Hep Cat Headaches: A Collector’s Story, Part 3
Nearly ten years ago, I began this Tumblr as a reevaluation of the public domain based tapes in my VHS archives. This brought with it a lot of nostalgia and discovery, but more importantly, a chance to complete a collection: The United American Video / Hep Cat / Kid Video series. Several years ago, I hit a snag when I was unable to successfully secure (on ebay, thrift stores, or elsewhere) the 3rd and 26th tapes in what had turned out to be a 29-tape set (the actual first tape--basically labelled #0--being a Mickey Mouse volume, which I amazingly discovered at a nearby thrift store). Those shortcomings, a busy life, and a divorce, shifted a lot of my attention away from this Tumblr page. Nonetheless, I never stopped looking. Around two years ago, I finally found Tape 3 (Mighty Mouse), but still had only ever seen the 26th tape--a.k.a. Porky Pig Vol. 3--one time, during a long-ago auction I failed to win for merely not realizing I wasn’t signed into Ebay properly while attempting a last-second bid.
That all changed two days ago when, during a once-in-a-blue-moon Ebay VHS search, it showed up as a Buy It Now auction (along with Vol. 1 and 2). Enthused, I snapped it up, then re-purchased a couple of volumes I’d only had “Walmart $1.00″ versions of, finally completing a collection that had started during the long-gone days of Woolworth’s, McCrory’s, Ames, and Kay-Bee.
Closure at last! But the story doesn’t end there.... Remember those Canadian versions with unique artwork that I’d found a few volumes for? Here’s what I learned from reading an entry on the PD Video Wiki: “Embury Communications was founded in 1988, and released 30-minute compilations of classic cartoons, never releasing any feature-length films. Embury's tapes were sold in stores, but could also be purchased at a discounted price through their Kid Video Club. All Embury tapes contained a membership card which could be mailed in to join the club. The Kid Video series contained at least 32 tapes, followed by a 6-hour compilation which used only the Embury brand. In the United States, Embury's tapes were released by Hep Cat Entertainment, later a division of United American Video. The Hep Cat tapes were numbered in a different order, and at least three Embury tapes were never made available by Hep Cat.” Of these 32 tapes (or at least 20) that are said to exist, I have found images of twelve, most of which have the same artwork as the U.S. counterparts, but some of which have unique art. Of the unique Canadian covers, I have four (Elmer Fudd Vol. 1, Jack Frost, Tubby the Tuba, and a Bugs Bunny one I just found), and have seen at least one other (an Elmer Fudd Vol. 2 one that I can’t buy because the site auctioning it off only ships to Canada). I also found the cover for the six-hour Embury tape (which is not part of the regular series), which suggests that a unique Porky Pig cover also exists.
Does this mean I’m going to pursue every Canadian version, or Canadian-unique cover? Not necessarily, but if I stumble upon one every once in a while, it would be nice. After all, my focus was on the American U.A.V. tapes, which were the real goal, no matter what. (It’s worth mentioning that the Canadian Embury art seems to have only spilled over into the first 20 U.S. tapes, with the last 9 U.S. tapes being different artwork that has, from what I can tell, never appeared on a cassette in Canada.)
There is also the Australian(?) nine-tape series from South Pacific Video, which appears to be ripping off seven of the original covers, while adding two serviceable (but lesser quality) illustrations of their own (Bugs Bunny and Casper). I have only found pics for one of these tapes (Porky Pig), but the back cover shows the (likely) rest of the series. Because of that, I don’t think I’ll be losing sleep over not having the South Pacific ones in my possession.
In the end, despite these Canadian and Australian variations, I have finally finished my real search, which was to get all of the U.S. “Hep Cat” titles, which I believe I finally have. Anything else from there will just be icing on the cake, though I’d love to at least see all the Canadian Embury boxes, and welcome any unique covers that trickle their way into my possession. Thanks for taking this journey with me! It has renewed my interest in these tapes (though not necessarily in purchasing more of them), and I hope to share individual cover scans from the Hep Cat series (and beyond) in the near future.
