Tuesday, July 24, 2012

PLANET OF THE APES 80s VHS Collection Poster

I thought this was a cool piece of Planet Of The Apes artwork - an 80s video store poster advertising Playhouse Video's 5-cassette box set of the Apes features. Considering the cost of most studio pre-record VHS tapes of the era, I bet that set cost a pretty penny. I have no idea who the artist was, but he made some odd choices. First, there's that weird expression on Ceasar's face -- and what's with Taylor's hairline?

7 comments:

  1. Looks like tormented Taylor from beneath. I recall that video set it was prohibitively expensive but the exact total escapes me maybe $200.00 to $300.00 for the set.

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  2. Playhouse was the children's arm of CBS/Fox Video from 1985-1991 (itself the result of a merger between CBS Video Enterprises and 20th Century Fox Video, formerly Magnetic Video, the first company to release prerecorded theatrical movies on VHS and Beta). They also released Muppet videos, the 1966 Batman movie, "Star Wars," Dr. Suess and live-action Spider-Man TV specials as well as some early Doctor Who videos at so-called "sell-through" prices (which, in those days, meant anywhere from $25-$50 a pop, depending on the year of release). I believe this was the last issue of the tapes put out by the label.

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  3. The hairline makes Charlton Heston look more like Darren McGavin.

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  4. I was thinking this take on Chuck has more of a Tom Hanks thing going on.

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  5. I was thinking the same thing as Guy Hoyle. Kolchak-Apestalker.

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  6. I still recall a POTA collection which I think was on DVD or maybe both tape and DVD which came out some years back. The cover was the worst in that it revealed the ending of the first film and they had a stand-in model photographed for the Taylor character with a very nice lion cloth and flip flops. LOL talk epic fail. It makes me wonder who art directs these and makes decisions about the look. Talk about clueless!!!;)

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  7. The tapes were $99 each, according to my local video store at the time. Remember, these were the days before studios were trying to sell through to the general public. Tapes like these were for rental stores alone....

    Hunter

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