i have been fairly unwell. i said this before in my stupid long happy feet post. this continues to be the case; but the good news is, i have vhs tapes.
recently i got a Great deal on a little 13" panasonic vcr tv, and i started a vhs collection i've wanted to start for a while now. i want this for roughly the same reason as anyone else i guess: nostalgia, in part at least. nostalgia for a time of buttons and mechanical noises, things that are three-dimensional and have a tactile quality. i keep thinking about an old tumblr post, or maybe it was even screencapped from twitter, where someone was maximizing their house for good tactile/audio experiences--Ya Gotta Have Buttons, Babey! clicky buttons! and there's a lot of great tactile sensations to operating an old tv. i love putting tapes in and ejecting them....but anyway, once upon a time i was a Movie Guy, and slowly i'm becoming a Movie Guy again, so there's another reason. i have a great interest in collecting the official tapes for movies or shows i like, as well as porting things to vhs myself. (i keep saying "port" on accident, not sure how else you describe recording perhaps modern things onto a vhs. de-make? de-master??? idk. surely there's a generally accepted term, but at this point i'm just leaning into it.)
i haven't committed to getting the equipment for this yet (surprisingly, not much to it!), but i have already started my vhs collection. i'm about half-bedridden at the moment so i can't take any fancy pictures, let alone install the shelf for them.....but behold, MY TAPES:
these were the first two tapes i bought. both are in great condition!! babe only has the tiniest bit of distortion towards the end, and i didn't notice any issues with pig in the city. both clamshell cases are a little damaged, but that's par for the course.
sorry, i'm a fake fan--i haven't seen the second and third ones, yet. i have the tapes and everything...i'm still holding off on watching them for a minute, but i got em! funny thing about the first one is, i got it HOPING it'd be the original australian audio, but willing to accept it if it was the american dub (?!) just to get the painted cover. (i didn't find the painted cover for road warrior on ebay, but i also didn't look that hard, idk.) the actual tape doesn't have a label, though; i could just be making this up in my head, but i'm tickled by the idea that they recorded their own official tape to keep for themself and sent me the copy in the old case. i don't care enough about the american dub to make a stink about it, though, since i was mostly after the case anyway. i haven't watched it all the way through, but up to about halfway, it looks...ermmm...a little weird....idk if that's a result of the alleged copying of the tape, or if i should blame vestron video, for how like...idk...bright the video is? i'm still deciding if i'm gonna go digging for an old tape with the original audio, or if i'll just record my own tape of it and stick it in the case the dub came in. i assume at least beyond the thunderdome is in pristine condition, since it was still sealed in plastic. (which i tore asunder, sorry. not the type of collector who cares about that sorta thang.)
i couldn't simply NOT get this movie. our own tape was loved to death in my childhood, and we ended up replacing it with the dvd, at least to my memory. this tape is in excellent condition, including the clamshell--it fared better than the babe shells, at least! in my mind, it's definitely missing some visual appeal without the vhs fuzz. it's a little thing, but it makes a pretty significant difference to me.
man, this one came packaged like it was for MY protection. it's not in the best shape, either--at least i know it wasn't from shipping, lol. it's got some lines and fuzz at the beginning, and towards the end with ripley on the escape ship, but it's not so bad--plus, to be honest, i was actually elated to see some vhs degradation for the sheer novelty of it, so all-around it's still a win! i might be getting another tape of it pretty soon anyway, just by the circumstance of storage unit cleanout, so we'll see if the old family copy is still in good condition.
finally, i've saved the one that stands out the most for last:
i love this tape so damn much. i hadn't thought about over the garden wall on vhs, but when i saw it, of course i had to buy it immediately. part of me was nervous that, given the....legality of this endeavor....it would just be a novelty case with a junk tape inside; still, i figured i was buying an excellent case in which i could store my own personally recorded tape. but no, they did indeed record otgw onto this tape! not only did they include the "COMING SOON" screen you used to see at the start, but they made their own little intro logo too, which i found charming beyond words; plus, some random older man at a desk at the end, wishing you goodnight, if i remember correctly. equally charming, of course. my single complaint: there is a very annoying, very loud, constant high-pitched humming sound for the majority of the first episode, but it does go away. otherwise, it's absolutely fantastic--there's such a nice color bleed to it! besides the inevitable issue of aspect ratio, it really looks like it was supposed to be on vhs all along. HUGE shoutout to taperot for doing the lord's work!
well, those are my tapes so far. honestly, as long as you're not hunting for things like, say, revolutionary girl utena, or videodrome, it's really not that expensive of a hobby collection--of course, there's going to be some variance and the sometimes-present shipping fees if you're digging on ebay, but just for example, i got both babe movies for under ten smackaroos. an antique shop i didn't manage to buy anything at was selling them for 50 cents a tape! (i almost got some good ones, including a home-recorded tape with a label scribbled out and written over in red marker that just said "COMEDY". i'm still wondering what's on it....) and the supplies to record your own tapes aren't that expensive, either! it takes some vigilance on ebay to get an old CRT for cheap, since The Gamers go after those pretty quick, for their smashed brothers and what not, but there is indeed a market for it, and you may be able to swoop in and get a good deal like i did; or, there's always a vcr hooked up to a flatscreen. that reminds me, i gotta get a copy of cats the broadway musical, next time i go digging on ebay....