pygospa

1 minute ago, forenhase said:

@pygospa

 

Da es sonst zu etwas Unruhen führen kann.....will ich mal deinen Preis korrigieren! Bezahlt hast du ca. 62€!

 

Grüße und Danke für die Bilder und Vorstellung.

Das ist natürlich richtig! Ich schreib eigentlich immer nur den Originalpreis laut Webseite hier hin, darauf sollte ich das nächste mal natürlich hinweisen. Da kommen natürlich noch (individuelle) Versandkosten, etc. drauf!

#511 | CZ | Gladiator | Steelbook (FAC #98) 

EAN: -
Release date: May 16th, 2018
Region Code: free
Paid: 56,26€

Next package with four movies is powered by my dear friend @forenhase. This way just to let you know: Everything arrived totally perfect in excellent condition, as it's always with your super secure packaging. Thank you very much once more! Four fullslips, never got so many in one package

And the first one and therefore the one I waited longest for is Gladiator. I was pretty excited when hearing that they'll do a Gladiator edition, because Gladiator is one of the few movies I did not yet come around to get on Blu-ray, meaning I still only own it on DVD, and a really old DVD that is, as it was one of the first movies I got. As you can see on the pictures, the spine even bleached out from the sun. Now, I was looking for an replacement early on, but I did not find anything I like. In Germany, there is the 1st edition steelbook which has a white artwork (that I do not find fitting to the general atmosphere of the movie at all), which fulfills all the typical steelbook design sins of that time (2009). Then there was a special packaging called Golden Disk Edition which is ugly as ****. I don't believe anybody bought these things - I once saw one of those (for another movie! yes there is a whole series of movies packaged like that) at Müller for 3,99€ and I was contemplating about it, but decided that it still was too much for something so ugly and also so cheaply made, so I left it there. Then there was the 100th Aniversary edition, wich basically is the same as the 1st pressing only with the blue banner replaced by a dark blue "100th Anniversary Edition" banner - not that much better. An then of course there is the Reel Heroes Steelbook Edition. I do actually like that series of steelbooks, and I am planing on getting them some day. But to me, that's just an addition; it's neat to have, but it does not do most of the movies justice. For Gladiator I would like to have an edition that reminds me of Gladiator.

So, how about internationally? All above listed editions are actually WWA steelbooks, so it's basically the same everywhere. Up to now the only decent release I witnessed was by HDZeta and I did not get it, because I never actively looked for HDZeta, and I never got into those (I actually probably don't want to, because in the end I'll end up getting more premium editions to collect, and I am already collecting so many things).

And then Filmarena announced and I was happy and confident even before I saw any pictures. Now, to be totally honest, my enthusiasm was thwart a bit after reading that it will be a 4K UHD release (and in the very first moment it wasn't even clear, if there was also a BD or if it was a 4K only). I like how Filmarena made it optional on so many releases, but I surely hope that those times they didn't will stay exceptions. I imagine that they probably did not have any chance - and let's face it, we probably wouldn't have gotten this release if it wasn't for the newly pressed 4K UHD now, would we? So for me, the occasional edition is alright - I can live with that. However, if they'd do this all the time, I couldn't pay that kind of money anymore. I have my magical border at 50€/edition. I do cross this occasionally. But that's just it: occasionally. Not always. With the frequency that Filmarena is producing I couldn't hold up paying next to 60€ per release instead of next to 40€. So let's hope that all the next releases will be regular priced fullslips without forced 4K UHD.

I still wanted it, and obviously also got it. And I am really thrilled:

The fullslip itself is gorgeously done, with thick gloss varnish on all the metal parts, both front and back. The pictures are perfectly chosen (the back side is the old German DVD cover, the front is what HDZeta used for their one-click boxset, only that this time it's not wrapped around one corner. I really love this, it just looks perfect. Inside we get three components: A booklet, a folder with large postcards and the steelbook itself. The 36p booklet looks different to other Filmarena releases, and this is somewhat neat, because they for instance use Roman numerals which I like, and the paper looks a bit like marble - it's an overall pretty antique feeling the design conveys. However, picture wise I prefer the old style because with this booklet the pictures are so small, one could have left them out all together.

The folder for the cards has a nice design, and the cards are really excellently done. Good scene selection, nice colors and the back side is absolutely awesome. Not only do we get the white cover artwork of the German 1st edition steelbook, which I think looks perfect as a back artwork. We also get a signature by director Ridley Scott, and that looks really neat together with the artwork. I really love what they did here.

The most important part however is the steelbook. The lenticular magnet is absolutely perfect. We get a nice parallax 3D effect that I looks really good - you need to know I usually hate lenticular covers by Filmarena. In my collection thread on the German forum I literally always complained about those. So here they must be doing a really great job However subject-whise I found what they chose to do a bit boring. Why not have the Gladiator in a fighting scene in 3D? Pointing his sword towards you, screaming, ready to run towards you? In great 3D lenticular this would look awesome.

The steelbook is a new WWA steelbook that you can also buy separately from Zavvi, or on Amazon from France, Spain or Italy; and even Germany. So if you only like the steelbook you wouldn't need to get this FAC (which by the way is already sold out. At 600 copies limitation this was sure to happen rather sooner than later, unfortunately). It looks really great, it is a matt metallic finish with gloss varnish on the subjects of the pictures, and title debossing. It looks absolutely gorgeous, a decent front artwork. The back artwork is a bit repetitive though. I would have liked some more diverse pictures, e.g. I think Joaquin Phoenix is playing an excellent role as well, and I would have loved seeing him somewhere in the artwork. I for instance totally love the scene with Commodus holding out his fist, wanting to point the thumb down, but fighting against his desire because the audience is cheering for the Gladiator; this is a so powerful scene, with absolutely great acting by Phoenix - it would have deserved a place and I believe it would have looked perfect on the back of the steelbook - maybe even make them face each other when you open the steelbook.

