The Mystery of the Missing Melodies: Looney Tunes Bumper Collection (UK VHS)

Okay, so today’s post is a little different. While I normally focus on a specific animated programme, game or movie, today I’m talking about UK VHS releases – specifically the Looney Tunes Bumper Collection set which ran from 1994 to 1999. There are apparently nine volumes in total, although it has become apparent to me that volume 2 has mysteriously vanished from the face of the Earth. The package design of each video was near-identical, with the exception of volumes 3 and volume 9 (the Mil-Looney-Um 2000 special collection). Listed below are the episodes compiled on each video and the colours of each one.

Volume One (1994): ‘Looney Tunes Special Bumper Collection’ (Salmon/Red colour)

Episodes featured:

A Lad-in-his-Lamp, Beep Beep, Honey’s Money, Weasel Stop, Don’t Axe Me, Muzzle Tough, The Egg-Cited Rooster, Captain Hareblower, Bird in a Guilty Cage, Cat-Tails for Two, Doggone South, Fiesta Fiasco, Goo Goo Goliath, Wild Over You, Knights Must Fall, Mouse and Garden, Rabbit of Seville. The Grey-Hounded Hare, Home Tweet Home, Ali Baba Bunny, Birds Anonymous, Catty Cornered, Mississippi Hare, The Foghorn Leghorn, Knighty Knight Bugs, A Mouse Divided, Really Scent.

Notes: This video features a mirror image of the package design on the reverse of the box.

The first seven episodes were original released on the ‘Looney Tunes Video Show (volume 7) VHS.

Volume Two (1995?): ‘Looney Tunes Special Bumper Collection’ (Unknown colour)

Episodes featured:
The episodes for this volume are unknown, but since the UK volumes were re-released as other volumes in Australia, it can be assumed that the contents (and package design) of volume 2 are almost identical to Australia’s volume 7, in which case it contains the following:

A Scent of the Matterhorn, Odor of the Day, Thumb Fun, Rabbit of Seville, Quackodile Tears, The Astroduck, The Egg-Cited Rooster, A Fractured Leghorn, An Egg Scramble, Fiesta Fiasco, Daffy Rents, What’s Up, Doc?, The Fair-Haired Hare, A Lad-in-his-Lamp, Knight-Mare Hare, Awful Orphan, China Jones.

Volume Three (1996): ‘Looney Tunes Special Bumper Collection’ (Blue colour)

Episodes featured:

One Froggy Evening, The French Rarebit, Tabasco Road, Hyde and Go Tweet, Little Beau Pepe, Much Ado About Nutting, What’s Opera, Doc?, Bear Feat, Daffy Duck Hunt, Each Dawn I Crow, Frigid Hare, Hen-House Henery, Hyde and Hare, Little Boy Boo, Mutiny on the Bunny, Zoom and Bored, Beep Prepared, Bugsy and Mugsy, Daffy’s Inn Trouble, Baton Bunny, The Long-Haired Hare, My Little Duckaroo, Bewitched Bunny, Bunny Hugged, Devil’s Feud Cake, Fast and Furry-ous, Gift Wrapped, Hip-Hip-Hurry, A Kiddie’s Kitty, Lovelorn Leghorn.

Notes: This volume bizarrely featured a mirror image of the package design on the front cover – the only known volume to do so.

At over 3 hours, this is known to be the longest bumper collection VHS.

Volume Four (1996): ‘Looney Tunes Special Bumper Collection’ (Purple colour)

Episodes featured:

The Grey-Hounded Hare, Room and Bird, All Fowled Up, Two Scents Worth, Don’t Axe Me, Cats and Bruises, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, Heir Conditioned, Lickety Splat, Mutiny on the Bunny, Feather Bluster, Louvre Come Back to Me, Drip Along Daffy, Mexicali Schmoes, Scaredy Cat, Kit for Kat, Zipping Along, Devil May Hare, Catty Cornered, Weasel Stop, Heaven Scent, The Ducksters, Assault and Peppered, Ant Pasted.

Notes: The final volume to be titled ‘Bumper Collection’, as opposed to the later title ‘Bumper Edition’.

The first volume to feature a Tasmanian Devil cartoon, despite the fact that he appears on the cover of every video.

