New VHS Scores: Halloween and Escape From New York Slipcases

Apologies for the absence. It seems that while I had anticipated most of my time being spent on this particular blog sharing my collection of VHS, toys, and whatnot, I just can't stay away from movies, my #1 passion. And so while I did my best to take a break from reviews on my other blog robotGEEK'S Cult Cinema, I just couldn't stop cold turkey. So, a lot of my time recently has been dedicated to reviews. But! I'm here now, so here we go.

First up is John Carpenter's Halloween. As you all know, it's been released countless upon countless times on VHS, then on Laserdisc, DVD and now Blu ray. So it's not a hard film to get your hands on for your collection. It just depends on which one you want. I'd imagine though trying to collect every single version out there would be extremely time consuming and expensive. But hey, everyone needs a hobby right?!

Die-hard collectors know that probably the rarest VHS version out there is the mythical MEDA VHS version. It was spelled MEDA before it was changed to MEDIA on a yellowed cardstock slipcase. I honestly don't know why or the story behind that and haven't done the research yet, but needless to say, the MEDA yellow slipcase VHS is insanely rare and goes for thousands on the internet.....if you're ever lucky to find one. Personally, I've always loved this particular cover. I love the black with the
MEDIA big on white at the bottom. I also found it strange and interesting that there's also a bottom flap. So everytime you intend to take the tape out, you essentially slowly begin to damage and put extensive wear to that bottom flap. So I'm not surprised that they quickly did away with that.

When I was going through my VHS collection recently, I was kind of shocked to discover that I've never owned a version of Halloween on VHS. Gasp! I was lucky to find this one fairly cheap for $10 on eBay with the bottom flap in tact and in excellent condition. Happiness.

Here's another recent eBay score. While I prefer Embassy's insanely badass, yet very hard to find black VHS clamshell release from 1982, this is a close second. I love that the poster encompasses the entire cover. And I love the white spine with the extra large font. It's just beautiful.

Much like Halloween, this film has gotten countless VHS releases, as well as many others on every format. It's just one of those films. However, there is another early US slipcase release that I've only recently become aware of. Of all the years I've been collecting VHS tapes, I never came across one and didn't know it existed. It's a rather interesting design. Released by Embassy, the top half is white, and the bottom half is black, with the poster image floating freely in the center. The film title is large, also floating freely at the top above the cover image. A strange design for sure, but one I feel I must own at some point as I collect random Escape From New York VHS tapes from around the world. I'm also finding a new found love for VHS slips. I've always been more drawn to clamshell cases, but I'm finding an appreciation for slipcases in my old age.

Alien 3 NES Nintendo Game

Alien 3: NES (1993)

Much like Total Recall, I had no idea this was ever made into a game, much less an original Nintendo NES game back in 1993. But they did, and then again for the SNES, and then Sega Genesis also released a game based off of this film, all generally within a span of just a few years I think. But needless to say, when NECA announced they would be releasing a new 8 Bit figure to go with their awesome 8 Bit Retro Video Game Appearance line of figures, I knew I had to track this original game down, which wasn't easy.

Not sure if it's just the demand, or the simple fact that NECA decided to immortalize the "dog" alien from this film, but the game suddenly became hard to acquire at a decent price. I generally don't like to spend more than about $20 on an old NES game if I can help it, so I had to wait this one out for awhile until I came across one in decent shape, and CIB (complete in box) for a reasonable price. The waiting paid off, and I was finally able to acquire one for my collection.

I have yet to play the game itself, which I will do eventually shortly, but everything is in excellent condition, considering it's age. The manual has seen better days, but I'm thoroughly impressed at how well the box has been preserved all these years. It didn't come with any advertisements it may have originally had, but everything else is included.

After getting this and also the SNES game, I guess you can say I've been on a bit of an Alien 3 kick, so I decided to revisit the film (workprint version) yesterday and I love it every bit as much as I always have. While David Fincher has disowned the thing entirely, I think it's a gorgeous looking science fiction film, and along with a myriad of reasons, consider it an excellent Alien film. But that's just my opinion.

A piece of my childhood recaptured: Go-Bots "Psycho" Action Figure

Words cannot explain the excitement I got when this arrived in my PO Box. You see, while I was primarily a Transformers fan as a kid in the 80's, I also loved the Go-Bots as well. Essentially they were a cheaper version of Transformers and also their arch nemesis in the toy and cartoon market. I have to admit, I have always loved these guys just as much as I loved Transformers, which is why I collected both as a kid.

As a kid in the 80's, I had my fair share of toys, and honestly, I think we can all agree the 80's was the BEST decade for toy collecting, or just being a kid in general. M.A.S.K., Transformers, He-Man, GI Joe, Go-Bots, Thundercats....all incredible lines of toys that were made much better than anything we can get on a toy shelf these days, save for NECA I suppose. But seriously, how great was it to be a kid back then? Personally speaking.....it was amazing. I was the prime age to enjoy and immerse anything the wonderful decade of the 80's had to offer, and Go-Bots were one of them.

There were 3 or 4 Go-Bots that I distinctly remember having growing up, and this was one of them. I always thought he was the coolest looking one out of the bunch, and such a rad looking sports car. I even remember trying to duplicate this style with my Lego's, with varying degrees of success. When I decided to try and track a few of my "former" toys from my childhood down in my recent collecting resurgence, one of the first ones I went after was this particular figure. Little did I know that of all the Go-Bots figures out there, this is one of the most sought after ones. 

You can easily pick up a loose one from anywhere between $7 - $30, depending on the seller. But one in it's original box, which I don't recall them coming in a box to begin with, especially in good condition will run anywhere form $50 - $100....at least. I quickly learned vintage Go-Bot figures go for much more than I imagined. I also don't recall them being so small.

But I knew I had to have one. I kept my eye on eBay doing random searches here and there and never finding one anywhere near within my budget. Then one day a seller offered one in Near Mint Condition at a starting bid of .99. I jumped on it, and when it was all said and done, even though several others tried to outbid me in the last minute, I ultimately won out for a very reasonable price. This particular figure is now easily one of the crowning jewels of my collection and I will be on the hunt for the other few figures from this line that brings back so many fond memories of my childhood.

Nintendo's Cancelled Hellraiser NES Game

Apparently back in 1990 there was supposed to be a Hellraiser NES Nintendo game based off of Clive Barker's 1987 low-budget masterpiece of the same name. I had no idea this was ever even in the works! Can you imagine  how awesome that would have been? And not only that, just because it's Hellraiser, I'm sure it would have ultimately become a rare and highly sought after game indeed. The possibilities.

Recently as I was scouring Google for some old vintage ads, I happened upon this one and my jaw literally dropped to the floor. As you may know, I've begun to collect old original NES games as a hobby, and well this just got me all kinds of excited. Assuming they would have used the same poster art for the film as their box art for the game, it would have been a beautiful addition to any NES collection for sure.

Doing some digging I found a great article over at Wikia that explains in stunning detail what ultimately led to the demise of this promising game, which you can find HERE.

Batman NES vs Batman NECA