Another critique I have is regarding to the inner artwork. I love colors, I don't get why people would want monochromatic pictures if they could have colors. Please use colors! This is a great scene they chose for the inner artwork, it would have popped so much more, if it was for colors.

But other than that, I am really and truly happy. It's probably the best release out there - I looked at some unboxings of HDZeta and wasn't too thrilled about it. This one on the other hand is a real beauty and to the point of what Gladiator is. Really happy to having this in my collection!

Weekend + some Updates = let's waste some times on writing long forum posts I've got 2 packages this weekend plus one package from last Saturday that I can show off, and I think I can also post two releases from my collection that are not recent updates, but that I can compare to my recent update, if any of you out there is uncertain which edition to pick. So let's get started with last Saturday.
 

#510 | DE | Star Trek I-X Steelbook Collector's Box | Steelbook (Media Markt Exclusive) 

EAN: 5053083102555
Release date: Dec 1st, 2016
Region Code: free
Paid: 55,00€

I was pretty stoked, when I heard about the Star Trek movie releases in steelbook due to the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. For two reasons: First, I am a huge Star Trek fan, even though I have a strange "order" of loving the Star Trek series and movies. My first and most beloved series is "Deep Sapce Nine", and after that I would probably list the Star Trek movies from I-VI, then comes "The Next Generation", then the Original Series, and after that the movies VII-X. Second, up to now I only owned various series (and not on Blu-ray) but never the movies. I only saw them in television, and Nemesis in Cinemas.

So, since I started collecting Blu-rays I was considering getting these movies as well and was on the lookout for a nice edition (there actually was another one I was looking for). When they presented the steelbooks and the idea of having them make up a spine image, I was pretty excited (even though I thought the spine image wasn't that perfekt). I also liked the images they presented, however the golden border I did not enjoy that much, and after hearing that "Wrath of Khan" would not even include the Directors Cut, that all the back artworks would be identical, that the disc artworks would be empty and that the inner print would be a joke as well, I was disappointed. I still wanted to get them, but not for 20€ per steelbook, as they where sold in the beginning. And even for 12€ - 14€ it was too much for me. Because even that would add up to 120€-140€, which in no way matches the value of the product. I wanted them to reach a price below 10€, I would have bought them for 9€, I hoped for something like 7€ in a special offer (Media Markt sometimes does that - for instance I got Rush Hour 1-3 for 7€ each, and even the beautiful Star Wars steelbooks where sold by Media Markt for 9,99€). But then, all of the sudden, a guy that I follow on social media, who is probably best known for his YouTube unboxing channel Michas Filmwelt (unfortunately only in German), informed us that there was a special offer for a box set of these steelbooks that I did not know even existed. The cheap online reseller "Media Dealer" had them for 55€. And with those steelbooks also came a t-shirt and a pin. So, depending on how you want to look at it, you'd either pay 5,50€ per steelbook and get a free t-shirt + pin, or you could assign a value to those: it's a good quality "Fruit of the Loom" shirt with good printing quality, so I think 10€ would still be a steal, and for the pin and box (as well as an additional bag I got) probabply 5€. That makes 40€ left for 10 Steelbooks, i.e. 4€ per steelbook. Either way: this is a steel and I had to get it.

I shared the information about the bargain with you guys, but only in the German section as I believed that they only ship Germany wide - however they do also ship to other European countries (even some non EU countries in Europe), so if you guys are interested, have a look at:

The box was originally priced at 140€, and was sold Media Markt exclusive. What I did not know: It is also limited to 500 copies and each copy is individually numbered via a sticker on the box. I myself got the number 227. The card board material is really thin, and also really tight for 10 steelbooks + a t-shirt so my box is bend out a bit. Unfortunately also the postal service did a bad job, and so I also have a dent in one of the corner edges. Otherwise the box looks really great for my taste: it has a silver foil finish, with gold, silver and blue coloring - the colors look pretty neat, and especially the top with the Star Trek title and the Enterprise flying towards you has a great feel to it. Strangely the seller used a movie poster as protection material, which is somewhat funny but to me also a bit sad, because I got the "Snowman" movie poster  - and contrary to the majority I actually enjoyed the movie and I especially love the artwork of the poster. So I would have actually enjoyed  a free poster that wasn't crumpled-up much more.

Also strange: I even got a 50 years Star Trek cloth bag that was neither advertised nor part of the box, but added into the shipper and - as it was wrapped around the box - was probably intended as further protection. Well, I'll take it, why not?

The t-shirt has size L (you couldn't choose) but it's a bit larger than usual - it fits me and I am usually a XL guy. As I already mentioned the quality is decent; however it looks different to the product pictures which I find a bit sad. The design on the product pictures was rather bold, still I liked it, and after having made my peace with it, I find the actual print a bit boring.

The steelbooks themselves are what they are: On the front we get the original movie poster as artwork, which is neat, and works out well. However I think the print quality could have been better, and it probably would look nicer over all, if they had made them full gloss, and removed the golden frame as well as the 50 years Star Trek logo from the front. Positively one can point out that the title is debossed and - for a German release - that the title is in English (I always prefer original titles to the translated ones - for Star Trek this is not that big of a deal, but if you take old classics like e.g. "La maschera del demonio" (= 'The mask of the demon') translated to "Die Stunde wenn Dracula kommt" (='The hour that Dracula arrives') - for a movie that does not even have Dracula in it ). However the back side of all steelbook is identical, showing the same 50 years Anniversary logo that we find on the front and as spine image, and that is just lazy design, and really sad for such an big occasion as the 50th anniversary. I would have preferred something like with Star Wars - have a picture of the crew, have a picture of the main space ships, have the antagonist, etc. And even if you are lazy with the inner print, you could still be the least amount of creative there is? E.g. have a picture of the whole crew - I-VI with Kirk and co., VII-X with Picard and co. But just the title and some lazy blue?

