Touchstone Home Entertainment

Background
Touchstone Home Entertainment (formerly "Touchstone Home Video") was the home entertainment arm of Touchstone Pictures, established in 1985 to distribute all Touchstone releases on video.

1st Logo (1984-1986)


Nicknames: "Still Thunderball", "Thunderball", "Touchstone Thunderball"

Logo: On a white background, we see the Touchstone thunderball logo. Below it is " TOUCHSTONE ", with " HOME VIDEO " underneath. The logo fades out after 15 seconds.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare. Seen only on early video releases of the first Touchstone movies, such as Splash and My Science Project, among others. Strangely, Country does not have this logo.

Editor's Note: A very simple effort, produced just before Touchstone introduced their famed "Snake" logo.

2nd Logo (1986-1987, UK: 1986-1993)
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Nicknames: "Flashing Thunderball", "Thunderball II", "Metallic Thunderball", "Touchstone Thunderball II"

Logo: At the bottom of the black screen is a blue circle beside the words " TOUCHSTONE HOME VIDEO ", all made out in '80s computer effects. The text lights up section by section, like a flashlight, and when the "light" reaches the circle, the circle flashes and a gold thunderbolt appears on it.

Variants:
 * On a few UK videos, this logo was seen with the words " COMING SOON FROM " in Windsor Bold above the main logo. In addition, the music is slightly louder.
 * A version with "ALSO AVAILABLE FROM" in the same font also exists.
 * Another version has "LOOK OUT FOR THESE OTHER MOVIES FROM" in ITC Souvenir, which fades out after the bolt appears. The text was lazily edited into the top of the screen, as the top part of the flash is cut off.
 * On Australian releases, the logo is positioned in the middle of the screen. For the closing variant, the logo is in the same position with the words "DISTRIBUTED BY" in white underneath. The Roadshow Home Video logo follows.

FX/SFX: The '80s computer effects, and the "light" effects.

Music/Sounds: Same as the theatrical logo, albeit slightly distorted. Also, the music begins late and cuts off early.

Music/Sound Variants: Brian Cummings was used as an announcer for previews on a few VHS releases.


 * Tin Man preview: "And don't forget these other great titles from Touchstone Home Video." The Ruthless People trailer's theme is played instead of the logo's music.
 * Off Beat preview: "From Touchstone Home Video, their special preview of the hit feature starring Judge Reinhold and Meg Tilly..." followed by said movie title.
 * The Color of Money preview: "And now, for one of the year's top films..." again followed by said movie title.
 * Down and Out in Beverly Hills preview: "And now, here's a look at the Touchstone Home Video smash comedy hit..." once again followed by the movie title. This one uses the undistorted version of the logo's music.

Availability: Rare. Only seen on 1986-87 Touchstone videos. Some videos that include this logo are Down and Out In Beverly Hills, Tin Men, and Ruthless People. This was used up to early 1993 on UK releases such as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. This can also be seen on the 1990 Canadian VHS of Gross Anatomy, while the U.S. print uses the following logo. One of the last UK tapes to use this logo is Consenting Adults.

Editor's Note: An odd computer-generated rendition of the "Snake" logo. Also, it was odd to see this logo on the Canadian VHS of "Gross Anatomy" even though their U.S. counterpart has the next logo.

3rd Logo (1987-August 5, 2003, September 13, 2005)
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Nicknames: "The Snake", "Thunderball III", "Touchstone Thunderball III", "Thunderball Snake"

Logo: Same as the movie logo, only " HOME VIDEO " replaces " PICTURES ".

Variants:
 * The "HOME VIDEO" version has two variants; the VHS version has a video-generated fade-out, the LaserDisc and DVD version has a film-generated fadeout.
 * The positioning of the logo varies.
 * Starting in the early 2000's, a new variant was made to coincide with the release of DVDs. The picture quality was improved over the earlier variant, and the words " HOME VIDEO " were replaced with " HOME ENTERTAINMENT ". Oddly, only a few DVDs feature this variant as most use the earlier "HOME VIDEO" version; though later VHS releases used this towards the end of 2003.
 * A rare version of the "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" logo has a smoother frame rate and the trailing animation is slightly sped-up. It appeared on the demo VHS of Crazy/Beautiful, though the actual VHS and DVD used the "HOME VIDEO" variant instead. It also appears on the 2002 VHS reprint versions of Cocktail and Nothing to Lose, as well as on later Australian VHS from the company, such as Bubble Boy.
 * " NOW YOU CAN OWN YOUR FAVORITE HIT MOVIES... " appears over the logo on various 1990-1992 VHS releases.
 * On a very few early 2000s UK VHS releases such as Shanghai Noon, a still shot of this logo was seen, positioned upwards with "PRESENTS" in a yellow/gold font below, all of this accompanied by the logo's theme.
 * On early UK VHS with this logo, such as the 1993 releases of Sister Act and The Distinguished Gentleman, the logo plays normally, but when the text shines, the words "COMING SOON FROM" or "ALSO AVAILABLE FROM" in a goldish font fades in above.

