New Titles, Familiar Pictures: The Dynamagic Films on VHS

The titles change, but the picture gives the game away. A leaping ninja, an armored villain and a woman in a flowered kimono appear in Peregrine’s Dynamagic catalog. The same three figures return on Celebrity’s 1988 Just for Kids sell sheet—under a different film title.

Same picture, new promise

Dynamagic catalog detail: find the three figures, then compare the red sell-sheet detail below. Peregrine Film Distribution.

The matching figures on Celebrity’s red sell sheet, cropped for comparison. Celebrity Home Entertainment, 1988.

The catalog calls the film The Dagger of Kamui. The sell sheet calls it Revenge of the Ninja Warrior. Even the dagger’s promise about the hero’s past and destiny survives, with the earlier title shortened out of the sentence. The repeated artwork and adapted wording make the relationship visible before you read the small company credits.

The running time changes too: the catalog prints 103 minutes, while the sell sheet offers 96. These are the figures on the paper, not timings of a tape we have played. Dynamagic catalog; 1988 dealer sheet.

The robot on the other side

Turn over the dealer sheet and the red ninja scene becomes a blue robot scene: Macross in Clash of the Bionoids. This side offers the film at $29.95, with 92 minutes printed below. The Peregrine logo appears alongside Celebrity’s distribution information.

The catalog synopsis continues beyond the conflict between two armies to a rock-star heroine. Peregrine Film Distribution.

Both versions begin with the same phrase: “A race of giant male bionoids from outer space.” The difference comes after the second army arrives:

Catalog	Dealer sheet
Continues through the attacks on Macross and a heroine whose music may save it.	Ends at the three-way conflict between humans and the two bionoid armies.

The dealer sheet turns the film into an orderable item: $29.95, 92 minutes and catalog number CHE 3008. Celebrity Home Entertainment · 1988 dealer sheet.

Here the strongest match is in the copy. The sell sheet repeats the catalog’s opening account of humans caught between male and female bionoid armies, then stops before the longer synopsis reaches the rock-star heroine. A theatrical adventure has become a compact retail pitch.

What the paper can connect

The shared art and copy are clear; the sources disagree about the package’s chronology. The competing dates are recorded in the source note.

Source note: dates, running times and complete catalog views

These artifacts establish a shared sales vocabulary: the same images, related titles, shortened copy and Peregrine’s name on Celebrity’s sheet. The chronology is less tidy. The catalog uploader dates it to 1986, but the photographed pages do not print that date. A 1990 Animag chronology instead describes Peregrine’s 1987 acquisition and a 1988 Dynamagic video package sold to Celebrity. A later secondary account describes an earlier television-syndication package. Those accounts should not be flattened into a single certain sequence.

Animag no. 11, p. 13: a period chronology whose dates and description differ from the later account. Animag no. 11 · Pacific Rim Publishing, 1990, p. 13.

Peregrine’s catalog presents The Dagger of Kamui with the three-figure composition. Peregrine Film Distribution · Dynamagic catalog.

The catalog’s Clash of the Bionoids spread. Its opening synopsis reappears in shortened form on the dealer sheet. Peregrine Film Distribution · Dynamagic catalog.

Celebrity reuses that composition for Revenge of the Ninja Warrior. Compare the leaping figure, bald villain and kimono below. Celebrity Home Entertainment · 1988 dealer sheet.

The catalog’s date comes from its uploader. The 1988 date is printed in Celebrity’s artwork copyright. Animag no. 11 (1990), p. 13, supplies the period chronology. Differing published running times can describe different edits or errors; they do not establish the contents of an individual cassette. The complete source records remain below.

The paper’s clearest story is smaller and more tangible. One side is blue, one side red; two elaborate animated films become two $29.95 offers. A familiar picture and a few surviving sentences connect the new titles to the earlier sales pitch.