Re-Release Date: May 24, 2016
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Episodes Featured:
Also featuring:
It's a second batch of episodes brought to us by the good folks at Rhino Home Video (or Shout Factory for reissues). Fans rejoice as two of the episodes featured are fan favorites, and I even agree with one of them! Cave Dwellers is an absolute must own! And Pod People...a lot of people like it! Good for them! They should have the episode this early in the DVD series if it's that beloved! The sole Mike episode of the volume is Angels Revenge, of which I've seen some fans of over the years, so they'll be happy too. Am I one of them? ...No comment...
So with one episode a home run and another two that don't do anything for me, what will save Volume 2's batting average is that last episode. Let's hope Rhino selected a good one!
Wait.
WHAT IS THIS HORSE SHIT?!
So, Rhino has elected to only group together three episodes in this volume, while the final disc houses a shorts compilation disc. Yay?
Now, let's remember that the shorts compilations back in the early 2000's served something resembling a function. Back then it seemed unlikely we'd get a large amount of episodes officially released on VHS or DVD. In the years since, every single short featured in these compilations has had their episode officially released, which mostly makes them obsolete. They still function if you just want short bursts of MST3K, but going back to these early volumes, it's hard to see them as anything other than slot stealers. Volume 2 winds up being the first of four volumes that only houses three episodes instead of four (the other three being Volumes 3, 6, and XXXIX), and it's unfortunate in this case because it holds me back from speaking of this volume too highly. Cave Dwellers is an excellent episode that I can't recommend enough. Pod People and Angels Revenge are...not. And we have shorts too. There are some really good shorts, but just shorts.
To be fair, both Cave Dwellers and Pod People are probably more "iconic" episodes than anything seen in Volume 1, of which the only really greatly known episode was Catalina Caper (I think it's the weakest episode in that set by a great deal, but that's beside the point), so Volume 2 gains a lot of must-own traction based on those two episodes alone. If one wants to see the show's most beloved and coveted episodes from the classic run, Volume 2 has that in its favor and no wasted disc can take that away from it.
Average Rating (out of 4): 2
Audio and video are great across the board. Bonus features are non-existent. Interestingly enough, there are two different versions of the box art for this release. The first is a black and white cityscape with a turnwheel in the skyline of the box, similar to the turnwheel box of Volume 1. The wheel you could turn and get pictures of Ator, Trumpy, and the Angels. My box set is a reissue that doesn't include the turnwheel. This one features the same cityscape, but in the foreground we have Joel, Mike, Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy joyriding in a purple convertible, while the MST logo resides in the skyline. Interior art sees the MST logo crashed in the street like a meteor, whole opening the fold outs reveals Mike and Servo peeking out of a manhole while Joel, Crow, Servo, and Gypsy gather outside of a movie theater. Behind the disc art features a barren desert with a UFO in the sky, with things like vans, spiders, a Trumpy egg, and a pair of shorts are seen sitting by themselves behind each disc.
Disc art is simple silver with an MST logo at the top, while the menus are more fun. Angels Revenge features Joel and the Bots (yes Joel, as usual the theater seats at the bottom always featuring Joel no matter the episode) watching clips from both the movie and the host segments to groovy tunes. Cave Dwellers has Joel and the Bots watching footage from the movie and host segments on a cave wall. Pod People has them looking at a pink screen, as frames of film feature scenes from the movie on the left hand side. Shorts Volume 1 features a cluttered teacher's desk projecting footage from the shorts to a classroom.
Shout Factory eventually reissued this collection as a part of their line. Like all of their reissued Rhino releases, their box art featured the MST logo against a starry backdrop with the theater seats at the bottom of the image. The disc art was also a starry backdrop with episode titles in a simple font gracing them. Unlike their re-release of Volume 1, the menus are of stock design, featuring the same starry backdrop with the closing Love Theme accompanying it. While the audio and video is similar to the previous set, this collection does feature MST Hour wraps for Cave Dwellers and Pod People. If you're interested in those, that makes the Shout set the must-own release.
Though really, what's really going to sell this box is two fan favorite episodes in one package. Cave Dwellers and Pod People are bound to wind up on every MSTie's shelf and it's probably proper to buy them sooner rather than later. That makes Volume 2 a chunk of the series that will come recommended, even though it's hard for me to be enthusiastic about the entire package.
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