from Star Wars that I WISH I had won. I do have an Empire one, though.

Lego Star Wars Tantive IV Diorama (2009 & 2014)

Here is my latest Lego P.O.W. (piece of work). I watched the cut scenes to the Lego Star Wars game, as well as the opening scenes of the film, and did my best to recreate it in Lego form, something I've been wanting to do since they made the army-builder set of Rebel Troopers. Anyway, I wanted to add an extra something to it, and I was contemplating buying several red lightsaber blades to use as lasers, when lo and behold, I found something that worked out even better. You know those toys that hold hundreds of plastic nails, allowing kids to make a print of their hand or face? I was in my local Wal-Mart, when my eyes landed on one of those, complete with a couple of hundred tiny reddish-pink translucent cylindrical pieces! Problem solved. And I think the Stormtrooper getting shot makes the diorama. Also, I always like to add an extra something when viewed from the other side, so I figured (pun intended), what better scene than Vader choking Captain Antilles? Anyway, here it is...

2014 UPDATE: I was to the point where I either destroyed this piece, or fixed it, so I chose the latter.  Besides fixing some little things that were bugging me, I ordered tiles for the floor (I was a beginner when I made this, and I didn't realize that painting Lego was not allowed, but I sure do now). A learning experience.

Boomerang Promotional Disc (Kaleidoscope, 2000)

Here's a neat little item I haven't seen anywhere else. In 2000, when Cartoon Network launched Boomerang, I stumbled upon an offer for a free CD on their website, and received one in the mail. It contains 19 tracks of original Hanna-Barbera themes and "sub-themes," and the CD was also enhanced with Web Toons, Icons, and a few games.

10-20-23 UPDATE:

NOW BACK, AFTER LO, THESE MANY YEARS!

LINK:  Boomerang Promotional Disc

Lego Episode 1 Diorama (2003)

Here's the very first Lego diorama I ever made. I made this for Uncle Jeff as a present in late 2003, and I even put it in a fancy display case. He was kind enough to bring it over the other night, as I neglected to ever get any decent, finished photos of the thing! I like to do two-sided dioramas, in this case a "before and after" using the same door. I also was happy with the lightsaber digging into the door, and the flourescent orange paint. It's funny how Lego sets that are common-as-cornflakes at the time you make a diorama can end up years later being quite expensive...it's also funny how I have made most of my dioramas so far from my least favorite Star Wars film...

HEY, MR. MARIO, MAN! (Leaping Fox)

Well, I really didn't think there would be a HEY, MR. SPACEMAN volume 9, but this was too good a compilation to leave uncompiled. Not only is this an early history of everyone's favorite iconic plumber, but also a collection of fascinating versions of arguably the most famous theme music in video game history. Over several years, I have searched far and wide for unique interpretations in a variety of styles and feels, and if you look at this idea as listening to the same song dozens of times, you are missing the boat. I was amazed to see how many ways the Super Mario Bros. theme could be interpreted (and interpolated), and I hope you'll agree it's a very entertaining disc. As a bonus, I also made a medley of various YouTube performances of the song on unusual instruments, including a steel drum band, a theremin, an ocarina, a beat-boxing flute, a marimba, a giant set of sparking electric Tesla coils, a manualist (look it up), a remote-control car striking hundreds of glass bottles, and, believe it or not, a laser cutting machine! Oh, and there's a second disc this time, the soundtrack to the classic game, including a sound-effects section.

Original Godzilla Ad Slicks (1976)

Here's a cool item I recently bought from a nice Ebay seller. These are ad slicks, which are/were glossy pages used to reproduce art for newspaper ads, and in some places are still used today. All of these are dated 1976, and are for a children's matinee series from American International Pictures, who was squeezing every penny they could from the films they still held rights to! The sheets are 11 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches, and have four ads to a page. They were a bit tricky to scan, but I got the job done. The films I bought ad slicks for are GODZILLA VS. THE THING, GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER, YOG: MONSTER FROM SPACE (not Godzilla, but another Toho classic), and my personal favorite film of all time, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. I think it's interesting how they changed the art around for the different sizes, and even changed the text to keep it interesting. These are definitely unique ads, and not what you usually see for these films.  If you want to download full-size scans of all 16 ads, a link is provided below! [Link is updated!]

LINK: 1976 Ad Slicks