OTOH, since there's no video game rentals the used video game market in Japan has been huge for decades, and in many cases it would be about the same price as a rental (or even cheaper) to buy a game used and then sell it back once you've beaten it.

I remember back in the late 90's when I asked my Japanese e-mail friend for a copy of Rockman vs Forte for the SFC a few days after it came out, and he said he could get me a used copy for much cheaper, since it was a mainstream title and there would be tons of used copies available. Never thought new titles could easily be had at used prices back then in the pre-GameStop days.

I got the complete series of Fawlty Towers, sealed and a nicely shaped box set for little as $6.99 last month. Will save it for a marathon later this year, due to being busy these days.

Got a few new discs today.

Christopher Lloyd masterpiece Cadillac Ranch.



Two oddities I know nothing about here. Blind buys but I will watch them at some stage.

Celestial Clockwork and Berlin Blues.





Another DTS disc for my collection, this time from Tina Turner.

Came home the other day from work and saw two packages waiting for me. One smaller package and a big box:


Inside the smaller package is the two DTS discs Ive been waiting for. The Rock and Crimson Tide:


Im still going through the contents of the big box and I will update what was inside it later... Oh, its good.

I realised that I wont be going abroad on holiday this year. I'm the sort of person who waits until the last minute before booking a holiday so luckily didnt have anything booked. A couple friends of mine were meant to go abroad and they couldnt for obvious reasons. They didnt get their money back either, instead they were given vouchers for next year.

So, I decided to blow my holiday fund on Laserdiscs. Inside that big box were 40 DTS Laserdiscs. I'm really happy to have these and I am really looking forward to watching them. These are the ones I got:

The English Patient
Great Expectations
The Crow
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
In the Name of the Father
Seven
Titanic
Super Speedway
Scream 2
Mulholland Falls
Casper
Stargate: Deluxe Edition
Evita
Wag the Dog
The Mask
Rob Roy
X-Files: Fight the Future
Ronin: Special Edition
12 Monkeys
Jackie Brown
Die Hard
Die Hard 3: With A Vengeance
Apollo 13
Vertigo
Strange Days
Shine
Firestorm
The Wedding Singer
Dragonheart
The Shadow
Broken Arrow
Toy Story
Dark City
The Game
Born on the Fourth of July
Casino
West Side Story
Goldeneye
Tomorrow Never Dies
Schindler's List

40? Gordon Bennett!! You went all out. I love it.

Honestly, I'm stoked. It is quite a haul so I probably wont be buying anymore Laserdiscs for the foreseeable future.

I think I will list all my PAL discs for sale to make room.

Just got back from a local seller here in Oslo, Norway.
The plan was to get My Cousin Vinny and maybe one or two expendable titles to use for testing players without risking any prized posessions.

Result was as follows:

Dumbo (1941) [5485 CS]
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The (1977) [7074 AS]
Super, The (1991) [1872-80]
Blade Runner: Director's Cut (1992) [12682]
My Cousin Vinny (1992) [1876-80]
Patriot Games (1992) [LV 32530-WS]
Babylon 5 #1.6: Deathwalker/Believers (1993) [14112]
Shadowlands (1993) [LD 90968-2WS]
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) [800631769-1]
Blade (1998) [ID4252LI]

Of course, because I am a dunce that went straight to eBay for a player in stead of checking for local options, my player is still in the hands of eBay global shipping (currently resting in Erlanger, Kentucky), so for now they're just for show.

Beyond The Mind's Eye arrived this morning. Unavailable in DTS alas, but still more than worthy of filing alongside Gate To The Mind's Eye and my Virtual Drug collection.

Is that the PAL release Ted?

Edit: please ignore that question as I've just noticed that there doesn't appear to have been a European or indeed Japanese version according to the database.

Nope however it does have an E Exempt sticker on the back so possibly it was applied on import?

A quick search of the BBFC database yield's zero results for any of the Mind's Eye titles.

Interesting, I wonder why? Was looking for a reasonably priced copy of Arachnophobia recently and this seems to be another without a Europe release, only US and JP - very odd especially for a Spielberg movie?

Is that the first or the second edition? I've got the earlier one myself but I have no idea if there's any meaningful difference between the two.

Had another Laserdisctastic start to my weekend!

Firstly: My copy of SF Shinseiki Lensman (1984) [G78F0020] arrived safely, thanks to lddb-user braintrash.


braintrash did a good job on the packaging, so this purchase was a success, not to mention my first fully concluded purchase from the shops.

Next I picked up a Pioneer CLD-950 that does PAL and NTSC, in case I ever stumble across a PAL title.


It plays well as far as my untrained eye can see so I think it was a good deal

The player was bundled with all the seller's discs, so my library of expendable LDs has increased.

A nice little gem amongst the pebbles was a widescreen edition of Star Trek IV that wasn't in the database:


I don't know about the rest but I will give them a spin in due course.



Two of them didn't have proper covers and I will be surprised if New Jersey Drive plays at all, what with the scratches and all.


All in all it was a fun day and with a player in the house I can finally get to the business of enjoying LDs!

I have the CLD-950 as well, it unfortunately doesn't play analog PAL titles. I mean, it plays them, but without sound, which is super lame because there's probably a couple of analog PAL discs I'd like to have.

Oh man, I've been dragging my feet to watch this again and the Criterion The Killer.
Just not enough time and stuck doing my bathroom tiling.

Its one of those films I was getting ready to enjoy with subs. Love that cover art the best.
Had the other Japanese version and for some reason decided to sell it years and years ago, then decided again to
pickup a copy and the one I have is the same cover as yours.

takeshi666:
Aww,
Well my main thrust is going to be Anime which will usually be NTSC, so I will probably be okay.

rein-o:
Looking forward to it very much!
So far I have only spun it up for some minutes to verify that the disc works.
I have those 6 episodes of the series that were released on LD arriving by EMS from Julien, so I am holding off til I can see those, before watching the movie

I’d say more than likely the opposite is true. In general the Japanese market rented VHS and owned LD. Because of this VHS was often %50 more expensive to own. There are taxes and fees built in. The only LDs that were legal to rent where the ones that specifically said they were for rental and I’m pretty sure in most of those cases the price is higher than any other LD with the same stuff on it and usually you won’t get anything for it. The $50 “special feature” is that it’s designed to be turned out.

One exception to this I can think of (one of many, I’m sure) is Lupin the 3rd: Cagliostro no Shirou (Castle of Cagliostro) (1979) [TLL 2473] which exists only to contain the English dub and a script. It’s an otherwise normal version of a movie they had already priced down below ¥5000 just two years before but this one is back up to ¥9515 again because it was a rental.

Those episodes are different than the movie, I would watch the movie as separate thing.

Oh. I had myself thinking that the movie came later but after looking it up now I see that it actually came out roughly 3 months before the series started.
Guess watching the movie just means watching the franchise chronologically then; Thanks!