10 From the Goodtimes Vault

Back in my video store days, one way the counter jockeys would amuse ourselves was the Ugly VHS Coverbox game. The winner was the one who returned from the aisles less than 30 seconds later with the ugliest coverbox.



One go-to maneuver was the Goodtimes Grab: bring back anything with the shiny-license-plate looking Goodtimes logo and you were sure to have something pretty ugly in your hands.



The front of most Goodtimes coverboxes didn’t even contain their logo. There was just something about them, the singularity of their ugliness, that marked them out as Goodtimes. The blocked-out title card above a badly framed screenshot. The neon ‘80’s print splashed across ‘50’s and ‘60’s graphics. The colors, faded even before meeting the bleaching rays of the sun.



Above are coverboxes I remember mocking back then, in the video store trenches. Below is the counterexample, where conceptual cheese becomes glorious genius.


Thanks to Critical Condition (critcononline.com), whose visual history of ’80’s video companies sent me walking down memory lane.

One more, a movie I've never heard of, but which is just too good to be true.