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Television
Transformers - First Season Collector's Edition

Transformers - First Season Collector's Edition

List Price: $59.95
Your Price: $47.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great trip back in time
Review: This DVD set is a must have for any serious TF fan. While the show has lost a little of its magic with the current state of animation, its better than Robots in Disguise. As long as they keep producing subsequent seasons, this is a must own. Ahhhh, the sound of them transforming is music to the ears. But this set now!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: hell yess
Review: ever since I was a kid I watched Transformers. And I still have some of the original Transformers, so whenever I feel like being a kid I can put in the dvd and play with my transformers!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More Than Any Transformers Fan Can Pass By
Review: OK, I'll be the first to admit it - I am not nearly as in tune with The Transformers TV show as I wanted to be growing up WITHOUT A TELEVISION! (pauses as everyone gasps). I must have driven my parents crazy bugging them to buy every comic book and action figure that I could get my hands on though. When I was near a TV (at a friend's house, on vacation or such), however, this was the one show I was sure not to miss under any circumstances. Sometimes I could rent a VCR and some of the episodes were put on Kids Videotape so I could see a few of them otherwise. The Transformers was, in my opinion, the best animated TV series of the 1980's. To have the entire first season on DVD is a real treat. There are 16 episodes in the first season. Apparently, the relatively small number of episodes is due to the fact that the first season aired once a week and not five times a week. I can only imagine how nuts it drove some kids watching The Ultimate Doom for the first time when it kept giving them the "To be continued" treatment for three weeks. ;). The remastered version from a technical standpoint does leave a lot to desire. There are scenes that are completely out of sound-synch (like Megatron saying a whole line and his mouth staying wide open the whole time.) Some of the clips were printed in reverse order (ex: one Autobot transforms into a car after the rest transform to robots). And some glitch errors in coloring and appearance do occur: (Starscream colored like Thundercracker, Optimus Prime turning completely blue and my favorite: Soundwave wearing an Autobot symbol ;) ). And age has taken its toll, unabling a crystal-clean transfer from Rhino. There is a noticeable amount of "dust" on the episodes. But it's all nitpick. The point you should care about is that it looks much clearer and sounds a lot better than it ever did on network television, and if you were a die-hard of the original series, you won't even care about the aforementioned issues. Rhino has also released each of the volumes separately for purchase, but trust me: THIS is the purchase you want to make. You save more by buying the whole season at once, and a Special Features disc is included so you can see the remastering process, how the transfers compare to the original broadcast, and information about BotCon. But the real cake in this collection are the episodes themselves. This is a must have for anyone who was a true fan of the Transformers. We can only hope that Rhino will see fit to release all of the seasons on DVD soon!

The episodes contained in this season include: More Than Meets The Eye (3 parts), Transport to Oblivion, Roll For It, Divide And Conquer, Fire In The Sky, SOS Dinobots, Fire on the Mountain, War of the Dinobots, The Ultimate Doom (3 parts), Countdown to Extinction, A Plague of Insecticons, Heavy Metal War.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Old School Reigns
Review: I will admit, probably like plenty of other past fans of this amazing show, that when that new version came out on Fox, I was extremely excited. I didn't even think for a second that it could possibly be as horrible as it was, with cheesy lines, moral lessons drenching every episode, and way less [fighting] than the original series. By the time I was through with one episode, I was shocked and disappointed. What had happened to Decepticons like Starscream? Autobots like Hotshot? Who the heck are these Predicons? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DINOBOTS???

I was sad, but then something magical happened. This DVD came out, and I felt at peace once again. These sixteen episodes of the first season are incredible, including the original cut-to-commercial sequences and the theme songs for the beginning and end of the episodes. I am glad they came out with this DVD, because it brought back to the industry what TV has been missing...good TV shows. I think the only TV show that has remained popular and undaunted by "hipness" is The Simpsons. Still, so many other shows of the past have been left in the dust: Ren and Stimpy, Ghostbusters, GI Joe...etc. Granted, we have other good new shows like Invader Zim and The Oblongs to make up for what we lost, but there will never be anything like old-school 80's television, and there never will be.

This DVD brought back a taste of the past, and all that we have lost because of the awkward, awful tastes of today's normal television viewer. LONG LIVE THE AUTOBOTS!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Transformers Review
Review: I watched this DVD collection for 3 days straight and found it to be WELL worth the purchase. This is definately a must in any Transformers fan collection!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a solid investment
Review: a classic series like this at the tip of your fingers, you would be crazy not to get it. the series is just as i remember it only much more clear and sounds much more better. i cant wait for the next five sesons to come out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Some minor sound problems, but still a great series.
Review: THE ERRORS:
There are animation and voice errors that have been acknowledged before, but those things are forgivable. My gripe is with the sound errors that occur in some episodes. In "The Ultimate Doom III", the Dolby 5.1 sound was out of synch with the picture. But when I toggled it to the Dolby Stereo, it was perfectly synchronized. There was another problem with the sound in the episode "A Plague of Insecticons". While watching the episode in stereo, there was silence in a scene where there were obviously explosions. I then switched it to the 5.1, and there were the explosions in all its grand glory.

