Friday, March 17, 2017

Death Box

The name sounds eerie but Death Box is a special limited edition collector box for Death Note which was released in 2006 with a price of 18000 JPY. I bought it in 2014 for $159.42 including international shipping (I did not keep note of how much it was in JPY) which is not too shabby since it is quite rare to find this complete set and its weigh is 7.2kg. I only write about this now since tomorrow my luggage will be empty and I decide to bring this back to Jakarta because I am really running out of space here :( It has been a year since I wrote about toys so I am a bit rusty. I even forgot to take a picture showing all the contents. Oh well..

Death Box comes in a brown external box which measures 51cm (L) x 32cm (W) x 25.3cm (H). I am not sure if this is meant to be an external packaging box but I regard it as part of the item since the box is pretty well designed -if it is meant only as an external packaging.
Front side
Top side
Back side
Identical left and right sides
Inside is another black box which actually contains the contents. I think this black box is sleek yet sturdy. Velcros, instead of tapes, are used to keep things together which I think is brilliant. Velcros keep things together well but it is not messy to remove and put things back together.
Snugly fit inside.. not easy to take it out
The black box is rather plain but it suits the black and death image
Not sure if anybody will use the handles to 'carry' the box
Upon opening the black box
No velcro for this part but the contents do not become loose
The slipcase is secured to the black box by another velcro
Moving on to the contents, there are actually 7 things here. I read in the item description online that number 7 has connotations of death in Japan so that is the reason for having 7 things inside.

1. Artbook 'Blanc et Noir' which is Takeshi Obata's artbook containing illustrations not only from Death Note but also from Hikaru no Go and other series that I am not familiar with. I don't usually review artbooks so I am not going to write so much about this other than the fact that it has different cover compared to the same book that is released individually. Not exactly a fan of the cover in this Death Box edition but this covers really suit the Death Box theme better.

2. Stickers.. erm.. nuff said about this.
The stickers are placed in the black envelope (on the left) which also contains the art prints
3 & 4. B4 prints of some of Takeshi Obata's colour works and B&W works. I think the B&W works are some pages of the manga. They are printed in quite high quality paper so it feels like having art prints rather than posters. They are placed in an envelope which is slotted inside the same slipcase where the artbook is placed. I am listing these as 2 separate items as how the item is official described. Perhaps that's how they force to make as if this has 7 items inside. Initially I thought these prints only as 1 feature. Lol.
Just sample instead of showing all 12 art prints
5& 6. Shinigami's skull object and Shinigami's eye pendant. I am quite lazy to measure the box or the dimension of the items but both are made of metal. The skull is heavy while I have no comment about the pendant other than it is quite small. I am just a casual fan of Death Note from the live action movies but not reading the manga so I don't really know the significance of these 2 items to really appreciate them.
Both are placed in this same box. Don't mind the misspelling.
Not going to display this as I find it quite scary
I love the great definition of the engraving
The pendant is quite tiny
7. Light, L, and Misa figure!! Perhaps this is the reason for desperately needing to get this Death Box since unlike the artbook, the figure is not released on its own. It is commonly sold 2nd hand as loose at about 3000-4000 JPY each but since I also want the artbook, I might as well get the whole Box. In fact, that is my reason for getting the box since the cost is just a bit more expensive than buying the figure and the artbook separately.

I put this as the last as I am going to write more as if it is a separate figure. The box measures 22cm (L) x 19.5cm (W) x 29.4cm (H) while the figure itself is about 24cm tall. The box is pretty elaborately designed considering that this figure is just 1/7 of the content of the whole Box. Lol. 

I am not sure if it is the age or I am just unlucky to get this from someone who did not take care the items well since my figure is in a rather disappointing condition. The 'arc' is sticky which is basically typical of PVC figures which have been exposed too heat. The holes to put the pegs are also too big that Light and L are not standing straight as they should be. Sigh.. Anyway it is also not easy to buy this figure loosely nowadays. Well, beggars can't be choosers since I am getting this almost a decade since its release.
Pretty elaborate design right?
The back of the box has the illustration that inspires the figure (or is it vice versa?)
Left side of the box
Light and L are joined by the cuffs. Light is leaning way too much to his right.
The skull is a separate piece. I am not sure if its location is there since I don't see any skull in the illustration at the back of the box. Hmm.. the focus on this picture should be Misa but don't know why I end up talking about the skull
L
No idea why Light is shirtless
The back is just painted black.. Boring.. but they make a skull head at the bottom
These last 3 pictures are just to show you how confused I am to take a nice picture of the figure. I can't seem to have a nice 'center' since each of them is leaning and their pegs don't fit nicely to their holes.

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