Scoob! (Basic Fun!)

 

Scoob!
Basic Fun!
2019

Hanna-Barbara has been cranking out Scooby-Doo since the 60's, and though the original cast may no longer be supplying the voices, kids and adults for generations have been enjoying the many iterations. One of the more recent...well...true to the source material recent, was 2019's Scoob!

Sadly, the film was critically panned, and on a forty million dollar budget was a box office bomb with only twenty-eight million in revenue. Though touted as fun for kids of all ages, and some true adult fans, the overall consensus was that it just didn't do anything other than make people want to watch the original series from back in the swinging sixties.

Basic Fun, which is a toy company I've never heard of until today, secured the rights to create a line of toys based on the film. There were a series of plush, mystery boxed minis, and today's focal point, the six inch line of figures.

Most of the figures were released as two packs which featured one human character with an animal, and here's where I have my biggest issue with the series. The packaging of characters doesn't make sense. Why isn't Scooby packed with Shaggy? Why isn't Dynomutt with Blue Falcon? Why isn't Muttley with Dick Dastardly? This packaging scheme makes no sense.

The figures have extremely limited articulation, which serves to be problematic when combined with the fixed poses that were sculpted in. Bent arms are clearly meant to be in a specific pose, negating the purpose of having a joint in the shoulder to move the arms up and down. These are basic at best, and defeat the purpose of larger scale figures, which are typically developed to showcase massive amounts of detail and incorporate articulation. It's a wasted opportunity, and coupled with the movie failing to draw crowds, it's understandable why the line wasn't popular either.

For those looking to get a bigger bang for their buck, as well as figures which weren't available in the two packs, there was the deluxe collection. This was the only way to get the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang, which makes no sense. Especially since you would still have to buy all the two packs anyway to get all the other characters and animals, and I do mean all of them.

Remember how I said it didn't make sense that Shaggy and Scooby weren't packed together in the two pack, and nor were Dick Dastardy and Muttley? Well, they all come in this pack. However, since Shaggy and Dick come with different animals in the two packs, you're stuck buying them all to get a complete series.

Even as a kid this used to tick me off. Most kids don't have disposable income, and not all parents have an open wallet policy. As such, when kids are forced to get the same figure twice, this really sucks! Me personally, when I was a youngin', there was no way I was picking out a toy if it meant getting a duplicate. That would have been a wasted opportunity. Options were plentiful, and it was easy to find something on the shelf.

The line appropriately included a Mystery Machine vehicle with lights and sound. While the figures are compatible with it, it's very odd that Basic Fun sculpted it without doors that open. Well, let me rephrase. The Driver and passenger doors don't open. The rear one's do. This means that you have to jam the figures through the open windows if you want to get them inside.

Speaking of windows, the windshield wipers on the front glass are painted on, and not in any amount of effort or detail. Overall, the vehicle looks good from a distance, but not so much when you start to get into the details.

The toys feels like a cash grab hoping to coast on the success of a film which ultimately bombed. It's toys like this that make me understand why kids these days have little to no interest in playing with figures and vehicles.

It annoys me, probably more than it should, that you have to buy deluxe sets on top of all the two packs just to complete this line. This only adds to my thought of it being nothing more than a cash grab. Cash that most kids don't have. Shame on Basic Fun for doing this.

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Returning to the Estate Sale

 

While out and about running errands, we found ourselves arriving too early for one particular store to open. With time to obviously kill, we headed down the street back to yesterday's estate sale. It wasn't that we were necessarily looking for more things to pick up. Rather, we just needed somewhere to spend an hour.

With prices cut in half for the final day, it wasn't necessarily hard to find things to buy. However, the majority of what I picked up were intended to be for someone else. Still, there are a handful of things that will go into my collection, such as these sweet Batmobiles!

This DVD is one that I accidentally missed, and then forgot again when I returned the second time yesterday. It was still there today.

My plan is to put the smaller Mystery Machine on my cartoon DVD shelf. The figures and bigger one will be exiting soon to someone else's collection.

I don't know if there was a lot of stuff that was stuffed in boxes from the day prior that got spread out to compensate for empty spaces around the home. I swear I saw stuff that I didn't see the day prior. I actually had about five to ten graphic novels as well, but when I saw someone on the floor going through a stack in a different area of the house, I pulled them out and told him he could have the ones I was carrying if he wanted them. He was happy to take them. Saved me money.

