Hellas Kosmos Video (Greece)

(1989-1996)

Nicknames: "E<", "EK", "The E</EK of Doom", "ThePersonification of All That is Funky", "That Technoriffic Logo Before Greek Ninja Turtles Tapes", "EK of Doom"; "EK of Death"

Logo: Against a dark space background with stars and planets that slowly zooms in, a red rectangle zooms out, leaving a residue trail behind it. A red and blue chevron shape pointing to the left comes in from the right and morphs into an "arrow" shape as it passes through the rectangle. Soon after, two blue lines zoom out from the left leaving a residue trail like the rectangle did, arranging themselves onto the left of the "arrow", forming a segmented blue "EK" that is red in the middle. Then, the words "ΕΛΛΑΣ KOΣMOΣ" (written in Greek) are wiped in by a ball of light from left to right and the words zoom in for a second. Then, the word "VIDEO" (which is half light-blue, half dark-blue) appears piece-by-piece (since it is segmented). The rectangle then fills with white.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The effects look primitive, even for its time.

Music/Sounds: A loud "whoosh" is heard as the rectangle zooms out, followed by a dark, creepy synth-line that turns into a cool techno theme, accompanied by the synthesized windchime sound.

Availability: Rare. Can be seen on old Greek videos from the 80s and 90s, including Blood Nasty, The Dark Side, Deadly Embrace, Slaughter of the Innocents, Operation Golden Phoenix, Ski School 2, Relative Fear, Aenigma, and The Paper Boy, among others. Also spotted on some Greek VHS tapes of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

Scare Factor: Medium to nightmare. The jarringly loud "whoosh" at the beginning can catch one off-guard. The synth tune and dark background don't help either, but the techno riff sort of turns the setting from dark and creepy to upbeat and futuristic, in a loose definition of the word.