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With modern eyes we now see them as ugly, primitive-looking things affiliated with old plastic cassette tapes and perhaps somewhat related to those equally-redundant computer floppy discs. How quickly technology has progressed from the days when having variable fast-forward and rewind speeds (fast, double fast, Triple Fast!) on VCRs warranted praise and worship, and how stubborn I was when DVDs first came out, adamantly insisting that I would never (ever) convert, clinging desperately onto my collection of VHS movies with their inconsistently-sized and ripped cardboard covers and maintaining passionately that being able to record from TV was a basic human right. And indeed, by not making recording a standard feature on DVD players haven’t we all turned into JB Hi-Fi bargain pile-raiding uber-consumers, needing to own entire series of shows and collector’s editions of movies when we could have easily taped them for free?

Well anyway, before I allow the nostalgia to forever be replaced by the progress of DVD and Blu-Ray user-friendliness, here are several of my fondest childhood and adolescent memories of VHS.

This blog is not so much a rant but a direct attack on the stickers that are, quite frankly, rubbish. You know the ones, they’re like the annoying kid on a rollercoaster ride: you try to peel them off but they don’t want to come off, so you keep tugging and in the end it’s just a whole big mess left over. The thing is I reckon we have ALL suffered as a result of this sticker debacle, so…you bloody adhesive residue pains in arses, this blog is for YOU. And YOU, rollercoaster kid, YOU ARE NEXT!

Note: This is not to say that there aren’t any good stickers out there, because there are. But just like the rotten apple that spoils the bunch, it’s always the worst stickers… Read More