Steelbook finishes. The Poor, The Good and the Ugly

[ricster]

Hi. I've been collecting steelbooks for a long long time now and thanks to the help, support and advice picked up from importforums, BR and HDN. I am indefinitely grateful to HDN for the fantastic support of its ninjas and staff and the superb Group Buys. All these guys and girls work effortlessly for us all.

After reading a far load of posts and feedback from the members, its taken me on a trip down memory lane.

(hope you dont mind this thread)

You see a lot of posts from people regarding finishes on steelbooks, people love them, people hate them. As steelbook has picked up popularity you dont but seem to think that the designers just cant be bothered as much any more, and lets just "Bang it out and see if they buy it".

There is still a lot of good steelbooks coming out, but wow, theres a lot of junk as well. Thanks to Wreck explaining we all know about different finishes, matte, gloss, super gloss, zero finish and the new low entry budget smartprice, asda value powdery finish.

Then we get low definition pictures used, like on oblivion steel where you can make out the dots / pixels.
What do you all think about it?????

Take the new Disney/Touchstone range.

We've seen this finish before with the much talked about Warner "Premium" Collection.

Heres an example of Seven. The UK (powdery finish), Japan (matte finish), Korean (matte finish with metallic cutouts).

Korea is my favourite here.

Spoiler

Looking back at my collection over the years, how have we come to this level of product.

We've seen play's £9.99 price now up to £14.99 on Zavvi with Disney's going for £22.99 at the moment. And with 3D being thrown in, prices are rising to £30 (if you import from Europe).

I've taken a few shots of my favourites. Do you feel its a shame that we dont produce steels like these any more, or are you happy with the finial products we are getting now.

Thanks for reading. Hope i'm now insane.

Steels with style and class.

Spoiler

What is your opinion?

What do you think about the quality of the product currently being churned out in mass?

 

[cityguyste]

you have excellent taste in steelbooks

Ratatouille is my favourite im selling up but its tough letting this one go

 

[bthompson87]

Thanks for posting this thread and the comparison pictures. Interesting to see the different versions of those Seven steelbooks. And a shame about the recent UK wave all in the cheap matte finish!!

 

[stephen3001]

The German edition of Tron Legacy was one of my first steels and it's still one of my favourites. It excludes quality, the finish is superb.

Wreck says we will be seeing more glossy steels in 2014. I think until they start appearing, I'm giving Zavvi a rest. I got Tron, The Rocketeer & The Little Mermaid this weekend. It's just as well the cover art is so good on all of them, because the finish on all of them is extremely disappointing.

 

[ricster]

The German edition of Tron Legacy was one of my first steels and it's still one of my favourites. It excludes quality, the finish is superb.

Wreck says we will be seeing more glossy steels in 2014. I think until they start appearing, I'm giving Zavvi a rest. I got Tron, The Rocketeer & The Little Mermaid this weekend. It's just as well the cover art is so good on all of them, because the finish on all of them is extremely disappointing.

Hope so. Love looking back at the old steelbooks. Really impressed with the pic Choi posted today of tangled. Looks good old fashioned high gauge glossed finished.

I watched tron legacy tonight. Awesome video and audio to boot. The steel is fantastic and cheap.

---------- Post added at 09:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 PM ----------

Thanks for posting this thread and the comparison pictures. Interesting to see the different versions of those Seven steelbooks. And a shame about the recent UK wave all in the cheap matte finish!!

No probs. admittedly the uk version of seven was cheaper than the other two but it's surprising 3 identical looking steels but completely different finishes.

 

[lgans316]

I would like to not only see more gloss steels back in action but also lower price or correctly priced if it contains all the discs.

I am even with fine with spot gloss provided the finishing is high quality but there should be less usage of black as there has been too many of them.

Last but not least Studios should give their best on blockbuster titles.

 

[Blu-devil]

When you hold Iron Man 3 alongside Play's Iron Man & Iron Man 2 you realise just how shite it looks and feels. Imagine how truly Jizzworthy the STID releases would have looked if they had been glossy as well as embossed. Same goes for Oblivion. No more cheap matte Steelbooks please. I rather like the heavier coat matte that was utilised by Paramount and Sony in the UK, just not that **** streaky matte as used by Fox and WB.

 

[SaberTooth]

Excellent thread dude. Only have that gorgeous german Tron Legacy from the OP, but i say the best steelbook finishing overall (out side of super rare stuff) is the uncommon "Gloss-Emboss" 1-2 premium finish combo

 

[gaeljet]

i rather glossy steels, but they re pretty rare and getting more and more rare according to me..

