In February 2009 a series of ten Penguin Film Classics was given away free in the UK with weekday editions of The Times newspaper. The offer was only available at selected outlets in the London area and included three sf novels, with all ten titles featuring a stylish retro cover based on the original banded design of 1935 but with a new black-and-white livery.

The design of the books was almost identical to the Penguin Celebrations series of 2007, with the main differences being the black colour coding of the Film Classics and the presence of The Times masthead on each book's spine and back cover. Both series employed the larger B-format book size of 198 x 129 mm, but unlike the Celebrations, the Film Classics did not go on general sale. Fifteen of the 36 titles in the Celebrations series had been given away with The Times during a three-week period in July and August 2008, but the entire series had been on sale throughout the previous September to December. The Film Classics were therefore the first books that Penguin had produced exclusively for a media partner.

In July 2009 The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle and four other novels were given away with The Times as a 'Penguin Adventure' mini-series in a lime-green and white livery, though only at selected outlets in the London area, as before.

This was followed by John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos and four other 'Penguin Films' in a sky-blue and white cover.

However, it is not only in the UK that traditional covers are making a comeback. The launch of a Popular Penguins series by Penguin Australia in September 2008 saw A Clockwork Orange and 48 other titles reissued with orange-and-white banded covers modelled closely on Edward Young's design and using the original A-format book size of 181 x 111 mm. Fifty more titles followed in June 2009, including The War of the Worlds by H G Wells, The Chrysalids by John Wyndham and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. It remains to be seen if the trend will continue, though there are no doubt many readers for whom these time-travelling Penguins will always prove irresistible. It is, after all, a chance to own not just a book but a miniature piece of art.