Transformers DVDs.... What to buy?

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 6:49 pm

I would like some opinions from people on this subject:

I'm currently finishing up the entire collector's set of G1 cartoons (Shout! Factory set) and I must say I've been quite pleased with what I've seen. There are some definite hits and misses as far as episodes are concerned, but overall I really enjoyed the set.

Now that I'm finishing, I'm looking to maybe get the complete sets of Energon and Cybertron. I would just like to know if they're enjoyable or complete rubbish. I'm not looking for cinematic gold here, just something to enjoy when I have a spare half hour or whatever. Any help would be great!

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:02 pm

They're complete rubbish.

If it must be Transformers, you're probably better off trying to import the UK subbed sets of the Japanese 'G1' continuation series - Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory.

Though Beast Wars is miles better than any of that.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:09 pm

Energon isn't without it's fans (though I'm not in that list), but you'd be pretty hard pressed to find anyone that liked with Armada or Cybertron as a series. Really, if you just want another series of Transformers to grab, I would hit either Animated or Beast Wars, depending on what you can find.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:22 pm

I'm honestly enjoying Beast Machines even more than I enjoyed Beast Wars. I don't care for the robot modes, and sometimes the characters get a bit annoying, but it's got a really good plotline so far. And it's the cheapest one available usually!

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:35 pm

Mmm, I have a lot of time for BM... Despite the different tone and a few jarring jumps, though, I find it still works best after BW, as Season 4/5. It's probably the last time we'll ever see the main animated series go for something as different as that now we're stuck with reboots forever more.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:19 am

Thanks! My main concern is not burning ~$50 on a half-arsed show. I might end up getting the recent Animated series. I watched a few episodes of it while it was still running and enjoyed the show...

Post by **Blackjack** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:57 pm

Beast Wars, Beast Machines and Animated are much less painful to watch than Energon. Armada's meh, Cybertron's more meh and I haven't been bothered to watch RiD.

Animated and BM are similar, come to think of it... decent shows marred with annoying characters.

Energon's rubbish... while Superlink's (what Energon is dubbed from) rather okay, Energon's dubbers cut scenes haphazardly, deleting entire episodes and changing the meanings of the dialogues. Cybertron's dubbing is miles better, but the amount of stock footage used per episode is galling.

That's my two cents on the topic, anyway.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 4:03 pm

Cliffjumper wrote:Mmm, I have a lot of time for BM... Despite the different tone and a few jarring jumps, though, I find it still works best after BW, as Season 4/5.

Pretty much my thinking as well. Whilst they're not as good as the first and (especially the) second seasons of BW they're actually better than the generally disapointing third season. No comedy cavemen for a start.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 12:42 pm

Considering that we've now had two massively successful Transformers live action films and they're releasing everything under the sun to cash in (Spaceballs: The FlameThrower!)... what in the merry ****ing hell is stopping Metrodome or whoever from releasing European editions of Beast Wars? Have they got something against quality or what?

I'm guessing there must be some sort of legal wrangle because why would they not have done it by now?

And for anyone interested:

Beast Machines Season 1 £7.93 at Amazon.co.uk and;

Beast Machines Season 2 £5.75 at Amazon.co.uk

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:33 pm

Well, if the European branches of Hasbro is operating like the American one right now, the issue may be that it's not Movieverse. Even new classics figures are being sold as a movie tie-in right now, so I can easily see them saying "Beast Machines? That's old and not movie. Get more Bayformer product!"

Really frustrating, and pretty much killed my interest in Transformers for awhile.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 8:03 pm

Definitely - it's not like Animated or Universe or comics largely based on G1 have happened since the first film, whereas when Energon was on the air you couldn't move for all the BW tie-ins avaliable.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:43 pm

Cliffy.. the point being is that it's hard to find stuff that isn't movie related right now. And, yes, the Animated series and Universe toys did indeed get the short shaft for the sake of the movie line (with the latter getting quite a few toys shoved directly into the movie line, after all). And yes, even the G1 comic started to get the Bayformer look going for a bit.

I just meant that, despite it making sense to pull out the catalog and strike with other merchandise while the iron is hot for cross-sells, Hasbro doesn't seem interested too much in promoting anything from the franchise that isn't Movie related.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:38 am

You mean in the past, what, six months? Besides, you said "not movie", not "completely free of movie influences"... Figueroa chaging a few facial designs is the difference between G1 and Bayformers, is it?

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:42 am

This isn't going to go anywhere good, Cliffy. How about we just let it go and have done with it?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:48 am

TFVanguard wrote:How about we just let it go and have done with it?

Only really an option if you stop bringing Bay into unrelated topics like this - not entirely sure what he'd have to do with UK DVD releases: -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/qid=127098552 ... eleasedate - Animated & reissued G1 DVDs were actually synched to come out at around the same time as ROTF was in UK cinemas (July 2009). Indeed, Animated is about the first time a series has been issued systematically on DVD (rather than collected long after the event) when it's been current in this country. Without the success of the films it's likely neither of those would have happened. Ditto Beast Machines, which was released almost simultaneously (I think the Monday after the premiere; cinemas are more flexible over here than retailers) with the first film. The box art even mimmicked the style of the Paramount promotional material, right down to the "Their planet. A brand new war" tagline. The films have undeniably helped DVD releases over here, and of a wide range of stuff.

