I've recently been looking at the list of VHS of G1 that were released in the UK back in the 80s and 90s on TF wiki and have some thoughts.

The Transformers (cartoon)/home video - Transformers Wiki

18 of the 30 episodes in Season 3 were released here on VHS, which seems a really high number, but just 14 of the 49 season 2 episodes. I know in the past some people have thought that season 3 episodes might have been released more extensively on VHS because it was never on UK terrestrial tv, but IIRC only season 1 was broadcast much? It seems interesting that they would release so many of the later episodes from when the show's popularity was waning...

According to the list, Transformers episodes were still being released on VHS as late as October 1993. In fact, there's a TFW member who has some tapes that were released by a Scottish distributor around 1996. Both the UK comic and European toyline continued after the US versions finished, but is there any other explanation for the cartoon's longevity on VHS? Especially when the UK was always more comic centric in terms of TFs? Personally, in the early 90s I don't remember that many kids being interested in either the toys or the cartoon.

Another thing I wondered is how companies chose the episodes they released. For example, releasing "Carnage in C Minor" but not say "Webworld." Or why they would sometimes pair a season 2 episode with a Season 3 one? Probably they just released episodes randomly and relied on the Transformers brand to sell the product, but there were definitely some curious choices.

To anyone else who saw all or part of G1 via VHS, how did it inform your view of the cartoon? I never saw the cartoon on tv, so my only exposure to the show was via the tapes. I remember watching my first random episode of Season 3 and seeing Jazz in the footage in the closing credits (taken from the race in FFOD) and thinking that he'd have a big role in some Season 3 eps, only to watch many s3 episodes and barely see him at all. Anyone else gain any wrong impressions from such a limited exposure to the show?

Finally, anyone find it odd that (as far as I know) Thundercats season 2 didn't got any VHS releases despite never being shown at all on UK tv and being a more popular cartoon here than Transformers? Other popular cartoons of the same era like Real Ghostbusters don't seem to have been as extensively released either?

It is so nostalgic looking at those covers, even though in some cases the artwork doesn't match the episodes on the tapes.  

 

The Transformers cartoon might have been more popular if it was shown at normal afternoon times like Thundercats and The Real Ghostbusters were.

As a kid I enjoyed the few episodes I did see but even at that age felt some of them were silly compared to the UK comic.

Having seen the entire G1 cartoon at this stage, I'd imagine the Season 2 episodes got less exposure for 2 reasons:

The movie was successful on video and the Season 3 cast were primarily the movie cast.

Season 2 was mostly awful. Bad writing. Atrocious animation. Crap like Kremzeek and the horrible cliché Alpha Trion.

 

Thanks for the reply!

I wouldn't dispute that the Transformers cartoon could have been more popular, but I was just reflecting the fact that it wasn't broadcast anywhere near as prominently as those other cartoons. Also, I can't speak for Thundercats, but would admit that The Real Ghostbusters was probably a better cartoon than Transformers, as much as I appreciated both.

What you said about preferring the comic to the cartoon is definitely a common thread among UK kids during that era.

Interesting theory about season 3 and the movie's success.

I agree with you about Season 2 and would say that the majority of the good episodes from that season did get VHS releases here.

But still... Carnage in C Minor.   I know it is reviled for it's animation rather than plot but it's hard to say that more of Season 2 didn't get released for being substandard when they did release that episode!

 

IMO, Thundercats was a better cartoon than Transformers as well, but that doesn't really matter to the topic.

I have very fond memories of the Transformers cartoon on VHS... the excitement of renting "Return of Optimus Prime", getting the Call Of the Promitives/Girl Who Loved Powerglide (in a cardboard case) with a colouring book for my birthday... good, good times.

Like many, the UK Transformers comic was my 'go to' for all things TF - the cartoon was a nice little addition. Why were some of the episodes selected? Well, many were down to specific toys being promoted - Headmasters (Rebirth), Special Teams (Key To Vector Sigma and Return of Bruticus). Multi-part episodes did well as they could be edited into a 'movie length' version which seemed more special (Arrival From Cybertron, Megatron's Master Plan, Desertion of the Dinobots etc) - seems odd now that they never did this for "Ultimate Doom" or even "Five Faces of Darkness".

