The Paul Champagne (click here to find his website - link kept for archival, but it seems Paul retired and closed his shop) laser-etched boxset is a relatively well-known side product of the Evangelion series in the US market.
The official limited series commissionned for A.D.Vision has been produced in 2000 copies, which were sold at $48.99, in the year 2002. They're usually sold between $20 and $90 (depending on whether or not they are coming with the DVDs).
As I really loved the feeling of this aluminium packaging, I bought 9 copies, with the following numbers:
Empty: #9 (signed by Tiffany Grant), #350, #361, #790, #995, #1187
With DVDs: #1000, #1666, #1933.
I also own 4 of the 5 "official" pre-production numbers #01 (+DVDs Platinum Ed), #03 (+DVDs), #04 and #05 (who have the exact same aspect as the 2000 run, except for the boxset #ID).
#01, #04 and #05 were directly bought with Paul, while #03 was found on eBay. Note that those preproduction were, in fact, post-produced (which explains the title below)... Paul was actually permitted to produce 5 “pre-production” with numbers of the official design and 5 with no numbers. The latter were more thought of as test prints for each production runs. Paul only actually made 2 of the ones without numbers.
However, a thing that is mostly unknown to the EVA collectors is that Paul really produced cases for the ADV project, before they sent him the artwork to be used for the 2000 series. As far as Paul remembered, 15 box (without any numbers) were made, with various sizes (for 8, 9 and 10 DVDs sets, 5 of each), as a project to hold the complete EVA collection (including the movies). I respectively own 4,3 and 4 of these, the eight-DVD one who's missing is actually owned by a Canadian collector, who became a friend.
My original guess was that the last set is probably lost somewhere into the ADV former office, but, if I remember correctly, Paul was hesitating about the fact he made 15 or 12 (our discussion about it was held many years ago)...
Last, Paul's collection is housed in an official design case with the number label : 0000X. He made 3 like that, and they were the very first tests with the official artwork. These were presented to ADV for approval. They kept one, they sent one to Japan and Paul kept the last one.
After seing pictures of those 0000X (and in fact buying the ADV's office one thanks to Tiffany Grant), they're actually using the same artwork as the preproduction I own, so I guess Paul actually made 15 of these, 3 of with numbers 0000X who where presented to ADV. Which means I own 12 of the 15 pre-production, and 4 of the 7 post production...
Note: If you plan on selling your set, feel free to contact me ^^
The official limited series commissionned for A.D.Vision has been produced in 2000 copies, which were sold at $48.99, in the year 2002. They're usually sold between $20 and $90 (depending on whether or not they are coming with the DVDs).
As I really loved the feeling of this aluminium packaging, I bought 9 copies, with the following numbers:
Empty: #9 (signed by Tiffany Grant), #350, #361, #790, #995, #1187
With DVDs: #1000, #1666, #1933.
I also own 4 of the 5 "official" pre-production numbers #01 (+DVDs Platinum Ed), #03 (+DVDs), #04 and #05 (who have the exact same aspect as the 2000 run, except for the boxset #ID).
#01, #04 and #05 were directly bought with Paul, while #03 was found on eBay. Note that those preproduction were, in fact, post-produced (which explains the title below)... Paul was actually permitted to produce 5 “pre-production” with numbers of the official design and 5 with no numbers. The latter were more thought of as test prints for each production runs. Paul only actually made 2 of the ones without numbers.
However, a thing that is mostly unknown to the EVA collectors is that Paul really produced cases for the ADV project, before they sent him the artwork to be used for the 2000 series. As far as Paul remembered, 15 box (without any numbers) were made, with various sizes (for 8, 9 and 10 DVDs sets, 5 of each), as a project to hold the complete EVA collection (including the movies). I respectively own 4,3 and 4 of these, the eight-DVD one who's missing is actually owned by a Canadian collector, who became a friend.
My original guess was that the last set is probably lost somewhere into the ADV former office, but, if I remember correctly, Paul was hesitating about the fact he made 15 or 12 (our discussion about it was held many years ago)...
Last, Paul's collection is housed in an official design case with the number label : 0000X. He made 3 like that, and they were the very first tests with the official artwork. These were presented to ADV for approval. They kept one, they sent one to Japan and Paul kept the last one.
After seing pictures of those 0000X (and in fact buying the ADV's office one thanks to Tiffany Grant), they're actually using the same artwork as the preproduction I own, so I guess Paul actually made 15 of these, 3 of with numbers 0000X who where presented to ADV. Which means I own 12 of the 15 pre-production, and 4 of the 7 post production...
Note: If you plan on selling your set, feel free to contact me ^^
Rant : I wish I could own all of the pre-production ones, and the numbers #1 and #2000...
2000 limited run (+Post-Production) :
Real Pre-Production :
Side note 1: all the pictures here originate from the former website of Paul Champagne, except for the pre-production that I grabbed with Nicolas (thanks to both of you ^_^). Every picture is hosted with Paul's Or Nicolas' permission.