I bought one of the Tarzan sets they had, forgot which one. Of the 5 movies, one skipped and another just flat wouldn't play. After a couple of tries with customer service, I finally received discs that would play all the way through. My "weird sense of entitlement" is simply that if I'm being asked to pay above-market prices then I expect, at minimum, current market quality. I'm not talking about content quality, but manufacturing quality. Unfortunately, my limited experience is that the burnt discs don't offer that. Once I saw what I was dealing with, I immediately backed up my Archive purchases onto a mirrored hard drive.

I'm waiting with baited breath for the rest of Tiny Toons and Animaniacs.

Pirates Of Darkwater will be released next week. The 4-Disc Set will cost $19.95, which is probably the most reasonable price I've seen these manufactured-on-demand sets at, I might actually get these then. If anything, I'll just wait until they've released several that I want and then get 'em all at once so I don't have to pay the ridiculous shipping ($5) per item.

Here's the cover art (glad they kept the Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection label):



(Courtesty TVShowsOnDVD.Com)

If the sales were there you'd have your wide releases, at least for "TZP" which obviously didn't sell well.

Warner Bros. seems more willing to re-package the big 4 DCAU shows rather than showing any love to these two obscure entries, but I'm sure they're more likely to get someone to re-purchase "Batman Beyond" in a full-series set than they are selling a second "Zeta Project" release.

Zeta Project is 26 episodes. There was absolutely no reason to even split that into a Seasons 1 and Season 2 release. It should have been a Complete Series set from the start.

What these studios fail to realize is that poor sales are entirely their fault. We the consumer are tired of getting screwed over in one or two ways: 1.) The studios release the entire series individually, then very soon thereafter they release a much better complete series set; or 2.) The studios release a few seasons and then stop because "sales aren't there."

So where is the incentive for us to purchase something if it will probably get a better release down the road or we will be left with half (or less) of a series?

We can talk about the sales not being there all day, but I'd like to see some actual numbers. I want to see how much it cost to produce a set, how much they expected to make, and how much they actually made. I imagine that they had unrealistic expectations; if they expected a Zeta Project or Static Shock set to sell as much as Batman or Superman, they were kidding themselves from the start and no wonder the sales weren't there.

As someone said earlier, you don't have to have an official release and have there be a surplus. Look at what Shout! Factory did with the Freaks & Geeks Yearbook when it was initially released in limited numbers; sure, it cost a lot, but there was obviously a market for it and they knew this and were able to sell it at a profit. These weren't crappy DVR discs, they were high quality studio pressings. Why couldn't Warner (or any other studio for that matter) try something where people that are interested in a given show sign up and once they have enough people committing to buy they press the discs and charge those people? This would let people that want the set get the set and the studio wouldn't have to press more than they actually needed.

Instead, the studios response is to give people a barebones release and pressed on an inferior disc in a plastic case that is probably now missing half of its volume because of the ecofriendly nonsense. Whereas they could find a way to give their customers a good product, they instead offer an inferior product at a usually inflated price. I recently purchased The New Adventures Of Old Christine: The Complete Third Season from the Warner Bros. On-Demand program. It cost $24.95; I can get Seasons 1 & 2 for $24-30 (when they aren't on sale) from Target or Best Buy. Do you see a problem here? They say the sales aren't there, but then charge us the same price?

Another alternative to what they are doing now is what was recently done with Ally McBeal. Release The Complete Series and Season 1 on the same day, get the sales from people that are going to want the whole show on Day 1 and get the Season 1 sales from people that are curious about the show, then offer those that are curious the ability to pick up the rest of individual season releases over the course of a year or two.

$20 isn't a bad price for the whole series. I don't really care about Pirates of Dark Water, I remember it being on when I was a kid, but never really cared for it.

I'm all over the Thundarr set when it comes out. I just wish it was getting an "official" release.

When was Dark Water on? I have no memory of it at all.

I could only hope for The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley!

All of this ^^^^^^ Thundarr is mine as soon as it's available.

Looks like Dark Water was an early-90s show. Not a time when I would have been watching.

Doing a Google video search brings up episodes streaming on different sites (from a Cartoon Network showing).

I just want to see the completion of the Jetsons on DVD and enough of these volume sets already.

The price is actually $29.95 for The Pirates of Dark Water (4 discs, 21 episodes) which is about what I expected it to be. I plan on getting it, but I'll probably wait until I can find a coupon code to use for it to save a few bucks.

It sounds like one of the Addams Family cartoons could be coming out via Warner Archive soon.

Yeah, TVShowsOnDVD just corrected their original story, reflecting the correct price.

This is how we know the entire Manufacture-On-Demand Program is outrageous and their claims of sales not justifying the cost is completely baseless and an outright lie.

They want us to pay $30 for this DVD Set. It is a barebones release on burnt discs. On release day, I can get an "official" studio released DVD Set with some extras for $30 or less. Hell, I can get Blu-rays for $40 or less on release day. And these studios are trying to charge the same for this inferior product as they do for a legitimate product?

So tell me, where are these prices coming from? If the costs of current DVDs that you'd find in stores are $30 and are supposedly more expensive to produce, then why is a MOD DVD, which costs less to produce, the same price?

And if you need more convincing, just browse Amazon for some other Warner Bros. DVDs from Hanna-Barbera. The Flintstones Season Sets are fine, quality products with great packaging and fine extras. Their MSRP is $39.98 (and they retail for below $30), only $10 more than these MOD DVDs. Are they really trying to say that there is only a $10 difference between the two sets?

