And Then There Were 38...I mean 39...I mean...

 

If the photo above looks like junk that you might walk right by at a flea market or thrift store...well, you aren't wrong.  However, it simultaneously happens to be priceless at the same time...at least to me, and for our purposes around here that is!

You probably know that one of the things we keep track of around here is the impressive amount of Godzilla (and other Toho) VHS releases that were put out during the reign of the format, which ended around 2002.  If you are so inclined, you can see all of these at our page: Godzilla - American Home Video Releases.

When it comes to GODZILLA vs. MEGALON, there was a famous, well, let's call it a misunderstanding, where copyright information was left off of the title card of the American version, allowing many, many folks to assume the film was in the public domain (Toho only rectified this issue in recent years).  We aren't going to get into any legal quagmires here, but suffice it to say, lots of fly-by-night, public domain-issuing videotape producers added it to their output:

Did I say lots?

If you are keeping score at home, that made 37 different ones...until now, that is!

This new discovery is a "double-feature" (which is simply cramming two films onto one tape that is usually already compromised in quality to begin with) of the perennial British classic, GORGO, with GODZILLA vs. MEGALON, by a company calling itself Matinee Theater, out of New York.  The tape and box are undated, but we do have one clue to its age:  what VHS collectors call a "big box" package, which is exactly what it sounds like (in fact, there is already one in the MEGALON family; at the end of the first row in the first photo).  Pretty much a product of the very early 1980's, these aren't clamshell cases, but simply oversized cardboard boxes with an area for the tape...or, in the case of this particular example, a channel for it to rattle around in.

"Hey, this isn't the tape we are talking about!" You are right,
sharp-eyed readers, this is a different Matinee Theater release,
which we will get to in a minute.

I've always wondered if the "big box" was an attempt at theft reduction, much like compact discs coming in "long boxes" for years. At any rate, because of this design, the cheaper ones are prone to getting crushed, which is what happened to this example.  This was made worse by the fact that this particular "big box" is even a little bigger than the standard ones.

With a little careful work (a trick I learned from a board game guru is how to use a clothes iron on cardboard!), I was able to restore it to a flatter condition, use acid free tissue paper to help it fill the useless empty spaces to better hold its shape, and get a decent scan of the front and back:

And...we now have 38 VHS editions of MEGALON.  

In the realm of Godzilla VHS, there is rare, mega-rare, and simply unheard of, and I'm afraid this tape falls into that last category.  I've never seen, heard, or even heard rumor of it existing.  In fact, I'm having a hard time even finding anything out about Matinee Theater, save this one other example from an auction:

This release doesn't even have an item number (the MEGALON tape is TMT20014...their 14th release?). It's of course possible that Matinee releases were localized to their region of the country, and maybe produced in low numbers.  It's also possible that they were in business a week and a half and then disappeared.  If I've learned anything, it's that, in the land of public domain VHS, anything is possible.  Anything. 

New discoveries have slowed waaaay down over the years, but the question to end this post on would be: are there more rare American VHS editions of MEGALON out there to be found? I want to say no, and scream it from the rooftops, believe me...but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if another such unknown release was out there somewhere, waiting to bubble to the top after decades of obscurity.  Which, I predict, will somehow end up expensive for me! Stay tuned!

ADDENDUM:  The sad thing is, because of a discrepancy that I finally untangled with another release, we are actually at 39 unique releases of MEGALON, and the VHS page has been updated!

3 Favorite Cartoon Classics (Unicon Communications, 1989)

 

What? Why are we talking about ancient public domain cartoon VHS tapes? He's finally lost it, hasn't he?

No, friends, at least not yet, anyhow.  That's indeed what we are talking about, and from the long-ago year of 1989.  This is the part where I say that I miss these sorts of things existing.  I miss the Wild West atmosphere that VHS tapes existed in.  Godzilla movie collecting even got me to miss VHS in general, and I often have to fight my hoarding impulses when I go to Goodwill...BUT, sometimes they win out, as in the case of this strange tape.

There's nothing earth-shattering on it; two Warner Bros. cartoons (both directed by Bob Clampett), and one Fleischer color Popeye two-reeler.  As classic animation goes, they are all great, and all share another thing in common: they were widely bootlegged for years, along with many other cartoons.  So what's the big deal?

I will admit, I owned endless dozens of these types of tapes back in the day, and when I pull one from the shelf while shopping, it's usually to see if I can find one of those hilarious front covers with delightfully off-model artwork of Bugs Bunny or Superman, and share it here.  

Like these sorts of monstrosities...

On this particular day, the tape slid out, and lo and behold, something I've never exactly seen before.

