This. I've lurked here a few times previously but just made an account to add some venting of my own. Personally, I am fed up in general with this whole limited edition thing. IMHO Twilight Time (are they still around?), Arrow, Indicator, Eureka, BFI, Imprint, and even the effing BBC all have something to answer for. As if the only way to exist in the home video market anymore is to peddle limited editions and make the buyers jump through hoops to get a complete copy. The last time I checked, companies like Criterion, Kino, and Shout were still doing good business.At this point, unless I’m pre-ordering something, I’ve pretty much given up on Arrow releases. The “first run with booklets” is apparently so small these days as to disappoint regularly. I needed an excuse to cut down on my disc purchases anyway, and tuhis constant disappointment with Arrow upon opening their mystery packages has finally pushed me to drop Arrow in general.
I should clarify that while I am not somebody who goes out of their way for slipcovers, and really couldn't care less about them, I draw a distinction between swag and content. Swag equals slipcovers, posters, stickers, postcards, badges, t-shirts, etc. while content equals something that actually informs me about the film. That includes booklet essays, etc. which have become so scarce. The current market seems like the equivalent of an author declaring that anyone who buys the limited leather hardbound version of their book gets the whole thing...and everybody else loses chapter 3. It's ridiculous. I am a collector/completist, but if you shout "jump!" (i.e. "buy now or else!") I'm much more likely to respond with a string of explicatives than "how high?" Guess I wouldn't last long in the army, lol.
I only ever bought two Twilight Time disks for the same reason, and have also pretty much foregone Arrow. Some days I am tempted to do the same with all of them. I assume many of you noticed that Indicator is selling the full Ray Harryhausen Sinbad sets again, as a 5th Anniversary Edition, exclusively on their web site? I emailed them a month ago with a title suggestion, but also added that I missed their first William Castle set and MY business model is that while I try to accommodate theirs, if I can't get exactly what I want, I don't buy at all...so I hope they do the same for the Castle set in a year or two. I am tired of being quiet.
I don't have a blog. With tongue only somewhat in cheek, maybe somebody could spread the word to all the Chinese counterfeiters that they should dial back on turning DVD9 TV sets into DVD5 sets and instead work on counterfeiting all of these exclusive books and booklets. Then there would be some justice in the world.
Vent off. 😪