I read last month that the very last new VCR had been made in Japan this July.
It really is the end of an era.
Video cassettes stopped being sold commercially maybe 10 years ago so a new VCR still in 2016 is good going. The only place to find one now really is at a car boot sale or a charity shop at least here in the UK.
Collectable videos are getting hard to come by too at boot sales here in Blighty. There's still a few normal VHS tapes to be found but very few older big box or clamshells. I think most have been gathered up by video hounds like me!
Not so in Germany, where I recently spent some time. There are still plenty of interesting and collectable videos to be had at Floehmarkte at very reasonable prices. I was amazed.
My haul included one of my favourite box formats, the slim card case, one of which was still sealed in cellophane with the original shop price tag on of 15 marks.
Titles I bagged include Watchers, Driven, Spukschloss in Spessart, ET, Fear City and Ninja Grandmasters of Death.
So, as the final VCR rolled off the production line this summer and tapes become ever scarcer it's becoming even more important to keep some of this dead technology from disappearing altogether.
After all, an archival instinct is part of why we collect anything at all isn't it?
Would you agree readers and does anyone else collect videos ?
I have the 3 Star Cops videos as part of my collection and the BBC's The Pertwee Years because there is a shot of a 21 year old me in it! Apart from that I have moved with the formats.
ReplyDeleteA 21 year old you? On video? We've already seen ypur stuff on the Jonathan Ross show Kev! You're a celebrity! Is it on You Tube perchance? As for formats, I'm a bit of a old technophile. I've got the new formats but I collect the old stuff. Video's were/ are so appealing and store like books in cases which us very satisfying to look at. The sleeve art is a lost art form in itself.
DeleteIt might be on youtube, it is footage from the Longleat 83 celebration. You see the Marquis of Bath, then me,(in a close up of the audience) then Jon Pertwee. I'm the only one left now!
ReplyDeletecan't find the Pertwee Years on You Tube Kev but there are lots of ameteur clips of that Longleat celebration. Din't know if your'e in there, I wouldn't recognise you at that age!
Deleteif ever theres a time for the story of video to be recorded,this is it. Moonbase Central Presents: Tapeworm - The History of the Horror Vid
ReplyDeleteTapeworm! ha ha, I like that. There are plenty of websites on the subject Bill and lots of great books especially of the covers. I'm not sure what I'll do with my collection. I just like owning them! It'll be a pain should we ever move!
DeleteWhat a wonderful haul Woodsy. Just last week stored away two boxes of recent finds, among them the Finnish VHS release of Invasion: UFO, a movie that Scoop wrote about just recently. A rarity and hard to come by! However, my real gem is an early big box release of Andrei Tarkovsky's scifi classic Solaris. A treat reserved for some long, dark night of autumn.
ReplyDeleteCheers Arto. Solaris eh. I haven't got that VHS and even worse I have never seen it! Can you still find video's in Finland?
DeletePlenty on offer for take-for-free prices, but real gems harder to find. Japanese anime is there in the twilight zone as I expect them to become even more collectable later on (some like Galaxy Express 999 already are)
DeleteYes, the take for free or ten for a pound offers are here too Arto but I think the days of any video's at all at car boot sales are fading. They have all but dissapeared from Charity shops. Without VCR's out there people won't buy them and they take up sales space. I have found very little Anime I must say. I do have some Ulysses but in normal boxes.
Deletewell youve educated me about all the sub genres and different ratings. I for one would love to hear the stories behind the covers. Especially, The Nostril Picker!
ReplyDeleteha ha, not sure I'll be going there! Its a family show!
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