Hmmm. I think I did this better on April 1st.

[marycrawford]

OK, so the house of ill repute that is the Hercules store (owned by the same people as the equally ill-famed Highlander store) now has something for sale they call the Hercules Action Pack DVD collection, for $39.99.

It's a mishmash - two of the TV movies (Lost Kingdom and Amazon Women), the Xena trilogy (Warrior Princess, The Gauntlet and Unchained Heart), the Young Hercules movie and the animated movie. These are all for sale separately, on DVD and VHS, and the first five are all on the Hercules season 1 DVD set, which would be a much better buy if you ask me.

But what caught my attention is this bit of marketing speak:

"the legendary action comes alive with loads of new features like behind-the-scenes documentaries, deleted scenes and outtakes, alternate endings, and other cool stuff as well."

No details on what any of the cool stuff actually is, of course. Maybe they just stuck some of the DVD season set extras on there? Maybe the extras are entirely legendary, like the famous 'European extended scenes'? Anyway, I just wanted to give you the heads-up - if any of you actually see this in stores, I'd appreciate more details.

Comments

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

I'd be fairly surprised if there's anything on there that hasn't been already released on the box sets. And the only "deleted scenes" I've seen photos of are for The Enforcer and Just Passing Through. Alternate endings, I kind of doubt, unless it's for that horrible animated movie. (That crappy animated thing was like an apology!fic junkie's wet dream. Even thinking about it makes me a little ill.)

And also, these are the people who advertised that Michael Hurst did commentary on season 2, and are still advertising it, even though, he was never even asked to. So you may be right, there may be no extras at all.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the animated movie, and I don't think I ever will. I've never seen anything good said about it, that's for sure.

And also, these are the people who advertised that Michael Hurst did commentary on season 2, and are still advertising it

Eeesh. Yeah, the more I think about it the more I wonder if there's anything added to the set at all...

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

You watched the animated movie?! Wow. You've a stronger stomach than me, that's for sure. :->

And since you've seen photos of deleted scenes, do you have any idea of what was actually deleted?

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

In The Enforcer there were more scenes of Iolaus, Hercules and Nemesis having fun at the festival. The one picture I've seen is of the three of them in an archery contest. I can't remember if there were anymore, but they were taken out so we could have endless shots of the woman who played the enforcer in her rubber bikini. In Just Passing Through there was a bunch of stuff deleted to insert the icky jester scenes. In the original version you get to see Autolycus stealing the gem in more detail, and there's more scenes of Herc and Iolaus around camp, doing laundry, that kind of thing. I haven't seen photos but Bruce Campbell talked about the scenes on his web site, adn I think Michael Hurst might have mentioned them in one of the post-show interviews.

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

Aw man. They always cut the good stuff. :-(

[roo2.livejournal.com]

Okay, believe it or not I actually have this. I bought it (from Amazon.com) several years ago - maybe a year or two before they started releasing either series on DVD. Never bothered watching the animated movie, for the record. It looked too embarrassing. I think it's in a closet somewhere :-) I don't recall exactly what the extras were, but I do remember not being overly impressed. I can dig up the discs and check though, maybe. I moved all of my DVDs out of their original cases and into CD binders, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to tell which is the version of the movies released with S1 and which is this set. There might not be any difference.

Anyway, I think this was one of those cases where they released a few episodes of a series on DVD to sort of test the market and see if people would buy it. These guys probably just have lots of them left over now that people can buy the whole series.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Hey, I didn't realize this was a re-issue - I thought the earlier Action Pack had less in it, but I had a look at what Amazon lists here, dated 1999 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0783238835/102-4363794-9341745?v=glance), and you're right, it's the same thing. So yeah, I'd like to know what the extras were, but not if that would mean you'd have to hire an archaeologist to find them or anything. *g*

You'd think they would ease up on the price a little now that all the seasons are out, wouldn't you?

[mythdefied.livejournal.com]

I'd actually thought about buying that, simply because I want the Young Hercules movie and the Xena trilogy (I've been really hesitating to buy Herc season 1 just for the Xena eps). But I held off because I wasn't sure I wanted a copy of the animated movie. I mean, on one hand, some of my favorite actors did voices for that, but on the other, they never appeared onscreen. Now I'm glad I waited, after seeing this and ltlj's review on the animated movie. I think I'll just buy season 1 whenever I can afford it.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Season 1 is much better value, though I've never seen the animated thing. The Michael Hurst/Kevin Sorbo double act comedy commentaries on some of those episodes are worth the price of the set, IMO. *g*