Is The Goonie's Any Good?

I've been debating whether to watch The Goonies - 1985 - with my Grandson 

this Half term. He's 9 now.

For fun I had a look for it on VHS and realized it's a Spielberg film, which I'd forgotten. 

Have you seen the Goonies? Is it a good one for a young boy? 

Whilst searching I saw this VHS too, the Go-Kids.

It looks a lot like the Goonies artwork. I guess it must be a rip-off. There's even a Star Warsesque Luke/ Leia/ Lightsabre pose! 

Maybe it's actually a fan mash-up?

The original price was staggering, £59.95! Cor!

Dollhouse Videos

Being obsessed with my current VHS project at the mo, I was fascinated by these miniaturized dolls-house horror videos available on Ebay via Small Side Miniatures. I haven't bought any but they look stunning! I've no idea how they do it!

Do you like them?

Here's a tiny ALIEN!

Ebay

Lionheart Art

 There are hundreds of film covers and posters knocking off the famous Star Wars New Hope cover art.

Here's another one, Lionheart. This one is a VHS.

That could almost be Luke and Leia on the artwork! 

Do you know of any sci fi film cover art that's a knockoff? 

I've Got it Taped! Recreating a Cabinet of the Video Nasties

 Besides old horror paperbacks and Project SWORD and JR21 toys, for years I've been collected old VHS videos from the 1980's and mostly horror.

Last year I decided to check them against the 150'ish so-called Video Nasties list, as listed by the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) 1984 UK Video Recordings Act.

This 1984 DPP list comprised of 39 prosecuted titles (known as the DPP39), 33 non-prosecuted titles (known together as the DPP72) and around 80+ titles in a Section 3, rather like advisories on a car MOT. The then police confiscated the 39 from rental shops and could remove any of the others at their discretion (some shop keepers went to jail!).

All of this has long been well-documented in magazines, many reference books, DVD documentaries and countless online collections.

So, with all this in mind, it turned out that I had a few VHS from the DPP39, a good handful of the 33 and a decent shake of Section 3. 

Bingo!

Why don't I attempt to collect them all? Not on DVD, but yes, VHS?

Sounds easy enough! So, I did that very thing and began my nasty quest.

To kick things off, I bought a complete original DPP39 video tape and case for around £20 on Ebay. Tenebrae by Dario Argento.

Boom!

Jobs a good 'un!

Little did I know that this was probably the cheapest tape available by far and the rest of the 39 would prove to be more or less out of my financial reach entirely!

I did a lot more research. There are some excellent guides on You Tube specifically about how to go about collecting the DPP 39 in their original cases.

In total they would cost a staggering £10K or thereabouts, some tapes themselves individually commanding many thousands!

I knew then this was way beyond my meagre piggy bank and the plan somewhat faltered.

But lo!

Take heart Woodsy!

I remembered a story from my elementary Cumbrian climbing days in the late 1970's with my late great best mate Pete. Pete, even in his mid-teens, was an accomplished climber and kindly offered to help me tackle my first basic routes, with Pete leading on the rope.

One of these was called Poor Man's Puterie, in Great Langdale in the Lakes, named as such by a climber way back who wanted to climb Puterie, a climb in the Alps, but couldn't afford the travel. To stave off frustration he found a similar route at home and eh voila! Poor Man's Puterie!

This was a Eureka moment.

I would attempt to create a poor man's collection of the DPP39 and the DPP33!

But how?

Well, I decided that the easiest and least expensive method was to reproduce the box and colour sleeve only. Forget the tape. 

Having bought a stack of big and little cases I set about recreating the sleeves. 

As luck would have it my friend Bill had spare copies of invaluable VHS books, which basically catalogued all the sleeves I needed! 

This was an incredible stroke of good fortune and allowed me to put together most of the 39. Together with the couple of original VHS I already had, such as AXE, and a handful of scans from Bill, the DPP39 slowly but surely emerged before my very eyes!

Through a lot of research, I'd been careful to use the same colour and sized cases as those back in 1984, albeit being very difficult to get hold of the soft-topped clamshell cases prevalent back then. I had to settle for hard shell big and little boxes. The few card slip-cases on the list I simply exchanged for little plastic cases to keep things moving.

