Packaging Complete Series Sets (1 Viewer)

[Rick Thompson]

I've been amazed at the packaging of some recent complete series sets, mostly from CBS. Recent sets of Numb3rs, The Streets of San Francisco and two of the Star Treks have disks stacked on one spindle, just asking for scratches, etc., not to mention how inconvenient they are to actually use. Oddly enough, I found some very good (and likely inexpensive) packages from a company often called a "bottom feeder." It's all cardboard (and thus inexpensive), but each disk is protected and the set is easy to play. I refer to Mill Creek's complete series set of Quantum Leap. I also like what VEI did with Matt Houston. Sorry CBS (and sometimes Sony), several disks on one spindle just doesn't cut it.

 

[ScottRE]

I have a love/hate relationship with CBS' complete box sets. First, a few of them have been pretty battered. Have Gun Will Travel and The Fugitive Complete Series thin "latter season" cases have been broken, with the multi trays hanging loose. The Untouchables fat box for seasons 1-3 had the removable tray spine broken so it's like having two sets in one box.

I love how inexpensive they are and how much shelf space they save, but the individual half season sets are much more sturdy and reliable.

Question: is there a good reliable replacement distributor for these thick boxes? I hate returning box sets for case issues.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I returned my first Have Gun Will Travel because the inside was just a mess. Second one was pristine. I have to be honest and say nowadays I’m unlikely to do that again. Most things just get ripped, added to my HTPC, and then stored in the attic. The only thing I’m not ripping is UHD discs so I have an interest in those looking nice on the shelf. But for everything else, I’m a little over the hunt for pristine. I know I got HGWT for under $40 and I think that was less than an individual season of the show, so it was a no brainer for me.

I’ve never gotten a defective disc in any spindle or stacked hinge case. FWIW, when replicators press discs, they usually press far more than are assembled. A printer (either the same facility or somewhere else) makes the inserts for the cases, and also prints more than is assembled. Then a percentage of that print run is fully assembled and sent to distributors and retailers, and the rest are assembled as needed. The unpackaged discs are stored in spindles. All of that’s a long way of saying that I’m not concerned about discs being sold in spindles.

 

[Rick Thompson]

I returned my first Have Gun Will Travel because the inside was just a mess. Second one was pristine. I have to be honest and say nowadays I’m unlikely to do that again. Most things just get ripped, added to my HTPC, and then stored in the attic. The only thing I’m not ripping is UHD discs so I have an interest in those looking nice on the shelf. But for everything else, I’m a little over the hunt for pristine. I know I got HGWT for under $40 and I think that was less than an individual season of the show, so it was a no brainer for me.

I’ve never gotten a defective disc in any spindle or stacked hinge case. FWIW, when replicators press discs, they usually press far more than are assembled. A printer (either the same facility or somewhere else) makes the inserts for the cases, and also prints more than is assembled. Then a percentage of that print run is fully assembled and sent to distributors and retailers, and the rest are assembled as needed. The unpackaged discs are stored in spindles. All of that’s a long way of saying that I’m not concerned about discs being sold in spindles.

I'm talking about the most recent sets, with disks stacked. They're inconvenient to watch because you're restacking with every disk, so more likely to have them damaged. I'm not crazy about the multi-trays, but they're much easier all around. Those big plastic cases can't be less expensive than what Mill Creek and VEI did, or Mill Creek and VEI would be using them if various posters are correct with that "bottom feeder" designation.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The stacks would definitely be extremely obnoxious if I was actually using the discs as discs instead of just going through each one once - I like the space savings on the shelf but they’re not pretty on the inside to put it mildly

 

[jcroy]

Use a discarded "cake box" which was originally used to hold 50 or 100 blank cdr or dvdr discs.

 

[B-ROLL]

I've been amazed at the packaging of some recent complete series sets, mostly from CBS. Recent sets of Numb3rs, The Streets of San Francisco and two of the Star Treks have disks stacked on one spindle, just asking for scratches, etc., not to mention how inconvenient they are to actually use. Oddly enough, I found some very good (and likely inexpensive) packages from a company often called a "bottom feeder." It's all cardboard (and thus inexpensive), but each disk is protected and the set is easy to play. I refer to Mill Creek's complete series set of Quantum Leap. I also like what VEI did with Matt Houston. Sorry CBS (and sometimes Sony), several disks on one spindle just doesn't cut it.

