Re: Will it contain Zone? - That... remains to be seen. Currently, Brian Ward of Shout Factory had this to say about that:
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
Re: Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo - These two may be the most difficult of the Japanese TF series to acquire. Because every other Japanese TF series had been released on DVD, they were able to be released as such in the West. However, Beast Wars II and Neo
NEVER had a DVD release, not even in Japan (they were only released on VHS). Because of this lack of a DVD release, there's a possibility that there do not exxist digital copies of the Toei masters of this series. If that's the case, then a DVD release of either would be impossible.
Re: A English dub - It has already been confirmed that these set will not have an English dub of any kind on this set:
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
And now, to respond to some of these posts directly.
King Slick wrote:Just happened to see the story via FB. This is most exciting. Gonna have to snag up the savings. Know all we need is Japanese Beast Wars, though again that drifts from the US series in the same fashion that G1 drifted direction with Transformers: Rebirth (Beast Machines ends up being a longer Beast era "Rebirth" with the inclusion of details from Rebirth)
Actually... they don't do that. Beast Wars II and Neo officially occur "tens of thousands of years"
after Beast Wars Returns (Beast Machines).
Bumblevivisector wrote:Why was that such a problem on the last TF:TM DVD again? Toei just showing how much they appreciate their fans, like with Sailor Moon?
I take it you haven't been following the
official news of that series, have you?
Bumblevivisector wrote:And I'd love to see them do the JBW stuff too; if it's profitable to just re-release the same American BW series we'd already previously gotten,even in this economy, then I don't see how the first official release of more TF toons we never got in this hemisphere could lose Shout! any money.
Like I said above, there were no Japanese DVDs of the two JBW series. If digital copies of the masters don't exist, then there's no hope for a DVD release of either series.
Plus, Shout! also considers the people who will buy these JG1 series a very niche market. So, it's gonna be enough of a challenge to just sell these JG1 series.
kirbenvost wrote:Yipes! Awesome, but now do I wait for this or pick up the individual releases? I kind of missed out on the cool package art with the first box set.
I'd say go for this complete set, as you'd have everything all at once plus its exclusive bonus content that won't be included in the individual sets.
godzillabot wrote:Awesome!!!
which are they?
Transformers: The Headmasters
Transformers: Chōjin Masterforce (Super-God Masterforce)
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory
Galvatron X wrote:I can't wait for these.
As a total noob to the Japanese cartoons, I'm looking forward to learning about what the rest of you all know!
Also, I'm happy about the English subs. I WANT it to be in Japanese!
Good man.
#Sideways# wrote:I want this, but it is waaaaaaaaaaay to expensive for my taste.
Save up or request it for Christmas.
Rated X wrote:I downloaded all this stuff last year. If they would do english voiceovers and get rid of the subtitles, I would love to but an original copy. But this would not be anything new to me. Its the subtitles that have kept me from watching the versions I have now. Theyre just plain annoying.
If you own downloads of them, then you most likely own the TV-Nihon subtitled versions. While their subs are "okay", they're not up to par with official DVD subs. They leave certain lines untranslated or just leave some words in Japanese (i.e. - "yatsura", "yatsu", "kisama", "combi", etc.) rather than using an English language equivalent. You will need to get the DVDs to get the full experience.
And, any English version would be botched up job, regardless of its quality.
Supreme Convoy wrote:Argh. I recently bought the Madman set.
If this set has better video quality, I might double dip...
I have the Metrodome set, but I too may wind up double dipping if its Headmasters subs are polished up and uncut (both the UK and Australian DVDs had missing footage and subs with tons of QC issues).
F Prime wrote:I would prefer a version with both English and Japanese options. I have watched the series both with subs and with the terrible, terrible dubs that we all know and loathe.
With that said, however, I don't know how realistic it is to expect SHOUT! to hire an entire voice cast to re-do this show....I doubt they are going to sell enough to make it worth that much.
Hasbro said "No!" to the old Omni dub and any fan dubs, and a completely new redub was simply unfeasible.
F Prime wrote:I am also not surprised that Hasbro is reluctant to have these translated and sold....the transformers say "****" almost every episode and Wheelie partakes in underage drinking.
Sure, Hasbro could put it out as "mature content" or something, but I really don't think they want to go that route.
They do not say that. They say "Shimatta!", "Onore!", "Ku so~tsu!" and the like, which all translated out to saying "Darn it!"
And, as for that "mature content" you and godzillabot posted, can you really call that any worse than what we saw in the ROTF movie?
is on the cover!!!!!!!!!