Season 3 releases were interesting... I don't think there was a massive consideration at this point as to WHICH episodes were released (besides the likes of "Return of Optimus Prime") - I am sure Tempo and VideoGems and the other companies did not have some one quality reviewing the stories, animation etc.

 

As much as I loved, and still love Transformers, it and the much loved Ninja Turtles cartoons were among the worst written and animated series.

Thundercats, He Man, She Ra and the Real Ghostbusters were all much better written than G1 and Turtles.

 

The terrestrial UK TV rights to G1 (well, season 1, anyway) were owned by TV-am. To be fair to them, they did show all the episodes in pretty much constant rotation for a period of two-and-a-half years, including a near-complete run on Saturdays in the summer/autumn of 1986 (I did a lot of research on the UK transmission dates for my forthcoming book, plug, plug). It seems to have been the case that TV-am had no idea of the 'proper' broadcast order, which meant that a lot of people were confused when they broadcast 'Countdown to Extinction' without having shown 'The Ultimate Doom' first. Oops!

Transformers was also the go-to fill-in whenever other shows or material fell-through at the last minute. There was a brief run of season 1 eps broadcast on TV-am as late as November 1987 due to a technicians' strike that ruined the regular scheduling. It wasn't until early 1988 that The Sky Channel (now Sky One) got the rights to all three seasons, but in those days only a small percentage of the population had Sky TV.

Obviously there seems to have been a clear line of reasoning when choosing which eps to release on VHS - we'd had S1 broadcast in the UK, so most of the episodes were from S2 and S3, and most were multi-part adventures like Desertion of the Dinobots or The Return of Optimus Prime.

Of course, in those days we hadn't seem the episodes and fandom wasn't a thing, so there was no clear consensus as to which episodes were the 'good' or 'bad' ones. Although beset by production problems, I find 'Carnage in C-Minor' to be a delightful episode, with a good script, interesting concepts and great performances by the voice cast. 'The Ultimate Weapon' is another underrated gem, IMHO.

Regardless of the actual episodes chosen, it seems to be the case that only a select few episodes were licenced to UK distributors - the various publishers seemed to release the same batches of episodes again and again in different permutations (‘The Girl Who Loved Powerglide’, for example, saw at least four separate releases). It was like money for old rope - if a VHS distributor had the rights to a select few TF eps, it made financial sense to keep releasing them ad infinitium, because videos were cheap to produce, had big profit margins, and even as popularity dwindled into the 1990s they would still make some money back.

Overall I think the VHS releases were pretty much an honest microcosm of the show, displaying the very best and worst of what the Transformers cartoon could do. It meant that, when I finally got around to seeing the complete series in the noughties, there were still some absolute classics that were completely new to me ('Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court', 'Microbots', 'Prime Target' etc.), as well as few clunkers ('Auto Berserk', 'Surprise Party', 'Money is Everything' etc.).

Whilst there were undoubtedly other cartoon shows that were better made and better scripted, I think what set Transformers apart is the sheer size of the cast, the epic scope, and above all, the voice cast. To this day, there's still nothing like watching a Welker/Latta Megatron/Starscream bickering scene.

 

Really interesting reply Ryan.

The point about the profit margins on the tapes is an excellent one. I wonder how lucrative generally the Transformers brand was by the early 90s? (Post Action Masters) Like I said above, I don't remember many kids being that interested in them at that point.
Any clue why other popular cartoons seemed to get much fewer VHS releases?

Good luck with the book!

 

Cheers!

Transformers was in the doldrums in the 1990s, but one of the side-effects of the VHS rights passing from company to company was that stuff was never on the shelves that long. I often rented Arrival From Cybertron from my local video store but I missed the window in terms of finding it the shops. It's possible that later re-releases such as 'Desertion of the Dinobots' (with the 3-D sleeve and glasses) were the first time those episodes had been on sale for years.

Another point to note is that the UK comic was going until well into the early 90s, and even to the end it would advertise new releases and run competitions to win them. (I'll dig out some photos.) Some of the later releases were just stuck in a cardboard sleeve and sold in the bargain bins as budget releases.