It was a thrill to see all the 39 boxes in my cabinet!

I repeated this process for the DPP33 list of titles and once again they slowly emerged on my shelf!

I just need 5 big boxes and the 33 are sorted too!

I'd found my stride and armed with those usable cover books and Bill's scans I even began on Section 3, an altogether bigger task as there are around 80+ titles, some of which, thankfully, I actually owned already. 

Section 3 is now a work in progress and will take some time and a lot more little boxes, which I don't currently have.

In the meantime I'm deliberating getting hold of cheap, more modern 1990's VHS versions of those DPP39, which were actually retailed. At most I'll spend a tenner on a tape like this, to place inside my facsimile 1984 case and sleeve and complete the tribute (I don't watch them! Too gory!).

 But there's no rush with this. No-ones getting prosecuted anymore!

And so, here's my current homage to that strange chapter of UK VHS history called the Video Nasties, a recreated cabinet of all of the DPP39 cases, most of the DPP33 and around half of Section 3.

I'm going to need a bigger cabinet!

To be continued .... 

(Erring on the side of caution, I have decided to purposefully blur thus image, as some of the titles alone can still very much offend. I apologise if this is patronising. If you wish to see a clear view then email me for one.)

W.

Betamax Lives!

Being a fan of old film tech I was sorely tempted by this vintage Sony Betamax VCR I saw in Shipley. 

Looking like something out of a space station it was huge too. The price of £100 was more than I could justify as well. I have very few Betamax tapes.

A gorgeous thing.

Do you like it? Have you any old tech like this?

That'll be the Day

 Collecting sometimes means being in it for the long haul.

It's like that for me with big box VHS.

Videos from the 1980's are few and far between now unless you want to pay a small fortune on auction sites.

Many are in private hands and it's rare for any big boxes to surface at car boots, so finding one at this morning's stroll round Thorpe Arch was very unusual. 

It was in a box of normal sized 1990's VHS and as is their nature, sticking out because they're bigger!

This was it, from 1985:

In really great shape, box and tape, Rock 'n' Roll - Elvis, Buddy Holly et al - isn't the usual genre I go for, which would be horror -SciFi- Kung Fu, but beggars can't be ......

It's the first big box I've found at a boot sale or charity shop in six months, the last being the Men from the Monastery, a Kung Fu flick. It'll fit in the R section nicely.

Are you in a collection for the long haul? What is it?

Paul's 1954 Casino Royale 007 VHS

Hi Woodsy

Your coverage of videotapes this year inspired me to have a look through the tape boxes at the most recent Lions Club book fair. Not something I usually do, as I do not currently have a working VCR.

I just picked up one – the very first screen appearance of James Bond, in a 1954 US television production of Casino Royale. In this, Bond becomes a US agent, with Barry Nelson playing Bond, and Peter Lorre as the villain Le Chiffre.

This adaptation was part of the Climax Theatre television series. Casino Royale was only published in April 1953, and this production was from October 1954. It would be 1962 before Bond made it to the big screen.

The video includes some extras, and was rated PG in both Australia and New Zealand. In the days of videotape, the Censor sticker had to be applied to the cassettes themselves, as well as to the paper slicks that fitted inside the cases.

Not bad for $1.

Anyone seen the film?

Paul from NZ

All My Ducks in a Row

 Imbued with an urge to spring clean the attic, I've stacked my old VHS tapes and sorted them alphabetically (yep, I've too much time on my hands!).

In a similar vein I've uncrated my old horror paperbacks and lined them up neatly in a bookcase.

When I get time (!) I'll sort these alphabetically too.

Always good to have a cold beer to hand when doing stuff like this!

Are you spring cleaning readers?

Ed's Alamo

Woodsy,

While I have a bunch of VHS tapes here in the hoard, I only have photos of two. I needed these to post on The Alamo Meta pages.

From The Vegas Hoard

Ed

I've Got it Taped

 I've been in the attic this afternoon now it's warm up there.

It's been years since I looked at my old VHS video collection, so I got them out of their crates and had a look, cleaned them up and formed a plan to put them on shelving. I guess I have around a hundred. 

