So we talked a lot on the most recent CFC episode about how the movie Rad was never really released to the public. Though there was a laser disc issued for the flick, most people who saw it did so via the VHS release back in September of 1986. These cassettes were sold directly to video rental stores (retailing for $150) and the flick was never widely released on mass market VHS to the public, nor has there been an official DVD release. This is why old beat up rental copies of the film on VHS routinely sell on eBay for between $50-200.00, which is kind of insane. Don’t get me wrong, I love this film, literally TO DEATH, and between renting it approximately 100 times back in the 80s and watching my beloved bootleg DVD so many times that the disc actually stopped working this past year I’ve probably spent way more than $200 on seeing it. Luckily this flick has made it into the digital age via a few HD-TV screenings that have been ripped and distributed through some dubious (*cough*torrents*cough*) and less dubious means (you can view the film in its entirety on Youtube.)
Because of this and because it was a small rather independent-ish flick to begin with there wasn’t a ton of merchandising tied to it’s release and therefore the stuff that is out there can be kinda rare. One of my favorite pieces I managed to stumble upon was the below full-page ad in a fall of ’86 issue of Billboard announcing the release of the flick on VHS. Not only is this piece rare because not many regular folks had subscriptions to this industry oriented periodical, but it’s one of the only times I’ve ever seen the source photo of the movie poster’s iconic BMX rider (seen on the VHS box below) un-obscured by the “Predator heat vision” art flourish! That makes this ad just plain, well, RAD!
I’m still lol’ing at “Predator heat vision art flourish.” Good call.
😉