SHAUN OF THE DEAD REVIEW (SEALED)
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Well here is my review and first impressions, and I am going to be as fair and honest as possible. I have not opened these, I ordered all the editions (not all for me).
Delivery
To be fair, Hermes updated me all the way with tracking and delivered successfully to my door.
Dispatched Thursday and arrived on Monday A polite delivery guy, no damage to the box. Where I live it's a very nice area so we seem to get a lot of respect on our parcels from the couriers. Maybe I am just lucky to never have problems with Hermes? That doesn't mean they are a good courier over all, it's just I have been one of the fortunate customers it appears.
THE REVIEW
I can tell straight away from taking this from the box it does not have that instant premium, buzz and feel that you would find from established big premium retailers.
Hard Box
The Filmarena Hardboxes are much better quality. They feel nice, solid and hard with no gaps. SOD HB can bend quite easily. Not saying the FAC's are unbendable, but it would take more force to bend them and also gives us the more of a premium feel as they feel more solid. Just like a nice sold weight for metal collectables, you want a nice sold hard box. EB falls short here,
and the gap in the box does not help either 
A lot of emphasis has gone on the embossing on the front and spine title, and also the large hand on the back. That is what makes the SOD HB appealing and unique. I will give credit to EB for that. But the box could had been more tougher and stronger.
Single Slips
The Lenti is awful, nothing more to say there as
@Flloydo described it in his review. As a premium retailer it is very disappointing especially for the first exclusive. The quality is worse then some of the standard steelbook releases.
The full slip is better than the lenti because there is no awful lenti there
. But the quality is nowhere upto the premium slips. The slips feel cheap and cardboardish. At best they are an upgraded version of the Zavvi slips you get such as Ferris, Top Gun etc
The slips could had been thicker to give it that 'bulky' feel.
The EB logo white stickers.
Again not at all close to its rivals such as Manta Labs.
Value For Money.
Okay it is clear that this release is nowhere near the premium finish we were expecting having consistency bought from all the big boys. But we need to remind ourselves this
is much cheaper shipped to us than all the other retailers. We are used to paying around £40 - £50 + for a release and the Hardbox shipped to me is about £65 with two singles inside. If I ordered a FAC HB it would cost me about £85 - £90 shipped.
Do we get value for money? Do we get what we pay? Not really
The lenti definitely No at £28 plus shipping.
The Single full slip, it is a bit cheaper, still a bit too expensive at £26 with no shipping included but you can live with it.
The HB at £60 with no shipping, still a tad expensive but the box makes it a little more fulfilling to have over just the singles because it is rather unique. But the lenti inside kills it for me.
Overall?
Well no surprises, I am disappointed but I was expecting this from all the last minute changes EB has given and from thorough reviews. It feels to me exactly like one thing, a new retailer trying to impress but has had financial difficulties in nailing this (and dispatch times which I will ignore on this review
).
I can say for sure if you are expecting:
a nice premium
Nova Slip,
a
Blufans Lenti,
a strong quality
FAC HB,
Logo type cards such as
Manta Labs,
Art Cards as quality as you find in
Kimchi (I did not review this as I have not opened these)
you will be disappointed.
I would give the overall rating
6/10 - that is being generous due to the cheaper price.
If it was priced more to the premium prices we are used to paying, the rating would had been
4/10.
Will I keep it? I am probably going to keep the HB as it's quite unique with the embossing and I've had to put up with the delay and changes for the last 5 months, I might as well just stick it on my shelf somewhere and wait for Hot Fuzz and World's End under the assumption EB doesn't screw up their future projects..
So there we go, that is my review, short and sweet. I have been critical with EB, just like any other retailer. I really hope they can improve on their next projects?
This is my personal opinion, I respect others may agree or disagree. Everyone is different
