Gamera: The Complete Collection (1965-2006)

[BTSMGL]

I don't trust Amazon to ship the Showa/Heisei Era sets without them arriving dinged and dented because of shoddy packaging, so I gotta ask... who would you recommend if I wanted them to arrive in as nice shape as possible? Where should I order them from?

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by BTSMGL

I don't trust Amazon to ship the Showa/Heisei Era sets without them arriving dinged and dented because of shoddy packaging, so I gotta ask... who would you recommend if I wanted them to arrive in as nice shape as possible? Where should I order them from?

DiabolikDVD or Grindhouse Video.

[darkness2918]

Im still debating getting the smaller sets & selling my LE set which is still sealed.

[gundamcero]

Hoping to pick up the sets one day soon. Hope they don't go oop for awhile.

As someone new to this is the Showa Era worth it? The Heisei ones look awesome. Maybe I should just get the steelbook?

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

Hoping to pick up the sets one day soon. Hope they don't go oop for awhile.

As someone new to this is the Showa Era worth it? The Heisei ones look awesome. Maybe I should just get the steelbook?

As a huge Kaiju fan I’d say they’re all worth it

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by darkness2918

As a huge Kaiju fan I’d say they’re all worth it

Lol fair enough. I am currently building my kaiju collection. Just bought the Godzilla Criterion Collection. It does bum me out some of the Heisei Godzilla films are hard to get.

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

Lol fair enough. I am currently building my kaiju collection. Just bought the Godzilla Criterion Collection. It does bum me out some of the Heisei Godzilla films are hard to get.

That’s a good one to start with I’d say Godzilla vs Biolante is another must have but that one is super tricky to get a hold of. Some other Kaiju movies are only available on DVD. I have a whole category dedicated to giant monsters/Kaiju in my collection.

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by darkness2918

That’s a good one to start with I’d say Godzilla vs Biolante is another must have but that one is super tricky to get a hold of. Some other Kaiju movies are only available on DVD. I have a whole category dedicated to giant monsters/Kaiju in my collection.

Yeah Godzilla vs Biolante is one I really want to buy but the price for it is super high. I think I have to hope for a Criterion Heisei Collection.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

I think Miramax only has TV/Streaming rights to Godzilla vs Biolante. Their video rights reportedly expired a while ago and may have reverted back to Toho (this happened with some of the mid-90s Gojira titles Sony put out).

[KubrickKurasawa]

OK Arrow start getting on them 4K UHD disc's so I can buy the real deal release in a couple of years Not just Christmas wrapping recycled boxes. We need disc's.

[Freeza]

Originally Posted by BTSMGL

I don't trust Amazon to ship the Showa/Heisei Era sets without them arriving dinged and dented because of shoddy packaging, so I gotta ask... who would you recommend if I wanted them to arrive in as nice shape as possible? Where should I order them from?

I know this is a completely YMMV situation, and I had the exact same worry as you, but I ordered both sets from Amazon early Thursday morning when I saw they were part of the b2g1 free offer. They arrived that same day around 6pm, each in their own blue & white plastic bubble mailer, and both in pristine condition, inside and out. Miracles do happen!

Also, with the talk of potential flimsier outer boxes among the various boutique labels I was expecting something along the lines of Scream's Amityville set, but was pleasantly surprised to find they were a lot thicker and sturdier.

[Spooked]

Originally Posted by BTSMGL

I don't trust Amazon to ship the Showa/Heisei Era sets without them arriving dinged and dented because of shoddy packaging, so I gotta ask... who would you recommend if I wanted them to arrive in as nice shape as possible? Where should I order them from?

You've been a member since 2012 and you have to ask? Diabolik, of course.

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by cdittmer

I would trade the whole big box set packaging for the packaging the sets just released came in. I do not like the big packaging. In fact, I removed the discs from the set and have the box stored away.

That's what I did with the Gojira set!
Book is too damn big for a shelf!
As it is, MidSommar is on the shelf, but on it's back spine, so it will fit.
I'll be adjusting the shelves soon so it will fit properly.

[PowellPressburger]

Are the classic Gamera films in english drastically different than the original Japanese language versions? Such as missing footage / different score etc

[starsteam]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

Are the classic Gamera films in english drastically different than the original Japanese language versions? Such as missing footage / different score etc

Several of the films have different dubs and other changes.

Gamera - You can watch the Japanese version with the Sandy Frank dub, or watch the AIP version "Gammera the Invincible" which has newly shot footage of American actors.

Gamera vs Barugon - They give you the option to watch the film with the Daiei-produced dub or the AIP dub, but you can also watch the AIP dub as "War of the Monsters" which is edited for pacing.

Gamera vs Gyaos - Daiei dub or AIP dub, no footage change.

