In celebration of my 54th birthday, throughout 2024 I will share 54 items from each of my Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla and I Am Legend collections, as all three debuted in 1954 and are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year.
Following in the wake of the Bandai Theater Exclusive Meltdown Godzilla, in 1996 Bandai released this Clear Meltdown version. Molded in clear vinyl, with some paint applications inside and some outside, it has a very cool and unique look.
Picking up the theater exclusive version was basically like getting bitten by the Godzilla bug all over again, and I continued to pick up cool looking vinyl figures as I heard about them, this one included. Sadly, one version I didn't hear about at the time, a Glitter Godzilla (the same figure in his normal coloring, only with gold speckles resembling glitter) got by me, and they are extremely expensive on the secondary market. Maybe someday I'll find one at a song and be able to complete my 1995 Godzilla collection!
Be sure to come back next week to check out yet another item from my Godzilla collection!
Before The Last Man On Earth was released in 1964, I Am Legend had only been available in the United States from Gold Medal (the first edition ten years earlier in 1954, and a 'Second Big Printing!' in 1957). By 1964, Bantam (who had published paperback editions of Matheson's first short story collections in the 1950s) had obtained the rights and published their own edition in March. It would be their one and only edition of the novel, and it arrived within striking distance of the release of the Vincent Price film. Though there's no specific mention of a film release, if there's any doubt that it's unofficially a tie-in, one need only flip the book over and read the back cover copy.
The cover art is by Sandy Kossin (whose signature is clipped on the front, yet intact on the back), and rendered in black and white. Coincidence, or one more nod to the film that would be in theaters shortly after the book's release.
The Bantam paperback was the second copy (after the SF Book Club hardcover) and first paperback of I Am Legend that I would own; the foundation of what would evolve into the I Am Legend Archive. Oddly enough, like my first hardcover, it was also procured at a Flea Market (at the Ashby Bart Station in Berkeley), and also only 25 cents!
Like the Gold Medal first printing, I have a copy of the Bantam paperback inscribed to me by Richard Matheson, obtained at the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback show that Peter and I have attended for the better part of the past 30 years.
And now for the bonus portion of this post.
I was quite surprised to stumble across this unique variation of the Bantam paperback on eBay in the UK, with a "2/6" price sticker that didn't appear to be a second-hand label. Could the Bantam paperback have had some sort of distribution in the UK? Needless to say, I jumped on it. I have since seen another copy online with an identical label, further convincing me that this had to be some sort of authorized import.
I knew that I Am Legend had been published in the UK by Corgi Books from 1956 through 1977, as I had acquired each of the Corgi editions (dating from 1956, 1960, 1962, 1971, and 1977). As I was initially collecting them, I never gave much consideration to the 9-year gap between the third and fourth Corgi editions. It was only after I stumbled across the UK-stickered 1964 Bantam paperback that I realized it seemed to fill that gap in the UK publication history. And the price point matches that of the 1960 and 1962 Corgi editions — also "2/6." I was inspired to do a little internet searching, which led me to discover that Corgi was founded in 1950 as the UK arm of Bantam Books, Inc. So too much data for it all to be coincidental, right? It leads me to believe that the Bantam paperback was also available to UK readers in the time between the third and fourth Corgi paperbacks.
Be sure to check back next week for another item from the I Am Legend Archive!
Waterball? Okay, to be fair, it's not reasonable to expect to find snow around the Black Lagoon in the Amazon, so we'll cut them some slack. I've had this cool piece since it's release in the early '90s, and while it has unfortunately lost some water volume (which is not easily replaceable), the Creature himself not at risk of suffering the ill effects of being out of water for too long.
As for what those little white floaties are supposed to represent, your guess is as good as mine. It might have been a nice touch for them to have been molded in a rudimentary fish shape, but who picked this up to look at the floaties, anyway?
Check back next week for another item from my Creature collection!
I always thought the concept of a mechanical Godzilla was cool, even if I didn't buy that this design could fit inside a skin that for all sakes and purposes looked like the Godzilla we know and love from the outside. This particular example of the character is in fact Mechagodzilla 2, from the 1975 film Terror of Mechagodzilla.
The Showa-era (1954-1975) version of Mechagodzilla is my second favorite design for the character. The Heisei era Mechagodzilla became too rounded for my tastes, but the Millennium-era Mechagodzilla returned to his roots, and in my opinion, enhanced the original design to make it look even cooler. You'll see some examples of that one in the weeks ahead! (And we won't even discuss the Legendary Films poor attempt at Mechagodzilla.)
I don't remember when exactly I picked this figure up, but it was a throwback to the Japanese Godzilla toys that I saw here and there, but never owned. And as with a lot of things in the collection, the price of these has shot up considerably in the years since their original release, so I'm glad I grabbed it when I did!
