Recently I happened across the Canadian media production company, VEI (Visual Entertainment Inc.) and noticed that they had the distribution rights to several old T.V. show from the 80s, which I used to enjoy watching. I’ve never bought from them before, but decided to give them a try. My first purchase was a boxed set of the T.V. show, “The Equalizer”, and boy was I surprised by what I received.
(This is a re-post from my now defunct “Movie Vault” blog)
It’s not very often that you get a television series DVD set these days that come in such rugged and straight forward packaging. I thought that, if this is the quality that VEI typically produces for their DVD sets, then I’d definitely be buying more from them in the future.
The box is made from a nice, heavy black plastic, which reminds me a lot of the clam-shell cases VHS movies used to come in when you rented them from the video store. It’s nice and solid, and so much better than the cardboard/card stock boxes most DVD television series come in these days. The DVDs inside are presented in a typical DVD soft plastic/felt slip jacket, bound in a book-like fashion. So, they’re well protected and easy to extract from the case; much better than those card-stock sleeves Mill Creek uses, or those accordion style fold out monstrosities other distributors use.
The discs are also nicely printed with images of “The Equalizer” himself, Edward Woodward, along with program graphics and episode titles for each disc. So, the overall production value is right up there with what you’d expect to find with any big studio production. This particular set cost me less than $50.00 CND (at the time), so it was very affordable. I think, with this style of packaging, I got really good value for money. The T.V. show, The Equalizer, was on my “to-get” list for a very long time. I’m so glad I stumbled across it in this particular boxed set.
I was so impressed with my purchase from VEI that I decided to buy a couple more obscure programs from their library. I chose the complete collection of “The Mod Squad” and the movie “The Last Ninja”, which was a made-for-TV movie released back in 1983.
Once again, I think VEI did a wonderful job with these DVD sets. Just like The Equalizer, The Mod Squad set came in a rigid black plastic box, with the DVDs stored in plastic/fabric sleeves bound together in a book-like format. The Last Ninja DVD came in a clear plastic case. There wasn’t anything else in the case besides the DVD, but at least the case was made with thick sturdy plastic.
Finding The Last Ninja in the VEI library was a real nice surprise. I didn’t remember anything about the movie, itself. I just had some vague recollection of seeing it on T.V. back in the day. It was nice to have this obscure piece of movie history in the collection. You can tell that this made-for-TV movie was a setup for a potential series, which never got picked up. As 1980 T.V. movies go, this one is pretty good, if you like the ninja / secret agent movie genre. It’s a little naive by today’s standards, but I think that helps give this movie its charm. Update: Since the time of the original blog posting, it appears as though The Last Ninja is no longer available from VEI.
As for Mod Squad; well it’s a groovy trip down memory lane and is a favorite in our household. So glad that VEI had this one on offer and at a really reasonable price. VEI has several obscure/less popular television series in their library, and seem to have obtained distribution for the popular Stargate franchise. So, if you’re looking for some of those odd ball T.V. shows from the 70s and 80s, check them out. Their website is https://www.visualentertainment.tv/.
[tag]tv shows, dvd, review[/tag]