Any ideas for old VHS tapes?

[Howard_Casto]

So the reason I haven't been very active lately, aside from health concerns, is the fact that I found a hole in the floor and had to re-do a couple of rooms. 

Anyway I'm now in the process of putting things back in the room and a lot of this stuff hasn't been touched in years.  I stumbled upon "the archives" aka years and years of old vhs recordings.  There are at least 100 in there.  I'm trying to find a way of repurposing them.

I looked through instructables/make/ect and there were projects but none of them looked particularly interesting and more importantly, none of them looked like they would get rid of more than a couple of tapes. 

So any ideas? 

I was thinking of making some shelving or furniture or something like that, but I can't think of a easy/stable way to attach the tapes together.

[Le Chuck]

Break out the spray foam and epoxy - it's time to make some lawn art!  I'm thinking a life size T-Rex in VHS tapes.  If it's good and you market it right Ripley's will probably buy it for one of their gawd awful locations. 

Just be sure and buy a turtle neck and corduroy skinny pants so you can talk like an artist about the symbolism and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.   

[JDFan]

Shelving boxes for the wall ---

[Howard_Casto]

Le Chuck:  Pretty sure there is an amendment to the WV constitution banning the wearing of skinny jeans.  Not for everyone, just me specifically.

I saw the box shelf thing.... I don't exactly have a lot of wall space left. 

I thought of maybe a lamp...  drill a hole in the center and spiral them out... put maybe a string of leds in the port holes... make the lampshade out of the tape itself. 

Eh... seems a bit too crafty for a non-arcade result though. 

Btw there is a lot of "stuff" in a typical cassette... not sure if this would give any ideas but a cassette usually contains:

Two plastic reels (duh)
A bunch of magnetic tape (also duh)
5 machine screws approx. 3/4 of an inch long. 
4 hinge springs to keep tension on the door and the door release button.
A plastic hollow rod about 3/4" long and 1/4" across.
Two metal sleeves with the same dimensions.
A metal rod about 1/16" across and 3/4" long.
A thin metal strip about 4 inches long and 1/4 inch wide.
Various, worthless plastic bits.

[DaveMMR]

Howard, what's "on" those tapes?  If you have old programs WOC (with original commercials) or otherwise not commercially available material, there are some YouTube people who will take them off your hand (myself including - though I'm only interested in 70's/80's.)

[jennifer]

      Get the VCR out and watch them.... They are way more fun than the new fangled disks (other than the "be kind and rewind" thing).

[Le Chuck]

Howard, what's "on" those tapes?

Each one is a 90 minute loop of a fully clothed Ron Jeremy saying the Lord's Prayer over and over while a barefoot Taimak jumps up and down on ground beef.

[DaveMMR]

Each one is a 90 minute loop of a fully clothed Ron Jeremy saying the Lord's Prayer over and over while a barefoot Taimak jumps up and down on ground beef.

 

I want all of them!

[Howard_Casto]

Eh most of em' are from my wrasslin phase.  10 years worth of PPV.  My thoughts were if I'm gonna pay 30 bucks to see something, I'm making a frikkin copy!  That and what if the WWF archives ever had a fire or something... I could save the day.  Of course 100% of all WWE content is digitally stored for their new on demand service now, so there's a slim chance of that happening. 

There are a couple I'm gonna keep though, including... "Gameshark:  how to hack like a pro!"  and those vhs promo tapes you used to get in the mail with Nintendo Power.

[SavannahLion]

Ever see Cowboy Bebop? That's about all they're good for now.

Just one of those techs that'll disappear entirely in another generation or two to be left to Archivists digging through them for gold nuggets, like a taped episode of Romper Room or something. I spent far too much time prowling eBay and putting together racks for my job trying to recover data from things like U-Matics. Not something I'm over eager to do again.

I can't think of much to do with them either other than to take up space. I processed a few keepsakes but ... meh... even Goodwill won't take them anymore. Keep a few covers if you have them and display them but donate the rest to someone who is willing to dig through them for commercials or recycle them and have them picked up.

[Howard_Casto]

Well I think I came up with an idea... sort of. 

Take a NES snapshot.... scale it up to 18" x 13.5"   now all the tiles on the screen are the same height as a vhs cassette's leading edge. 

You know those horrid Amiibos Nintendo announced?  You know how I love Nintendo stuff and will somehow be suckered into buying them?

