The Energon Pub

After all the hinting around by Shout!Factory's Brian Ward via his Twitter feed we now have confirmation regarding the Transformers Beast Wars and Transformers Takara Collection: Headmasters DVD sets. The following is from Shout!Factory's email newsletter:

Transforming The Beast & Headmasters
OK, Transformers fans. This is what you’ve been waiting for. We now have officially secured the rights to bring you additional Transformers DVDs. Later this year, we’ll release two 4-disc sets: Transformers Beast Wars and Transformers Takara Collection: Headmasters. <insert “woohoos” ahd “heck yeahs” here> and complete series collections. This is the first time the Headmasters series is available in the U.S., and it all came together because you asked for it . . . at Comic-Con, Bot-Con and through our site. We’ll have more details as we get closer to releasing them, but we wanted to end rumor and speculation with an official confirmation here.

Great news for fans who missed out on the earlier releases.

I'm pretty stoked about Beast Wars!

Since I already own the Madman Entertainment release of the Headmasters, I probably won't double dip unless it's a major improvement (video quality, extras, etc.)

Yes! Beast-Head-War-Masters! Rock on!

Is the Headmasters gonna be a voiceover or the same old boring voices ??? I downloaded em and got what I paid for. BORRRRRRING !!!

It might have potential if we can get the original voice actors or somebody that sounds similar to the original characters.

thats neat but is headmaster what continues off g1 and will it be dubed in english ?

Hooray!

Excellent!

Thank you Shout Factory!

I don't have either, and I'll get both.

I've never seen Headmasters in any form, so I'll be interested to see them.

I always liked Beast Wars, but was never enough of a fan to buy it.

However, I think my son will LOVE it.

It will be something great for us to watch together.

Easy pass on Beast Wars. Headmasters...maybe.

I'll most likely get the release of Headmasters, & Beast Wars is a maybe, since I never got my Season 1 back from a friend who borrowed it.

Since I already own both (Kid Rhino for Beast Wars and Metrodome for The Headmasters), unless they do something special for both that makes them wroth buying again, I'll probably pass on both.

And even if I were to get The Headmasters DVD set, no matter what dub they put on it, I'd stick with the original voice track, as that was how it was intended to be viewed, and because no dub can ever really trump the original version of an anime.

Excelent News!

And don't forget the Latinamerican Transfans. We want spanish subtitles ! Pleassssse!

Thanks.

F.

YES! I can finally replace my old tired ass bootlegs!!

I will pick up the Headmasters for sure.

will be picking up the Headmaster series. I have the Madman version, but I hate playing it on the region free dvd player. It's always freezing and locking up on me and I don't want to get another one just to watch this series. If anything, this makes me happier and I am looking more forward to Masterforce and Victory if this all goes well.

I hope these don't end up being expensive because of only being available from a few sources.

Even though what I've seen on youtbue is painfully boring, I will be buying Headmasters.

Ha, back in the day of dial-up modems (the 90s), I remember finding an FAQ that said Japan got exclusive sequels to the original series and just FLIPPING OUT.

Sabrblade wrote:Since I already own both (Kid Rhino for Beast Wars and Metrodome for The Headmasters), unless they do something special for both that makes them wroth buying again, I'll probably pass on both.

And even if I were to get The Headmasters DVD set, no matter what dub they put on it, I'd stick with the original voice track, as that was how it was intended to be viewed, and because no dub can ever really trump the original version of an anime.

Gonna have to disagree. Disney's dubs for Studio Ghibli's films have been flawless.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS I would’ve waited an eternity for this set, it’s over RHINO I don’t need you to supply me with beast wars episodes anymore

It Is Him wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:And even if I were to get The Headmasters DVD set, no matter what dub they put on it, I'd stick with the original voice track, as that was how it was intended to be viewed, and because no dub can ever really trump the original version of an anime.

Gonna have to disagree. Disney's dubs for Studio Ghibli's films have been flawless.

I'm not saying that ere are no good dubs. Why, the English dub of Gundam Wing is probably the one of the best dubs I've ever seen. Though, when I listened to the Japanese voices, despite all the praise I gave the dub voices, I still found the Japanese voices to be the more realistic and believable of the two.

Disney also does wonders with their Studio Ghibli dubs. But, again, when I compared the Japanese voices of Castle in the Sky to those of its dub, even though its dub was great, the original voices still sounded more the realistic and more emotional.

