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:
- The Sean Connery Collection Vol. 1 (‘Dr. No’, ‘From Russia with Love’, ‘Goldfinger’)
- The Sean Connery Collection Vol. 2 (‘Thunderball’, ‘You Only Live Twice’, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’)
- George Lazenby (‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’)
- The Roger Moore Collection Vol. 1 (‘Live and Let Die’, ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’)
- The Roger Moore Collection Vol. 2 (‘Moonraker’, ‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘Octopussy’, ‘A View to a Kill’)
- The Timothy Dalton Collection (‘The Living Daylights’, ‘Licence to Kill’)
- The Pierce Brosnan Collection (‘GoldenEye’, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’, ‘The World Is Not Enough’, ‘Die Another Day’)
- The Daniel Craig Collection (‘Casino Royale’, ‘Quantum of Solace’, ‘Skyfall’)
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.)
‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service‘
‘Skyfall‘
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’
‘Thunderball’, ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Moonraker’
‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘The World Is Not Enough’, ‘Die Another Day’
‘Casino Royale’ (German Import)
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.
C.C.
Why do you say “(sadly) only at Best Buy?” I think it rocks that they are giving us Bond steelbooks at $12.99!!
Josh Zyber
AuthorBecause 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.
Julian
Does Best Buy ever address these woes? Do they ever say “sorry, we screwed up”? Do they promise to do a better job next time?
Josh Zyber
AuthorNo, they’re just the worst and don’t give a damn about it.
Julian
That’s just sad, very sad.
William, you sure put up with a lot of crap. If only there was some way we could force them to get their act together.
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.
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
AuthorYeah, 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.
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
AuthorAll 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
AuthorThe 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.
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
Josh Zyber
AuthorNothing recently, unfortunately.