Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

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rapta
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#51 Post by rapta » Fri Jun 21, 2019 6:42 pm

I own over 350 Arrow titles across the Arrow Video and Arrow Academy range, and nearly all of those included booklets. Granted, I did pre-order a lot of them, but if I was to pick up a brand new title now and it didn't have the booklet that would definitely put me off buying so early. I'm going to have to go in-store for potentially popular upcoming titles such as Sixteen Candles, Being John Malkovich, Oldboy and Cruising.

Luckily with a recent title like The Andromeda Strain, I jumped on it immediately after hearing about this BOGOF deal (literally the morning the deal started at HMV) so I did get a booklet, and the same with The Sender earlier this week. However, in my years of collecting Arrow titles, the fact just this past fortnight I picked up a few titles without booklets tells you something is going awry on the booklet front over at Arrow.

It's actually a bit of a mess too - I got The Pyjama Girl Case from Arrow without a booklet in their previous flash sale, but then found a copy with a booklet in HMV months later. Meanwhile the booklet for Horror Express was apparently long gone, but I read a post from somebody yesterday who got a booklet. I'm tired of playing catch-up now and I hope they sort it out.

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tenia
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#52 Post by tenia » Sat Jun 22, 2019 5:26 am

rapta wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 6:42 pm
It's actually a bit of a mess too - I got The Pyjama Girl Case from Arrow without a booklet in their previous flash sale, but then found a copy with a booklet in HMV months later. Meanwhile the booklet for Horror Express was apparently long gone, but I read a post from somebody yesterday who got a booklet.
This is what I don't understand from an industrial point of view. In all logic, 2nd pressing goes AFTER (duh) 1st pressing, and while I can understand an overlap because of different sales speed depending on the location/retailer, this seems very surprising to me the FIFO is pulverised to the point the overlap seems to happen 2 weeks after release date and last for months.
If I had to guess, I'd say that there isn't really a first pressing anymore, but that the first batch is already split in 2, ie if it is 2000 copies, only part of those have a booklet. It would explain why you can so easily miss the booklet, but at the same time why it doesn't seem linear at all.

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reaky
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#53 Post by reaky » Sat Jun 22, 2019 6:25 am

Just received Andromeda Strain and the new version of Lifeforce direct from Arrow. No booklet in either.

There wasn’t a booklet in the single release of Phantasm either (got that one in Fopp last week), but I’m not sure there ever was.

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rapta
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#54 Post by rapta » Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:14 pm

reaky wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 6:25 am
Just received Andromeda Strain and the new version of Lifeforce direct from Arrow. No booklet in either.

There wasn’t a booklet in the single release of Phantasm either (got that one in Fopp last week), but I’m not sure there ever was.
All reissues tend to miss the booklet these days, unless it's something big such as Donnie Darko or The Thing, so you should not really expect one in Lifeforce or Phantasm.

That said, The Andromeda Strain is a bit of a balls-up at Arrow's end. They should've known this title would fly off the shelves when it was released at the same time as their BOGOF offer and printed more booklets. I managed to get a copy with a booklet in my local HMV on the very day it was released, but I went in again today and they seem to be out of bookleted copies already (second print run).

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tenia
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#55 Post by tenia » Sat Jun 22, 2019 4:16 pm

I'm unsure if we can correlate sales from Arrow's webstore first allocation sales or the generalized lack of booklets. For all we know, it seems like multiple releases have booklet and non-booklet containing stocks in shelves at the same time, and this isn't the first time Arrow's webstore got OOS very early (I remember having to wait for weeks to get my Buckaroo Banzai copy from them).

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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#56 Post by chatterjees » Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:16 pm

Did anybody get their copy of The Andromeda Strain from amazon UK or Zavvi? Does their respective stock contains the booklet? Thanks!

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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#57 Post by chatterjees » Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:23 pm

FYI, I received my copies of Detective Bureau 2-3 (May 7) and Iguana (June 12) from amazon (USA) and both came with booklets. Also, I would suggest to try BN for some of these without booklet titles that have US releases.

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TMDaines
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#58 Post by TMDaines » Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:56 am

All the titles I recently bought from that didn’t have a booklet, did have one when I ordered a replacement from the respective Amazon store, whether that be Nude (US) or Forbidden Photos (UK). I reckon Amazon are buying and holding a lot of stock early, whereas smaller retailers are restocking more frequently and receiving booklet-less later copies.

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Cash Flagg
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#59 Post by Cash Flagg » Sun Jun 23, 2019 11:25 am

A poster on Blu-ray.com reported no booklets in Black Moon Rising or The Sender.

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domino harvey
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#60 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jun 23, 2019 4:39 pm

If so then even this thread is useless, as buying a title in the week of release not even guaranteeing a booklet means seemingly every Arrow release forever after now belongs in the first post automatically...

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tenia
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#61 Post by tenia » Sun Jun 23, 2019 5:12 pm

They will soon become collectibles that the postcards and we can open a section in the Trade part of the forum.

