G.I. Joe: Retaliation [Movie Review]

G.I. Joe: Retaliation
2013, Paramount Pictures

[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!]

As a lifelong Joe fan, I was very excited to see the first live-action Joe movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, in 2009. After the initial buzz wore off during the movie, I realized it wasn’t the Joe movie I wanted to see. With a poor cast of characters (Heavy Duty, Ripcord), an even poorer choice of actors (Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans), a silly looking Cobra Commander and those stupid accelerator suits, that film was a mess.

I suppose I can get more in-depth with my disappointment for that film at another time but WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY is that G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a MAJOR improvement over ROC in about every way. There’s a stronger cast of actors and characters this time. The core Joe members in this movie are: Roadblock, Snake-Eyes, Lady Jaye, Flint, Jinx and General Joseph Colton. My only disappointment with the casting there is the guy playing Flint (no, I’m not going to bother to look up his name). I love that Flint is in the movie but the guy playing him is just another pretty boy who doesn’t really give off much of a presence in the movie. It’s the same way I feel about Channing Tatum as Duke.

Speaking of Duke (here’s the SPOILER, folks!), he’s dead about 15 minutes in. As much as I love Duke, if Tatum is going to be the guy playing him, I’m glad he was killed off. When Paramount pushed back the release date of this movie from June 2012 to March 2013 (!!!) the official word was they did it throw in 3D. While that’s perfectly valid, it’s been said they also wanted to add some more scenes with Channing Tatum due to his explosion in popularity and also to avoid getting crushed by The Avengers and The Dark Knight. After seeing the movie, I’m not so sure the Tatum theory really works. He’s a main character for that first 15 minutes but he’s eliminated fairly easily and without much dramatics. I wonder why they even bothered to bring the character back for that.

Other missing Joes after starring in the first movie are General Hawk, Ripcord, Scarlett, Breaker and Heavy Duty. These guys are never seen or mentioned in this movie and we’re to believe the entire Joe force (other than a handful) was destroyed by Cobra right after the Joe team just successfully completed a mission. I’ll assume they were in the background somewhere getting blown to pieces.

On the Cobra side, we have the awesome looking Cobra Commander (looking much more like he did in the cartoon), Zartan still posing as the President of the United States, Storm Shadow and Firefly. Destro only makes a cameo because (true to their relationship in the cartoon & comic books) Cobra Commander leaves him locked up when Storm Shadow comes to free the Commander. I really like Ray Stevenson as Firefly, even if he sounded really silly trying to do what I guess was supposed to be a southern accent. Firefly was incredibly underutilized in the cartoon and while they didn’t stick with the character’s obsession with being anonymous (he mostly walks around without his mask), I still think they did a great job with him in the movie. I think Ray would’ve made for a better Zartan and Arnold Vosloo a better Firefly but they still did well in their roles.

Of course, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson did great as Roadblock, Bruce Willis gave the movie some lighter moments with his portrayal of the original “G.I Joe” General Joe Colton and Adrianne Palicki was gorgeous as Lady Jaye. In fact, I think Palicki would’ve been better suited for Scarlett, much better for that role than Rachel Nichols was. As always, Snake-Eyes was cool and so was Storm Shadow. There’s a great ninja sequence in the mountains that every one seems to have liked.

This is really the movie they should’ve made the first time around. It’s a love letter to the fans of the cartoon instead of a slap in the face like the first movie was. It has a cast of classic Joe/Cobra characters and there’s Cobra H.I.S.S. tanks, Joe A.W.E. strikers, Cobra Water Moccasins, red ninjas, the Blind Master and the classic plot of the Joes being framed as traitors while Cobra Commander attempts to enact some insane plot to rule the world. Retaliation really is a live-action version of the cartoon and I think most Joe fans will be pleased. It’s big dumb fun. Just the way G.I. Joe should be.

Also, it sets up the series to continue with a third movie. Just as in the cartoon, the Commander escapes yet again! I’m looking forward to seeing Destro getting involved again. Either working uneasily with Cobra Commander or going out on his own. Perhaps we’ll see G.I. Joe vs. Cobra vs. M.A.R.S. Industries in the third movie.

