I am comparing the packaging for the new Blu-ray LotR set with the DVD sets. Both are the Extended Editions. This will NOT cover the content of the disks or the quality of the Blu-ray.
First up ignore the darker box top in the image; the whole box is the same shiny metallic gold. Over all it is really sharp looking and continues the same book look of the DVD sets. As a Box that holds all of the movies in one case it really looks amazing.
It opens with a magnet latch revealing a map of middle earth and an image of the leads. Each film is in its own black Blu-ray disk case sadly they are all colored the same as the box. I would have liked if they colored each one metallic green, red, and blue. The back of each film case describes the disk contents.
Inside it is clean and black, simple but it does work. The little book is very nice and is made from parchment type paper. Over all it’s clean and simple and does the job.
All the disks are about the same color and design. Each one has a piece of art and they all look great. Only the two film disks are Blu-ray all other disks are DVD and seem to have the same content as the original release along with the same art on each disk. The 3 new disks fit in nicely style wise.
The DVD set started the book design. Also the fact each one is its own color makes them stand out on your shelf. I really love the way they look and wish they used these colors in the new box set.
Now these boxes are full to the brim with art, this is because of the design of the case. When you pull the inside of the case out you are greeted with a wonderful piece of art depicting a moment from each movie.
Open these up and you get a map along with more art behind each disk. The booklets are on shiny paper so they’re not as nice as the Blu-ray books. Still this is the best part of these sets there full to the brim with art.
Now the disks compared to the Blu-ray set are a disappointment. The art is darker but still looks good. The real problem is the color of the disks. The coloring could have made them amazing sadly they were not constant. FotR only hints at Green while the TT is a rich red, followed by brown RotK. If they were all subtly colored like the FotR or all strongly colored like the TT then I would really love them. But the miss mash of colors looks poor and I am happier with the consistent brown of all the disks in the Blu-ray set
Here is a look of the new and old disks. As you can see the art is darker on the older DVD’s and you can see the hints of green. The art is the same on the new and old disks.
Over all I am very happy with the Blu-ray set but I will be keeping the DVD set because it has much nicer packaging.
