Not too sure what you were expecting there - product is
exactly the same as the advance pics showed - and at least this *was* an under £20 release which considering a lot of similar releases these days is quite something...Yes some embossing might have been nice on the slip but not every Arrow release has gone that route (Battle Royale collectors edition for example) so it's not out of character (and Society and Nekromantic 1/2 were around £25 originally
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SOCIETY and NEKROMANTIK 1 & 2 were well under 20 quid each .. . thinking I paid £17.99 for SOCIETY and the other two . . . but both were available for a time for under 15 quid each by the way.
I deliberately didn't compare these cheapo releases to BATTLE ROYALE and other similar doorstop editions.
My issue - which I somehow didn't make clear - is to do with the plastic Amaray instead of the classy digipack
. . . and the misleading images that gave me the impression this package would be the same as the other examples I mentioned . . . and should have been advertised like this, or similar:-
I'd be very surprised if literally anyone truthfully prefers an Amaray release to a digipak release . . . no matter the reversible artwork.
How so ?
a) Amarays are cheap compared to digipaks - how else does one explain the move away from digipaks by Arrow if not a cost-cutting profit-maximising exercise.
Arrow abandoned the lovely window slipcase editions some years back in favour of the clear white Amarays for the same cost-cutting reasons.
b) Digipaks have a far greater capacity to show more AND larger artwork than any Amaray release ever can . . . as can be seen here on this one example:-
Let's not pretend it ain't so!
c) If packaged properly the digipak will suffer no more harm than the Amaray . . . only item likely to suffer in transit anyway is the slipbox.
In a way it's good - OCD-wise - that Arrow are sticking with the same style clear white Amaray cases that they started with when they abandoned the window slipboxes and have not gone more upmarket with the Scanavo clear white cases used by Criterion, by Powerhouse for their first run Indicator Series, by Cult Films and by 101 Films for their Asian Collection etc. even though those have a larger canvas to display the various artworks.