FX/SFX: Same as the movie logo.

Music/Sounds: Same as the movie logo. Up until the early 2000's, the same distorted audio mix from the second logo was used; on LaserDiscs and DVDs featuring the "HOME VIDEO" variant, as well as the original VHS of Dick Tracy, the music abruptly stops before the logo actually ends.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Occasionally, the "HOME VIDEO" version will have an announcer, Brian Cummings, speak over the logo, "Now you can own these hit titles from Touchstone Home Video!", and bring forth previews of other titles.
 * On the 1991 VHS of Taking Care of Business, Brian Cummings says "Coming from Touchstone Home Video."
 * On Australian VHS releases and some DVDs, such as the 2000 DVDs of Shanghai Noon and High Fidelity and the 2002 DVD of Captain Ron, the home video version of this logo uses the audio track from the movie logo.
 * On the 2000 DVD of Adventures In Babysitting, the 2001 UK VHS release of Pearl Harbor and the 2002 UK VHS of The Count of Monte Cristo, this logo is silent.
 * UK and Australian VHS releases with this logo often have that in PAL high tone.

Availability: Common. Appears on most Touchstone DVD and VHS releases from the era until 2003, even on releases after the 2002 logo's debut such as Signs and Spike Lee's 25th Hour. Strangely, this also appears on the 2005 UMD for PSP release of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is not seen on the UK DVD release of What About Bob?, which strangely uses the Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment logo instead. It also appeared on some UK VHS releases of Miramax Films titles in the mid-90s, such as Emma, Pulp Fiction (in which this was even oddly retained at the start of an old Sky Movies UK airing of said title) and Muriel's Wedding. It is also seen before the Miramax Home Entertainment logo on the 1994 US VHS release of Like Water for Chocolate, and also appeared on the demo VHS releases of Mediterraneo, Farewell My Concubine and The Snapper (while the retail versions uses the Miramax Home Entertainment logo). It also appeared before the previews on the Thai VCD release of Starsky & Hutch. Strangely, this isn't seen on the UK VHS release of Reign of Fire which opens with the company's theatrical logo instead. It may also appear on international DVD releases of seasons 1 and 2 of Alias, given the Touchstone Home Entertainment print logo is on the box, cover and disc artwork. VCD releases in Thai continued to use this logo up until the early 2010s (one example being When in Rome). This strangely appeared on the 2004 Thai VCD of Walt Disney Pictures' Miracle, before the previews (the black version of the 2001 Walt Disney Home Entertainment logo is seen before the film). Similarly, this also appeared on the Australian VHS release of First Kid, once again before the previews (the 1990s Disney Videos logo is seen before the film).

Editor's Note: TBA.

4th Logo (January 20, 2004-December 19, 2017)
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Nicknames: "Thunderball IV", "CGI Golden-Light Thunderball", "Touchstone Thunderball IV", "CGI Touchstone Thunderball"

Logo: Same as the 2002 movie logo, only "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" replaces "PICTURES".

Variant: In 2011, the logo changed to just a still variant with the thunderball shining. This was only seen as a screensaver on Blu-rays from 2011 to the present, similar to the Walt Disney Home Entertainment screensaver variant.

FX/SFX: Same as the 2002 movie logo by Picturemill, or the thunderball shining for the Blu-ray variant.

Music/Sounds: Same as the last logo, but it's undistorted this time around.

Availability: Common. Appears on all Touchstone releases from 2004 onward, and also appeared in print form starting in with mid-2003 releases. Also appeared on 2004 and 2005 VHS releases, including Open Range, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Village, Mr. 3000, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and A Lot Like Love, the latter being the last VHS ever released from the company. This also plasters over the previous logo on 2004 Australian Buena Vista Distributed DVD re-releases of Touchstone films that were originally distributed by Warner Home Video (e.g. 10 Things I Hate About You). The final known appearance of this logo (and Touchstone Home Entertainment as a whole) was on the 2017 4K Blu-ray of The Prestige. This appeared respectively before the film on the Thai VCD releases of Veronica Guerin and Ladder 49, but the previous logo was seen before the previews.

Editor's Note: TBA.