But as I said, it is what it is, I knew what I was getting into, so no bad surprises, and for 4€-5,50€ per steel this is totally fine, money wise. Still it does not live up to it's occasion in any ways. And that's what's sad for a 50 years anniversary and a legacy as enormous as the one that Star Trek founded. Shame on you, Paramount pictures, shame on you!

As mentioned, my box was a bit damaged, however the steelbooks wheren't judging form the outside. Each of them was sealed separately, had its own J-Card and from the outside they all looked totally perfect. From the inside however one of them - "VIII - First Contact" - looks like it fell down during production, and they still decided to pick it up and seal it, even though it was badly damaged. The damage was underneath the J-Card inside the shrink wrap, so this is really bad production. Again, shame on you!

While steelbooks I-VI have same disc style (grey varnish with omission for the letters), the movies VII-X have solid color varnish, each with a different color and a star-like white sprinkling on them.

That's all there is to say to this boxset. Even though it isn't the best, release quality-wise, I am still happy to finally own them. I think the price is fair for this edition (although I have read that some people got them even cheaper, for 40€!!!).

In regards to the movies: I've already mentioned that I did not really like the movies with the TNG crew. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but somehow none of them feel that good, and I only watched most of them just once. Even though I like the crew and the characters, I feel like non of them got the time they deserved - the movies felt a bit rushed and far to action packed, while the stories felt like episode material and not worthy of a movie. That is totally different with the older movies. While I am not that big of a fan of TOS (I grew up with TNG, and only watched TOS far later, after having seen some of the movies), I love the movies, as each of them gives the characters time to unfold, there is a great crew dynamic that is far more intense than in the series, and we have great stories. I have seen most of the movies a couple of times - however I never did a ranking. What I can tell you, however, is that my ranking is fairly untypical. I would for instance I would probably place "VI: The Undiscovered Country" as best Star Trek movie, and "IV: The Voyage Home" as second (or vice versa). I love both movies for a number of reasons, and prefer both to "II: The Wrath of Khan" - which is the most favorite by general opinion. For me it would probably make third place, and "III: The Search of Spock" fourth. I also prefer "I: The Motion Picture" over "V: The Final Frontier" which in my humble opinion is the worst of all Star Trek movies made. I am not sure, however, how and where I would fit the TNG movies in there - and I haven't even started to consider the new time line movies

Also important to remember "pygospa ist gemein" - but I'll tell you the meaning later

8 hours ago, Kingpin said:

Nobody talks in the English rooms.  

I have started multiple threads in there from movies to home theater to cooking and not much action.   

I gave up.  

I am now a German.  

Danke

@Masterblaster You cannot escape me.    

*lach* Das Annektieren hat also schon begonnen, ja?

@Kingpin I can teach you some German, if you like. The first one "Ick bin ein Pfannkuchen" means "I am a Berlin guy" - famous qoute from JFK, only he did it wrong.
The second one: "Ich liebe Steelbooks" - I love steelbooks

The third one: "Ich bin ein Blaustrahlensammler" - I am a blu-ray collector.

I believe with those three you can already get far in this thread

Huiuiui, die Nachtdurchmacher hier. Ich wünsche ebenfalls einen guten Morgen

20 minutes ago, Catgirl said:

 

 

Da fällt mir ein ich such von Filmarena noch das Fullslip zu Teil 1 von Jurassic World. Hat wer eins über, oder weiß wo eins noch günstig zu haben ist???? 

Ich auch. Ich hätte es damals sogar zu einem recht günstigen Preis kriegen können, aber ich idiot hab's sausen lassen.

So, jetzt aber wirklich Gute Nacht Euch allen!

1 minute ago, Admiral Thrawn said:

@pygospa fand Jurassic World schon haarsträubend, soviele Logiklöcher in einem Film, die Gören nervten nur, oh man ... und wenn du meinst Teil 2 war schlechter ... oh man

 Das hast Du falsch gelesen, ich find Teil 2 besser als Teil 1. Wobei ich noch mal in mich gehen müsste. Teil 1 fand ich bei der Erstsichtung auch ganz in Ordnung, hab den aber jetzt zur Vorbereitung noch mal geschaut, und da war der schon sehr öde. Mal schauen also, wie sich Teil 2 in der Zweitsichtung macht. Ein paar Logiklöcher gab es hier und da aber auch...

@Schlafen - naja, war mir nicht sicher ob ich mein Pensum an Posts hier schon erreicht habe :P

 

3 hours ago, Admiral Thrawn said:

Wie wat wo, alle im WM Fieber oder warum sind hier kaum Posts, was ist hier los?

 

So gehts hier aber nicht weiter, keine Müdigkeit vortäuschen ....

@Hatori

@Catgirl

@extantsrevenge

@pygospa

Kein Fußballfan - daher war ich im Kino Das mach ich abends öfters mal, entweder es geht ins Kino, oder es wird eine Blu-ray in den Player geschoben.

Heute wie gesagt Kino, geguckt haben wir "Jurassic World 2". Hat mir gefallen. War jetzt kein großartiger Film und es gab 1-2 Dinge die mich auch ein wenig gestört haben, aber im großen und ganzen ganz anständig und besser als Jurassic World 1; an Jurassic Park kommt allerdings auch der mal so garnicht ran.

So, und jetzt würd ich gerne schlafen gehen, wenn der Herr es gestattet?

