Ray Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans

Please Note: Photos are missing from this page. I explain why in this post.

My favourite movie of all time is the original Clash of the Titans from 1981 with Harry Hamlin as Perseus, and Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion creatures. Despite the PG13 rating due to scenes with brief (and rather pointless) female nudity, in addition to some gore (which is hard to avoid when you're chopping off a Gorgon's head), Clash of the Titans generated a significant amount of merchandise aimed at kids. I for one was 7 or 8 years old when I first saw this movie and have been a fan ever since. In 2006 when I was 33 (some 25 years after first seeing this movie) I was still so inspired by Clash of the Titans that I created a puppetry play based on the Greek Myth story about Perseus. 

For several years now I've collected magazines, books, toys and other memorabilia based on the most awesome movie ever made... Clash of the Titans! My entire collection is shown below followed by a list of additional collectables that are available.

Action Figures, by Mattel, 1981
Mattel produced an impressive series of 3 3/4 inch Clash of the Titans action figures (shown above) to coincide with the movie's run in theatres. The series included Perseus, Thallo, Calibos, Charon and Pegasus. A large action figure of the Kraken sea monster was also made. Oddly enough I still don't have the Kraken in my collection!

The figures of Perseus and Pegasus were sold individually and as a set boxed together. Pegasus is a non articulated, hollow, hard plastic figure with removable rubber wings. It's difficult to find loose figures of Calibos that still have the tail attached as it broke off very easily. All four figures came with the same sword. Perseus and Thallo came with the same shield, which is actually Perseus' shield in the movie as Thallo's shield had a lion on it rather than an eagle. In any event, this has always been my favourite line of action figures.

As the movie did well in theatres, it's hard to believe that these toys didn't find the same success in toy stores and ended up as clearance stock. The original selling price for each figure in the United States was $2.95. Remarkably, Target stores eventually put them on clearance for 0.25 cents!!! Today, this toy series is quite popular with collectors of vintage action figures and therefor acquiring mint on card figures can be a significant investment! For example, the Kraken toy now sells for several hundred dollars even without the original box.

Here is the Charon figure on the Canadian card which has French and English text. The United States cards only had English text and also featured a Clash of the Titans logo illustration showing Perseus and Pegasus. The four figures and Pegasus were also sold in Europe on tri-logo packaging. The Charon tri-logo card is shown at this link:
http://www.toymania.com/334archives/clash/pack.htm

All card packaging featured the same artwork for each of the characters, and was used only for the the Mattel action figure line. Below is the back of the Canadian card showing the collection of figures. Unfortunately this card has some discolouration on the back. The back of the US cards have an additional logo of Perseus holding his shield which I think is really cool! But even better than that are the European card backs which are in full colour. The Kraken is not included on the back of the Euro card, so that specific toy may not have been sold in Europe. However, it could also be that the image of the Kraken simply didn't fit on the back of the card and was omitted. In any case, the Euro cards are the most rare of the three packaging variations.

Variations for Mattel Action Figures

Perseus and Thallo: These two figures were made with dark or light brown painted boots and wristbands resulting in various combinations of each. The figures shown above are from my own collection:
1) Dark brown boots with light brown wrist bands (Shown above on both figures)
2) Light brown boots with dark brown wrist bands (Shown on Thallo, a Perseus figure with this variation is still unconfirmed)
3) All dark brown (Shown on Perseus, a Thallo figure with this variation is still unconfirmed)
4) All light brown (A possible combination that is still unconfirmed for both figures)

Kraken: There are two distinct variations of the Kraken figure. Some of them were spray painted with yellow paint on the chest area and some were not. There are two different ways that the yellow paint was applied, for a total of three variations:
1) no yellow spray paint
2) large area of yellow spray paint on chest and highlights on face
3) small area of yellow spray paint on chest only


Custom Figures
If, like me, you wished when you were a kid that there were more characters included in Mattel's Clash of the Titans action figure series, take a look at these awesome custom figures and then weep for what could have been!!!
http://www.actionfigurepics.com/2013/12/cc36-clash-of-the-titans-by-joshua-izzo

Pegasus and She-Ra, Princess of Power
In 1984 Mattel re-used the Clash of the Titans Pegasus figure for their She-Ra action figures line. Somehow Mattel managed to enlarge the mould for Pegasus quite significantly so that it would be in scale with the larger She-Ra and He-Man figures. The Clash of the Titans Pegasus is 5 inches tall from head to foot (without the wings) while the She-Ra Pegasus is at least an inch taller at 6 inches. In the She-Ra series Pegasus became Swift Wind with rooted doll hair for the mane and tail. The wings no longer attached to the horse and instead attached to the saddle, which is held on with a strap under the horse's tummy.