My personal wishlist of characters getting introduced in the next film: Beachhead, Low-Light, Gung-Ho, Leatherneck, Wet-Suit, Sci-Fi, Mainframe, Shipwreck & Spirit for Joes and Major Bludd, Tomax & Xamot, the Dreadnoks and the B.A.T.s on the Cobra Side. Plus a return of the Baroness & Destro. I’d love to see the Dreadnoks get introduced and joining Cobra with the intent of getting revenge on Storm Shadow for Zartan’s death. Yes, Storm Shadow is an anti-hero by the movie’s end as they follow the plot-line of Zartan being the one who actually killed the Hard Master.

It’s already being predicted the movie will make about $40 million opening weekend, which is good. Reviews from fans have been good too. I hope we won’t have to wait as long for the third movie.

 

The Transformers – Seasons Three and Four [25th Anniversary Edition] DVD Review

The Transformers – Seasons Three and Four
[25th Anniversary Edition]
2010, Shout! Factory
Originally Aired: September 15, 1986 – November 11, 1987

Bonus Features

• “The Autobots, The Decepticons & The Fans” – A look at the loyal fans of The Transformers
• From the Files of Teletraan-2
• Rare PSAs
• Archival Hasbro Toy Commercials
• Art Gallery

Picking up a few months (years?) after the events of Transformers: The Movie, Seasons 3 & 4 continue down the dark sci-fi path that the film set forth. Up to this point, The Transformers was basically G.I. Joe with a cast of robots but the series now goes completely sci-fi and gets dark and weird. When this season started up, if you had missed out on the movie, your brain would have exploded… New characters, new setting, new attitude, new theme music!

Various planets and creatures are seen and the show doesn’t spend too much time on Earth. I should point out that it seems like most of the remaining/surviving Autobots from the first two seasons are stationed on Earth so it’s the cast from the animated movie that is still front and center.

Season 3 kicks off with the five-part “The Five Faces of Darkness”. You can count this as a sequel to Transformers: The Movie. After the events of the movie, the lifeless head of Unicron now orbits Cyberton, Decepticons are desperate for energon and leaderless, Cyclonus & Scourge go off in search of Galvatron (who returns as a mad man due to some of his circuitry being damaged) and the Quintessons are back as well and scheming to destroy all Transformers so they can reclaim control of Cyberton (turns out they created Cyberton AND the ancestors of the Transformers).

So now the rest of the series is a battle between the Autobots, the Decepticons and the Quintessons although the Decepticons and Quintessons often are uneasy allies and attempt to use each other. Then there’s Starscream who makes two appearances in Season 3. He is now a ghost who can take control of other Transformers’ bodies (none of that is explained) and he is scheming to get his old body back plus get revenge on Galvatron.

Starscream’s real shining moment is in “Ghost in the Machine” where he forces Scourge to help him bring Unicron’s head back online and attempts to join Unicron’s head to Cybertron in order to bring Unicron back to full power so that Unicron will give him his body back. This is one of the better episodes of the season and could’ve easily been flushed out to being another multi-part story. Unfortunately, it’s the last we see of Starscream as he’s blown out into space (he got his old body back) at the end of the episode and is never to be seen or heard from again for the rest of the series.

A few words about Galvatron: I don’t like him. I loved Megatron. Megatron was a villain but he had a sense of honor, common sense and leaderskills that Galvatron is severely lacking. Galvatron is nuts and temperamental and even though it’s explained why he is this way after the events of the movie, I still don’t like it. He’s always flying off the handle, shooting and punching his own Decepticons in the middle of battle just because things aren’t going the way he wants. Megatron would have never acted like that. Frank Welker voiced Megatron and voices Galvatron as well (though the role of Galvatron was originally played by Leonard Nemoy in the movie) but I don’t like the voice he’s using for him. I was hoping he’d use something closer to Megatron’s voice.

There’s an episode that devotes itself even more to Galvatron’s insanity. In “Webworld”, Cyclonus tricks Galvatron into going to a planet that treats beings for mental illness. It does not end well for that planet and Galvatron’s sanity is not restored.

