Photos: Zune Originals unboxing

You could fit about eight Zunes in the box Microsoft uses for its custom Zune Originals packaging. Product design nerds will appreciate the foil-embossed logo (upper left corner) and the use of clear aqueous coating for the oversize "originals" lettering that lines the vertical right edge of the box.

The inside of the Zune Originals box is hilariously garish, but very fun. The pink interior imitates the look of a velvet lining, and the golden envelope makes you feel like Charlie in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Up top, Microsoft throws in a small rolled-up poster of the image engraved on your Zune.

Within the shipping box is a pouch, and within the pouch is the actual Zune product box. Unlike the in-store retail packaging, the box used on the Zune Originals site uses a white box printed with the same foil-embossed logo and aqueous-coated letters used on the larger shipping box.

If you take away all the packaging theatrics, the real value of Zune Originals is the artwork etched on the metal backing of the player. As an electronic music geek, I felt compelled to get this Kraftwerk-esque design. All those dangling cables and speakers just feel like home.

The golden envelope included in the Zune Originals box didn't have a pass to a magical chocolate factory, but it did have a thank you card, a description of the the design studio that conceived of the image, and the image itself on a separate golden card.