We’ve been alerted by several people — and we have confirmed — that Rhino.com is only still offering Volumes 3, 12 and “The Essentials.” (Volume 7 is also listed on their site, but it can’t be ordered, so we’re counting it among the discontinued.) We contacted “Dr. Rhino,” who confirmed that if you do not see it available on their Web site, you may consider it officially “out of print.”
From there, we turn to Amazon, where more of the volumes are still available (we’re not counting availability by individuals). Of course, this simply reflects that they still have unsold inventory. But even there, Volumes 4, 7, 8 and 9 are officially “discontinued.” We’ll try to keep up with this, but if you spot any other volumes going “discontinued” on Amazon, shoot us an e-mail.
As noted previously, digital versions of one episode from Vol. 10/10.2 (“Swamp Diamonds”) and all four episodes on Vol. 11 are now being sold by Shout! Factory on iTunes, even as Vol 10.2 and 11 are still officially available on Amazon.
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After reading this I went online and snached up Volumes 4 & 5. I’d been meaning to get them and now this pushed me to get them. Now do I wait for Volume 3?
What I hope this means is that Shout! Factory will be more aggressive in making previously available episodes in other formats, either through Hulu or iTunes. Even having an official DVD version of “The Amazing Colossal Man” would be welcome (if unlikely). Some of the early single disc episodes like “Eegah!” or “Wild World Of Batwoman” would be no brainer candidates for making available this way (since there are no further underlying rights). I do hope, however, they don’t see this as a signal to include previously issued episodes in box sets, at least not mixed in with new episodes. That would just be insulting for those of us who have faithful bought everything since BBI started issuing DVDs.
That makes me glad I picked up all the box sets when I did. I was one of the lucky ones who purchased volumes 9 and 10 when they were still on the store shelves. Even so I still hope the discontinued titles will be available again one day.
To this day my two non-purchase regrets are MST3K related.
At one point I held the original MST3K:TM DVD in my hands only to put it back because it was smarter to save the money and I didn’t need it. Within weeks I found out it was discontinued about two days after I would have purchased it. Of course this one has been resolved…
And then the same thing happened with Vol. 10. This one has not been resolved but at least I have the DAP DVD of Godzilla vs Megalon so it’s not heartbreaking.
If you dont buy the DVDs the day they are released, your gonna be at battlestations!!! :sad:
I feel your pain, CP–I have all BUT vol. 9,bought them all in order but got so buried at work for a few months that I lost track of the release. When I finally went online to get it–too late!
When The Amazing Colossal Man was first discontinued, I bought all subsequent VHS within a few months of their release, waiting only until I could get them on sale with my Suncoast/Sam Goody/Media Play/On Cue card (and typing that just made me feel really old for some reason). So when Rhino released all of those on DVD, I dragged my feet on Vol. 1-3 and the singles…until I learned a month too late about The Beginning of the End’s…end. That got me off my butt to use my Borders membership to get the old stuff (in the last year that said membership actually gave you good coupons), and saved up for each box set as soon as it was out, compulsively checking that it was still on as many shelves as possible in the meantime. I think I actually got volumes 9 and 10.1 with a coupon I got for my birthday, which worked out since 10 was the only one that got axed immediately. Now the longest I wait on any new release is for it to be a birthday or Christmas present. Though waiting earlier meant I could buy The Essentials without double dipping on MANOS, and I found that VHS of TACM 3 years ago on ebay, at an obsolete-format-discount too, so lucky me! Now I just need to track down that guy who was gonna’ burn me a DVD of it…
Is Shout! planning a poll of which Rhino releases without rights problems are most wanted by fans so they could decide which ones would be profitable to rerelease on disc?
Whenever I go into a store, and if they sell MST3k DVDs, the only Rhino volume that’s available is Vol. 8.