As you can see from the box art, there's a lot going on with this figure, from swappable parts (such as post-fired rocket-finger hands, a flight-mode head, and a block-knocked-off laser-emitting brain/stump!). On top of all that, he's very nicely articulated.
Proudly displaying his MG2 designation right on his sleeve!
Watch out — he's locked and loaded, including this high-voltage electromagnetic beam emitting port that opens up in his chest!
In addition to the head being removable, clicking a spine on his back spins his head around (if this makes no sense to you, it might be time for you to revisit Terror of Mechagodzilla!). Check out that crazy head-spinning action below!
Be here next week for another item from the Godzilla collection!
1958 saw the first Portuguese translation of I Am Legend — Mundo de Vampiros (World of Vampires) which was published in Brazil.
What makes this particularly copy unique is that it's one of a handful of editions in the Archive that came from the collection of the author (one of the complimentary copies received upon publication). These books were sold through a bookstore in Burbank in the late '90s, and were hand-signed by Richard Matheson. For me, the autograph is a welcome but unnecessary bonus, as I was thrilled to fill a number of key foreign language edition holes in my collection from the author's personal stash!
Check back next week for another item from the I Am Legend Archive!
We're back with another classic AHI offering — this one pre-dating the 1974 bendy figure.
Jigglers (or rubber jigglers, or oily jigglers) were unarticulated rubber figures with no wire armature, which allows them to jiggle when shaken, or when hanging from your rear-view mirror in the car.
Unlike my AHI Bendy Creature, I wasn't the original owner of this jiggler, but he's a Flea Market find I've probably had in the collection for at least 30 years. And for a 51-year-old, he's still looking pretty good. (The doll stand was a real necessity, since he was never capable of standing on his own two feet!)
AHI exploited various opportunities when it came to their rack toys, and licensed Universal Monster jigglers were no exception! They do turn up on eBay from time to time, although they are quite expensive, with the standard premium pricing when it comes to Creature merchandise!
Check back next week for another item from my Creature collection!
Prior to acquiring these pieces, I hadn't been a collector of Chibi-style artwork (according to Wikipedia: a style of caricature originating in Japan, and common in anime and manga where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby with stubby limbs). Once I saw them, I couldn't pass up these two renditions of one of my favorite kaiju — Biollante.
I acquired these from Christine Chapin (the artist), who was assisting the Godzilla suit actors at their appearance at Alien Con in Santa Clara in 2016. The Godzilla presence at the show, and the acquisition of a few unpublished Night of the Living Dead photos, were the highlights of working an otherwise disappointing con.
Of course I couldn't pick just one — I had to get both. Chapin had successfully to capture Godzilla with Biollante in both her rose (above) and kale (below — that's my interpretation and I'm sticking to it!) forms.
When Ridley Scott took on directing I Am Legend for Warner Brothers in 1997, he was initially working from a Mark Protosevich screenplay (which itself was based on the Corrington's screenplay to The Omega Man). Steve Johnson's effects company had been hired to develop the look of Protosevich's Hemocytes — the creatures that replaced the vampires in Matheson's novel. On his team was comic artist Kerry Gammill.
When Johnson was selling off assets from his XFX company on eBay, I was able to acquire an original Kerry Gammill Hemocyte sketch. I also received a production illustration which appears to be colored and inked from this original drawing. Though not obvious from these illustrations, the Hemocytes were envisioned to be almost translucent, allowing you to see under their skin. Gammill's use of extra teeth did make it into the next stage of the design for the Hemocytes, as evidenced in these make-up tests that Johnson uploaded to YouTube. (I later acquired an original VHS copy of test footage on eBay.)
While I like Gammill's design, and am glad to have pre-production material from the unmade film in the archive, I can't help but believe it's a mistake for the filmmakers to change the vampires in Matheson's story from the familiar (his neighbors and family members) to completely unrecognizable creatures.
That said, these designs are far superior to the CGI 'Darkseekers' that were ultimately used in the Francis Lawrence film. While it can't be confirmed, I believe the makers of the 2007 film turned to these 1970s rubber jigglers for 'Darkseeker' reference...
Be sure to check back next week for more from the I Am Legend Archive!
Every Creature fan needs at least one copy of Mechanix Illustrated in their collection — the May 1954 issue with a cover story on the newly released film.
What would Mechanix Illustrated cover about a 50's monster movie, you ask? The How-To-Do magazine features the article, "Science Creates a Monster," detailing the creation of the iconic $18,000 Creature suit.
The article does describe Milicent Patrick as the designer of the Creature (and then goes on to say that those designs were just the first step, and that Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan had the job of creating the Creature suit).
Come back next week for another interesting item from my Creature collection!
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