We are all familiar with tapes that have colored shells (DESTROY ALL MONSTERS comes in both white and black, for example), but I've never, in the many thousands of tapes that have passed through my hands over the last decades, seen a tape like this.  A green translucent shell, yellow guard panel door, blue lenses...

But it doesn't end there.  The sprocketed "reel hubs" are pink and red, respectively! I have to tell you, I'm still kind of amazed at this tape.  It couldn't have been cheap to do, especially back then.  I have searched for examples of other titles in the line*, and they are all plain-jane, black videotapes like you'd expect.  Even other copies of this same title are normal.  Here are just a couple of the many that I saw:

There was one, however, with blacked-out windows (the mafia edition?)

None of the other titles in the line (and there were LOTS) seemed to come in crazy colors, either.  Was the manufacturer (which is a kind word for some of these companies) just getting rid of parts? Was it a one-off? Did I find the Golden Ticket of public domain VHS cartoons? Either way, I wanted to do a post on it here, to see if anyone could add anything to this bizarre discovery.  I'd be interested to hear what your strangest PD VHS find is, too!

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*Babbling Footnote:  We could talk about this all day, but this particular tape was made by "Unicon Communications." However, you might have noticed the "JFK" on the yellow door part, which isn't the President at all, or the dreary Oliver Stone movie, but "Just For Kids." In looking at other editions of this tape, I noticed that the later ones had were attributed to "Celebrity Home Entertainment," which makes perfect sense, as Celebrity were they purveyors of the "Just For Kids" line, which, if it sounds familiar, issued the Gamera tapes back in the day that mostly involved Sandy Frank versions...you learn quickly that public domain VHS is a rather inbred subject matter.

Godzilla Lite Table Lighter (Beetland/Banning, 1985)

 

Here is one of the more unusual items from the merchandising push around the time of GODZILLA 1985, and one that you couldn't buy in a toy store!

A lighter where the flame comes out of Godzilla's mouth is a no-brainer, and in my opinion, this is the best of the various attempts over the years.  The more common one you will see is actually not as old as the one we are looking at today, and looks like this:

It's usually copper in color, and the eyes light up.  It's cool but unauthorized, and is basically a bootleg item. (We should make a whole page for unauthorized Godzilla items, and it would be pretty sizeable.)  But back to the subject at hand...

This lighter was made by Beetland, who had a large line of Godzilla items in Japan, mostly household and decorative products, and mostly awesome.  It was distributed in America by Banning Enterprises, which may sound familiar to you if you have examined our chronological list of vintage American Godzilla merchandise.  

Banning was apparently tasked with organizing a Godzilla Fan Club in the U.S., and in the past, we have looked at two of the items they produced that turned out to be for this very purpose, the pinback button and the action poster, both of which are described in the paperwork that was included with the lighter:

"The Legend" part of the text above is identical to what is included with the poster.  Speaking of the poster, the entire back of the box is utilized to show its cool artwork:

It's interesting to see (finally) how all of these items are connected together.  I have done a few cursory searches here and there, looking to see if any copies of this GODZILLA GAZETTE exist (or were even made), but haven't turned up anything yet.

The other side of the flyer gives us the instructions for the lighter itself (and you could even return it for repair if needed):

One thing that even I didn't realize was that this lighter came in two variants, black and green! It's as if they began to produce it, and then said "hey, you know, most Americans think that Godzilla is actually green; we should probably do it that way, too." I'd put money on the fact that the green one probably sold better.

Green model

And here is the bottom of the box.  I know they have to tell you not to not to give lighters or butane gas to children, but it's still amusing to read.

The GODZILLA LITE is a unique addition to your collection, but if you run across one, double-check to make sure it's complete, and the little folded flyer is included.  From my experience, they usually aren't!

ADDENDUM: For completeness, here is what Beetland's packaging looked like in Japan (below).

Ultraman Clash & Thrash City (Bandai, 1992)

 

Today we look at a special, dying breed of toy:  the GIANT PLAYSET.  The GP was the staple of many a stellar toy line for decades, but has become so "expensive" to produce that they are nearly extinct, and in some cases these days, laughable and made of cardstock. 

A bit of history first: in 1989, Tsuburaya decided to have another go at an English-language version of Ultraman, and entered into a co-production with a studio in Australia to film one "Down Under" the following year.  It took until 1992 to get the show into the United States via syndication, under the unwieldy title ULTRAMAN TOWARDS THE FUTURE, where its 13 episodes quickly came and went.

Nobody seemed to know what to do with this series (in Japan they simply put it out "straight to video," and moved on to the next thing). America blinked, and missed it.  We could talk about this all day, but just one of the problems with the show was that they kinda sorta pretended it was the original Ultraman (remember, this was also done for the entirety of the third original show too in Japan...after all it was called THE RETURN OF ULTRAMAN...and they didn't name that character "Jack" until much later).  In Japan they gave him his own name of "Ultraman Great" just to keep it all straight.

