Just picked this up at Best Buy yesterday -- even the flu couldn't keep me away -- and took it straight home. The packaging was disappointing, I would have rather had the T-Rex, Mantis or Leech Woman on the cover than the bland Shawnee Smith wrapped in man-eating plant tendrils. The menus are bare-bones, similar to Lion's Gate AIP and the MGM Midnight Movie DVDs, but do include nice transfers of the original trailers. The set contains three single-sided discs (dual layered), with two films per on the first two (DR. CYCLOPS w/CULT OF THE COBRA and THE LAND UNKNOWN w/THE DEADLY MANTIS), and THE LEECH WOMAN on disc three.

I decided to watch THE LAND UNKNOWN first last night -- the film was not as bad as I remember it, certainly better than the reputation it has (IMHO). The transfer was excellent, properly letterboxed (I do not own a widescreen television at this time), and the audio was also impressive on my set-up, considering the age of the film. Since I'm still ill, I guess that I will be burning through these very fast -- next up, I am going to watch THE DEADLY MANTIS (I'm a sucker for giant monsters, no?).

Just on the viewing of one film, I'd say that this set is well worth $19.95 for five films that would have otherwise not received remastered releases from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

I feel like Dopey the dumb guy for not having grabbed vol 1 but I guess the idea of owning MOLE PEOPLE made me queasy. But I'm not going to pay $100 for it because there's no reason to believe those movies will be out of print forever. Is there?

I hope not as I passed on it last year as well. Universal is missing out on some extra $$$ by not keeping it in print. It sold out so that should indicate a need for more copies, no?

Amazon - 22 used and new available from $98.00

:o

I wasn't even aware this was OOP - I never got around to picking it up because I assumed it would be around indefinitely. Oops.

There's one there for only $2,340.00 - it's in "used-acceptable" condition from a new seller with O feedback. I think I'll buy that one!!!

Many copies much cheaper on eBay.

Disc 1 Screencaps for Cult of the Cobra and Dr. Cyclops

http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2007/09/cla...collection.html

BEST BUY finally (finally!) has the exclusive SCI-FI V2 set up for order on their website, as well as the upcoming exclusive UNIVERSAL HORROR CLASSIC MOVIE ARCHIVE set available for pre-order, though no specs, descriptions or box art listed there yet for either set, so the product pages appear very generic. Here are the links--

UNIVERSAL CLASSIC SCI-FI ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOL. 2:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_d...c=Movies&ks=960

(though it's on back-order at the moment)

UNIVERSAL HORROR CLASSIC MOVIE ARCHIVE:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_d...c=Movies&ks=960

(contains MAN-MADE MONSTER, THE BLACK CAT ('41), CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, etc)

Sure beats paying the e-scalpers.

Well that release date explains why I couldn't find the Universal horror set today. The manager of one store overheard me asking and went to check their shipping log to see if it had come in. Anyway, one store had tons of the SF set but the other I went to didn't have any.

Good news! Universal has announced that the Classic Sci-Fi vol 1 and 2 are being rereleased in one package for $60 on May 13. Leaving a movie like The Incredible Shrinking Man out of print never made any sense so this isn't shocking. Except to the guy selling vol 1 on Amazon for $370.