The same larger sized mould of Pegasus was also used to make each of She-Ra's friends a flying horse. For example, the male character named Bo road on his blue Pegasus horse named Arrow, hence "Bo and Arrow". Other winged horses in the collection include Storm, Sliver Storm, Crystal Sun Dancer, Crystal Moonbeam, Crystal Swift Wind, and Royal Swift Wind. I know very little about the She-Ra series, so some of these names might be wrong, and there may be others that I've missed. Today some of these She-Ra horses found mint in the box sell for about as much as a mint in the box Clash of the Titans Pegasus.

A brief rant about over inflated prices for Clash of the Titans memorabilia

A trend that I have noticed in regards to Clash of the Titans collectables in recent years is that online sellers have been pricing items as though they have found the last surviving copy on earth! It doesn't matter what Clash of the Titans items you are looking for, it could be a puzzle, a book, a board game, a button or a poster, it really doesn't matter. Sellers are now pricing Clash of the Titans memorabilia through the roof as though there is some mad rush for the stuff! Therefore as an obsessed fan of this movie, I'd like to go on record and state that this outrageous pricing is completely ridiculous!!!! I'm one of the fanatics of the movie who actually collects this stuff yet I would never in a million years pay that kind of money for it!

The only reason prices are being inflated is because the Mattel action figures have maintained their popularity among collectors, but even those items have a limit as to what their true value is! Just because the action figures are popular doesn't mean that every other item that has to do with the film is worth crazy money. In addition, just because something is vintage doesn't mean it's worth hordes of cash, it just means it's old! 

So let me confirm a few things upfront about Clash of the Titans collectables.... a puzzle or a board game is not worth anything near $200, or even $100 for that matter!  A 3 inch button is not worth $30! A T-shirt transfer is not worth $40, especially if it's faded! The wrist watch is not worth $100!!! The tin lunchbox is not worth anything close to $100 and it never will be! And especially not if there is a speck of rust anywhere on it! Items that are easily damaged, such as the Ben Cooper kids costumes, are worth a fair amount but only if they are complete in original undamaged packaging and in excellent to mint condition! You can't just slap a crazy number on it! I'd say no more than $150 for a perfect, undamaged, boxed costume. Mind you, I'd never pay that much for a costume either, but there are Ben Cooper collectors out there that might.

As for the action figures, the Mattel Kraken is not worth $1000 in any condition! Sorry folks, it's a hunk of plastic and a mass produced toy at that! Several thousands of them were made so they are certainly not rare by a landslide! According to e-bay many Kraken toys are still in the box, so there isn't going to be a shortage of the Mattel Kraken any time soon. Plenty to go around! I can understand it being worth two or three hundred dollars, but if the Kraken was actually worth $1000 Mattel would have reissued it by now to cash in on the demand... which does not exist! 

Same goes with the figures. There is no way they are worth $200 a piece! That's just stupid!!! I never use that word, but I'm using it now... STUPID! Sorry to say it, but someone would have to be an idiot to pay that much for a mass produced item that isn't even rare! There's thousands of those figures on cards, not hundreds, thousands! Just because you can't see all the thousands of them on e-bay all at the same time in one place doesn't mean they don't exist out there in the world. They do! These Mattel toys were sold all over the world, not just in the US and Canada!

So to sellers I'd say, if you want crazy money for an item... the piece would have to be perfectly mint in unused condition with all original packaging, and with no faded colours or shelf ware what so ever, plus there would also have to be a crazy, insane, hysterical demand for that specific item in that specific condition. As much as I love Clash of the Titans, and it pains me to say it, but there just isn't that kind of hype out there for the film. There just isn't! We're not talking about Star Wars! Crazy obsessed fans of the film like me who document every little detail about it are few and far between. 

So with that being said, we shall continue on with the rest of this blog page..... release the Kraken!!!!!

Puzzles, by Whitman / Western Publishing, 1981

A series of four 14" X 18" puzzles were produced in 1981 showing paintings based on the film. Above is the box for "Perseus Encounters Dioskilos".

The other three puzzles in the series are: "The Kraken Emerges", "Perseus Rides to Victory", and "Perseus Battles Calibos".  The first two of these reuse the Goozee artwork from the North American movie poster with some changes to the background scenery, while the art used for the "Calibos" and "Dioskilos" puzzles was used only for this puzzle series. Below is the side of the box showing all four puzzles.

