Hey guys, new to the boards and needed info on Transformers DVD’s that are out. I want to get all the episodes that have the original cartoon and the continuation of the original over in Japan (I think they were called Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory). I’m from Canada and speak only English so these have to be in English (I’ve heard they come in other languages). I also heard about 5 years ago new cartoons came out. Could you give me a list of what they are and if they are similar to the older ones.
The series are as follows: G1 (DVD release, Rhino) Headmasters (Region 0 release in the UK, you need to play PAL DVDs though. Subtitled and also has the godawful dub) Beast Wars (Rhino has released these) Beast Machines (just released in the US by Rhino) Robots in Disguise (Only released in the UK, Region 2 encoding though) Armada (Season 1 boxed set only, covering the first 26 episodes. Released by Rhino) So far, the rest of Armada, Energon, and Cybertron have not been done, save for the odd compilation disk. Masterforce and Victory are coming soon in the UK, though, same details as the Headmasters set. Sadly, there are no plans for the US on RiD, or the three Takara series. Also, to my knowledge, there are no plans at all to release DVDs of Beast Wars Second and Beast Wars Neo.
Galaxy Force, Super Link, and Masterforce have all been subbed and completed by www.tvnihon.com. Headmasters and Victory are currently being worked on.
G1 box sets were issued by Rhino a while back, though with the movie some of us are hoping for re-releases. There were 5 sets- Season 1 Season 2 Part 1 Season 2 Part 2 Season 3 Part 1 Season 3 Part 2 + Season 4 (season 4 = Rebirth) There's also a Chinese boxset that has the entire G1 cartoon on I believe 9 discs (I think it stops with Rebirth), spiffy box, and I think it still has the english audio track.
Trust me, avoid Armada/MicronLegend, Energon/SuperLink, Cybertron/GalaxyForce, Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory with your life.
PAL means the DVDs are Region 2 encoded, which means you will need an R2/All Region DVD player to watch them. Don't watch the dubs of the japanese series, they will only sour you.
It's a hell of a lot more then 9 discs... i'd say more upwards of 25-30. And yes, it still has the original english track, and the movie.
No, PAL means that the video is in PAL format. Video standards are a seperate entity from regional coding.
He needs a PAL-capable TV or a player with a standards converter. Just having a player that is immune to region coding isn't going to enable him to watch the discs if he doesent have either of those. Saying that PAL = R2 (in any sense, context or way whatsoever) is both factually incorrect and misleading to the person that you are trying to advise, as is saying that having a region-free player is gaurenteed to give you the ability to watch discs in a different video format.
I was waiting for the G1 sets to drop a little in price, but now I can't find any now. Did I completely miss the boat?
You can rent them from Blockbuster. I'll still find the odd set at Best Buy, but, they're still $40 to $50.
G1 sets are out of print I beleive. if you have a computer with a DVD player you shouldn't have any trouble watching a Region 0 DVD, regardless if its PAL (Europe) or NTSC (Americas)
