Dragonbox Volume 2

[JulieYBM]

Asked @AnimeToday (RightStuf) on Twitter what was going on.

@JulieYBM Looking into it. In the meantime, we do have some in stock & they're back up on the site. [alr]

[GizmoKSX]

Guys, one question: if the US Dragon Boxes were supposed to be limited, wouldn't FUNimation have used that fact and promoted it to sell them all faster?

Good point. "Limited" is an effective buzzword, and it's often even attached to items that aren't really all that limited to help sell them. You'd think that if FUNi had any intention of actually making the Dragon Box a limited item, they'd be urging customers to buy it now before it goes back in the Disney Vault. The fact that they haven't done so, coupled with JulieYBM's investigation, suggests that they're not limited.

[jjgp1112]

I don't think Funi's ever said anything about the releases being limited anyway. The original Japanese ones were, but Funi's should be widely available.

[MCDaveG]

Refill the stock, or I'll get it somewhere in data and burn it on ugly DVD.........
I have only vol. 1 and 3.
F****ing US marketplace, I can't even visit US Dragon Ball pages tough I'm customer.
Today I'm full of hate.

[SHINOBI-03]

Ugh!! You have no idea how much I hate it when a retailer or a manufacture uses "Exclusive", "Limited" for something everybody wants!

HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT!!! I'm a fan with limited economy. I don't want to get forced to buy the things I want within a limited time or place. I want to buy it whenever and wherever I like!

And what I hate the most are those "Web-Exclusives"... Especially if they are coming from Japanese sites. Because not only I don't know how to pre-order, but when those damn retailers say they don't ship worldwide!

They're torturing me everytime they do this!!

[DB_Fan1991]

This is odd, but likely you can check places like MovieStop (if you're in the states they're in) as they are good at keeping out of print DVD's. If not check places that normally sell the FUNiboxes as remember when something goes out of print that only means when stock is gone, it's gone, so just because Amazon/Right Stuf doesn't have it check brick and mortar stores.

[Budogenkai]

Well, I just sort of assumed they would be limited..

But it doesn't really matter, more Dragon Box goodness for everyone is what is important, and that FUNimation is selling them fairly well.

[Gaffer Tape]

I have to say I really hope that this is just a glitch or something, and that FUNimation isn't suddenly ceasing production on their already-released Dragon Boxes. Yes, a "limited release" does imply a certain amount of grandeur (although as it's already been stated, that's just a marketing ploy), but I'd much rather get the word out, so to speak, than hoard my precious collectible away where anyone who was silly enough to miss the boat can't get at it. I WANT as many people as possible to own the Dragon Boxes. I want as many people as possible to realize how terrible the orange bricks were. I don't want the Dragon Boxes to be just this fleeting special collector's edition and have the orange bricks be the "standard" for collecting the series. Because when you strip away all the bonus materials (most of which we're not getting anyway), the actual content on the DBoxes, while wonderful restored, is pretty standard. It is the episodes, complete, proper, as they were "meant to be seen." The orange bricks are... well, just undeniably terrible. The Dragon Box should be the "standard" for collecting the series, and the orange bricks should fade away and be forgotten as a horrible mistake of the past.

However, as long as I'm the subject, I really wish that Toei had held off licensing Kai to FUNimation for another year or so at least. I think that Kai's localization is damaging the push of the Dragon Boxes.

[OutlawTorn]

However, as long as I'm the subject, I really wish that Toei had held off licensing Kai to FUNimation for another year or so at least. I think that Kai's localization is damaging the push of the Dragon Boxes.

I agree. Just as the Dragon Boxes have some people expecting North American Dragon Box releases of Dragon Ball and GT, thus people deciding to hold out where they may not have before, Kai kind of undermines the "way it was meant to be seen" status of the Dragon Boxes with the "true to the manga" angle for the marketing.

Personally speaking, though, I'm less interested in Kai and more interested in the Dragon Boxes. I want the original DBZ not the Toei version of Saban slicing the series up.

[NUDEoctopus]

I'm not sure how much (if any) relevance this holds, but on Amazon the price for Dragon Box Z Volume 3 shot up to 50 something dollars. It was in the 30-ish range before, so perhaps their supply is running out and they are just trying to grab as much profit as they can while it lasts? Just guessing here...