For comparison, Shout! Select's C.O.P.S. Volume 2 is also $29.95, bare bones, and 21 episodes. It is only 3 discs, but pressed. Pirates of Dark Water is 4 discs, but MOD. The price doesn't surprise me.

Right, the price doesn't surprise me either. But MOD sets should be cheaper than their pressed counterparts, which they never are.

Well, the good thing about the Archive program would be that it probably needs less sells to justify another release, plus they can release a larger amount of titles. Look at Shout!'s program, C.O.P.S. Volume 2 came out in March, yet there is still no announcement yet of a Volume 3. Also, they still haven't released the rest of their cartoons like Jayce & the Wheeled Warriors under this program, and now they only do one Shout! Select release a month after starting out doing multiple titles a month.

Of course they don't need to sell as much to justify another release...they're made according to who pays for them. But you're missing the point. These sets are ridiculously overpriced for what you are getting. And if other studios can release comparative products pressed on official DVDs for the same cost and to the same market and continue to do so, there is no reason Warner Bros. can't do the same.

Warner has stated in the past that they are more than happy to take lower sales with higher markup in exchange for not having to warehouse product. This is their position and we can either suck hind tit or buy someone else's product. Me? I tend to support other manufacturers, but some folks just can't live without this material no matter how abusive the relationship becomes. It's a free country and people are welcome to spend their money how they see fit. Personally, if I'm going to buy burnt discs, I might just as well get the junk off of eBay. At least the prices are a heckuva lot cheaper and since the studio obvously doesn't care, why should I?

What strikes me as odd is that when you're dealing with MOD discs, you don't have to warehouse them, because you create them and send them on their way as the orders flow in. There really shouldn't cost more, and I don't understand the reasoning behind Warner Bros. or Amazon for that matter charging more for these types of releases.

I've bough a few. I'm not a fan, but am happy to get them in the end. I'm cheap, and the biggest problem for me is they have no contest, so these will never get to the dirt cheap level I'd like. But I appreciate them doing this over the alternative of nothing. I'd honestly like to know if they are actually profiting off of these, or if they'd be better off just dumping the rights to somebody else.

They have to be profiting. How can anyone question whether or not they actually make money on these releases? They charge $20 for a single movie that they burn onto a DVD and a cover out. This is what bootleggers do, except Warner Bros. probably has a little better equipment. There is no way Warner Bros. is not making money off this program.

Of course they don't cost more. They get to make more money with lower costs, that's the whole point. Since they completely control the distribution, where is their competition? It's not like they'll ever have inventory to clear so you can forget about big sales and they're never going to offer them as loss leaders because they have nothing else to sell. It's a beautiful racket they've come up with. I'm just amazed that they make no bones about ripping folks off and people are still happy to give them their money. It's a weird world.

There's two reasons NOT to buy burned disks off Ebay. First, they are probably illegal bootlegs. Second, if they are bootlegs, they aren't being made from the best source materials or with the best equipment so you're liable to get a disk full of VHS quality junk that may or may not run on your computer.

But they are cheaper.

I don't like Warner Archive prices, but it's their property and they have the right to do with it what they will. Prices on Archive titles will come down with sales if you're patient enough to wait for sales. And the quality of the Archive disks I've seen is better than you're likely to get with a cheap bootleg.

I've had bootlegs fail to play after a while. I bought several from a comic book convention several years ago...NEVER again. Waste of time and money.

I haven't bought many burn on demand DVDs from studios, but they haven't crapped out on me. And they are most certainly better quality.

I also wanted to say I think it's a tragedy Thundarr never got a nice release set like some of the other Warner's animated series...it was one of their best cartoons from that time period. But I am hoping this finally means I can get the complete Roman Holidays series on this program soon.

Yeah, I understand about the quality of the source. Of course the original point of the Archives was not to restore source material and some of it is pretty crappy. They've recently started offering restored titles...for an additional premium naturally, but I digress. As to the longevity issues, the Archives have only been around for a year or so. Nobody really knows how long these burnt discs will last. The fact that it is not uncommon to receive discs that are shipped defective can't be too encouraging. My point is, if I'm going to get cheaply manufactured crap, why should I bother spending premium prices for it? I reserve those dollars for actual quality discs produced by the studios. For example, I just purchased the latest Errol Flynn box set from Warners, a beautiful set of pressed discs with bonus features. It's not a Warner boycot on my part, just a cheaply manufactured shit boycot.

You bring some great points and I like to add that WB has shitted on their animated division almost from the start. Look at the Looney Tunes releases. They don't have rhyme or reasoning as to why those cartoons are in those sets. They are not chronologically ordered or even by character, they were just thrown there to fill a set and they didn't even finished releasing them all. Look at the Justice League sets. Why is season 1 on Full screen only (not even corrected on the Blu-ray release) and season 2 is widescreen but not anamorphic? Look at the Thundercats sets. They ported most, if not all of the episodes from broadcast instead of the source material. Many episodes have mediocre transfers and even the pilot is missing the music score. All these sets were originally overpriced. It's just ineptitude on their part and they expect consumers to eat it up. Well, consumers have become wiser on how they spend their money and if you give them crap, they are not going to buy it. Give them quality and they'll come in droves.