A Disney Club "Collectors Label" - utopian?

[Walt Forever]

Hi @ all,

this topic is for the hardcore collectors of disney stuff - those who´d like to own all the tv-series stuff like the "Disneyland" tv-series, "The Mickey Mouse Club"-episodes, "Zorro", ... (see also my post in "disneyland and disney treasures") which are far too many for the treasure tin edition-

What would you think of a special "disney collectors label"?

I got the idea from a BMG/RCA collectors label for elvis presley: every two months they release a special cd with a concert etc. in a very limited issue. Just for the real fan. Sometimes it´s not best quality, but the hard collectors take it cause it´s very rare material. So after some years the collectors own an amount of stuff they otherwise never would have got with regular issues.

So why shouldn´t Disney do that - it´s a quick buck, just take an original tv show (there are many hundreds of them) as it is and release it on a special collectors label. So then there would be a possibility to release lots of shows within a relatively short time. In one year e.g. twelve releases, that would be great. Now the big question is: Is that utopian?

I´m not quite shure, because years ago I wrote to disney and dave smith asking for laserdisc/dvd-releases of the "Davy Crocket"-Series, "Victory Through Air Power", etc. As you can imagine the answer was at that time devastating... well, now it is released/going to be released. Disney have evolved in their opinion about collectors - MANY THANKS TO LEONARD MALTIN who made the treasure tins possible!!! So if they get to know that there is a certain market for that very special stuff without lots of big work to do (like restoration process/bonus features), they possibly think about such a label...

So please, write your opinions about that.

[Jake Lipson]

Unless I'm misunderstanding you that's exactly what they do with Walt Disney Treasures, only those are once (or, in 2004's case, twice) a year instead of every couple months.

[goofystitch]

I think it would be awsome if it was almost like Time Life, where you subscribe and they send you something each month, and if they put out something you don't want, you can notify them. I however, don't agree that Disney shouldn't do any restoration at all. If it's something that hasn't been cleaned in a while, they definately should restore it. And maybe a "Song of the South" release would be posible this way.

[Walt Forever]

I mean the treasure tin thing is a first step into the right direction. It´s for the collector - but there are different types of collectors - the "hard" ones who´d collect every tv-show and e.g. the animation fan who collects the duck-cartoons (I´m shure not everyone of them automatically buys the TV-show sets). The big Problem is the quantitiy of the shows: many HUNDRED original tv shows!!! - no chance for the treasure tins!!! The reason is obvious: too much time and money! For the treasure tins Disney has to restore the original stuff, collect bonus materials from the archives, do interviews with the people involved in the movie etc. It´s impossible to do that with so many tv-shows for a relatively small market - So they need to save time and money: Release the shows on very limited issues without big restoration processes etc. Some collectors like me are glad if they would own the shows on dvd at all. With the treasure tin 2-disc schedule it would take about 20-30 years - no, that couldn´t be the solution!

[Walt Forever]

Hi goofystitch,

sorry, my postanswer was out before I read your´s. I personally think of a dream coming true to get that stuff restored. Especially in the case of SOTS I would expect a restored version. Maybe if the restoration process becomes cheaper or because of the fact that Disney is doing it anyway for future releases... there would be hope. Especially when you think of short televised series like "the swamp fox", "elfego baca" or e.g. "The Scarecrow Of Romney Marsh", which was brought, like "Davy Crocket", edited to the screen as "Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow". Those series should be restored, I agree!

[Loomis]

I see what you mean Walt - the Treasures are one thing - limited for the collector, but Mickey, Donald etc do have a wider appeal than just the hardcore fans. You want something only a fan would cherish.

I do like the idea, but you'd have to question (from Disney's point of view, that is) the financial strategy. Would it be economically viable for them to produce a small number of collector's sets?

Perhaps through a type of fan club, this would be great. Unfortunately, if this was done through something like the DMC, it would not be available to those outside the US...

I would certainly be interested in it though...