Vintage Collectibles: 1991 French Terminator 2 Postcards

 


There was a set of postcards released in USA in 1991 which I will cover in another post, but there was also a very nice pair of postcards released in France in 1991 by a company called Sonis, under the license by Carolco International. I usually don't collect non-US collectibles, but sometimes I do exceptions and I did so in this case. 

The set of 2 French postcards has a simple, but great design to them. They look like mini posters, and with all the credits at the bottom the whole thing makes for a nice visual, especially with the icon of the half-man half-machine image that was so heavily used in the States. The credits imposed on it shows it would have made a great theatrical poster as well (I realize this image was made as a poster in US, but only as a teaser, with the metallic title at the bottom. It was never made with credits). Another interesting thing about the icon one is that its a mirror image of the American version. The half-man, half-machine icon used to promote the movie before and during its theatrical run in the States always had the endoskull on its right side, so left side looking in. Cards, stickers, posters, all kinds of apparel, handheld games, Kenner figures - you name it, they all used that version. However, if you're familiar with the endoskeleton design, you know that it's the wrong way around - the CPU port is on the right side of the face, the tiny square indent is on the left. So the US version is actually the wrong, mirrored version, while the image shown on the French postcard and on two games (GameBoy and Nintendo) had it the right way.

If not for the back of the cards, you'd never know those postcards are French. The credits and the movie title on the front is in English. While those postcards don't circulate in US at all, they are quite easy and cheap to find in Europe, so there must have been plenty made and bought.  They make for a great looking collectible.

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