I really don’t agree with any of that either (Sorry! It’s going to be one of those days, isn’t it?).
I liked the first few Scream Factory covers, but ever since the second wave onwards I’ve found them shoddy. So many have smacked of laziness, collections of various elements plonked on with little thought to composition. Not to mention the growing number of deformed people (what is up with Jamie’s head in The Fog???). The only things likely to be deformed on an Arrow cover are boobs, which while I’m not a fan of, I can live with.
With regards to the Bava releases it just seems a little crazy to me. You’re throwing away different cuts of the film, original language tracks, the wealth of features, over covers and slipcases? It’s entirely your prerogative, and I get that package is important to people (it is to me, I’m happy to double dip on expensive mediabooks from other regions, my bank however, not so happy), and I get the movie is more important than features to a lot of people (I’d also consider myself one of those), but it seems like a lot to lose to me. The AIP cuts alone make the Arrow release an easy choice for me. I get it and entirely respect it; it’s just not in the realms of possibility for me.
As far as pricing, I’d question where you’re looking. I paid £12.99 for Knightriders direct from Arrow. I have all of the Q3 BD announcements pre-ordered at less than £13 each from Amazon, with the exception of the steelbook at less than £15 and Lifeforce, which I imagine I will likely find cheaper closer to release. Just putting a SF release (for example) into my cart and checking shipping it works out at over £16 for me. I’ve also heard they’re not custom friendly, which is why I’ve never used them. Having a browse a lot of their prices shouldn’t be bothering customs anyway, with the possible exception of sets and Criterion’s.
I've saved just shy of £200 for my Region Free player at the moment, the horror stories of people having trouble with newer titles (frequently the biggest complaint I've read is increasing loading times, but scarily some not playing at all!), as they're not able to update the firmware of some of the cheaper region free ones without losing the region free aspect. Not a lot of the titles I would purchase would be an issue I imagine, the majority of stuff I purchase is likely old catalog releases, and I imagine it's the newer big budgeted releases with new fangled features that are the cause.
One of my issues, is patience however. I struggled not to import the Bava releases before knowing their region coding, and I just don't have the funds to constantly double dip. For titles I'm extremely fond of, I will, and the likes of The Fog, despite the artist's mutilation of Jamie Lee Curtis, I'm dying for that ever elusive interview. I fear when I do go region free (which I plan to prior to October for my 31 Days of Horror Movies, and have to really, considering my growing number of locked releases!) I will end up purchasing the first release of something, rather than waiting for potentially better ones to come along.
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