Beim Media-Dealer gibt es die Star Trek Filme im Steelbook jetzt für 55€, zuzüglich eines T-Shirts und eines Pins.
Macht dann pro Steelbook 5,50€ und T-Shirt und Pin sind geschenkt. Ein unschlagbarer Preis, wie ich finde! Ich hab zugeschlagen (die Steels wollte ich sowieso noch in die Sammlung holen )

Media Dealer

11 minutes ago, Admiral Thrawn said:

Gehe oben rechts auf deinen Acount Namen, linker Maus Klick, auf Kontoeinstellungen und dann auf Signatur @goose_3387 makes the best signature pictures

Supi, danke. Hab's gefunden. Hab irgendwie immer in den Foreneinstellungen gesucht, und da konnte ich nur ein Cover sowie eine "Bio" einstellen. Jetzt hab ich auch endlich eine Signatur

1 hour ago, Admiral Thrawn said:

Freut mich übrigens, das so manch einer fröhlich Bilder von seinen Updates und Sammlung postet, bin auch dabei. Hab nen Link in der Signatur.

Ebenfalls sehr zu empfehlen, ist @pygospa

Danke für das Lob (bin auch an mein Limit gekommen ), ich glaube aber die meisten wissen das schon - hab ich ja auch schon in Bluray-Disc.de ebenfalls so gehandhabt
Wie kann man denn seine Signatur editieren? Irgendwie hab ich das noch nicht gefunden ?

 

Huhu @bifi! Ja, genau so geht es mir auch. Schon vor Jahren von diesem Forum gehört, aber hier nie reingeschaut. Das hat sich jetzt geändert. Ist ein echt tolles Forum hier, bin total begeistert Und auch wenn das Englisch schreiben anstrengend ist, es übt und man kommt auch mal mit internationalen Sammlern in Kontakt - das ist bestimmt auch nicht so schlecht

30 minutes ago, hibiscus said:

Joh

Bist Du DER Joh, wo ich denke dass Du bist?

12 minutes ago, extantsrevenge said:

I think the problem if you only post a link to your topic with a few pictures, it might only bring the person clicking on that to your topic, but not to the specific post you want to show, so they have to scroll through everything and that would be hard

 

I found a way to directly link to the post. On the top right corner of each post there is this "report post" and next to it this little pictogram with some circles connected by lines - if you click that, you'd get a link that links directly to the post.

And wow - linking to other posts looks really great on this forum

34 minutes ago, extantsrevenge said:

 If you like you could also post this in our Snow White Steelbook entry it would certainly add to that topic as well (since it has so much info), could also give your own topic more exposure. Very excited for your posts

Thank you for your kind words. Really happy to hear them - however I cannot "spend" any "thank you"s anymore ?

Regarding the part I quoted: Should I link my post into the other thread? Or should I copy it over? I would probably rather just link it (maybe tease some photos), so people won't get annoyed to read the same text over and over at different places But thanks for the link - I am still exploring this forum

#501 | US | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Empty Steelbook (Future Shop Exclusive)

EAN: 86162230028
Release date: Oct 6th, 2009
Region Code: -
Paid: 18,25€

In my previous post I already said that I got that edition in a double pack. The description read "with bonus rare Diamond Edition included" - and I thought "Oh, well, he included the amaray". Lots of German collectors do, if they buy imported steelbooks whose discs do not have German dubbing on them, because most Germans don't like to or cannot watch movies in English (it is far more often "Don't like to", at least from what I experienced). I on the other hand don't. I started watching movies in English in 2007. I was forced to, because I did an Erasmus year abroad, I lived together with 3 Latvians and one Italian in Spain - the only language we where all sufficently fluent enough was English, especially when it came to watching movies, so we watched a lot of movies and all of them in English. When returning home I realized two things:

1. Doubing somehow sounded funny, as if the voice is not comming from the person but from someone sitting at a desk reading from a paper (and please, don't get me wrong, Germany probably has one of the most expensive and most excellent doubing productions in the whole world), there was a dynmaic that was somehow missing. Also a lot of stuff just sounded much better in English (jokes, certain expressions, different slnags and accets, etc.) much more natural.
2. I finally got fluent in watching movies in English - and I didn't want to loose this gift right away, again. Even though my English is quite all right, I'd guess, the very first movies in English where hard, and tireing, and I missed a lot of things, jokes, etc. But in the end, I was feeling quite comfortable.
And so I decided to from that day onward only watch movies and series in original audio.

But I digress. Back to the supposedly German Amray: The auction even had a picture and I saw something in a holofoil paper o-card and thought to myself: "Well that's how Disney amarays look like, isn't it? They come in holofoil paper slip covers, usually with printed FSK seal and beneath is the exact same cover on a amaray, so I wouldn't really need it". In retrospect I would have loved to have the German disc of Snow White as well. I only knew this in German, all the songs and all the names felt so strange and unfamiliar even though the melodies where the same, it was just somewhat unfamiliar and had a strange touch. However, what I got was even better, and I did not have any idea beforehand, what it was:

It's a free of charge limited empty steelbook in a holofoil O-Card Slip, that was exclusively "gifted" via Future Shop (now Best Buy) only if you pre ordered the Diamond Edition release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the shop, on either Blu-ray or DVD 3-Disc Combo Pack (this is something really gerat as well - the combo pack always included 2 BD and 1 DVD, but you could choose if you wanted the G1 sized DVD amaray package or the G2 sized BD amaray package).

So how did this work? You took a the empty steelbook (? or maybe even just that J-Card?) that where in shelf from Aug 8th to Oct 5th, 2009 to the cashier, they scanned one of the EAN codes, and you had to pay $7.50 USD as a deposit. You got a receipt for this, but could not take the Steelbook with you. You then had to return to stores between Oct 6th - and Oct. 25th during which the normal Diamond Edition was released. With your receipt and the Diamond Edition of your choice you again went to the cashier, presented him the receipt and the DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack of the movie. You then had to pay the price of the amaray edition -$7.50 USD, and with the amaray and the receipt for that and the receipt for your pre-order deposit go to customer service where they'd hand out the steelbook for free. What an odyssey just to get a steelbook. I've googled the steelbook and it really seems to be a rare collectors piece - I could only find it twice on eBay, once for 80~90€ (including the discs) and once for ~60€ as empty steelbook. So this actually really is something undeniably special, especially for us Germans who couldn't even get this.

