Release Date: October 30, 2007
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Episodes Featured:
The Rebel Set
Secret Agent Super Dragon
The Starfighters
Parts: The Clonus Horror
I think most MSTies have at least one set where their excitement swells for a new box of Mystery Science Theater episodes...then they see the episodes listed and their heart sinks. While opinions vary on various MST episodes (yes, even Hamlet), the various combinations that have been offered over the years is a crapshoot on something that could really jazzes you up because you got a handful of favorites or really let you down as you get four episodes you don't really care for while episodes you regard more highly are passed over. Volume 12 was probably the most noteworthy experience of the latter for me. I think this is the one volume of the series where I just didn't care for any of the episodes at all.
I will concede that episodes like The Starfighters and Parts: The Clonus Horror have people who put them on a pedestal, and I'm happy that those people got them on DVD. While those two episodes are probably easily the better episodes of the set, they unfortunately don't enthuse me. I've seen admiration for Rebel Set and Secret Agent Super Dragon in the past, though personally I just can't get into them. The episode selection ranges from average to poor for me on Volume 12.
Average Rating (out of 4): 1.75
Audio and video were solid across the board. Bonus features included some pretty solid interviews with Rebel Set actor Don Sullivan and Parts: The Clonus Horror director Robert Fiveson. MST Hour bumpers were included for Secret Agent Super Dragon, while The Starfighters included a video jukebox of songs from the series. Rounding out the bonuses were trailers for Rebel Set, Secret Agent Super Dragon, and Parts: The Clonus Horror. Why am I not surprised no trailer was found for Starfighters?
One plus of this volume for me is that the cover art is probably my favorite of the Rhino covers, which features Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy in an art gallery admiring posters for all four films. The only real complaint I have is that Crow doesn't have any legs. Opening the box set we find the interior of the fold out set has some stylized, dotted art of Crow and Servo. Art behind the discs features Gypsy further exploring the art gallery, which features various paintings, a urinal, and a giant chicken. Disc art features the top of a bongo drum for The Rebel Set, a radar screen for The Starfighters, and a fried egg for Parts: The Clonus Horror. I'm not quite sure what Secret Agent Super Dragon's is supposed to be, which is a golden disc of some sort (perhaps a spy message disc of some sort). If it's from the film itself I don't recognize it, maybe I need to watch it again, but if someone could enlighten me I'd appreciate it.
Menus are okay. The Rebel Set has a beatnik coffee lounge stage, with movie stills on the wall. Secret Agent Super Dragon inserts Tom Servo into the menu setting, having him sit in a chair at a desk as he chews bubblegum. Servo once again enters the menu of The Starfighters, where he's flying one of the title fighter planes. Parts: The Clonus Horror has a menu where Servo is being cloned in some sort of cloning machine factory belt. Like most Rhino releases, each menu is opened with a set of doors that are relevant to the host of each episode and at the bottom of each menu is the theater silhouette of Joel and Crow (even on the Mike episodes). Servo also sits in on the menu of Rebel Set, though he is absent in the latter three episodes due to being on the menu screen itself.
I'd say Rhino went out on a bit of a whimper with this volume, but it turned out they had one episode left in them, as they reissued Volume 10 with Giant Gila Monster (which incidentally is more enjoyable than any of these episodes). Aesthetic-wise Volume 12 is an excellent box set and I'm happy to have it in my collection for the box art alone, but the episode selection weighs it down. When I look for an episode of the show to watch, it's usually the volume I never touch. Now, this is all a matter of opinion. I'm sure a lot of you think all four episodes are winners, and in the case of the latter two it might be worth picking up to see if you regard them as classics like so many do, but I'd recommend just about every other box set before I'd recommend this one to a newbie just starting out.
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