MovieChat Forums > The Herculoids (1967) Discussion > A Golden Collection DVD set is inevitabl...

A Golden Collection DVD set is inevitable, Alex Toth would be proud

posted 17 years ago by IFockedOp
4 replies | jump to latest

You can probably start counting down the days for this dvd set to hit the upcoming release schedule on Amazon.com. I know it's going to happen eventually. I can feel it. All the 1950's, 60's, and 70's Hanna barbera classics are getting pumped out leading to this one. Space Ghost and Dino Boy, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Jonny Quest, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Magilla Gorilla, Top Cat, Hong Kong Phooey, Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley, Penelope Pitstop, and they even set a release date for Josie and the Pussycats. Herculoids IS on it's way, bet on it. With all the beloved Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Flinstone, and Jetsons sets first to show up, they have to concentrate on the cult classics now. So I think we can expect Quick Draw Mcgraw sometime soon, Sealab 2020, the old Fantastic Four series, Thundarr the Barbarian, Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman, and if we're lucky, Grape Ape. But I'm also hoping for some of the other lesser known classics. Remember Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!, Jabberjaw, Inch High Private Eye, Pac-Man, The Atom Ant Show, Peter Potamus and His Magic Flying Balloon, and my very favorite Challenge Of the Go-Bots, which I would give up one of my limbs for them to release. Any person with a nostalgic mind like myself who loved watching cartoons on saturday mornings as a kid would be fulfilled if all of these shows made it to the discs at some point.

[–] kissmekillyou 16 years ago

You're right, though it's already overdue for a release. DON'T, however, expect Hanna-Darbera to release Thundarr. It was a Ruby-Spears cartoon.

[–] shadow-otr 16 years ago

Doesn't Warner Brothers own Ruby-Spears now?

Ah, just checked the wiki article and if it isn't the R-S company itself. WB now owns most of the library. In 1981 R-S was bought by Taft Broadcasting; which in turn sold Turner in 1991, and in 1996 Turner was merged into WB.

You can get more details here if interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby-Spears

I'd love to for a Herculoids set to be released - I watched it all the time as a kid.

[–] grendelkhan 12 years ago

By now, most should know that Herculoids received the Warner Archive treatment, rather than a commercial release. The sad truth was that few of the commercial Hanna-Barbera releases did particularly well. However, the Archive site is a treasure trove of H-B animation, as well as Thundarr, some of the live action stuff (Legends of the Superheroes and Shazam), and some great cult movies.

"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"

[–] Oddark123 11 years ago

To wrap up some things here, yes sadly because of the way the market was WHV could not maintain to press out discs because after the first batch most of the perspective buys are gone. However the markets for these shows do still exist enough to warrant DVDs made via the Warner Archive, which is splendid news for all of us fans indeed.

As far as Ruby Spears, the basic history lesson here is that Ruby Spears itself was a sister-studio in kind to HB as they shared plenty. When both were sold, Ruby Spears faced a very different decision than Hanna Barbera, because pretty much like half of the Ruby Spears library was retained by other parties, so by the looks what was left of the Ruby Spears library (Thundarr, Dragon's Lair, Heathcliff, Fangface etc) were merged into the Hanna Barbera library.

So for example WB released Thundarr and Dragon's Lair with the HB Classics Collection logo but now more recent releases like Heathcliff and Centurions don't have the label but if you look on the back of the case the cupyright info clearly says they are property of Hanna Barbera, there is zero mention of Ruby Spears at all, so it is in fact legal that they merged them together.

By the looks of it i tend to want to consider WB's defintion as the extended library which includes some others too since apparently marketing wise they consider them all to cover the same general population. Although due note WA last year pretty much made sure each one of the sections of genres got at least one release on DVD in 2012, so i say they are trying to balance out this huge library as best they can.

I refuse to argue on IMDB until the general populous actually uses their brains