My first visit to this estate sale is "HERE".

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Scooby-Doo On Home Video: 1969 - 1991

For me, the complete Scooby-Doo catalog consists of the various shows which aired from 1969 through 1991. This is the sweet spot that I find fills that nostalgic craving for myself, encompassing my entire childhood of Scooby and the gang. Granted, some iterations are definitely better than others.

As the age of DVD took over, Scooby-Doo was ushered into the era of home media. For the first times, fans were being offered a plethora of DVD options for bringing home their favorite Great Dane. However, a problem quickly ensued with the multiple of releases which hit store shelves. Some of these were clearly labeled as to what they were, while others left consumers confused.

Admittedly, today's post is certainly late to the party to help many buyers out there who already have piles upon piles of discs. Hopefully, though, this will still help to provide some relief as to just what is on all of those DVD's for any potential new buyers, or just for curiosity's sake, if you're just interested in the topic.

Scooby-Doo Where Are You?

The first, and primary series for Scooby-Doo was Scooby-Doo Where Are You? It originally aired between 1969 and 1970, and contained two seasons. Season one featured seventeen episodes, while season two had eight.

All of these were released together in 2004 as a single set entitled Scooby-Doo Where Are You?: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons. While this set has since gone out of pint, both seasons have been re-released multiple times as the complete series, which also contains season three. More on that final season will be addressed below. 

The New Scooby-Doo Movies

Scooby-Doo Where Are You? was followed by The New Scooby-Doo Movies, which aired from 1972 to 1973. This series was re-tooled from it's predecessor in two distinct ways. The first was that the runtime was doubled, allowing for stories to be fleshed out. This was crucial, as the second biggest change was that of rotating guest stars which appeared in each episode. Some actors played themselves, while others took on the persona of their characters from popular television shows of the time.

The show ran for two seasons, with season one having sixteen episodes, and season two encompassing an additional eight. Due to rights issues, the series has never been released in its entirety. Of the twenty-four episodes, twenty-three can be found on the appropriately titled, The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection.

The missing episode is entitled, "Wednesday Is Missing," which features The Addams Family. To date, Warner Archives has been unable to secure the rights of the characters from Charles Addam's estate. For those wanting the episode, it was released on VHS in the UK in 1987 on a PAL cassette named The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

The Scooby-Doo Show

This is where things start to get muddy, both in terms of the actual series, and subsequent DVD releases. Though the show ran for three seasons across forty episodes, it can sometime get mixed up with other related titles that contained Scooby-Doo at the time, causing confusion.

Season one encompassed sixteen episodes of The Scooby-Doo / Dynomutt Hour which aired in 1976. Each episode contained two segments. The first featured Scooby-Doo and the gang, while the second featured Dynomutt and Blue Falcon. After two months, an additional half hour was added to the series, and the name changed to The Scooby-Doo / Dynomutt Show. However, this now ninety minute series was only extended to include an additional episode from the prior released two seasons of Scooby-Doo Where Are You?

The new segments of the season were released in their entirety on DVD in 2016 as The Scooby-Doo / Dynomutt Hour: The Complete Series.

Season two contained eight episodes, and were under the title, Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics. However, this is where things can get confusing. Laff-A-Lympics, the segments, aren't considered to be part of the Scooby-Doo continuation.

There are two seasons of this show, but only the first, which aired from 1977 to 1978, have the eight The Scooby-Doo Show segments packed in the two hour run time. In addition, the show featured four additional segments, Captain Caveman And The Teen Angels, Laff-A-Lympics, Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, and The Blue Falcon And Dynomutt.

Only four of these eight episodes were released on DVD, and they're spread out across multiple discs.

Scooby-Doo's Sppokiest Tales, released in 2001, contains the episode, "Vampire Bats And Scaredy Cats".

Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Around the World, released in 2012, contains the episode, "The Ozark Witch Switch."

Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Run for Your 'Rife, released in 2013, and Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Surf's Up Scooby-Doo, released in 2015 both contain the episode, "Hang In There, Scooby-Doo!"

Lastly, Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Scooby-Doo!, released in 2019, contains the episodes, "The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller," and "Vampire Bats And Scaredy Cats."

