Rating: 
Summary: A dream come true!!!!!!!!!
Review: I've been waiting so long for this day to happen. The Transformers complete first season on DVD. This was the most amazing cartoon I had ever seen while growing up. I was nine years old when the Transformers debuted in 1984 on Saturday mornings. I had my mom set the alarm clock ten minutes before six o'clock to make sure I didn't miss the begining of it. I only wished I still had all my original toys. The entire story line is brilliantly written. The heroic Autobots, lead by there leader, Optimus Prime versus the evil Decepticons, lead by there leader, Megatron. It shows the true meaning of the phrase "It's good vs. evil". I'm hoping that they continue to release all the Transformers seasons on DVD until the very last episode. Just like the recently released Robotech series. The Transformers were, and still is, my favorite cartoon and toy ever!! I have never stop thinking about Transformers even to this day. It is a must have for everyone!! Buy this DVD!! It is MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: An icon of the 80s, now preserved forever
Review: Finally, children of the eighties have what we have always wanted-- a faithfully-preserved version of The Transformers television series that we can keep forever! Rhino's first season of The Transformers is packaged beautifully in a silver case. This edition is obviously meant to appeal to the discriminating DVD collector, with the case including reporduction cels and a detailed booklet with synopses of each episode, not to mention an entire disc full of special features. Make no mistake about it, this is the definitive Transformers season 1! All of the episodes, 16 in total, have been digitally remastered to preserve as much quality as possible. Some have complained that the sound effects or animation have been altered, but a few sacrifices had to be made in order to preserve the overall quality of the image. If they had used the same film stock that was played on television, the video as a whole would not be worthy of the DVD format (they would have to call it "Transformers: Grainy"). As for the audio problems, I think most of that stems from the transfer of the audio to Dolby 5.1. It's a simple matter to switch the audio back to Stereo on the menu screen. Another complaint I have heard is about the animation errors. Those very same errors were in the original series. Rhino is not to be blamed for incidents such as when there are two Starscreams on-screen at the same time, or when Shockwave talks out of Megatron's mouth-- all of the glory of the original show, including the numerous animation gaffes, are maintained here. I feel it was the right decision on Rhino's part, because if they began to tinker to try to fix these glitches, there would have been even more fan outcry. Watching the discs, I believe they truly had the intention of preserving the show in the most faithful way possible-- mistakes and all. Aside from the few glitches in the presentation, everything else is preserved here. All the action and excitement that we remember from our youth is here and ready to be rediscovered. If you are someone like me, who never grew out of Transformers and remains a devoted Transfan today, or just someone looking for a way to relive their childhood, you will find it easy to sink back into your chair and let the memories wash over you with these skillfully-produced discs.
Rating:
Summary: THIS DVD SET IS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!!!
Review: Finally the people at Rhino Home Video have brought us the Transformers Season 1 box set!!! I watched these great episodes as a kid and I'll be watching them again at the age of 24!!! This set is a must-have for ANYONE who watched as a youngster! Hopefully this set will sell well so Rhino Home Video will release the second and third seasons. SO BUY THIS!!! After the U.S. was finished with this fine series it was purchased by a company in Japan and they disregaurded the U.S. 3rd season and released other Transformers series such as the MASTERFORCE SERIES, HEADMASTER SERIES, VICTORY SERIES, BEAST WARS SERIES, & BEAST MACHINES SERIES!!! Hopefully they'll release these as well!!! SO PLEASE BUY THESE BUY THE TRUCK LOAD SO MORE OF THESE FINE SETS WILL COME!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Rhino gets it right! Kudos!!
Review: When Rhino aquired the rights to release TRANSFORMERS on video, they did so without realizing how dedicated the fanbase was because they released the episodes randomly. For instance, you'd get two episodes from season with an episode from season 3 on the same tape. Well, they listened to the gripes, and decided instead of releasing the episodes chronologically, they'd release them season by season! This first (and hopefully not last) season DVD boxed set is astonishing. It comes with 4 discs, the first three contain the first 16 episodes, while the 4th contains special features, such as comparisons between the original 35mm and remastered prints, outtakes, frame by frame animation, and more shocking was the opening credits of the Japanese Transformer show VICTORY. It even had a couple of minutes from an episode of Transformers: Super God Masterforce dubbed in English! If Rhino was able to secure the rights to show this from Takara, it can only mean it is a matter of time until Rhino releases officially licensed Headmasters, Masterforce, and Vicory on DVD!! One can only hope, but this first season DVD set is incredible and very affordable. Kudos to Rhino.
