Television Campaign Book Pages (American-International TV, late 1960's)

These were in a lot of promotional stuff I recently acquired, and were (for some reason) cut from one of AI-TV's many television campaign books, where they hyped their film libraries to local TV stations.  

Here we have a random sampling of films that you probably grew up with, on TV! I definitely remember some of these being on. 

More Vintage Menko Cards (part two)

 

And now, the conclusion of the treasure trove of vintage menko cards that I recently acquired.  This first group has the same manufacturer (and backing style) that our entire last post had, except these cards are super-thick, which you'd expect from menko cards. Right off the bat, we see Gamera, Godzilla, and Gappa...although I have to admit I am stumped on the bird-headed hero in a couple of the cards, and I haven't been able to discern his identity, so please leave a comment and let me know! Oh, don't miss GOLDAR from SPACE GIANTS sneaking into the bottom row! This is an all-star group for sure.

And here are the card backs!

This next group is super cool, beginning with King Ghidorah, and moving on to Bemular and Antlar from the first year of ULTRAMAN, and finally, a very cool Mechagodzilla, who apparently has sunk the Titanic.  The lizard at the end of the top row would make an awesome album cover.

All of these cards are super thick, too, but apparently have different manufacturers.  All menko cards seem to incorporate Rock/Paper/Scissors, but some even feature playing cards on their backs.  The ones at bottom left seem to want you to draw your own artwork in the space provided--which seems like a missed opportunity--while the last group actually features SPECTREMAN of all things!

Lastly, we return to some old friends, and even the "umbrella yokai," which was a surprise.  The "Godzilla vs. UFOs" card is awesome, and the Ghidorah card at bottom left is not a repeat, because this time the art is overprinted with metallic gold ink, which unfortunately doesn't show up in the scan very well.  The back is completely different, too.  I was going to say something about Ultraman fighting Godzilla again, when I finally realized the other monster was Daigoro from DAIGORO vs. GOLIATH! Holy crap! Next we have an awesome, almost tribal Ghidorah image, then a card obviously based on ULTRA Q, and finally, our bird-headed friend again.

Here are the backs, which are much more varied than earlier styles we have seen.  The "TV" ones are pretty funny (note Zorro in the upper-left....Zorro?) Also note the military hardware--early menko cards were heavy on this sort of thing, before tokusatsu and kaiju films gave them a higher calling and true purpose for their artwork.  

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these awesome cards. As you can tell, I love these things.  The kaiju-based ones don't come up very often anymore, so you have to wait for a good deal.  But, they are out there.

The Moons - Gammera (1966) and MORE!

 

This is a celebratory post, because I've recently accomplished one of my own long-time goals that I considered impossible:  I found a picture sleeve for my treasured copy of "Gammera" by The Moons (scanned here in quality)!

If you know the story, when the first Gamera movie was slightly reworked for a release in US theatres, a spacey, surf-rock "theme song" was commissioned.  The film (and song) were released in December 1966, so you will quickly understand why everyone always brings up the Neil Hefti "Batman" theme song when discussing it, as it was everywhere at that time.  In reality, even though the sleeve tells you that The Moons are "...The most Exciting Group Since The Beatles!!" there were no Moons (other than Keith, but he wasn't involved here of course).  In fact, the song was written by Wes Farrell, and brought to life by session musicians (there are a few theories on whether any famous musicians were involved, and I'd think we would know by now if that were the case). The B-side included an "instrumental" version of the song (which, as the only lyrics were "Gammera," wasn't too hard).  No matter what anyone tells you, only promo copies of this single exist, which were sent to radio stations, naturally, to promote the movie.  It's quite rare, especially with the sleeve--lots of promo singles never even bothered to have custom artwork prepared, and this sleeve is basically a mini-pressbook.

You probably know that the production version of a movie or TV song can differ greatly from the released version, which often happens because of variables in mixes or source materials.  I thought it would be fun to take a look at how the song was actually used in the film, and include it in the download below.  The song appears three times:  first, in a brief and sloppy introductory title card (there's a weird jump at this point).  Secondly, at the one-hour mark of the movie, there is a nightclub scene.  In the original Japanese film, it's because the people don't want to stop partying (sort of like what happened later in GODZILLA vs. THE SMOG MONSTER) and are oblivious to their fate.  In the American dub, it takes on an even stranger tone, because the band (and the guests) won't leave because they are repeatedly playing a theme song to the actual monster who is currently destroying their city, in true death-cult fashion.  What makes this even weirder is that there are no singers to supply the "Gammera!" lyrics, which seemingly come out of nowhere quite randomly! Lastly, the song briefly appears again over the ending title card (which says "Sayonara Gammera," believe it or not).

But wait, the history of this theme song doesn't end there.  A couple of years later, someone actually issued a pirate version of the instrumental B-side on a 45 under the title "The Sounds of Lane - Shing-A-Ling at the Go-Go," on the fictitious "Mickey Mouse" label!

A year after that, in 1969, a band from Peru called Los Jaguar's (yes, the name of the band most often includes the apostrophe; perhaps it was an artistic choice) properly covered the B-side, under the cool title "Tormenta en el Mar de la Tranquilidad" (Torment in the Sea of Tranquility) which I suppose alluded to the current moon-landing hysteria, while also giving credit to the original song and its author on the label.  Their version is lots of fun, and is in a lower key and slightly slower, giving the song some much-needed menace.  

Included in the download below are: 1) The original single and B-side, 2) A montage of its uses in the film GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE, and 3) the cool cover by Los Jaguar's, as well as appropriate scans!

