Awesome VHS Art That Didn't Make It To DVD

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I've been sifting through a lot of oddball catalogue titles lately and one thing that's kind of bugged me is when there's awesome VHS art that isn't used and instead the DVD gets hit with some variation or unrelated image. The MGM Limited Edition stuff has been guilty of this fairly often.

Case in point? Mercenary Fighters.

Here's the DVD art. At least it features Reb Brown machine gunning and yelling so it could have been worse:



Here's the VHS art - it's considerably more rad:

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Death Wish II - based on the same art, but why did they take the Brooklyn Bridge out of the background and crop things?

The DVD art is ok:



The VHS art is better:

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Don't get me started on this screw up:

NOT AWESOME:



AWESOME:

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

I've always wondered the same thing, and kudos to Scorpion for using the VHS art on their stuff. At least I think they do. They look like I remember them anyway.

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

Look at the shitty cover on my GAUNTLET dvd. Eat a dick, Warner Bros.


And then the sweet cover of the GAUNTLET vhs:


No contest. Mind you, the best design ever was Frazetta's theatrical poster, and thankfully they brought that back for the blu:


The frustrating thing is that the dvd and blu came out at the same time! Why not use the same rad art for both??

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

Another one that really pissed me off to have to buy is RUNAWAY TRAIN. Had to get it on dvd, because it is one of my faves, but it was through gritted teeth, knowing the vhs looked so much cooler.

Here we have my dvd with Jon Voight, and his co star, Frances McDormand from Fargo:


This is a foreign release, but my old vhs looked almost identical. WAAAY more exciting as the train smashes through a glass image of the stars, and I love that dynamic font on the title!


Compare the way the two trains look. On the dvd its like " Sigh. Well, I'm not really a RUNaway train. I'm more like a parked train, really". And on the vhs, it's like "FUUUUCK YOU I'M TOTALLY SMASHING THROUGH SHIT!"

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

And look at this horse shit. The new dvd/blu art for an 80s comedy classic:


And what we had back in the day:



What a great "upgrade" that is.

[Terry C Tiger Fists Find all posts View Profile Close Terry C]

Artwork is more often enticing to the consumer, especially with fans of these genre films. You'd figure these dicks would get wise by now...

I'm more inclined to look at a beautifully drawn/painted cover than a group shot of floating heads in store that sells videos.


From Beyond poster(same as the VHS):



To...

One of the worst DVD covers I've ever seen:

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

Another one is BOBBIE JO AND THE OUTLAW with Wonderwoman and her side-kick Preacherboy. The original VHS cover wasn't anything special, but it was simple and to the point. It's also kinda iconic, and girls with guns are cool. Plus: Every graphic designer knows that purple mixes with yellow AWESOMELY. They're like chocolate and peanut butter.



Meanwhile on the finally-released dvd, we've got a far less commanding "girl with gun" pose, and what looks like an out-take picture where Lynda appears to have just sucked on a lemon, and spit the lemon juice into Marjoe's eye.

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

Lynda appears to have just sucked on a lemon, and spit the lemon juice into Marjoe's eye.

Heh heh!! It totally does look like that. Good call. I'm thinking she spit his own semen in his eye.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Marjoe always has that look on his face, doesn't he?

Hey what about The Burning? I know it had more than one VHS release but I remember the Thorn/EMI one which had good cover art. See?



But then the DVD comes along and this is what they do? Dumb.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Revenge of the Ninja is another good example. On the VHS cover, which replicates the poster art, fucking Sho is FLYING through the air over the city shooting fire out of his magic ninja fire stick and throwing some ninja stars right at your face.



On the DVD, he's just posing.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Ok, seriously.... do american studios have some sort of tax-evasion sceme going with employing visually-challenged people to do their covers?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

It's possible. I know the Optimum UK DVD of Revenge of the Ninja used the good art.

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

I've got the italian poster for Revenge, and it has that same awesome image. Yeah, the dvd cover design isn't THAT bad, but it certainly isn't better than the original, so why fuck with it? One thing that is FAR superior is the title font on the original. The new one is really blaaaah.