Tom Lehrer (1928-2025)

It's with great sadness that I report on the passing of icon (and friend and hero to this blog) Tom Lehrer: comedian, satirist, teacher of math, and quite an excellent piano player.

Several years back, when I made my first attempt at collecting all of the existing non-album tracks in my TOM LEHRER RARITIES series, Mr. Lehrer heard about it and reached out to me.  Not only was he completely supportive and gracious--giving me full permission to host his material on this blog--BUT I even had the privilege of exchanging letters with him a few times...and young me, who grew up with cassettes of Tom Lehrer albums played in the family car (thanks to my father), never would have believed in a million years I would ever have that opportunity.  It was awesome, and I'll always treasure those letters.

That said, a quick search of his name on this blog will show you all of the rarities that you can download, where they have a permanent home. That's how we celebrate Tom Lehrer's legacy around here.  

TOM LEHRER RARITIES (Volumes 1-5)

HEY YOU GUYS! ELECTRIC COMPANY COLLECTION (2 discs)

VOICES OF VISTA #33

TOM LEHRER DISCOVERS AUSTRALIA/SONGS BY TOM LEHRER (remake) 

Unproduced Lindberg RODAN Model Kit From 1995 Discovered!

 

Here is an awesome discovery! This was discovered by The H-Man, friend to The Sphinx and expert on all manner of Godzilla-and-related video releases (check out his channel).  He contact me to say that he had been researching the old Lindberg model kit from 1995...

...and in doing so, uncovered an Ebay listing for a 1995 Lindberg Dealer Catalog...

...which not only showed their cool Godzilla kit, but also one for Rodan! Who knew?

Once he shared this with me, I knew I had to buy the catalog so I could scan it to share here, as well as get this item added to our List of Unproduced Items (and in our Godzilla Guide of Vintage American Items, too).

This lovely-looking kit would've stood 7.5 inches tall, with a wingspan of 9 inches! Elsewhere in the catalog, it even shows a mock-up of store shelves, showing what your Lindberg inventory would look like...and once again, there is the Rodan kit!

It's too bad that this kit never saw the light of day, for whatever reason.  Except for Trendmasters' 1994-96 output, Rodan was certainly getting no love in the U.S. at the time.

I guess a good question would be: what happened to the prototype and/or molds for this kit? Are they in private hands, or were they perhaps destroyed?

The Things I See (continued...even still)

Time again to clean out the old hard drive, and share some of the things that I run across during the year...in no particular order:

This is from the inner sleeve of a random record from the 80's.  Remember when people actually thought this (or more specifically, when record companies actually worried about this)? Now we know that it was never an issue at all; it was streaming that killed music.

Somebody had one job, and failed miserably.

Here is half of a Millennium Falcon from a flea market--where they thought they would get 50 bucks, mind you--with a Hobbit bound to it with plastic and packing tape.  Sigh.

Instead let's look at the comics...oh my, some kid was bored back in the day!

Speaking of comics, here is a random vintage panel that I want a T-shirt of.  I think it was a Charlton comic, and I should have paid better attention.

This probably came from the same comic.  "FUN AT PARTIES...SOLVES RIDDLES...EVEN TELLS FORTUNES." Somehow I think not.  "TRAIN IT TO DO YOUR BIDDING." Just try me.

Ah yes, the "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" era. "WELCOME SPACE BROTHERS"...to our frisbee golf course.

This is one of those covers that you've probably seen somewhere, but I actually found this for a couple of bucks, and it cracks me up.

An ant, and his tiny air hockey table.

Again, somebody had one job.  Just one job...

When you are two years old, and you get called into work, you have to take the Power Wheels...in the rain, even. That, my friends, is dedication!

Okay, we need to talk about this.  This is from some random, generic late 70's magazine trying to cash in on Star Wars mania, and all of the included paintings are direct copies of publicity photos...only, they took the Han Solo in Stormtrooper pose and decided they couldn't get Harrison Ford's likeness right, and, with deadline looming, instead just made it where they BLEW THE STORMTROOPER'S HEAD CLEAN OFF AND MADE IT EXPLODE.  What in the world? Is there a person somewhere right now in therapy because they received this as a child? I am traumatized right now!