I’ve been fortunate enough to get all the boxed sets thus far, sometimes just through dumb luck. I let my parents know I wanted Volume 10 for Christmas and they happened to pre-order it, which is the only reason I have it. Unfortunately I began collecting when VHS was all the rage, so I no longer have Colossal Man & (alas) Beginning of the End in a viable format as my last VCR died 2 years ago. Aside from the KTMA episodes (which I will get in the coming year) my set is 90% complete. Shout is doing a good job so hopefully they can sneak a few of these out as re-releases.
i learned early on … get them on the release date…
fortunately… Shout! isn’t having any of the problems Rhino had…
I’ve been holding out on buying V. 3 for years because all my VHS copies still worked great. Just broke down and placed the order at Amazon.
Not really related, but I finally broke down today and paid about $23 for a used Beginning of the End. Other than Shorts Vol. 3 it was the only Rhino release I needed.
I’ve been in the game since we first started getting official DVD releases, and am all caught up except for “I Accuse My Parents.” I’ve never found the ambition to track it down. I DO have the 10.1 release of Volume 10, though. Proof it PAYS to pre-order through Amazon :grin:
I lucked out and ordered 10.1 from an Amazon Marketplace seller the day it was announced here that it was being pulled. I got my oder in before they jacked up the price.
fortunately, i got them all upon release after volume 3…i look at volume 10 sometimes and breathe a sigh of relief
funny thing, the only one left to buy was volume one (which i borrowed from a friend too many times to count) i went into a used dvd store last month and found it for 25 bucks…now all the volumes are vanishing…a shame for the less fortunate –sam–
I assume this also includes the single title releases (excluding 424 – Manos)?
What’s with all this “Have to get them on release date” talk? Oh yeah I’m very lucky I bought Vol. 12 on the release day because otherwise a couple of years later I would not be able to get it unless I went to my local Best Buy where they still have it on the shelves right now (I saw it there earlier this week). And if I hadn’t gotten Vol. 4 right away I would have really had to search that store shelf hard to find it when I actually bought it like three years or so after it’s release. The only MST DVD release that wasn’t widely available for an extended period of time (i.e. at least a few years after it’s release) was Vol. 10 and you can be sure that that situation was not going to happen again. After that whole thing Rhino (and now Shout Factory) were never going to put another set out unless they were 100% certain on all the rights issues. Any other MST releases that have gone out of print at some point were readily available for more than enough time for most people who were really serious about getting them to do so. I myself had been a bit lax on buying the sets for a while, and so after the first one went out of print I decided I should buy all the ones I didn’t have yet as soon as I could. All were quite easy to find. Waiting too long to buy any DVD is a risk, especially the more niche releases. It’s not just a special thing with MST.
None of this Rhino news should be a surprise to anyone anyway. To me it seemed totally obvious from the moment that Shout Factory got the rights (from Best Brains) to all of MST that the Rhino releases weren’t going to be around much longer. It’s been over a year now since then, so anyone who needed to get some of the Rhino releases and hasn’t has either been unfortunate enough to not have the money, or they were just careless. I ordered the last few single disc releases I needed a few days after I first heard about the Shout Deal. I figured those oldest releases would be the first to go, so I got on them fast. I’m actually surprised that so many of the Rhino releases are still so easy to find after this long. After this post I think Amazon might start running low pretty soon.
Your right Bill! Im just gonna kick for 3 years or so and just pick them up …whenever. Like you said, that will NEVER happen again!! :???:
I found a new copy of Volume 10 at a Fry’s in CA nearly a year after it was released and (supposedly) pulled from the shelves. Proof there is a higher power :wink:
Get ’em while you can. I put off getting the early dvd releases b/c I had ’em on vhs and was waiting for a serious price drop. Then Beginning of the End went out of print. I gobbled up the eps I didn’t have and have gotten everything as soon as released since. Would be missing vol 9 and 10.1 if I hadn’t, so I’m glad I did. It’s all in how much you want the eps Uncle Bill.
Yes Jeff in Denver. You really understood my post exceptionally well. You just absorbed all the finer details like a sponge. In fact it doesn’t seem one bit like you didn’t even read everything I wrote before commenting. You didn’t completely miss the point at all! No sir.
