The Energon Pub

News Credits: 5749 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:20 am

Just a quick reminder, Shout! Factory's Transformers: The Japanese Collection: Victory was released yesterday! The set has a MSRP of $29.99, though Shout! Factory has it priced at $24.98 in their on-line store, and Amazon has it listed for $19.99.

PRODUCTS DETAILSHIDE
With its glorious return to the classic Transformers, Victory — the third and final installment of the Japanese-exclusive series — introduces four new factions to the Transformers universe. Each group comes equipped with its own unique power and the ability to combine to form much larger, more powerful Transformers, immediately making each and every battle even more epic!

Now, for the first time in North America, you can enjoy 37 action-packed episodes of Victory on DVD in its original Japanese language with brand-new English subtitles!

Format: NTSC
Run-Time: +/- 14.5 hours
Color: Color
Rating: NR
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Language: English

News Credits: 462 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:25 am

Wrong logo, Shout! Factory. :roll:

News Credits: 1 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:30 am

About time. ..... *looks at budget* ..... I need to gather up the money for all three!!! :sad:

Sabrblade wrote:Wrong logo, Shout! Factory.

Seeing how they did the same logo with Super-God Masterforce, I am not surprised. :lol:

But in their defense, all three series are technically part of a "Masters Trilogy" (in their case, "Headmasters").

Also, I submitted a question on their site about the issue. So I will PM the response to you once I get it - If I get it.

News Credits: 11 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:23 am

Nice! Now I can consider buying these! Or wait for the full collection to hit Amazon... if it hasn't already.

News Credits: 6 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:48 am

Oh! yes, ok. So, shout has headmasters, Masterforce and this? are those all I need to round out the G1 Continuity?

News Credits: 1 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:57 pm

kirbenvost wrote:Nice! Now I can consider buying these! Or wait for the full collection to hit Amazon... if it hasn't already.

From what I was told, the "Complete Japanese Collection" set was not really worth buying, unless you bought it off their official site for both collection purposes and the Fortress Maximus lithograph. ..... Excuse me one moment.

:sad:

..... Back. I missed out on that art piece, is all. But besides that, Amazon.com has all three sets at a cheaper deal. And atop of them having improved subtitles, it is a better deal than buying their collector set.

News Credits: 487 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:11 pm

BeastProwl wrote:Oh! yes, ok. So, shout has headmasters, Masterforce and this? are those all I need to round out the G1 Continuity?

Yes...unless they decide to put Scramble City and Zone together on DVD, which I remember hearing they're unlikely to do.

News Credits: 462 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:13 pm

BeastProwl wrote:Oh! yes, ok. So, shout has headmasters, Masterforce and this? are those all I need to round out the G1 Continuity?

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

And there's all the manga for each Japanese G1 cartoon series (though, a few of them aren't in continuity with their cartoon counterparts).

And the Transformers: G-2 fiction (minus one story). And a whole slew of other Japanese G1 fiction that are part of the cartoon continuity, thus making their version of the story vastly larger than ours.

News Credits: 1 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:55 pm

Darth Bombshell wrote:
BeastProwl wrote:Oh! yes, ok. So, shout has headmasters, Masterforce and this? are those all I need to round out the G1 Continuity?

Yes...unless they decide to put Scramble City and Zone together on DVD, which I remember hearing they're unlikely to do.

This is where the irony kicks in - Toei was sited as the reason why they cannot get either OVA series. They were quoted as calling Shout! Factory as a "third party" company and used that as a means to not hand off any portion of the episodes.

However... When I went to their animation studio, as part of a date I had with my current ex, their gallery has nothing stating their involvement with any Transformers series. :???:

News Credits: 487 · Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:36 pm

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?

News Credits: 1 · Fri Aug 31, 2012 2:15 am

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. :grin:

News Credits: 1 · Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:16 am

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.

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.

News Credits: 462 · Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:51 am

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.

The same thing happened with Metrodome and Madman when they did their DVDs of The Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory several years ago. Toei denied them the commcercial bumpers and pre-episode/post-episode footage of The Headmasters, as well as Scramble City and Zone, just like with Shout! Factory.

What Metrodome and Madman had to do to get Scramble City and Zone was (sadly) use bootleg subtitled versions in their DVDs.

In fact, the Shout! Factory DVDs are essentially imports of the Metrodome and Madman versions (minus the bonus content and the bad English audio tracks), even using the same subtitle tracks (though, Shout! modified their subs at the request of Hasbro to correct some spelling/grammar errors and then to unnecessarily Americanize them :roll:

).

So, the only way to get uncut versions of The Headmasters subbed in English is to download the old TV-Nihon fansubs.

News Credits: 487 · Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:43 pm

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.

News Credits: 1 · Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:53 pm

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.

Yup.

And the funny thing is that when I went on a date with my most recent ex (which the breakup still hurts), we went to Toei Animation. And in their gallery, there is absolutely nothing there about Transformers. I could not even find a reference in their timeline.

Annoyed me, but I managed to survive how they handled business here in the past. So what annoys me now is the fact that I missed out on getting a 2008 MOSC Henkei! Henkei! C-05 Hot Rodimus for a very good price in Akihabara. #-o