These are the 4 episodes that will be on the first Shout Factory MST3K release according to the panel at Comic-Con as reported on Satellite News:

211- First Spaceship on Venus
706- Laserblast
904- Werewolf
1004- Future War

Apparently, there will be some "collectibles" in the set as well, hence the thick box. These include a Crow figurine and cards.

This is coming from me. You  know the guy who was probably most against this move? Let me just say, know that i know the episodes on the set

I AM MORE EXCITED ABOUT THIS SET THAN ANY OTHER RHINO SET.

Future war and laserblast people. I sure hope the dvd menus are as campy as the rhino menus. Id like to here the ultra depressing laserblast theme in the dvd menu. I acctually have the mp3 of the song on my computer.

Anything from Season Two is terrific and First Spaceship On Venus is one of my favorites. My son loves it too, it's his favorite episode. The goofy action of the film with the absolutely non-stop, great jokes over it is a terrific combination. "How much does a herring weigh?" "What a stupid robot!" The jokes during the brown goo explosion near the end. And many, many more.

The other episodes are certainly not bad choices. I'm looking forward to owning this set.

This set sounds like it's going to be great.  The extras (especially the Crow figure) look awesome!  Nice batch of episodes, First Spaceship On Venus was a nice surprise and the other three I predicted as likely to extremely likely (http://forrestcrow.proboards47.com/index.cgi?board=mstchat&action=display&thread=1152828151&page=1).  Can't wait to find out what's going to be on the next volume!

Fantastic job Shout Factory, keep up the good work!!

As far as key shows go, The Crawling Eye would have been nice, but biggies Mitchell and The Brain that Wouldn't Die have already been done by Rhino.  There's always Samson Vs. the Vampire Women and Revenge of the Creature floating around out there, but that's all I can think of.

I'd like to see the unaired "pilot" (it wasn't the full movie) The Green Slime and some KTMA footage as bonuses (the gang hates them, but they would be interesting to see.  Behind-the-scences and Oscar specials also.  They've said that season sets on either Blu-Ray or DVD would be too pricy, but you never really know (knock on wood).

Episodes aside the Crow Figure looks very good.  That something Rhino never thought of.  Hopfully down the line they might add Tom Servo and Gypy on the next few sets like with the Simpsons Head DVD packaging.  Unless we have to wait for the 40th and 60th anniversaries.  Might be worth it.

Even if you don't think the episdes are good enough they all have their funny moments.  Even Future War has some good low budget Dinosaur head jokes.  Werewolf is great just to see Mike and The Bots sing "Where Oh Werewolf" as a 60's girl group.  "Mike you didn't really date a guy names Steve who died?"  "Well funny thing..."

The KTMA episdoes aren't going to happen in the near or Distant Future.  Even if the Best Brains crew didn't think they were the greatest as far as timing and joke quality, countless times they've explained why the EPS won't be released.  They never got the rights to use those movies for the KTMA season.  I guess basically they used movies in the KTMA vault since they worked for the station.  But give SHOUT! some time.  Maybe we'll at least get the host segments from that and "THE GREEN SLIME" pilot. 

I'm glad there's still a company releasing the show at all.

Yay! One of the movies from my wishlist made it to the boxed set! (Werewolf)

Thanks, Shout Factory and Best Brains!

HOLY SMOKES! You have a copy of the Pilot Episode? That makes you one of the few people who have ever seen it. Dear God. Most of us would gladly sell body parts to get a look at that. You'd better put extra security up at your offices before someone grabs it and puts it on YouTube or something!!

I only got into MST3K a couple of years ago, and have since grabbed every episode I could get my hands on.  And the Shout! Factory set looks like the best treatment the series has ever recieved.  Rhino never put this much effort into any of their sets!  A retrospective documentary with new interviews and clips from unreleased episodes?  A tin case with figurine?  Lobby cards?  This set looks amazing!  And, to top it off, at long last an episode from Season Seven!  I can't believe that there are nay-sayers about this!

First Spaceship On Venus is a killer-funny episode and I can't wait to get this set. That episode is a family favorite at my house. As much as I enjoyed the show right up till the final episode, I'd love to see more early stuff, especially from seasons 2, 3 and 4 with the occasional season 1, 5 and 6 too. Anything by Robert Lippert from season 2 would be especially welcome; "rock climbing" (Lost Continent) comes to mind, but all four were great and some of my all-time favorites. Rocketship X-M is still my favorite episode! Of course, the "Gamera-damerung", Amazing Colossal Man and it's sequel War Of The Colossal Beast with the Mr. B Natural short and host segments intact would be a grand slam set in sales. More sets, faster, faster!

Sorry. I assumed it wouldn't be that big of a deal, As rhino always stated who they liscnesed the movies from. But i guess When i assume I make an ass out of you and me. Atleast there wasn't an assasination, Then i would have made an Ass out of a Nation.

Have you also seen the Other three "unavailable" KTMA episodes? 

I had to register just to say "Thank you!" for the first MST3K collectible figure ever.  Now, can we maybe get Servo & Gypsy?  Please...;)

Also, nice opening salvo of episodes.  I've been watching every one that's on youtube & am down to 2 (finally) that I'd never seen.  Pretty much any Comedy Central episode that's not on DVD (or VHS in The ACM's case).  And the one that I hope you guys can get, above all others (even the 5 Gameras & other Godzilla, I'm a huge fan in general of the kaiju genre & these are top o' the listers for me & my buddies) is The Beast Of Yucca Flats.  Absolute gold!  The final part of the movie in particular is so freakin' hilarious.

Thanks again for keeping the myth alive.:)

>> My question is why werent more key episodes included in this 20th Anniversary Set ?

Please read the posts by Brian Ward earlier in this thread, he already answered that question on 8/18 at 1:06 PM. He also addresses it a bit in various other posts in the message thread.