So why not Beast Wars? What with the Takara sets and all, there's probably just too much product out there already for now. Stores will be happy with having several different flavours of Transformers on the shelf at any one time. BW probably wouldn't sell much more than Takara anyway, the show was buried on early-morning TV here as part of GMTV and missed most of its' target audience. BM did little better, despite coinciding with Sky becoming more affordable; its' avaliability is most likely due to being released more recently.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:08 pm

I didn't blame Bay for anything. All I said was that the marketing machine right now for Hasbro is dead-center on the 'movieverse', to the point of being detrimental of other lines. Rather than cross-sell on their existing IP (as Bandai often does), they seem bent on making everything either out or coming out link to the movie-verse in some way, even when it's not appropriate. (Hence, the G1 comic getting movie-like designs, or bios on the 'non movie' figures getting movie nods, or just throwing figures meant for Classics into the movie line, etc.)

Therefore, it seems unlikely that Beast Wars or Beast Machines will get much of a launch yet. (That and neither did well for the 10th anniversary). G1 will always be 'the original' and get some attention, but if even that is getting retooled for 'closer ties to the movies', then I don't really see how something much farther removed has a prayer in the current environment.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 4:01 pm

Okay, firstly you're exagerating on a massive scale. The IDW G1 comics currently feature an artist who's lifting Movie aesthetics on one book. Bumblebee and Wreckers have nothing of the sort.

The Unbranded line we've seen far too little of to draw any grand conclusions from - most of the Movie influenced figures are either blatant ROTF leftovers or straight recolours as they're the ones that'll be ready first.

What's the problem with Classics figures coming out in ROTF packaging? How does that actually affect them? The toy's still the same. Non-movieverse DVDs continue to be released, just not BW.

Why exactly should Hasbro particularly be looking to launch the Beast series, incidentally? They did their job well enough for 4-5 years, but attempts to revive it have sold badly.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 8:47 pm

Cliffy, you're conflating explanation with advocacy.

While I do with that Hasbro/Takara would take a more Gundam-eque approach to their line (diversity of product is a good thing), I also understand their desire to cash in on the movie part of the frachise right now. While they're doing that, though, they're not strongly cross-selling other parts of the franchise. Simple enough to understand.

And sucks for those of us not keen on the movie franchise at all, but would like to see more queues from other lines.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 9:43 pm

According to Amazon.co.uk the Beast Machines box-sets are distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The current (and rather limited episode-wise) Region 2 DVD releases of Beast Wars are distributed by '4-Front video' and can be seen here:

Beast Wars: Vol 1

and here:

Beast Wars: Vol 2.

A quick Google search has not brought up any official 4-Front Video website. In fact all I've found so far is their UK address (near Westminster cathedral if anyone fancies recreating the scene from the end of the first Batman film):

4-Front Video
1 Sussex Place,
London,
W6 9EA

phone: 0208 910 5000
fax: 0208 741 4901

Interestingly another site has their registered office at:

Prospect House
80-110 New Oxford Street,
London,
WC1A 1HB

and they're still operating, because according to Jordan's Ltd (one of the UK’s leading providers of business information), they last filed a document on 23rd Feb 2010... quite possibly a document about why they haven't released any Beast Wars boxsets.

4-Front's current releases of Beast Wars were done back in 2005, possibly to commemorate Prime's death.

Wasn't there all that kerfuffle with the changeover from Maverick to Metrodome around that time? I remember people commenting on the site here about the difference in picture and/or sound quality of the the two companies versions, unless I'm getting mixed up with the various releases of TF:TM.

In my little Transformers-addled brain, I'd like to think that some bods over at 4-Front would have gotten a whiff of the activity around other Transformers stuff at that time, and kept a beady eye on the G1 box-sets to see how they went down with the public and then calculate on the back of a fag packet whether it's viable to have another stab at Beast Wars in Europe.

Or perhaps more realistically they saw how well their current versions were doing and decided against it?

Or perhaps even more realistically they simply got truckloads of other titles that are more likely to make a better return and they'll get back to Beast Wars when there's nothing else they could spaff their money on e.g. the ultimate, solid-gold toilet-seat super value edition of Akira with tech spec decoder.

Strange for them not to have a website though.

Perhaps those awful non-Disney versions of Pinocchio, Hunchback of Notre Dame et al that you see selling for a quid a pop in Poundstretcher actually make more revenue than a Beast Wars set. Probably do...

Sad thought, innit.

Post by **Sades** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:07 am

MOMMY DADDY STOP FIGHTING

Seriously though. On topic is nice. I like on topic. Stoppit.