Well, since work shifted me my week before going home for 20-ish hours this upcoming Friday, I thought I'd update the forum.

While in the Minneapolis, MN area, I only stopped at one of the 3 Big Lots (the one off of Coon Rapids Blvd), and they didn't have anything really.
So, this week, they sent me to Eau Claire, Wisc. to help out another team, and I stopped in the Big Lots that time forgot here, and they had NOTHING for DVDs (they only had like 1/2 of a shelf as it was throughly picked over, and nothing for anime).

I know starting Saturday for 2 weeks I'm in the Ontario/San Bernardino/Moreno Valley, CA area....anyone know how the anime is out there (I'm primarily hunting for: Dan-Doh: the Super Shot - Vol. 3; s-CRY-ed (Anime Legends 2-disc) - Vol.1; IGPX - Vol. 6, and the Yu-Gi-Oh-Season 1 tin (also hunting for .hack/SIGN - Vols. 1,4; and Tsukikage Ran - Vol. 4).

Thanks for any info,
Matt

I guess MN & Wisconsin are in the same distribution list as South Florida. We have nothing yet, and I haven't seen any new anime for a while (except for Steamboy, which is always around)

They also don't send anime to every store. Someone or some program has decided what types of DVDs/VHS to send to every store.

For example the Homestead FL store (it's Miami but very South) never gets anime because it has a high hispanic customer base, so they replace those with Wiggles DVD.

I know in St. Louis, MO area, the BL powers-that-be, seem to send the bulkload of their anime to one store, and scatter the rest in random quantities to the rest....'course, this was before they went and killed like 1/2 of their stores in the St. Louis area about 2-3 years ago. Lately, the last two anime shipments have been just clustered in a small handful of stores. I think after I posted my search findings a few months ago, the anime cache I found at one store got buzzsawed through, leaving slim pickings (or whatever's left volume-wise from IGPX).

Went into a couple of Sacramento stores to pick up the 2 disc Philadelphia but did not see it, instead I got A River Runs Through It (Deluxe), Awakenings, Blue Thunder, Squid and the Whale, White Nights, Shampoo, Rock School, The Passenger, Winged Migration, Edison Force (had no idea how bad the reviews were till after the purchase), Can't Hardly Wait, Casualties of War (Ex), People V. Larry Flynt, and a few others. $3 a dvd is outstanding.

Picked up Steamboy, A River Runs Through It (Deluxe) and Castle Keep. Also saw Hexed, which I haven't seen listed here(but may have missed it) along with Castle Keep. Like many have said, for $3 you can't go wrong.

^Was Castle Keep FS or WS? I've been looking for the WS version.

I've been looking for a stray WS version of Castle Keep at B/L, but have yet to find one (about 20 copies in FS over 5 different locations).

The copy I got was full screen. Usually, I never find both so I don't even bother looking on movies that I actually want. If I'm on the fence about something, the format will be the deciding factor. In this case, I'm a Peter Falk fan so I just bought it. If anyone finds a WS version, I'll start checking and maybe exchange the one I got.

EDIT: Went back and checked and they only had fullscreen. Also saw Sheena(Tonya Roberts) which I don't remember anyone mentioning. I already have it or I would have picked it up.

Has anyone found a copy of Sheena that contains both the widescreen and fullscreen versions? I've only seen the FS version at my local Big Lots.

and thats one title where you'll be glad to have a FS rather than a WS. Hope you get my drift

Went to a different Biglots and saw the following for $3 each:

Guns of Navarone SE (Non slipcover version)
XXX State of the Union
Philadelphia AE 2 disk
Ali Directors Cut
Masked and Anonymous
Mary Reilly
Nadine
A River Runs Through It Deluxe Edition
In Cold Blood
Sleepless in Seattle SE
Augustus
Nero
Touch of Pink
D.E.B.S.

Also saw the following in Fullscreen only:

The Deep
The Cheap Detective
Castle Keep

I have now been to 5 different Biglots and the variation of whats in stock is amazing. Some locations have virtually nothing while other locations have a wide selection.

Thank you Sony and Biglots! Can't go wrong for $3 each...

While Michael's Movie Mahem and allmovie both indicate this was released in a P&S/WS presentation (with allmovie adding a FS only version having the same release date which would be redundant with a dual format version), I believe it only came out as a FS. The UPC # listed for the dual format version at MMM is the same as the one on the FS package.

Found:

You Light Up My Life
Into the Sun
Don't Come Knocking
The Governess
Things Change
I Dreamed of Africa

Picked up Nadine and Into the Sun today. Still no luck finding Panic Room.

No, without changing UPCs, Sony notoriously downgraded Sheena and many other titles from WS/FS flipper to FS single side. There are many rants about this on the internet.

^Thanks for the info! Nice to know.

My favourite example of this is Geronimo.
I got a 2 disc set (2 slims) of it and All the Pretty Horses. Geronimo as listed as 2.35:1 anamorphic on the back. Opened it, slimcase says the same. Disc in? FS.

I e-mailed them and they told me it was NEVER released in widescreen.

I almost called them liars then sent a sympathetic email back about how I know they aren't given any information, but that that isn't true and it was originally WS/FS.

Sad.

To those that responded to my Sheena question, I thank you.


Oh, I really get your drift. That's the whole reason I picked it up in the first place.

But it still would have been nice to own the WS version too.


Thanks for the link!

OK, now I'm just waiting for the next lot of titles to be dumped by Sony.

Come on - let's see Runaway, Man From Colorado... hell, just dump the excess inventory of all your classic titles Sony! (You're focusing on Blu Ray now anyway, right?)

Based on how often we've seen waves of new titles to Big/Lots it will be, what? Another 3-6 weeks for a new batch? (Assuming there IS one, and I really hope that there is...there are so many titles Sony could conceivably have excess inventory of that I can't imagine that they've run out.)

You are quite welcome. I originally got it from the Out of Print Titles (Recently Discovered) thread which I've found to be very handy.

I bought I Dreamed of Africa, which to another thread, Sony rereleased it full screen only. The one I found is a flipper with widescreen and full screen.

Got lucky today and found a decent copy of the Batman Serials DVD and The Woods (didn't really care for it when I rented it, but for $3 and Bruce Campbell is surely worth it).

still nothing but a bunch of junk in south florida. maybe they would sell more dvds down here is they got enough dvds to fill a whole display instead of fillings thier dvd display up with vhs and computer games. maybe once the rest of the dvds are gone, they will start filling in with thier overstocks of shrek cereal, or just get few more $400 couches

Found a few old and new $3 DVDs:

Godzilla (1998): Monster Edition
Batman: 1943 Serial Collection
And Now for Something Completely Different
Murderball (looks like a previous rental)

If anyone has an extra Batman serial dvd, let me know what dvds from Big Lots that you want me to look for in trade. Brand new in wrapper