Well I could make diorama's out of the tapes.  Print the tile patterns on the covers... cut if necessary ect....  They would only stick out from the wall about 3 1/2 inches which would be perfect for putting dolls.... er...... I mean action figures on.  The clear port holes in the tapes would make for some interesting lighting potential as well. 

I could take a snap shot I like, make a box and hang the whole thing on the wall when done. 

[jdbailey1206]

I would love to see a mock up of what you are thinking Howard.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok see the box shelves that JDfan linked to?

Now check out this famous shot of Metroid:



The platform that Samus is standing on... exactly the dimensions of a single vhs when scaled up. 

Most other games are similar because the NES had a set tile size.  I checked Mega Man and Super Mario... both use the same scale.  Castlevania uses slightly larger tiles... they must use a trick, but my guess is Nintendo produced games like Kid Icarus, Gyromite, Zelda and ect will all use the same scale with their tiles. 

[DaveMMR]

That's a pretty cool idea.  Would like to see some pics when you're done.  And you can remove the innards easily to make it a "floating" shelf with minimal hardware.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah I just hope I find the time to do it.  I've got the whole lot stacked against the wall for now.  Pretty sure my wall is bullet proof now. 


I was thinking I could re-use the innards as well..... take all the sprockets and spools and such to make a pulley system.  I could make those zoomers ride around the posts like they do in the game. 

[ChadTower]

Eh most of em' are from my wrasslin phase.  10 years worth of PPV.  My thoughts were if I'm gonna pay 30 bucks to see something, I'm making a frikkin copy!  That and what if the WWF archives ever had a fire or something... I could save the day.  Of course 100% of all WWE content is digitally stored for their new on demand service now, so there's a slim chance of that happening. 

Are you a WWE Network subscriber?  100% of their PPVs might be there, but if you have weekly shows in there too, almost none of those are included.  Not even the current shows. 

FWIW, I used to be a big wrestling VHS trader too.  I had bins and bins of tapes, a website, etc.  When DVDs came along, I sort of got into that, but eventually outgrew it (along with stupidly unreliable set top DVD recorders).  Bins sat in my basement for a few years before I gave them all away cold turkey on Freecycle.  Might be best to just rip off that band aid and get them outta there.

[Malenko]

if you have any old ECW tapes Id be interested. I lost all my old tapes years ago in a basement flood.  I had tons of New Japan Pro, even some with Hogan black tights and silver boots FTW!

[Howard_Casto]

Nah, there's some WCW stuff in there, but it's mostly attitude era WWF. Mostly it's the PPV's There are a few episodes of raw though.... I might have the "faces of foley" interviews in there. 

[ChadTower]

Nah, there's some WCW stuff in there, but it's mostly attitude era WWF. Mostly it's the PPV's There are a few episodes of raw though.... I might have the "faces of foley" interviews in there.

Yeah, like 12 episodes out of more than ten years.  That's not what I would call available.

[lilshawn]

Yeah, like 12 episodes out of more than ten years.  That's not what I would call available.

hey! VHS were expensive back then...you had to record over the old ones.  SLP for the win

[Vigo]

Anything VHS was gold, no matter what was recorded on it. I remember I had to pay hell for recording over my brother's bootleg copy of the Lion King. 

Oh, and WCW stuff.....Well I have one thing to say. That is.

JUST

TOO

SWEEEEEEEET

[Howard_Casto]

Heh, I liked it when WCW was in it's death thrawls and it was to the point to where there were literally only two or three guys who WEREN'T in the nWo. 

You had nWo, the wolfpack, the lWo, ect. 

It's hard to be a rogue "fight against the establishment" faction when you ARE the establishment. 

[pbj]

DAE REMEMBER XFL

[Howard_Casto]

*looks at his XFL promotional football that came free with a PPV*

Actually as dumb of an idea as it was, 90% of the new ideas introduced by the XFL are now in the NFL, stuff like filming the huddles, overlays on the field ect.... all in the NFL now. 

Not that I care... I think that all "real sports" are equally pointless... but I'm just sayin'. 

[lilshawn]

DAE REMEMBER XFL

i think "anybody else" would like to just forget about the XFL fiasco.

I would have liked to have seen a more extreme approach to it being it was McMahon who dallied up the whole thing...

wide receiver catches the ball and makes a run for t- OHHHHH!!! AND HE'S GOT HIM IN A HEADLOCK!

the sky cam thing was awesome for it's time though. glad they kept that going.

