I have actually been wanting this since the day it was announced back at the end of 2017 or early 2018, I can’t remember.  However, at the time, the price was the hinderance.  Then at the beginning of 2019, they offered a less pricey Vault that didn’t include the Gene Simmons Vault Experience.  You only received The Vault.  Still, I didn’t pull the trigger.  I always thought, if it ever a hit a certain price, I would pull the trigger.  Lo and behold almost two years later, there was Black Friday Sale and it hit that price. It didn’t take much convincing then, I pulled the trigger!  Bang!!

And to make it even better, 2 days before Christmas it arrived!!  And if you didn’t know, my birthday is Christmas…so it was a Big Early Present to myself!!  My kids poked fun at me because I have been chomping at the bit for it to arrive.  Two weeks after ordering, I had heard nothing, not a word.  I emailed the company and asked if I would get a tracking number and they replied back pretty quick with a tracking number.  The item shipped 4 days earlier and I didn’t know.  I checked that tracking often, to an obsessive level as I wanted my Vault.  I guess they weren’t going to send it until I said something. I am glad I got, because it did calm me down…a little.

On day of arrival, I received box 2 of 2 first.  A smaller box that I figured contained the contents of the vault, but it only contained the book and the CDs which if I am going to get a box early, at least it was that box. And if I didn’t have that tracking number I would have freaked not knowing it was shipped in two boxes.  I would have also been freaked if I received the Vault first with no book or CDs inside!!  Tracking number told me that so it wasn’t unexpected.  About 4 hours later, I received The Vault itself.  In a massive box inside another box…

Okay, I am sure I have dragged this on for long enough.  Would you like to see The Vault that I received?  It doesn’t matter, I am going to show it to you anyway…

Let me tell you, this case is solid.  It is wood with the metal rivets, very strong, sturdy metal handles and it is on wheels which is good as it weighs around 40lbs. Now the handle doesn’t turn and the lock doesn’t work, but the combination knob does turn.  It is a thing of beauty.

And when you open the door, it is even pretty on the inside…

It is a red velvet insert to hold the doll and the coin as well as the book, but I put it on top for now so you could see everything.  I love how the door has the two metal bars that look like it will securely lock the door, but it won’t.  It is all for looks and it looks awesome.  The door is on a magnet as you can see towards the top just above the doll.  Below the doll and the coin is a secret compartment.  That is where Gene placed the bonus items for those that bought during the original run.

Do you wanna see the Gene Simmons Action Figure or Doll depends what you want to call it?  My daughter was most excited about this.  It is still wrapped in the packaging and will never see the light of day…except when I open the vault.  That won’t get played with in any way, shape or form.

And the Vault also comes with a nice commemorative coin of the Gene Simmons Vault Experience.  Again, it will stay in its wrapper as well.

And the flip side…

And the grand prize of the whole Vault, other than the actual vault, is the Book which contains the 11 CDs.  The book is huge.  It is contains 160 pages and includes 10 heavy cardboard pages that hold the CDs.  There is an essay from Gene going through the history of himself and the Vault.  The book also tells stories on each song and often includes who is playing on the songs.  This is the really cool part.

Here is an example of the pages that hold the disks.  No need to show all of them as I am not going to give away all the good stuff.  The CD would go in the middle of the page.

And here are all the CDs you get, plus the book…

On inside of the door is a plaque that gives you the number of the set.  Out of 5,000 sets, I have #1,919.

And that is The Vault.  Today, we are just discussing presentation and based on what I have I am giving the presentation a 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars. It is impressive. I know I don’t have Gene’s autograph because I didn’t meet him and I don’t have the extra prizes, but I didn’t pay for all that so for me, this is perfect.

For the coming months, I will go through and review each disk in its entirety, I will do a Top 20 Best and Worst Songs and then I will wrap it all up with a nice bow and give you an overall rating of the complete set.  I will be as honest and open as I can and try to leave bias out the window, but it might be hard at times as I really enjoy going through demos and what I think is cool, you might not like but it will still be fun going through it all.

Here are all the posts we will do on the set:

• Part 1 – The Grand Opening
• Part 2 – Disk 1
• Part 3 – Disk 2
• Part 4 – Disk 3
• Part 5 – Disk 4
• Part 6 – Disk 5
• Part 7 – Disk 6
• Part 8 – Disk 7
• Part 9 – Disk 8
• Part 10 – Disk 9
• Part 11 – Disk 10
• Part 12 – The Bonus Disk
• Part 13 – The Best Songs of the Vault
• Part 14 – The Worst Songs of the Vault
• Part 15 – The Final Verdict

Now, do you want to hear how I crazily came about justifying the purchase?  I’m going to tell you anyway.  First, I took the price of the Vault, backed out an amount for shipping, for taxes and for the cost of the items included.  The prices I came up with for each item was definitely arbitrary, but fun for this exercise.  The remaining amount I divided by the # of songs to get a cost per song…like this…

Now $3 per song is still more than iTunes so not worth it…right?  Well, I just bought a 45 Single on Record Store Day Black Friday that was $10 for 2 songs.  That is $5 per song.  Well, $3 a song is cheaper than $5 so than now this a no brainer!!  Sold!!  I know, crazy, stupid logic…but it worked!!

Okay, enough crazy talk.  Here are a few more pictures to wrap this post up.  I will do my best to do a weekly post, but it will be hard as life sometimes gets in the way…so bear with me.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this series.