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Saturday, August 15, 2015

Infinite: Reality 5th Mini Album (Limited) Review

After almost one full year, Infinite has finally come back as a whole with their fifth mini album, Reality on July 13th, 2015! This is the first time Woollim has released two versions of a Korean album, a limited version (which sold out pretty quickly) and a normal version. I wrote about the normal version here.
I ordered a limited version from Ktown4u.com for ~$15 and after shipping it was ~$27. It arrived in 16 days to the US, in a box much bigger than the actual album so the box was dented inward, but it was still well packaged. Ktown4u also gives out free folded posters, so mine came underneath my album with several layers of bubblewrap around them. They also threw in a nice little photocard of Myungsoo^^
My album came with one of three exterior poster designs. Two of the poster designs are the main group promotional photos and the third is a photo from the photobook.  The poster is of high quality and made of thick paper and is huge, the size of Infinite's newer album exterior posters (53cm by 77cm).
Infinite's Korean albums have always had the same dimensions (repackaged are the same squares and all else are the same rectangles), but they've changed it up by releasing an A4 sized album for the limited version! I love how sturdy the packaging is; it survived shipping very well, coming out with practically no dents. I'm especially relieved because my She's Back limited edition, also A4 sized, came completely damaged due to the fragility and large size. It is 8.375 inches by 11.875 inches by 1.25 inches.
The exterior packaging is a matte black box that is very prone to fingerprints and grease. The gorgeous Infinite logo and lettering have a glossy finish.
The backside is simple as well.
The exterior packaging is a slipcase where its contents come out of the left side. This edition includes the CD holder on top with the photobook underneath.
This CD holder is really nice quality. It's a hardcover that is also prone to greasy fingerprints. The cover has a nice black-and-white photo of Infinite.
Inside, there are two folded pieces of paper.
Here is the front side of both pieces of paper.
Here is the other side of the pieces of paper.
The black piece of paper contains the album information. Here, the backside shows the album credits.
Opening up the paper once reveals this photo of Infinite.
Opening up the paper fully reveals the song credits and lyrics of all seven tracks. At the bottom are the members' thanks to.
The white piece of paper is the folded poster that comes with the limited edition. It has a nice matte finish and is of high quality. The dimensions are 30.75 inches by 21 inches, bigger than Infinite's usual promotional posters!
Underneath both pieces of paper is the CD, which is held in place by a sturdy foam circle and is secured in a deep foam padding. I really like this packaging, because overall it is very sturdy and the foam and hardcover protect the CD very well.
The photobook is paperback and has a simplistic cover with a reflective metallic rectangle (it's really silver, but it's reflecting the yellow in my room).
The backside is simplistic as well.
This photobook is huge, containing 150 pages. Majority of the photos are Infinite just being themselves and goofing off, matching the album title Reality. The A4 size and concept remind me of Infinite's Japanese limited release of She's Back, which also comes with an A4 sized photobook of photos of Infinite enjoying themselves on vacation.

I can't get over this photo of Woohyun...it's so mind-boggling.

And then there are nice shots of the boys being chummy. This reminds me of photos from the IDEA photobook (like the one of Woohyun and Myungsoo on the bridge at night).

There are a few spreads that include a quote and a group photo. This one is from the last section of the photobook.
The last few pages include a more formal photoshoot for the album, with Infinite in dark suits and serious expressions.
All the pages on the left have the page number and album title on the top left corner, while the pages on the right have "INFINITE" and "THE 5th MINI" printed on the top left corner.
Inside one of the pages of the photobook are the photocard and event card. It was kind of hard for me to find...just flip through the pages and eventually you'll find it~ Lo and behold, I had two photocards and two event cards in my album! I think the machine accidentally put two instead of one. I've never had luck pulling my bias Myungsoo, but today I definitely felt lucky by pulling two of each goody.
Here are the front side of my Sunggyu photocard and Sungyeol event card. There is one photocard per member. As for the event card, this is only included in the first press edition of the limited and normal albums. It is a lottery ticket for a "real date" with that member. However, there are also seven gold cards, one per member, within the albums that is a free pass and the owner promptly wins that member's real date. And I just found out that actually each member will have two dates, one with the owner of the gold card, and one from the lottery. These event cards are flimsier paper than the photocard but still sturdy and have a perforation to tear apart the photo and the application form.
Here are the backside of both cards. All photocard backs are the same while the event cards has that member's name printed on the back of the application form.

You can see the backside lettering is a bit reflective in the light.
As difficult as it was, I tore one of my applications apart to give to my friend to use. As much as I love keeping all my Infinite goods, I'll just think of how I was able to help my friend participate in such an event. I just kept folding at the perforation until it became weak and easy to tear apart without damage.
The photocard is the same size as that of Paradise and Season 2, and a little smaller than all their other photocards.
The Sunggyu card is similar to a photo from the photobook. In the photobook, you can see Sungyeol and Hoya goofing off in the background, and in the photocard, you can see the tip of Hoya's shoe!
The Sungyeol event card is the same photo as in the photobook. It's hilarious seeing Dongwoo in the foreground^^

Overall, this is such a gorgeous album and it came at a reasonable price. At first I was upset that Woollim released a limited edition Korean album for the first time, but now I'm so happy about it. In the future I'll get the normal version as well and review that.

6 comments:

  1. Are you going to be trading your extra Sunggyu photocard?

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    Replies
    1. Hi^^ I'm sorry, I already made a trade for both my extra Sunggyu photocard and Sungyeol event card. Good luck trading though!

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  2. QUISIERA SABER SI EL POSTER SOLO VIENE CON EL CD EDICION LIMITADA O TAMBIEN VIENE CON LA NORMAL POR FAVOR SI SABES ALGO RESPONDEME GRACIAS

    ReplyDelete
  3. PORQUE YO QUISIERA ESE POSTER QUE TIENES ME ENCANTO ...
    Y PORFA SI SABES TALVES VIENE EL POSTER SOLO

    ReplyDelete
  4. I WANT TO KNOW IF THE POSTER ONLY COMES WITH LIMITED EDITION CD OR ALSO COMES WITH NORMAL PLEASE IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING answer me
    POSTER THAT BECAUSE I WANT TO HAVE loved ...
    AND PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU KNOW IF YOU CAN SELL ONLY THE POSTER

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi~ Yes, unfortunately the poster with the purple background only comes with the limited edition album, not with the normal edition. I'm sorry, I'm not selling that poster, I love it so much as well. I hope you'll somehow be able to get that poster! Best of luck^^

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