The Things I See (continued)

Happy New Year! It's been a very long time since we've done one of these, and this is a good way to clean up a lot of loose ends that don't need their own posts.  So, let's empty out my folder, and see what we can get into (in no particular order):

Here is a cool inner sleeve from a 1950's RCA Victor record, explaining stereo to the masses.  There are some excellent graphics as well:

Stereo is easy:  The purple slingshot shoots a giant pill into a fan, and then a truck tire goes through your speaker, which makes you one of those bi-racial aliens from the original Star Trek.

I like how they have to explain to people that you have two ears, so therefore you should like stereo.

Do you ever dig through bins of records? Sometimes you find some strange things!

Somebody's not a fan, I take it.

Think about this: what's the last thing you expect to find at a thrift store?

What's funny about this is, this is the very tape that, years ago in the VHS trading days, was often the source for what went around (there was a Japanese laserdisc as well, so if your copy had Japanese subtitles, then you know where it came from).  Scans of this artwork were often passed around too, but this is the real deal, double-sided, holographic sticker and everything.

Weirder still, there was a plain tape inside, but as it turns out, somebody just made a NTSC copy of their PAL original, and kept the case.  But...why get rid of it, though? Hopefully they made themselves a digital copy first, because that's the only chance they are ever going to get.  Sad, really. 

By the way, here are some scans of the insert, just in case it helps anyone:

Moving on, here is a full-page, congratulatory ad for 60 Years of Toho films, showing Godzilla riding on top of a jumbo jet.  Because, why not?

EDIT:  See August Ragone's comment below, where he points out this is NOT a jumbo jet in the ad at all, but of all things, Thunderbird 2! Wow!

Thank goodness for thrift stores.  If I hadn't found this book, I wouldn't have been able to read the other books I bought:

Does anybody remember 2-XL, Mego's amazing robot you could play games with, who ran on 8-track tapes? I re-acquired a lovely, boxed model that I planned to do a full post on, and it came with this cool paperwork that I'd never seen before:

By the way, there's a much cheaper way to relive your 2-XL fun:  it's all been archived for you with an emulator.  Somebody's a genius.

I purchased an LP entitled "The Singing Swinging Banjo," from 1959.  Why did I do this? Because it came with an IBM punch-card attached to the back, that's why!

How cool is this? I was going to do a detailed post about the history of punch cards, but let's face it, it's never gonna happen. Besides, you can learn it all right here at this website.  It's really fascinating.  There was a time when many stores used these for inventory and price, and they were everywhere...and then suddenly, gone.  IBM had so many leftover that they were used for scratch paper for years!

You'd think I'd do a whole post about this, but I own a piece of a real Godzilla suit.  As you can see, they were made into (completely impractical and useless) keychains! Also, there is no date anywhere, but from my research, this was done after GODZILLA vs. SPACEGODZILLA.  These are super rare and never seem to come up on Ebay, but when they do, they always go crazy high.  I took mine out of this dumb rubbery (acidic) holder thing, and put it in an acrylic display box.  Here is the back:

Please see the Comments, where a kind soul has given us the translation of this text, confirming the SPACEGODZILLA timeline!

Lastly, here is real paperwork from a real doctor's office that I found myself in last year.  Note the "Race" section:

I mean, really.  How does this even happen?