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4LOM
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#62 Post by 4LOM » Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:20 pm

From the 10th Anniversary Arrow sale:

- Phantom Lady: with booklet
- The Fifth Cord: with booklet

I think it was mentioned somewhere: despite not mentioning the booklet in the extras description, THE TAISHO TRILOGY is the limited edition with the booklet.

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Ovader
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#63 Post by Ovader » Mon Jun 24, 2019 3:39 pm

Arrgghh Richard! For the love of God! I just opened my blu-ray of TOWER OF LONDON and THE COMEDY OF TERRORS I ordered back in December 2018 during one of Arrow's sales on their website and both have booklets! I assume the reason is these are not popular titles as the Corman Poe films which didn't have any booklets in the same order.

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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#64 Post by swo17 » Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:55 pm

I got Andromeda Strain from Amazon US and it had a booklet

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4LOM
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#65 Post by 4LOM » Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:11 am

I received THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN from the Arrow Anniversary sale without a booklet. THE GRAND DUEL came with a booklet.

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Adam X
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#66 Post by Adam X » Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:42 am

Ok, so I contacted Arrow and heard back from Anthony Newcomb, Arrow's Customer Service Supervisor. Some information in there...
We always recommend to pre-order titles separately as if you make multiple pre-orders together then items will be delayed and you may miss out on first pressings. We normally press a lot more booklets than needed but we’ve had to reduce that temporarily as we move distribution centres. If you pre-order a title on its own from our site then you will definitely get a booklet if it’s part of the set. We aim to produce a lot more booklets moving forward and also have greater customer access to them via our site. Thank you for your support and custom.
After questioning him on the speed/randomness with which they seem to be available, and any further info about their timeline with regard to the above and the possible availability of US-only booklets online, I got the following response:
We [...] don’t have a timeline on how the booklet situation will change at the moment, this is an ongoing internal discussion. We have certain booklets live on our site now, just log in and visit the product pages https://arrowfilms.com/faqs/* Unfortunately you won’t be able to see the booklets of inactive products at this time.** Unfortunately due to resource, it looks like there won’t be further booklets uploaded until later in the year.
So I guess, in the end we'll have to wait and see. I guess anyone receiving a bookletless release will just have to contact them for a PDF if it's not on the site, and leave it at that.


* = under Membership FAQs, they provided a list of PDFs currently available when logged in.
** = as of now that discounts Rabid & Nikkatsu Diamond Guys vol. 1 from this list.
Last edited by Adam X on Tue Jun 25, 2019 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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kuzine
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#67 Post by kuzine » Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:55 am

Adam Grikepelis wrote:
Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:42 am
* = under Membership FAQs, they provided a list of PDFs currently available when logged in.
Aha, so that's where that list is hiding...

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tenia
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#68 Post by tenia » Tue Jul 02, 2019 8:08 am

From Arrow's 10th anniversary sale, and like others, my copies of Andromeda Strain and The Grand Duel both had no booklet (despire the product pages still touting the First Pressing Only stuff). Interestingly, 4LOM indicated his Grand Duel had a booklet. 4LOM, do you remember if you got a copy of The Grand Duel before Arrow got some additionnal stock (it was early during the sale) or after ?

My other purchases (The Prisoner, Phantom Lady, In The Aftermath, Terrraformars, Yakuza Law) had theirs.

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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#69 Post by chatterjees » Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:08 am

I got my Grand Duel copy from Zavvi last week which came with a booklet, but Andromeda Strain showed up yesterday without one as expected.

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domino harvey
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#70 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jul 02, 2019 4:25 pm

No booklet or slipcover in/on my Sister Streetfighter set from BN. The latter was fine by me, I went thru the effort of using the reverse coverart for maybe the first time ever

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dwk
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#71 Post by dwk » Tue Jul 02, 2019 4:37 pm

Shame, as I found the booklet in Sister Streetfighter to be one of the better ones that Arrow has produced. Particularly Chris Poggiali's essay on the history of the US releases of Toei's Karate movies.

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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#72 Post by swo17 » Tue Jul 02, 2019 4:44 pm

If you want it, you might try this DeepDiscount eBay listing, which mentions a booklet

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4LOM
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#73 Post by 4LOM » Tue Jul 02, 2019 6:21 pm

tenia wrote:From Arrow's 10th anniversary sale, and like others, my copies of Andromeda Strain and The Grand Duel both had no booklet (despire the product pages still touting the First Pressing Only stuff). Interestingly, 4LOM indicated his Grand Duel had a booklet. 4LOM, do you remember if you got a copy of The Grand Duel before Arrow got some additionnal stock (it was early during the sale) or after ?

[...]
I ordered both ANDROMEDA STRAIN and THE GRAND DUEL on 18th of June after the restock of the former.

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tenia
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#74 Post by tenia » Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:10 pm

OK, well, that's the same for me since I also had to wait for the restock. Interesting.

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senseabove
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Re: Arrow Booklets: An International Tragedy

#75 Post by senseabove » Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:10 am

My BOGO Phantom Lady and Andromedia Strain are, like others have reported, bookletted and bookletless, respectively. A little surprisingly, the other two I ordered, Brute Force and Jamaica Inn, both have booklets.

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