Don't look too hard and long for these tapes on your video retailer's shelf. You'll have better luck finding Indiana Jones' lost ark. Actually, this begins a new series of reviews where AVN puts the focus on mail order softcore. We'll provide ordering information for these and all future tapes we feel would be of interest to our readers.

Topless Trio, thankfully, represents some revamped thinking in the shot-on-video market. Until now, very few companies have tiddled with soft, softcore glamor. Sunset Software, Gold Stripe Video, and Green Door Productions (all mail order firms) are making fine glamor shot-on-video inroads, but this is a field that is still up for grabs.

If your visual preference is intergalactically endowed females in string bikinis and high heels saturating themselves in baby oil by the pool side, you're going to be in suntan heaven with the Topless Trio. Only I think I got a little too much sun during the course of an hour. I'm starting to blister. My impression is that the producers of this tape come up a little short in the creative undressing department. Too much of the same thing and changing colors and styles of bikinis as the main difference is not my idea of variety. I'm all for the pretty girl by the water bit; that's classic glamor. But there are a zillion opportunities for erotic variety here that are obvious and overlooked.

Jan, one of the ladies featured, is a must-see-to-be-believed specimen of womanhood. Rarely will you witness a woman whose bosom height coincides with her clavicles. Her chest looks like a table top. There is a lot of posing, oiling and boob rubbing, but for those whose tastes run a little deeper, Topless Trio might come off as real mild stuff.

Sweater Girls: Volume 11 suggests there are 10 volumes we haven't accounted for. Well, not quite. AVNwill be running an article in the future on Sunset Software's glamor tapes which you'll not want to miss. Suffice to say, these tapes are compilations of glamor films that were shot during the Fifties and Sixties. They're probably better known as arcade reelers, although they were also available on 8mm format and sold through ads in mens' magazines. But anyone who whipped out the old two-ton projector and threaded these films through knows what a pain in the buns it was. Thanks to video we can have a better appreciation of these films — and less hassle.

This particular volume includes footage shot during the Sixties, and features many of the models who were popular pinups of the day. Joan Brakeman might remind you of an early era Connie Selleca, and the few minutes she's on camera as she strips out of an evening gown against a street lamp prop are as memorable as any piece of vintage glamor there is. At least the company shows good sense in highlighting this number in its advertising. Some of the other girls look so-so, but remember, they didn't have tanning salons and silicone back then. Blonde Marsha Jordan, who starred in many adult feature films of that decade, is also listed as appearing in this volume, although I'll be hanged if I can recognize her from her film snippet.

If it's a valid gripe, the only one I have with Sunset Software is they are too fastidious in the tapes they release. The company only works from the finest master prints available in making computer transfers on to video. There are tons of additional films out there in much poorer condition, but which I'd still appreciate seeing. I'll even take less than the best to none at all. In any event, Volume 12 is in the works and just about ready for release. Where to order:

Topless Trio, $29.95 plus $1.50 postage and handling.

Sweater Girls: Volume 11, $39.95 plus $1.50 postage and handling.

Specify VHS or BETA format

SUNSET SOFTWARE

P.O. Box 5808

Sherman Oaks, CA 91413

An additional $2 for their catalog will give you a complete rundown on the Sweater Girls series mentioned in the article.