[PuppetDoctor]

I'm not sure how much (if any) relevance this holds, but on Amazon the price for Dragon Box Z Volume 3 shot up to 50 something dollars. It was in the 30-ish range before, so perhaps their supply is running out and they are just trying to grab as much profit as they can while it lasts? Just guessing here...

The price of Dragon Box Z 3 fluctuates all the time and usually drops down again to around $30 on weekends.

[TonyTheTiger]

However, as long as I'm the subject, I really wish that Toei had held off licensing Kai to FUNimation for another year or so at least. I think that Kai's localization is damaging the push of the Dragon Boxes.

I agree. Just as the Dragon Boxes have some people expecting North American Dragon Box releases of Dragon Ball and GT, thus people deciding to hold out where they may not have before, Kai kind of undermines the "way it was meant to be seen" status of the Dragon Boxes with the "true to the manga" angle for the marketing.

Personally speaking, though, I'm less interested in Kai and more interested in the Dragon Boxes. I want the original DBZ not the Toei version of Saban slicing the series up.

While you're right about Kai undermining the Dragon Boxes, it's the Dragon Boxes that are the oddity here. That's why FUNi seems more willing to undermine them than Kai if given the choice. The predicted chain of events was the orange bricks touted as "the way it was meant to be seen" and eventually Kai with it's "true to the manga" well after the orange bricks completed their run. The Dragon Boxes were a surprise to everybody so they're essentially shoehorned in without much clarity as to what they actually are to the general consumer. That's probably why a lot of retailers aren't carrying them in brick and mortar stores. FUNi probably is printing fewer copies than they ever printed of the orange bricks. But, nevertheless, I'm actually surprised that they're as readily available as they are. I originally expected the Dragon Boxes to be very small and quiet releases. To FUNi's credit, they're dealing with the situation as best as they could. I think we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't expect the Dragon Box stock to dry up before Kai.

And it goes without saying that the general public would be confused as hell walking into a Best Buy and seeing three different DBZ box sets. More likely than not they'd ask "what's the best one?" and get a different answer depending on who they asked. Advertising slogans are meant to do the job of essentially telling people in a bumper sticker format why one release is better than another. FUNi has constant problems coming up with advertising slogans specifically because no matter what they say the Dragon Boxes will either undermine Kai or Kai will undermine the Dragon Boxes. "The way it was meant to be seen" was always the go to slogan for whatever the newest release was. But obviously you can't use that when you have two separate releases at the same time. It's just what happens with simultaneous products covering essentially the same material. That's probably why they went with the Internet memes in the Dragon Box commercials. If you can't come up with a proper slogan then just shout "over 9000!" a bunch of times.

The bright side of all of this is that even though it's likely they won't print as many Dragon Boxes as other releases, they seem to have printed enough that finding any of the volumes on the secondary market will be pretty easy.

[TripleRach]

It doesn't look like it's been stated yet, but RightStuf has Dragon Box 2 in stock again. It could just be some kind of printing or stock problem.

It would be nice if we could hear from FUNimation about this, though.

[JulieYBM]

It doesn't look like it's been stated yet, but RightStuf has Dragon Box 2 in stock again. It could just be some kind of printing or stock problem.

It would be nice if we could hear from FUNimation about this, though.

I beg to differ. :p

Although when I last checked they had eleven copies. Now they have seven!

Get 'em while you can!!

[Gaffer Tape]

*snip*

I agree with pretty much everything you've said. In fact, I know I've said it in different ways several times on these boards. However, I have to add that, to a certain extent, it's FUNimation's own damned fault. Obviously FUNimation didn't force Toei to let them have Kai so soon, and they would have been stupid to turn it down, but this goes back to their poor (and by poor I mean dishonest and unethical, not necessarily unsuccessful) business tactics in regards to the orange bricks. And then they suddenly had Dragon Boxes, but they'd just gotten done hyping up the worst thing ever as the best thing ever. Now they suddenly had the best thing ever in their hands... and what could they do with it now that everyone believed their stupid, stupid lies? Well, like you said, internet memes, the equivalent of making a funny face to a baby. Distract the masses with humor.

