The Energon Pub

Okay... so I'm a bit of a G1 purist. But I would like to expand my transformers knowledge past G1 and the toys I have.

I would like to watch all of Beast Wars, Energon, or any other TV series possible.

So the quesiton is... how many different cartoon series were there? G1, Energon, Beast Wars, and what else.

Second question is how do I go about watching them? Are any of them on DVD besdies G1? I have all the G1's and the movie.

Do I have to record it on DVR?

Can someone lend some advise?

Well, the Armada show is really hit or miss.

It has some fantastic episodes and some horrible, horrible failures. Watching the whole thing is pretty rewarding though. The last 10 or so episodes are awesome.

Energon is a horrible show (the dubbed version). It has some of the worst writing in any series. "Let's revive Unicron! Great idea! There's no WAY that plan can fail. "

Those two shows follow a true chronilogical order.

Cybertron is next. It can stand alone, but has been forced as a 3rd part of the series. Essentially, the collossal F'up that is the end of Energon alters reality, places, people, and characters change slightly and the black hole left by Unicron is threatening everything. Good show. Watch it whether you tack it on the the other two or not (I do.)

US G1
G1 Seasons 1-2
Animated Movie
G1 Seasons 3-4
Jap G1
Headmasters
Super God Masterforce
Victory
Zone (only one episode)
US
G2 (just season 1 of G1 with new cut scenes)
Beast Wars seasons 1-3
Jap
Beast Wars II
Beast Wars Neo
US
Beast Machines season 1-2
Jap(US title in brackets)
Car Robots (Robots in Disguise)
Micron Legend (Armada)
Superlink (Energon)
Galaxy Force (Cybertron)

All of the US and Jap G1 is available on DVD in boxed sets in a couple of different regions and there have definitly been region 2 releases of RiD and BM.

Best bet for getting a taster is to head over to the Wiki, geet an episode list for a given series and see whats on youtube.

I've probably missed something somewhere, but that's a rough chronological overview of everything that I can think of up to the new movie and Animated.

That's a great idea. I will look them up online and see if I can find the episodes that way... in the off season we have a lot of down time in the office so it's perfect for watching episodes of Transformers I have never seen.

Thanks two both of you for the info.

Any clue as to when any of these other series will be released on DVD?

Armada and Energon have both had releases of selected episodes but no full season sets as yet. Probably the next priority for whoever has the rights at the moment should be Beast Wars, there's not been a DVD version out for a while (if ever? I'm sure there was one a while back, but...) and with that series popularity it'd be a good seller. BW II and Neo are seriously unlikely anytime soon. There's been a fair bit of speculation about Sony(?) putting out Cybertron to capitalise on the movie having been out this year but that hasn't happened.

The next releases that I'm aware of are the region free boxed sets of the Japanese G1 series' that are coming out from Madman in Australia (there's already region 2 versions on the market). Headmasters is due any time with Masterforce and Victory to follow in the new year.

With the Japanese series only Headmasters, RiD, Armada, Energon and Cybertron have had English dubbed versions (not counting fan dubs) so other Japanese series you should expect to find subtitled if at all. To be honest given the quality of the dubs that we get you're probably better off with subbed versions of any of the Japanese shows anyway.

If you can play Region 4 DVD's, <a href="http://www.madman.com.au/transformers/?utm_source=Sibertron.org&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=Transformers%2BHeadmasters">Madman.com</a> will become your new best friend.

They have the best <a href="http://www.madman.com.au/actions/series.do?method=home&videogramId=2758">Beast Wars Boxsets</a> (a season per box) with lots of good extras, as well as having all of G1 in a handy <a href="http://www.madman.com.au/actions/series.do?method=home&videogramId=1064">17 Disc Set</a>.

On top of that, as waaaaghlord said, the Japanese <a href="http://www.madman.com.au/actions/catalogue.do?releaseId=8932&method=view">Headmasters</a> series has been released as a region free set (and having just bought it, I can say it is most definitely worth a viewing if you are a G1 Fan.) With Masterforce and Victory coming before June 2008.

Australia and Europe have just had the Sony barebones releases of the <a href="http://www.ezydvd.com.au/mech/quicksearch.zml?f=title&q=beast+machines&x=0&y=0">Beast Machines</a> series split over 4 discs. These discs have the episodes and thats it.

Armada was given a full DVD release over here, split over 15 dvd's with 3-4 episodes per disc, its too expensive and far too much effort to collect them now. Energon has had its first 8 episodes released (with the USA getting 2 further 4 episode collections with episodes missing: ie episodes 34, 35, 37, 40 on a disc.)

Cybertron had 1 disc with episodes 1-4 released, but that was July last year.

Hope that helps.[/url]

not much to contribute with regards to DVD releases, but if you ever plan to go beyond G1, i suggest watching Beast Wars season 1-3 first. and you have to watch this show with an open mind or you will never appreciate it at all. trust me, you'll see the strong, tight connections to G1 by the middle of the 2nd season.

Beast Wars, RID, and Armada are the only shows yu need to see since Energon and Cybertron did nothing for the transformers franchise besides realising toys (which some people hate).

are the new region free japanese show dvds worth waiting for or should I just get the region 2 versions? is there much difference in content?

While it's not a series, Scramble City is worth checking out. There is no official English Dub or subtitled version that I am aware of but there are some fan made dubs. Some of the voices are okay but no where near close to the original voice actors. The only person in my opinion that can hold a candle to the original cast is Dr. Smoov, he's spot on. I suppose if you are going to do a parody, it makes it even funnier that you do it right.

Anyways, Scramble City is G1 based. It was a promotional show created to introduce the Japanese audience to the Scramble City toy line. In the Transformers continuity, it takes place sometime around or after season 2 but years before before the events of the animated movie. It shows the first appearance of several Transformers including Ultra Magnus, Metroplex, and Trypticon.

There is also plenty of combiner action, so if you're a fan of the combiners it's worth a look. It even features some unusual things involving combiners using their scramble powers. They can split apart to avoid being hit and then simply fly back together. They can still function with a missing arm or leg. There is even an example of one of the Stunticons connecting to the Aerialbots and damaging Superion as a result. Pretty cool when you consider the show was really meant to be not much more than an advertisement. Then again, what cartoon at that time wasn't a 30 minute commercial for a toy line?

This is all good info here. Thanks peeps!

What are region 4 DVD's????

Mattamus Prime wrote:What are region 4 DVD's????

Region 4 is Australia. The US is region 1 and the UK region 2. Not sure where the rest of the world fits in. There's a sticky at the top of this forum about hacking DVD players to be multiregion although I've never had to with mine as yet (cheap piece of $#!+ needs replacing anyway).

waaaaghlord wrote:

Mattamus Prime wrote:What are region 4 DVD's????

Region 4 is Australia. The US is region 1 and the UK region 2. Not sure where the rest of the world fits in. There's a sticky at the top of this forum about hacking DVD players to be multiregion although I've never had to with mine as yet (cheap piece of $#!+ needs replacing anyway).

The new Madman Headmasters set is region free, so it will play anywhere in the world, no hassles. I believe that Madman will be doing the same deal for Masterforce and Victory too.