u/Deckard--B-263-54

Released in the UK by Metrodome in 2000, this Special Edition of Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut came in a huge black presentation box containing the Region 2 DVD, screenplay, eight reproduction lobby cards, a mounted 35mm film cell and a full-size 40 × 27-inch cinema poster.

I love releases like this because they come from a time when DVD was still relatively new and publishers were really making an effort with physical collector’s editions. You weren’t just getting the film in slightly different packaging, you were getting a whole collection built around it.

It also makes a nice follow-up to the 1996 Japanese DVD I posted recently. That one dates from the very beginning of DVD, while this came along only four years later and shows how quickly the format had developed into something worthy of elaborate collector’s editions.

And if the photos don’t quite convey it, the box is enormous!

See my other posts for some more Blade Runner formats, more to come:

Betamax: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/EFYUuW15N1 
VHS: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/1u58p7fddF 
CED: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/G0vzvpe7FY 
LaserDisc: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/iHrpmBRUH3 
VHD: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/kkdNHoGxbs 
Video8: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/At4e2ez7XX
VCD: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/FK9j1Aqe3R 
DVD: Japanese 1996 release: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/UrTq5X9oX3
DVD: UK 2000 Special Edition Box: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/4KHKF23gEu

Useful Communities: 
r/bladerunner
r/Bladezone

Released in the UK by Metrodome in 2000, this Special Edition of Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut came in a huge black presentation box containing the Region 2 DVD, screenplay, eight reproduction lobby cards, a mounted 35mm film cell and a full-size 40 × 27-inch cinema poster.

I love releases like this because they come from a time when DVD was still relatively new and publishers were really making an effort with physical collector’s editions. You weren’t just getting the film in slightly different packaging, you were getting a whole collection built around it.

It also makes a nice follow-up to the 1996 Japanese DVD I posted recently. That one dates from the very beginning of DVD, while this came along only four years later and shows how quickly the format had developed into something worthy of elaborate collector’s editions.

And if the photos don’t quite convey it, the box is enormous!

See my other posts for some more Blade Runner formats, more to come:

Betamax: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/EFYUuW15N1 
VHS: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/1u58p7fddF 
CED: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/G0vzvpe7FY 
LaserDisc: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/iHrpmBRUH3 
VHD: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/kkdNHoGxbs 
Video8: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/At4e2ez7XX
VCD: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/FK9j1Aqe3R 
DVD: Japanese 1996 release: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/UrTq5X9oX3
DVD: UK 2000 Special Edition Box: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/4KHKF23gEu

Useful Communities: 
r/bladerunner
r/Bladezone 

Japanese first DVD release of Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut, DL-12682, 20 December 1996.

What makes it interesting is just how early it is. DVD had only just launched commercially in Japan, and on 20 December Warner Home Video released four feature films on the new format: Blade Runner, The Fugitive, Eraser and Assassins.

These were Warner’s first DVD releases in Japan, putting Blade Runner right at the beginning of the format’s commercial history.

I also love the very early white DVD case. Before the black cases we came to associate with DVD, these first-generation Japanese releases had a very different look.

There’s something strange about looking at a DVD now, a format that eventually became so ordinary, and remembering that when this appeared in December 1996, DVD had been commercially available for only a matter of weeks.

Obsolete Formats:
Betamax: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/EFYUuW15N1 
VHS: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/1u58p7fddF 
CED: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/G0vzvpe7FY 
LaserDisc: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/iHrpmBRUH3 
VHD: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/kkdNHoGxbs 
Video8: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/At4e2ez7XX
VCD: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/s/FK9j1Aqe3R 

Useful Communities: 
r/bladerunner
r/Bladezone 

Before DVD took over, there was Video CD/VCD.

VCD stored films on CDs, usually spread across two discs, and while the format never really caught on in the UK or US, it became hugely popular in parts of Asia during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Here are four different Blade Runner VCD releases: two Korean editions with slightly different packaging, a Turkish release, and a Singapore release.