Let's get to the steelbook - for my taste it is a bit plain, the front has just the title and the apple on it, the back has Snow White with the apple in a mirror frame. I Like the J-Card which has cut-outs on all the right places to show the beautiful artwork beneath it. Underneath the J-Card we'll first find the O-Card slipcover, which has identical artwork to the steelbook itself. However, as already mentioned, it is printed on holofoil, so you have this rainbow-color-reflection effect when you turn it in your hands. This effect is faint on the sourrounding blue, and really distinct on the back side where the reflections on the mirror are - I like this love for details. Both front and back also have embossings - the front of the slipcover has the title embossed, the back has the frame of the mirror embossed. Neat!

The steelbook itself is somewhat boring: it has a full gloss varnish, but also the brushed metallic effect shines through throughout the entire surface, without any accents or anything. Also the spine is simply blue, no title, no pictograms, nothing. I can see the appeal of this really plain steelbook, it has a certain elegance, however, given the competing steelbooks out there I wouldn't have gotten this just for the design, when I'd have seen this lying around somewhere.  However, I am extremely happy to have it in my collection though. I am a bit puzzled why someone would add such a rare item into a bundle (as the comments read "for free" - the item was listed under Zavvi's Snow White) and auction it at a private auction with a restricted audience, but hey. Who am I to question? I am really happy to own it, and I won't give it away.

And now that I have it, I'm considering to also getting the 3 Disc Diamond Edition, because this steel feels so empty ? I'd probably take the german one though - "Hey ho, Hey ho, wir sind vergnügt und froh" sounds absolutely strange in its English original  

#500 | UK | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Steelbook (Zavvi) | qty: 4000

EAN: 8717418443818
Release date: Dec 15th, 2014
Region Code: B, C
Paid: 18,25€

I've got some spare time, why not use it for yet another post? This one is special to me, because this year on May 23rd I got a package containing 6 Steelbooks, and while adding them to my excel list, I realized, that now, after 2,5 years of collecting blu-ray, I finally reached the 500 mark. 500 Steelbooks, that's worth a celebration, and while looking into the box, it was clear to me that there is only one of the 6 movies worthy of being coined my official 500: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

I got this at a private auction group, and the price I got it for was insane: 36,50€, including another Snow White steelbook. I'll come to that later, but for now, let's focus on this edition - a Zavvi exclusive steelbook, #25 of their "The Disney Collection", Disney's Classic No. 1. And it is the first printing, i.e. at the moment, Zavvi decided to re-release a part of their old Disney collection steelbooks - probably some of the older collectors will be a bit pissed, because this devalues their edition; before the re-release this edition always had prices above 50€, at least if you wanted it to be complete and/or originally sealed. Nowadays prices between 30€-50€ is more common, with the new release being in stock at 15€.

But why bother with the first release if there is a re-release? Well, they added some value to the releases by adding 3D lenticular magnet covers, and I have to say, they really look adorable. However they also slightly changed the steelbooks, with the most and major part (at least to me) being the removal of the embossing of the cover. The first pressing has such a beautiful and finely detailed embossing, it's insane! First of all we have the text that has each letter individually embossed. Then there are the hands of the step mother on top, that are embossed. Snow white herself has some clothing details (such as the bow in her hair or her soulder-thingies) embossed, as has the prince (his cape). The rains of the horse are embossed, and - and this to me is the most important part: Every nose of every dwarf is embossed! This is so funny, I'd get this edition just for those embossed noses

In the new release that embossing is missing at all. Also the front get's an additional character at the bottom (the old lady witch with the apple) that my edition has on its back, making it a bit more crowded (but that is only a minor issue). Therefore the back has a new artwork (snow white holding the apple, that in my edition is on the inside, as well as on the disc artwork) and the inner print is also changed, showing the dwarfs on the branch, instead of Snow white, the forest, the dwarf house, the forest critters and the 7 dwarfs. I like both inner printings, however as far as I could tell (from YouTube unboxings) my version has strong metallic effects, the new one does not. The disc and the content are identical though, so no better quality, no additional extras. etc. While those changes are a matter of taste, the embossing is something that really reduces the quality of the steelbook, and for me this is not made up by a small magnet lenticular, that - even though the effect looks nice, has only very small added value. Both release come in identical quarter slips, which have all the information on it, allowing for a text free back. And - absolutely strange for Disney releases: The old version has a title on the spine + an little pictogram of snow white. The new release only has text! Talking

Both, front and back are full gloss with partly metallic effects (on the mirror, on sparkles, on light rays) - all in all this edition is absolutely awesome, one of the nicest steelbooks out there. I totally love it, it's totally awesome. And this was the reason I had to have it. I am not a hugh Disney fan anymore, and I did not watch any of the newer animation releases (and if I did, I could not connect with those movies in any way), but - as probably every one of you - I had a number of Disney movies I grew up with: mine are Bambi, Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp,  Sleeping Beauty, The Fox and the Hound, Aladdin, The Lion King and Pocahontas. And when seeing these absolutely gorgeous steelbooks I knew I had to have my childhood Disney movies from Zavvi.

And of course Snow White is missing the list. And Snow White has a very special place in my heart. While I haven't seen this movie for decades, I could still remember every scene, because this movie was the very first movie I've ever watched in cinema. It was my grandmother (who died far too young - in the evening before her retirement started ), who took me to cinema at the age of 8 years. This is how my cinema experience started, and I became a fan ever since (nowadays I am at the movies at least once a week). So the very first Disney movie was also my very first movie - or at least the very first movie that left an impression so deep that I can even remember parts of the song an the entire story and images, even now, 25 years later. I cannot with any movie that I might have seen beforehand, and I cannot for all movies that I've seen only once, later. Snow White however, as far as I can recollect, I only saw once in my entire live.

