Nickelodeon Goes Out of the Vault

Over the past few months we have been reunited with characters of the past in different variations usually resulting in some type of new content. As exciting and thrilling as it is to gain new continuations and elaborations of beloved adventures and endeavors, it is also great to honor that of the original content.

If there is one thing that you can truly applaud Nickelodeon for in regards to older titles is how good they are about developing home media versions of entire series. Even though having digital versions from iTunes and Amazon are great and user-friendly, it is also a great option to have a physical copy instead.  And thanks to their collaboration with Shout Factory and Amazon many of their older titles ranging from that of “Doug” to “Avatar” have received full series releases, granted there are still quite a few left to get the same treatment. I personally love it and hope other shows receive the same releases.

Even though it is a great option for fans to purchases their favorite series outright, sometimes there is a need for variety.  The concept of having a DVD for a few select episodes that featured a theme (think Christmas themed episodes) is nothing new. Even way back when, VHS releases would often release a few episodes from a single season, alll running under the same general theme. Yet somehow Nick’s Out of the Vault Collections are very exciting.

Originally being released months ago the first Out of the Vault Collection featured five different series from once upon a time ago with two episodes each; “Hey Arnold,” “Rocko’s Modern Life,” “AAAHHH! Real Monsters,” “Angry Beavers,” and “CatDog.”, Just from a glance this might be an odd line up if you where to go and stack all of the series up based on premise. Going from watching a more slice-of-life episode about an ordinary kid with a somewhat odd shaped head to that of monsters living in a landfill to talking and feuding brother beavers to a cat attached to a dog is very odd.

But it works well. Every single title is great and enjoyable in their own rights as they all had different main themes and concepts that are handled differently.  Some hold up better than others years later- but that is a subject matter. I could go on just about each of these series for a while, and someday I just might.

Despite being released some time back in the spring, the set has yet to show up outside of Wal-Mart and appears to be exclusive. However, the release has done well as two additional Out of the Vault Collections have appeared on their web-site for pre-order.

The first one of the two slated to be out on stores the first of September diverges from being a genetic collection of random episodes, but instead takes the Halloween option featuring ten episode with story-lines tied in with the holiday. With the cover art live on the web-site Out of the Vault Halloween Collection appears to feature the same line-up as the first release with “Hey Arnold,” “Angry Beavers,” “AAAHH!! Real Monsters,” “Rocko’s Modern Life” and “CatDog.”

Following the trend at the start of October the third in the series will be released, Out of the Vault Christmas Collection. As of right now there is no summary nor cover art to suggest what series may or may not be a part of this specific collection. You could go out on a limb and infer that this set will also be featuring the same series as the pervious.

Even though the collections seem a bit odd, more so when all of the featured series have been released entirely, they are interesting. There are some fans, both new and old, that might not want to go and obtain the larger full series (or season) sets to get only a select few episodes from a series or two and this, with the price point being under ten dollars, is a good option. Even for fans that just want a small sliver of what once aired constantly side by side back in the nineties and marathon an array of classics, to new fans who want to see what it is about. It does give off a wide range.

It is always great to see older series get releases in mass, especially if there is a hole in a collection. Especially the Out of the Vault Collections are really great for a lot of different reasons and I hope that they continue on and possibly add in some other titles.

Join the conversation; what Out of the Vault series is your favorite and what others might you want to see be released like so?