The Moons - Gammera (and more)

Lastly, don't miss the super-cool "Gammera" by Hexstatic, from 2010, which uses lots of fun samples from the film and theme song.  There are three different and distinct mixes, and if you click through to YouTube, there is a download link included in the text under this video, which is highly recommended! Enjoy!

Gamera VHS Dealer Flyer with Ads (Celebrity Entertainment, 1987)

"Turtle Power is Coming!"

Let's turn our attention to Gamera for a moment! Here is a really cool 4-page flyer that would have been sent to retailers in 1987.  It was made by Celebrity Entertainment to promote two of their newest Gamera releases, GAMERA vs. GAOS and GAMERA vs. ZIGRA.  I like how the front looks like a boxing promotion, showing rounds "3 and 4" (nevermind that they are out of order, as they never released all 7 vintage Gamera movies anyhow).

"CAN A VAMPIRE SUPERBAT PUT THE BITE ON SUPERTURTLE?" Why are you shouting?

Page 2 is a full-page look at GAOS, with such interesting hyperbolic text as "kamikaze charm" (ouch), "whose laser mouth is bat breath gone high-tech," and "the high-camp terror of GAMERA vs. GAOS." 

The films featured in this flyer would have been the "Sandy Frank" dubs, which collectors like me are used to calling the "Just For Kids" series (also distributed by Celebrity), although that logo appears nowhere in this artwork.  From my Ebay searching and Googling, I can only find GAMERA vs. BARUGON as coming out with both versions of the VHS box:  one that includes the "Just For Kids" logo, and one that does not.  Perhaps by the time GAOS and ZIGRA made it to market, all of Celebrity's Gamera movies were under the "Just For Kids" banner. I will have to keep watch in case any turn up.

Another oddity:  I have in my notes that what we know as the "Sandy Frank" dub of GAOS is, in reality, the 1960's Hong Kong dub.  I'd like to tell you which scholarly book or website gave me that factoid, but I have no citation, unfortunately.

"...from the land of the rising turtle." Say what?

Page 3 spotlights GAMERA vs. ZIGRA, and all I can think about is the small urchin in the film saying "I want a Coke!" It's clear that Celebrity is having fun with Gamera in these ads: "A talking shark from outer space sends Superturtle into orbit."

This would be an actual Sandy Frank dub, and a pretty bad one at that*.  Used in a quite famous MST3K, but then again all 5 of Celebrity's tapes were.

The back page repeats some of the text from the flyer, and gives the dealer a few reproducible ad slicks that they can use in their own ads or catalogs...or newsletters. You remember mail about VHS, don't you?
_______________________________
*I don't care; Sandy Frank brought BATTLE OF THE PLANETS to America, so he's tops in my book.

The Kaiju DVD Shelves at The Sphinx

Recently, I was re-working my DVD shelves, and adding in all of the wonderful reconstructions done by Red Menace (you really should look these up--if you don't like torrents, you can download them hassle-free at archive.org, for instance).  I figured it was a good time to take a few photos.  

It's still a pity that the second season of the Hanna-Barbera GODZILLA never got an official release. That would be a good Blu-Ray reconstruction-style project for somebody.

I just had enough room to squeeze in some American contenders.  Bonus points if you know that UNKNOWN ISLAND is a super-early example of "suitmation!"

Maybe someday I will go back and get whatever DVD's I'm missing (there's a GoodTimes KOTM, for instance), but I'm too consumed with VHS at the moment.  I'm down to the single-digits for Godzilla VHS: only 9 remaining that I know of!

Thrift Store Gamera!!

After (damage corrected in Photoshop)

Here's a little project I finished over the weekend.  I finally found a thrift store painting to work on...except that it wasn't a painting, it was a really old print glued to cardboard, which ended up getting "distressed" from the (removable?) painter's tape I used.  But anyway, it worked too well for what I wanted to do, so I couldn't pass it up. Enjoy.

Before

And then finally on my wall!

GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE still (1966)

Just arrived in the mail....poor Gamera gets no love! This is from the US theatrical dub (and re-cut), which they called GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE, starring an extra "M".  I had a spot left on my wall in "the studio," and I wanted to give it to Gamera!

Gamera '67 (Revoltech)

After enjoying all of the Toho characters that Revoltech has made, and as the fan-focus shifts back over to Bandai again (with their awesome SH Monsterarts series), I didn't want to leave Revoltech behind before I went for their classic Gamera.

"Hiya!"

I have a few various vinyls of Gamera, but nothing as detailed, articulated, and customizable as this.  As expected, Revoltech again knocks it out of the park with this figure.  The detail is amazing, and it looks like the Friend To All Children has walked right out of GAMERA vs. GAOS and onto my shelf.

Detail, detail, detail!

You forget how thin Gamera is...at least I do, in my mind.  The 90's films made him, well, thicker, or bulkier, but it took me a minute to understand how proportionally correct this figure is.  Also, I started to complain about the limited range-of-motion on his arms and legs, until I realized that is ALSO correct to the original suits! The amazing Revoltech (TM) joints are there, just not allowed to be used to their full potential, but still give more articulation than a vinyl figure.

I started to put a candy heart in here...or at least some green Jell-O, but decided against it.  Maybe a tiny pilot figure would be more interesting?

But wait, this is Revoltech, so there's more! Besides the cool nameplate they always include, and the cool flame jet you have already seen, this figure is TRANSFORMABLE.  Yep, his chest opens, into which you can fold his head...pop off his arms and legs, and swap them for the four included blue jets! They even give you a cover for his folded-in head, and a stand to put him on, so he can be in flying mode.  Heck, I will let the packaging do the talking here:

Now, that is Japanese ingenuity at its finest.  Once again, I can heartily recommend this figure, which at the time of this writing, is $50 on Amazon, but much cheaper, even, from their sellers.