Books

Here is the paperback novel of the film by Alan Dean Foster, published by Warner Books in 1981. The title "Clash of the Titans" is done in an embossed gold foil which looks awesome, but unfortunately doesn't photograph very well. At the center of the book there are four double sided pages of black and white photos from the movie. I've noticed that there are four variations of this book:
1) A softcover with a gold foil title (shown above)
2) An identical softcover with a silver foil title
3) A softcover with the title at the lower half of the cover and a yellow slash bar across the top right corner
4) A hardcover edition with a paper dust jacket. It looks the same as the above book but doesn't have foil letters.

This is a hardcover storybook based on the film, published by Golden Press / Western Publishing, 1981. The original foil price tag is still on the cover and says $4.95. Some of the illustrations are very well done, such as the Stygian Witches, Bubo, and Charon, but over all I find they could be improved as the style of this book is not as impressive as it could have been. In fact it's almost boring to flip through. I like the artwork of the comic book much better than this. Below is the back cover.

Comic Books

This is a magazine sized comic book (graphic novel) published by Golden Press / Western Publishing in 1981. It is in full colour with a Bristol board-like cover and good quality white paper pages, rather than magazine or comic book type paper. This one has some Kmart price tags on the cover. The back cover is shown below.

Here is the European version of the comic book which has the same content as the one shown above. It was published by ITV Books for Look-in magazine and has an original illustration on the cover that was only used for this edition of the comic. The pages are a lesser quality paper than the Western Publishing version, and the book is slightly thicker. Below is the back cover.

Smith Snacks comic strip ads
Here is an awesome blog page presenting all six of the Clash of the Titans comic strips that ran in British magazines as a promotion for Smith Snaks:
http://bearalley.blogspot.ca/2010/04/clash-of-titans.html

The same blog also shows two full page comic strips of Clash of the Titans that were part of the same promotion for Smith Snaks:
http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/clashs-of-titans-supplemental.html

Peter Paul Cadbury & Mattel Sweepstakes newspaper ad
Here is another illustrated Clash of the Titans ad that ran in newspapers, but this one is not a comic strip. Unfortunately I'm not sure what part of the globe this ad is from:
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/25692985@N07/7094013545/

Magazines

Here is Look-in magazine / Junior TV times No. 28, published by Independent Television Publications in 1981. This was only available in Europe. The paper that this magazine is printed on is similar to newspaper or pulp paper and the pages are very thin. The cover illustration is awesome! I don't think I've seen it used anywhere else. In addition to the article about Clash of the Titans, there are other articles and several comics featuring characters such as Buck Rogers, the Smurfs and TV's Chips. Some are in colour and some is black and white. This is the magazine that goes with the European version of the comic book. There is a small advertisement for the comic inside with the Clash of the Titans article. Below is the centerfold showing Perseus / Harry Hamlin.

Here is the Official Film Poster Magazine for Clash of the Titans from 1981. This is a folded poster sized page with a poster on one side and information about the movie on the other. Below is the unfolded "magazine" showing articles about the film.

The section that is the back cover has this awesome advertisement showing four Clash of the Titans T-Shirt images. These images were also available as iron on transfers in T-Shirt shops.

Here is the other side of the "magazine" showing the poster. This is one of the international poster images used in Spain. However the international version does not have English text.

Here is a closer look at the detail of the poster. This artwork is very well done and for once we have a poster that doesn't give away any scenes from the film!

Here is Cinefantastique magazine Volume 10, Number 2, Winter 1980. It has several very in depth articles about the making of Clash of the Titans and many behind the scenes photos.

This is Starlog magazine Number 46, May 1981. It has a four page article about Clash of the Titans which includes an interview with Harry Hamlin.

Movie Posters

Thanks to the awesomeness of e-bay I was able to find this original Italian Clash of the Titans poster from 1981. I love the Italian title "Scontro Di Titani"!

Here's a closer look at the artwork for the Italian poster. There were several different posters for the film, and this is one of my favourites. This is an awesome piece of artwork.

Here is another awesome piece of artwork. This is the poster that was available through Post Cereal as a mail away offer in 1981. (I took the photo with the poster lying flat to post it here).

This poster is in rough shape because it's an original Clash of the Titans item from my childhood. It used to be my brothers but he gave it to me several years ago (my big brother is awesome!). I was always jealous that my parents ordered the poster for him and not me, but as my brother and I shared the same bedroom I got to see the poster anyway. There is a section along the right side of the poster for placing the stickers that came free inside boxes of Post Cereal (Alphabits and Sugar Crisp). I helped my brother to collect them all, but we never found Zeus or Medusa. We would have been missing Perseus too but my brother traded his cookies to a kid at school who had the Perseus sticker on his lunchbox!