The 5.1 sound isn't all that impressive. It sounds very separated and distant. I prefer watching the DVD in stereo, because it sounds a little more solid.

THE DVD:
The DVD gives you the option of picking an episode or playing through all of them. Each episode has six chapters. At every commercial break, there are wonderful commercial bumpers ("The Transformers will be back after these messages" and "We now return to The Transformers"), with Laserbeak or Starscream, or other Transformer doing their action moves. It gives the real feeling I'm watching it on TV after school, minus the annoying ads, of course.

The first two discs have five episodes each, and disc three has six episodes. Disc four has the extras. Disc four contains disorganized false starts and other boo-boos on the disc that didn't really make sense, and then a look at the BotCon. The best thing on this disc is the opening of the Japanese [Master Force] Transformers Series.

OVERALL:
You either like Transformers or don't like Transformers. If you like it, then I highly recommend this DVD. I bought it so I could watch the episodes with the convenience of skipping chapters on the DVD. Even though the sound is okay, and the extras are okay, the series itself is outstanding. The errors are actually quite funny (Look for Starscream painted like Skywarp, Optimus screaming "Attack!" with the voice of Megatron, and Sparkplug mouthing the same thing that only Spike is saying). I do not ever regret buying this DVD set. Don't hesitate to get it, errors and all.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Wait until the price comes down if you really want it
Review: Like many of you original transformer fans, I am now in my mid-twenties and I have had a lot of fond memories of the Transformers. After plunking down 59 clams for this sleek looking silver box set, I went home to watch the first couple of episodes...I was not impressed. --Let's just say watching these old episodes again brought me back down to reality.

Hmm. Maybe I was easily impressed when I was a kid or that was sadly the best there was on TV back then. Some of the sound effects/music sounded so bland. The dialogue was borderline laughable. Some parts of the show was boring. And to think I bragged to my 13 year old little brother how much better cartoons were back then.

Rhino is to blame also. All the episodes looks like as if they turned the saturation level all the way up and cut the contrast in half. I'm pretty sure this wasn't how it looked like when I watched transformers in the 80's. The special features disk was bad. When I saw they were explaining the remastering process through that cheap "star-wars" letter scroll crap, I knew Rhino was skimping in effort. Give me some visual example with a voice over for Godsakes!

I am giving this dvd collection 3 stars and not lower because the cartoon gave me so much joy when I was a child so that should account for something. If you really really need this DVD set, I suggest you wait for the price to come down first or buy it used on Ebay.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gift for my husband...
Review: This is a great gift to give to anyone who was born around 1980! My Husband was really excited and popped it in the DVD player as soon as he got it. Only problem is that now that he's older it's not as interesting to him as much as it was back then, so now the last two disks just sit there, and probably never will be watched. Maybe our kids will like them???

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Why the quality may not be what you are expecting
Review: Just after reading a few comments, I had to respond to some of the criticizing on Rhino's remastering of Season 1 of Transformers. To start, the cartoon is just how I remembered it, and was just as entertaining complete with interesting bonus material. This is a definite buy for the older group who grew up with it, as well as those who want to experience a good cartoon with an actual storyline. I just want to remind the older folks who used to watch the show, that all the inconsistencies you are witnessing in the DVD; music overpowering voices, the appearance of two Starscreams in a scene, voices that don't match the correct transformer, and scenes that just don't make sense. All of these imperfections were actually in the original release. The original animators in the first 2 seasons did not really "error check" the cartoon. Sometimes, an entire episode did not make any sense at all. But, none of this detracted from the bigger scope of the series, which is why it is still so popular. Rhino did a remarkable job on what they had to work with, flaws in all. To top it off, and regrettably, a majority of anything related to the Transformers in the 80s were thrown out by Hasbro. This included musical scores, animations, and even some of the actual episodes. I don't even believe Rhino can produce the rest of the series after 2. I have read how Rhino collected episodes from loyal fans who actually taped the show with their VCR. I hope this sheds some light on why the quality may not be what you expected. Enjoy what you have because no one else has been able to do what they are doing now, and hopefully they can bring us the rest of the Transformers series!


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