Thursday, May 19, 2016

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS (1977) Bendable Alien

There wasn't a whole lot of Close Encounters merchandise released to tie-in with Steven Spielberg's UFO epic - a novelization, a Warren souvenir magazine, a few other odds and ends - at least, not compared to other sci-fi blockbusters of the era, and certainly not a lot merch aimed at kids.

One exception was this cheerful extraterrestrial "bendy" from rack toy specialists Imperial. All things considered, it's a pretty fair likeness of CE3K's featured alien, goofy smile and all.

12 comments:

  1. Damn, that takes me back. Still remember the condition of mine the last time I saw it ages ago: split on the neck, wire 'skeleton' visible, but still attached, one eye missing from years of play. That and the cheap glow-in-the-dark kryptonite were favorites from that year.

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  2. Don't forget the Topps and Wonder Bread trading cards for CE3K.

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  3. despite the apparent lack of CE3K stuff I have still managed to accrue somewhere in the region of 300 individual items! :-D

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    1. 300 items? Holy smoke! I'd like to see, if not pictures, at least a list of those items. The only other ones I can remember are the Soundtrack LP and the board game.

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    2. That's pretty impressive. I'm guessing the many vinyl releases featuring various interpretations of the score account for a good deal of it.

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  4. I remember seeing these back in the day. Bendy figures from the 70's had a terrible reputation of breaking apart over time. I can't recall how many times I poked a finger when those wire skeletons stuck out from the rubber covering. They also dry-rotted after a few years.

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  5. Thanks for posting this. I saw it in a corner store as a kids and until this moment all I had was that 35 old image stuck in my head, wondering if such a thing was really made.

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  6. I miss the innocence of the '70s, before aliens became the sinister "greys" we think of today. I've owned three of these since I was a kid, the most recent one purchased at a toy show back in the '90s. Unfortunately the plastic blister on the package became brittle and started cracking a few years ago, so I decided to open him. Now he sits on my bookshelf. I've also got the CE3K alien mask kit ("The Face From Space"), still in the box.

    We Are Not Alone.

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  7. If you get your hands on the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS bubble gum cards, a weird thing is that of all the cards, Richard Dreyfuss is not in one of them, which is obviously thing having to do with his agent, or something. Weird though, getting 50 cards and the star is not in one of them.

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    1. I always wondered about that too. Francois Truffaut's image doesn't appear on any of the cards either. The storyline, as depicted by Topps (with some weird inaccuracies) in the captions, focuses mostly on Melinda Dillon and Cary Guffey. Richard Dreyfuss does appear on one of the cards from the Wonder Bread set, but only from behind, so that technically doesn't count as using his likeness.

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  8. Just give him a glowing index finger et voila, he looks strangely familiar.

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  9. When I as a kid my Dad got me that alien doll. I'm trying to get this alien doll today. Please let me know how to locate one. Thanks in advance.

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