Many years later with the help of e-bay I managed to find all the stickers in mint condition. Some are still in the original wrapper. (The Bubo sticker shown above might a reproduction, as it is a reverse image from the sticker that I have on the poster, and has different backing paper than the others.)

Post Cereal also offered a kid-sized plastic belt buckle that a sticker could be placed onto. Like the poster, the belt buckle could only be acquired through the mail. I'm not sure how many kids would be so excited about having a belt buckle that they would mail away for one, or ten for that matter! Other than the artwork on the back of the cereal box, I've never actually seen one of those belt buckles. Found on their own without a sticker, there would be no way to associate the belt buckle to Clash of the Titans or Post Cereal, as they are just a plain square shape with no logos or text. Frankly, it's odd that the belt buckles were offered at all.

Now and then the original Post cereal boxes advertising these Clash of the Titans stickers and posters will show up on e-bay. So far I've seen an Alpha-bits box and a Sugar-Crisp box. I find they are a bit pricey for cereal boxes. Front and back views of the Sugar Crisps box can be seen at this link: http://www.battlegrip.com/tag/ebay/

As for the Post cereal version of the poster, I've never seen it on e-bay and suspect it is quite rare in any condition. The same Dan Goozee artwork was used on other Clash of the Titans movie posters, so it is not hard to find a different version of this poster in better condition.

Update: In Sept. 2012 I received an e-mail from Grant, a very enthusiastic fan of Clash of the Titans who said that he had had the Post Cereal poster when he was a kid. For a few years now, Grant has been looking for this poster and, apparently, mine is the first one he's seen! He asked for some additional pictures of the poster, so here they are...

 The poster does not say Post Cereal on it anywhere. The only information is the MGM logo and copyright.

This is a close up of the artists' signature from the bottom left corner of the poster. I've never been able to make it out, but after searching online I've finally discovered the artists' name is Dan Goozee. He's created many popular film posters including Moonraker (James Bond). Here is his website:
http://www.dangoozee.com/Site/DanGoozee.com.html

I also found an excellent interview online in which Mr. Goozee discusses the many different projects he's worked on:
http://www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-1978-interviews/dan-goozee-galactica.tv-interview.html

During the interview Mr. Goozee mentions some of the film posters he's done, including Clash of the Titans, and that most of the original paintings were done in acrylic, and are 40 X 60 inches!

The side of the poster had white squares where the stickers went. The sticker of Zeus is missing from the space above, and Medusa is missing below. There wasn't any specific order to the placement of the stickers, but my brother and I decided to follow the order that was shown on the back of the Post cereal box. That's Burgess Meredith underneath the mask on the Ammon sticker!

Even though this exact scene never happens in the movie, this painting of Perseus and Pegasus was used as a logo to market the film. Unfortunately my poster has a fold crease right through Perseus' face.

Other Collectables

Here is a 3 inch button by Factors Etc. shown next to the Mattel Perseus figure for size comparison. The copyright date says 1980 which makes me wonder if these buttons were distributed before the film was released in 1981. I've also seen buttons featuring Perseus, Calibos, Zeus and Bubo.

I found these two notebooks on e-bay! (Shown above and below) They have 40 sheets of lined paper inside with a spiral spine and were made by Stuart Hall Co. in 1981. I haven't seen these online since I bought them so I suspect they are not very common. I also wonder if a matching pencil case set or any other school supplies were made. The original price tag says .77 cents!

This is very awesome! It's a poster sized colouring book by Whitman / Western Publishing from 1981. The original artwork on the cover is the best part of this and was only used for this book. What an amazing painting! It would be amazing to see the original artwork without all the text. I always wonder what happens to paintings like this. Hopefully it's still in good condition in someone's collection, or on someone's wall, and not destroyed or neglected. It's a very cool piece of artwork! Below is the back cover showing the posters already coloured in.

I find it interesting that the following year in 1982 Western Publishing also made a similar poster sized Masters of the Universe colouring book, shown above. The back cover is shown below.

Here is a card showing the Hildebrant poster artwork that was used on the first VHS release of the movie. This card was produced in 1994 by Comic Images and is from a series of collector cards featuring "The Brothers Hildebrant" fantasy art paintings. I've shown the front and back above. Rather than his red cape and white toga, Perseus is shown wearing a blue cape and a matching blue Speedo! However, his sword and sandals are movie accurate.

 

As a result of the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, Funko produced this Bubo the Owl Wacky Wobbler bobble head. Isn't he cute! I wasn't too thrilled with the remake but I'm glad they did one as otherwise this Bubo bobble head may not have been made. A Bubo action figure wasn't offered back in 1981, so 30 years later I'm very happy to finally see this one! Below is the front and back of the box for Bubo.

