I've been hearing--or, technically, reading--about Thunderbean's "Special" Sets a lot 'round these parts, and I've heard that they contain new transfers of cartoon shorts from various studios. Are they restored for these specific releases, or are they just raw transfers? How are these sets different from the mainstream releases?

"Special" sets are basically DVDs and/or Blu-Rays of animated shorts (typically under copyright) released for a limited amount of time (typically around one week). The cartoons are from film transfers. I don't know if they're "restored" or not; depends on what you mean by "restored".

The advantage of these sets is that since they're sourced from 35mm/16mm film that collectors pick up, it's possible to get stuff like original titles and better-quality prints that studios may not have in their archives, cartoons which are otherwise completely lost, cartoons which studios refuse to release, and more.

Some screenshots I've submitted are from these "special discs":

• Insect to Injury 
  
• We're On Our Way to Rio 
  
• Mouse Cleaning 
  
• The Little Pest 
  
• Taming the Cat 
  

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Although it's good to see Mouse Cleaning uncut for this special set, but of course as I expected it's the 50's reissue print on the opening and closing titles.

What I mean by "restored" is, are they digitally cleaned up on the same scale as Thunderbean's "Official" sets? Or are they just merely transfers with no digital cleanup, like some of the cartoons on Warner Archive's Porky set?

What I mean by "restored" is, are they digitally cleaned up on the same scale as Thunderbean's "Official" sets? Or are they just merely transfers with no digital cleanup, like some of the cartoons on Warner Archive's Porky set?

The second one.