Sony did this for complete series releases on DVD of Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Rescue Me, and The Partridge Family. I believe they did the same for All in The Family but I can't confirm that. (So yeah, I have all of the others I mentioned) ( Purchased the Mill Creek individual Bewitched Season 2 for the Black and White version as the original individual SONY version would have cost more than I paid for the entire series.

The partial CBS sets (eg the ones I have purchased through Big Lots! or Hamilton Books) Numb3rs 1-5, Laverne & Shirley 1-5, The Untouchables (Original )1-3, Have Gun Will Travel 1-4, and Dynasty 1-4 - (and The 4400 Complete DVD) have snap in inserts where there are two overlapping discs on each side except where there aren't four discs. I some cases there is one hub that has been molded in to each interior side of the case.

The Gunsmoke multi-season sets are the same way.

Recently I purchased two LIONSGATE released sets Orange in The New Black 1-5 DVD and Schitt$ Creek Complete DVD and both use a similar setup but stack at least two discs on each hub,

In the past I have purchased Six Disc DVD cases

for Mill Creek series sets that used envelopes or the cardboard sleeves. Often the box cover goes over the cases and holds the set together - If there are too many cases, I use the extremely high tech method of securing the remaining cases with rubber bands ... Those cases may be an alternative for you.

 

[bmasters9]

I love how inexpensive they are and how much shelf space they save, but the individual half season sets are much more sturdy and reliable.

This is probably how I should have gotten The Streets of San Francisco-- much as I love that ABC police procedural of the 70s (and believe it to be one of the best I've ever seen), working with that all-in-one that I have now is quite the adventure.

 

[BobO'Link]

I really like the megapak cases but not so much those sets with spindles instead of double-disc pages. And I'm not *that* fond of the overlapping disc page design.

I really don't have much of a problem with spindles as I use a revolving method for them when binging a series. That is, I take off the top disc, watch it, pull the entire stack up, place the just watched disc on the bottom of the stack, pull the top one, watch it, repeat. The discs rotate back to their original positions by the time I've watched all in the stack. Overlapping discs on a page are more "difficult" to deal with.

If you keep the discs in the case there's little danger of dust or debris getting on a surface and causing scratches. My sets go on the shelf, don't get moved around much, so there's also little chance of disc movement outside my removing discs to watch. I find the spindles more problematic with movie sets as I don't always watch every movie in a set so those *do* get more shuffle movement with greater chances of damage..

My least favorite storage method is the "digipak" style cases. Those paperboard with plastic tray glued on affairs. Those are simply horrible with no practical way to repair one if it breaks and often take 2-3 times as much space as "conventional" storage methods.

My next to least favorite storage are paperboard/cardboard "pages" with slots for the discs. Those practically guarantee you'll get scratches and I *always* have to clean fingerprints off due to having to touch play surfaces when extracting them.

Coming in third to last is the illegitimate offspring of those two methods, the digibook. Sometimes with paperboard pages, sometimes with digipak trays, and always larger than a standard amaray style case.

What's so hard about putting disc(s) in a standard case and including a nice booklet where appropriate? Set designers are totally clueless about what *real* collectors want for storage/packaging methods.

 

[bmasters9]

My least favorite storage method is the "digipak" style cases. Those paperboard with plastic tray glued on affairs. Those are simply horrible with no practical way to repair one if it breaks and often take 2-3 times as much space as "conventional" storage methods.

And one major example of that is the original version of the M Squad all-in-one (15 discs and a music CD on its 8 panels). It's so expansive that I can only take a shot of part of it, but here's what it looks like within.

 

[BobO'Link]

Yeah, those are horrible! The original releases for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess were like that but with a single disc per page. You need ~4' of floor/table space to unfold the contraption to get to the last disc in the season.

 

[bmasters9]

Yeah, those are horrible! The original releases for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess were like that but with a single disc per page. You need ~4' of floor/table space to unfold the contraption to get to the last disc in the season.

As were the originals of Star Trek: TNG (I had one at one time).

 

[David Weicker]

The new Mission Impossible had the worst of both worlds - a large fold out (six pages wide), and paper slots

I just continue to throw Casetopia, Ebay, and Amazon my business and buy replacement cases. Then I either find custom covers that others have done (here on HTF, that other site, CustomManiacs, search the web images), or just make my own

 

[jayME61]

Sony did this for complete series releases on DVD of Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Rescue Me, and The Partridge Family. I believe they did the same for All in The Family but I can't confirm that. (So yeah, I have all of the others I mentioned) ( Purchased the Mill Creek individual Bewitched Season 2 for the Black and White version as the original individual SONY version would have cost more than I paid for the entire series.

