These babies have been waiting for me in London since mid-summer. Now I’m back in the UK, it’s time to inspect the goods! I was led to TSRI by moyism’s praises and felt really satisfied with my first ever purchase - the Cardcaptor Sakura boxsets.
Value for money. The GITS:Innocence OST was USD 9.99; Angelic Layer DVD thinpak boxset was a great bargain bin find at USD 25.99; thanks to the Bandai 40% off sale, the Haruhi DVD 1 Limited Edition special box was a much more affordable USD 38.99.
Back home in our glorious democratic people’s island paradise republic, I had bought the Blue Max Full Metal Panic! DVD set at SGD 47.80 (with 10% discount for Citibank credit card holders). But as we like to say colloqually, there’s no such thing as cheap and fresh and also big breasts. For a start, there’s no running time and other technical data that collectors look out for. There’s no chapter selection option (though the Angelic Layer thinpak didn’t have this feature either). Each ‘DVD’ contained about a pathetic 500 MB of data for about 4-5 episodes in each disc.
In contrast, the Angelic Layer DVDs had over 5 GB of data on each disc for 5 episodes per disc (6 in the final disc) while the Haruhi DVD had a whooping 6 GB of data for four episodes (00, 1, 2, 3) and a whole bunch of extras like trailers, advertisments, creditless OP/ED, the making of, Adventures of the ASOS Brigade etc, not to mention a beautiful box and other goodies like Haruhi headband. [See a much more detailed review at The Otaku Spot.] Suddenly, the Blue Max DVDs don’t seem such a bargain after all - but I don’t rule out buying more stuff from Blue Max in the future if the price is right and/or quality improves.
And I’ve already placed a order/pre-order the special limited edition Haruhi DVD 2-4 boxes (with Bandai 40% off sale, of course) at USD 37.99 each from TSRI. Looking forward to November!
I was going to enquire about the quality of Blue Max’s FMP DVDs. Not that I hated Singapore-made stuffs. But then again, if the price is not justified by the quality, I’d rather chose the imports. I’m planning to buy the FMP trilogy (if you count on the Fumoffu).
And on a sidenote, how’s your experience with TRSI?
My experiences with TSRI have been good but I’ve never ordered for delivery to Singapore so your mileage may vary for that (thanks to the Censorship Board).
Wow! The angelic layer thinpak’s a real bargain. Even my AL R3s cost me S$70. Am drooling over your Haruhi LE.
Will be sticking with Taiwanese R3s for now until local licenses wake up their idea about REAL DVD standards.
LMAO, thanks for including the t-shirt! The church will be spread to the masses eventually! XD
Also glad you found out about the awesomeness that is TRSI. Glad to hear even with shipping overseas, buying from them was still a good deal.
I hate TRSI
They have so many deals going that they empty my wallet faster then i can fill it back up.
Angelic Layer ei? Watch out for Sai x Kaede (subteeeext). Or maybe you already know. ;)
Many thanks to moy and Zyl for recommending TRSI. I might get that Angelic Layer thinpak. My old set was bought locally and as expected, nothing but cheap - price and quality. And they left out the extra bits before the opening wth… That’s the first and last time I’d ever bought something from a local dealer. =.=
I just ordered the Haruhi 3 and 4 boxes from RightStuf myself. If you’re going to be buying a lot from them, you really ought to join their Got Anime club as well, if you haven’t already. Even on the special sale prices, you usually get a good 10% more off, for only $12 a year. And those discounts are even higher if you preorder stuff. Since their specials are usually brand based, though, it can get kind of expensive if you’ve got a lot of stuff upcoming from a certain studio (like Geneon and the Hellsing and Black Lagoon DVDs, in my case) at the same time. It’s all worth it when they pull one of their 10 for $50 and 25 for $100 deals…
Still, being able to look on my invoice at the end of the day and see the Haruhi LE DVD sets for $32.39 each (US) and know that I’m not likely to find them anywhere else for less than $40 without a bit of effort is pretty nice.
Bro, I’d go for Taiwanese R3s too, except for the Chinese sub-titles… so difficult. orz
moyism, it’s the awesome shirt! Feel the power of merchandise retrieval!! Overseas shipping was USD 21 but for limited edition items, it’s still worth it. Compared to others too: Amazon.co.jp charges JPY 2,400 for just one manga!
Xellos-_^, sounds like a common syndrome. Wallet am cry. LOL
Dav, yeah I’ve watched AL before so I was looking out for Sai - love her People’s Liberation Army type school uniform. TSRI might not have the AL thinpak at the same price all the time, do check their bargain bin and subscribe to their mailing list for announcements of periodic sales.
quigonkenny, yeah I’ve joined Got Anime too since I’ve ordered 4 items this year. Looking forward to Black Lagoon too!