Golden Child made their long awaited Korean comeback AURA on August 8th, 2022, and to no surprise, Woollim Mall dropped accompanying AURA merch! On August 12th at 12PM Woollim tweeted that online preorders have opened and will be until supplies last.
Golden Child 6th Mini Album [AURA] Official MD:
- COLLECT BOOK + HOLOGRAM PHOTOCARD SET / 30,000₩ / $25.41 USD
- HOLOGRAM GLASS + HOLOGRAM PHOTOCARD (1EA) / 27,000₩ / $22.87 USD
- SCRAP BOOK + STICKER SET / 18,000₩ / $15.25 USD
The hologram glass sold out within a few days, followed by the collect book. I'm super grateful to my friend to help me secure my order within 10 minutes.
The item pages state that shipping will begin on August 22nd. On August 24th Korean Ness started receiving their AURA merch. I received tracking info on September 6th and my package arrived via UPS on September 12th.
My friend also had her package shipped to my place, so I'll partly blog with both packages. Now Everline's packages have the whole "take video of your unboxing" printed directly on the outside of their boxes.
The hologram glass was placed inside its own bubblewrap bag then wrapped around itself. Underneath were the collect book on top of the scrap book inside a shared bubblewrap bag.
Unfortunately for one of the hologram glass boxes arrived with a large dent to its packaging, but luckily the contents inside were in perfect condition.
Here are all 3 products together!
COLLECT BOOK + HOLOGRAM PHOTOCARD SET
The collect book comes in a clear resealable plastic bag, with the product sticker and holographic Woollim authentication seal on the backside of the packaging. Opening up the bag, you can really smell the vinyl scent (it reminds me of those vinyl collect books for Pokemon cards that I had back in the day...)...which makes me skeptical on if the sleeves are PVC free and acid free...
Here is the collect book! Looking at the item listing on Woollim Mall, this book is made of PVC. It has a nice cushy cover and the design matches the cover of the limited version of AURA. Both the spine and the front cover have AURA printed, and the top of the cover also has "GOLDEN CHILD 6TH MINI". The group photo used as the front cover is the same image as the first press mini poster. The collect book is about 4.375" by 5.5" by 1.375".
Here are how the covers of the collect book look like. I like how the design is continuous from the front cover through the spine and then to the back cover. The back cover also has the new Golden Child logo printed in the center. This collect book also comes with a set of hologram photocards, which came in a clear resealable bag placed inside the center of the collect book.
The inside cover has a plastic sleeve to store the photo for the front cover. On the front cover this is actually an open window, so the photo is exposed. Following are the pages for the photocards, with 2 sleeves per side.
Here is how the middle of the book looks like and how the pages look bound to the spine. There are a total of 16 single pages (or 32 pages counting both sides), enough to fit 64 photocards.
The photocards came in age order from oldest to youngest. The hologram layer adds a pretty sheen.
The backs of the photocards also have that same pretty sheen from the hologram effect. Matching the cover of the collect book, the top has printed "GOLDEN CHILD 6TH MINI" and the middle has "AURA". The bottom of each card also has the member's name printed. The photocards have a glossy finish.
HOLOGRAM GLASS + HOLOGRAM PHOTOCARD (1EA)
Following the set of hologram photocards from the collect book, there is also a hologram glass. This glass comes in a cardboard box, with the top flap taped shut by a matte sticker with a similar design to the limited edition cover of AURA. I was a bit excited and opened both boxes before taking a picture >.< The backside of the box has the product sticker and holographic Woollim authentication seal.
Opening up the top flap reveals the glass, along with the random photocard slipped between the glass and the backside of the box.
The photocard comes in a clear resealable bag and is random out of 9. My friend and I pulled Tag and Bomin! (Thank you to my friend for letting me have Bomin; I can't believe just how excited I was when I saw him as the second card we pulled 😅).
Like the glass, the photocard is also holographic on both sides. The backside is also really pretty with what appears to be a closeup of a design similar to this era's logo, and then with the member's name printed at the bottom. The photocard has a glossy finish.
The glass had one layer of protective wrap inside, and another layer wrapped around the outside and bottom.
The glass is quite interesting! I wasn't sure how a glass could be holographic, but it has a sheen that is really apparent in photos, but in person it is much more translucent than opaque. Here you can see the transparency against my background. The glass also has "AURA GOLDEN CHILD 6TH MINI" along with this era's logo, which in my opinion seems so random on the glass...
The glass is about 5.75" tall and about 2.375" in diameter at the top. Here you can see the translucency of the glass with Bomin's photocard behind it. Also this is just another excuse for me to lowkey showcase Bomin^^
I took another picture at night and here you can see how clear the glass can be, and then the text and logo have a nice opaque metallic hue.
SCRAP BOOK + STICKER SETThe scrapbook comes packaged inside a silver zip lock bag with the product sticker on the top left.
This set comes with the scrapbook on top, followed by 3 matte sheets of stickers.
Here are the sticker sheets. They include an image of each member (which all look to be different photos from either album photobook, except maybe Seungmin's...), a printed autograph, a printed name, this era's logo, and random designs reminiscent of AURA.
The scrapbook is a thin booklet bound together by two staples at the spine. The covers are matte and unfortunately prone to scratches (mine arrived with scratches on the front cover). I was pleasantly surprised at all the text and the logo being embossed, adding a nice quality to it.
The scrapbook is about 5.75" by 8.3125" by 0.125". The first page has the album title and this era's logo printed in the center.
The first half contain a double sided page per member, with the member's name printed at the top, an enlarged logo in the center, and then a blank page on the other side.
The next section contains graph paper, along with this era's logo at the bottom.
The remaining pages are in this format, with numbered lines up top and a section to add a date, like a journal entry.
Overall, I have gotten to the point where I just instantly buy any official merch without even knowing what I ordered...and seeing all the AURA merch first hand, these are all items I definitely don't need...I like protecting my photocards in PVC free and acid free sleeves and organizing my cards in complete collections, and I like displaying all my polaroids, so I don't really have a purpose for a collect book. But I do like the concept of a collect book, and this one is really cute how it matches the albums well. As for the glass, it's too precious for me to drink out of, but I don't see myself displaying it either. And lastly the scrapbook, I could never get myself to use it, but it is a cute idea! I wish the book itself were nicer than a stapled booklet though.
I didn't mean to be so negative about the merch; overall I love that they're all practical items that come with photocards as a bonus. And I'll find a place on my shelves for the collect book and glass~