As far as I recall, I think Transformers was just as well-served on VHS as other 80s cartoons. I had nearly the complete run of Visionaries on VHS, and a few tapes of He-Man, Thundercats, MASK and Action Force. I was a bit too old for Turtles, but my younger brother had a whole bunch of videos of it.

 

Well you guys did get Thundercats Ho the movie almost uncut on vhs! Neat fact. The film was planned as a theatrical movie but due to films like transformers and gobots bombing they got cold feet and It ended up as a 2 hour tv movie! (Smurfquest, gijoe the movie and liberty and the littles all got this fate. They were all planned as theatrical movies but never made it.) The dvd release of thundercats ho in the season sets is chopped up and edited! Maybe we should ask warner archive for a uncut release!

You guys got the bravestarr movie on vhs also. America only got it in theatres! It was never on vhs or tv so if you missed it at the movies you didn't get to see it till the dvd release!

 

Pic heavy few posts, but here's a complete run-down of every cartoon VHS ad or competition from the UK comic.

 

Interestingly, the Headmaster VHS competition is from UK#130 (12th September 1987), which predates the episodes' US TV broadcast (November 1987). Weird!

 

Fantastic seeing those. Thanks again Ryan!

Surprised that the lettering used for "Transformers" at the top of this advert was already being used to early:
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/...5-00A3-4114-9842-F8E887BD9B15_zpsuzkxtxst.jpg
I thought it was from the early 90s?

Awesome seeing the adverts for the other cartoons too. And the prices.   It is amazing that the whole original G1 series can be acquired now for just the price of a few VHS back then. But such nostalgia for those tapes and especially the packaging.

 

I'm bumping this because I was wondering if anyone remembers seeing the cover art for this Dark Awakening / Grimlock's New Brain VHS anywhere else? It's clearly movie themed but wasn't used on the UK tape.

 

Yeah I had the different release with the same artwork.
I'm guessing it was an alternate Transformers The Movie poster but they went with the Ultra Magnus and Prime's Backside versions.
I guess the original artwork is lost to the mists of time.

The UK is more comic centric because the show was never shown on TV much, rather than vice versa

I bought all the videos and never really read much of the comic, so interacting with the british fandom has always been like speaking of another world. (Auntie? what's frickin Auntie? The Ark?)

I have to correct this often repeated falsehood

The UK VHS of Thundercats Ho is NOT an uncut full feature length version.
It is the 5 episode version just with the intro and outro trimmed out, you can even spot the title card of a couple of episodes if you pause quickly.
Also I doubt that it was ever intended to be a theatrical movie. Maybe if ever only at the most preliminary planning stage. The way the script is written it breaks up into the full 5 x 3 act structure of five 20 minute tv shows. Which proper theatrical films like TFTM, Care Bears or Rainbow Brite & the Star Stealer do not.

 

From what we hear it was planned at one time. (don't forget secret of the sword was just 5 episodes made into a movie.) Never got released at the movies so it doesn't matter anyways. Would have been nice to have thundercats on the big-screen.

Thanks for the update on the uk vhs. Also wow I forgot I even posted in this topic!

 

I saw Secret of the sword on the big screen myself, I question whether it was originally 5 episodes or wether it was edited into 5 episodes to bulk out and provide beginning for the She-Ra show.

I also own the thundercats ho vhs, and the Exodus vhs, which IS longer and has deleted scenes as it was originally a 50 minute pilot.

 

I'm not entirely sure about the situation in the UK, but all G1 cartoon episodes were broadcasted on Sky Channel with the kids show Fun Factory. Fun Factory was uk (produced) show. And I'm almost certain a big portion of the episodes were also broadcasted on Super Channel. In the Netherlands, and a lot of countries in Europe Sky Channel was the main place were many of the 80s cartoons like He-man, Transformers, Wheeled Warriors, Inspector Gadget, Popples etc were broadcasted in full. I always assumed since Fun Factory was made in the UK, people over there also had access to it...

 

Yeah I rmemeber it being on Fun factory, that's how I saw many episodes that I didn't get on vhs, but that was the early 90s so a bit after the fact. Also only about 1 in 5 people in the UK had access to Sky One, where Fun factory was broadcast.

I watched Jayce & The wheeled warriors mainly on vhs, and via the showings of it which used to be on TVAM at about 6 in the morning.