As far as characters go, pretty much everyone in the movie is still heavily featured. For the Autobots there’s Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Arcee, Wheelie, Blurr, Wreck-Gar, Springer and the old guard are mostly represented by Perceptor, Blaster, the Aerialbots and Grimlock (the other Dinobots are rarely seen and Swoop is completely MIA for some reason). I was surprised by how much Perceptor and Blaster get used. Cosmos, Omega Supreme, Warpath and Jazz make cameos. Bumblebee is rarely seen and his only notable role is during “The Return of Optimus Prime” when he joins the Throttlebots and becomes Goldbug.

The Witwicky family (Spike, Carly and their son Daniel) are still around and there’s a new human Autobot ally: Capt. Marissa Fairborn of the Earth Defense Command. A few new Autobots have been brought in: the city-bot Metroplex (the biggest Autobot of them all… he’s the Autobots’ base on Earth), Sandstorm, Sky Lynx, the Throttlebots and the Technobots being the most prominent.

On the Decepticon side, the main characters are Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps. Soundwave, the Constructicons, the Stunticons and Astrotrain play various minor roles and the rest of the old guard are basically background characters. New Decepticons include Octane, the Predacons, Runabout, Runamuck and the Terrorcons. Both the Predacons and Terrorcons appear in the series with no explanation. I always liked the origin episodes for the combiners so I was disappointed to see them thrown out there with zero back story.

Then there’s the Quintessons and their Sharkticons and all of these guys are basically interchangeable and were seen in the movie.

Despite some good episodes such as the five-parter, “Dark Awakening” (Optimus Prime returns from the dead), “The Return of Optimus Prime” (Opitmus Prime returns from the dead for real) and the episodes featuring Starscream’s ghost there are some truly horrid episodes. “Carnage in C-Minor” may be the worst TF episode EVER and “The Dweller in the Depths” (written by Paul Dini!) & “Nightmare Planet” are garbage too although my online research says “Dweller” is a fan favorite. There are also LOTS of animation mistakes throughout the these episodes.

1987′s “Season 4″ is just three episodes. Hasbro was ready to cease production on the cartoon but as a gesture to the fans we get “The Rebirth” three-parter to give the series a conclusion. I’m fairly certain Hasbro’s motives weren’t entirely altruistic though because in addition to starring Optimus Prime and some major Season 3 characters these episodes are FULL of recent additions to the Transformers toy line such as the Targetmasters, Headmasters, Punch-Counterpunch, the Horrorcons, the Decepticon/Autobot Clones, Scorponok and Fortress Maximus. It’s unfortunate that the transfer on these final three episodes is not very good. The  color is washed out and the animation isn’t all that great either but animation wasn’t Season 3′s strong-suit either.

Technically, there is a Season 5 that aired in 1988 but it was a “best of” season that features a stop-motion Optimus Prime in Powermaster form re-telling Autobot adventures to some kid.

Despite some terrible episodes, truth be told, this set is pretty good. It’s just that the series has a totally different vibe from Seasons 1 & 2 and it’s a bit off-putting at first. I really don’t have a problem with the new characters but it would have been nice to have seen other surviving Autobots from the earlier seasons interact with the new regime and Rodimus is no Optimus. I think Season 3 was really hurt by the fact that Optimus Prime was absent from it.

Still, I had fun watching these two seasons and the set is definitely worth picking up for G1 fans if only to see the original Transformers saga come to a close (in the U.S. anyway but we’ll get to into that at a later date).

Highlights: “The Five Faces of Darkness” Parts 1-5, “Dark Awakening”, “Starscream’s Ghost”, “Fight or Flee”, “Webworld”, “Ghost in the Machine”, “The Ultimate Weapon”, “Grimlock’s New Brain”, “The Return of Optimus Prime” Parts 1 & 2, “The Rebirth” Parts 1-3

Buy the DVD set at Amazon.com

Masters of the Universe (The Live Action Motion Picture) DVD Review

Masters of the Universe
2009, Warner Home Video
Original Release: 1987, Cannon Films

Special Features
Feature-Length Commentary by Director Gary Goddard
Theatrical Trailer

Do you remember walking through the movie theater in 1987 and seeing this…

?