I find it quite hypocritical that while Warner Brothers opted to snub Bubo in the remake with the now infamous remark "Leave it!", in reality the company couldn't leave Bubo out of their merchandizing plans! Notice the scene with Bubo's two second cameo is shown on the back of the box! Bubo also has a silent role in the 2012 sequel to the remake, Wrath of the Titans. Clearly Warner Brothers has realized by now that Ray Harryhausen's mechanical owl has a fan base! Bubo, you're a Star! (Which is only fitting as some of his friends are constellations!)

In 2010 Safari Ltd. released this PVC figure of Medusa which is very clearly based on the Ray Harryhausen design from Clash of the Titans. This is a 4 inch figure that looks great next to the Mattel action figures, especially as Mattel didn't include Medusa in their collection. I found this one at Micheal's Craft Store. Safari Ltd. also makes an awesome Minotaur figure, shown below, that is the same size as the Mattel figures. Here is their website: http://safariltd.com/

On the topic of PVC figures, Papo makes awesome figures of Cerberus and a Centaur that are scaled to the Mattel figures. Here is the Papo website: http://www.papo-france.com/

In August 2014 I found this set of Greek Mythology figures at Toys R Us. The set includes Hercules, Zeus, Medusa and Perseus, and was produced by Toys R Us under their brand name "True Legends". Based on today's standards for action figures, this set is of lower quality with limited articulation. However, for the low price point of only $9.99 for the set of four, I think these toys are quite well made and the sculpting of the figures is extremely well done. (There are similar toys on the market, such as the Papo and Safri PVC figures shown above, for which just one figure is the same price if not more.) Unfortunately the painting is not as detailed as most figures, for example Zeus' eyes and mouth are not painted, but as a fan of Greek Mythology, and Clash of the Titans, I think this set is well worth owning.

The back of the box lists the other two items available in this collection, and shows that each figure comes with a "key" to place in a hole in the figure's back. This allows for the torso of the figure to be turned side-to-side, simulating a sword fighting motion. In reality, it's a creative way to make use of a screw hole that had to be there anyways!

Here is the Hydra Dragon with...er, two heads instead of nine! Still, it's a very cool looking dragon toy and it comes with the Hercules figure.

The other item in the collection is the "Ancient Warrior Warship" which comes with a giant octopus and both Hercules and Perseus. This means that the Zeus and Medusa figures are only available in the boxed set of four figures.

I found the action figures of Medusa and Perseus to be quite interesting. Both of them are clearly based on Clash of the Titans. Medusa has a snake body which, like the Safari figure above, is clearly based on the 1981 Clash of the Titans movie, though in this case the snake body is shown as two "snake legs" that are wound together. The Perseus figure is clearly based on the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans. I like this one much better than the official Perseus/Sam Worthington action figure that was released at the time (which I didn't bother with). This Perseus has an especially awesome shield showing Medusa's face, which story wise in Greek Mythology is a bit odd as this is supposed to be Athena's shield, but it's too cool to complain about. It does make me wish for an Athena action figure though!

The Medusa figure is especially awesome because she has an extendable neck! Very weird!!!

 Here's a closer look at Medusa's face which is perfectly sculpted! It's too bad her mouth was left unpainted.

The other two figures in the set are Hercules and Zeus. Both are well done. I like how crazy this Zeus looks with his evil lightning bolt eyebrows!

The set of figures came packaged with this awesome insert that looks really good displayed with.....

 ...Mattel's Clash of the Titans figures! But of course!

Here is Mattel's Perseus next to the set of Toys R Us figures for size comparison. Medusa looks perfect next to the Mattel Perseus. If Mattel had made a Medusa figure I suspect it would have looked very much like this one.

Here's one more view of the Perseus figure, and the awesome Medusa shield!!! Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Clash of the Titans on Home Video/DVD
It's interesting to look back at all of the different home video formats for Clash of the Titans. Since the movie was released in 1981 it had arrived just in time for the home video market boom in the 1980s. The film was a logical choice for MGMs catalogue of movies that were made available in each new format. I recall the technology developed rather quickly. 

Laser Disc and Video Disc are often confused as being the same thing, but they are two very different formats. A Laser Disc is essentially a record album sized DVD, while a Video Disc is encased in a plastic cover, very much like a computer floppy disc... remember those! Both of these formats didn't last very long. Then came the battle between Beta and VHS tapes. It was drawn out over a couple of years but ultimately Beta lost out, making Beta tapes harder to find today. VHS enjoyed a monopoly for many years but died out rather quickly when DVDs were introduced. Blue Ray hasn't knocked out DVDs the way many people thought. Now everything is going digital which I don't think is any fun at all... there's no nifty box to collect!