Beast Wars is a must for me. I grew up with Beast Wars and it is my all time favorite series. I was too young during Rhino's release and only ever convinced my parents to get season 2 and that was because it was on sale at the time. I've got my own funds now and I can finally have a set to watch whenever I wish instead of having to find them on the internet. Can't wait.

I don't know about Headmasters though. I didn't pick up G1 because I've watched them all once and really don't care about watching them again. It would be interesting to see some Transformers I've not watched before so who knows. If they have subtitles I'm all for it.

What it really gives me hope for though is US releases for Beast Wars II and Neo. I'd love to seem them get released so I can watch them. It's hard to find them with subs and so I've only seen like 5 episodes and that Beast Wars II movie.

Lord Onixprime wrote:What it really gives me hope for though is US releases for Beast Wars II and Neo. I'd love to seem them get released so I can watch them. It's hard to find them with subs and so I've only seen like 5 episodes and that Beast Wars II movie.

As much I too would love to see those two series, I sincerely doubt that these two will be seeing any U.S. DVD releases, considering that they never even received any kind of DVD release in Japan (aside from the BWII movie). VHS tapes don't last forever either.

so regarding Beast Wars, its a 4 disc set so does this mean it'll just be the original Beast Wars or will they include Beast Machines in there? unless that'll just get its own release later as well.

i'm very excited about Headmasters, i'm sure it'll be all sorts of terrible but it'll be fun seeing it finally after years of hearing and reading about it. i never gave into bootlegs so i've never see anything from that series. but G1 hasnt aged gracefully in the least, where it once was cool and awesome, its now laughable but in a fun way. lol. though i bought that show twice so its all good. lol

Aw sweet!

I have been THIS close to paying some crazy prices for the Rhino Beast wars DVDs on Ebay. I'm so glad I didn't!

I'll have to pick up that Headmasters set too. I've never seen it, other than some Youtube clips.

Yes! This is great news! I've been missing season 1 of Beast Wars for ever and have never had a chance to see the Headmasters stuff!

Sabrblade wrote:

Lord Onixprime wrote:What it really gives me hope for though is US releases for Beast Wars II and Neo. I'd love to seem them get released so I can watch them. It's hard to find them with subs and so I've only seen like 5 episodes and that Beast Wars II movie.

As much I too would love to see those two series, I sincerely doubt that these two will be seeing any U.S. DVD releases, considering that they never even received any kind of DVD release in Japan (aside from the BWII movie). VHS tapes don't last forever either.

IMHO Beast Wars II is the absoulte worse Transformers series ever. It's just plain awful in every way possible, the animation sucks and it's extremely stupid.

Seriously Beast Wars II is painful to watch and it makes series like Armada, Energon, and those the God-Awful and super annoying Star TV dubs of the G1 Japanese Trilogy seem like great anime classics.

Cyberstrike wrote:IMHO Beast Wars II is the absoulte worse Transformers series ever. It's just plain awful in every way possible, the animation sucks and it's extremely stupid.

Seriously Beast Wars II is painful to watch and it makes series like Armada, Energon, and those the God-Awful and super annoying Star TV dubs of the G1 Japanese Trilogy seem like great anime classics.

Well, I cannot make a fair judgement on it since I've only watched its first four episodes and its movie. I haven't seen enough of it to constructively criticize it as I can other series.

The main I want to see is so I can make justifiable opinion about it. At the moment, four out of forty-three episodes can't tell me squat about the rest of it. There's plenty I'm missing out on before I can say whether it's good or bad.

But, from I can gather from your statements about it, you dislike it because of its animation style and its childish nature. Well, from what I saw, its animation is very akin to that of other anime released by Toei around the same time as BWII, like some of these.

As for its younger appeal... it's hard for me to say this nicely, but what else would you expect? Transformers is aimed a much younger audience in Japan than it is an American, and at the time BWII came out, that notion really showed. The American Beast Wars series may have been darker and cooler in the West, but was dubbed as light-hearted comedy series in Japan. And you know what? It was a HIT!

It really isn't fair to judge this series with the expectation of it being like its American counterpart. It was made as a comical series, so it should be judged as a comical series.

Besides, can you honestly say that it ranks lower than the Playskool Go-Bots series, which is like Transformers for the Nick Jr. crowd?