I learned my lesson early on. Don’t just buy early when it comes to MST3K DVDs… Pre-order them to cinch the guarantee. Waiting till later will either just jack up the price, or end with you crying a river over not getting it at all.
Bill, while I think you are mostly right, the Vol. 10 situation certainly lit a fire under me to not let these sit around too long. I’ve had enough other DVDs I wanted go out of print on me that if I know I want something I try not to wait too long.
The Dark Knight? I knew that’s not going anywhere, so I waited until the price dropped. But smaller releases aren’t as guaranteed to stick around.
And while not quite the same situation, the rate at which the 20th anniversary tin sold out probably also inspired some fans grab releases on release date.
You feel Blessed to have Vol. 12! Got it!
I found out volume 7 went out of print AFTER I ordered it! Now I’ll have to spend a hundred bucks if I want it! :mad:
Well Jeff in Denver, as anyone with a third grade level of reading comprehension should be able to get from my post, my point isn’t that people should be waiting around for three years from NOW to buy sets that are out of print NOW. You’d have to be pretty thick to get that from what I wrote. My point was that a lot of wannabe Confuciuses are suddenly bestowing their wisdom of “When it comes to MST you have to buy them on release day or you are screwed” and that simply is not true. The only MST release in which that was even close to true was Vol. 10, and that is where all these people “learned” what they are now saying to begin with. And their lesson hasn’t panned out at all anyway because Rhino and Shout learned an even bigger one from vol. 10, and weren’t going to let that happen again. No one was worried about the whole “release day purchase” thing before vol. 10, but no one can claim that running out to buy vol. 11, 10.2, or 12 on release day made any difference as to whether or not anyone was able to get them. Those are all even still on the shelves of my local Best Buy, and it’s been well over a year since Rhino lost the MST rights, and the first Shout Factory release came out. The only other MST sets besides vol. 10 that someone might have had to worry about picking up on release date are the recent 20th ann. tin box, and the newest one with the Servo figure. And the limited availabilities of those sets were well known in advance, so they caught nobody by surprise. And it only matters if someone cared about the figures, so if all you wanted was the episodes from those sets then you didn’t have to worry about not being able to get them later. Aside from the unpredictable fluke of vol. 10, and the two well publicized limited deluxe editions of sets that were then made widely available in a regular versions, ALL MST releases have been very easy for anyone to get, usually for years after their original release. If I’m wrong then please let me know about all these other MST DVDs that quickly went out of print right after they were released, catching almost everyone by surprise, and making buying them on release day or very shortly after the only sure way of getting them at all. I must have missed those.
Kids, if you can’t play nice, I will have to take your dvds away. Go outside, it’s a nice day!
Actually I’m still waiting for the limited Volume XVI to go out of print so they can release the “regular” edition which is all I really want.
Bill, I’m glad there is someone at the fourth grade level keeping a watchful eye over all of us. Not everyone has to struggle day in and day out burdened by thier own genius like you.
I’m happy to say and releived that I already own all 16 volumes that have been released by Rhino and Shout! Factory and I also the Rhino dvds of Mitchell and Manos Hands of Fate/santa/the essentials 2-pack. I had actually been wondering about the availabilty of the Rhino releases, now that I know this ill have to try to take even better care of them then I already do. I wonder if Shout! will ever get the right from Rhino to rerelease those volumes? Hopefully
I am lucky and have every Rhino set (including 10.1 and 10.2 on DVD. I suppose issues with some sets must be if even 1 title in a 4 pack loses it’s rights the other 3 go with it. BS.
Please Shout!Factory and MST3K work out some kind of deal to re-release all the Rhino volumes and individual dvds like “Red Zone Cuba” and “The Wild World Of Batwoman” and “Mitchell”, although I already own all the volumes Rhino and Shout! 1-17, but I’d like to be able to purchase them again if something happens to mine or for a gift… Please please, Rhino, Shout!,and MST3K do whatever needs to be done to make sure every title released by Rhino is still available for purchase, either thru Shout! Or Rhino.
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.