Gamera vs Viras - You have three versions of the film which can all be watched in the Japanese language or the AIP dub. The only differences is the amount of stock footage used for the flashback scene, with the international version having the most stock footage and the director's cut having somewhat less but more than the theatrical.

Gamera vs Guiron - You can watch with either the Daiei dub or the AIP dub, however the AIP dub has one scene that was cut from the AIP release of the film. Arrow opted to have the dialog in this scene revert back to the Japanese track because they felt it was less jarring than switching back to the rather painful sounding Daiei dub.

Gamera vs Jiger - Just the Daiei dub.

Gamera vs Zigra - Just the Sandy Frank dub

Gamera: Super Monster - Just one dub

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe - Here you can watch the film with the US dub (which is just a dub track) or the UK dub with replaces much of the music with a techno-track.

Gamera: Attack of Legion - You can watch the film with the regular dub or a comedic "redneck" dub where the majority of lines have been redubbed to be silly. Some of the music in the redneck version has also been redone quite hilariously.

Gamera: Revenge of Iris - just one dub

Gamera the Brave - just one dub but you have a couple of different sound options for it. However they're both somewhat out of sync.

For the Arrow release, they simply add the dub track over the Japanese film, so you miss nothing. The AIP dub for Gammera the Invincible is the only one that you can't watch over the Japanese film. Only the UK dub for Guardian of the Universe changes any music.

[omgitsgodzilla]

That's a pretty good rundown.

It's worth mentioning that the AI-TV dub track on the Japanese cut of Gamera vs. Barugon fills in the scenes that were cut from War of the Monsters with Daiei's export dub, so the voices will change at times, but the entire film will be in English.

Also, this is kind of splitting hairs, but Jiger's dub wasn't commissioned by Daiei, but was recorded by Titan Productions for AI-TV.

If you happen to find Daiei's export dub for Guiron amusing, I also recommend the export dub for The X from Outer Space, which is included on the Japanese Blu-ray. Both were recorded by Pedro Productions in Tokyo, and share a similar style

[PowellPressburger]

As far as the english dubs go, is their a preference over the AIP \ Daiei dubs?

[chriszilla]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

As far as the english dubs go, is their a preference over the AIP \ Daiei dubs?

Let me be the first to say that the original Japanese is far superior to the English dubs. Hearing the original actor's voice is highly preferable to hearing a (frequently incongruous) foreign voice, in my opinion.

Having said that, with two young sons who love kaiju films, it's nice to have an English dub so they can follow along much more easily. Overall, the AIP-TV dubs seemed to be done with more care (again, in my opinion). Because many of us grew up with those dubs when watching these on American television, there is also the nostalgia factor working in their favor. Some of the Sandy Frank/Daiei dubs are downright painful to listen to, with comically-inappropriate voices for many of the characters, or grating/unconvincing voices for some of the child characters.

[Hydra Spectre]

What's the difference between the US and UK dubs of GotU? Is the UK dub just the US dub but with different/new music or is it a completely different dub? Do the voice actors in the UK dub speak with a British accent?
I wanna see more foreign films dubbed into English with British accents. Xenoblade and Arrietty proved it could work.

[starsteam]

Originally Posted by Hydra Spectre

What's the difference between the US and UK dubs of GotU? Is the UK dub just the US dub but with different/new music or is it a completely different dub? Do the voice actors in the UK dub speak with a British accent?
I wanna see more foreign films dubbed into English with British accents. Xenoblade and Arrietty proved it could work.

It's a British dub.

Originally Posted by omgitsgodzilla

That's a pretty good rundown.

It's worth mentioning that the AI-TV dub track on the Japanese cut of Gamera vs. Barugon fills in the scenes that were cut from War of the Monsters with Daiei's export dub, so the voices will change at times, but the entire film will be in English.

Also, this is kind of splitting hairs, but Jiger's dub wasn't commissioned by Daiei, but was recorded by Titan Productions for AI-TV.

If you happen to find Daiei's export dub for Guiron amusing, I also recommend the export dub for The X from Outer Space, which is included on the Japanese Blu-ray. Both were recorded by Pedro Productions in Tokyo, and share a similar style

Whoops, didn't mean to label Jiger as a Daiei commissioned dub. I guess errors happen when you have to compile so much information into a quick reply. Totally forgot Arrow spliced in some dialog for Barugon too. I skipped that version and just viewed the shorter War of the Monsters when using that dub.

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

As far as the english dubs go, is their a preference over the AIP \ Daiei dubs?

Generally I like the AIP dubs better but I'm more used to them as they were way more commonly available. But I watched the MST version of Gamera vs Guiron so many times that I kind of prefer hearing Cornjob for the lolz.
But yeah, the Japanese language really should be the way to go.
The book that came in the LE set actually has a pretty nice write up about the various dubs.