Mostly 1980's big box VHS, there are some clamshells too, along with a group of slipcases. Quite a few are pre-certification. There are a very small number of Betamax. I'm only half way through getting them out.

Do you have any old videos?

Remember these?

Buxton Bounty

On a frosty day trip to the Peak town of Buxton nestled betwixt snowy hills the Missus and me mooched among the many charity shops.

Prices of vintage toys and games have shot up in Charities of late, especially old board games, of which I saw a few like Airport, Hotel, Escape from Colditz and Totopoly.

I did pick up some some old tech, namely a 1989 VHS pre-cert Kung Fu Horror film called The Men from the Monastery, a 1974 Shaw Brothers production. I collect old horror and thriller videos, preferably big box but small and pre-cert are fine too. This is the first 1980's horror video I've seen in a charity shop for years, so I was chuffed.

I also got a set of BBC Radio cassette tapes of their 1981 production of Lord of the Rings. This is the 2001 re-issue and just part 1, The Fellowship of the Ring, which I first heard, along with the rest, in the Spring and summer of 1981, whilst volunteering for the RSPB at the Ouse Washes. It was all very Middle Earth!

I like Tolkien tapes and books and have a few. The older the better and preferably with classic art on the covers. I have sold some old computer games like the Hobbit and regret it, as the box art was fabulous.

Have you any old VHS or Videos or Lord of the Rings books and cassettes?

Das Haul Up Close

 Here's a closer look at yesterday's German car boot €10 bargain haul of old cars and VHS.

Lots of SIKU, some Matchbox and a Japanese Hinshei crane.

The SIKU vehicles, like the yellow tow truck and the orange trailer, are really solid. All of them say made in Germany so are post-unification in 1989. Exact dates I'm unsure of.

I love the SIKU ADAC Prufdienst trailer, in which cars drive through to be checked! The Crane to the right is Japanese, my first MINI Power vehicle.

Here's some odds n odds too. Apart from the helicopter rotor I don't recognize any of the spare parts. You?

For the old big box* VHS videos I got - one of my collecting passions -  I chose this lovely 1880 cabinet in the flat to photograph them.

Eh voila!

I had thought they were all unrated, i.e. no age limit marked on them, which in the UK is known as pre- cert or pre-certificate and typically early to mid 1980's, but these German big boxes are all age rated. 

At this point I'm sure if unrated videos exist in Germany. Do they exist in your country readers? 

* Big box refers to the much bigger boxes of early VHS video cassettes from the 1980's. They can be solid plastic/ thick card or slightly padded plastic clamshells.

Have you got any readers?

Das Haul

 We both enjoyed strolls from our stall today and bagged a few nice Dinge at the Flohmarkt.

Here's some of them.

See what you think.

A box of old Siku, Matchbox and a Hinshei. €5.

An old German pirate figure called Captain Wood Leg. €4

Four nice condition cars, Matchbox and a Hottie. €4

Five old big box German VHS videos, unrated. €1 each!

Our biggest purchase, for our daughter to sell on, Lynch's Tina. Priced at €25, the Missus bagged it for just €15.

KEVIN'S SHORTS

Here are some small videos I've done:

Matchbox motorway

Lunar loop

Nomura dc9 airliner

Enjoy!

Kevin

UK

A CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS IN MY VCR

 

Sometimes a great notion leads to a carnival of monsters. It did with me last night. Having bought this 4 episode Doctor Who series on a 1990's VHS tape in a charity shop I was keen to relive my 70's Saturday Nights and binge-watch all four, just 100 minutes.

I even got my Missus to agree to watch!

We were all set. Video tape in hand, I slotted it into the VCR and .... instantly ejected. I tried again and the same. It has been a while since I played a video so I tried a few different tapes. All the same, ejected. Clearly my VCR has its own demons to contend with!

I tried blowing on the tape heads and pumping air onto them with a pump but to no avail. Finally I sprayed WD40 onto the heads and have left it.

In complete frustration and the opposite of what I wanted to do - spend more money - I rented the four episodes on Prime for £6 and voila,

A Carnival of Monsters!

I was back in 1972 and aged 11 again!

Even the Missus liked it, sort of.

