Dragon Boxes

Amazon, Half.com, and eBay. Once in a while you will find some of the volumes for $30 or so, but no guarentee.

I recently searched for these myself and bought all of them.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/14311871 box 3

http://www.walmart.com/ip/16652389 box 5

http://www.walmart.com/ip/16652345 box 6

http://www.walmart.com/ip/16915636 box 7

These were the best prices for these boxes.
4 is hard to find as well but can typically be found on ebay around the 40$ mark

1 is selling around the 50-70$ range used and about 100-120$ new

2 is the real stickler in the bunch typically hitting 200-220$ used range and 300$+new

Best of luck!

I got all of these as they came out 1 by 1, but what makes them so special? (I haven't done any research really). I know Kai came out and is ideally abridged, but I thought DBZ hit Blu-Ray normally.

Edit: Wow they only released stupid "Level 1.1" and "Level 2" whatever

[quote name='philmcfly']I got all of these as they came out 1 by 1, but what makes them so special? (I haven't done any research really). I know Kai came out and is ideally abridged, but I thought DBZ hit Blu-Ray normall.[/QUOTE]

The Blu Rays got cancelled after two releases (basically up to the end of the Saiyan saga). The Dragon Boxes are ideal for the collectors out there, plus the whole "oh shit some are out of print!"

[quote name='philmcfly']I got all of these as they came out 1 by 1, but what makes them so special? (I haven't done any research really). I know Kai came out and is ideally abridged, but I thought DBZ hit Blu-Ray normally.

Edit: Wow they only released stupid "Level 1.1" and "Level 2" whatever[/QUOTE]

Well, There is also the fact the orange bricks are 4:3 stretched to 16:9 and cut off the top and bottom portions of the screen, the dragon boxes are quite collectible vs. the orange brick dvd sets. The Dragon Boxes contain all 291 episodes with the Ocean Dub track. The Blu-ray releases ended at Level 1.2 due to the cost of the transfer to blu-ray. And Kai is only 99 episodes I believe and completely cuts off the Buu saga. To most fans its like a complete alternate telling of the DBZ story. Not that it doesn't deserve its own merit but most fans still prefer the original and since the first two boxes and the 4th box are OOP collectors are going crazy for them.

[quote name='greenwolfe7']The Dragon Boxes contain all 291 episodes with the Ocean Dub track.[/QUOTE]
I think you're mistaken. The Dragon Boxes feature the original Japanese track, and then the Funimation English Dub (with original Japanese soundtrack) that is found on the Orange Brick releases.

[quote name='philmcfly']I got all of these as they came out 1 by 1, but what makes them so special? (I haven't done any research really).[/quote]
To date, it's the only complete, unedited release the series has gotten in North America (in its proper aspect ratio). Beyond that, they use the remastered video that was produced in Japan for their Dragon Box release back around 2003.

I think there's some debate about how accurate the colors are after the remastering process (I generally like them), especially when compared to tapes from the original broadcast, but it looks so much better than the remastering Funimation did for their Orange Bricks that it isn't even funny.

...

And for what it's worth, the recently started production on a Boo saga for Kai, so while the story wasn't completed during Kai's first run, it will be fairly soon.

[quote name='Hao']I think you're mistaken. The Dragon Boxes feature the original Japanese track, and then the Funimation English Dub (with original Japanese soundtrack) that is found on the Orange Brick releases.


To date, it's the only complete, unedited release the series has gotten in North America (in its proper aspect ratio). Beyond that, they use the remastered video that was produced in Japan for their Dragon Box release back around 2003.

I think there's some debate about how accurate the colors are after the remastering process (I generally like them), especially when compared to tapes from the original broadcast, but it looks so much better than the remastering Funimation did for their Orange Bricks that it isn't even funny.

...

And for what it's worth, the recently started production on a Boo saga for Kai, so while the story wasn't completed during Kai's first run, it will be fairly soon.[/QUOTE]

The colors of the new remastering are going to be different due to the age of the film and the degradation that occurs as a result. I thought Funimation's cancelled bluray releases actually looked really good, and probably would have looked even better if they got better masters.