[ChadTower]

I still have a few XFL T shirts I bought on clearance when they went under.  The last few weeks of that league had some great football.  They really messed up when the rushed it to broadcast and didn't allow for training camps of brand new teams.  They didn't figure out their offenses until it was way too late.  And ESPN simply wasn't going to allow the XFL to succeed.  They took shots at it every 5 minutes and ensured nobody ever took it seriously from day one.

[Howard_Casto]

Where they went wrong was when they tried to link it to the WWE.  Wrasslin' has a stigma to it in professional sports circles, even though you have to be a better athlete (plus an actor and stuntman) to do well in it.  If they hadn't had J.R. and the King commentate the thing and put McMahon's face all over it, we could be watching XFL superbowls now. 

ESPN intentionally tried to kill it because of all those sweet deals they have with the NFL.  Imagine if it did well and they had to negotiate with McMahon for all the broadcast rights?  Far easier to back the establishment and kill the competition.   

[ChadTower]

Where they went wrong was when they tried to link it to the WWE.  Wrasslin' has a stigma to it in professional sports circles, even though you have to be a better athlete (plus an actor and stuntman) to do well in it.  If they hadn't had J.R. and the King commentate the thing and put McMahon's face all over it, we could be watching XFL superbowls now. 

ESPN intentionally tried to kill it because of all those sweet deals they have with the NFL.  Imagine if it did well and they had to negotiate with McMahon for all the broadcast rights?  Far easier to back the establishment and kill the competition.

JR did an excellent job and presented the football well but he was definitely too closely associated with pro wrestling.  He did have some college football experience, I think on the radio.  It all did go to pot when they brought in Jesse Ventura and tried to use the cheerleaders to boost ratings.  The XFL belonged on a cable channel and might have lasted a couple of years if it weren't on NBC with such huge $$ attached.

[Howard_Casto]

No don't get me wrong, JR is the best commentator in the business, wrestling or otherwise, but it's because he was so strongly associated with wrestling that it caused problems. 
Sadly it's the same reason he can't get "legitimate" work now. 

[pbj]

Yeah, XFL had a few good ideas, but the play was high school level.  We were pretty stoked about it in college and fizzled on it quick.

Has anyone good out of those weird leagues besides Herschel Walker and He Hate Me?

[ChadTower]

It's always amusing to see one of their former broadcasters get work elsewhere.  It must have taken a miracle for Todd Grisham to end up on Sportscenter.


Tommy Maddox was the league MVP and ended up getting a second successful stint in the NFL after that year. 

Herschel Walker did not play in the XFL.  If you're counting the USFL as "one of those weird leagues" then you're mistaken.  The USFL had a world class talent level and many major NFL stars went through there.  Some of them first ballot hall of famers.

[pbj]

Meh, choke on your Flutie Flakes.

[ChadTower]

Meh, choke on your Flutie Flakes.

Dude, around here in southern MA, you could get shanked for saying that.  It's a little odd but dude is an icon here.

[knightrdrx]

I put all my 90s tapes on DVD. Took me a 2 whole summers...first i transferred stuff that was in the middle of a tape to another..spent $375 on a GoVideo VCR.
then eventually got a DVD recorder. I put everything in a spreadsheet....the tapes now i store them away in 2 tubs as a back up just in case my dvds die.  I have some rare stuff that I trade with people online that even youtube doesn't have!

[yotsuya]

Wait, grown-ups watch wresting?

[Howard_Casto]

Wait there are grown ups that DON'T watch wrestling? 

Seriously man, you must not be from the south.  Wherever you are definitely isn't Flair Country.  (WOOOOOO!)

Mind you I don't watch it anymore, but there was a time. 

[ChadTower]

I still watch from time to time.  It's a bit harder since I cut DirecTV but the WWE Network fills the gaps.

[pbj]

It ain't my thing but I'm not going to clown on the athleticism.  Though I did go to a few WCCW matches and there was a lot of blubber over brawn action.  Wiki says that went defunct in 1990 but I think it lingered a little longer than that...

[jennifer]

    Jennifer strikes a theatrical death pose , "oh not the old folding chair gag" (The crowd collectively gasps) "JENNIFER LOOK OUT !!!! .....Omg and you were there??? Like FUN !!!!