With all of these formats its interesting to note that the VHS home video version of the film is the same as all of the DVD releases of the film. I did an experiment once where I paused a frame of the VHS movie and a frame of the DVD movie side by side (on my TV and my laptop). The VHS release was done in the full-screen (Pan and Scan) format meaning that some of the image was cropped of the left and right sides to make the picture big enough to fill the TV screen. The DVD is supposed to be the widescreen (letterbox) version, meaning that black bars were added to the top and bottom of the video image to fill in where the movie picture wasn't big enough for the TV screen. This is supposed to preserve the complete movie without any loss of image, both the VHS and DVD paused frames were identical. As such, I firmly believe that the complete widescreen version of the film, as it was seen in theatres, has never actually been released on DVD. It would be interesting to take a look at the Laser Disc and Video Disc version of the film to see how they compare to the DVD version!

In any case, sometime after the first VHS release of Clash of the Titans (which came in a large silver cardboard box) public interest in the film diminished considerably. There was a period in the 1990s, before the Internet came along, when the movie was essentially forgotten for some time. The second VHS release (shown below) was originally only available as a special order through video stores and was quite costly. I paid $30 for my copy back in the early to mid 1990s, when the average price for a VHS movie was $10. Today, you can find the same VHS copy in a thrift store for $1. The movie started to make a comeback in 1996 when it received a wider release in a special plastic case. From there it was onward and upward!

Some of these formats are still missing from my collection, but what I do have is shown below:

Laser Disc with cover that opens, North American poster on cover (Kraken scene)

Laser Disc with Hildebrandt artwork on cover (Perseus in blue outfit)

Video Disc Hildebrandt artwork on cover

Beta Home Video Hildebrandt artwork on cover, large silver box

1st VHS Home Video release Hildebrandt artwork on cover, large silver cardboard box with flap on front

2nd VHS Home Video release (Shown above) Hildebrandt artwork on cover, standard box, released in 1992.

3rd VHS Home Video release Photo collage on cover showing Zeus's head above title, Perseus in lower right corner, large white plastic box, released in 1996.

4th VHS Home Video release (Shown above) Same cover art as 3rd VHS release but on a standard cardboard cover, also from 1996.

1st DVD release with cardboard case (shown above), Goozee art on cover. Released in 2002. The disc is shown below with the cover artwork printed on it. Very cool!!!

2nd DVD release with plastic case (shown above) and metallic/reflective cardboard sleeve, 2010 re-release with a new photo collage on cover (the bright yellow spot in the center is from the flash). Below is the disc, which only has text printed on it. Ho-hum!

3rd DVD release (Shown above) Here is Clash of the Titans on DVD, released in 2011. The movie is included in this 4 film DVD set (2 discs) along with "Troy" starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom, "Alexander" starring Colin Ferrell, and lastly "Antony and Cleopatra" starring Charlton Heston. That's some pretty awesome company!

1st Blu Ray DVD with limited edition hard cover book (Shown above) This was sold in 2010 at the same time as the 2nd DVD release with same metallic cover art, only in this case the packaging is designed to include the book. Also, for this cover Medusa, the rocks, the Kraken, Pegasus and the title are all embossed which is very cool! Below is the disc from this set with a photo of Perseus/Harry Hamlin on it. Very cool!

Here are some pages from the book, which is in full colour. It has many awesome images from the movie. Unfortunately most of the text in this book is quite poorly written. Here is an example of the rambling text from page three:

"For the Greeks, the gods were different from man only in that the higher one was raised, the harder one would fall. And from the towering heights of Mt. Olympus, many gods fell - and fell hard. Such is the tradition of tragedy, the lifeblood of drama, the power of a tale told by mortals to mortals about beings that were of a higher order and yet just as subject to human flaw as any of us." Huh????

Later the book provides brief biographies for each of the key actors as well as Ray Harryhausen, and highlights each of the creatures. The unnamed author (nobody took credit for writing this book) states in Harry Hamlin's bio that Hamlin was in the movie Dragonslayer. Huh???? Not sure how someone could mistake Peter MacNicol for Harry Hamlin??? LOL!!!

In addition to the book, the Blue Ray DVD came with a small booklet to promote the remake, which was soon to be released in theaters. A sticker promoting the remake was also attached to the cellophane and an insert for the back of the packaging shows the book and DVD.

