Like the previous two, I like this one, but it's definitely not the best.
Though, also like the first two, it too wasn't spared from the ethnocentric subtitles of Shout!/Hasbro. Really? Blacker is not Gripper. Holi is not Stakeout.
And, again, they got the logo for The Headmasters placed at the bottom of the Victory DVD cover just like they did for Masterforce.
Forgotten wrote:Much better show than Headmasters or Masterforce in my opinion.
Pardon me, but it what ways is Victory *better* than Masterforce? The majority of Victory was a Saturday morning cartoon-styled series with standalone episodic plots that barely linked together, a leader who overshadowed his teammates due to the show trying to force down our throats just how
awesome he was (when he was really just a bland, cardboard cut-out of a leader), pitiful Destrons who were either comic relief or generic soldiers who could barely hold their own in battle without Deszaras having to come in and save them (at least, until Liokaiser finally shows up, who literally saves this show from being less than great, and is possibly the best Destron/Decepticon combiner character ever
, but I digress), a distinct lack of any and all unique insert songs for battle scenes that led to them having to use the theme song in EVERY episode to the point where it got so repetitive it lost nearly all its luster and lyrical intrigue, and a plot that came in way too late to save any reason for us having to sit through so much filler material before it finally got going.
As awesome as Liokaiser, Victory Leo, Victory Saber, and the plot involving the space fortress were, they were overshadowed by the slow-paced mundane feel of this show that keeps it as being tied with series like G1 and Armada as being "just average".
With Masterforce, however, we got a near-coherent plot from start to finish, engaging characters who almost all got great focus/development/screentime, plenty of insert songs to keep things unique and spiced up in select battle scenes, a leader who literally started from the ground up and rose to excellence on his own as the series progressed (he didn't even want to be leader at first), deliciously villainous Destrons who came in many flavors of evil (some of whom were even able to reform by the series' conclusion) and were great characters in their own right, competent and
extremely useful human characters that other series could only dream of having (though, TF: Prime Jack is about at the level of these guys, but he's the only one of that series), and just the right amount of filler to get us familiar with the characters so that the story itself could be going at full speed with characters ready for it.
It's biggest flaw, however, is that it doesn't explain a whole lot of things, leaving some ends loose and untouched upon. But, they did create a special episode at the end of the series to explain some of these concepts, so it did at least attempt to rectify this. Nonetheless, Masterforce was above and beyond average, and has reached the point of being my third favorite TF series.
Bouncy X wrote:so now that they will all be available individually, does this mean the box set will no longer be a shout store exclusive and be available at retail and/or amazon shortly after?
Pretty much. It happened with Beast Wars and G1.