It was fourteen years ago this month, in August 1996, that I created Spook Central in my rinky-dink Geocities account. It was nothing big - just a picture of the library ghost, on a banana yellow background, with some links below it - but it was a start. To help celebrate the occasion, I've reached out to a few of my corporate friends, and dug through my personal collection, to gather up a few prizes to give out to the fans. The Spook Central 14th Anniversary Prize Giveaway runs from now until August 7th, which should be plenty of time to get your entry in (one per person and/or e-mail address).

TheRealGhostbusters.com is hosting a charity auction for The American Tinnitus Association. The auction, which ends on the evening of July 28th, is for a set of all four Mattel Ghostbusters action figures, a whole bunch of signed "Dapper Dan" Schoening art prints, a set of Gamer Grafix's video game console skins/stickers, and the Ghostbusters MiniMates Series 1 box set from Diamond Select Toys. That's a whola lotta Ghostbusters goodness! You can read more about the auction, the merchandise, and the American Tinnitus Association, at TheRealGhostbusters.com. You can bid on the auction over on eBay.

When TimeLife's The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection DVD box set was first released back in November 2008, the five smaller sets ("volumes") inside were each housed in a metal SteelBook™ case. When Vol 1. was released by itself in March 2009, it retained its Steelbook case from the box set. However, earlier this year TimeLife begun the process of replacing the Steelbook metal cases with plastic cases that are of the same dimensions. It started with the individual release of Vol. 2 in January, it will continue with the individual release of Vol. 3 in a mere three weeks (on August 3, 2010), and now the Complete Collection box set and the individual Vol. 1 are using the plastic cases, as well.

I, for one, am glad that they made the change to the plastic cases. I wish they would have used them all along. The new cases (which are the same dimensions as the Steelbooks) have each disc on its own page with NO overlap (unlike the Steelbooks). I suggested this packaging to Jeff Peisch (producer of the DVD box set, and head of TimeLife's video division) back in January 2009, after I saw how well it worked in CBS/Paramount's Petticoat Junction - The Official First Season set. One of my major complaints about the Complete Collection box set, other than the slow or sped-up episodes in Vol 4, is with the Steelbook cases. I hate the disc-over-disc storage inside the cases, and the disc locking mechanism, which has absolutely no give and upon repeated use will cause the inner ring of the disc to crack. I've had this happen with my Ghostbusters 1999 DVD, and that case's disc locking mechanism is a bit better than the Steelbooks - but not by much. So I'm quite happy that TimeLife decided to take my suggestion and replace the Steelbooks with the plastic cases, though I'm sure it's the cheaper cost of the plastic cases that really spurred their decision.

If you'd like to see for yourself why the plastic cases are better than the old metal ones, check out this comparison/review that I just wrote up using the individual Vol. 2 release.

As several people have already reported buying the Complete Collection box set from Amazon and getting the plastic cases inside, instead of the Steelbooks, I decided to ask Jeff Peisch about it. Not only did I want to confirm the reports, I also wanted to find out if it's only Amazon that's selling the new plastic case sets, or if other retailers (online and brick-and-mortar) are selling them too - including TimeLife.com.

He told me, "All configurations are now in [plastic cases]. NO Steelbooks at all. So those original sets are collectors' editions!!"

Since TimeLife has been manufacturing the set with Steelbook cases for at least a year (probably a year and several months), I wouldn't be quick to call the Steelbook cases "rare". "Collector's Editions" - sure, I would say that, but certainly not rare. Still, don't be surprised when you see them popping up on eBay at exorbitant prices with the word "rare" prominently displayed in the listing.

In an effort to help out the fans as much as possible, I asked Jeff for a little more information - particularly the answers to these two important questions regarding this matter.

1. Since some of the Steelbook "Complete Collection" box sets may still be out there in the wild, is there any way to tell from the outside packaging (the firehouse box) if there's plastic or Steelbook cases inside? Like maybe a different UPC/item/part number, a new/removed/different logo on the bottom, a change in any of the text on the bottom, or something else?

For the individual sets it will be really easy to see what case they're in, but for the "Complete Collection" box sets, the cases will be inside the sealed firehouse box. So that's why I'm asking if there's any small clue on the firehouse box of the new "plastic case sets" that could let the buyer know that there's plastic cases, and not Steelbooks, inside.

    -- Jeff's response: "There shouldn't be any of the Steelbook complete sets out there, since we just duplicated several thousand more of the new versions; and we wouldn't have made new ones if we had old ones in inventory."

2. Are there any plans to make a set of the new plastic cases (with the high-quality paper liner artwork) available for purchase to whomever may want to buy them to replace their Steelbooks?

For a fair amount of money (like $10 for the set), I know that there are folks who would buy them. That would be an extra source of revenue for TimeLife, without having to invest in anything new - you just do the same as you're doing now, but leave out the discs and firehouse box. Maybe you can bring this up at the next staff meeting, or mention it to whomever would be in charge of approving such things (if it's not you).

    -- Jeff's response: "Not at this time."

And for those of you who have been collecting the sets individually, I asked Jeff if the release dates for the individual releases of Vols. 4 & 5 have been determined yet. He said, "We'll definitely release next year." So you can rest assured that, as things currently stand, you'll be able to complete your collection before the end of 2011.

I'd like to publically thank Jeff Peisch for graciously answering all of my questions and putting up with my pestering.