Could they just put out Car Robots subbed, or does that still interfere with legal rights?

 

Watching RID15 makes me want a deluxe Strong-arm in Legacy. Neat fembot, and legacy would G1-ify her

 

That might be one of them, I don't know if it's been made 100% clear who has the rights because the bigger issue seems to be that Hasbro simply doesn't care about the show. It was acquired/dubbed for western broadcast as a stopgap until Armada was ready after Transtech fell through. They've never shown any interest in the series since then except for the odd callback or reference with a character like Sky-Byte popping up in Cyberverse. Now whether that disinterest is because of the rights issue or because Hasbro people simply don't feel the show is worth their time since they weren't invested in it to begin with is a question for people more in the know than I am. But there has been basically zero drive from them since the day the show wrapped up to ever go back to that well in any capacity.

The secondary issue that's outside of Hasbro's purview is that physical home media is on its last legs. current movies and the like still get DVD/blu-ray releases out of some combination of tradition and appealing to the hangers-on, but by and large most companies recognize that streaming is the far better option for them because it's cheaper, more immediate, more flexible, and most importantly easier to control.

Technically speaking when you own a DVD you don't "own" the show on it. You are essentially given a license to watch the show that the company could theoretically revoke if they wanted to. They just don't because it's hilariously impractical. But even though you own the discs you are still legally barred from doing any number of things with the content of the disc that would be legal if you did own it (exhibiting it for others, copying it, distributing it, etc). Streaming cuts out that control shortcoming and lets the companies put shows out there for as long as they want and on the terms that they want with the ability to go back and change things up whenever they feel it's necessary or desirable to do so. Why wouldn't they prefer that to handle things that way instead of dealing with the limitations placed on them by physical home media? The fact that a subset of fans like us prefer the permanence of physical media is mostly immaterial because just as many if not more people have demonstrated that they're willing to forego those benefits for the convenience of watching something whenever they want on a device of their choosing with no clutter at home and with little concern for the fact that one day the (for instance) Tubi agreement will run out and those shows will vanish into the ether until Hasbro finds another avenue to distribute their stuff.

That's a good question. I would imagine that Saban's ownership probably should just be over the english dub scripts and audio and nothing would stop Hasbro from being able to release the original Japanese version of the show if they wanted to. But then again I suppose it is entirely possible that Saban's contract also included distribution rights for "the series" which could potentially be defined as any iteration of it being done in the west even without their in-house-made audio. Who knows.

that said, Hasbro has shown significant reluctance to really do much of anything with subbed Japanese Transformers series. Look at how much begging and kicking and screaming it took to release the 80s JPG1 trilogy and that only resulted in a barebones set of DVDs with no real extra care to speak of, the minimum amount of included content they could get away with, no Zone, and as soon as the run of DVDs was out they pretty much sat on the rights license until it expired and folks like TV Nihon simply quietly put their fansubs back out on the internet because nobody cared. And they haven't even come close to pretending that they'd ever deal with the other Japan-only holdouts like the Beast Wars filler duology or Go!.

Yes, some of the JPG1 trilogy shortcomings could be down to the fact that it was from dealing with Toei who are known to be pains in the ass to deal with for international licensing purposes. But aside from the occasional dip into the Japanese well for the collectors' arm of the toy market (Retro Headmasters with their Takara heads, HasLab Victory Saber) Hasbro doesn't seem to give much of a toss about the parts of Transformers that they didn't have some hand in crafting. And while I don't always agree with that stance, I can to some extent see why that might be the case: Japanese Transformers is a starkly different product aimed at a very different audience with very different storytelling expectations compared to Western Transformers.