 

2nd Blu Ray DVD (Shown above) Here at last is a two pack set with the original 1981 film and the 2010 remake. I was expecting this to happen eventually! This was bought in Feb 2014 by special order at HMV, as they weren't carrying it in store. I suspect this was released in 2013 or early 2014.

The disc for the 1981 film is the exact same (including content) as the 1st Blu Ray DVD release.

Wrath of the Titans (2010) DVD (Shown above) This is an illustrated sequel to the original 1981 movie and is based on the Wrath of the Titans comic book series, published by Bluewater Comics. As the cover is illustrated I was expecting this to be an animated program, but unfortunately it isn't. This is a low budget "motion comic" which means that the comic book illustrations are shown as voice actors read the dialogue. A mini 24 page comic book about the Cyclops is also included however Perseus is not in the story (though he is featured in the "motion comic" story). Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed with this DVD as I was expecting it to be an animated film.

Ray Harryhausen Collectables

Here is Cinefantastique magazine Volume 11, Number 4, December 1981. This issue was published a year after the Clash of the Titans issue shown above. It has an amazing 22 page article about Ray Harryhausen's earlier career...as you can see on the cover it says "The Early Years: 1920 - 1957". There are also several awesome photos showing behind the scenes of various Harryhausen films.

Here is the Bible for Ray Harryhausen fans. "Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life" was published in 2003. This is a huge, thick book with everything you want to know about Mr. Harryhausen's career as a stop-motion artist. As you can see Clash of the Titans is featured on the cover! Below is a side view to show how gi-normous this book is.

In 2006 Ray Harryhausen gave his fans yet another awesome and gi-normous Bible to oogle over. "The Art of Ray Harryhausen" has many additional photos and drawings not shown in the "Animated Life" book. There are also several close up pictures of the stop motion model figures from various movies including Clash of the Titans.

It just keeps getting better! In 2008 Ray Harryhausen produced a third amazing huge Bible of stop-motion animation "A Century of Model Animation: From Melies to Aardman". Who better to write about the history of this art than Ray Harryhausen! In addition to more behind the scenes of his own work, he discusses everything else you can think of that is stop-motion, from the Pillsbury Doughboy to Star Wars!

Issue No 8 of Starlog, Sept 1977 (only a few years before Clash of the Titans was released) there is a detailed section about "model animation" and the bottom left cover says "Behind-the-scenes with Ray Harryhausen and other tabletop Gods".

Official Ray Harryhausen Website

Of course, the best place to learn more about Ray Harryhausen is his official website:

http://www.rayharryhausen.com/

Clash of the Titans 2010

This is Famous magazine from March 2010 with a feature article about the remake of Clash of the Titans. Personally, I thought the remake was awful! Harryhausen's movie has 1000 times more charm than the remake, and the creatures are much more interesting. Still, it's impressive that the original Clash of the Titans can generate enough attention 30 years later to support a multi-million dollar film.

Here is Entertainment Weekly magazine from April 2010 with the remake on the cover along with an inset photo of Harry Hamlin as Perseus! The article includes a section titled "Where are they now?" which updates readers about what the original actors of Clash of the Titans have done in the last three decades. Perhaps the most notable is Maggie Smith who played Thetis. She appeared in the Harry Potter films as Professor McGonagall.

Wrath of the Titans 2012

Lastly we have the Tribute magazine from March 2012 with the sequel "Wrath of the Titans" on the cover. I thought this was a much better film that the remake. The characters are more interesting, Perseus is no longer a whiny rebellious jerk who hates his father, and Bubo gets another cameo but this time he his worshiped... as he rightfully should be! :)

Other Clash of the Titans collectables that I've seen

There are still many more collectible out there based on the original Clash of the Titans movie. Here are the ones that I know of:

Items from 1980 / 1981

Boardgame by Whitman / Westerm Publishing

Book The Novelization of the Movie came in four variations:

Softcover with title in gold foil lettering (shown above at top of this page)

Softcover with title in silver foil lettering

Softcover with title at lower half of cover and yellow "slash" bar at top right corner

Hardcover with paper dust jacket, title is not in foil letters

Bubo Shaped Radio This is an unofficial / bootleg Clash of the Titans item

Children's Costumes by Ben Cooper: Medusa, Calibos, Kraken, Perseus and Bubo, each sold separately in a window box

Inflatable Pegasus This is for small kids to sit on... kids who would be too young to watch this movie!!! This is a rare and very bizarre item!

