What's your preference? Separate volumes or Thin Paks?

N

neptune2venus

Hunter
Apologies if a similar topic has been posted before!

This thought of separate vs thin paks occurred to me while I was looking through my anime collection. Most of the DVDs I own are separate volumes - as was the norm when I bought most of my anime. Now it is more often the case that thin paks of anime are now the most popular choice due to complete series being released all at once.

What do you prefer sitting on your shelf?
 
It...kind of depends. I have 2/3rds of the Eureka Seven singles + LEs from the US i imported a while back, and now they are hard to come by. But instead of being tempted to say hey, why don't i just go buy the collections, i want to find the individuals, and maybe even some of the LEs if they are floating around(amazon.com has some left, but won't export here =/). Then again, if i can find a series in a complete pack, i'll go for it. i think it's dependent on the series for me. If i don't know it well, or i've waited a long while, i'm fine with the collection sets, otherwise it's the singles/or whatever they are released as now, 3 part sets.

It's kind of the collector in me, If a series has LEs and i like the look of it, i'll probably prefer them. I doubt i'd ever sell my singles in order to get something that takes up less space.
 
I remember the days of complaining that thinpacks weren't anywhere near as nice as artboxes with full sized cases in.... Now few distributors even produce thinpacks any more, with most series' being released in single DVD sized cases with flip trays or those awful plastic bricks that look like VHS boxes. I'd certainly take thinpacks over those.

::enter people defending plastic bricks for taking up less room::

Yes, but they look sh*t and make people less likely to shell out any decent amount of cash for a series! Buy more bookshelves! If anything, the transition to such cheap packaging has made me far less bothered about the potential switch to digital distribution. I'm a lot less interested in having a physical product now that it's no longer that nice an object to own.
 
The thinner the better! I loved the thinpaks in chipboard boxes, which were briefly popular (e.g. Geneon's Sailor Moon sets, and some of ADV's rereleases), the most. I'm not keen on singles because while they look magnificent if the distributor manages to keep the spines consistent for the full run, I am at the stage where I have no actual wallspace in my entire house left for shelves, and insufficient money to purchase a larger home :p

I like it if they make an actual effort with the packaging though, however slim it gets. The multi-disc keepcases which just feel like 4p black plastic economy cases (which they are), with cheap covers and no liner notes don't exactly make me want to pay a premium price. And those weak 'eco friendly' packs with a huge recycling symbol chopped into the plastic of the case bewilder me. Why would I be throwing the case out?

R
 
The last case I binned (that wasn't broken) was an eco-case from Viz. Assuming that the reasoning behind their use of those cases was to be environmentally friendly and not just to save money, there's an irony in that.

It's interesting that thinpaks have all but disappeared; the last one I bought was Nozomi's Sound of the Sky box set. Higher episode counts per disc and shows being released in larger chunks has, unless you're NISA, meant that packaging does not eat shelf space like it once did, and that suits me generally. But I feel a bit short changed when, say, Sentai don't even print some art on the reverse of their covers - even Manga have the decency to give us that much!
 
Bricks. BRICKS! BRICKSSSSSSS!

(I love bricks =P)

Basically the less space it takes up the better. THough I do like signle volumes for Death Note (the fancy shiny lettering) and Code Geass (while irksomely oversized for the rest of my shelf they are nice enough). I used to be all about thinpaks before I discovered bricks and I have actually replaced 2 of my series with bricks because I like em so much (Also space, they were Gundam 00 and Trigun, even thinpak Trigun takes up WAY too much space for a series of its length).
 
Like Arbalest I buy singles if there are LEs (such as Eureka 7) otherwise collections are fine by me. As I buy more anime on blu-ray now I find that most series come on around 2 to 3 discs which takes up less space (unless it is Twelve Kingdoms then it takes 10 discs - the same number as it took on dvd).
 
Personally, I prefer thinpaks. They can have as much artwork as single volumes do, but they take up less space. Personally I think DVD cases are too big anyway.

What I do hate though, is when a series is released in a standard sized DVD case, but with enough flip trays to store 4 discs (FUNimation's Fairy Tail release springs to mind).

Personally though, my favourite kind of case has to be ones Beez did for some of their releases (like Sound of the Sky and Code Geass). My least favourite though, has to be the one they used for Gundam 00.
 
I remember the days ofthe 'Brick'! I still have one in the form of Princess Nine. I think it is the worst out of them all - as they take so much space and end up not closing properly :/.

Joshawott said:
What I do hate though, is when a series is released in a standard sized DVD case, but with enough flip trays to store 4 discs (FUNimation's Fairy Tail release springs to mind).
Click to expand...

I agree. When my El Cazador de la Bruja came through the letterbox, I thought 'was that it?' - I like some effort made into the packaging.

Generally I don't mind if a series I'm not sure about is as thin boxed as they come, but I like single volumes better as I like looking at the artwork of the individual covers.
 
Limited Editions > Singles + Artbox > Thinpacks with Artbox > Releases with Slipcovers > Singles > Bricks

In other words anything made of card is much nicer to look at on my shelf than the horrible standard lump of plastic.
 
I'm not too fussed about the packaging to be honest, bricks are fine with me. I'd rather get a brick at a decent price than pay a load more for a fancy box.
 
There come a point in a collection that the packaging stops mattering. I reached that point where my deluxe collections of the Patlabor movies and Steamboy practically vanished in amongst all the other anime discs.

At that point, compact and sturdy become a collector's watchwords. Small and unbreakable. Easy access to all the discs is also a plus. I can just about bear two discs overlapping on a panel. Seven discs on a single spindle ala Genshiken means that I'll be looking for some more cases to put those discs in.

My fave storage are the Anime Legends bricks. You can get six discs in those, one disc on each side, with two hinged panels with one disc on each face means no overlaps, taking up the space of two Amarays on my shelves.
 
The cases I hate the most are the ones which are impossible to replace if they break. For high quality releases it doesn't tend to matter as they're usually well protected, but for low quality ones with brittle plastic which often arrives in bits, it's maddening when they use an obscure kind of brick with hinged trays for extra discs. I order so much that receiving a screwed up case from time to time isn't that unusual, and when it's a standard type or a thinpak I can just swap it out perfectly with a replacement :(

Some of my disc trays are just floating loose inside their bricks even now after having had dramatic postal trips to my house in the past.

R
 
I hate the ones with the really dumb disc clip. The one that's like a solid nub for the disc hole, but with a tiny bit you're supposed to push in at the bottom. If anyone has the Dark Knight DVD they'll know the sort I mean. I hate those, they make me fear for the safety of my discs everytime I remove them from one.
 
I also like collecting to some extent, so I must admit I prefer nicely done singles and thinkpaks to collection multi-disc cases, but I suppose it's one of the downsides of everything getting cheaper; the same thing has happened to other series and to films, not just to anime.

Summing it up, if I can get singles/thinpaks for just a tiny bit more than a big collection, I often will, if the price difference is large, there's no availability etc, I'll accept whatevers going, as long as it doesnt result in my discs being damaged!
 
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