[quote name='greenwolfe7']Well, There is also the fact the orange bricks are 4:3 stretched to 16:9 and cut off the top and bottom portions of the screen, the dragon boxes are quite collectible vs. the orange brick dvd sets. The Dragon Boxes contain all 291 episodes with the Ocean Dub track. The Blu-ray releases ended at Level 1.2 due to the cost of the transfer to blu-ray. And Kai is only 99 episodes I believe and completely cuts off the Buu saga. To most fans its like a complete alternate telling of the DBZ story. Not that it doesn't deserve its own merit but most fans still prefer the original and since the first two boxes and the 4th box are OOP collectors are going crazy for them.[/QUOTE]

They are planning to release Buu saga for Kai. The problem with Kai is the censorship.

I just want the uncensored Blu-Ray release.

Ughhh

yeah the U.S. kinda got the short end of the stick when it comes to these Japan (as usual) got the best set. While we got 7 boxes they only had two huge boxes. below is an eaby link to the set just for size comparison. oh and did i mention that the Japanese set is insanely expensive?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DRAGON-BALL-Z-Japanese-DVD-BOX-DRAGON-BOX-Complete-Set-/281066828866?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item4170e37442

Japan also has the Dragon Ball saga in a Dragon box:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/DRAGON-BALL-DVD-BOX/dp/B00018GX9S/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1362643072&sr=1-1

[quote name='greenwolfe7']Well, There is also the fact the orange bricks are 4:3 stretched to 16:9 and cut off the top and bottom portions of the screen, [/QUOTE]

Which is how Japan got Kai. Funny, huh?

The Blu-ray releases ended at Level 1.2 due to the cost of the transfer to blu-ray.

Click to expand...

You sure it wasn't Toei that cancelled it?

yea i think its cause its fully screen and not the cut off wide screen of of the orange boxes.

all that said unless you know what your looking for on the orange boxes you really wont notice.

and yea the blu ray should of finished. i think it was some BS about having a hard time transferring it to blu ray.

but yea i imagine the only reason the dragon boxes are OOP is due to the orange box existing.

Ahh, thanks everyone for the explanation.

I'm a big DBZ fan, but just for the content I saw as a kid, and not enough to know what I'm not seeing. (Shitty VHS multi copied tapes from NYC Chinatown left much to be desired.)

Great so I'm stuck with these 2 Blu-Rays I bought at launch. They do look great, and I was planning on actually selling the Dragon Boxes when the full Blu-Ray set was released. Good thing I waited.

It also pisses me off that they released Kai in "Parts One through Eight." Then they released "Seasons One through Four"

Are those 2 releases any different? I still need part Seven and Eight to complete it.

[quote name='philmcfly']It also pisses me off that they released Kai in "Parts One through Eight." Then they released "Seasons One through Four"

Are those 2 releases any different? I still need part Seven and Eight to complete it.[/QUOTE]
Anime companies have been doing that since the turn of the century.

And unlike FMA Brotherhood, FUNi just reused the discs for the Season releases, so the only difference is the packaging.

[quote name='DNukem170']Which is how Japan got Kai. Funny, huh?



You sure it wasn't Toei that cancelled it?[/QUOTE]
Well its not ACTUALLY cancelled the 1.1 and 1.2 are still being produced as far as I'm aware they are still stocking it in stores near me. But the official statement from funi was that they were looking at more cost effective options for the release because we would have been paying roughly 70$ for each set of 34 episodes that were released at a time unless we all waited on a sale. And at 34 episodes per release of each .1 and .2 of the sets. It would cost
291/34 * 70$ = 600$ roughly by the time we got the final sets. And not to mention it would be about 18 total boxes... just saying...But I loved the blu-rays and if they were released at periodic intervals I would have gladly collected them over time but still thats alot of money. And not to mention it was costing them a fortune to transfer the episodes to blu-ray because they had to have the original source repaired before the transfer and that was just doubling the cost. A little bit more here http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-01-26/funimation-suspends-dragon-ball-z-blu-ray-production

[quote name='Hao']I think you're mistaken. The Dragon Boxes feature the original Japanese track, and then the Funimation English Dub (with original Japanese soundtrack) that is found on the Orange Brick releases.


To date, it's the only complete, unedited release the series has gotten in North America (in its proper aspect ratio). Beyond that, they use the remastered video that was produced in Japan for their Dragon Box release back around 2003.

