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Youtube member likeits1985 has reviewed the Transformers: The Japanese Collection DVD set now available from Shout! Factory.

This set includes Transformers Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory. This review is an overview of the entire package and not of the DVDs themselves.

horrible shows. masterforce is probably the worst of the 3

I agree some extras would have been nice, but there's no telling what interviews or such are still available from overseas. Those may be lost... or might not have been filmed at the time during the 80s. (?)

... but I disagree about adding a non-transforming figure or clear transparency art, etc. Those would have driven the price up a bit to manufacture something. I'd rather get the set as cheap as possible without another useless piece of shelf-candy.

I know the real costs in this have been licensing an overseas product. Shout may simply be passing the set along at as cheap as possible to the fans. And at 89.99 in their store, that's three full seasons of cartoons. You sound really disappointed at the price, but that's $30 per set, which seems fair looking at other similar full-season box sets. The fact that there are three box sets together, does make it SEEM like a lot of money. But it's not too bad, really.

The REAL missing elements I see here are the one-offs like Scramble City and Zone. Are we never going to see those stateside?

SHOUT, please consider a DVD of these episodes.

gothsaurus wrote:The REAL missing elements I see here are the one-offs like Scramble City and Zone. Are we never going to see those stateside?

Not a whole lot of material in those two. Perhaps if the first one does well in sales, we might see a Japanese Collection II with Zone, Scramble City, Beast Wars II and Neo.

The Scramble City "one shot" was included in the bonus features of the Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary DVD 5 years ago (which should still be readily available). So that was good enough for me, but I see what your saying...I agree with this video review that for that price your not getting alot of bang. When this kind of situation occurs with DVDs these days, the culprit is usually just good ol fashioned GREED. Similar to how DOTM came out in Sept/Oct without any bonus features, they know hardcore fans will buy it.......and then buy the second version with extras 6 months later (insert SouthPark "You bastards" here). I'm not trying to suggest that I think another version is coming of this boxset, but at the same time I don't think this was made for fans by fans. If Shout really cared about the substance of the material they would have made an effort to add stuff that we the fans would have appreciated, even if it was just Botcon crap (which would benefit Shout and Hasbro). I mean take the RHINO dvd versions of G1 from ten years ago, remember those cool loading screens, the bonus interviews with cast members and creators, now that was worth the price.
Make no mistake this price will drop soon enough, SHOUT is counting on the hardcore fans to take it up the whazoo and pay this initial amount, as those initial buyers thin out and inventory stays high they will drop the price for this set, I'm guessing $60 by the end of the first year. I just got a new copy of Headmasters this past week from Amazon (the same version in this set) at a cheap price (less than $20) so I'm good for a while and will patiently wait for this set to drop.
As a completist yes I would be intersted to have them all, but its hard for me to watch them sometimes because if you wanna keep up with the story you gotta sit there and read the sometimes poorly translated subtext while at the same time trying to enjoy the 80's style animation as well...it can get taxing during action sequences LOL.

*And one last thought, I know it would have been too expensive to re-dub this animation as was dicussed in a recent podcast episode here on Siebertron, and I agree with that assesment, but what would be hilarious to me is if someone like RandellNG or Dr. Smoov or Blastardinc over on youtube did a voice accurate translated re-dub of all of these episodes (just to give the finger to these dvd companies) now that I would pay $100 for! LOL

G1 Legacy wrote:The Scramble City "one shot" was included in the bonus features of the Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary DVD 5 years ago

This was the version without any audio, right? I don't count that as a real release. (Some licensing issue prevented it. Instead a fan or two discussed the episode.)

And again, interviewing recent actors is one thing... tracking down and interviewing overseas actors from over 25 years ago is another. They'd have to find them... AND have the old codgers be WILLING to do an interview. I'd love it, but I'm not going to complain if they can't get it. Any of that would drive the price up, too. Tough choice.

OH! But yeah, I totally agree with you G1Legacy about the live action movies gauging for money with the bare bones release... then an overblown 7 disc set. That kind of devious market manipulation offends me... that's the reason I simply boycotted the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars sets. So frustrating I'd rather just not watch them.

For new fans who haven't seen them, these ARE sometimes tough to get through. Very Japanese in style. Still, I'd take these over the Unicron Trilogy any day... either dub.

For new fans who haven't seen them, these ARE sometimes tough to get through. Very Japanese in style.

