30 April 2010

Yorythmics: Sweet Hunter From the Video Future

What do Yor The Hunter From the Future and the Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams the Video Album have in common?





Why, those crazy tab-boxes from RCA/Columbia Home Video of course!
Allow me to wax nerdy for a second; these boxes are super cool, even more so than those crazy double-flap boxes that VCII was putting out in the early 80's. What can I say, I like technical packaging. I also like that the brand was identified by the similar package design. This was typical of the period when home video was still a new concept and studios wanted people to associate a certain level of quality with their brand. Branding and trademarking took place in packaged food products in the late 1800's in exactly the same way. Of course, when home video took off they realized it was a big waste of money to have to make thousands of fancy die-cut boxes like this and everybody switched to the standard single flap-top/open bottom. And who said the future would be better?

Italy - 1983
Director - Antonio Margheritti
RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, 1983, VHS
Run Time - 1 hour, 28 minutes

United Kingdom - 1983
Director - Derek Burbidge
RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, 1983, VHS
Run Time - 1 hour, 2 minutes

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