Night of the Loving Dead - Nekromantik Merchandise!

With the news that the infamous Nekromantik has finally been passed by the British censors and will be out on Blu-ray via Arrow later this year - uncut, no less - it seems apt to post a couple of Nekro products from the time the film first came out.

 

 

This is the original soundtrack seven inch picture disc.

 

And here is the frankly weird comic book!

Paradise Found - Phantom merchandise

I love Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise, recently reissued by Arrow on Blu-ray. To see how much I love it, check out my review. Here are some Phantom goodies from back in the day. Firstly, the soundtrack LP, which is just wonderful.

 

Then there is the tie-in novelisation, which differs from the film in tone and content considerably.

 

And finally, the edition of Cinefantastique that cover-featured the movie.

Jaws Merchandise - part one

I was a big fan of Jaws back in the day - still am, in fact. I've seen it on ever theatrical release since it first came out and owned a lot of Jaws merchandise - the game, the 'shark in a bottle' model kit, the soundtrack LP, the sew on patch, the T-shirt and more. Most of these have long since been lost, but I did manage to hold on to the coffee mug and the necklace (I also still have the soundtrack LP and Lalo Schifrin disco single, but those are for another day...).

The Sweeney paperback collection

Popular 1970s TV series The Sweeney spawned nine paperback tie in novels (all original stories) plus a novelisation of the the second film spin-off. 

Note the incorrect spelling on the cover of the first book (corrected in later editions). The first novel was originally printed as Regan earlier in 1975 (the title of the original Sweeney pilot) and it still referred to under that title inside.

While the first novel is credited to series creator Ian Kennedy Martin, the rest are by 'Joe Balham', who may be a pseudonym of crime writer Alan White. These all appeared between 1975 and 1978.

 

King Kong Board Game (1976)

One of a surprisingly small merchandise tie-ins for the much-hyped 1976 remake of King Kong, this was an unnecessarily fiddly, overly complicated and not very entertaining board game, in which you had to stop Kong reaching the top of the World Trade Center. This involved having human figures standing on the board who could be knocked off by the spinning Kong and assorted cards that offered assistance in the way of equipment. If a player successfully attacks Kong five times, they win. You can also win by carrying out a Special Mission (rescue the girl from Kong). The awkwardly sized board and lack of fun made this a 'play once and then shove to the bottom of the pile' game. Released in 1976 by Ideal.

The Haunting (of Hill House) Film Tie In

The June1962 Popular Library movie tie-in edition of Shirely Jackson's 1959 original (here sold for 40c instead of the $3.95 Viking Press hardcover. The Haunting is copyrighted as 1963 on the cover, interestingly, and the film wasn't released until September of that year. The most logical explanation for this is that the publishers accidentally stated 1962 instead of 1963 as publication date. Anyone know more?