This is why this movie had to be my number 500. I got it originally sealed, for a perfect price, but I would have even paid much more, if I had to. I also took the time to watch the movie, and I have to say all in all I was pretty impressed. Even though this is a movie from 1937, the quality is absolutely impressive, nice coloring, nice animation, great drawing style, every frame looks as if it was an aquarelle painting - something you wouldn't find in any of today's animation shows. The new Blu-ray image adds detail and deeper colors but otherwise stays absolutely true to the original even though it was remastered a couple of times (Laser Disc version from 1994, different VHS versions from 1994 - 1997, the DVD release from 2001 and finally the blu-ray edition from 2009). It was really fun watching. Definitely worth a look, even though I guess there wont be much difference between the 2009 DVD and the 2009 Blu-ray version. But to judge for yourselves just look at this side by side comparison between the 1994 laser disc and the 2009 blu-ray:
 

Gute Nacht und danke für die Likes.

Sind das echt nur so wenig? Ich bild mir ein, mehr als 5 müsste ich auf jeden Fall schon die letzten Tage jeden Tag vergeben habe. Aber gezählt hab ich noch nicht. Vielleicht mach ich das morgen mal (man braucht ja hobbies ?)

Ich glaube, man kann den nur durch kaufen bekommen, nicht durchs posten. Man ist dann halt Supporter vom Forum, also ich nehme an, damit decken die deren Serverkosten etc.

Cooles konzept eigentlich. Keine Werbung, keine komischen Werbepartner, kein "Wir machen mal die Seite kaputt und bauen das so neu, wie das nicht unsere User haben wolle"

Just now, Admiral Thrawn said:

@extantsrevenge dieses limitieren von Likes pro Tag, geht mir auf die Nüsse, sorry!

 

 

Ich kann es ein bisschen nachvollziehen, gerade wenn man für das Liken auch belohnt wird (um quasi nicht zu spammen).

Aber ich hab es bisher auch noch nicht an meine Grenze geschafft - wieviele Likes hat man denn pro Tag?

Just now, Admiral Thrawn said:

Bronze und Silber / Gold, da steig ich selber noch nicht ganz durch. ?

Ich kann mal versuchen zusammen zu fassen, was ich darüber verstanden hab, Gold, Silber und Bronze-Member sind Support-Memberships, d.h. die kosten Geld, und was genau die kosten, das kann man hier einsehen: Link.

Dafür dass man das Forum unterstützt, bekommt man dann als Gegenleistung diese Membership Card, die hier ja auch schon gepostet wurde, und man bekommt diese interne Währung (Master Buck), aber wenn ich Masterblaster richtig verstanden hatte, ist diese Währung noch garnicht aktiv, das kommt erst noch. Mit dieser Währung kann man einige Dinge im Store kaufen (was genau hab ich mir aber auch noch nicht angeschaut), bzw. Rabatte kriegen.

Und außerdem werden die Gold und Silber-Member in den meisten SBs bevorzugt - in forenhases aber nicht, da kommt als erstes, wer am Meisten gekauft hat, bei ihm. Also Stammkunden quasi. Bei den anderen liest man das aber überall - wenn es zu wenig Editionen für eine SB gibt, werden die Bevorzugt, die Gold haben, dann die die Silber haben usw.
 

Jetzt wird's ganz kompliziert: Die Plätze für Gold und Silber sind begrenzt und weil so viele gerne Supporter werden wollen, kann man nicht automatisch eine Goldmembership bekommen sondern wird erst irgendwie Bronze Member (das muss man wohl beantragen) und kann dann, wenn jedes Jahr neue Plätze vergeben werden, aufsteigen. D.h. nur wer vorher Silber war, kann Gold werden und nur wer Bronze war, kann Silber werden. Also alles recht kompliziert.

Aber wenn ich das richtig sehe, kommt es garnicht so häufig vor, dass nicht genug Editionen zustande kommen - ich glaube, wer nur wegen Andres SBs hier ist, muss sich über Gold/Silber keine gedanken machen - außer er findet das Board hier geil und will's unterstützen (ich find's eigentlich schon ziemlich Geil - also mal gucken, was die Zukunft so bringt :D ;) ).

Thank you all for your kind words. To me, collecting is a great passion and I love movies so actually this to me is fun - and I love sharing my passion with other passionate collectors.

@Admiral Thrawn yep, a bit taller than 15cm - nearly 16cm I would say. Didn't know that this was the "standard" size for such busts - it is my first (and up to now only) edition with busts that I bought, and somehow I'd expected them to be ~18-20cm (so rather blu-ray height). But as we all know, it's the technique that matters, not the size... ? ?

#72 | UK | Sherlock Limited Giftset | Keep Case Boxset
EAN: 5051561040085
Release date: Nov 4th, 2014
Region Code: B (but maybe also A)
Paid: 138,27€ (including shipping)

 

For me it's fun showing of movie editions, talking about them, and also about the movies or television series. However, it is much more fun to do so, if you love to read about them. So, thank you very much @Admiral Thrawn for asking, I am happy to answer with yet another post from my collection If anyone else likes to see something in more detail, please ask. You can find my collection here. I have most of my editions already photographed and just need to do a search on my hard drive - and a few of my text are also written (although in German), so not much work there as well - and last but not least: I love doing it

So, here we go. This release I imported from UK, but after researching I found that there is also an identical(?) relese in the US and in Canada that both have other EAN/UPC and also don't have a number on the back (more to that later). I ordered this one directly via BBC and had to pay a pretty penny, especially when you compare it to my last post: 3736 minutes on 20 discs for Battlestar Galactica vs. 810 minutes on 7 discs for Sherlock. How do they justify this price?