I think I said this in one of the 'unpopular opinions' threads in one of the subforums, but anime transformers series are massively overrated by people who seem to believe that the latter-day flaws of the franchise could be fixed if they just handed the property off to a hot anime studio and let them go nuts. I'm not saying all the stuff that comes from Japan is awful, but it's on about the same or similar quality curve as the western stuff. there's some good series (Beast Wars Neo was mostly very good until the end, Victory was quite good in a somewhat "safe" way, Armada/Micron Legend was probably solidly above average), some mediocre ones (Masterforce is OK if you can accept that it usually feels like it doesn't want to be a Transformers series and would rather be a sentai/mecha show, RiD 2001 is like inoffensively enjojyable and overall I did have fun with it, but it never feels like it's trying that hard.) and some bad shows (Headmasters is a joyless slog that ignores the potential it was handed as a G1 continuation. Beast Wars II is a boring series full of bland characters and a few horribly unlikable ones. I haven't finished energon yet but even if you discard the awfulness of the dub writing the show seems to aim for being a boring underachiever at best and is an empty, random, repetitive, unconcerned mess at worst). So I think Hasbro probably kind of looks at that stuff and is somewhat less arsed about doing a lot with it because it's not "their" Transformers outside of the UT since they had a hand in those shows' production right from the start. It's not like ignoring it leaves any massively popular, grand and epic tales on the bench where they go unappreciated.


  Wow. Did that post ever go places...

 

A very enlightening post. Thank you for it, and I mean it with no sarcasm. As you said RiD 2001 was a filler show to keep fans waiting for Armada. They might see it as something not worth releasing a physical media over. If distribution rights weren’t an issue they could easily release them to streaming or upload it to YouTube. The fact this series hasn’t had a larger release yet is kinda mind boggling.

 

I so want real Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo on DVD for US format. I have some old bootlegs somewhere around here where someone recorded it off tv, but it only plays well on a couple of my players.

I prefer to buy legit, and will once available, but I don't feel bad about bootlegs if no one is currently releasing it, that's on them failing to see and meet a demand. Warner Home Video realized this a few years back with a print-to-order option for less popular tv specials and cartoon series.

I think I still have a bootleg of Zone that worked on most my players somewhere. Again, it wasn't available officially.

I still buy DVDs and also stream. But, I'm old enough to see a day coming when my budget won't allow spending on the ever increasing control the companies want or some of my tastes fading from public consciousness...

I was able to get RiD 2001 from eBay from a non-US release, but Region Free so it plays on about half my players... (I've been hoping to find BWII and BWN in region free...)

 

So far they are playing alot of cyberverse and robots in disguise 2014, animated starts at 9 pm 

 

I have no need for this channel, but am glad for any who want to take advantage of its availability.

I have:
The Original Transformers (Rhino DVD sets and S!F Matrix Forever Set)
Japanese Transformers (S!F DVD Headmasters, Masterforce Victory)
TF:TM Rhino VHS, Rhino DVD, Sony 20th DVD, S!F 30th BRD)
Beast Wars (Rhino DVD Sets)
Beast Machines (Rhino DVD Set)
Armada (Rhino DVD Sets)
Energon (Paramount DVD)
Cybertron (Paramount DVD)
Animated (Pilot,S1, S2 Paramount DVD, S3 S!F DVD)
Transformers Prime (BRD S1-3 & Predacons Rising Film)
RiD2015 (S1 S!F DVD)
Machinima Combiners Wars (Bonus Feature on Target TLK Blu Ray)

Unofficial Releases:
Japanese TF (HM, MF, Victory DVD English dubs - WK )
RiD (DVD Phoenix Ent. Singapore)
Superlink- English Subs DVD
Galaxy Force -English Subs DVD

It would be nice to have legit North American Physical media Releases of Transformers Scramble City, Zone, BWII, BW Neo, Car Robots/RiD, Mircon Legend, Energon, Galaxy Force, Transformers GO! Rescue Bots (the whole series, not just random DVD's), RiD15, Rescue Bots Academy, Machinima TR & PotP, Cyberverse, and Netflix WFC. But I do have them all "available" to watch via other means. Many of these can even be found on Youtube. I would support with my wallet however any legit Physical release.

 

Haha this is awesome!!! RID and Cyberverse are basically comfort shows to me at this point. I've seen Cyberverse all the way through maybe 4 times, it's so so good and pretty short. RID I only saw once but it's very enjoyable, happy to see it here. And prime?!? Dang that's still one of my favorites. This is an all-around win, I'm glad this channel is here, I'll be tuning in quite a bit I bet.

