Creature from the Black Lagoon

Photograph of a complete electro-mechanical playfield-and-cabinet assembly laid flat on a black backdrop, viewed from above through reflective glass. The lower two thirds is a swamp-and-river set: murky green and teal water, brown timber decking and pylons, hanging vines, a half-sunken rowing boat on the left with two helmeted figures in brass-and-black deep-sea diving helmets leaning over its bow, and a huge grey-green scaly amphibious reptile head with round yellow eyes and a wide toothy snout emerging from the water at lower centre. A large circular saucer of concentric blue, violet and white rings glows at lower right like a whirlpool, ringed by chrome rails. Upper playfield is a dense grid of metal posts, wireform ramps and gates under clear plastic covers, with a red-orange lava band across the top edge. Repeated amber/yellow legend plates read CREATURE FEATURE. Two cream apron cards at the bottom carry green-and-black lettering. Glass reflections and a strong diagonal glare streak wash across the glass.

A painted horror-adventure backglass. The left half carries a large four-line title in chunky italic brush lettering with a red-to-yellow gradient and heavy black drop shadow, reading CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, with a small TM beside LAGOON. Behind the title a hazy yellow-green swamp glow fills the upper left. The right half is dominated by a colossal green amphibious monster: a scaly humanoid head with a domed ridged cranium, glowing yellow slit eyes, a wide snarling mouth of sharp teeth, and a finned neck, rising from a black-and-olive striped torso. Across the lower right a giant pale human hand reaches leftward, its fingers tipped with long black claws and bony green knuckle spurs, dwarfing a red-haired woman in a torn red swimsuit who is held upside down, her streaming hair hanging below. Lower centre: a burning white boat named RITA on dark water, palm trees and jungle silhouettes behind it, three smaller green monsters leaping or swimming in the lit haze above. Bottom right, a man in a pith helmet and khaki shirt holds a rifle beside a frightened dark-haired woman. Orange-red italic slogan lettering runs diagonally across the lower centre. A white script maker signature sits top left, and a small crest-like emblem with three caricature heads sits top right.

A horizontally oriented, airbrushed monster-picture backglass on a near-black background. The upper left carries a stacked title in chunky slanted capitals, pink-magenta fading to yellow-green with a purple outline: 'CREATURE' on the top line, the smaller words 'FROM THE', then the largest line 'BLACK LAGOON', with 'IN' and a hyphenated '2-D' in yellow-green block letters just beneath. Right of centre a huge green-scaled amphibious monster, black and emerald with yellow eyes and bared teeth, rises from the black water with white-blue light rays fanning out behind it. In front of the creature a woman in a glossy cobalt-blue one-piece swimsuit is arched backwards horizontally across the panel, her long blonde-brown hair hanging down at the right edge, her head thrown back, while three clawed green hands with long black talons close over her back, hip and thigh. Below her, at lower right, a khaki-shirted man in a pith helmet and wide-brimmed hat grips a woman in a sleeveless top, both mouths open in alarm; beside them a rifle barrel angles up. The left third shows a tropical night lagoon: green-yellow sky glow, silhouetted palm trees, a white moon low over blue water, three leaping or diving figures in green swimsuits, a small glowing golden woman with arms outstretched encircled by ripples, and a blue-hulled boat with a lit cabin and an orange fireball of flame on deck. Across the lower centre, three slanted words in red, orange and lime-green read 'AMAZING!', 'STARTLING!', 'SHOCKING!'.