Yesterday we
passed along the news that World Events Productions ("WEP") is now
direct-selling Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs - The Best Of, Volume 1, a 2-DVD set ($29.00, including domestic shipping and tax) with 10 episodes "as selected by the fans". This morning we have some more information about that, starting with the episode list from this release:
- Disc 1
1. "Star Sheriff Roundup" (Ep. "1)
2. "Sole Survivor" (Ep.19)
3. "Famous Last Words" (Ep.22)
4. "Sharpshooter" (Ep. 23)
5. "The Monarch Supreme" (Ep. 24)
- Disc 2
6. "Calvary Command" (Ep. 2)
7. "Jesse's Revenge" (Ep. 3)
8. "Jesse Blue" (Ep. 15)
9. "Bad Day at Dry Gulch" (Ep. 31)
10. "Happy Trails" (Ep. 52)
How DID the fans select these episodes? According to WEP, it was a combination of things. There was a web survey on the WEP message boards (we'd link to it, but it doesn't seem to be up any longer). There was also input from the German
Saber Rider Fan Club, and its head Markus Krapf (described by WEP as a "SuperFan", who runs
the official German Saber Rider website and who provided WEP with one of the extras: old contest commercials for a scratch-and-win promotion when the show made its debut). The final list was adjusted a bit by WEP to make sure that it hit the key plot points in the story (so that fans got to see the beginning, middle, and ending).
WEP's spokesman comments that "
Future volumes would focus on alot of the things that may have been skipped over, like how the arch villain Nemesis came to be the Nth degree. Lets hope these sell well and we can do that."
We were also told by WEP about how some of the Clips from the Japanese series that
Saber Rider was produced from (included as an extra on this release) contain REALLY off-the-wall stuff that would *never* have made it into the USA version of the show. One scene was described where the overseas version of the "Colt" character puts a pistol in the mouth of a bad guy and plays Russian Roulette. Whoa. It's very cool that WEP included extras like that!
Finally, thanks to WEP we have a larger, clearer look at the box art and disc art for you this morning. Enjoy!
NOTE (3/30):
We've received a note from Markus Krapf, mentioned above. He explains that the German
Saber Rider Fan Club was closed down around 2002-03 timeframe and was changed to the "Official German
Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs Website" along with the German DVD release. Also, Markus in all modesty does not think that WEP should describe him as a "SuperFan" of the show (which they intended as a compliment, of course) because Markus feels that there are people out there who are much more into the show than even he is, and that they are the real "SuperFans". We've posted this information at the request of Markus, and in fact we had committed to posting it a day and a half ago, but overlooked it with other events going on. So apologies to Markus for the delay, and we regret any errors in our original
report.