What we get is a simple cardboard box, in which we get two artworks on postcards as well as two small busts, as well as four amaray cases (14mm spines) that hold the first three seasons, i.e. both the foruth season as well as the special movie are missing!

The box itself is pretty bleak. White, golden printing, the blu-ray blue banner and a portrait of Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman) on the one and Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) on the other side, a n armorial, "221B" - that's it. Interesting on the bottom: My copy has a great sticker (and you can see that below that there was something else printed directly on the box - but maybe they used the same box also for the US and Canadian releases), and this sticker reads "Limited Edition Number 0641". However I did not know that this was actually a limited release that even got numbered! BBC never advertised this, and they never answered me, when I wrote the BBC Shop an email asking for this. From YouTube I know that the US-Box does not have the same sticker. So probably only the UK versions where numbered. However I have no idea how many copies there are; taking the leading zero it probably wouldn't be higher than 9999.  Does anyone else have the UK edition? What does your sticker read?

Let's get back to the box itself and take a look at the front: Wefind two cut-outs in the form of the silhouettes from Cumberbatch and Freeman. And beneath those, protected by a transparent hard plastic sheet, you can see the two busts. However, the plastic sheet is high gloss and pretty reflective, and if you don't open the box, the inside is also pretty dark, and the busts are dark aswell - so even though it is a nice idea, if you are a sealed copy collector, you probably won't have much fun with the busts. However, if you open it, the box is nice enough to put it up on your shelf, especially as there is a typically British wallpaper at the back of the inside of the box, that shows a number of symbols which are famous for Sherlock (finger print, violin, union jack, 221B, etc.). That is a nice detail, it's nothing big but shows the love and detail that someone put into the box design - it's nicer than having a white backing board, so cool


When opening the box, we have two parts: the part behind the wall paper backing board has five items: 4 amarays and one paper envelpe with the postcards. And yes, they are postcards. On the product pictures they looked a bit larger, but they are not. And they are not art prints or art cards; which is really sad - the motive is great, but it would have been so much greater if it had high quality paper and if it was as big as the box (i.e. the backing card). I would actually have considered framing and hanging them if it was. That is really sad.

Each of the Amaray holds on season, and they are 14mm amarays which is the DVD size spine, not the 11mm standard blu-ray size; otherwhise from design (and content of disks) they are identical to the single seasons that you can buy. The reason for the bigger spine is that each season consists out of 4 discs, 2 of them being BD and 2 of them DVDs with identical content. This is different to the seasons that are sold separately - they look identical artwork wise, but there you have to choose to take either BD or DVD - there is no combo package like these ones. Which is neat for a gift set; however (and yes, this is nit picking) the discs are on inlay trays, so that both the front and back inside of the amaray themselves are blank, and they did not bother to do a double side cover sheet so that you also have an inner printing. Also the cover sheets (at least for my copy) where not of the best quality and had bucklings (production faults).  For season 1 and season 2, the BD discs and corresponding DVD discs have identical design, and they have a really consistent design, which I like. For season 3, however, the first DVD is nearly blank while the second shows a totally other scene with Watson - that is pretty irritating.

The last amaray has only 2 discs, one BD and an identical DVD and this disc contain exclusive extras that only come with this box and that cannot be bought separately. Neat exclusive extra for fans of the series.

Last but not least, and for collectors probably the biggest reason to buy this edition: The busts. I already mentioned that I was a bit disappointed by the "art cards". I was also disappointed when first seeing the busts - they where much smaller than I expected them to be. Never the less, they are unbelievable heavy (350g/bust), it's not plastic but sturdy hard material (however I do not know what material it actually is), they have the look of used dark copper or brass material, with a hint of metallic, that looks really gorgeous. Also the level of detail is extremely high, the hair, the eyes, the eye brows, the buttons, little threads and filaments, structure of the coats and scarf, all of extremely hard quality. I totally love it, especially the eyes look really great. Also, both busts really look like the real actors, which often is a problem with figurines - these really look perfect.

So, all in all, I am really happy with this edition. You might still argue if it is worth the money, as the Amaray of each season only costs around 12€; additional 10€ can be added if you also count the costs of the DVD releases. That makes 66€, i.e. 75€ for both busts.

I think the price is a bit high, as the busts are really small. Still, if you like the series you will be happy with this edition. I myself am.

A few words regarding the content: Sherlock - as you might have guessed - deals with the classic well known characters created by Sir Conan Arthur Dale; however, these stories are ported into the current time. Each episode is actually based on a classic story, but completely adapted into the current time, i.e. there are smart phones, Watson writes a blog, etc. Also, this series lives from it's ingenious actors - Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes is the bomb. It's probably the best Sherlock actor we have, and as a side kick we get Martin Freeman, who himself is a absolute great actor, is the prefect counterpart to Sherlock. Absolutely worth watching. The only problem: Each season has 3 episodes, and there are only 4 seasons




 

#1 | US | Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Series | Digipack Boxset
EAN: 025192010378
Release date: Jul 27th, 2009
Paid: 144€ (including taxes and shipping)

So, before this turns into another German thread that scares away any international members, here's the first post where I actually show of an edition. And I've decided that there's no better edition to show of than the one you bought first. So, in this post I'd like to present you the very first Blu-ray I've ever bought. It's an US import that I got on July 2009 (nearly 10 years ago ), and if you remember my introduction, I actually did not even had a Blu-ray player until 2014. However, I decided in 2008 that I wouldn't buy any new DVD releases anymore, as DVD was slowly but surely been replaced by Blu-ray, which is why I decided to get the BD release of this edition, even though you could choose between DVD and BD, if I remember correctly.

