I'm currently watching a film called Snow Beast on the Horror Channel.
Snow Beasts have a long and dignified history in popular culture. From the classic Abominable Snowman black and white original with Peter Cushing, the Yeti has been a staple of popular culture.
In my bookshelf is a well-thumbed copy of Snow Man by Norman Bogner, one of those iconic New English Library paperbacks made for a summer holiday read. My copy is from 1979 like the one pictured but I think it was first published in 1977, a good year for Yeti's.
[pic: nastynels]
Snowbeast is also from 1977 and is a horror flick, which for a time in the 1980's courted the video nasties when Vipco released it on VHS. Its not a nasty at all and with the likes of Clint Walker and Bo Svenson and some decent sets is very watchable. I last saw it on You Tube and with its large number of extras in the film's ski resort it reminded me of other holiday disaster films like Piranha and Jaws.
A much less able affair is the Snow Beast movie I'm currently viewing on telly. From 2011, it has a cast of about five, three of whom are on the DVD cover [the beast ate the other and it makes five] who appear to sit around drinking coffee or driving SUV's most of the time. Avoidable.
Grab a coffee and watch the 1977 movie or read the NEL paperback.
Have you any Yeti's in the closet readers?
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ABOMINABLE TOYS
Brian's recommendation of this cool looking modern Yeti Playset by Animal Planet has prompted me to list a few Yeti toys.
Maybe the mother of all vintage Yeti toys, here's the Marx original from 1963
and video footage by Big Al of it on the Tube. Be warned, the mechanical Wampa shrieking is really unpleasant!
Then of course there is that rarity amongst Sasquatches, the Mego Six Million Dollar Man Big Foot as covered on the US TV show Toy Hunter.
There's also this 7m video on the Tube explaining the ins and outs of it as a collectable:
Although I don't own one, my own personal favourite, is this, the Snow Man from the legendary Tomland line of Monsters. He has to be the most handsome of all Yetis!
There are lots more Abominable Snowmen toys: Matchbox, GI Joe and so on. Anyone got any?
That book looks like the type I would like to read Poolside or perhaps at the beach.Snowbeast had it's premier on Network TV when I was 8 years old (1977).Most of my schoolmates didn't share my passion for monsters, but I was pleasantly surprised the next school day when everybody was talking about it!I think its proof that you don't have to watch all big budget blockbuster movies to be well entertained.I agree that the newer SYFY movies really don't deliver, despite CGI effects and exciting titles.You might be interested in a Yeti Playset by Animal Planet sold at ToysRUs.It contains a snowmobile,a mountain Hiker figure with all his supplies,a cave,and a big, red eyed Yeti that throws Ice boulders!I don't know what today's kids think of it, but I thought it was really cool(no pun intended!).
ReplyDeleteCool that you remember Snowbeast premiering Brian. That's a fine memory you have there. Don't think I saw it at the time but then again we only had three channels over here then. Your'e right, low budget modern movies are rubbish in comparison with an obsession with tunnels, derelict hospitals and cellars full of gormless teenagers.
DeleteMy favorite thing about the Tomland yeti is its resemblance to one of the space yetis from the 1967 Italian space opera SNOW DEVILS, the last film in what a lot of people call the "Gamma 1 Quadrilogy"
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Amazing that Todd, I see what you mean. That makes a difference to most of the descriptions of Tomlands' Snow Man, which state that he is NOT from a film or TV show. Snow Devil would have been such a neat name but maybe Tomland were avoiding copyright?
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