 

[Ricker]

There are definately grade quality issues. I just received my blufans Face Off and I can't beleive how much heavier and the quality of the 1 disc steel is. We are paying a premium price nowadays for most steels, so I think they should all be the same quality

 

[dfoles]

In my recent scanning of steelbooks, my home scanner has caught a weird effect on certain steelbooks that people have been complaining about having a cheap finish(Iron Man 3, Little Mermaid, The Rocketeer, etc)

You can clearly see weird waves of yellow lines. I've only noticed this effect on steels where people have been complaining about the cheap finish. Check this out:
With yellow lines


Without yellow lines

 

[ricster]

Can't believe how the mighty have fallen. Received captain Phillips yesterday and very disappointed with it. Low res art, and the finish has no back layer so it disappears as light hits the steel. Also just water inside for the artwork. Suprised that they didn't continue the ocean on the back cover.

What's happened Sony?

Remember this?

 

[howiesteed]

Just found this thread and I've only been collecting since November so I haven't experienced the good old days but certainly on some steels I think they look shite hence why I did what I did.
I look at some of those pictures and think why they churn out stuff they are atm point break is the worst for me

 

[ricster]

Just found this thread and I've only been collecting since November so I haven't experienced the good old days but certainly on some steels I think they look shite hence why I did what I did.
I look at some of those pictures and think why they churn out stuff they are atm point break is the worst for me

Point Break WAS the worst for me until I unfortunately received Captain Phillips. Dull artwork, terrible finish.

Welcome to the thread. These are 2 of my personal favs

Clash of the Titans - CRACKLE effect finish.

And the gloss and shine finish on Tron Legacy Germany is unbelievable.

Would love to see some more Crackle effect steels, but the art is dead. The studios are not doing it any more. Only Wreck does crackle's now. Maybe hes bought the patent

 

[howiesteed]

i havent seen any crackle finishes on steel and i dont think ive actually seen a proper gloss steel , i have kick ass2 but its staying sealed , i bought aliens hoping to see a gloss finish but that was crap so i did it my self , and prestige wasnt much better in my opinion as you can see lines in it , or is that standard for gloss i dont know but they still seem orange peely and i liek to see them smooth lie a mirror are there any that are liek that

 

[RzSamurai]

I think i am one of the very few people who actually like Matte finish steelbooks over Glossy...

No offense to anyone but, in my opinion i think matte looks more fancy

 

[ricster]

i havent seen any crackle finishes on steel and i dont think ive actually seen a proper gloss steel , i have kick ass2 but its staying sealed , i bought aliens hoping to see a gloss finish but that was crap so i did it my self , and prestige wasnt much better in my opinion as you can see lines in it , or is that standard for gloss i dont know but they still seem orange peely and i liek to see them smooth lie a mirror are there any that are liek that

Old school Gloss finish on the right

---------- Post added at 09:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 PM ----------

A nice effort from US. Glossy, but I think not as reflective as the play Godfather.

---------- Post added at 09:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 PM ----------

Blu Fans OZ doesn't disappoint either. Lovely finish.

---------- Post added at 09:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 PM ----------

As you said, Kick Ass 2 has a damn good finish.

---------- Post added at 09:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 PM ----------

Another great gloss finish steel is the original Nightmare before Christmas. The artwork just pops.

 

[howiesteed]

cheers ricster i have no idea how you get them pics like that i see what they call a gloss finish and i can see the reflection but are there any with a flat surface as you can see a orange peel effect.

 

[Dubliner1]

Can't believe how the mighty have fallen. Received captain Phillips yesterday and very disappointed with it. Low res art, and the finish has no back layer so it disappears as light hits the steel. Also just water inside for the artwork. Suprised that they didn't continue the ocean on the back cover.

What's happened Sony?

Remember this?

I kinda' feel sad looking at this picture and remembering the good ole' days of steelbooks! For me I think the rot set in sometime around when 'Lawless' UK steelbook was released.
I know a lot of people liked it and the debossed bullet holes were cool, but the dull matt finish I thought was disappointing and a lot of people had problems with mising paint/paint chips.
Only positive I can take is that if every steelbook was gorgeous then we would all be very broke by now!

 

[ricster]

I kinda' feel sad looking at this picture and remembering the good ole' days of steelbooks! For me I think the rot set in sometime around when 'Lawless' UK steelbook was released.
I know a lot of people liked it and the debossed bullet holes were cool, but the dull matt finish I thought was disappointing and a lot of people had problems with mising paint/paint chips.
Only positive I can take is that if every steelbook was gorgeous then we would all be very broke by now!

Yeah. Have you seen Captain Phillips in hand in HMV? Shocking finish. What happened to Sony? Res Evil Retribtuion was a nice steel.

---------- Post added at 10:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 PM ----------

cheers ricster i have no idea how you get them pics like that i see what they call a gloss finish and i can see the reflection but are there any with a flat surface as you can see a orange peel effect.

I managed to grab a couple of steels to hand and take improved photos. An early UK steel (sorry Dubliner to upset you again lol) and the last true super high gloss steelbook from Paramount. I hope that they return to this finish again.

Images can be clicked on for a much larger view. Once image opened in another window, you can click on it again to zoom right in and see the detail.

I'll be honest. Jack Reacher is a big big big favourite of mine. Love the finish. Imagine this released now.