 

You also present sone opinions as facts!   For instance, I'd say Masterforce was one of the stronger Japanese G1 shows, and that Victory is MASSIVELY OVERRATED!  
Further, ur explanation of the benefits of streaming reads like corporate propaganda. Your personal dvd is not the issue of lost income/control; piracy is the issue. And u present streaming as the cure? I can use a torrent, right now, to illegally download any number of movies or TF programs. In fact, illegal downloading is the way most TF fans see the more obscure TF programs from Japan. Streaming does not necessarily solve that, though I would agree it helps. But my point is that the Draconian measures they are putting on consumers are ridiculous & overly restrictive... and all to pad a corporation's already generous profit margins!

Overall an excellent write-up, but man does it burn me to hear people declare physical media is dead or only for "hangers-on"... cuz u sound exactly like a hedge fund spreading propaganda to destroy something of value. "Amazon proves people don't need to shop at stores and that malls are obsolete!!!" Which is pure garbage. Amazon is looking to open physical stores because people do enjoy shopping in stores. "DVDs are completely worthless because streaming!!!" Except that streaming requires a strong internet connection, constant license communication/approval, and higher monthly internet fees just to access the media everywhere u go! There are definitely times when physical media is superior (i.e. a plane, or foreign country), especially when most companies make it difficult to download movies without the forced internet connection check-in junk!  

 

just checked the app again and it looks like the UK version of Pluto doesnt have it 

 

It's a decent show but It feels to me like far less of a Transformers show than almost everything else in the franchise. I would not be surprised to find out that the bones of the concept started as something completely different (like some kind of more generic sentai/mecha show) that was adapted for Transformers when they decided to do another series after Headmasters.

It was written from the perspective of the companies doing the streaming. I personally vastly prefer physical media, but I can see the reasons that they would put forth streaming as the "superior" option built around convenience for the consumer (a mixed bag at best, though I do honestly know a lot of people who hopped on the digital distribution bandwagon to the maximum level and their #1 reason is almost always "why should I need a giant shelf full of discs when I can just watch it on my computer/phone/smart tv whenever I want?") while on their end it's going to be a mixture of profit (both from the removal of cost associated with dvd production and distribution and the fact that they theoretically get either subscription fees or some kind of added revenue like advertising in perpetuity with streaming platforms) and the fact that they now have greater say on what the "definitive" version of the product is by being able to add/remove material on demand or make alterations as they see fit. Like if tomorrow a cast/crew member associated heavily with a show became radioactive for some reason they could theoretically pull the show or edit the cast member out of episodes or re-dub them or whatever (admittedly an extreme example for older shows, but it's happened. I know of at least one video game that replaced the entirety of the recorded dialogue for the main character after the actor was accused of various improprieties. This is something that's only possible with the combo of digital distribution and perpetual updates and would've been impossible in generations past where games were entirely self-contained on their physical media, short of producing a running change in copies created. Like, for example, a sports game replacing the cover star after he was charged with a crime)

Of course streaming doesn't solve piracy. I never said it does. I said it offers the creator more control because people tend not to think about the "true" nature of what physical media ownership is supposed to represent and streaming platforms functioning under the auspices of a "product as a service" model give them more control over those aspects. The cops aren't going to bust your door down for lending a set of DVDs to a friend or holding a movie night where you have a dozen people over to watch something even though by the strictest interpretation of the licensing rights that are part of that DVD those things may very well be disallowed. They wouldn't do that because it's impractical and irrelevant. But that sort of thing does potentially cost the company sales maybe. But on the other side a streaming platform lets them enforce those demands more easily. You can't lend a show to a friend if you don't have the physical media and sure you can share the password to your account but it's entirely possible for the provider to detect the sudden use from a different IP address or possible use from multiple locations at once and cut you off if that's disallowed in the terms of service (something we see Netflix doing more now than they did even a few years ago)

Well... yeah. Corporations exist to make money. If they weren't doing that they wouldn't be doing their job. It might be unpalatable but it's kind of what they're there for.

