Baronlando said:

It's interesting the way these things are characterized at different times. In 1993, the IPs were good enough to be the source of an elaborate 100 dollar laserdisc box called "DEFINITIVE", and 2 years later the whole thing is on the brink of death if not for the heroic measures of doing a re- release. (and now we're getting to the point where some dude on youtube with a beat up old trailer can get very nice results. look how cool this is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_OhgiNE0Dw

yet also strangely frustrating)

Wow, that's amazing. Strangely frustrating, indeed.

Anyway, the IP isn't what was suddenly falling apart a couple years later. It was the actual o-neg itself.