In the mid 1990s, I used to send episodes of then-unreleased cartoons to the managing editor of Wizard magazine (at their request), so they could create screen caps and watch episodes for articles. In return, they gave me goodie boxes, filled with various promo comics, actions figures, etc. Anybody here remember the golden age of Wizard magazine and ToyFare magazine? Before the internet totally screwed up my field, that was one of the places I wanted to end up.
I dealt with Matthew Senreich several times, who you may better known as the co-creator of Robot Chicken.
I also was in contact with folks like Jay Bacal, producer of various 1980s Hasbro shows like Transformers. The internet was a different place in the 1990s, and I often ran into individuals in newsgroups, or through other informal back channels. This was the era before eBay, web-based forums, etc. If I dig deep enough into old computer backups, there's even a slim chance I still have some of those emails.
If I could go back in time 15 years, and do it all over again, I'd capitalize better on some of those relationships.
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One of the first tape-for-tape trades I ever did, in the mid 1990s, was with a liar/scammer. The "8/10" quality was completely unwatchable. I still have a few sample tapes of that set, top show how bad video can get. Ten years later, the cartoon was unofficially released in HK, followed by several incomplete official releases.
The show?
- Transformers Headmasters
- Transformers Masterforce
- Transformers Victory
The entire thing was in green and purple colors, with shaky quality video, and hissy audio.