So anyhow, an interesting thing happened.  Tsuburaya decided on a whole blitz of products.  There would be a comic book, a Super Nintendo title (called simply ULTRAMAN; it unfortunately sucked), and an entire toy line.  There weren't lots of syndicated shows back then getting action figure lines, but this was accomplished by Bandai teaming up with a small manufacturer called Dreamworks.  It didn't exactly make the big splash that anyone was hoping for, either, but it's from this line that we get:  the CLASH & THRASH CITY.

I maintain that CRASH AND TRASH CITY would've been an even more "90's" title, because in the end CLASH & THRASH just doesn't roll off the tongue, and as soon as you say it, you think you've said it wrong.  Anyhow, a giant cityscape playset for kaiju to smash may seem obvious to you and me, but it's actually a rarity in the toy world.  When this particular one came out, it had been 13 years since TRICEPHALON, and the Trendmasters GODZILLA ATTACKS NEW YORK was still a couple of years away...which makes you wonder if this was a particular inspiration! Anyhow, let's jump in, at last:

This is the [sold-separately] Ultraman action figure that the playset is intended for.  (It's kind of shocking they just made one figure of him; if it had been just a few years later, we would've had 25 variants in every color imaginable).  For some reason, Dreamworks produced him in 8-inch scale, which isn't the main problem.  The main problem is that he is poorly articulated, and doesn't stand well at all.  He includes his alter-ego Jack Shindo, who was available in a red-uniformed variant (see, it was just beginning).  If it helps any, the human figures are the size of Kenner M.A.S.K. figures.

A really weird thing about this playset is that it includes three dummy figures of the humans in the line.  They are the same size as Jack Shindo (in fact that IS him, in the middle), but made of olive green plastic and are completely non-articulated.  To my eye, they read as "army men," and if you look at the artwork on the front of the box, they are there, shooting giant discs at kaiju, where they really read as army men.  But they aren't!  To make matters worse, the figure on the left (the female lead) never even got released on her own.  I suppose a kid could use these as pod people versions of the heroes, or say that the bad guys had turned them into statues, maybe...either way it was a strange "board game" kind of a thing to include, and it continues to be baffling.

Speaking of board games, the foundation of the playset is a huge playmat, measuring a whopping 33 by 23 inches in size! It is unfortunately made of a thick cardstock in the posterboard family, and held together on the back with a binding material allowing it to fold.  It would've been much better if this were heavy like most board games, and as such wouldn't hold up to heavy play very well.  It's really one of the areas where Bandai cheaped out. (By the way, Dreamworks' name is nowhere on this playset or packaging.  It appears Bandai took this one over.) The TOXIC AREA takes up more than its share of room...if you think the playset is starting to look like a 1990's day-glo mess of colors, you haven't seen anything yet!

A little Bandai in-joke, there.

Here is the required-by-law shooting feature that all 1990's playsets had.  This disc shooter (the box and instructions refer to it as "Secret Weapon") works very well, but it has nowhere to go on the actual map.  The artwork shows it atop a building, but that is impossible, as you will soon see.  The back of the box shows it off to the side, along with the useless clones and the three sets of power lines (which are cool, but also have no intended location on the board).

The starring features of the city are the three buildings, made of individual pieces that can be smashed (two sit on launchers that help you accomplish this).  They are really puzzles in themselves, and you need to look at the instructions to assemble them correctly the first time (included at the end of this post).  An airport control tower works the same way.  A generous amount of vehicles are included:  a large airplane, a train of four cars, and two trucks! I nearly forgot to mention the 4-piece train bridge that breaks apart.  I have already mentioned the three sets of power lines, which you can connect of course...it's just that when you do, they go off-board.  You definitely get accessories for the money, though.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for.  Let's see this playset in action:

"Good afternoon, this is a KRAP News traffic report.  It's a slow news day in the big city...wait, I'm wrong! Eleking and Metron are attacking the city! How did we not see this?!!"

"Wait! I just noticed that ULTRAMAN has arrived! Surely he will save us!"

"After Eleking threw a truck full of old milk at him, Ultraman punched him right through a freakin' building!!! Victory tastes sweet, my friends, but it sure smells terrible."

"Uh oh! Metron is zeroing in on Uma Thurman's house! Ultraman is running over at top speed!"

"The fighting is fierce, my friends! I'm going to say OH, THE HUMANITY here because I've always wanted to say that on the air...but you should see the fighting!" 

[Wrestling Announcer voice] "He's got Metron on the ropes, but what's this?! Metron's got a plane! He's got a metal plane!!!"

"Whew! Ultraman's thingy was blinking, but he smashed Metron with an electrical tower, and then karate-chopped him! The battle is now over! The city is SAVED!! My nerves could stand no more, friends!"

