Shout! Factory's Brian Ward has shared some new information regarding their upcoming Takara Collections releases via
Shout! Factory's Community forum. Many fans have been wondering ever since "Transformers Japanese Collection-Headmasters"'s announcement if they would include new dubs or possibly the old fan dubs. The answer is unfortunately no on both counts. Though Ward does say they tried very hard, but Hasbro ultimately said no.
I really can't make this any more clear. We've tried and tried to no avail. The brand team at Hasbro is dead set against including the dubs on the DVDs. They're not happy with the fact that the names of some of their most popular characters have been changed and find it confusing to their less hardcore fans in the United States. Furthermore, there are other things they've heard and find objectionable; content they feel to be detrimental to their brand name. As a result, they will not currently allow me to include the dubs.
the topic of fan dubs or new dubs has also been broached with the brand team. In order to have anything like this approved for inclusion on the sets, they want approvals over the scripts, the voice cast and then the final audio. We don't have the money required for a new dub. For starters, it takes studio time. Then, it takes paying the actors. Everyone asks the same question; would the original voice cast be able to come back and voice the characters? Simple answer: no. There are members of that voice cast that charge as much as $10k just to make a public convention appearance. That's a single person. Now multiply that by the number of voice actors. We don't have that kind of money. These guys aren't going to do this simply out of love for the show. For you, it's a passion. For them, it's a job. And once the voice cast completes their task, we then have to remix the entire show. This is all very expensive and incredibly time consuming.
so there you have it. It's not that we don't want it included. I very much want the option of the Japanese or English language tracks. But Hasbro is equally adamant about keeping them off. You're more than welcome to try to convince them otherwise, but believe me; when you have this conversation with them, you realize very early on how little love they actually have for the Takara shows, let alone the English dubs they find to be confusIng and offensive.
Brian
In regards to "Super-God Master Force" and "Victory", he says we will
probably get them. Apparently the sales of "Transformers Japanese Collection-Headmasters" will be used to gauge interest in the project. It's still up in the air on "Scramble City" and "Zone".
I can say that you should expect follow-ups of at least Super-God Masterforce and Victory. I can't really make any promises, regarding Scramble City or Zone at this time. That being said, Headmasters will certainly be used as a rough gauge of the series' popularity. After all, it is the only one of the three that is a direct continuation from S3, so we wouldn't necessarily expect the same response to the subsequent series.
Hope to have more information for you guys soon.
Brian
Lastly, when asked about the possibility of all three shows in one set he had this to say:
Unfortunately, I can't reveal the release strategy, until that information is cleared by PR and Hasbro. But I will say that I'm currently working on all three sets, in hopes that the sales of Headmasters will prove the others are worthy releases.
Brian
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