Worst website, ever.

You know I never used to be a collector, or a massive fan of cartoons. I mean I liked animation a lot, but I really didn't have any knowledge of what shows from my youth were availible to buy these days. I contented myself with Studio Ghibli films and some old manga films that were dear to me.

Fast forward to September 2008 and I hit upon a random video on youtube, the intro sequence for Defenders of the Earth.

And, some long forgotten part of my brain started miming the exact words of the song in my head. I remembered it. In an instant I was taken back, waaaay back to Saturday mornings, waking up and watching BBC 1, watching in rapture as the heroes of the day kicked all sorts of awesome out of the bad guys. It made me feel like a kid, no responsibility, a time of boundless enthusiasm, innocence and fun. It was like the feeling you get playing Super Mario Galaxy, when a huge grin spreads across your face.

So much of our adult lives are filled with meaningless crap that it almost feels like being burdened with things the older we get, getting heavier and heavier with baggage.

On a whim I started doing research if you can call it that. I hunted down every intro video of every show I remembered watching as a kid. It's taken me on wild ride since then.

My next step was buying Defenders of the Earth on dvd, which I reviewed here. I got it because I remembered it being fun, but most of all because it was cheap, about £7 or something ridiculous for 4 double sided dvds.

Fast forward 1 and a half years later and my collection is burgeoning, my shelves are groaning as the entertainment rack is filled up.

Now I feel like a collector of sorts, not up there with Aspro's insanity, but I think there are experiences we may share.

So what have learned about collecting?

Buy now.

Buy now or miss out.

Buy now or be scalped later.

What I've noticed is that, unlike games, the prices for these old cartoon dvds don't go down. I've waited around incessantly, monitoring prices and you know what? They always go up, sometimes ridiculously so. A crappy show like Dino Riders on a two disc dvd set went from £5 to £100 in the blink of an eye.

Visionaries went from £7.50 to £30 while I was waiting for a price drop, MASK doubled in price, Avatar had a one third price increase. Spawn went from £22 to £36.

Miss out also applies to the number of copies that are released, miss out on a rare dvd and it will become harder and more expensive to buy later.

Be prepared to be screwed.

If you collect retro cartoons, prepare to be screwed. Only the shortest (2-3 discs) or most popular sure bets, have entire series boxsets released.

What usually happens is some company dips its toe into the pool to test the waters, releasing a fragment of a popular series and then, if it doesn't sell, or for other reasons, they don't release the rest.

For instance the first 5 episodes of King Arthur and the Knights of justice was released and then nothing else for years. All of a sudden, luckily they released the whole series in a 3 disc set. This is not a common occurence.

Gummi Bears, Disney released season 1-3 but then nothing for years, there is over half the series left on the cutting room floor. Gargoyles was brutally cut off after only half the series was made availible. The same for Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. Exosquad (possibly the best of them) only made it onto dvd as season 1, leaving seasons 2 and 3 unavailible.

You're left with the beggining of a story, but not the end. Does Jayce ever reunite the Magic root? Will the humans triumph over the Neosapians? Hell if I know.

The internet becomes your best friend.

Maybe the joyless, company executives have all but given up on a 1985 cartoon series, but the fans haven't. Somewhere, someone in the world has done his best to put unreleased shows on the internet, whether it be youtube or downloads. Sure the quality might be like watching a TV through a waterfall, but at least it's there.

Research.

Finally, research. A lot of cartoons are published by different companies and the formula is all screwed up. Some cartoons don't even release in sequential episodes but feature dvds with a few selected episodes from a story arc. Others are piss poor at labelling, having volumes being one disc and then all of a sudden having entire seasons labelled in a different way. Making sure you get the right discs in the right order means doing your research.

Some shows like Batman, Spiderman, Transformers and TMNT have different shows from different decades, making sure you don't end up with crappy, new versions of vintage shows should be your top priority. Wikipedia is good for this.

Which reminds me, I watched the new Batman show, Batman was in space, riding a spaceship-Batwing and fighting aliens. My mind was blown, this was not the Batman I knew.

Be prepared to pay.

Big bucks. Because getting an entire series in a pack can hit your wallet hard. You may have to grin and bear it, but if you want 24 discs or several seasons worth in one pack, be prepared to bend over and pick up the soap.

Be prepared for disappointment.

Your tiny brain was very different in the 80s or early 90s. Some of the things that you thought were totally awesome back then.... don't hold up. Watching TMNT or Galaxy Rangers and having to put up with a bunch of suck ass episodes is painful. But as a collector, be prepared to sit through this pain for the good episodes.

That is all for now.