No doubt about it, yesterday's big story was our exclusive press release and package pictures for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series. The 41-disc collectible set is coming out, exclusively from Time Life, and begins shipping on November 27th. There was a lot of scrambling here to get that story up, and to get the ordering link working, let me tell you! Why the confusion? Well, we were supposed to have more time to prep!
If you'll notice, the press release we posted yesterday is dated for next Monday, October 1st. Time Life intended to get the info out there at the first part of next week, coinciding with the day they would begin taking pre-orders at their Man From Uncle DVD microsite. But some enterprising fans were checking Time Life's regular sales site, to see if they could find a listing for the set (based on iinfo we had given in a news story many weeks ago, that the set would be available to pre-order sometime in September).
So Time Life puts the listing into their database within the past couple of days, but with no links or anything that would lead people to find the listing unless they HAPPENED to do a direct search. And of course, fans being fans, they did that kind of search, and found the listing. And the internet being the internet, it was soon all over the place, and here at TVShowsOnDVD we were getting swamped with e-mails from people telling us the good news. We were quickly in touch with Time Life, who told us to go ahead and post the press release and cover art as soon as we wanted to. They also supplied us with a working affiliate link to their U.N.C.L.E. microsite for placing orders.
At the same time, folks were going ahead and placing orders using the look-up method that was getting posted on various message boards. People who did that noticed that the listing said the product was "in stock", and believed they would therefore not have to wait until November to get their copy. We checked with Time Life on that, and they told us that the "in stock" message was wrong. They then disabled that listing temporarily, until it was correctly labeled with a remark as to when the product is expected to ship. So if you have already placed your order using that method, then be aware that per Time Life, your orders will just be in queue and will be fulfilled in November when the inventory is in.
It's been said around the 'net that there is a special coupon code "TLUNCLE" associated just with this offer, that can be entered while ordering to receive free "standard shipping". Time Life has confirmed this, so go for it!
A few people have asked us when/if the set will be released in stores in their neighborhoods. The answer is that, due to their participation in putting the setting together, Time Life has the exclusive to sell this on-line for a year. It will be the end of 2008 before this will be available in brick-and-mortar retail stores (or at other online sellers such as Amazon). Warner Home Video will sell these in stores. This was all stated in the press release, but is easy to overlook.
Another question answered in the press release is "what if I only want to buy specific seasons, instead of the complete series". Yes, Time Life will be selling separate season sets later on, beginning of course with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete 1st Season. It will be an 11-disc set with over two hours of bonus material, also available through the Time Life website. There will also be infomercial sales for the season sets, too. Note that Time Life only has the rights to sell the first two seasons separately from the "Complete Series" package; Warner will sell the other separate sets in stores later on.
If the reason you want season sets instead of this entire package is because "$249.99 is too much money to spend at once", then don't forget that Time Life offers an installment plan. You can sign up to pay in 5 installments of $49.95 each. Note that 41 discs for $249 = $6 per disc; a great deal by any standard!
Below we have a look at all four season set packages, with a close-up on the first season set. The white circles emanating from the U.N.C.L.E. logo, and the yellow upside-down triangles with the season number on them (on both the front and spine), are part of an otherwise clear-plastic sleeve that slides off, revealing the rest of the picture underneath (and the triangular emblems with the season number are revealed to have a black background underneath; you can see a bit of it peeking out along the top of the triangle emblem on the front of Season 1).
