Rating: 
Summary: Another great Rhino release of The Transformers
Review: The second half of The Transformers' second season is probably the oddest stretch of episodes of the entire series. From the environmentally themed "The Golden Lagoon" to space-faring episodes like "Child's Play" and the episodes with the gestalts (or combiners, if you will), there's a lot of variety here.The episodes are again restored in fine fashion, although there's a few more moments in this set (as opposed to the last) where Rhino had to borrow from the broadcast masters due to re-takes. The commercial bumpers are now the "correct" Season 2 ones featuring newer characters like Cosmos and Thrust. The sound is also re-done like the other two sets, and is again excellent. The Special Features, which consist of interviews with writer/associate producer/story editor Flint Dille and writer Buzz Dixon, are great, and both certainly deliniate the series' shift from the lighter episodes of Season 1 to the darker, more mature fare of Season 3, while providing further insight about how cartoons were made during the '80s, and how Sunbow helped to change that for the better. Without doubt, this set is worth every penny, and Rhino should definitely consider releasing all of the Sunbow series (TF, G.I. Joe, Jem, The Inhumanoids, The Visionaries, and so on) on DVD ASAP.
Rating: 
Summary: Better Than Part 1
Review: These episodes of "The Transformers" ran from 1985 to 1986. I'm not too familiar with all of the aspects of the series. The Season 2 commercial bumpers were used this time, rather than the Season 1 bumpers, but I don't know if all of them were used. There are some white spots on the picture (less than in the episodes on the Part 1 discs, it seems), but this is understandable considering the age of the original master tapes. The extras are nice, but there aren't enough. There are two interviews with G1 writers. I wanted more interviews. I wanted the scripts. I wanted Year 2 toy commercials. Now onto the actual story. The final 25 of the 49 episodes of Season 2 are in this set. They're presented in production order, not original air order. There is less continuity in this set than the previous. Some episodes are out of chronological order. There is one 2-part episode in this set. Most of the characters aren't developed beyond stereotypes. Even though Carly is in only 1 additional episode on this set (2 if you count her few-second, no-line appearance in "Cosmic Rust"), that episode ("Hoist Goes Hollywood") is a delight to watch. Elita-1 and her fellow female Autobots finally appear, but they're too stereotypically girly - unlike Carly. Despite the small Carly offerings, Part 2 of Season 2 is better than Part 1 - due to lack of the Dinobots. They do not appear at all (unless you count the opening and closing title sequences and the Grimlock commercial bumper), and I'm glad! They're so unintelligent, slow-talking, and annoying! Even though this story is about a war, none of the robots are ever destroyed, and none of the humans are ever killed. Still, this is an entertaining cartoon series and worth the purchase, even though it'll probably be cheesier than you remember from childhood. For those of you that missed it when it was on TV, this is your chance to see it.
Rating:
Summary: 2nd season is the best
Review: This boxset is great, good remastering and quality, lots of extras. Part two is even better!
Rating:
Summary: This is sooooooo awesome for all transfans.
Review: this is the second best part of G1 the best part is either the movie or the end of season three with the revival of optimus prime. also one thing. what is the picture on the cover forming. it was in season 2 p1 and p2 it forms the autobot symbol but why isn't it formed. maybe season three will have it fully formed.