And now Kai has come along to further complicate the matter.

[TripleRach]

I beg to differ. :p

Derp. I guess I forgot/missed that Anime Today is RightStuf.

[TonyTheTiger]

*snip*

I agree with pretty much everything you've said. In fact, I know I've said it in different ways several times on these boards. However, I have to add that, to a certain extent, it's FUNimation's own damned fault. Obviously FUNimation didn't force Toei to let them have Kai so soon, and they would have been stupid to turn it down, but this goes back to their poor (and by poor I mean dishonest and unethical, not necessarily unsuccessful) business tactics in regards to the orange bricks. And then they suddenly had Dragon Boxes, but they'd just gotten done hyping up the worst thing ever as the best thing ever. Now they suddenly had the best thing ever in their hands... and what could they do with it now that everyone believed their stupid, stupid lies? Well, like you said, internet memes, the equivalent of making a funny face to a baby. Distract the masses with humor.

And now Kai has come along to further complicate the matter.

Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, though. This is one of those situations where a prior screw up may have paved the way for something better. If the orange bricks were "good enough" like the blue and green bricks are, then there's a good chance the Dragon Box would have never been on FUNi's radar. I don't know for sure but I have an inkling that the Dragon Box wasn't so much "the next reissue of the series" but essentially a means of grabbing the consumers who come hell or high water would never have bought the orange bricks.

Yeah, FUNi's recent past did come back to haunt them but they could have handled it much, much worse than they did. In fact, I consider them wholly absolved at this point. They basically admitted fault. They did it indirectly to save face but imagine if they had said "Fuck it. Kai is coming and we're done with Z. If they don't want the orange bricks, screw them, because they'll eventually buy Kai. They're too small fish to matter anyway. Besides, releasing the Dragon Box would pretty much be an admission our last outing was less than decent."

Given how this all happened, I pretty much consider FUNi wholly absolved. They did us wrong...before doing us very, very right. More right than any other localization company around the world has ever done for their fans.

[pjay]

*snip*

I agree with pretty much everything you've said. In fact, I know I've said it in different ways several times on these boards. However, I have to add that, to a certain extent, it's FUNimation's own damned fault. Obviously FUNimation didn't force Toei to let them have Kai so soon, and they would have been stupid to turn it down, but this goes back to their poor (and by poor I mean dishonest and unethical, not necessarily unsuccessful) business tactics in regards to the orange bricks. And then they suddenly had Dragon Boxes, but they'd just gotten done hyping up the worst thing ever as the best thing ever. Now they suddenly had the best thing ever in their hands... and what could they do with it now that everyone believed their stupid, stupid lies? Well, like you said, internet memes, the equivalent of making a funny face to a baby. Distract the masses with humor.

And now Kai has come along to further complicate the matter.

Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, though. This is one of those situations where a prior screw up may have paved the way for something better. If the orange bricks were "good enough" like the blue and green bricks are, then there's a good chance the Dragon Box would have never been on FUNi's radar. I don't know for sure but I have an inkling that the Dragon Box wasn't so much "the next reissue of the series" but essentially a means of grabbing the consumers who come hell or high water would never have bought the orange bricks.

Yeah, FUNi's recent past did come back to haunt them but they could have handled it much, much worse than they did. In fact, I consider them wholly absolved at this point. They basically admitted fault. They did it indirectly to save face but imagine if they had said "Fuck it. Kai is coming and we're done with Z. If they don't want the orange bricks, screw them, because they'll eventually buy Kai. They're too small fish to matter anyway. Besides, releasing the Dragon Box would pretty much be an admission our last outing was less than decent."

Given how this all happened, I pretty much consider FUNi wholly absolved. They did us wrong...before doing us very, very right. More right than any other localization company around the world has ever done for their fans.

I've been thinking the same thing about the orange bricks, had Funimation not screwed it up, we would have never have gotten the Dragon Boxes.

[TonyTheTiger]

Yeah, FUNi is our Vegeta. They show up and threaten to kill everybody, eventually knock up Bulma on the side because, hey, she's there. Then they go apeshit for a while before POW! Big "good guy" moment!

[AnimeMaakuo]

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