The partial CBS sets (eg the ones I have purchased through Big Lots! or Hamilton Books) Numb3rs 1-5, Laverne & Shirley 1-5, The Untouchables (Original )1-3, Have Gun Will Travel 1-4, and Dynasty 1-4 - (and The 4400 Complete DVD) have snap in inserts where there are two overlapping discs on each side except where there aren't four discs. I some cases there is one hub that has been molded in to each interior side of the case.

The Gunsmoke multi-season sets are the same way.

Recently I purchased two LIONSGATE released sets Orange in The New Black 1-5 DVD and Schitt$ Creek Complete DVD and both use a similar setup but stack at least two discs on each hub,

In the past I have purchased Six Disc DVD cases View attachment 83710 for Mill Creek series sets that used envelopes or the cardboard sleeves. Often the box cover goes over the cases and holds the set together - If there are too many cases, I use the extremely high tech method of securing the remaining cases with rubber bands ... Those cases may be an alternative for you.

I had to return my Schitt's Creek Complete DVD...I got to the last disc and it skipped...so I returned it...I wasn't about to rebuy..I will wait for a Blu Ray Release...LOVED the series but not the box set... 15 discs in a 10 disc case.

 

[bmasters9]

I had to return my Schitt's Creek Complete DVD...I got to the last disc and it skipped...so I returned it...I wasn't about to rebuy..I will wait for a Blu Ray Release...LOVED the series but not the box set... 15 discs in a 10 disc case.

Certainly agreed-- wanted to see what you were talking about by saying "15 discs in a 10 disc case," so I researched the Schitt's Creek all-in-one on EBay, but none of the entries show pictures of that (they all show the front, back and outside, or worse, have just one picture).

 

[Kiev7385]

I've been amazed at the packaging of some recent complete series sets, mostly from CBS. Recent sets of Numb3rs, The Streets of San Francisco and two of the Star Treks have disks stacked on one spindle, just asking for scratches, etc., not to mention how inconvenient they are to actually use. Oddly enough, I found some very good (and likely inexpensive) packages from a company often called a "bottom feeder." It's all cardboard (and thus inexpensive), but each disk is protected and the set is easy to play. I refer to Mill Creek's complete series set of Quantum Leap. I also like what VEI did with Matt Houston. Sorry CBS (and sometimes Sony), several disks on one spindle just doesn't cut it.

Also discovered that some Series released as Complete Sets...Like Cannon & Barnaby Jones are not Cleaned up for release ...First Season of Cannon & Barnaby are Cleaned but the rest of the seasons are generally created from low generation prints ....... I think they have Farmed the business out to a third party ...

 

[bmasters9]

Also discovered that some Series released as Complete Sets...Like Cannon & Barnaby Jones are not Cleaned up for release ...First Season of Cannon & Barnaby are Cleaned but the rest of the seasons are generally created from low generation prints ....... I think they have Farmed the business out to a third party ...

And if you get VEI's 20-disc Cannon all-in-one, you'll have 6-7 outings per disc, which might bring the quality down even further (let alone that the discs initially come in a disc wallet; I had to modify that and put them in 20 white paper CD envelopes, one per disc).

 

[B-ROLL]

Certainly agreed-- wanted to see what you were talking about by saying "15 discs in a 10 disc case," so I researched the Schitt's Creek all-in-one on EBay, but none of the entries show pictures of that (they all show the front, back and outside, or worse, have just one picture).

From the AmaZon Website

 

[bmasters9]

From the AmaZon Website
View attachment 84277

View attachment 84275


View attachment 84276

Thank you for finding that-- it always helps to have unfamiliar packaging concepts explained in pictures, and that's why I wanted to see what was being spoken of on that Schitt's Creek all-in-one.

 

[BobO'Link]

People just need to learn how to properly remove discs from various types of packaging. I don't particularly care for the "overlapping" disc pages but they're not that difficult to use. Many of them require you to press down on the center hub to release the disc - do *not* do the "standard" finger under an edge while pushing down the center hub. You press down on the center hub and the disc will pop up slightly - *then* you can grab it by the edges and remove it.