The Video Collection

An illustrated tour through the ancient VHS collection of Ollie Ashmole, UK. Contributions welcome. Mostly committed to Tumblr by @pubby hit counter

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Here are the 4 different issue tapes for Kotch (spine label)

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Here are the 4 different issue tapes for Kotch (top label) out of all the yellow Guild tapes i have bought, this is the only one that has had yellow label, all the rest have had the standard blue label, was this common with yellow issue Guild’s or is it just the tapes have got swapped over at some stage? 

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Kotch was Guild’s 19th video to be released in 1980 here we see 4 examples of this release, The more common Blue Band, the less common Pink Band and the rare Yellow band cover. Also seen here is the re-issue cover.

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Pirate videos

Browsing in charity shops, we come across a lot of pirate videos. Based on the available evidence, Disney seems to have suffered the most in the past. I wonder if this goes some way to explaining why they have always taken a firm approach to copyability of their products. 

It's particularly funny to find obvious fakes, which have made up the entire stock of some shops. What pirate videos have you come across?

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One of the most remarkable British films of the early 1980s was Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract. Here are the sleeves for the first Guild Home Video rental release (‘upgraded’ by the addition of BBFC stickers) and an early budget price sell-through version on The Video Collection, mainly sold through Woolworth’s. One wonders what Woolworth’s customers would have made of such a raunchy and complex film, but their expectations would certainly have been more unrealistic had VCI opted to retain the original release‘s blurb, which misleadingly suggests that the film is a 17th Century version of The Birds, or some other utterly dissimilar Hitchcock fare. 

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Guild Home Video Ident 6.

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Guild Home Video "Solid Guild" trailer.

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Guild Home Video ident 5.

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Guild Home Video ident 4, used 1986 to 1989.

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I guess Guild Home Video took some legal advice, and created this amended version of the 1983 ident.

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Guild Home Video's second ident. Used from c. 1983.

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Guild Home Video's first video ident, used from December 1980.

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Staying in 1986, Guild had a further redesign of its packaging. Gone is the banding at the bottom, to be replaced by a relatively discreet Guild Home Video logo and word mark. They still feel the need to specify “VHS” on the spine, although V2000 was dead and Betamax wasn’t looking well at all.

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Despite being Cassette 1, the artwork on this Dungeons and Dragons release seems to post-date that on the previously-posted cassette 2. Note the row of Guild logos, yellow on purple, at the bottom of the sleeve. The purple box remained.

This particular cassette was purchased at John Menzies in Epsom in 1987, for £8.99. What do you mean, I'm obsessed?

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By 1986, Guild had adopted the catchy slogan, “Choosing the Best for You.” This didn’t last long. This is Cassette 2 of the Dungeons and Dragons series. Cassette 1 follows almost immediately…

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By 1985, Guild had started putting the familiar rating triangles on their packaging. However, this was yet to become mandatory, so this Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends VHS still qualifies as a pre-cert, albeit not much of a video nasty. 

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A 1977 Tyne Tees production, Jack Charlton's Skilful Soccer, finally found its way to your local video rental emporium in 1984.