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I do have an ongoing list of such records. Maybe I could start a thread....

Most out of place record find, that prize must go the person who found my copy of the Venom-Bloodlust single on purple vinyl, which I left on the train going home, 30 minutes after buying it

borrel wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 2:48 pm Most out of place record find, that prize must go the person who found my copy of the Venom-Bloodlust single on purple vinyl, which I left on the train going home, 30 minutes after buying it

Oh man, that sucks. Sorry to hear it.

Oof! Sorry to hear that borrel.

I just remembered one from back in the late 90s, though it isn't a record. My mom was working at a craft fair, selling some of her crocheted wares. She decided to check out some of the other vendors and picked up this for me:

Keir wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:19 pm My mom was working at a craft fair, selling some of her crocheted wares. She decided to check out some of the other vendors and picked up this for me

Nice, your mum deserves a generous heaping of 'cool points' for that find. It was official merchandise? From a UK perspective i still find it hard to wrap my head around Grim Reaper's US success. Nothing to do with the quality of their music you understand, it's just that the inroads they made in the US went entirely unreported in the UK press at the time. Outside of hardcore NWoBHM fans they went uncelebrated here, & rarely played live in the UK. Really the 1st time i had an inkling that they might even be a known quantity stateside was when one of their videos was featured on 'Beavis & Butthead', which seemed genuinely shocking/baffling at the time.

bigfootkit wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 5:30 amNice, your mum deserves a generous heaping of 'cool points' for that find. It was official merchandise? From a UK perspective i still find it hard to wrap my head around Grim Reaper's US success. Nothing to do with the quality of their music you understand, it's just that the inroads they made in the US went entirely unreported in the UK press at the time. Outside of hardcore NWoBHM fans they went uncelebrated here, & rarely played live in the UK. Really the 1st time i had an inkling that they might even be a known quantity stateside was when one of their videos was featured on 'Beavis & Butthead', which seemed genuinely shocking/baffling at the time.

Thanks, she is pretty cool!

I think it is official. What I've learned about the name in the corner (Custom-Images Inc) is that they licensed images from different bands to make novelty products that were given away as carnival prizes (you know, knock over enough bottles and choose from a giant teddy bear or a framed Grim Reaper picture!)

Now this might sound contrary to the fact that they showed up on carnival prizes but I'm not sure they were really that big in the US. To be honest, I first heard of them from that Beavis & Butthead episode! Admittedly, I'm a little too young to have known them in their prime (I was 13 when Rock You To Hell came out). Still, I'm sure I would have heard someone talking about them, heard them on one of the metal radio shows I listened to, or seen them on Headbangers Ball, but I didn't.

Keir wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:58 pm I think it is official. What I've learned about the name in the corner (Custom-Images Inc) is that they licensed images from different bands to make novelty products that were given away as carnival prizes (you know, knock over enough bottles and choose from a giant teddy bear or a framed Grim Reaper picture!)

Now this might sound contrary to the fact that they showed up on carnival prizes but I'm not sure they were really that big in the US. To be honest, I first heard of them from that Beavis & Butthead episode! Admittedly, I'm a little too young to have known them in their prime (I was 13 when Rock You To Hell came out). Still, I'm sure I would have heard someone talking about them, heard them on one of the metal radio shows I listened to, or seen them on Headbangers Ball, but I didn't.

After a little googling it seems all 3 of GR's albums charted in the US (No's 73, 108 & 93 on Billboard respectively). Not huge hits then, but that probably equated to very healthy sales in indie metal terms at that time, likely helped by the fact that RCA were by then distributing Ebony product in the States. It may be that they were quite big in certain areas, but not your particular neck of the woods.
According to wikipedia Beavis & Butthead showed the videos for 3 different Grim Reaper songs, 'See You in Hell', 'Fear No Evil' and 'Rock You To Hell', (a fact that made me chuckle just on it's own merits), but i'm sure that name recognition likely helped shift some back catalogue too despite the context.
Your research to discover that your framed art was a carnival prize has me curious as to whether there may have been other NWoBHM merch in a similar vein. Were people back then knocking down coconuts to win Raven branded cuddly toys or Venom cocaine mirrors? I really hope so.

1) A ton of Rock-O-Rama ORIGINAL Cds from the 90's in a small music store in Hohhot (Chinese Mongolia / Inner Mongilia)

2) A lot of Mausoleum Classic ORIGINAL CD in an underground passage between my house and my university while I was working in Qinhuangdao (North east of China)

3) Pokolgep Lp (sorry, I can''t remember which one) at 74th Street in Phnom Penh, while I was digging for local fantasy movies and I found this dusty, forgotten box under the table

Found a copy of "The Grand Sea" by Spectrus in a box of tapes with nothing else interesting, inside an old used books store back in 2009 in a small city by the south of Chile. Didn't knew this demo either but the cover got me and bought it for something like 75 cents. Great brazilian Heavy Metal, totally unknown at least to me.