Godzilla Appearances In THE ELECTRIC COMPANY MAGAZINE (1976-87)

We have talked about the wonder that was THE ELECTRIC COMPANY around here (a 3-CD audio retrospective is on this blog; first disc can be found here; search for the other two), but there was another entire facet to its awesomeness, and that was THE ELECTRIC COMPANY MAGAZINE.  This publication ran from 1974 to 1988, with a run of 146 issues, and it brought great joy to many a mailbox (this author's included).  Nearly every month of the year it brought games, puzzles, stories, jokes, entertainment articles, and unique Spider-Man comics that can be found nowhere else.  It was a great time to be alive.

Kids' magazines often featured activities, posters, board games, and things to cut out, and as such usually didn't survive, so this can be a tough magazine to go back and find...so far online I have found only one issue that has been completely scanned, but I've bought several lots over the past months, and have noticed our favorite kaiju popping up from time to time.

This list is by no means complete, but there is more than enough here to warrant a look! [By the way, I am sure these issues fall under the "Unauthorized, but who cares" category!]

ISSUE 29 (October 1976)

The yearly Halloween issues were often looked forward to with great anticipation, and this one doesn't disappoint.  In fact, it gives us the most Godzilla content I have seen yet...is it any surprise that GODZILLA vs. MEGALON had been a huge hit that summer?

For starters, the inside cover is a solarized poster of a popular still from KING OF THE MONSTERS! It took all year to find one that still had the cover intact and non-removed...here is the image stitched together:

Elsewhere in the same issue is a feature where you match the monster to what they (probably) looked like as a baby....and in the course of doing so, the magazine accidentally predicted Godzilla's partnership with Dr. Pepper nearly a decade later!!!! Wha?

Next comes a feature story where kids were interviewed about their favorite monsters:

Get your fingers out of your mouth, sweetie...

Finally, a FOURTH Godzilla appearance--which even includes Rodan--yes, kids in the 70's knew who Rodan was.  Why not take a break and do a word search? Also, points for naming all of the films shown!

ISSUE 56 (October 1979)

Another awesome Halloween issue, and we are into the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon timeline. Godzilla was featured in an article called "Welcome To The Haunted High Class of 1979:"

Note the Ebirah claw there!

Also, there is a two-page MONSTER MAP that may be my favorite piece yet.  It's suitable for framing and even includes Mothra and Gorgo, but also REPTILICUS!

I could look at this all day!

ISSUE 69 (October 1980)

I am sensing a pattern here with the Halloween issues.  This issue stresses the difference between real and make-believe monsters:

Interestingly, no Godzilla photos are used this time, only artwork.

ISSUE 135 (June 1987)

This non-Halloween issue, from near the very end of the run, sneaks in an Imperial Godzilla! Well, not really sneaks, they name-check him:

Hey, somebody marked him out at the bottom....that would've been the first thing I circled! Vacation packing: clean underwear, toothbrush, Imperial inflatable Godzilla.

This lot is all that I have run into so far, but you can be sure that any further discoveries will be posted here.

"Magnetic Godzilla Character TV & Cartoon Pals" (Item #2129, manufacturer unknown, 1979)

 

An extremely rare set of Godzilla items today--these 7-inch giant "puffy magnets" were produced to promote the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.  Three different styles were available: two Godzillas and one Godzooky.  These are scarce on their own, loose, but practically unheard of in their original packaging.  The same nameless company also made smaller "puffy magnet keychains" and various sizes of puffy stickers......apparently "puffy" was this company's specialty.

These were drug store and gift shop types of things, and, for the record, the magnets are extremely weak and hardly do anything. They would've been sold on spinner racks which would've been full of the same sorts of products for dozens of other properties.

Packaged, they measure about 11 x 6 inches (roughly, as there was some variation in the way the header cards were stapled).  For completeness, here is what the backs of the magnets look like:

The printing reads "© 1979 Toho Co., Ltd & Benedict Pictures Corporation." 

I have shared this here in past years, but I even own a quarter machine header card from that era that includes one of the Godzooky jumbo puffy magnets:

I can only assume that these were unsold overstock, and that the magnet would've been grotesquely folded beyond recognition to fit into one of those quarter machine capsules...IF it's even true that they were even a possible prize...after all, there were those full-sized digital watches that nobody ever really won, but every kid tried to.