"And now, Ultraman has flown away, my friends.  I am sitting here surveying what's left of our once-great city, and I just want to say, thank you, Ultraman! Thank you for........totally trashing everything, you big lummox! What are we supposed to do now??!!!!"

The instruction sheet, as promised!

Godzilla Giant Jigsaw Puzzle [Tricepahlon] Artwork Poster (HG Toys, 1978)

 

This fascinating item recently came to the surface, and arrived a couple of days ago!  This piece contains the entire painting for what we should refer to as the "Tricephalon Puzzle" for clarity (even though it's actually called the 100 GIANT PIECE JIGSAW PUZZLE on its own box).  The main part of this artwork was also used for the mighty GODZILLA BATTLES THE TRICEPHALON MONSTER playset the following year.  It is oddly-sized, and measures 37 by 15.5 inches.  It's printed on the same semi-glossy stock that you would expect for vintage posters, and came rolled.

The lower border of the artwork extends a little farther than it does on the completed puzzle, and because of this, an additional number can be seen on the painting.

Since you've already seen the goods at this point, let's examine the possibilities of why this exists! There are a few theories:

1) This is a store display.  This is one of the places my mind always goes to with items of unknown origin, and sellers do that too. (By the way, I did try to ask for further information from the seller, but all I learned was that they were selling the item on consignment for a third party, who obtained it from an estate sale.)  I think we can safely rule "display" out, though, especially because of the lack of any information whatsoever on the actual piece.  Even the jigsaw puzzle itself had a banner across the middle telling you it was a Godzilla product.  I would think if a store display had existed for this (very rare) puzzle, then it would've looked more like the box:

2) This is a retail poster.  There are two ways this could've played out.  First, if it were a poster that was simply sold as a poster, it would've been in dealer catalogs with other HG Toys, and collectors would definitely know of its existence.  The second possibility is a little more remote.  A year after HG produced their smaller Godzilla puzzles, they took their extra stock and offered a complete boxed gift set of all three, which can be seen below:

This gift box included posters of the artwork of all three puzzles, rolled together in a smaller box.  (It's important to point out that these were a more 11 x 14 inches.)  Was it possible that HG sold a "gift set" version of this puzzle as well, that included a poster? If that was the case, then no order forms or documentation has ever surfaced.  Also, the poster we are discussing is a little unwieldy to be used as a guide for working a puzzle.  It's really too big to work very well for that.  Which leads us to:

3) This is production/internal art.  We have eliminated the others, and are left with the theory that makes the most sense.  I don't know if this means anything (and someone with more knowledge of old-school printing may want to add to this point in the comments, of course), but there seem to be more printer's marks and guides on the borders of this, than on your average poster.

Again, it may not be significant, but it seems to indicate "rough draft" to me (if it helps, the small posters in the gift box are trimmed, and borderless).  We do know that HG issued "salesman's samples" to show to potential retail customers (a kind soul shared his prototype of the Tricephalon puzzle with us way back--ten years ago now--which you can see at the post covering that item), and it makes sense that something similar would have been done with this stunning painting to do just that.  Or, at the very least, for interested employees to take home...wouldn't you have done the same thing, in that position? I would've.  All day long.

__________________________

One footnote about this painting.  I think I mentioned this years ago in other posts, but what always strikes me is that it shows two completely separate scenes.  The Tricephalon has three heads (as...the name implies).  Here is the figure itself:

And yet, a fourth head is popping up at the bottom of the image, menacing the crowd. The banner on the box provides a natural split between the two halves of the image, but the first time I ever completed the puzzle, I was quite surprised.  It's the sort of thing you see in vintage comic covers.  Either way, it certainly maximized the space in the artwork, and saves the puzzle-worker from boring crowd and wall scenery!

Announcing the Godzilla Theatrical Promotional Items page!

 

As you know, we keep track of vintage American Godzilla items around here.  We have retail items covered, but the glaring omission to our lists (links are at the left side of this page) are all of the theatrical items that couldn't be bought in stores.  We have featured many of them over the years on this blog, and this new page will show what exists for all of the vintage Godzilla films, going up to GODZILLA 1985.  "Say, was there even a pressbook for THE TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA?" you might ask yourself...well, this new page will tell you. (The answer is "NO.")

There is an entry for each film, listing the following categories of promotional items:  Posters, Lobby Cards, Stills, Pressbooks,  Ad Slicks or Molds, Radio and TV Spots, and a miscellaneous category for some special promotional items that were unique.  Each category will be linked to its coverage on this blog, so you can see our coverage of these items.  

So, check out the Vintage American Godzilla Theatrical Promotional Items (which is a mouthful) page when you can!