The GoBots volume 1 DVDs started arriving with Tuesday's mail. I could not get home fast enough to watch my favorite TV show. Now here is a brief review. Warner Brothers did, IMO, an above average remastering job. On a scale of 1 being Rhino, 5 being Shout, and 10 being Sony, I would rate it a 7 or 8. Basically, there are a few blurry scenes and the remastering is most obvious whenever a red character or a laser blast is on screen. The audio is also well done considering the source. While it's not a popular opinion, I don't think GoBots had the wild swings in quality that G1 had. So you really don't get the kind of ridiculous goofs that have plagued every attempt to remaster G1, just the off-model drawings and seemingly random background character voice casting that were there all along. Sometimes I wonder about why WB does what they do. Obviously they spent what is presumably real money to remaster the show. Then they picked random art (this one comes from an ad for the movie; didn't really fit that purpose in 1986 either), used the late 1990s Hanna Barbera logo, and misspelled half of the "copy" in the preorder listing. I would not be surprised if the errors that were fixed by the time the boxes were printed were due to my feedback e-mail. What I could not catch was how they referenced Terror in Atlantis and then didn't include it in the set. Disc 1 Time Wars It's the Thought That Counts Trident's Triple Threat Renegade Alliance CyKill's Cataclysmic Trap Speed is of the Essence Genius and Son Dawn World Nova Beam Forced Alliance Disc 2 Invasion From the 21st Level 1 Invasion From the 21st Level 2 Lost on GoBotron CyKill's Shrinking Ray Doppelganger The Quest for Roguestar Renegade Rampage 1 Renegade Rampage 2 Ultra ZOD Sentinel Disc 3 Cold Spell Crime Wave Auto Madic Scooter Enhanced Tarnished Image In Search of Ancient GoBonauts Gameworld Wold in the Fold Depth Charge Transfer Point To be honest, I was expecting episodes 6-35 from Wikipedia. That would've put Terror in Atlantis (9) and Pacific Overtures (20) in the set instead of Nova Beam (55) and Transfer Point (36). It's still a great selection of episodes, including my personal favorite, Speed is of the Essence. The second set, if they actually go through with it, may end up just a little more uneven (really looking forward to Clutch of Doom though). At any rate, if you're a fan of 1980s cartoons, this is a pretty good buy and they're probably still kicking in free shipping if you order something else with it...
So the "volume 1" dvd set doesn't include the five episodes from the "original mini-series"? It's been so many years since I watched Gobots. I remember watching a little tiny bit as a child. I don't know if it's even a show that I'd want to buy all of the episodes on dvd.
I don't think I could get into the Gobots cartoon, never really liked it. The most of toys however are great! I recently came into a bunch of my old Gobots and was real surprised at how nice the small Gobots are. They are far better than the Transformers minibots. Its good that more 80s cartoons are coming out, now where is Bionic Six and Mighty Orbots? Would love to check those out again.
I'd love to see that too. But until TMS can get off their asses and remaster the original negatives (assuming they still exist), I doubt that'll ever happen.
Nope, they aren't on this set. I was hoping it would so I could get rid of that disc. RKillian, what do you mean by "uneven"? Number of eps or storytelling? Also, as far as I can remember, there's really no chronological order to these eps right? Doesn't matter Nova Beam is on this set before Terror in Atlantis? I was very surprised "Nova Beam" was on this set. I think that's #55
TMS might have nagatives, but ultimatly it's up to WB because they own everything. Plus there is no need for that.... all the WB MOD releases have been from tapes anyway.
How did WB get the rights to Orbots and Bionic 6 anyway? I mean I know TMS has joint ownership of it (seeing as they did co-produce them and all). But I thought they'd be co-owned by other companies that co-produced them too.
Most of the episodes on this set are fun if you don't think too hard, aside from the two really awful Alliance episodes. The second set has more world-building episodes, like GoBotron Saga (possibly the best set of episodes in the series). Et Tu CyKill puts the war in a different light and the Master Renegade returns in Quest For New Earth. But then you get Renegade Carnival, GoBots That Time Forgot, etc. Chronologically, it's hard to put more than a few of these episodes in order. When I only had about 20 of them on VHS tapes from around the world, I thought it was doable, but a bootleg DVD of the series a few years back made it far more involved. The Wikipedia list is just plain wrong though. Saga introduces the monster GoBots (Pincher is created, Vamp and Scorp are found on Antaris 3), so a whole lot of "early" episodes really can't come that early. Yes. Visually, they cranked up the gamma so that almost everything blue turned green. Plus they used pre-broadcast masters that had a ton of mistakes that weren't on previous video releases. Robots walking backwards, wrong faction badges, missing lasers, etc. And to top it off, they dubbed in a ton of weird random sound effects. Keep in mind this was all S1; it was so bad I refused to purchase subsequent sets.
