Hi Woodsy.
Way back in 1991, before Playstation and Xbox, the Commodore Amiga reigned supreme on the home markets. A 16 bit computer, it was famed for its (then) unique video facilities and a host of great games. One of the most popular genres was the Shoot Em Up, which began with the humble Space Invaders and evolved over time into complex games which required considerable skill to master.
Silkworm was a side scrolling game for one or two players driving an armoured jeep or a attack helicopter, either simultaneously or alone. Whilst Silkworm wasn't the best of its type, it was an enjoyable blast, shooting tanks, bombers and missiles sweeping in from the side.
However, the sequel to it, SWIV or Special Weapons Interdiction Vehicle was a different beast altogether. Vertically scrolling, it kept the two vehicles, but by 90's standards was much more graphically superior, with slickly designed vehicles and intense waves of enemy fighters.
A similar game, although much less sophisticated was Black Hornet, a budget game based on a stealth fighter attacking armed forces, again a vertical scroller, but with much simpler graphics.
Both games had a lot in common and had clearly been influenced by Anderson tv shows and toy lines. Black Hornet was assailed by flying saucers and Micronaut style robots and SWIV had elements in it which could clearly have been lifted from Captain Scarlets Cloudbase. There is a section where small Flying Subs appear, aircraft with forward facing wings and rocket launchers raising up from hidden silos underground.
The two games shared similar ideas too, as railway tracks crossed the screen, with BattleSpace like trains rolling past, which could either be destroyed by shooting the engine, or flown underneath a bridge by the Black Hornet fighter.
SWIV has a regular sequence of SR71 Blackbird planes zooming down the screen and armoured vehicles shower the copter with white missiles which could have come straight from Triang.
Whilst both games look dated and blocky by todays standards, they were at the time great fun to play and very reminiscent of some of my favourite toy lines as well.
I watched Grizzly last night on You Tube - on the TV! Not Grizzly Adams, although I did enjoy that series and regret not getting any of the toy figures, but Grizzly the wilderness 'horror' film of the 1970's.
As you can imagine its about a Grizzly bear running amok in an American National Park and eating the campers. There are some tense moments amongst the ranger chatter, especially as the beast approaches its prey and virtually no-one goes home without a bear hug.
It was panned at the time of its release as a brazen JAWS clone and to be fair there are many elements that the director has nicked from Speilberg: the der-der music during stalking, the flying severed arm and most starkly, the ending, which I've leave at that in case you watch it!
But I enjoyed GRIZZLY. I always wanted to be a National Park ranger in the UK. I studied nature conservation for 3 years including national park management but alas in the 80's all the jobs were in Cities and I ended up part of the urban conservation 'industry' and got based in a Leeds environmental charity, where I stayed for 20 years! I am a creature of habit if nothing else! I certainly never came across any Grizzly bears.
I also like GRIZZLY because it captures something I imagine has gone in the US, the atmospheric olde-worlde mountain restaurant where the walls are made of redwood logs and the big wood fire is always burning, casting a soft light onto healthy-looking hikers sipping brandy from huge bowled glasses. Aah.
It also reminds me of two other films I enjoyed; Prophecy about a mutated bear monster and the very similar Snowbeast repleat with chisel-jawed mountain men too. Grizzly was very successful financially and I bet it beat these two into a cocked hat.
GRIZZLY had one 'official' bit of merchandise as far as I can tell and its quite sought after by the looks of it: the GRIZZLY rubber bear by Imperial Toys [yes, they who brought us Apollo Moon Exploring!].
The Imperial bear seems to have been an example of the 'hey, quick, slap a header card on that old toy and get it in the shops and we'll make a few bucks!" school of marketing!
They already had a growling polar bear in stock and when GRIZZLY came out they painted it and shipped it out. I imagine the header card was the first thing to go and few will have survived unlike the tough rubber bear.
Having said that I found this pic online of three Imperial Grizzlies all with their 'official' card labels present and correct! Looking at it again I see that the word Grizzly, in its correct film font, is TM'd on the card. Could Imperial have actually got a licence for this toy?
Did you or do you have a Grizzly?
Aah, the GPO! Plug me into nostalgia please!
I loved this toy trimphone I saw on an old auction. Its a Moneybox too!
Well the last LP cover got a few responses so I've gone mad with a much bigger LP cover quiz.
Have a bash at these guys. Name the LP. Nothing modern I'm afraid!
Howazabout 2 answers each. Pick wisely!