For the second season of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, now entitled Scooby's All Stars, the Scooby-Doo Show segments were dropped from the series, and the overall run time was cut from two hours to ninety minutes.

This, however, wasn't the end of the series. Season three of The Scooby-Doo Show re-adopted the Scooby-Doo Where Are You? banner, and ran as its own half hour block. This in turn made it the official third season of the original iteration, as noted above in the Scooby-Doo Where Are You? section.

This final season was released on DVD in its entirety as its own set in 2007.

Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo

Amidst threats of cancellation, Scooby-Doo was given a major overhaul, focusing more and more on Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy. While Fred, Daphne, and Velma made appearances, their relevance became less and less, and they were ultimately dropped by the following series.

Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo aired in 1979, running for one season, which contained sixteen episodes. It was released on DVD in its entirety in 2015 as Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo: The Complete Season 1. This title in and of itself can cause confusion, as it produces the expectation that there was indeed more seasons beyond, despite this not being true.

Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo

The confusion begins again with this next series entitled the same as the above. It gets all the more obscure with the shows which aired.

Fans of Scooby wouldn't find a show entitled Scooby-Doo And Scrapy-Doo. Instead, what ran in 1980 to 1981 was the Richie Rich / Scooby-Doo Show.

This particular iteration is most notable for its animation debut of Richie Rich, which in and of itself was a pretty solid show. Season one contained thirteen episodes, which featured several segments within each one hour block. This continued into season two, which contained an additional eight episodes. However, the second season does contain some re-runs.

Richie Rich was dropped from season three, and the title of the show changed to The Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo / Puppy Hour, and aired in 1982. This season too was one hour per show, and was broken down into two segments. The first was the continuation of Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo, which also featured Shaggy, while the second focused on Scrappy-Doo and his Uncle Yabba-Doo.

Unfortunately, only the first seven episodes featuring Richie Rich have been released on DVD as of 2008 in their entirety under the title, The Richie Rich / Scooby-Doo Show: Volume One. To date, a volume two has not surfaced.

However, fans wanting more of the episodes which strictly focus on Scooby-Doo have several options. While the entire series isn't on DVD, there are several episodes spread across multiple DVD's.

13 Spooky Tales Around the World, released in 2012, features, "Moonlight Madness".

13 Spooky Tales: Holiday Chills and Thrills, released in 2012, features, "Tender Big Foot," and "Snow Job Too Small."

Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, released in 2013, features, "Comic Book Caper."

13 Spooky Tales: Run for Your Rife, released in 2013, re-issues, "Snow Job Too Small."

13 Spooky Tales: Ruh Roh Robot!, released in 2013, features, "Way Out Scooby," Who's Scooby-Doo?", and "Disappearing Car Caper."

13 Spooky Tales: For the Love of Snack, released in 2014, features, "Scooby's Swiss Miss", "E.T. Tu Scoob?", "Soggy Bog Scooby", "South Seas Scare", "Scooby Gumbo", "Alaskan King Coward", "Hothouse Scooby", "Scooby-Doo 2000", and "Punk Rock Scooby".

13 Spooky Tales: Field of Screams, released in 2014, features, "Basketball Bumblers", "Maltese Mackerel", "Yabba's Rustle Hustle", "Picnic Poopers", "Muscle Trouble", and "Alien Schmailien".

13 Spooky Tales: Surf's Up Scooby-Doo!, released in 2015, features, "Scooby Nocchio", "Scooby's Roots", "Lighthouse Keeper Scooby", "Excalibur Scooby", "Scooby's Luck Of The Irish", and "Scooby's Escape From Atlantis".

The New Scooby And Scrappy-Doo Show

Between 1983 and 1984, Scooby and Scrappy returned for yet another renamed series. While the first season was entitled, The New Scooby And Scrappy-Doo Show, for its second season, it was once again changed to, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries. Both seasons contained thirteen episodes each.

This show was special for its return of prior cast members. Season one saw the return of Daphne alongside Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy, and season two saw the return of both Fred and Velma for the first time in five years.

While there have been no plans announced to release the entire series on DVD, several episodes have been released across multiple DVD releases. Many of these are re-occurring titles from above, though there are also a handful more.