No, it's what's happening. Physical media is dying. DVD and blu-ray sales are decreasing at a catastrophic rate in recent years. And in lockstep with the realization that they can a) save money by making less of a thing fewer people want and b) get away with it because demonstrably fewer people care about it, companies are releasing far less physical media than ever before. We haven't had a complete series physical release of a Transformers show since, I think, Prime. RiD 15 and Rescue Bots never got full releases. WFC never got anything. and I would be shocked if any full series from this point on got a blu ray or DVD release. Because the market shows that enough people are fine with that for it not to be an issue. Like I said I like physical media too and I have a big shelf full of DVDs and blu rays of my favorite series and movies, but you and I are not the majority in the market. Or even a large enough minority to make a big deal out of the issue that gets Hasbro's (or whoever's) attention. It sucks but it's the way things are. So no, I'm not "a hedge fund spreading propaganda to destroy something of value." Quite frankly that's an insulting assumption for you to make.

The first two statements are strawmanny oversimplifications/charicatures of what I said, and also far beyond the scope of what I was talking about which was primarily related to The Transformers and how Hasbro has progressed the media side of things. But for what it's worth, malls are dying. And Amazon has already shuttered a bunch of the stores they opened up because they weren't doing enough business to justify staying open. And while streaming requires additional costs and services beyond what a DVD player needs, the market for it seems to show that people are willing to pay for/put up with those. People don't have to pay for Netflix/Disney+/Amazon Prime Video/Hulu/Whatever but lots do and do so gladly (or at least with not more than the usual amount of complaining about how expensive things are). You raise valid concerns about the shortcomings of streaming, but are wrapping them in a lot of very personal anger and frustration and then seem to be treating those concerns as universal. Not terribly dissimilar from the "presenting opinion as fact" accusation that you leveled at me.

Look, I don't want to make a fight of this. I honestly hadn't even intended to get this invested in this whole topic because I actually came here like 20 minutes ago to take care of my own project and not a response in this thread. And I apologize if this all came off as harsher than I intended. But I don't really appreciate the way you attacked me because you didn't like how I presented myself while also presenting some of your own thoughts in much the same way. If you had just asked for clarification on what I meant by some of my comments I could've easily explained their intent or grounding without the need to accuse me of being some sort of propagandist here to aid in the destruction of pure and beautiful physical media.

So I think I'm checking out at this point before the thread gets any more hijacked than it already is.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

The app have ads?

 

I can't find any Transformers stuff. Adventures of the Wilderness Family plays when I go to Pluto and there's no way of pausing it!

 

Bottomline is all you have to do is walk into a store like Best Buy and look for their DVD/Blu-Ray section, and when/if you finally find what little they carry stuffed on a few racks in the back of the store you'll have all the proof anyone should need about the current state of physical media.

 

You sure that isn't the result of Amazon offering drastically lower prices and (often) next-day delivery?

 

Part of it, but Amazon sells the other electronics and computers at competitive prices, too, and those sections haven't lost as much ground or in some cases haven't been completely phased out like physical media.

 

Yeah, still interferes with the licensing. RID 2000/Car Robots are a very wibbly mess of licensing between Disney and Saban who owns the license rights, Hasbro who owns the character rights, and Fox who may still own the syndication rights.

The app has ads placed in intervals, with some channel idents spaced in between. Think streaming with breaks. I've been a Pluto TV watcher for years now, because I like that they have (at the time) a 24/7 Bond movie channel, a Doctor Who channel, and a Tokusatsu channel that has massively improved over time for their content.

Without question. The move to digital has been here for over 5 years, it's just way more prevalent now. The only caveat is that with digital owned content, you only own it for as long as the service exists. Otherwise you technically do/do not own it.

 

That is the downside, however I think the younger the generation the less important ownership really becomes. There's always the argument of preservation, but otherwise by and large the idea of "owning" all of your TV shows and movies on home video has become a novelty.

 

That's probably due to the current generation having access to downloads / streaming of pretty much everything. Why bother going to a store and waiting in line to buy a game on release day when you can download it in seconds and be playing minutes after release?

Nevermind that the streaming service can go down / your account gets hacked / etc and you loose an entire media library...

 

They are currently out on DVD, $40 for the whole thing

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers...87&sprefix=g1+transformers+dvd,aps,121&sr=8-4