SteelBook Alert: On You, Anything Looks Good

To promote this fall’s upcoming theatrical release of the franchise’s newest movie, ‘Spectre’, MGM will re-release all of the previous James Bond Blu-rays. That should come as no surprise to anyone. Of interest, however, is that nine of the films will get brand new SteelBook cases that should help fans plug some holes in their collections.

In addition to the SteelBooks, the reissues will come in several options. The Amazon-exclusive Ultimate James Bond Collection will bundle all 23 films (with an empty slot for the eventual release of ‘Spectre’), plus a new bonus disc with a 90-minute documentary called ‘Everything or Nothing’ and unspecified “further bonus materials.”

If you’re only a fan of one particular actor in the role, you can break it down with these smaller box sets:

Yes, the George Lazenby box only has one movie.

All discs will be released on September 15th and will include Digital Copy redemption codes.

The SteelBooks

As mentioned, nine of the Bond films will get new SteelBooks. Specifically, these are the six movies that involve SPECTRE plus all three of Daniel Craig’s earlier entries. (If I want to get nit-picky, Dr. No also announced that he was a SPECTRE operative.)

The SteelBooks are priced at $12.99 each and (sadly) will be exclusive to the Best Buy retail chain here in North America. The cover art for each is based on that film’s opening credits sequence, which I think is a pretty clever idea that looks really nice. (Click to enlarge.)

007 James Bond SteelBooks 2015

From Russia with Love

James Bond From Russia With Love SteelBook

Thunderball

James Bond Thunderball SteelBook

You Only Live Twice

James Bond You Only Live Twice SteelBook

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

James Bond On Her Majesty's Secret Service SteelBook

Diamonds Are Forever

James Bond Diamonds Are Forever SteelBook

For Your Eyes Only

James Bond For Your Eyes Only SteelBook

Casino Royale

James Bond Casino Royale SteelBook

Quantum of Solace

James Bond Quantum of Solace SteelBook

Skyfall

James Bond Skyfall SteelBook

These same SteelBooks will also be released in the UK by retailer Zavvi, which will sell them individually for £16.99 each. Not only is that more expensive, be warned that some of the discs are locked to Region B. An American shopper will have little incentive to import. Last week, Zavvi had a listing for a bundle of all nine SteelBooks at a slightly discounted price, but I can’t find that page at the time of this writing, so I assume that it sold out or has been discontinued.

Previous James Bond SteelBooks

These new SteelBooks mark the first time that ‘You Only Live Twice’, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ or ‘Quantum of Solace’ have ever gotten the metal case treatment.

However, ‘From Russia with Love’, ‘Thunderball’, ‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Skyfall’ were previously released in SteelBook form. (The latter two were imports.) I think that the new cases are a decided improvement for ‘From Russia with Love’, ‘Thunderball’ and ‘For Your Eyes Only’. I like the old and new cases for ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Skyfall’ about equally.

Here’s a reminder of what all the previous James Bond SteelBooks looked like.

‘Dr. No’, ‘From Russia with Love’, ‘Goldfinger’
Dr. No, From Russia with Love & Goldfinger

‘Thunderball’, ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Moonraker’
Thunderball, Live and Let Die & Moonraker

‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘The World Is Not Enough’, ‘Die Another Day’
For Your Eyes Only, The World Is Not Enough & Die Another Day

‘Goldfinger’ (UK Import)

‘GoldenEye’ (UK Import)
GoldenEye

‘Casino Royale’ (German Import)
Casino Royale

‘Skyfall’ (UK Import)
Skyfall SteelBook

To date, this still leaves seven James Bond films that have never been released in SteelBook packaging: ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, ‘Octopussy’, ‘A View to a Kill’, ‘The Living Daylights’, ‘Licence to Kill’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. Perhaps we’ll finally see those around the time “Bond 25” is ready.

14 comments

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Because Best Buy is terrible about actually stocking the items that are exclusive to their store. And if you order from the web site, they’ll ship the SteelBook out to you in a bubble mailer envelope, thus ensuring that it arrives dented and dinged.

      • William Henley

        It’s not just the store. I’ve tried preordering stuff from Best Buy and gotten “sold out” messages, I’ve had them charge me before a week before the release date (on something I had preordered months before), then not ship the product until three weeks later, fourth class mail, so that I got it another three weeks after that, I’ve had them mischarge me, double charge me, and that is just issues with their online store.

        If you go into the store, they are bad about their inventory system being wrong. “Computer says we have three copies in stock”. “Great, where is it?” I had an employee looking for 45 minutes once for a movie, before he found it locked underneath a computer terminal, which he said “was obviously sat aside by an employee for their own use”. I have driven to three different stores before looking for a product that they all say is in stock in their store, just to get to the store and they either cannot find it, or they say that their computers show they never did have it in stock.

        They drove their competiton out of business (Circuit City) or to the brink of extinction (Circuit City) with great service and low prices and great inventory, quit caring. Unless you are in one of the few metro areas that has Microcenter or Fry’s Electronics, there is no competition to Best Buy.

  1. Timcharger

    Josh: “Because Best Buy is terrible about actually stocking the items that are exclusive to their store.”

    My local store was actually too well stocked with these. I couldn’t believe
    how many copies there were. Check it out Josh, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Yeah, I was there yesterday and picked up all of these. This is the rare case where Best Buy didn’t screw up.

      Have still never seen a Mad Max: Fury Road SteelBook in person.

  2. Riccardo

    Hello,
    would you know exactly which of the 9 steelbooks art work (based on spectre) sold in US by Best Buy are Region free suitable for Europe as well? Thank you.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      All of the movies that were originally released on Blu-ray in 2008 and 2009 are region-locked. If you buy them from the U.S. they’re coded for Region A. If you buy them in Europe, they’re Region B.

      Dr. No
      From Russia with Love
      Goldfinger
      Thunderball
      Live and Let Die
      The Man with the Golden Gun
      Moonraker
      For Your Eyes Only
      Licence to Kill
      The World Is Not Enough
      Die Another Day
      Casino Royale
      Quantum of Solace

      When MGM and Fox released the rest of the series in 2012, those titles were region-free.

      You Only Live Twice
      On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
      Diamonds Are Forever
      The Spy who Loved Me
      Octopussy
      A View to a Kill
      The Living Daylights
      GoldenEye
      Tomorrow Never Dies

      Skyfall and Spectre are also region-free.

      • Riccardo

        Thank you for your reply but I am referring to the 9 steelbooks art work released around 2015 mentioned in the article before:
        the four with Craig,
        You Only Live Twice
        On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
        Diamonds Are Forever
        Thunderball
        For Your Eyes Only
        I wish they are region free so to buy in Us but able to see in Europe as well.
        RP

        • Josh Zyber
          Author

          The discs inside the SteelBooks are the same discs released earlier. Aside from Casino Royale (which was originally distributed by Sony but later shifted to MGM/Fox), they have not been re-authored. If they were region-locked in 2008, they’re still region-locked today.

          Even on Casino Royale, which did get re-authored, Fox chose to region-lock it again for some reason.

  3. Riccardo

    Hello.
    Since you are very aware of the Steel Book business, do you know if there are any new releases of 007 steelbook?
    Thank you for our kind reply
    Riccardo

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