SteelBook Alert: Choose Your Next Witticism Carefully

To celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary, MGM will release a SteelBook reissue of ‘Goldfinger’ on Blu-ray in the UK this fall. That’s nice and all, but I still have several James Bond movies that I’d rather see prioritized for the metal case treatment.

Back when MGM first started releasing the James Bond franchise on Blu-ray in 2008, the studio offered SteelBook editions for nine of the films. Some were exclusive to Best Buy and some to Amazon. The titles were: ‘Dr. No’, ‘From Russia with Love’, ‘Goldfinger’, ‘Thunderball’, ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Moonraker’, ‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘The World Is Not Enough’ and ‘Die Another Day’. You can find images of the artwork in this post. Here’s what ‘Goldfinger’ looked like:

These apparently did not sell very well. The subsequent Blu-ray releases of ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ and ‘Licence to Kill’ never got SteelBooks. After that, MGM suffered financial difficulties and didn’t release the remaining Bond films on Blu-ray at all until the ‘Bond 50‘ box set in 2012.

50th Anniversary SteelBook

Available at: Amazon UK or Zavvi
Release date: Sept. 22, 2014
Price: £21.99
Region code: Region B locked

So here we are another two years after ‘Bond 50’. It’s specifically the 50th anniversary of ‘Goldfinger’ this year, and MGM has commissioned a new SteelBook.

As a front cover, I like the retro-style poster artwork. The interior is also pretty neat. However, I really don’t like that the same image is repeated on both the front and back.

Although I never really loved the older SteelBook’s artwork, I don’t think I can justify buying a second SteelBook for the movie unless I really did love the new art, and this one is kind of borderline for me.

Also, the UK Blu-ray discs for the first wave of Bond movies (including ‘Goldfinger’) were locked to Region B.

What We Still Need in Steel

Three more Bond titles have also turned up in SteelBooks exclusive to Europe. ‘Casino Royale’ was released in Germany, while ‘Goldeneye’ and ‘Skyfall’ SteelBooks were released in the UK.

This leaves us with the following Bond movies that have never seen SteelBooks:

  • ‘You Only Live Twice’
  • ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’
  • ‘Diamonds Are Forever’
  • ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’
  • ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’
  • ‘Octopussy’
  • ‘A View to a Kill’
  • ‘The Living Daylights’
  • ‘Licence to Kill’
  • ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’
  • ‘Quantum of Solace’

I’d rather see any of these issued rather than a second SteelBook for ‘Goldfinger’. However, if this one sells well, perhaps some of the missing titles will follow eventually.

Being a completist collector for this franchise can be frustrating sometimes.

[Correction: This post initially said that the ‘Goldfinger’ SteelBook is a Zavvi exclusive. That turns out not to be the case.]

2 comments

  1. William Henley

    I wonder how well this will sell. I would assume people who are interested enough in Bond to want a steelbook will already have Bond 50. As much as I like Bond, and as much as I like steelbooks, I am not going to double dip when I already own all the movies.

    Also, that price is really high for Zaavi, and for a Bond movie. As much as I like the artwork, I just do not see this selling well – not because its not a good movie, but because people interested are already going to own it. I would expect this to be one of Zaavi’s 80% off deals in about six months.

  2. Josh, I hear you. The completist in me also would make me sit back and watch the release announcements.
    If you already own the first one and do not buy this one, does this send a message to them to give up? Or – Is this being read into too far, it is simply a milestone anniversary and simply a “special” release?

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