Comic book movies are the norm today and with special effects we are getting a heavy dose of all the major Marvel and DC characters from their respective realms. But once upon a time in the 80's, TV attempted their own brand of comic book hero. This came in the form of The Greatest American Hero. No, he was not cool, suave, sophisitcated or a brilliant scientist. He was a teacher named Ralph Hinkey who was given a uniform to become a superhero. The costume gave him powers, but the problem was Hinkley lost the instructions booklet, so he never knew the full potential of his powers, nor how to control them. Although, in the spirit of Inspector Gadget, managed to fumble his way to the finish line foiling the ciminals plans.

While character in the show is on the goofy side, this boxed set is a serious package that you dont want to fool around with. I mean, the size of it alone should tell you a thing or too. Anchor Bay released this set about 1 year ago and they have always been successful with their limited edition tin sets. This Limited Edition is sized at 20,000 units in total. So, lets explore this mammoth set.

After you remove the small cardboard sleeve around the tin, it is completely black with the GAH logo on the center in red. The LE plate site on top. Opening the lid, which is held by hinges on the side (a nice touch), you see a white box. This was very curious and exciting. I will get back to this in a moment. What I was really curious to see what the cape that came with it. It was packaged in a clear plastic bag, similar to the way a T-shirt might be packaged. Of course I had to try this on to see if it really worked! And you know what? It really works!! Oh, the joys of flying (see photos below). The cape is a pretty decent quality. A sort of faux-silk, with red lining and silk screened logo on the back. I dont think the cape in the show has "The Greatest American Hero" emblazened on it though. Having over ten years experience in the silk-screen trade, the printing is well done, although, from experience, printing red on black is not an easy task because the black absorbs too much of the red color to show up nicely. But here, the printing is clean with some bleed from the black material.

After removing the white box and cape, you see an iron on of the chest logo (as pictured on the front cover of the tin), and then 3 small booklets which are about each season. The box is deep and so there is a thick, black ribbon set in to pull the DVD's out as its difficult to dig in there with your hands pull them out. As incidental as it is, it is one of those features that make you appreciate this set, and that Anchor Bay is thinking about the usability of their product.  

  Ok, then of course there is the Complete GAH series. Starting with the pilot episode showing the origins of how he acquired his powers. The show was not as funny as I remember it. I am not sure if the show is serious, goofy, sort of funny with serious overtones or what the atmosphere was intended. But they are almost an hour each with 20 DVDs that complete the series. It is quite the set that you would expect with anything that says "The Complete Series".

 Ok, now the white box. Basically, these are the lost instructions. In the first episode, the alien ship supplies Ralph with costume, cape and manual. He grabbed it all, and in a hurry, dropped the instruction manual. What does this mean for the eventual hero? Basically that he has no idea how to control his powers, or even what he is capabale until it happens. Most of his powers happen spontaneously and has little idea of what is happening, or what to do with it.

So here it is. Complete instruction manual with your very own working cape. Now check this out! It lights up! How fun is that! Well, sadly thats all it does. Nothing to look through and no secrets revealed in the book. The page that i show here (to the right) are actually lenticular in design and so you can see the original alien scribe and the English translation of it.

 
Conclusion

Overall this is a magnificent set. Truly a durable hero of any Limited Edition. If there were any discernments about this set is the releases of the individual seasons apart from this set, and maybe the edition size is a little on the big side. I mean, 20,000 units for an 80's television show, with a retail price of 99.99 might take some time to move.  But, in light of this, we can look at Amazon's statistics and see that their asking price is 20% off and (as of this writing) has a sales rank slightly above 10,000, which is not too bad. One might estimate one sells once every week or every other week (depending on the time of year).

 Ok, so those are all the basics for the set. Now, the cool thing about this set is the secret that nobody knows (well, very few people have mentioned it - so I am here to let the cat out of the bag). Are you ready? Alright. Well, there is a potential that your set will come with an extremely rare collectible card (like a baseball card), signed by actor William Katt. What is more is that there are only (only!!!) 250 of these made. How rare is that! Well, what if I said that only 200 were actually distributed in the sets because 50 of the cards were used for promotional purposes! That makes it a 1% chance of you getting once of these cards. That is extremely rare! Well, luckily I have a card here to show you what they look like.

In Sum

Despite the minor issue of the double-dipping of the seasons in the single sets, this is a very fine collectible to own. Its big and will stand out among your other DVD sets. Its a well thought out set that can very well maintain its collectibility with the specialty items. Its also designed well as it features a ribbon to help pull out some of the deeper items that might be hard to get to.

 

The photos below were shot with a high-speed camera to capture detail of the movements of me flying.

  FYI - at the bottom of the tin, there is a very clear warning out there for you all:

"Contents do not actually grant the user flight, super strength, or any other super power!"

Special thanks to thedvdmuseum for additional info and photo of the magic special signed card. Info about the card from tvshowsondvd.com. 

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