I still don't get why FUNI never redubbed DBZ from start to finish

[MasenkoHA]

They specifically said it was for the hardcore fans

The retail price was around $80 a pop.

The default language was Japanese

It came out almost immediately after the orange bricks


It was clearly always intended as a limited release. Funimation knew they were selling to a very niche market. Those things were never intended for the mass market lowest common denominator appeal of the Orange Bricks and Blue Ray season sets.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah it definitely wouldn't make sense for the Dragon Boxes to be anything other than a Collector's Item. Funimation are a business after all, and businesses, as stated previously have their analytics and strategical reasoning behind all decisions they make regarding any and all products.

From Funimation's perspective they already had a bilingual release that catered to both audiences (orange bricks), so inevitably the Dragon Boxes were likely a test run to see if a release that prioritizes the Japanese version could sell as well as the edited dub only VHS, DVDs and later bilingual releases did during their time. After realizing the Dragon Boxes wouldn't fly off the shelves theoretically as a sub only release or in practice as a bilingual release defaulting to the Japanese track they decided to revert back to making bilingual releases that revert to the dub and never looked back. It was a new idea for a home release that didn't prove to be as successful, so from a financial point of view going back to doing what worked made more sense.

It's still a shame 4:3 releases went on a 8 year hiatus after the level sets, but let's hope at least from now that's what the show will be released in at least.

[ABED]

I don't have data to back it up but my guess is they sold about as well as they expected, maybe a little worse and I stress a little. Not so much they'd abandon it before completion but it didn't do well enough to release any of the other series.

[MasenkoHA]

It sold well enough to complete the entire series as opposed to Funimation cancelling the release part way through (which we know they have qualms with doing)

Like if it had somehow surpassed expectations maybe they would have released the movies or gone back and released Dragon Ball in Dragon Box form or something but I think it did about as well as they expected.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

There was likely just enough of a market from the portion of the fanbase that was dissatisfied with the orange bricks. While the orange bricks undeniably sold well there was still a demand, albeit to a lesser extent - for a release without the excessive DNR and cropping. The double features and blue and green bricks didn't have that problem so there wasn't enough of a demand for movie, OG Dragon Ball and GT Dragon Boxes.

[eledoremassis02]

speculation, but it's possible they contractually had to release the whole set. It's possible if the Dragon Box Z's didn't do as well as they hoped it could explain why they never released the movies and jumped straight to the level sets because HD was the next logical upgrade.

[Super Sonic]

On a similar note, heard a few guys say they'd think it'd be cool for a redub of the original "Ghost in a Shell" starring Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Richard Epcar (who many consider the de facto voices for Major Matoko and Batou) but know it likely won't happen. Not much of a market for it, and while I have yet to watch it, (yeah I know, I'm bad) hear the original dub's ok.