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123456...8
27 May, 2009
2009-5-27 8:48:15 AM UTC
Deagol, glad to hear it's a nice looking book and it sounds like you are pleased with it. Would be very interested in seeing a photo if you get a chance (but understand real life can get in the way of such things!).

Stu
27 May, 2009
2009-5-27 6:48:48 PM UTC
Deagol, can you speak to the color of the book? Is it very close to the picture released by HC, or is it like the Super Deluxe CoH, where the photo made the clamshell look black when it was actually blue? I am hoping for it to be close to the color in the photo, which seems to resemble the color of the 1998 Signed Deluxe Silmarillion.

Also, did you say you ordered on 20-May, at around 10:00AM? I was about 16 hours after that, so I am guessing that I should be somewhere in the 50 to 70 range(?), seeing as how you got #30.
27 May, 2009
2009-5-27 7:45:02 PM UTC
I have only seen one small pic of the clamshell. In hand it looks a little lighter - chestnut brown I would say. Like CoH the clamshell is a heavier duty leather of a different colour to the book - but the colour difference is more marked with this new deluxe edition. The book itself it bound in a mid-brown leather which is very soft, so we will have to handle this book carefully!
The clamshell has a lift up shelf on a ribbon to make extracting the book a little easier, but I am unwilling to tug on it just in case it isn't 100% solid... Unlike CoH, the page corners have been rounded off to approximate the round corners of the binding.

Links to a few quick snaps below. Apologies for the quality. The colours are lightened a little by the flash.

LSG1

LSG2

LSG3
28 May, 2009
2009-5-28 12:51:07 AM UTC
Thanks for the pictures. I'm really glad they retained the curved corners on the boards (as I thought they might save money by going with normal corners), although I'm not sure about the idea of having the curve on the page block itself - I assume it looks better than it sounds (Seems like an odd and pointless deviation from the CoH SD, mind).

On the durability side, I guess the softness of the leather isn't too important as these books will typically live in their traycases anyway. Sounds a bit concerning that you don't want to pull the lift-out ribbon because you are worried it might come off. Is that just good old-fashioned paranoia, or do you have cause to think it might not be strongly constructed?

I think that you got number 30 (despite being pretty quick off the mark) definitely means they sold some the day before or had some pre-paid orders that got the earlier numbers.

Stu
29 May, 2009
2009-5-29 11:55:06 AM UTC
Here are some more pictures of the SuperDeluxe COH and Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun for comparison.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3327/img0046jlf.jpg

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4302/img0047f.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/2372/img0048n.jpg

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/5265/img0045m.jpg

There are differences between the two books in book size and clamshell size, but they do look nice together. The lift out ribbon as you can see in the pictures is attached differently to COH, and I can't see how this new design is meant to work.

I ordered at about 12pm and my copy is number 73. I was also impressed with the huge box that it came in which was very well packed.
29 May, 2009
2009-5-29 12:30:17 PM UTC
Great photos, Trotter. Those give us a better idea of the actual color. These books tend to be real tricky to photograph. Flash really seems to make them look lighter than they are.

So, it looks like HC's marketing of this book must have worked fairly well. If Stu got #30 at 10:00AM, and Trotter got #73 at noon, then they were selling at a pretty decent pace. My order was placed at 2:00AM on the 21'st (due to the delay for U.S. ordering), so I am quite a way behind you guys. I think I will be quite lucky to get a number less than 120.

I know I was skeptical as to how many "pre-orders" were taken. However, it seems possible that they may have sold a couple hundred just in the first 2 days.

Anyone else get their copy yet?
29 May, 2009
2009-5-29 12:32:00 PM UTC
Thanks for the pictures, Trotter. The ribbon attachment does look a bit daft. Seems like it more about show than function. Also, it's a pity they didn't manage to match the size of the books and traycases a little better (I really don't understand why getting the height of traycases, slipcases, etc to match seems so hard!)

Overall, not a bad looking book, but IMHO not a patch on the SD CoH (which I still think looks fantastic). I think it might have looked a little better with a second color on the front-cover foil stamping to break the monotony of 1970s brown a little.

Stu
29 May, 2009
2009-5-29 12:33:49 PM UTC
If Stu got #30 at 10:00AM, and Trotter got #73 at noon, then they were selling at a pretty decent pace.

Not guilty, it was Deagol that got number 30
29 May, 2009
2009-5-29 1:09:55 PM UTC
I noticed another difference, the Tray Case for the Children of Hurin is Morocco (i.e. Goatskin leather), but for the Legend of Sigurd and Gudren it appears to be Cow leather, the grain is much bigger and if you look at my first photo at full resolution you will see the difference. Morocco is more expensive than Leather from Cows, so it looks like someone in HarperCollins was trying to save money on this book.

I am thinking about complaining to HarperCollins about the pull-out ribbon as the design on the Super Deluxe COH works perfectly, so if anyone can explain how the new desisgn works, then please post here (I believe that the ribbon needs to be longer to work from its attached position, it is below the book currently).

Andrew
29 May, 2009
2009-5-29 4:06:52 PM UTC
Sorry, Stu. My mistake regarding #30. However, if I recall, you were fortunate enough to land #3 of the Super Deluxe Children of Hurin. Were you as lucky this time around?
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