So...best sticking with the UK/Australian sets if you want accurate subtitles then?

If the Shout! release had been targeted to the core anime-buying audience rather than just Transformers fans, they'd be calling for the translator to lose their job, and a re-issue of the sets with accurate subtitles at the very least - which isn't unprecedented.

All in all, very bizarre and somewhat disappointing behaviour on the part of Shout! and/or Hasbro with all the unnecessary name changes.

Do we know if anything was done to Killbison's favourite gesture?

 

Personally, I don't mind some of the name changes at all. IMO, it serves as a bit of a bridge to those G1 fans who are coming into it blindly.

 

Yeah, but they aren't. This set is aimed at Transformers fans, and I wouldn't expect there to be a lot of interest in these shows within the larger anime community.

And in the case of Headmasters, the name changes are preferred, imo, because it's the Japanese show that originally changed all the character names wholesale for NO REASON. All Shout Factory's Headmasters release did was change the names back to what they are supposed to be. They are American-created characters. Changing someone like "Kup" into "Char" is just as stupid as when it happens the other way around and "Hikaru Ichijo" becomes "Rick Hunter".


On the other hand, yeah, the inconsistency kind of does make a mess out of Masterforce and Victory.

 

After I settle down from the BotCon excitement, I'll try to get around to checking out what they did with the Victory names.

 

Those are the name changes that are a problem, not the ones for Headmasters, which were similarly changed for the UK set with lots of perfectly valid reasoning behind them.

 

I really wish they had gone with Carb instead of Cab. Or, even Hosehead, as I stated earlier he seemed to get a weird pass on his name, every other character who had identical (or nearly) toys other than Ginrai got their US name.

 

Despite the dwindling familiarity between it and G1, I'm indeed enjoying Masterforce much more than Headmasters. Only beef is the weak transformation sound the Autobots have, but that was started in Headmasters. And some of the name localizations are silly (ie calling a human "Fangry").

 

Yeah, that is nearly everyone's reaction. I'll admit the first episode had me pretty worried, though. In the first episode you see the series is going to star a little kid, which is rarely a good sign, and that the show is going to revolve around the second-lamest gimmick in the entire G1 toy line: Pretenders. You get introduced to a group of them and the Pretender characters look like they belong more in an episode of Spiral Zone (or maybe Inhumanoids) than in a TF show.

But by the second or third episode, the show lands on its feet and is pretty consistently fun to watch from then on. Even the kids are entertaining. And making Pretenders cool is a real accomplishment. Almost makes me wonder if Toei could work that same magic on Action Masters. Probably not.

 

I'm not really minding the kids at all (something that doesn't happen often in a TF series for me). I love the little facial effect that's made when the Autobot Pretenders come out of their shells. Its almost like an early form of CGI.

 

Yeah, that stood out to me, as well. It's probably my favorite part about them. Like the planes of their faces slide into place.

 

I just received my set. I work 10 hour shifts and have 2 young kids so it’ll be a while before I can get through the whole set.

I’ve already seen the Star TV dubs and the TV-Nihon fansubs. But it is nice to have this series officially released in the US. I might try to get a hold of the Madman release eventually because for whatever sick reason I don’t mind watching the badly performed English dubbed version.

I noticed the lack of the narrated introduction to the first episode of Headmasters right away and was slightly disappointed. But I’ll get over it. My main complaint so far isn’t with Shout but is with Hasbro for not letting Shout include the English dub. But I’m sure I’ll have tons of complaints as I get through the series.

 

Skullgrin was one of my favorite toys as a kid, and even tho he's a bumbling idiot in Masterforce, I can't help but love the guy. His voice actor is awesome too.

Is Buster the most andgrogenous TF character ever? I swear every time I look at that "guy", I can't help but think that "he" needs a female voice actor.

 

To anyone watching Headmasters from the Japanese Collection set, do you guys have a problem with the opening credits sequence from about the middle of disc 2 all the way through until the final episode?

I bought the Shout Factory Headmasters-only release, and there is a weird strobe effect during the opening credits from about the middle of disc 2 on, that I assume hit the entire production run. I was curious if anyone else has experienced it on their Headmasters set, or if the mistake extended to the Trilogy Collection box set. Luckily, the episodes themselves aren't affected, but it's still really annoying.

 

That was in the original production in Japan. It was on my VHS tapes many, many years ago. I assume it was an intended effect, but I have no idea why they did it.

 

If it was intended, I wonder why it only was on certain episodes and not the entire series. In any case, it makes the opening completely unwatchable. Bizarre, but thanks for the info.

 

It's got something to do with a light gun interaction thing. Kind of like how Duck Hunt works. I think the TV network it ran on at the time did it for several shows. I read it somewhere on TFwiki...

 

Holy crap, that is weird but kind of cool. That would explain why only the Decepticon/Destron characters had the strobe effect.

 

I had totally forgot about that gimmick. There were TV shows/VHS games in the US that did that.

 

I found the mention of it at the bottom of this page:

Explosion on Mars!! Maximus Is in Danger - Transformers Wiki

Crazy.

 

Here's the full story on it.

Video Challenger - Transformers Wiki

Has anyone hit Victory yet? I am curious as to name changes.