So... I started feeling nostalgic on Ebay...

[chris514]

And I saw something that made my wallet almost cry out in terror.

But seriously... I was just minding my own business when all of a sudden the thought of this old show popped into my head and I started kind of wanting to watch it again. So I thought, "Why don't I look for a DVD box set or something?"

Then I saw them... The price tags on nearly every single listing I came across.

Why in the world is an English dub 4 episode volume 1 disc like $80 (US)? And I have seen entire box sets anywhere between $250-$1,000...

Anyway... Then I came here to create an account so I could posit this question... Anyone know a better way I can either watch this anime (in english) or get my hands on a decent english dub box set without forking over most of a pay check?

Just seems a little excessive... Why hasn't anyone paid the licensing to do another release at a reasonable price if these things are so ludicrously expensive?

[Light]

I can't answer many of those- I just know that the discs are out of print, and I don't see an english release in the future coming down the road (I would be delighted if I did though!) People who are selling know that they can gouge a little bit since they're a rarity. I think the demand is big enough that they know some collectors will pay the big bucks to get the copies floating around, but not quite enough to warrant a re-release. :<
An alternative, though not a preferable or permanent one, is to find a place to watch it online. :3

[Hanyoutai]

Unfortunately we can't recommend anywhere to view online, since it's against Proboards (and thus Pheno's) terms of service. Sadly there really are no good options for buying them. The English!DVDs are sold quite rarely as a set, only a few in the last few years that I've seen. The best you'll likely find, even if you do see a set, is a value about $30 per dvd. Which is still hundreds for a full set.

[chris514]

When I was asking about a place to watch it I was referring to services similar to Netflix or Hulu or something. If I am not mistaken those you can tell me about because they are legitimate legal platforms. I think it is just pirated material we aren't allowed to direct people to for legal reasons. But if there is a legitimate streaming service that is hosting the show legally I think that should be okay.

[Hellbound Crow]

Unfortunately, the only alternative to owning zoids is t find a place that sells them bootleg. I don't normally red mend owning bootleg DVDs, but since they are no longer produced and expensive as hell, that is the only alternative. If you go to an anime or comic book convention, they usually have a DVD bootleg stand that sells the full series of zoids. I bought the full NCZ and CC/GF for close to 80ish altogether. The quality is good. It appears someone took the time to rip them and put them on a DVD. As I said, not the greatest option, but an option none the less. My only gripe I have is that one of the dvd's has an episode out of order, but I don't mind. T is also one of the few ways to get fuzors at a cheap price......assuming one wants it lol

[Maethius]

Not that we recommend pirated copies of any items! O.o

[Hanyoutai]

Unfortunately I don't think any legit streaming sites carry it. The first (15?) episodes of CC (in Japanese) used to be on ShoPro's channel. Not sure if they are anymore, but you'd need to use a proxy because it is Japan only. Zoids is one of those animes that makes it very hard to go through legal channels- It hasn't been present in English media for many years. Next best thing I could recommend is checking out your local thrift stores (long shot) or craigslist. Maybe you'll get lucky?

[Hellbound Crow]

Feb 8, 2016 16:18:14 GMT -5 Maethius said:

Not that we recommend pirated copies of any items! O.o

Glow. I wouldn't either, if it weren't for people who feel the need to jack up prices just because they can. But in certain situations, it becomes the only financially sane option, at least until the actual people who currently own the rights to distribute the shows come to their senses and rerelease it again. Although, with the sudden reamergance with voltron, maybe there will be a realization of zoids continuing, although slightly underground, popularity.

[kpstormie]

Oh boy, I feel your pain. I remember NCZ being in the bargain bins in around 2003 for $5 a DVD...shame I never got a hold of more than two of the discs. A complete set of NCZ has been my biggest goal to try and complete, and I'm just not willing to spend $50 per disc for the two I still need!

I'm missing set #3 and set #4; I won sets #1 and #2 through some hard fought bidding wars on Ebay and luckily already owned sets #5 and #6 (the last two seem to be the hardest to find...)

The prices of the NCZ discs have made me really scarp any plans of possibly completing a collection of CS/GF later on down the road...those are way too expensive.

[chris514]

Well it seems Tomy is the company that owns the rights right? It seems like a western reprint of the English dubs is probably out of the question, but has anyone considered suggesting to Tomy via Email that they might consider adding the English language as an alternate language option on their next go around of rereleases over in Asia? They seem to still be releasing sets over there and adding the English option to those shouldn't cost them very much more than they already do. It would help them see more revenue from imports too. It would also devalue the existing English copies so they would become more affordable.

[Hanyoutai]

Japan Zoids Merchandise has usually stayed pretty Japan-centric, especially in the last 10 years where they've barely reached out to other countries. Of course, that's to be expected from a business stand-point. Japan is their target audience. If I make a product for the US, if I don't plan to sell overseas, I will not pay for translators to translate it for overseas individuals. This would be more understandable if there were products in other countries, but all Zoids merchandise right now is focused 100% within Japan.

I can't imagine they'll ever include English subs or dub in their Japanese versions because it'd not only require they reach out to the other rights holders overseas, but they may or may not have to re-hire the actors to play in the 120+ scenes that were removed from the dub.

Subs is a decent amount of effort. I don't know about interpreters (interpretation and translation are two different beasts) but translations tend to run me $50 for 2000 characters (that's 1 page.) From a more professional translator that could go as high as $150-$200. To translate a small 400 page book with roughly 600 characters per page would cost over $5000. (Let us take a moment to worship Falcarius for providing free translations-) I imagine interpretation is more expensive just on the basis that it's better paid professionals, and while that's not necessarily a huge drop in the bucket for a major company, again it's ... just kind of pointless to them, if they don't plan to sell overseas.