Now, This is Podcasting! music director Mark Seyb got his hands on the five season long Star Wars: The Clone Wars box set today. He sent us his impressions and thoughts on the set:

Today marks the Blu-ray / DVD release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5 and the Blu-ray / DVD release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 1-5 Box Set. As an owner Seasons 1-4 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Blu-ray, the question came down to whether I just purchase the release of Season 5 or whether I plunk down over a $100 dollars for this box set and whether or not the box set is worth it. I am happy to report that the Box Set is worth the money, but you may not want to sell your out of print Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 1 and 2 Digibooks releases yet, but more on that in a moment.

First off, the box set is absolutely beautiful and very well constructed. It’s not some flimsy cardboard housing, but a solid cardboard box that has a magnet on the flap to keep it sealed. The front cover has the heroes of the series as pictured in the advertising material while the back of the box has the villains of the series with Maul, Pre Vizsla, Count Dooku, Ventress, Darth Sidious and General Grievous pictured. One side of the book has See-Threepio and Artoo-Detoo and the other side has Cad Bane.

Inside are two Elite Blu-ray cases separated in Seasons 1-3 for the first case and Seasons 4-5 for the second. There is a nice symmetry between the two cases as the first case has Captain Rex on the front and Commander Cody on the back, both in their Clone Trooper armor from the earlier seasons. The second case reverses this with Cody on the front, and Rex on the back but both are in their later Clone Trooper Armor. The discs inside have an individual picture of a character from the series. You get Obi-Wan, Anakin, Mace Windu, some Clones and even Hondo among others, but oddly, no Ahsoka.

Along with everything above, it also comes with what is billed as an Episode Guide and an Art of The Clone Wars Hardback “book.” The Episode Guide isn’t much really. I was hoping that it would perhaps list all the episodes in chronological order but it is really just a list of what is on the discs and bonus features. It’s a Blu-ray features insert masquerading as something more important, but unfortunately it isn’t. Now Art of Clone Wars book is pretty nice. There’s not much to it really but it has a lot of Art Work from the later seasons, some of it all the way up to the final episode. It doesn’t repeat any of the artwork from the first out of print Digibook releases from Season 1 and 2 and that’s a good thing…and well a bad thing too.

If you are tight on money like I am, and you sold your previous Blu-rays to help pay for this set, then you are now missing some things art work related from the previous releases. If you truly want everything and are a completest then you need all the releases including this one. And you still need to own the theatrical release movie as it is not included here. Ultimately, I think this set is absolutely worth it whether you own the other seasons or are looking to buy The Clone Wars on home video for the first time.

Below is an unboxing video but for the Japanese release. It will give you an idea of what it looks like. Keep in mind when watching the video that the Blu-ray cases in the US release are different and better and that the Art book is hardback here as opposed to what you see on the video.

Thanks to Mark  Seyb for all his work on Now, This is Podcasting! and for sharing his impressions. We just got our Season 5 standalone Blu-ray today ourselves. We will be reviewing the discs from that set in the coming days! 

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