renthony:

My various social media feeds have been full of people watching and genuinely enjoying Steamboat Willie for the first time ever, because they hadn’t thought to watch it until it was in the news.

Something about that appeals to me. Going public domain revitalizes older media and adds new flair, kind of like adding fresh compost to an old garden bed. It makes it fertile ground again, and now anyone can grow anything they want!

Something a little different: Playing through a fascinating, difficult, and bizarre Cuphead ripoff based around the newly-public domain “Steamboat Willie”, and numerous characters from other already-public domain cartoons. See how many (badly traced) elements from different PD classics YOU can spot! Molly Moo Cow, anyone?

If you’re able to post them somewhere for sale, that would be great for a lot of people. I can’t promise you’ll make a fortune off of them, but people will be glad they’re out there, considering how fewer and fewer have turned up in the thrift stores over the last several years. Goodness knows I’d love to see what you’ve got (via a list or what have you). Let us know what you decide!

It’s my 11 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳
Perhaps I should post more things. I did get a handful of tapes last year, and my Kid Video / Hep Cat series is one I was promising scans of for ages. Watch this space….

I would love to see any pics you have: front, back, label, it’s all welcome! Thank you for checking out the page!

vcrfromheck:

SERIES SPOTLIGHT #1: UAV’s Cartoon Classics

Two years into its existence, United American Video put out an eight-tape “gold medal” series, likely (and I’m guessing here) to tie in with that year’s Summer Olympics. While many PD-based titles seemed to play fast and loose with their cartoon selection, these titles ensured that the character on the front cover would be featured in all of the cartoons on the tape. (Exceptions to this rule would be Woody, Foghorn, etc, who each had only one PD cartoon to their name, hence their sharing the cover with other characters.)

An interesting addition to this set is the Donald Duck tape. Apparently, this was the original “Volume 5” in 1988. I had originally guessed that when the Disney cartoons were discovered to no longer be public domain, the 1989 version of this set replaced Donald and Mickey with Porky Pig. (The tapes in my collection are mostly 1989 issues, but I have copies of the Bugs Bunny tape from ‘88 and ‘89, which had helped me to reach this conclusion.) However, while the Donald/Mickey box is copyrighted 1988, the label says 1989! *shrug*

Also in 1989, a second set of “UAV Cartoon Classics” was released, with the roman numeral “II” next to the now-silver medal. The box art was mostly blue, and the artwork was much improved. While the gold set is easy to find on Ebay, the silver-medal tapes are a little more difficult. The known titles in this set are #1: Daffy Duck(*), #2: Felix the Cat, #3: Popeye, #4: Baby Huey, #5: Bugs Bunny, #6: Fat Albert(*), #7: SUperman(**) and #8: The Three Stooges.

(* = found on Amazon, 5/25 and 5/29.)
(** = found on Ebay, 11/26.)

I can’t believe that this post is from over 10 years ago! At any rate, I decided to finally purchase the second set of eight “Classics” tapes seen above, and hope to post some decent scans of everything once I get around to it. Let’s say, within the next several months…just because when I start posting scans again, there will be a lot of them (perhaps everything in my collection that I hadn’t gotten around to yet…certainly the Hep Cat / Kid Video tapes)!

Oh hey, long time no see. Just wanted to confirm that I still retain my fascination with how public domain film was marketed in the VHS era. Thankfully, I’m not alone in that interest, as Ben from “Oddity Archive” has now done a video on how silent film was presented to home viewers, and with what music (sometimes random, sometimes original, often mismatched). Charlie Chaplin, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and more Chaplin! Absolutely worth a watch.

Well, well, look what we have here! A new purchase, perhaps? (The story continues after all…)

Phelous is back (not that he went away, really) and giving Goodtimes Home Video the what-for, this time highlighting a compilation tape of previously-reviewed Disney rip-offs, as well as some (da da da daaaa!) public domain cartoons. Can’t wait to watch!