All I'm going to say to that is:

Danna nah nah nuh' HEADS ON!
Danna nah nah nuh' HEADS ON!
Danna nah nah nuh' HEADS ON!

For the love of Primus, that theme song makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills, I got that s__t stuck in my head earlier this week and was contemplating Justin Bieber to wipe my mental hard drive, and that my friends is dangerous

*And speaking of Bieber fever, could they have portrayed Daniel Witwicky any gayer in this series...I mean hanging out with Wheelie? Seriously? And I thought Chip was bad.

But that being said (and I know I'm gonna catch flack for saying this) I would still take this DVD set over all of Transformers: Prime anyday!

Ha ha ha ha. You nailed it on Wheelie and Daniel.

Now I have the end theme for Victory stuck in my head... with the little prancing dinosaurs in a conga line. And the lyrics asking those ever pressing questions like "Did Victory Saber wet the bed????" Gads, that's priceless stuff.

Chinchinchin Chichinpui!!!
Papapa payapapa!!!

Now you have it stuck in your head, too.

I wonder if the Japanese Transfans have had the same kind of trouble over the years watching our original G1 stuff? (Probobly not, most of those super geniuses know English as a second lanuage just as well as or better than we do) LOL

"Ahhhh, silly Americans think Headmasters come from Nebulous, hahahahahaha SO STUPID!"

griftimus prime wrote:horrible shows. masterforce is probably the worst of the 3

No one cares what you think.

gothsaurus wrote:The REAL missing elements I see here are the one-offs like Scramble City and Zone. Are we never going to see those stateside?

SHOUT, please consider a DVD of these episodes.

They have. They've tried to get Scramble City for the Matrix DVD set, but were denied it by Toei.

They tried to get Zone for this set. No word yet if they did or not.

LOST Cybertronian wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:The REAL missing elements I see here are the one-offs like Scramble City and Zone. Are we never going to see those stateside?

Not a whole lot of material in those two. Perhaps if the first one does well in sales, we might see a Japanese Collection II with Zone, Scramble City, Beast Wars II and Neo.

No way would we get Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo so soon. Beast Wars II just came out on DVD in Japan for the first time since its original broadcast 13 years ago. BWNeo still isn't out on DVD yet. So, if we are to ever get them stateside, it'll be a while before such happens.

G1 Legacy wrote:The Scramble City "one shot" was included in the bonus features of the Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary DVD 5 years ago (which should still be readily available).

Yeah, with no audio! We need sound! The UK Ultimate Edition of the G1 movie included it subbed and with sound, but it was a bootleg version.

G1 Legacy wrote:As a completist yes I would be intersted to have them all, but its hard for me to watch them sometimes because if you wanna keep up with the story you gotta sit there and read the sometimes poorly translated subtext while at the same time trying to enjoy the 80's style animation as well...it can get taxing during action sequences LOL.

Not when there's little-to-no talking during the action parts.

G1 Legacy wrote:

For new fans who haven't seen them, these ARE sometimes tough to get through. Very Japanese in style.

All I'm going to say to that is:

Danna nah nah nuh' HEADS ON!
Danna nah nah nuh' HEADS ON!
Danna nah nah nuh' HEADS ON!

There's no S. "HEAD ON!"

G1 Legacy wrote:*And speaking of Bieber fever, could they have portrayed Daniel Witwicky any gayer in this series...I mean hanging out with Wheelie? Seriously? And I thought Chip was bad.

Both characters were changed for this show. Daniel was reduced to acting about half his own age, and Wheelie was changed from a cheery rhymer to a punk tough guy.

gothsaurus wrote:Now I have the end theme for Victory stuck in my head... with the little prancing dinosaurs in a conga line. And the lyrics asking those ever pressing questions like "Did Victory Saber wet the bed????" Gads, that's priceless stuff.

Chinchinchin Chichinpui!!!
Papapa payapapa!!!

Now you have it stuck in your head, too.

Dude, I have that, and every single Japanese TF song, on my phone.

G1 Legacy wrote:I wonder if the Japanese Transfans have had the same kind of trouble over the years watching our original G1 stuff? (Probobly not, most of those super geniuses know English as a second lanuage just as well as or better than we do) LOL

"Ahhhh, silly Americans think Headmasters come from Nebulous, hahahahahaha SO STUPID!"

They got "The Rebirth" too. Much later on Laserdisc. So, they got both versions of the story, but one just holds the higher regard than the other.