I wish to order a new DVD from Wild East Productions. Has anyone here dealt with them? Their website seems very difficult to navigate (I'm only on dial-up), and no third party sellers such as Amazon seem to carry their product. Are they a legit company that fills orders, or a fly-by-night rip-off outfit?

They have been around for years and I have ordered from them with no problems, (although not recently).

I found their website rather horrible if using dial-up too. As for other sellers - I've picked up a few from eBay but most of the WEP discs in my collection were bought from Xploited who usually stock them fairly quickly after they're released.

Thanks for the feedback, gents. I would much rather order from Xploited Cinema, so I shall pursue that. I've had very good experiences with Xploited Cinema.

How is the quality of Wild East Productions DVDs? I've obviously never seen one, myself.

Always watchable, but highly variable. On most occasions they're very good quality, but there isn't really a set standard. Some are lovely, some are a bit the worse for wear; some are anamorphic, some are not. I suspect that in most cases they're about as good as we'll get but thankfully most of them are satisfactory.

There was at least one release (I think it was their Sartana disc) which they messed up - I don't know what the technical term for this would be, but basically they took a letterboxed widescreen version, squashed it down to 16:9 dimensions and then presented it in an anamorphic presentation. So if you watch it on a 16:9 TV it's still squashed, unless you watch it in zoom mode (in which case the dimensions are fine but you lose any benefit that anamorphic may have had).

I can't remember specific presentations off the top of my head (and many of them I've not got round to watching myself!) but I do own almost all of them so if there are particular discs you'd like to know about, fire away and I'll see if I can dig them out of the various removal boxes they're currently buried in.

Re: Wild East

Most of their releases are now available on Amazon.com.

I've ordered their films both on Amazon and their website. Website sometimes has problems with the newest releases but otherwise I've found it fine.

Quality isn't that great (probably half way between VHS and decent studio remaster) but all films are in original aspect ratio and in better condition than you've seen before.

Some posters have previously expressed doubt as to whether these are legit releases. They've certainly been making their own versions of some films (eg: A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die where they stuck the US prologue onto the full length Europena version). However, given you can buy the stuff on Amazon.com, its much better quality than you get from those 50 SF/Horror packs and no-one else seems to be releasing these films then I'm not sure that it's relevant.

Could that be the new GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS/GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES disc you're interested in ordering, John? I've got to get that too. I already have BARBARIANS, but I'm looking forward to seeing a widescreen print of THE VAMPIRES. Btw, Retromedia released a widescreen disc of GOLIATH AND THE SINS OF BABYLON last week, so that's yet another to nab. I was impressed with SINS just from watching the pan & scan transfer of it on the WARRIORS 50-pack, so I expect a widescreen transfer will only enhance the experience.

I think a Goliath triple-feature may be in order here. All three are solid sword 'n' sandal entries, each with different themes and approaches.

Yes Mike, GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES is the title I am seeking. It has never been released commercially in the US, to my knowledge, and any "collector's copies" floating around would undoubtedly be P&S. Wild East is promising the 2:35-1 OAR for both that and GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS.