We’ve lost some of my older photographs due to Todd’s springcleaning in the archives some time ago, so I’ll repost some editions.
Here are two: “Patlabor: The Movie” and “Patlabor 2: The Movie”. The editions shown here are the Limited Collector Editions and can be counted amongst the finest editions EVER. The books included in each of these are the reason.
This is what the packaging looks like:
Pulling out the contents. Each edition has a two-disc holder, a storyboard book and a behind-the-scenes book:
All contents in two rows:
All contents opened:
A storyboard book up close. These have something I’ve never seen for any other anime storyboard book: they have been fully translated into English, Oshii’s liner notes and all!!!
The other books are stellar too, amongst the best I’ve ever seen. Close to 200 pages each, these show production sketches, background information, ad campaigns, interviews with Mamoru Oshii and other key people… it’s all there. Bandai Visual US and Honneamise cannot be praised enough for their efforts here. I’ve heard rumors these editions burned them badly financially, and if that is true it’s a crying shame.
The excerpt here is from a chapter in the book for “Patlabor 2”, and tells how that movie was partly based on the storyline from Patlabor OVAs 5 and 6. A detailed 6-page comparison follows between the film and the OVAs, just one example of how good and extensive these sets are.
Very, very cool.
It is worth noting that these editions are still on sale and actually VERY affordable. These US sets were limited to 10,000 each, but in the UK similar sets were released which were limited to a mere 1,000 each! Even these failed to sell out though, and to my astonishment you can buy the two UK-editions together as a single huge set for only 24 Euro at some online outlets. An absolute steal!
My copy of the “Watchmen Ultimate Cut” BluRay arrived today, containing the director’s director’s cut. Basically it’s the previous “Director’s Cut” with the “Tales of the Black Freighter” edited in.
Also included is the “Watchmen Motion Comic” BluRay which consists of someone reading the graphic novel out loud while you see slightly animated versions of the book’s panels. Which is actually cooler than it sounds…
The set looks like this:
Thankfully the BluRay advert is a wraparound which is easily removed. The box itself is closed with magnets, Korean style:
Taking out the contents:
Contents displayed: a normal discholder for the motion comic, and a more elaborate one for the film itself.
Today my copy of the BluRay release of British 1960’s thriller series “The Prisoner” arrived.
Which raises the question: must I have EVERYTHING on BluRay?
Does High-Definition even have a noticeable effect on a sixties’ television series?
The answers: No, and generally no but in this specific case YES!
And not because “The Prisoner” is iconic, or revered, or whatever hype surrounds it. The reason why I wanted this BluRay is much simpler: every episode of the series was filmed using 35 mm film, and that is the stock which was used for the BluRay transfer. Picture quality is therefore nothing short of astounding, so if you watch this edition rest assured you’ll be seeing it in far better condition than everyone who watched it ‘on the telly’ 40 years ago!
Anyway, the edition is no slouch packaging-wise and fairly cheap (I paid less than 40 EUR).
This is what it looks like: a big box.
Opening the box unveils the BluRay holder and the book:
Contents displayed and opened. The discholder holds 6 BluRays and the pocket is far too big and extensive to ever be called a booklet.
Zooming in on that book: it’s trade-paperback sized with over 280 pages of VERY dense text, all of it directly related to how this series was created and received. A must-have for fans.
this topic is kinda dead. i guess the nature of this topic goes in tandem with the state of the economy. heh.
Well, the economy doesn’t help but there are two bigger reasons:
1:/ Korea has totally stopped pimping its DVDs.
They still release their films with slogans like “first printing” and “special 2-disc edition” and ask very high prices for them, but instead of the glorious releases of a few years back we now only get an amaray with a slipcase…
Japan still pimps but their prices are insanely high! (...and then the economy does kick in…)
Frankly, without the Korean pimp I now often wait until a film is released in the West. Then at least I get English subs on the extras.
2:/ Not many companies pimp BluRay releases.
When I have the choice between buying a DVD or a BluRay I now tend to buy the BluRay. But sometimes you see a totally pimped DVD-boxset while the BluRay is just a double discholder…
Because of these two reasons I just don’t get as many beautiful editions anymore as, say, three years ago!
really makes no difference around these parts whether it’s Korean or Japanese goods. the lousy forex here makes everything hardly affordable. and yes, i do notice the slowly decreasing amount of beautiful stuff coming out of Korea; nowadays the most they’d do is a two-disc “special edition.”
i also notice a lot of DVD companies are now doing more for Bluray than regular DVDs, so i guess it might be sooner than later that i make the switch. i’m just waiting for a certain financial surplus to come in before i get into the act.
but the recent holidays have seen some really crazy sales online. which is really the only way i can afford any box sets at this point in time.
I’ve been meaning to aquire this set for some time, and finally did so through a source in France; this being the BEN HUR LE DVD set from China released in November of 2006. Although this set looks mettallic in nature it’s actually bake-lite ceramic or pottery material that is painted to look like brass. It weighs in at 1,5 kg. or aprox. 5 lbs. My apologies for the incorrect dates in the corners (got these just before Christmas 2009) and some of the blurry shots. The case itself measures 7” by 8-1/2” by 2”. Anyone else own this set?
Ard, wanted to ask u, is the Watchmen Motion Comic worth getting? the DVD is available separately over here.
Oops, sorry Visitor, I kinda forgot about your question.
Actually I was very impressed with the “motion comic”. I knew they were just the panels from the graphic novel, narrated and slightly animated, but the animation was done a lot better than I expected. Rorschach’s mask works a lot better here than in the movie.
And the music, sound effects and narration are pretty well-done too, with the only grating thing being that there is only one narrator.
That’s right, one guy does all the voices, and while that works perfectly fine for the men in the story, the women sound really funny, especially when the content gets highly emotional. That’s not the fault of the actor (Tom Stechschulte really does a marvelous job) but I’d have preferred it if the heroines would have been voiced by an actress.
btw, i’m so impressed by all the box sets shown off here. i don’t have such impressive-looking sets, except the rare one or two occasional splurge. mine are mostly Criterion sets which are pretty standard - DVDs, book, outer box, etc.
When the series originally aired, each episode was followed by a 20-minute “Making of” documentary, and these would often be just as brilliant as the main series itself. Seeing the cameracrew don spacesuits and enter one of the largest caves in the world, to photograph a 100 feet high mound of bat-dung (covered by a two inch thick layer of cockroaches) is one of the most compelling (if revolting) things I’ve ever seen on my television!
So when “Planet Earth” was first released on DVD and BluRay in The Netherlands, I was shocked: the DVD-set contained the “Makings of” docs while the BluRays didn’t! Also, the only soundtrack on the BluRay was with the Dutch narrator.
No David Attenborough? Sacrilege!!!
But one year later we suddenly got a new BluRay release of this set, a “Special Edition” containing 6 BluRays instead of 5 (with a lot nicer packaging too). And indeed: the 6th disc contained all those 20-minute segments, in HD!
Not only that, but all episodes now featured the original English 5.1 soundtrack (with Dutch subs) as well as the Dutch soundtrack.
Excellent…
Anyway, this is what it looks like:
The double-box opened, revealing 6 inner slipcases and a mini-poster:
this came in the mail yesterday. not the most beautiful box set, of course, but i thought it’s a pretty good set. 5 Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski collaborations, plus the documentary My Best Fiend. got it super-cheap during the year-end sale. unfortunately, the box got a bit dented and squashed, but the contents were all fine. ah, the perils of mail order.
NOTE: The box of tissues, purse, pen and bottle of ointment at the back are NOT part of the box set. LOL
