Funimation has experimented with a lot of different ideas over time, trying to find different ways to market DVDs besides the standard "keepcase on a shelf" presentation. They were among the earliest to
give away appropriate DVDs as a bonus with a toy purchase, they tried to make a go of
the 3" Mini-DVD market, and now they're trying to make new inroads into the budget DVD arena. At the heart of each of these attempts has always been their most popular property, the 2003 incarnation of the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Funimation has included the
Turtles on three releases in their new "4Kids DVDoubleShot" lineup of budget discs.
Reader Christopher Denner sent in the pictures below of one of these releases,
Superhero Turtle Titan, which features 2 episodes: "The Unconvincing Turtle Titan" and "Nobody's Fool". Each release has two episodes on board (hence the "DoubleShot"), and Christopher found these in Wal-Mart's toy section (yes, the toy section!) along with a bunch of other low-priced kidvids. Each 4Kids DVDoubleShot disc ran $4.98 at his location. I've tried to verify this (and perhaps pick up some of these for my own son) at my own local Wal-Mart superstore, but in the two weeks since Christopher alerted us to this info, my Wal-Mart hasn't gotten these in stock yet. So your milage may vary! Nor have I spotted them in any other store chain or currently available at online retailers.
As you can see below, another
TMNT title in the series is
Introducing...The Shredder. There are also entries shown in the trailer for
SonicX, Winx Club and
Yu-Gi-Oh. There's a 3rd
TMNT title that's not pictured, called
In The Beginning. That disc contains the episodes "Things Change" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town", while
Introducing...The Shredder naturally presents "The Shredder Strikes - Part 1" and "The Shredder Strikes - Part 2". Those four episodes, plus "The Unconvincing Turtle Titan", have already been on DVD before, but "Nobody's Fool" on the
Superhero Turtle Titan release is the first time that this 3rd Season episode is found on DVD, and it mentions that fact on the back of the box. In fact, checking
Funimation's DVD plans so far, there is no other way to get that particular episode (#63) than to purchase this disc!
We'd like to thank Christopher profusely for sending us all of this info, and all of the great pictures (way more than we could use here!). Below you'll see the
Superhero Turtle Titan DVD and box (which we composited together), the main menu screen from that disc, and then shots from the on-board trailer which promotes other releases in the series. From what we've found in our research, these appear to have been "available" for a couple of months now, but Christopher is the first one to bring it to our attention. Thanks!