Nearly ten years ago, I began this Tumblr as a reevaluation of the public domain based tapes in my VHS archives. This brought with it a lot of nostalgia and discovery, but more importantly, a chance to complete a collection: The United American Video / Hep Cat / Kid Video series.

Several years ago, I hit a snag when I was unable to successfully secure (on ebay, thrift stores, or elsewhere) the 3rd and 26th tapes in what had turned out to be a 29-tape set (the actual first tape–basically labelled #0–being a Mickey Mouse volume, which I amazingly discovered at a nearby thrift store). Those shortcomings, a busy life, and a divorce, shifted a lot of my attention away from this Tumblr page.

Nonetheless, I never stopped looking. Around two years ago, I finally found Tape 3 (Mighty Mouse), but still had only ever seen the 26th tape–a.k.a. Porky Pig Vol. 3–one time, during a long-ago auction I failed to win for merely not realizing I wasn’t signed into Ebay properly while attempting a last-second bid.

That all changed two days ago when, during a once-in-a-blue-moon Ebay VHS search, it showed up as a Buy It Now auction (along with Vol. 1 and 2). Enthused, I snapped it up, then re-purchased a couple of volumes I’d only had “Walmart $1.00″ versions of, finally completing a collection that had started during the long-gone days of Woolworth’s, McCrory’s, Ames, and Kay-Bee.

Closure at last! But the story doesn’t end there…. Remember those Canadian versions with unique artwork that I’d found a few volumes for? Here’s what I learned from reading an entry on the PD Video Wiki:

“Embury Communications was founded in 1988, and released 30-minute compilations of classic cartoons, never releasing any feature-length films. Embury’s tapes were sold in stores, but could also be purchased at a discounted price through their Kid Video Club. All Embury tapes contained a membership card which could be mailed in to join the club. The Kid Video series contained at least 32 tapes, followed by a 6-hour compilation which used only the Embury brand. In the United States, Embury’s tapes were released by Hep Cat Entertainment, later a division of United American Video. The Hep Cat tapes were numbered in a different order, and at least three Embury tapes were never made available by Hep Cat.”

Of these 32 tapes (or at least 20) that are said to exist, I have found images of twelve, most of which have the same artwork as the U.S. counterparts, but some of which have unique art. Of the unique Canadian covers, I have four (Elmer Fudd Vol. 1, Jack Frost, Tubby the Tuba, and a Bugs Bunny one I just found), and have seen at least one other (an Elmer Fudd Vol. 2 one that I can’t buy because the site auctioning it off only ships to Canada). I also found the cover for the six-hour Embury tape (which is not part of the regular series), which suggests that a unique Porky Pig cover also exists.

Does this mean I’m going to pursue every Canadian version, or Canadian-unique cover? Not necessarily, but if I stumble upon one every once in a while, it would be nice. After all, my focus was on the American U.A.V. tapes, which were the real goal, no matter what. (It’s worth mentioning that the Canadian Embury art seems to have only spilled over into the first 20 U.S. tapes, with the last 9 U.S. tapes being different artwork that has, from what I can tell, never appeared on a cassette in Canada.)

There is also the Australian(?) nine-tape series from South Pacific Video, which appears to be ripping off seven of the original covers, while adding two serviceable (but lesser quality) illustrations of their own (Bugs Bunny and Casper). I have only found pics for one of these tapes (Porky Pig), but the back cover shows the (likely) rest of the series. Because of that, I don’t think I’ll be losing sleep over not having the South Pacific ones in my possession.

In the end, despite these Canadian and Australian variations, I have finally finished my real search, which was to get all of the U.S. “Hep Cat” titles, which I believe I finally have. Anything else from there will just be icing on the cake, though I’d love to at least see all the Canadian Embury boxes, and welcome any unique covers that trickle their way into my possession. Thanks for taking this journey with me! It has renewed my interest in these tapes (though not necessarily in purchasing more of them), and I hope to share individual cover scans from the Hep Cat series (and beyond) in the near future.