I am always interested in news about video-cassettes since there is very little of it these days. Consigned to the waste-bin of dead technologies alongside 8 Track Cartridges, Laserdisc, Minidisc et al, video has a special place in my heart, as I saw it rise in my youth and fall in my Forties.
Having grown up with it I have long collected videos, especially the older big box VHS tapes [and a few Betamax but sadly no Video 2000] and have a substantial 'library' of books about video.
So I was surprised to see video get a decent journalistic piece on UK TV's One Show last night. Under discussion were the impossibility of finding a VCR nowadays [maybe find one in bigger charity electrical shops], the demise of video at car boot sales and charity shops [ who tend not to accept them now] and the problems that video-cassettes pose for landfill owing to the toxins they contain.
Rarity was also discussed. Now I have many rare videos in my collection but they are all from the initial years of the technology and largely from the mid to late 1980's. So I was astonished to find out that one of the rarer videos is a relatively modern box set - the Dr. Who End of the Universe collection from 2003 when video was already on the wane.
Now if my research is correct this BBC box set was released in the US only, so I can understand why its rare here in the UK, but is it rare in America? What has made it rare?
Wiki lists the set as follows:
The End of the Universe Collection - This release was exclusive to the US market to celebrate the 40th anniversary and contained the last 13 stories yet to be released on VHS. These were The Sensorites, The Reign of Terror, The Time Meddler. The Gunfighters, The Faceless Ones, The Web of Fear, The Ambassadors of Death, The Mutants,Invasion of the Dinosaurs, The Invisible Enemy, The Creature from the Pit, The Horns of Nimon and Meglos. It was released in October 2003.
Not being a big Who fan, I cannot appreciate the significance of the phrase 'the last 13 stories to be released on VHS', although it sounds special. Just to be sure I checked Amazon US and Amazon Canada for the set and Ebay US and UK, all to no avail. One last stop was the BBC's Dr. Who online shop and as expected they sell only DVD's nowadays.
It would appear that this VHS box set, which came out in 2003 at the very end of the technology, is indeed a rarity. Does anyone actually have it?
POSTSCRIPT: FINLAND'S OWN VHS DALEK DOO DOOS
Further to Arto's educational comment, here is a picture of the rare Finish VHS release of Dr. Who Pyramids of Mars he mentions.
POSTSCRIPT: FINLAND'S OWN VHS DALEK DOO DOOS
Further to Arto's educational comment, here is a picture of the rare Finish VHS release of Dr. Who Pyramids of Mars he mentions.
Share your interest in big box & obsolete VHS Woodsy, thee best finds of this summer being The Dead Zone and Conan - in rental Betamax! Rental videos were issued in runs of some hundreds only, most of them destroyed or rewound useless by now.
ReplyDeleteIn Finland, a country which became Whovian only with Ninth Doctor Christopher Ecclestone, a one-off VHS of the Tom Baker era The Pyramids of Mars was released back in 1988. During all my years of collecting I have come across only one copy. Must be almost as rare as the Dalek doo doo (which I hope I'll never cross paths with).
A Finnish Dalek Doo doo for sure, one on my list of things to look out for now Arto! As for finding Betamax, thats so neat. I hardly ever find any Betamax anymore and you found two cool flicks. I love the Dead Zone with Chris Walken - Tobe Hooper direction i think? - and as for Arnie's Conan, he da man! By the way, do your older cases say V2000 in them as well as VHS and Betamax?
DeleteNot too many I'm afraid, as V2000 was really short-lived a format. The only one I can recall is the recap of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which I hold a real gem.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any Arto so well done. What I meant was do Finnish video-cassette cases, the boxes, have V2000 embossed on the bottom tray along with VHS and Betamax? They were all different cassette sizes but UK cases mention all 3 inside and showed the ideal positioning of each inside the case.
DeleteI remember it being a big box into which contours the cassette fitted like a glove, not sure of the embossed V2000 at the bottom. Will check upon it later.
ReplyDeleteI have a factory sealed set never opened and I am willing to sell it....any interest?
ReplyDelete