How to make a Blockbuster VHS sleeve for any movie

It’s difficult to explain the Blockbuster experience to those who did not get to experience it. If you never visited one of the video rental chain’s over 9,000 locations during the VHS tape heyday, there’s even a good chance it may be impossible to understand the ritual of scouring shelves for the perfect Friday night movie: the smell of hundreds of plastic clamshell cases, the distinctly garish interior designs of the 1990s, and early 2000. It is all but a memory, unless you make a pilgrimage to the last brick-and-mortar locale in Bend, Oregon.

That’s not to say you can’t recreate at least some of those nostalgic aesthetics. A highly accurate tape case design was first uploaded online in 2024 by programmer Ryan Finnie. At the time, however, making your own sleeves required a fair amount of manual input and adjustment. As spotted by BoingBoing, digital strategist and creator Tex Jernigan recently debuted the streamlined, free-to-use Blockbuster Sleeve Generator. Like the name implies, the website allows anyone to print out customized, highly accurate tape case labels that look nearly identical to the iconic blue-and-yellow slips once seen lining video store aisles. All the customizable elements are also integrated into a single program for any cinephiles yearning for a bit of VHS roleplaying.

“[Blockbuster] closed in 2010, but it lives on in our hearts as a beloved symbol of video rental culture,” Jernigan explained on the project’s website.

The generator is also integrated with a film database to automatically fill in backsleeve information like cast, director, summary, release year, and approximate runtime. To make your case really look like the real thing, Jernigan even gives it an inventory barcode. After using the site’s Store Search tool (also free), users can identify the childhood Blockbuster store’s retail location number, then add on the movie’s unique code as well as the hypothetical inventory’s copy number.

It’s a nifty craft project for people looking for something to do with that old box of VHS tapes in the back of their closet. Jernigan also tells Popular Science that the best way of porting a show or movie onto a blank VHS tape (yes, they’re still available to buy).

“It’s funny, the best way is still the same: you hook a VCR up to any TV, and then press record and watch the TV while it records in real time,” he says, adding that there are also cheap HDMI-to-AV converters you use for converting from a laptop or computer.

“It does a slight squeezing of 1080p video so that it fits onto the screen. I think it does a great job,” he says.

Jernigan does note it’s worth mentioning that his personal project is “focused on the design and nostalgia side” of VHS culture, and is not intended to help illegal copying or redistribution.

“I always try to encourage people to be mindful of copyright and local laws and to respect the original creators,” he says.

But for your own home, there are few ways to better respect the pinnacle of video rental outlets than trying out Blockbuster Sleeve Generator.

 

2025 PopSci Best of What’s New

The 50 most important innovations of the year