I am a big fan of box sets that collect several years worth of content, usually seasons of television shows or collections of film trilogies. It is a great feeling to hold that much content in a nicely designed box. When the Ultimate Toy Box Collection for the Toy Story films was announced, my mouth began to instantly water. Analyzing the content on the discs included on the set, this collection is second to none. However, the packaging inside has left me a bit underwhelmed.
As there is no new content present here in the collection, I won’t be focusing on the films or the special features. For a review of some of the content, check out my full review of the Four-Disc Toy Story 3 set. Here, I will mostly be concentrating on the collection as a whole and its packaging.
Collected within are the recently released Toy Story and Toy Story 2 Blu-ray/DVD sets, along with the Four-Disc Toy Story 3 set. You may say, “Well, that leaves only eight discs accounted for. What is on the other two discs?”. Exclusive to this collection are digital copies of the first two Toy Story films that you can download onto your computer and load onto your portable devices. That means for each film you have a Blu-ray (Toy Story 3 actually has 2 Blu-ray discs), DVD, and digital copy – 10 discs all together.
Adding up all of the features that are collected here, you can spend hours listening to commentaries, watching behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the films, and of course watching the films over and over. Pixar actually produces their own special features, which is unusual since many studios have others assist in the process of creating Blu-ray and DVD features. It is this control that Pixar has over what we see, even on their home releases, that elevates the content contained – rather than being simple, we get insightful, fascinating, even creative content.
While I wish we could have gotten some exclusives with this collection, whether in the form of an exclusive disc or some nice collectibles, what we do get is a plethora of high-quality content. It is true that you can get all of this by purchasing each film on its own, but there are two reasons why you may want to pick this one up:
- You may be able to pick up this collection for cheaper than going out and buying each set individually
- The 10 discs are stored in a recreation of Andy’s toy chest
On the outside, the chest (made from cardboard) is a faithful replication of what we saw most recently in Toy Story 3. You can even spot the little touches such as a small Nemo sticker, an easter egg from the film. The chest is beautiful and I am looking forward to displaying this with the rest of my DVD and Blu-ray collection, as this will stand out. You also have the option of leaving it in the box that it comes in if you would rather not leave the toy chest out. The outer box is incredibly colorful, which makes it hard for me to throw out. I will likely resort to stowing it away somewhere.
Now, the inside of the chest is not exactly what I was expecting. The discs are stored vertically on a slab of styrofoam. Unfortunately, this means that the discs are not protected and over time, as you slide the discs out and back in, it will wear over time. Without a doubt, this is this great set’s biggest weakness.
Should you buy this set? – Well, it depends. If you do not already own the Toy Story films on Blu-ray, this is without a doubt a great collection to consider purchasing. If you wanted to buy this solely for the novelty of owning a mini-Andy’s toy chest, you may walk away a bit disappointed as the manufacturing is far from perfect. However, the amazing films and the huge amount of special features present here is fantastic, which is why this special set is still a keeper.
View pictures from my unboxing of the collection here.
The Ultimate Toy Box Collection is available now!
