And the omen was true: once you open the latches, you see the upper cover of the boxset. Meaning that the boxset was inserted correctly, but the address was labeled on the wrong side, so that during transport, the box would constantly lie on the side (assuming the address sticker is on the top side).
Also, the box is in a bag, probably against water damage.
The outer box shows no signs of damage. It is actually very sturdy and nice. the "peeled off" stickers with the box title are actually spot-glossed.
Also, the box has a "rubbery" finish which is quite pleasant to the touch (I remember the Westworld digipak had the same kind of finish).
The back: a group picture of the Pythons.
Side view.
When taking off the cover, the box literally falls apart. Which was actually intended. Except...
...for the inner. The cardboard dividers and sidings are absolutely inadequate to hold the very heavy digipaks. And if the box ist transported sideways, instead of vertically, the accumulated weight presses against one side...
...totally ripping out the dividers and crushing the siding.
I suppose someone like that was packing it.
That was unfortunate. I really trust Network to make an uncomplicated replacement programme (easiest would be to mail just an empty box against a proof of purchase). I also expect a statement like this.
Anyway, here be the rest.
The box has the title on the one of the inner sides...
On the other side, there is a picture of a titty bobby.
The third side shows Gilliam's forest of hands (one of them as a popup)
Here the popup hand in detail.
And, the fourth side has the famous foot.
The small episode guide is also lying in the box. I heard that it got crushed by some by the weight of the digipaks. Mine was okay, at least.
The episode guide is rather basic: episode names and bonus material.
Now for the season boxes. They will also be available separately. The color coding of S1 is orange.
The design is oriented on playing cards (where you have the same motif twice, rotated by 180°).
Front side: the Wizzo Butter Man.
Back side: the blue parrot (Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage!), also placed in playing card fashion.
The slips of the digipaks are in the same rubbery finish as the outer box. Though they are rather thin and flimsy, the finish is a great improvement.
The slipcase contains the digipak itself, as well as a big, fat book by
Arthur Pewtey Andrew Pixley. The book uses both motifs from the digipak slipcase.
To the books. They are really, really heavy (and mostly responsible for the damage to the inners). No wonder. Alone the S1 book has over 170 pages, and the other books are similar.
The contents is very informative and fact-based. Other than the hand and foot widgets it has neither illustrations nor photographs. There is a LOT of text to read!
The digipak from the outside. Nice!
And now the inside with the trays. The contents is divided over two discs.
Series 2. Color coding: Mustard.
Front side: the Minister of Silly Walking.
Back side: painted Prof. Gumby.
Book and digipak.
Digi from the outside.
Digi from the inside.
Series 3. Color coding: blue (Norwegian?).
Front side: the nude organist.
Back side: animated character from the intro.
Book and digi.
Digi from outside.
Digi from inside.
Series 4. Color coding: green.
Front side: balloons.
Back side: Mr. Neutron.
Book and digi.
Digi from outside.
And from the inside. There is only one disc! No wonder: Series 4 is just half as long as the other series. I wonder if Network will still charge the same price for the single season, though.
Due to that, the Series 4 digi is also slightly narrower than the others.
Nice touch: the motifs from front/back are reflected on the spines as well.
Final thoughts:
If not the SNAFU with the too weak inner part that gets crushed in transit, the box would have been GREAT. I do hope for a fast and uncomplicated replacement program by Network.
And now for something completely different: I took a look at the first two episodes yesterday. Some thoughts.
1) Liking the minimalistic menu. No logos, no copyrights, just the static menu. Fast and nice.
2) Liking that there is no BD-J, which enables to quickly resume playback next time.
3) The restoration work as far I could judge by the first two episodes, was amazing! Of course, you could see it best in Terry G.'s animation, but also, the rest looked splendid. The 16mm sequences, while not sourced from film, looked very nice, too. And the best thing: it didn't look like there's a jarring contrast between more or less restored scenes. It looked coherent - and very fresh. My compliments!
4) Downer No. 1: you can only select single episodes from the menu, not the sketches from within those episodes. Old Sony DVD was better in that way. Also, there seems to be no chapter stops for single sketches.
5) Downer 2: the only set of English subtitles is for HoH, meaning, they contain a lot of [STUFF HAPPENiNG]. Old Sony DVDs were also better in this aspect, offering separate English and English HoH subtitles.