I decided to get this edition, because in Germany they did not have any complete releases, and as far as it was known, there weren't any plans to release this box as it was released in the USA in Germany. America meanwhile got this really gorgeous box, that was complete, that was limited, and that even come with a little figurine of a cylon. Later they did release a box set in Germany, even one with the same cylon figurine, however, not with the same outer package, that by itself is an unique eye catcher.

You get a perfect cube, that seems to be made out of two pieces: A lid piece and a container piece. However, if you lift the lid, you'll realize that you cannot separate them. You can lift the top piece up a bit, and beneath it is something that I can only describe as an "advertising pillar" lookalike. Top and bottom of the box are dark grey with a fine structure that has a slightly glittery effect, such as brushed steel might have. The top part has the text "Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Series" in silver foil printing that is embossed on three of its four sides. On the fourth side an actual metal plate is glued on. This looks really awesome.

The "advertising pillar" shows pictures of all the important main characters, grouped into "logical units": We have the perfect couple with Dr. Gaius Baltar and No. Six, then we have the the ruling elite with Commander Bill Adama, President Laura Roslin and XO Saul Tigh. And of course we have the two love triangles, one consisting of Starbuck, Appollo and Longshot, the other consisting of Boomer/Athena, Chief and Helo.

As with the pillar that you can only see when you lift the top part, you can only access the digipacks if you lift the top part. The digipacks are shoved in to the bottom piece with a slight slant. When closed, the digipacks are held by both the top and the bottom part, when opened only the bottom part holds the digipacks, so you can access them from the top. The digipacks themselves are eye candy as well: they look like cylon heads, are made of silver foil, the eye-part is cutout, and you can open them at the bottom, moving the lid to the top (as if you where opening the visor of a knights helmet). This lid is held together by a plastic velcro seal. Underneath you find an artwork that looks like the inside of the cylon head: you find speakers where the mouth is, you find wireing, you find some ventilation. I really love this idea, this is cleverly done and totally fitting. However, the disks are then shoved in from the top, and separated by a paper partition. While the rest shows great love for detail, this one aspect is one that every disc lover will properly hate, as it is prone to scratch the disks.

The disks are all identically designed, and as it was typical for that time, there is a big blue blu-ray disc logo, so there isn't much space for anything else.

The last part of this editions is of course the cylon figurine. This one is integrated into the top part, in something that I love to call "glass coffin". It is like a plastic tube in which you push your figurine in, and then this tube fits into a whole in the top part. Yet another clever way to package this; however, putting this figure into the bottom would have been a bit neater as the top wouldn't look too bad. The figurine itself is rather disillusioning, it is made out of very light stiff plastic as well as some more elastic rubber parts. This light-weight leads to the figurine to fall very easy, the slightest touch and sometimes even a slight wind is enough. There are some degrees of freedom, but those are also really stiff and while moving they make squeaky and crunchy sounds, so it is hard to find the perfect pose that will stand for a long time and also look good. Also, the different parts this figurine is made of are really visible, you have regions that look like "weld seams", the overall quality of work is not that high; you'd probably not even spend 10€ if you find this on the shelf at some super market.

To be honest, I would have easily spent some more euros but therefore got a figurine that has a higher quality. I would have especially loved to have a figure that used real chrome, or at least a chrome painting. If it was of really good quality I would have spent 200€-250€. This figurine is something that you'd probably rather hide than show off.
 

I would also like to loose some words regarding the quality of the blu-ray. I watched the series as it was broadcasted in Canadian TV, in SD quality, and this quality was really good. I thought the BD release would be better, but when in 2015 I finally started re-watching the series again, I had to find out that DVD would have been sufficient. The picture is not really sharp, and it has very visible film grain that sometimes is borderline annoying. When researching this I read that this is actually intended, and that the BD release was even treated with extra artificial grain for the atmosphere. Additionally, the BD uses VC-1 codec which is known for bad black levels and bad depth of focus.

For my taste all this together makes the quality rather mediocre. It depends on the scenes, but sometimes the grain really annoys me, and makes me feel like I'd probably prefer the DVD version; however I've never seen them side by side, so I might feel different if I ever did.

And last but not least some words regarding the content of the discs - at least for me the content is at least equally important - I am not simply a package collector, I also shuff my discs into the player every now and then:

This Series is probably one of the best modern SciFi series, that came just before the wave of high budget and high quality TV series productions. Even though the series did not profit from this, it is a series of really high quality, that - within it's budget borders - provides perfect effects, great actors and an awesome story, that I'd shortly like to resume:

A group of people (if I remember correctly, it was 45.000) survives a genocide that was conducted by war robots (called cylons) that humans once created, and then lost the power over. Those "few" that survived only survived because for some reason or another they where not on the planet but in space, they regroup and then try to found a new society. However, they still get hunted by the cylons, they have to battle serious problems such as food and water shortage in space, sleep deprivation, but also internal problems such as intrigues, personal discrepancies and religious delusions hinder the group. And then there are the cylons that created a humanoid robot that cannot be identified by humans.

After an ingenious start and a number of strong side stories there are some shorter long hauls, but all in all this series stays exciting until the end and finishes with a phenomenal conclusion that even now creates goosebumps when thinking about it. This series is not only for SciFi fans! Even though there is a SciFi setting, this series has so much more to offer. Most people I recommended "Battlestar Galactica" first said "no, I don't like those Star Trek like series"; those that believed me all say that this series was worth their time, and I believe it's worth yours as well. And that is not only my opinion: Time magazine has it in their top 100 (I cannot find the exact rank anymore), The Rolling Stones has it on place 45. And with my girlfriend I even saw a person that really hates SciFi turn into an absolute fan (after she did not want to watch it I watched it alone - after a while she sat down with me and couldn't get away anymore. I then had to rewatch the entire first season with her, before I could continue...).

A must see!