Godzilla / Dr. Pepper AWESOME TASTE Mail-Away T-shirt (1986)

 

Here is the end of a long quest....just ten years ago on this very blog, we looked at this vintage Diet Dr. Pepper can from 1986:

This kicked off a long-standing sidequest, namely, to find this shirt in question.  It, of course, is based on the extremely memorable Godzilla/Dr, Pepper ad campaign:

Amazingly, all you needed to do was to send them $4.95 before December 31, 1986, and you would receive your shirt.  No proofs of purchase, receipts, or anything! You could've literally copied down the address in the grocery store, gone home, and ordered this fantastic shirt!

There simply can't be too many of these shirts out there (honestly, I bet the can is even rarer than the shirt), especially in decent condition. After all, you can't blame anybody for wearing out a shirt like this! I'm glad to finally put this one to bed, and it has now taken its permanent place in a T-shirt frame, on the wall of The Sphinx!

KING KONG vs. GODZILLA Unused Ad Mat #102 (Universal/National Screen Service, 1963)

 

It doesn't look like much, and it's only the size of a trading card, but you are looking at a piece of history. 

Here is a rarity that would confuse most people today.  This is an unused Ad Mat (called Ad Molds in some places) for a smallish newspaper ad for KING KONG vs. GODZILLA.  These were shallow trays made of wood pulp, which were designed to be poured with molten metal (often lead) and attached to a wooden piece, creating a printer's block that could be added to the layout of a newspaper page...which looked like this:

It goes without saying that this process would destroy the Ad Mold, and printer's blocks themselves were rarely saved at all, as the lead would be re-used.

As a result, unused Ad Mats are rare as hen's teeth; Godzilla ones even more so.  

This particular Ad Mat isn't cut from a larger piece, but is exactly as it arrived 62 years ago! Amazing.

(Reverse side)

When a theatre owner received the pressbook for an upcoming film, it would often show all of the different permutations of ads that were available (each with a number), and Ad Mats could then be ordered from the National Screen Service Exchange.

This one is "Ad Mat 102," and since we have the actual pressbook at hand, we can show you exactly what that finished ad looked like in print, and how much space it would take up on the page:

You can see an entire unused Ad Mat with multiple ads--ironically, for the same Godzilla movie--at this post here from a few years ago.  If you like this sort of thing, we have an entire page of Vintage Godzilla American Theatrical Promotional Items that collects everything in one place!

WORLD'S GREATEST MONSTERS RODAN Instruction Manual (Mattel, 1979)

It's easy to refer to the incredible Mattel Rodan as being in the Shogun Warriors line, but it technically wasn't! Instead, Mattel gave it the category of "WORLD'S GREATEST MONSTERS," of which it is the sole member in the line.  Anyhow, he is at the very least an honorary part of Shogun Warriors, because we all know he is meant to be counterpart to their mighty Godzilla toy.

And here is ANOTHER missing rarity that we can now fill in.  The instructions for the Mattel Rodan toy are mega-rare. They came as a small trifold, measuring the unusual dimensions of  5 & 7/8 by 7 & 1/2 inches.  

Even though the folded panels of the pages are the same size, the individual sections of the instructions do not exactly correspond to this, which is why some of these scans are slightly smaller or even larger, as you will see:

(Steps 1-3) You will need lots of #27-sized rubber bands.  For starters, Rodan's claws are rubber-band powered.  This is both a blessing and a curse, because kids never understand that storing a toy with rubber bands leads to dry rot, which ultimate leads to goopy rubber bands bonding to the toy's plastic, and (depending on several factors) causing quite a mess! At least he doesn't have batteries.

(Step 4) How to remove the back plate (carefully, oh so carefully please).  Mattel included holes which gave the owner the ability to swoosh him around, or even hang him from the ceiling!

(Steps 5-8) This page shows you that Rodan's wings are also rubber-band-assisted, and how to hook them up.  It probably goes without saying, but the wings are the most fragile part of this toy, and they are very often found cracked. Entropy is hard on this toy.

(Steps 9-10) More wing assembly! Aren't we done yet?

(Steps 11-12) Replace the back panel, and take to the sky (avoid volcanoes)!  

I'm not sure about the "cry" part; there is sort of a ratchety friction thing that makes a noise when you open and close the mouth, but I wouldn't call it a "cry" exactly...I will have to look at mine again, but I'm sure this feature could wear out over time anyway.  I mean, points for trying, Mattel!

So there you have it--one of the rarest Godzilla-related paperwork items that's out there.  Prepare for these scans to inevitably show up in other places, or even be sold on Ebay as reproductions (not by me though)...I am just trying to make information available that otherwise wouldn't be out there, because that's what we do here! Enjoy!