It Came From Amazon VII

There now exists a book full of VHS box art for cult films and I have never been more excited. The gimmick of making it the size of an old VHS case is nice and all, but I really want a coffee table book version.

If that first entry makes little sense to you, I hope the box art for Blood Castle clears things up for you.

Wait, so now the book market has jumped on the “Megapack” bandwagon popularized by DVDs? DVD megapacks were a success because having so many movies for so little money was unheard of. A “Megapack” of stories is just another budget anthology.

It looks like I missed a series in my list of Goosebumps clones.

If you want to recreate the aliens from Repo Man at home, then you are in luck. All you need are some condoms partially filled with water and these bad boys.

I love how the cover for the VHS release of Irwin Allen’s The Lost World makes absolutely no effort to hide the fact it used reptiles with rubber bits glued on as “dinosaurs.” I bet you could easily make your own toy versions of the monsters in this by combining animal toys with pieces of dinosaur toys.

Wow. So is “Dagon” an obscure baby name or has the stuffed animal industry fallen victim to the Deep Ones?

The Dead of Fall marked the first time Gravedigger’s Local 16 was ever referenced on a physical media release. According to Darkmood, the reissue of Halloween Descends and the upcoming When Time Ends will also include some shout-outs to us as well.

It looks like NECA’s Gremlins II: The New Batch toys have done so well they had to make figures based on unused concept art in order to meet demand!

This Alfred Hitchcock puzzle brings back a lot of memories. Not of that particular puzzle, mind you, but of another one in the line called “Robot on the Rampage.” The puzzles in this series had a gimmick where you had to read a short story setting up the mystery and then put together a jigsaw puzzle. Once the puzzle was complete, you had to carefully search it for the clue you needed. In the robot puzzle’s case, it was a key you needed to escape. Good times.

The existence of this wooden Godzilla puzzle baffles me. The color is all wrong and it looks more like the 1998 Tristar abomination than Godzilla. At first I thought it was merchandise from that movie, but then I found another version of it from 2013! What gives?

Music From the Monster Movies was actually pretty clever in how it tried to cash in on the publicity for Tristar’s Godzilla. Not only is the logo clearly inspired by the movie’s logo, but its use of a giant iguana referenced Zilla’s origin. Having it on all fours probably reminded some people of the rumors Zilla was going to be a quadruped. I believe this was later reissued with a few extra tracks and new cover art as Music From the Monster Movies & Super Heroes Too.

Something tells me the Godzilla figure in this bucket of toy dinosaurs was not licensed by Toho.

Marvel Comics owns the rights to all of the original characters they created for their Godzilla comic book. Have they released any of the monsters Godzilla battled to cash in on the Legendary movie? Nope. Perhaps an action figure of Dr. Demonicus since he turned up in other comics after Marvel lost their Godzilla license? It would make sense, but no. Instead the first licensed Marvel toy to take advantage of this was the “Meegan Alien” from the old Silver Surfer toyline, which is actually a “Megan.” I’m not kidding.

I usually enjoy their figures of horror icons based on their video game appearances, but NECA’s version of Godzilla seems really off to me for some reason. At least in terms of replicating the Big G’s appearance in the game, as the sculpting is great. But boy did I nerd out over this new, more screen accurate version of the classic Shogun Warriors Godzilla toy. I also understand there was a green color variant convention exclusive version available at one point.

A cute plush Cthulhu in Halloween gear. Words fail me.

Holy crap, they reused the cover art from the hilarious schlockfest that is Dracula 3000 for a serious book about vampires appearing in science fiction.

What’s weirder, a Mickey Mouse toy based on Runaway Brain or a Megazord based on Disney characters?

The interesting thing about the Darkness Falls action figure is how it (and the open mouthed toy variant) was based on concept art for the film and actually looks nothing like the version of “The Tooth Fairy” we see in the movie. It also reminds me of the “Human” and “Tree” versions of the Blair Witch the same company released. Presumably they are just as non-canon as the video games based on The Blair Witch Project which cross over with the video game
Nocturne and reveal the Blair Witch was not a killer!

Speaking of odd tie-ins with that movie, Josh’s Blair Witch Mix was marketed as if it were a mix tape made by one of the ill-fated film students from the movie. Too bad it included music which either came out after the year the events of the movie took place. The tracks including samples from the film helped ruin the “authenticity” as well.

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