In a much, much better move than those stupid, annoying "eco-friendly" cases with the recycling logo punched through the front and a pinwheel punched in under the disc, has decided to save on plastic and paper by shrinking their entire TV library. As we all know, shelf space is desirable, and I was at a Wal-Mart and I saw the new packaging for the first time. They had "Arrested Development" Seasons 1 and 2 bundled together for $20 (a steal) and "Futurama" Volume 1 for $15, so I grabbed them and figured I'd take a bunch of pictures of them.











I prefer the slimmed-down "AD" over slimmed down "Futurama", although I'm likely to get all four seasons anyway. The main reason I dislike the Volume 1 "Futurama" packaging is because the DVD "back covers" were always a sheet attached with rubber cement, and the artwork on those was often kinda boring. What they should have done is print up a booklet with the episode summaries, and then they could have printed more of the art on the inside instead of printing disc contents.

Overall, besides the episode summaries and the individual slimpak artwork, you don't lose much, though, and prices are low. Based on what you see here, you can probably guess what things like "The X-Files" and "King of the Hill" and "Buffy" look like, which are among the other ones I saw today.

I'm surprised it took studios so long to figure out that if they make the packaging smaller, they could fit more on the shelves. durrr

The only problem I have is they released Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Season 4 Volume 1 in the thinner packaging, but it doesn't match the other seasons.

I really dislike that FOX is doing this with Season 7 of 24. 6 discs in one keep case? It's bad enough with 3 or 4, but 6?

I'm really curious about that one. If anyone has any pics I'd be interested to see how they fit all the discs.

Look in the Angel DVD case thread two down from this one.

Yeah, this is not really new. There are many shows doing this now. Angel, Buffy, Mash to name just a few.

All Fox shows.

I am definitely behind this.

I just bought all four seasons of Felicity(disney) and they have been repackaged in the slimmer cases. The original packaged sets have been discontinued. I don't mind these slimmer sets, I just hate packaging changes when they are different from previous seasons.

Disney has also repackaged Alias and Scrubs.

It's funny that at my local Best Buys they have the original versions of Alias for $27.99, and the newer, slim cases for $19.99. I would have thought that they would have repriced them or something.

I went to Wal-Mart last night and was very suprised to see the slim down Futurama but I am not sure if I want to get the Futurama regular version or slim down version, any advice?

These are great- any suggestions on getting these cases and scans to convert my old bulky ones? Greatly appreciated!

Just looking at the image above in the thread, it looks like there's still special features are still on the slim version.

xfilekr: if you do a search for "Thinpak" you'll find several discussions about these Thinpak cases, where to buy them, where to download scans, etc., etc. In fact, you don't even to do a search - there are several threads talking about Thinpak conversions not far below this thread. I have converted 403 of the 529 DVD sets I own to Thinpak and now have 2 more shelves free!!! I have also converted 25 THICK 2 & 4 disc sets to normal size packaging. It's really nice to gain so much space on my overcrowded shelves!!

I imagine it's similar to Early Edition - Season 1. Also a 6-disk set in a standard sized keepcase.

I'll take pictures after my camera is charged if no one has taken one. One disk on each side of the case and then 2 trays each holding 2 disks. It's a full case and crushing the case would probably lead to a cracked disk but the case seems strong or something, to counteract this.

Thanks danwiz, looks awesome! Looking specifically for the new arrested development, futurama, and roswell scans but can't seem to find them?

xfilekr: Sorry, I misunderstood your comment above. Well, r1db.com doesn't have the Thinpak Cover Art (yet), but they have some awesome customs which are designed for an 8 Disc Case - so, you could stick the complete series (8 Discs) in one case and save a bunch of room!

These are not "thinpaks". Thinpaks are what were used for the initial Arrested Development and Futurama releases. These are standard Amaray cases. And the disc content on these versions is identical, although the Futurama disc covers have slightly altered artwork (they just say Episodes 1-5 or something similar on each disc).

Are they selling the slimmed down version of Arrested Development season 3 separately? Yesterday I got the slimmed down AD 2 and X-Files 2 packs. I'd like to pick up the remaining seasons for each show in these kind of cases.

I'd love to get replacement cases for my bulky seasons of Dark Angel, Futurama, AD, and whatever else I have. I just recently sold all my X-Files seasons, so I don't have to worry about those. FOX should offer just the packaging for purchase.

The earlier seasons of 24 are 7 disks, so I guess there is no chance of those being repackaged unless they drop the bonus features disk.

AD season 3 is already in a standard amaray case, although it's black and not clear like this one. It's only two discs.

What sucks about the 24 season 7 release is they neglected to put an insert with a synopsis of each episode and who is on the audio commentaries and what discs carry which bonus features as they did in previous seasons.

Anyone know where I can get blank cases identical to those that Fox is using now? Those are pretty heavy duty and I prefer the clear to the black.