So how hard is it to get it all in one whack? I mean, am I going to have to deal with missing episodes no matter what?
Years ago I contacted TMS via email, and they basicly said Orbots was always owned by the orginal creators... Ruby Spears, and when all RS shows were bought up by WB, they obviously have the rights now. From what I understand, there are no co-owners in productions from the 80's. Studios were contracted to do the animation for the shows writen in the US. Current ownership: Sunbow shows - owned by Hasbro (most likely exceptions: D&D/Marvel properties- currently not aware of ownership) Ruby Spears/Warner - owned by WB DIC- owned by Cookie Jar Filmation - owned by DreamWorks Animation (maybe) WEP- retains rights Harmony Gold- retains rights
I see, but here's the problem. I never saw RS in the end credits anywhere. So how the hell did they get the rights?
Apparently there is one pretty big goof. Tarnished Image repeats the scene about the Guardians leaving Earth and the Renegades attacking before they get called back. Would've been pretty easy to spot if somebody had actually watched through the episodes once after spending all of that money to remaster them.
I think the Wikipedia listing order is the order they were aired in. Problem is they were broadcast out of order. Is this possibly the correct order? Or just another random order?
Thanks for the review. Not sure if I'm going to pick this up, maybe I'll ask for it for Christmas or something I loved Gobots as well as TFs, but the show is just so "kiddified" when compared to the TF show. It's kinda like the difference between Rescue Bots vs TF Prime. Isn't this the set with the Robo Force toon as an extra? How does it look and how do you like it? I have my original VHS recording of it which I watched many times so I'm familiar with the content, I'm just curious how good the remastering is.
I used this website for the suggested order: Counter-X > Gobots >> Challenge of the Gobots >> Episode Guide >> Episode Order Counter-X >> Gobots >> Challenge of the Gobots >> Episode Guide >> Index (ignore the number before since that was the broadcasted order so I've read) 1. Battle for GoBotron*(1)- 2. Target Earth*(2)- 3. Conquest of Earth*(3)- 4. Earth Bound*(4)- 5. The Final Conflict*(5)- 42. Cy-Kills Escape*(1)- 43. Quest for the Creator*(2)- 44. The Fall of GoBotron*(3)- 45. Flight to Earth*(4)- 46. Return to GoBotron*(5)- 8. Time Wars*- 7. Renegade Alliance*- 18. Genius and Son*- 19. Dawn World*- 21. Forced Alliance*- 22. Invasion from the 21st Level*Pt. 1 - 23. Invasion from the 21st Level*Pt. 2 - 11. Lost on GoBotron*- 12. Cy-Kill's Shrinking Ray*- 13. The Quest for Roguestar*- 30. Renegade Rampage*Pt. 1 - 31. Renegade Rampage*Pt. 2 - 14. Ultra Zod*- 15. Sentinel*- 27. Cold Spell*- 29. Auto-madic*- 26. Tarnished Image*- 32. Search for the Ancient Gobonauts*- 33. Gameworld*- 34. Wolf in the Fold*- 35. Depth Charge*- 55. Nova Beam*- 36. Transfer Point*- 37. Steamer's Defection*- 38. The GoBot Who Cried Renegade*- 39. The Seer*- 40. Whiz Kid*- 20. Pacific Overtures*- 47. Destroy All Guardians*- 48. Escape from Elba*- 50. Clutch of Doom*- 51. The Third Column*- 52. A New Suit for Leader-1*- 53. Renegade Carnival*- 54. The Gift*- 56. The Last Magic Man*- 57. Braxis Gone Bonkers*- 58. Inside Job*- 49. Fitor to the Finish*- 16. Cy-Kill's Cataclysmic Trap*- 24. Doppelganger*- 10. Trident's Triple Threat*- 17. Speed is of the Essence*- 28. Crime Wave*- 25. Scooter Enhanced*- 41. Ring of Fire*- 59. Element of Danger*- 6. It's the Thought That Counts*- 62. The GoBots That Time Forgot*- 64. Guardian Academy*- 65. Quest for New Earth*- 63. The Secret of*Halley's Comet*- 9. Terror in Atlantis*- 61. Et Tu Cy-Kill?*- 60. Mission: GoBotron*-