Have you seen Carnival of Monsters?

HUMBER AND TRENTING

 The Moonbase Missus and me have just got back from an overnight stay in our new fave town, Barton Upon Humber in North Lincolnshire. An hour away from Moonbase down the M62, its old and pretty enough to keep us both happy and enough charity shops and cafes to make a sound Saturday morning.

 We also went to a Friday night gig, the main reason for going, to see one Nick Harper at the Ropery Hall.

Nick Harper is the son of folk rock legend Roy Harper, as in Hats off to .... by Led Zep. It can't have been easy forging a musical career in such a legendary shadow but Nick, who we only discovered last month, is enough of a songsmith and above all a guitar virtuoso to completely hold his own and being now 58 has done for decades.

Mind-blowingly original in both voice and guitar you can catch up with Nick Harper here. He's playing Birkenhead tonight!

Mr. Harper was ably supported by a fabulous warm-up act, Patrick Duff. Another fabulous singer-songwriter and guitarist, the small Barton crowd were definately blown away with his seasoned talent and incredible set of lungs! As a teenager he was the frontman of indie band Strangelove, compatriots of Britpop founders Suede and hailed as the next big thing before rock 'n' roll took its toll. You can read about Patrick's life here. We bought his biography for a friend.

After a decent kip overnight we hit Barton's church museum and shops this morning, fuelled by coffee and a Lincolnshire sausage butty.

St Peter's Church is a medieval structure now run as a museum by English Heritage. Full of preserved skeletons of dead residents, ample diseased bones, split skulls and burial artefacts from its hundreds of graves, its one of the most dug-up and researched places from the Middle Ages anywhere. Well worth a visit especially if you're a member of English Heritage, its a grounding pile with its many dark spaces like this, the bell tower.

The charity shops were reassuringly full of the living residents of Barton and proved bountiful too. Well at least I thought so. See what you think in the snap below.

The K-Tel 40 Supergreats double album, £1, is in near mint condition, a gift for a mate; the JLA novel collection I'd never seen before and in very good shape for £1 each too; the Dr. Who VHS tapes were a punt to be honest - being from the early 1990's they're not old enough for my own VHS collection but maybe of interest to a buyer on Ebay. £1 each, the double set £3.

There were lots more Dr. Who VHS tapes - should I have got them all? -  and a huge collection of hardback books called the History of Dr. Who, each book sealed in plastic and unopened and probably a part-work. At £3 each they were too rich for my purse. What do you think? 

I also snaffled this Dragon magazine from the hey-day of Kung Fu.

With the great Jimmy Wang Yu on the cover and also the centrefold, I so remember these mags and had them all as a youngster. I still have a quite a few now boxed up with my Inside Kung Fu pile in the attic. Did you have magazines like this as a kid?

I was also tempted by this Starline LP of TV Themes from the 1970's, which included the wonderful Catweazle [was it shown were you are?], the classic Please Sir and the Fenn Street Gang, which I think was a Please Sir spin-off, is that right?

Being by the Pandora Orchestra I didn't succumb as anything might happen once opened!

We then set off and toured down the Humber and its tributary the Trent on the eastern banks around Alkborough. Have you been there?

Alkborough Flats is an ethereal drenching of three rivers meeting in the mud. A primitive place complete with an ancient circular turf maze, Julians Bower.

The land and villages around Barton on the Humber and the Trent all seem ancient. Its like stepping back a few hundred years just being there. Flat vistas, distant rises, red brick hamlets, russet soil, wide long rivers, aged trees and empty lanes all give the area an other-worldly feel..

My final shot is a return to St. Peter's. As soon as aI saw the ladder propped up against a bare medieval wall I thought of that scene in the Stone Tape.

You know the one, where a young girl's ghost lets out a blood-curdling scream as she stands at the top of a set of stone steps next to an ancient bare wall!

BBC

Shown to a snug, festive but unwary British public on Christmas Night 1972, the BBC and Nigel Kneale created one of the scariest TV shows ever made. I had just turned 11 and it frightened the bejeebers out of me, as it did Jane Asher's character pictured below near the dreadful steps to nowhere. I hope the Beeb shows it again this Christmas, do you readers?

BBC