Transformers - First Season Collector's Edition

Starring:Michael Chain, Jeff McKay, Brad Garrett, Tony St. James, Bud Davis, Jerry Houser, Hubert Gagnon, Corey Burton, Marshall Efron, Denise Mora (II), Milt Jamin, Arlene Banas, Ted Schwartz, Don Messick, Michael McConnohie, Michael Horton, Ed Gilbert, Aron Kincaid, Ken Sansom, Morgan Lofting
Director: Jay Bacal, Peter Wallach, John Walker (XVIII)
Studio: Rhino / Wea
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The 1985 series Tatakae Cho Robot Seimetai Transformers ("Fight Super Living Robots Transformers") was a U.S.-Japanese coproduction, written in America and animated in Japan. Based on a line of robot toys from Takara--licensed to Hasbro in America--that could be reconfigured into cars, trucks, planes, etc., it spawned numerous sequels and a feature. Civil war rages on the planet Cybertron between the virtuous Autobots and the evil Decepticons. Both sides launch crews into space to find new energy sources, but the ships crash on Earth and are buried in lava. When the robots awaken four million years later, the Decepticons, led by the dictatorial Megatron, want to drain the planet of its resources, enslaving or destroying mankind. The Autobots ally with humanity and befriend oil-rig worker Spike Witwicky. The Saturday morning-style cheat of cutting to a logo, rather than animating transitions, and the frequent pauses for commercial breaks make for very choppy storytelling. The designs of the robots are interesting but lack the graphic sophistication of Yoshiyuki Tomino's Gundam Mobile Suits. The animation is very limited, and the choreography of the battle sequences lacks the panache of Tomino and other more talented directors. Like Robotech, Transformers will appeal most strongly to adults who watched the show as kids: it's remained popular through Web sites, role-playing games, fan fiction, and a lively trade in the original toys. Serious students of anime will find this early series of historic interest. Unrated; suitable for age 6 and up: Robot vs. robot violence. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

The first season rocks!.......2007-01-04

This storyline shows the arrival of the Transformers and how they became apart of life on Earth. This one sets the stage for the next 20 years for Transformer storylines.

Special tin collection of 1st season, best set available in US for now.......2006-12-26

This set a limited tin release of the Transformers Complete first season released by Rhino in 2002. This is a rare commodity since it is no longer made. Sony/BMG is apparently preparing to re-release the Cartoons again this spring, But it will be hard to beat this set with the two limited edition Cells. Nice quality, excellent package. See how the transformers got to earth and the fight between the autobots and decepticons. Its funny watching these now as an adult, I am seeing some of small detail flaws, such as episode 7 with Skyfire, starscream is a plane on cybertorn in the past, but that does not coincide with the first episode where he was changed to a jet when repaired on earth, or why does optimus prime get scared of falling from a cliff when he can fly? Its fun to watch for these inconsitencies, but overall just fun to relive a piece of childhood nastalgia. A great cartoon, storyline ahead of its time. Great action as well. Must have for the transformers fan.

Oh, you'll be glad you got this!.......2006-10-12

I am a big Transformers geek. I only had a few episodes on tape, so you can imagine how excited I was to finally see many of these episodes again! Why, then, have I given this a mere 4 stars instead of 5?
The special features. There aren't many. What is there is pretty good, but there should have been more. More!
The sound. There are some spots where they've added unnecessary sound effects. It's a minor thing, but it can get distracting and annoying.
But all that is very little to complain about when you can finally relive some of your favorite old episodes, without the shakey grainyness of worn out old VCR tapes.... often with commercials or such. A MUST HAVE FOR G1 FANS! REQUIRED VIEWING!

Good show, bad quality control.......2006-06-29

I used to love this show as a kid and, not that I have kids of my own, I has to buy this set. Overall, it's still a good show. The poor quality control (transformers colored wrong, wrong voices, transforming in reverse, etc) can get a little tedious at times, as can the bumpers (why were these not removed?). Still, if you were a Transformers fan, and are willing to part with a decend chunk of money, I'd recommend getting this.

A must have for any fan. Disappointing quality for being "remastered".......2006-04-29

Anyone reading this is a fan. And if you're a fan, this is a must have, as others who grew up with the Transformers, have repeatedly said. I'm grateful that this DVD box set was made available and admit that I STILL watch the epsisodes on boring nights when I want to unwind and feel like a kid again. The writing was excellent and made for a superior cartoon.

Like many other childhood fans, I taped the episodes when they were on TV and watched them over and over again as a younster. I just couldn't get enough! I practically had all the dialogue and little glitches memorized. Those tapes are long gone so you can imagine my uncontrollable, child-like excitement when I spotted the box set in the store.

That said, I began to watch the episodes with an ear to ear grin and relive my childhood. My memory was jarred and the dialogue was all coming back to me as I watched. ALSO, I was really looking forward to seeing the episodes truly "remastered" with all the improvements of modern technology...not to mention the anticipation of seeing all those annoying little color and voice glitches corrected...or so I thought. I almost felt cheated not only to see all the glitches still there but EVEN MORE glitches than the original! MORE color gaffes and flaws! I couldn't believe they went thru all this trouble and produced a product that had MORE mistakes than back in 1984! How irresponsible and careless! They even added silly sound effects where they were none in some cases! "Divide and Conquer" is especially rife with extra (and annoying) sound effects and more color mistakes than the original! I actually still have that episode on VHS and side by side, the VHS version is actually better: fewer flaws than the DVD! I fully expected all the mistakes to fixed. In a remastered DVD, I expected perfection for all of us who cherish the memories. Not only were all the mistakes ignored but they added new ones!! I can't say it enough. I still shake my head. It's like taking the same test twice with the benefit of seeing the answers between attempts and scoring LOWER on the second. Inexcusable! Utterly amazing!

Oh well, I still have them and love them. But, it must be said: Shame on Rhino Video! Shame! You delivered a less than half-hearted effort. Half-hearted would have simply been an exact duplicate. I would glady repurchase a PERFECTLY remastered addition if anyone with the rights to it is listening.

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