I think there's some debate about how accurate the colors are after the remastering process (I generally like them), especially when compared to tapes from the original broadcast, but it looks so much better than the remastering Funimation did for their Orange Bricks that it isn't even funny.

...

And for what it's worth, the recently started production on a Boo saga for Kai, so while the story wasn't completed during Kai's first run, it will be fairly soon.[/QUOTE]

Your correct they did use the Funi english track. It's been awhile since I watched them and 90% of the time I watch the show in Japanese unless im working on homework or a project or something then I usually watch in english cause I don't need to pay attention to subs. But yeah I haven't heard about them doing the Buu saga in Kai that will be interesting... Hope the redo GT correctly with a new story from the ground up... that would be nice.

[quote name='philmcfly']It also pisses me off that they released Kai in "Parts One through Eight." Then they released "Seasons One through Four"

Are those 2 releases any different? I still need part Seven and Eight to complete it.[/QUOTE]

Kai's home video release is maybe the weirdest thing that's happened to Dragon Ball in a while due to the music plagiarism scandal that happened toward the end of its run.

Long story short, somewhere around the release of part 4 or part 5, they switched from using the new Kai score, to just reusing music from the original series.

These season set releases were supposed to do away with the Kai score all together, but I think the first run of Season One was messed up, and had the Kai score on it anyway. Hahahaha

Wow, a lot of replies at once in this thread was dead for days... Guess it got moved into this DVD forum. It really sucks because the way that Volume 1-2 are crazy overpriced and 4 is hard to find, you're pretty much forced to buy these Dragon Boxes completely out of order... I can live without having the first 2 boxes I guess, but it sucks that Walmart.com does not have Vol. 4 either... Oh well, guess I will bite the bullet and pay 40-50 bucks for it on Ebay.

I've collected every single release and the weird thing about these are that every single collection is wrong except the Level Blu-rays that have been discontinued. The first single dvd release had the best picture for the dvd, then comes the orange boxes that give you 10% more on either side of the screen but crop the top and bottom so you lose 20% of top and bottom. Then comes the dragon box release that has the same framing as the single dvd release but the picture is slightly more compressed cause they had to fit more episodes on disc. These don't have that 10% extra on the sides but have a better full frame. I think that they couldn't show the full frame cause the masters were digital and had lots of jitter so they had to crop it so the software could have a place to float around to ease the jitter. The Dragonball Kai releases are just the regular release but they seem to have been put into a software program that probably just made it all black and white and then they color corrected it and digitally colored all the frames making the colors look very flat. it has no grain and the shading looks very different. I wouldn't say it's bad, just jarring and different if you've watched a ton of dragonball. The level blurays were amazing cause they actually used film masters and went frame by frame restoring it but since they are discontinued then it sucks. hopefully in a year they will re-commence. I recommend instead of buying the first dragonbox to get the level blu-rays 1and 2. it's a whole lot cheaper with much better picture quality.

[quote name='sparklecopy']I've collected every single release and the weird thing about these are that every single collection is wrong except the Level Blu-rays that have been discontinued. The first single dvd release had the best picture for the dvd, then comes the orange boxes that give you 10% more on either side of the screen but crop the top and bottom so you lose 20% of top and bottom. Then comes the dragon box release that has the same framing as the single dvd release but the picture is slightly more compressed cause they had to fit more episodes on disc. These don't have that 10% extra on the sides but have a better full frame. I think that they couldn't show the full frame cause the masters were digital and had lots of jitter so they had to crop it so the software could have a place to float around to ease the jitter. The Dragonball Kai releases are just the regular release but they seem to have been put into a software program that probably just made it all black and white and then they color corrected it and digitally colored all the frames making the colors look very flat. it has no grain and the shading looks very different. I wouldn't say it's bad, just jarring and different if you've watched a ton of dragonball. The level blurays were amazing cause they actually used film masters and went frame by frame restoring it but since they are discontinued then it sucks. hopefully in a year they will re-commence. I recommend instead of buying the first dragonbox to get the level blu-rays 1and 2. it's a whole lot cheaper with much better picture quality.[/QUOTE]

It was said awhile ago that kai had was a a completely new redraw from the primal material so while images may look the same its still completely new source material just redraws of from the original series. Also how many fiscal are the single releases? I've been considering going after them individually. I still have all the vhs as well. I don't want the orange bricks as I had them but sold away for the dragon boxes. But for quite awhile now have been considering the single releases but I will have to make room lol.

