Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41063 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 490 minutes

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

it is the year 2002.....
....The year of The Transformers!!! It's about time! I'm 25 years old and i'm sure that others from my generation used to spend their afternoons with their friends transforming their autobots and decepticons and talking smack on which ones we bought. I can't wait for this DVD collection to come out. Hopefully it doesn't stop with the first season and also give us a chance to see again He-man, Voltron, M.A.S.K, Gem (jk!!!). Anyway keep up the good work RHINO!!!!!

Feels like it was just yesterday...
I thought about ordering this DVD set for some time but had held off. I thought it was rather pricey. Along came by birthday, though, and I decided to buy myself a little something....

I forgot how good this show really was. It was incredibly loyal to the each of the characters and everything at this point. The voice actors are an all star cast as well.

The remastering job was very good when you consider what they had to work with to start. They cleaned up a lot of noise and dirt off of the film and made the colors a lot more vivid and clear. There are some occasional sound effects added, but they are not intrustive and not that frequent, really. A couple of scenes in "Heavy Metal War", the last episode on the disc, turned out pretty poor, but otherwise they did an awesome job restoring this first season run, even including the original opening of the show and the commercial bumpers.

I am still annoyed by the constant coloring mistakes made by the original animators of the show. I guess it's part of the charm, and it's probably best that Rhino left them like they were. I remember these coloring mistakes in the original series just as well, and it even bothered me back then in 1984-85 that Sunbow couldn't seem to tell the difference between Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp most of the time (though as the series goes on past the first 5 or 6, they DO get better about it...save for the part in Heavy Metal War where there are two Starscreams side by side, one of which was supposed to be Skywarp).

I wish Rhino would take out the stupid cartoon openings on their videos and DVDs, though. While I know they are mostly a children's video company, with things like Transformers and GI Joe, they are mostly catering to adults...adults who don't want to sit through a cartoon rhino dressed like Elvis at the start of each disc while we wait for the menu to appear.

Overall, if you grew up with this original series of Transformers, as I did, you will very much enjoy this set. I enjoyed every minute of it, and can hardly wait until late November now, where Rhino releases the first half of Season 2 in a box set. The second half of Season 2 follows in the Spring.

So if you are waiting like I did, stop waiting now. After watching this, I felt like a kid again, and you will too.

A must have for any fan. Disappointing quality for being "remastered"
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.