I have a box in my closet containing a VCR and some tapes, though it’s quite possible I will never again use any of them. Most of my former collection I replaced years ago with other media formats but these ones I haven’t been able to bring myself to part with for various reasons.
Warriors of the Wind was the first tape I ever owned, when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. I didn’t know at the time that it was an unfortunate translation, and it always bothered me that it started with a trailer for some inane-looking teenage comedy.
Also pictured from years later is one of those purple tapes that a popular fansub distributor used in the 1990s. I think the story was that they got a good deal on a huge case of blanks originally intended for Barney the Dinosaur videos. But that’s how I finally saw the real film.
I believe Robot Carnival was my second tape. I asked for it for my birthday and apparently my mother had a hard time tracking down a copy but eventually got it shipped in from a video store in another state.
Another anime tape I would have kept around had it not disappeared decades ago is All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (just the first volume). I think I bought that one new from a video store because it was the only Japanese animation tape they had and I wanted to see more. My siblings and I liked to joke about that show, and one year my sister got me a big Nuku Nuku wall scroll. I think the point of the gift was that she knew I’d be embarrassed to ever hang it up. I never did, but I think I still have it in my closet.
My neighbor rented Moonwalker when it was new and I liked it even though I never really listened to Michael Jackson’s music. When I later found it at a video store cheap, I picked it up. I now have the Blu-ray release so I technically no longer need the old tape.
While I also have this show on DVD and Blu-ray, the VHS version is unique. They didn’t want to pay to use the “Happy Birthday” song so they dubbed an odd-sounding new song over it. Disc releases restored the original song, unfortunately.
I think Mr. T’s Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool is the only tape I own that can’t be found in a more modern format. I saw some clips from it in the early days of the Internet and tracked down a copy. I’ve always tried to avoid paying attention to celebrities but Mr. T is one I’ve always liked.
And, finally, some that I’ve never been able to play at all because I’ve never owned a mid-drive VCR. A couple Estonian cartoon collections and the complete set of the Russian cartoon Nu, Pogodi!. Fortunately these days it’s not difficult to find a high-quality digital copy of the latter, at least.
I still acquire the odd VHS tape now and then… It’s a great format for treasure hunting because so much weird ephemeral stuff was released on it, not to mention the real gold mine, home-made tapes.
My feature doc uses a lot of found footage I personally ripped from tapes I scavenged from abandoned buildings. When the film came out I didn’t really talk about that part publicly, but I think it adds a certain aura when you watch those scenes. I still have all of the tapes I used footage from.
I used to help run an annual vhs swap meet prepandemic. The breakdown at those is always like 70% horror people and 30% weirdos (online, anime tape people are everywhere but they seem rare in meat spaces). I was always in the weirdo contingent so while I do have some cool proper movies, I’m generally looking for special interest stuff like weird self defense or ufo tapes or the occasional abandoned home movie camcorder tapes. I’ve found a couple birth videos in my travels.
I could never find those 90s Godzilla tapes back when!!
Speaking of video stores going out of business, I was living in the city when the ma and pa holdouts were jettisoning all their old tapes in favor of DVDs, and I made the rounds to all the store in walking distance buying garbage bags worth of any movie with ninja in the title. This was also when I was trying to pull off wearing short shorts.
there’s this one goodwill close-ish to me that still has VHS, but when i went a couple weeks ago they had slimmed that section down a lot. Amoeba also carries them now, tho the selection ranges from mass produced junk to cool shit they overprice and keep behind glass. i’ve heard the Pasadena flea market has a ton, tho i always work when it’s happening