Rating: 
Summary: THE classic 80s cartoon series! ...but over-remastered
Review: PICTURE QUALITY (2/5 STARS)
The overall image quality has definetly been improved: brighter colours, sharp images and heavy remastering (scratch removal, ect.) but WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?? They really made some devastating mistakes! Some scenes are played in reverse (i.e. the infamous Ironhide transformation scene from 'Heavy Metal War'), some visual heat-, smoke- and fire-effects are just missing!! And there is this mistake-documentation which should show the people what errors the original film masters had and that they have been corrected... they found the errors, but forgot(?) to correct many of them.
Sharpness and colour of the image deserve 5 STARS, but in fact of the errors 2 STARS is the proper rating! SOUND QUALITY (2/5 STARS)
Generally the sound is very clear and free of hiss/crackles but WHAT HAVE THEY DONE...AGAIN?? They have remixed the soundtrack to Dolby Digital 5.1, initially that sounds brilliant but to reach this goal Rhino added some really strange&stupid soundeffects. Ok, the explosions have a great *boom* but gunfire sounds like children toy guns.
The Dolby Stereo soundtrack is another mess, some episodes have the new 5.1 remix simply downmixed to stereo, but others have the original soundtrack with no added effects. I believe every fan of the series demands at least an option to hear the original sountrack!
First a disappointment then you (have to) get used to it. Nothing more and nothing less. EXTRAS (5/5 STARS)
The extras is the real strenght of this set! I wonder why they have used so much from season 2 and 3. Can it be that they already have used up all their resources? SPECIAL/UNIQUE ON THIS DVD RELEASE:
- all new transfer from the original 35mm negative
- Dolby Digital 5.1 remix & Dolby Stereo
- extras... more than meets the eye
- 2 limited-edition cels of Transformers characters (limited?? just to the availability of this boxset LOL!) COMMENT:
I am a great fan of Transformers G1 and I would have loved to see the TFs in its original form, without remastering mistakes and additional soundeffects.
As a Transfan I also bought the UK boxset of season 1 which contains a lot of other worthy extras. The picture quality is not so sharp and brilliant but there are NO MISTAKES and errors. The soundtrack is the 5.1 remix from this US boxset. I highly recommend buying both editions or if you are not sure, just buy the UK Region 2 boxset if your DVD player is PAL-compatible!
Rating:
Summary: i love transformers no 1 !!!!
Review: i love transformers long time since i was kid and my favorite love no1 is optimus prime the autobot leader he turn in semi truck and lot battle with megatron much times. and also my favorite 2nd is starscream too best than megatron. thanks i have two dvd of season 1 and 2pt1 thanks i will order more like season 2pt2,3 and season 3, 4 soon thanks very much i love it!!!!!!! thanks!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Transform and Roll Out!!!!
Review: Man, I still can't believe that Rhino got this one right! 16 of the original episodes are recaptured in pristine order, worthy of inclusion in any DVD collection. Although the first season was the Original and Best in regards to characterization, it still has cringe worthy dialogue as opposed to season two and the Movie...but why carp? Children of the 80's- Buy it and enjoy. Roll out!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A thousand times better than the stuff on today
Review: As a little girl, I was hooked on the transformers. I was dismayed to realize that today's youth does not have access to the high quality series that I grew up with. If you are a fan of great animation AND plot, you must get this series.
Rating:
Summary: No Gobots here.
Review: I remember when I was a kid I would get up well before dawn to catch this on Saturday morning TV. This was back in the day when children's cartoons were actually worth something. Nothing like the mass-produced soulless trash that is hacked up these days. Personally, I blame the overexposure of many such shows on channels like Cartoon Network and Fox Kids. Somewhere among the syndication of modern, lifeless animation, greats like He-Man, MASK, The Real Ghostbusters and Transformers have slipped away and been forgotten. Thank heavens for Rhino. Not only have they digitally remastered the entire first season here but they have also given us a cracking Dolby 5.1 track (the bass is strong and it will surely give your whole system a good workout, tho it can be a bit strident at times) but a whole load of extras too. There is a feature on the animation goofs (two Starscreams in one shot!), a documentary on Botcon (the Transformers convention) which makes me jealous that we don't get anything like that here in the UK, Japanese clips of the show and 2 limited-edition cells. Wow! It's well worth the price. Tho you can't really put a price on something like this. I haven't seen the new Transformers: Armada show but if it's anything like the new toys (plastic instead of die-cast metal) then I am not interested.