The single releases are incomplete. The latter half of the Saiyan Saga and the first half of the Freeza Saga were never released uncut in singles. To view the uncut versions you either need the Orange Boxes or the Dragon Boxes.

Funimation should just release a complete series set already. Uncut with japanese soundtrack and subs + english bad soundtrack version. And not cropped.

But I dunno, I guess they don't like money.

I can't find Vol. 4 for a decent price anywhere, and that is the only one I need to finish my collection. Was going to sell the lot that I have, but figure why not just try to find it cheap.

[quote name='JasonTerminator']Funimation should just release a complete series set already. Uncut with japanese soundtrack and subs + english bad soundtrack version. And not cropped.

But I dunno, I guess they don't like money.[/QUOTE]

I still maintain that Toei has more control than people realize.

[quote name='JasonTerminator']Funimation should just release a complete series set already. Uncut with japanese soundtrack and subs + english bad soundtrack version. And not cropped.

But I dunno, I guess they don't like money.[/QUOTE]

They tried doing that with the blu ray sets and it was a flop. People just got fed up with too many releases. Personally, I just want the other Dragon Boxes for the original series and the movies. They did a poll a year ago asking people which one they wanted the most, but there has been no announcement since then.

I own all the dragon ball z dragon boxes and they are superb. If you can live without Falcouner's tracks then they are must buys. The big problem is getting dragon box 2 though.

In all honesty, I always wondered why Toei/Funi could never just dump all of the Dragon Box episodes on Blu Ray without messing with the video/sound. I don't care if it's not "HD" because we know at this point that DBZ is too "difficult" to put into HD. While I'm sure Japan would do it (like with Yu Yu Hakusho), I think its Toei who probably doesn't want to spend a crapton in putting it in HD. Imagine like 20 episodes of DBZ on one Blu Ray? Then maybe have four sets of about 4-5 blus then boom instant money. Everyone gets DBZ without it being dicked with.

But then again, we don't live in that kind of world, do we? =S

I don't think it was a flop. It was just too expensive to clean the masters. That and they still hadn't finished the dragonboxes AND they had Dragonball Kai at the SAME TIME!!!! They probably WILL release all the level blurays once they finish the KAI'S and finish the stock of the seventh dragon boxes. I mean Funimation has been kept in business while every other anime company has gone down the drain solely because of DBZ and Naruto. They can't keep the cash cow down. Probably smarter to maximize the bluray money when the DVD money runs out.

[quote name='Meelahd']They tried doing that with the blu ray sets and it was a flop. People just got fed up with too many releases. Personally, I just want the other Dragon Boxes for the original series and the movies. They did a poll a year ago asking people which one they wanted the most, but there has been no announcement since then.

I own all the dragon ball z dragon boxes and they are superb. If you can live without Falcouner's tracks then they are must buys. The big problem is getting dragon box 2 though.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Meelahd']They tried doing that with the blu ray sets and it was a flop. People just got fed up with too many releases. Personally, I just want the other Dragon Boxes for the original series and the movies. They did a poll a year ago asking people which one they wanted the most, but there has been no announcement since then.

I own all the dragon ball z dragon boxes and they are superb. If you can live without Falcouner's tracks then they are must buys. The big problem is getting dragon box 2 though.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, reprinting the Dragon Boxes would work too, but I don't think they're smart enough to do that.

FUNi's limit on episodes on a Blu-ray is 9. Japan is usually 6 or 7.

[quote name='sparklecopy']I mean Funimation has been kept in business while every other anime company has gone down the drain solely because of DBZ and Naruto[/QUOTE]

Viz owns Naruto, not FUNimation.

are the vhs's even worth anything anymore? i still have them and have never upgraded. personally i like the box art. i have the uncut dragonball on dvd but even that im eh about. i want blu ray.

You know, I wouldn't mind the orange boxes as much if FUNi would just re-release them (and the original Dragonball) in slimmer packaging. Or even release a Dragon Box Lite (without the booklets) version. I have really grown to despise digipaks the last few years.

Walmart had 3-disc cheap repackaging a while back, but never made it past Season 1.