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Darth Bombshell wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:There's also Transformers: Zone, which Shout! Factory is not releasing.

Was there ever an actual reason stated as to why they weren't going to, or is it just down to those involved not wanting to?

TFwiki on Toei: Perhaps unflatteringly, Toei is notorious among Western anime distributors for their difficulty to work with. For distributers releasing their material outside of Japan, Toei often refuses to provide quality video masters. The masters they do provide are often of terrible picture and sound quality, and some times are even incomplete in their material. The masters for The Headmasters cartoon Toei provided to Metrodome for UK release contained none of the before credits recaps and next episode segments; unfortunate, as some of those segments contained new content and not just clips. For the US releases of Scramble City, Sony was provided the video but refused the soundtrack (forcing them to replace it with a non-optional audio commentary). Shout! Factory fared even worse, being outright denied in their request for Scramble City entirely, citing, "Toei has no interest in licensing to third parties". Toei later denied them a distribution license for the Zone OVA. Toei's stubbornness to cooperate with Western companies is infamous outside of Transformers, particularly among Western distributors of Sailor Moon material.

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:There's also Transformers: Zone, which Shout! Factory is not releasing.

Was there ever an actual reason stated as to why they weren't going to, or is it just down to those involved not wanting to?

Here is the reason:

TFwiki on Toei: Perhaps unflatteringly, Toei is notorious among Western anime distributors for their difficulty to work with. For distributers releasing their material outside of Japan, Toei often refuses to provide quality video masters. The masters they do provide are often of terrible picture and sound quality, and some times are even incomplete in their material. The masters for The Headmasters cartoon Toei provided to Metrodome for UK release contained none of the before credits recaps and next episode segments; unfortunate, as some of those segments contained new content and not just clips. For the US releases of Scramble City, Sony was provided the video but refused the soundtrack (forcing them to replace it with a non-optional audio commentary). Shout! Factory fared even worse, being outright denied in their request for Scramble City entirely, citing, "Toei has no interest in licensing to third parties". Toei later denied them a distribution license for the Zone OVA. Toei's stubbornness to cooperate with Western companies is infamous outside of Transformers, particularly among Western distributors of Sailor Moon material.

I hope that answers your question. And also... To be honest, if you want to have a good laugh, watch the diorama version of Scramble City.

Duke of Luns wrote:So it's Toei's fault and not Shout Factory's that there were no episode bumpers in Headmasters? Huh, and I thought the video quality was kinda off, though I chalked it up to it being from the 80's.

But did something change with Masterforce(and I'm assuming)Victory? I recall the reason the sets were delayed so long is cause they got better master copies, and thank goodness for that, cause Masterforce looks excellent and has the bumpers/next episode segments.

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:Here is the reason:

TFwiki on Toei: Perhaps unflatteringly, Toei is notorious among Western anime distributors for their difficulty to work with. For distributers releasing their material outside of Japan, Toei often refuses to provide quality video masters. The masters they do provide are often of terrible picture and sound quality, and some times are even incomplete in their material. The masters for The Headmasters cartoon Toei provided to Metrodome for UK release contained none of the before credits recaps and next episode segments; unfortunate, as some of those segments contained new content and not just clips. For the US releases of Scramble City, Sony was provided the video but refused the soundtrack (forcing them to replace it with a non-optional audio commentary). Shout! Factory fared even worse, being outright denied in their request for Scramble City entirely, citing, "Toei has no interest in licensing to third parties". Toei later denied them a distribution license for the Zone OVA. Toei's stubbornness to cooperate with Western companies is infamous outside of Transformers, particularly among Western distributors of Sailor Moon material.

I hope that answers your question.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:Here is the reason:

TFwiki on Toei: Perhaps unflatteringly, Toei is notorious among Western anime distributors for their difficulty to work with. For distributers releasing their material outside of Japan, Toei often refuses to provide quality video masters. The masters they do provide are often of terrible picture and sound quality, and some times are even incomplete in their material. The masters for The Headmasters cartoon Toei provided to Metrodome for UK release contained none of the before credits recaps and next episode segments; unfortunate, as some of those segments contained new content and not just clips. For the US releases of Scramble City, Sony was provided the video but refused the soundtrack (forcing them to replace it with a non-optional audio commentary). Shout! Factory fared even worse, being outright denied in their request for Scramble City entirely, citing, "Toei has no interest in licensing to third parties". Toei later denied them a distribution license for the Zone OVA. Toei's stubbornness to cooperate with Western companies is infamous outside of Transformers, particularly among Western distributors of Sailor Moon material.

I hope that answers your question.

It does. So...essentially, in so many words, it's all down to Toei being run by a bunch of jerks?

Hmm. Makes me glad I got the versions I have, honestly.