Volume Five (1996): ‘Looney Tunes Bumper Edition’ (Green colour)

Episodes featured:

Gee Whiz-z-z-z, Zoom and Bored, Fast and Furry-ous, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, Jumpin’ Jupiter, Rocket-Bye Baby, Fool Coverage, The High and the Flighty, Person to Bunny, Devil May Hare, Bedevilled Rabbit, Ducking the Devil, Hot Cross Bunny, Barbary Coast Bunny, Homeless Hare, Canary Row, Putty Tat Trouble, Snow Business.

Notes: The first set to be titled ‘Bumper Edition’ instead of ‘Bumper Collection’.

The first set to contain the standard 18 episodes that was kept for all subsequent releases except volume 9, the Mil-Looney-Um set, which contains 19 episodes.

This is the only set to contain 18 episodes, in which the episodes are not evenly spread across the two videos – instead there are 10 cartoons on tape one, and 8 on tape two.

The package design image has changed slightly – the background is no longer blue but yellow.

Volume Six (1996): ‘Looney Tunes Bumper Edition’ (Pink colour)

Episodes featured:

Zip ‘N’ Snort, Hook, Line and Stinker, Hot-Rod and Reel, Hare-Way to the Stars, Rocket Squad, The Hasty Hare, Holiday for Drumsticks, Stupor Duck, Boston Quackie, Bill of Hare, Dr Devil and Mr Hare, The Fright Before Christmas, Apes of Wrath, Forward March Hare, Hare Splitter, Sandy Claws, Tree Cornered Tweety, Tweet Zoo.

Volume Seven (1998): ‘Looney Tunes Bumper Edition, Volume 7’ (Red colour)

Episodes featured:

Rabbit Rampage, The Million Hare, Mad as a Mars Hare, Big Top Bunny, Shishka-Bugs, Foxy by Proxy, Suppressed Duck, Bonanza Bunny, Run Run Sweet Roadrunner, False Hare, The Jet Cage, Bugs and Thugs, Napoleon Bunny-Part, Lighter Than Hare, Rabbit’s Kin, The Unmentionables, Dog Pounded, Highway Runnery.

Notes: The first volume to have the number of the volume on the package – although some early releases lack this feature.

The only volume to contain any cartoons from the oft-derided Larriva Eleven.

Volume Eight (1998): ‘Looney Tunes Bumper Edition, Volume 8’ (Turquoise colour)

Episodes featured:

People Are Bunny, The Iceman Ducketh, Beep Prepared, Carrotblanca, Catty Cornered, Hyde and Hare, Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century, Hare Do, Chili Weather, The Abominable Snow-Rabbit, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, The Wild Chase, Box Office Bunny, Daffy's Inn Trouble, From Hare to Heir, Drip-Along Daffy. You Ought to be in Pictures, Assault and Peppered.

Notes: This is the first volume to contain episodes released post-1980 (although volume 6 does contain one episode that originally aired as part of a 1979 TV special).

This is the only volume to contain an episode released prior to 1948 – 1940’s ‘You Ought to be in Pictures’ – although it should be noted that this is the colourised (dubbed) version from 1995.

This volume contains the remastered version of ‘Assault and peppered’ (1965), initially seen unrestored in volume 4.

Volume Nine (1999): ‘Mil-Looney-Um 2000 Bumper Collection’ (White colour/package redesign)

Episodes featured:

Rabbit Seasoning, Hare Trimmed, Bad Ol’ Putty Tat, Wideo Wabbit, A Street Cat Named Sylvester, Water, Water Every Hare, Dime to Retire, Bunker Hill Bunny, From Hare to Eternity, Greedy for Tweety, Bully for Bugs, Big House Bunny, Of Rice and Hen, A Star is Bored, The Prize Pest, Canned Feud, Rabbit Fire, Tweety’s Circus, Robot Rabbit.

Notes: This final video had its own package design.

UK Collection

So there we have it – a complete, comprehensive list of all the cartoons released as part of the UK Bumper Collection/Edition VHS set. If you look on Amazon or eBay, volume 2 inexplicably remains unavailable, and its content remains a bit of a mystery, which is strange considering the other volumes are still available in large quantities.

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