Scooby Doo! 13 Spooky Tales Around the World, released in 2012, features, "Ghosts Of The Ancient Astronauts".

Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Holiday Chills and Thrills, released in 2012, features, "The Nutcracker Scoob".

Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, released in 2013, features, "The Scooby Coup".

Scooby Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Run for Your 'Rife, released in 2013, features, "The Stoney Glare Stare".

Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Ruh Roh Robot, released in 2013, features, "The Dinosaur Deception", "The Hand Of Horror", "Doom Service", "A Code In The Nose", "The Bee Team", and "A Night Louse In The White House".

Scooby Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Field Of Screams, released in 2014, features, "Scooby And The Minotaur", and "Scooby Pinch Hits".

Scooby Doo! Favorite Frights, released in 2015, features, "Scoo-Be Or Not Scoo-Be".

Scooby-Doo! and the Creepy Carnival, released in 2017, features, "The Carnival Caper".

Happy Spook-Day, Scooby-Doo!, released in 2017, features, "Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo".

Scooby-Doo! and the Skeletons, released in 2018, features, "Who's Minding The Monster", and "Scooby A La Mode".

The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo

The biggest changes were yet to come in 1985. Scooby-Doo received a massive overhaul, to the point that not only were characters dropped, and new characters added, but also a change to the design of Shaggy and Daphne's clothing.

If Scrappy-Doo weren't annoying enough, add on top of him the inclusion of new character, Flim Flam. He's literally a character they pick up off the street.

One of the awesome inclusions was the warlock, Vincent Van Ghoul, voiced by famed actor, Vincent Price. Most kids knew him as that guy from Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Where The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo stood out from prior iterations was continuity. Right from the first episode, the premise is set that since Scooby-Doo let the thirteen ghosts out, that it was he who had to return them to the chest. Sadly, while there were thirteen episodes released across a single season, since the first episode was all set up, the gang never returned the final ghost to the chest before the series ended.

Warner Brothers did return to the series in 2019 for a film length finale entitled, The Curse Of The Thirteenth Ghost, finally giving the series closure. Warner also released all thirteen episodes of season one on DVD in 2010.

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

Three years would pass before Scooby would return for the 1988 to 1991 four season, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.

In the late 80's, several classic cartoons were getting the "kids" treatment, and it was only natural for Scooby to follow suit. Despite running four years, the longest of any past Scooby series, the show is only twenty-seven episodes.

All of it has been released on DVD across two sets, and because seasons two, three, and four are so short, they fit on two discs, the same as the first season, which has thirteen episodes unto itself. For those of you doing the math, that's fourteen episodes for seasons two through four. Two having eight episodes, and three and four having three episodes each.

After it ended, Scooby and the gang would take a long hiatus until 2002. However, that era and beyond doesn't interest me, and that wraps up my look at Scooby-Doo on home video. With that, hopefully you yourself are off to grab you up some nostalgic goodness.

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Scooby-Doo (The Movie) (Equity Marketing, Inc.)

Scooby-Doo (The Movie)
Equity Marketing, Inc.
2002

Its impressive to say Scooby-Doo has been a mainstay on syndicate television since 1969 when the Mystery Inc. appeared in their first animated series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Since then, the group has appeared in numerous re-visioned television series, full length animated films, quest appearances (our favorite being in Johnny Bravo), and live action / CGI films.

Though it doesn't technically say it anywhere on the package, these particular figures from Equity Toys are from the live action / CGI film released in 2002 staring Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, and a couple other folks.

The line is fairly compact, and doesn't offer much beyond Shaggy, Scooby and a handful of "villains". Which is a shame considering many fans wanted to complete their collection of the entire "gang". You'll also notice that the two aforementioned characters produced weren't based on the film iterations, but rather the cartoon ones.

 Tiki Tourist Scooby-Doo*Tiki Tourist Shaggy

Jester and the Wall of Meat*Spooky Luna Ghost*Spooky Demon

Mystery Machine with Scooby-Doo and Shaggy

Several Scooby-Doo related toy lines have come and gone over the years since this line was released(as well as a handful of live action / CGI films - one of which was a direct sequel). It's a safe bet to assume even more will come in the near future as there's no doubt Scooby-Doo is a classic icon of pop culture.

Join us next time when we take a look at Demolition Man!

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