Lobby Cards Different sets were made for different countries, same as the posters, but I have yet to figure out how many sets were made, or how many photos were in each set. These are very different from the Press Photos that were also avaiable, as the Lobby Cards have a border with the title and/or artwort taken from one of the posters. There are at least 8 cards in a set, but sometimes more.
Lunchbox, Orange Plastic, paper sticker photo on front, comes with plastic Thermos
Lunchbox, Tin with plastic Thermos (this thermos has an illustration on it)
Magazines:

American Cinamatographer, June 1981, Kraken scene on cover

Chillers, Sept 1981, Calibos on cover

Cinefex, No 5, July 1981, Medusa's face on cover

Cinema Programm, "Kampf Der Titanen" (German) cover pics: Perseus fighting two headed dog, Calibos, Andromeda with Perseus

Famous Monsters No 169, Nov 1980, Ray Harryhausen mentioned on cover

Famous Monsters No 175, July 1981, Clash of the Titans, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark on cover

Famous Monsters No 182, April 1982, Stigian Witches on lower half of cover

Famous Monsters: Warren Presents The Official Exclusive Film Fantasy Yearbook March 1982

Fangoria, Vol 2, No 12, April 1981, small picture of Medusa on cover sidebar

Fantastic Films, Vol 4, No 1, Aug 1981, photo of Medusa's face at lower right corner of cover, with Superman II, Outland, Raiders of the Lost Ark

Film Review, July 1981, Clash of the Titans and Excalibur on cover

Photoplay Movies & Video, 1981, Clash listed on cover, photo of  Burt Reynolds & Farrah Fawcett 

Starburst, No 35, 1981, four movie photos on cover, one is of Perseus fighting Scorpions

Starlog, No 38, Close Encounters spaceship on cover, "Clash of the Titans" listed on cover but no picture

Starlog, No 45, 1981, p 70, short "next month" article about "Cash of the Titans", photo of Perseus and Calibos

Super Mag, Vol 5, No 11, Perseus and Pegasus logo on cover

Movie Posters:

English - Hildebrant art (Perseus in blue outfit)

English - Goozee art with photos of actors along right side in separate squares

French - "Le Choch de Titans" with new/original art

Turkey - "Son Emir", same art as French Poster

Croatia - "Borba Titana" with Goozee art

Japan - With new/original collage

Japan Program - Same collage as Japan poster on cover

Asia - With new/original collage, different from Japan poster

Spain - "Furia de Titanes", same artwork as poster in "Official Film Poster Magazine" shown above

Original Soundtrack, Cassette Tape, Perseus and Pegasus logo on cover

Original Soundtrack, Record Album, Perseus and Pegasus logo on cover

Original Soundtrack, Compact Disc, Perseus and Pegasus logo on cover, unconfirmed if this is an official release or a bootleg item

Press Photos / Press Kits There were at least two different photo sets available. One set is black and white and the other is in colour. I have yet to sort out how many photos are in each set. Press Kits came in a folder and have two or three photocopied pages of text. These press photos are not to be confused with the lobby cards mentioned above.

Promotional Flyer / Poster folds open to reveal Goozee art

T-shirt Transfers These were sold in T-shirt shops which had many binders filled with transfer images to choose from. As the transfers were often used right away to be put onto a t-shirt, finding the unused transfers can be tricky! I've seen designs for Perseus, Perseus with Pegasus (from Goozee movie poster), Bubo, and Calibos 

Wristwatch with Perseus and Pegasus logo, beige strap

 

More recent items to be based on the original movie

Statue of Bubo by Gentle Giant, Limited Edition

Action Figures, Kraken, Calibos, Medusa, sold individually in boxes, may have been made by Gentle Giant, these might be bendy figures or statues rather than action figures, each sold in a large window box

Mini Busts Set, Kraken, Medusa and Calibos, may have been made by Gentle Giant

Kraken Bust May have been made by Geometric Designs, and is entirely different than the above mini kraken bust

Medusa Model Kit May have been made by Geometric Designs

Kraken Model Kit May have been made by Geometric Designs

Bubo the Owl Model Kit by Larson Designs, 2000

Comic books, Wrath of the Titans comic book series, based on original movie

Perseus 12" Doll, based on Wrath of the Titans Comic book, includes a Bubo figure

Charon 12" Doll, based on Wrath of the Titans Comic book

Bubo costume prop, shoulder accessory for Perseus costume based on the 2010 film remake

 

Ray Harryhausen

June 29, 1920 -Sept 12, 2013

His work will always be with us but it is his absence that makes the world poorer and duller and somewhat void of magic. For when a great wizard leaves this earth a little of his magic goes with him.

- Guillermo del Toro (Director/Writer/Producer)

[Quote from the official Ray Harryhausen website]

http://www.rayharryhausen.com/tributes.php

 

 

 

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