Rating:
Summary: Reality 1, Sentimentality 0
Review: Having been a fairly ardent TransFan back in the day, I watched the 'Generation One' Transformers TV show just about every weekday afternoon to help ease the pain of somehow surviving yet another torturous & nightmarish day of middle school. I must'a seen every single show at least two times over-- which shows ya how much of a lamer I was when I was but a wee 'Norch. But if you asked me which eppies I found particularly memorable, I'd have been really hard-pressed to give ya an answer. This along with several other factors eventually got me nostalgic enough to check out the first season DVD box set and give all the eppies a view. And after doing so, I can understand why I couldn't think of any particularly memorable shows. Why is this, you ask? Well, because... ...each episode had pretty much the same plot and story line, just with different locations and a few changes in the rotating cast of 'bots. Basically, it boils down to Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons (AKA the bad guys) hatching yet another nefarious plan to collect and stockpile enough energy (in the form of energon cubes) and/or developing some scary super-weapon to "conquer the universe", as he likes to state in that trademark low, gravelly reverberating voice and maniacal laugh of his. The execution of this nefarious plan usually leads to Megs and his troops attacking and causing extensive property damage to some manufacturing facility or power plant located in the middle of nowhere. The attacked facility sends out a distress call to Autobot HQ, where Optimus Prime and his boys "Transform and roll out!" to save the day. Then the Autobots fall into some trap or another the Decepticons have set up for them, which they barely manage to escape with their lives. Optie and his boys then arrive in the nick of time and start wailin' on "Decepti-creep" @$$, sending Megatron & company packing... until tomorrow's episode. Throw in a bumbling attempt by Starscream to overthrow Megs as the Decepticon commander (or a less-than-bumbling attempt to humiliate the big man in front of the troops), a few abrupt editing cuts here and there, some really corny dialogue between combatants, a smattering of glaring continuity errors (well, 'glaring' if you're as nit-picky as I am, anyway), preposterous leaps in logic (such as: why does Megatron keep Starscream around when he's made quite clear on several occasions his intentions of replacing Megs as the Decepticon leader?!), an appalling disregard for the laws of physics, and a couple groan-worthy puns, and you've got a pretty good example of the kinda glorified-toy-commercial-action-toon fare that was quite popular back in the 1980s. Also thrown in amongst the 'Megatron's-latest-scheme-to reign-supreme' episodes are a few shows that introduced new TransFormers characters whose toy versions had just hit the retail shelves a few months earlier. Back in the day, these particular segments added weight to many folks' assertions that the show was merely a half-hour-long toy commercial (my response to these assertions: "No duh!"). The series also was a veritable showcase of the multiple talents (heh) of Top 40 deejay Casey "Shaggy" Kasem-- he did the voices of at least three Autobots as well as several background characters and 'extras'. Betcha the guy's makin' a killin' off'a the residuals from the show (as if the residuals from his work on 'Scooby-Doo' weren't enough, heh), hmm? Anyhoo, the new 'bots intro'd in the first year include SkyFire (AKA JetFire) as well as the Dinobots, Insecticons, and Constructicons. Heh, I can just picture the Hasbro execs watching these particular eppies in the board room, giggling avariciously, and figurin' out how they're gonna split the profits from the toy sales that were sure to follow... Whoops, got off the track there; sorry 'bout that. Um, where were we...? Oh, yeah-- after seein' all of the shows in this set for the first time in almost two decades, I can state with assurance that it'll probably be another two decades before I ever get up the gumption to watch 'em again. How I managed to endure all sixteen mind-numbing episodes of pure cartoon dopiness without requiring intensive counseling, I'll never know. No wait, actually I DO know-- the Bonus Features disc helped to salve my warped psyche. To be more specific, it was a particular feature on the Bonus Features disc. It wasn't the outtakes, screwups, anomalies, side-by-side comparisons of the remastered footage against the original prints, the selection of US & Japanese eyecatch bumpers & alternate opening credit sequences (though I gotta admit I really dig the techno rendition of the TransFormers theme song), or the frame-by-frame analyses. Nope, the thing that helped restore my geeky sanity was... the BotCon 2001 behind-the-scenes featurette. After takin' a look at all the pizza-faced freakos and get-a-lifers who attended the convention, the Yoo-Hoo-besotted yutzes who cavorted around the showroom floor in home-made Optimus Prime costumes, and the smattering of paunchy mutants who voiced their fond memories of growing up with TransFormers toys as well as their thoughts on the TransFormers phenomenon and how it "shaped my whole outlook on life" (or some such pretentious nonsense), I came to the realization that there are even bigger losers than myself walking this earth! A revelation that is simultaneously comforting AND disturbing at the same time... Bottom line: unless you're an unabashed super-geekin' TransFan, or you've a desire to rekindle some fond childhood memories for eight-plus hours (though God only knows why), I suggest you look elsewhere for quality animated entertainment. And I ain't talkin' 'bout TransFormers: Armada, either! Yeesh-- I'd rather watch all the eppies in this set three times in a row than view a single Armada show even once... 'Late
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