Rating:
Summary: Still more than meets the eye
Review: This is the third box set of the original Transformers series, and the third one I have purchased. Very happy with it. This is, of course, for the second half of Season 2. I'd actually forgotten how good several of these episodes are until watching them again. Tons of new characters show up, the plotlines get more varied, and there is action at every turn. There are a great many animation mistakes (voices out of the wrong mouths, Autobots appearing with Decepticons, incorrect coloring, etc) but each and every one of these was present originally, and I remember them well upon seeing them again. The restoration process did another fine job this time, though a few episodes have a large amount of dirt and dust on the film. This is probably due to the sorry state of storage they had been subjected to over the years, as nobody expected that this series would be as lasting as it has turned out to be. Keep in mind that the episodes are aired in Production Order, which is not neccessarily the same order they were aired in. This causes the Combaticons, for example, to appear in an episode before the episode where they are created is shown. It also sees several episodes air inbetween two episodes that are a continuation of each other. A minor thing, but enough to be noted. We still need more special features. At least the interviews this time were with people who worked on the classic series, but I'd still love to see commercials for the old toys and perhaps scenes that got cut from episodes due to time constraints. Maybe even character profiles would be nice, and take up little disc space as well. Overall, I loved this set, just as I have with the other ones. Some great stuff in this one, reminding me of how I got so into this stuff when it was new. This is lightyears better than ANY Transformers stuff that has followed it, even to the modern day series. I suppose Season 3 will follow with a set or two, but they feature the post-movie characters, which lose a lot of the charm that the original series has with Optimus Prime and Megatron's almost respectful arch rivalry, and Starscream's desire to overthrow Megatron and gain power of his own. But it will still be a welcome edition, and allow Transformers fans to actually own the entire US series when all is said and done. Thanks again, Rhino, for bringing one of my favorite things from my youth back to life yet again.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother buying it until Rhino fixes the audio problems
Review: While I am quite happy to see that someone is releasing the original Transformers on DVD, it's unfortunate that Rhino has chosen to alter the series by dropping new sound effects into each episode in this set. The new sounds are quite jarring and simply don't belong there, even if the rest of the disc is fine. Until a corrected version is released there's no point in buying this set or anything else from Rhino since we can't be assured that the same errors won't be made on other products.
Rating: 
Summary: Season 2 part 2
Review: You know, this is just about nostalgia, and it's presented here at its best in the DVD format. Watching this 2nd part, has made me realize just how much I forgot, and just how cool some of these episodes really are. As a kid, I wasn't analyzing the stories and characters, now that I'm older it's taken on a different feel. Some episodes are great, well written and animated, others made me think they simply ran out of time, but in all its great stuff to watch. The DVD presents the episodes as if they are brand new. Though, there arn't any good extra bonus features. I don't know where all the creators are for this great series, but they are either busy, dead or not interested. I'm surprised there isn't more behind the scenes or just more interviews about this epic. Perhaps Rhino just hasn't done its homework?? And though they attempt to add new sounds, it just doesn't work. It passes, sure, but it once again just alters the series. Heck, even the opening number isn't the original! You can actually hear the original on Hasbro's website dedicated to the transformers. Pretty lame. I don't know who said "Hey, lets' change the opening theme song, and add in a bunch of sound effects! They'll love it!" uh. . . no. Nevertheless, its the series and you get a chunk of them per set, and that is nice. So pick it up, its great, worth the money for 5 DVD's, I loved them, and even now, my toddlers know all the names and love it too. Now if I could just find Thundercats on DVD!
Rating:
Summary: Season 2 part 2
Review: You know, this is just about nostalgia, and it's presented here at its best in the DVD format. Watching this 2nd part, has made me realize just how much I forgot, and just how cool some of these episodes really are. As a kid, I wasn't analyzing the stories and characters, now that I'm older it's taken on a different feel. Some episodes are great, well written and animated, others made me think they simply ran out of time, but in all its great stuff to watch. The DVD presents the episodes as if they are brand new. Though, there arn't any good extra bonus features. I don't know where all the creators are for this great series, but they are either busy, dead or not interested. I'm surprised there isn't more behind the scenes or just more interviews about this epic. Perhaps Rhino just hasn't done its homework?? And though they attempt to add new sounds, it just doesn't work. It passes, sure, but it once again just alters the series. Heck, even the opening number isn't the original! You can actually hear the original on Hasbro's website dedicated to the transformers. Pretty lame. I don't know who said "Hey, lets' change the opening theme song, and add in a bunch of sound effects! They'll love it!" uh. . . no. Nevertheless, its the series and you get a chunk of them per set, and that is nice. So pick it up, its great, worth the money for 5 DVD's, I loved them, and even now, my toddlers know all the names and love it too. Now if I could just find Thundercats on DVD!
| 