VCD releases are surprisingly poorly documented, if you know of other official Blade Runner releases on this VCD format please let me know!

Not the best way to watch the film, but definitely an interesting little chapter in its home video history.

Released in Japan for the 1992 theatrical run of Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut.

Stills, cast profiles and production information, with that brilliant Director’s Cut poster artwork on the cover.

A snapshot of Blade Runner returning to cinemas ten years after its original release.

The Blade Runner Experience is a collection of essays exploring the film, its themes and the wider world that grew around it.

It’s an interesting read, looking beyond the film itself at its influences, characters and cultural legacy.

Signed by Will Brooker, with some fairly direct advice written inside.

6.10.21

Some memories are more real than others.

6.10.21

Some memories are more real than others.

A slightly more domestic corner of the collection.

The bento box, complete with removable divider, lid, elastic strap and cutlery. The same style of box can be spotted being used by K and an extra during the food court scenes in the film.

Not quite the sort of thing Deckard was using in 2019, but exactly the kind of wonderfully mundane object that helps make the world of Blade Runner feel real. No blasters, spinners or replicant technology. Just somewhere to put your noodles.

Probably one of the more practical and obscure Blade Runner items I own.

A slightly more domestic corner of the collection.

The bento box, complete with removable divider, lid, elastic strap and cutlery. The same style of box can be spotted being used by K and an extra during the food court scenes in the film.

The kind of wonderfully mundane object that helps make the world of Blade Runner feel real. No blasters, spinners or replicant technology. Just somewhere to put your noodles.

Probably one of the more practical and obscure Blade Runner items I own.

Not quite a magazine. Not quite a poster.

Published in 1982, this official Blade Runner movie poster magazine unfolds from its fairly unassuming cover into a huge 33” × 23” poster.

Inside are production photographs, cast and filmmaker profiles, background on the making of the film, and explanations of replicants, Spinners, Esper and Voight-Kampff.

Then you keep unfolding it…

…until Los Angeles, 2019 takes over the wall.

Original UK price: 75p.

A little piece of 1982 Japan.

Packed with stills, character profiles, Spinners and some wonderfully period graphic design.

Even at ¥450, they made it look like something from 2019.

A replica of the origami sheep folded by Gaff during K’s visit.

A small piece of paper.

A familiar habit.

A rather fitting choice of animal.

A replica of the origami sheep folded by Gaff during K’s visit.

A small piece of paper.

A familiar habit.

A rather fitting choice of animal.

He doesn’t say much.

He doesn’t need to.

A chicken. A matchstick man. A unicorn.

Little messages, left in just the right place. The last one asks the biggest question. I know my answer. What’s yours?

He doesn’t say much.

He doesn’t need to.

A chicken. A matchstick man. A unicorn.

Little messages, left in just the right place. The last one asks the biggest question. I know my answer. What’s yours?

Japanese Blade Runner Video Release Special 50-unit telephone card, featuring some fantastic artwork from the film.

Japanese Blade Runner Video Release Special 50-unit telephone card, featuring some fantastic artwork from the film.

Can take her anywhere 😏

A replica of the Emanator from Blade Runner 2049. One of the film’s simplest but most recognisable props.

One of the stranger Blade Runner items in my collection.

This is a 1994 Madagascar souvenir stamp sheet. The three actual stamps commemorate Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff (L’Étoffe des héros), but for reasons that remain something of a mystery, the surrounding artwork is unmistakably Blade Runner.

Deckard, Rachael and Roy Batty are all there, along with the spinner and Roy’s dove.

As far as I can tell, there’s no real connection between the two films. It just seems that whoever designed the sheet decided The Right Stuff needed a generous helping of Blade Runner!

If anyone knows more about this particular issue, especially why Blade Runner artwork was used alongside The Right Stuff, please let me know. I’d love to know the story behind it.