I do! YES! A live-action version of Masters of the Universe! But wait… That’s gotta be He-Man but why does he look like he belongs in a Mad Max movie? Why is he holding an assault rifle ?! Why is the gun more prominent than the Power Sword ?!

Yes, I remember seeing that poster and instantly feeling a mix of joy and doom. I was extremely happy that a live-action He-Man movie was coming but just by the teaser poster alone I already was not liking how they were going to be portraying the world of Eternia. Oh yeah… Eternia. Didn’t really feature as much in the movie as we He-Man fans would’ve wanted, did it?

That is probably my one biggest gripe about the movie — how can you have the very first Masters of the Universe movie and then not set the entire film on Eternia? Granted, the movie is a goofy cheesy ’80s movie no matter what but taking the majority of the film to Earth in the year of 1987  extremely dates the film and isn’t what people wanted to see. Maybe something like that could’ve been done for a sequel but for the initial MOTU film? Nah. Keep it on Eternia.

Given that Cannon Films was usually very budget conscious, my theory is that they built the bare minimum set pieces that they could for Eternia (basically Gwildor’s hut and Skeletor’s throne room) and then filmed on location in Los Angeles because it was cheaper to do that than having to build even more set pieces. So that’s why we ended up with the story of He-Man & Co. ending up on Earth. To be fair though, I think this movie was probably had one of Cannon’s biggest budgets. Wikipedia states $22 million but in the director commentary Gary Goddard states they had a $17 million budget at a time when most movies had $6-8 million budgets.

 As you can see from of the artwork, they were really going for a Star Wars vibe right down to getting Drew Struzan to do the artwork. Great artwork though and it does a great job of making the movie look amazing. Even Skeletor’s soldiers (something he didn’t have in the cartoon) look like Storm Troopers except their armor is black and their helmets appear to be that of Imperial Gunners.

Anyway, Eternia issues aside, it would’ve been nice to also see a bit more character depth. I guess the writers & producers just assumed anyone coming to see this movie already knew the backstory so we get thrown right into the middle of the action. That’s commendable on some levels because I know many fans of geek culture groan over “origin” movies but it still would have been really nice to see a live-action transformation of Prince Adam to He-Man. There is no mention of Prince Adam at all in this movie.

Even the Power Sword receives very little recognition in the film. He-Man seems to prefer using laser blasters. He holds it up one time towards the end of the film to yell “I HAVE THE POWER” but it’s too little too late and the moment is glossed over. The He-Man/Skeletor sword fight is pretty brief and lame compared to what Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader had done. In the movie’s defense, director Gary Goddard does that that due to time restrictions the final battle was not staged the way he wanted it and some portions of the throne room set went unused.

Another weird quirk is the absence of the typical MOTU villains. Sure, we have Skeletor, Evil-Lyn and Beastman but what about Tri-Klops, Merman or Trap-Jaw? The movie introduces some new villains: Blade (who almost seems like a stand-in for Tri-Klops), Saurod (a reptilian creature that reminds me of the Goombas from the Super Mario movie) and Karg (who reminds me of the late Ronnie James Dio). None of those three characters were ever on the TV show, which was canceled by this time anyway, but Blade & Saurod were given action figures.

On the Heroic Warriors side, I think they did pretty well: He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela and a captive Sorceress. They could’ve expanded upon that if there was a sequel and added Mekaneck, Stratos, Man-E-Faces, Ram Man, Buzz-Off and/or Orko. Speaking of Orko, even as a kid, I  always assumed Gwildor was meant to be his replacement in the movie. Upon listening to Goddard’s commentary, he confirms that by saying it would’ve been too financially & technically difficult to put Orko in the movie. So, they replaced a magician that always screws up and is played for humor with an inventor that always screws up and is played for humor.

Ultimately, the film was not a critical or financial success. Released in August 1987 (and I remember seeing it in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on opening weekend while visiting my grandparents), it made only $17 million total. Had it been released a year or two earlier (remember, the show had been canceled in 1985 and the toy line had been losing steam as well since it had no show to help promote it) and had it stayed more faithful to the fantasy-based cartoon/toy line rather than going in a sci-fi direction (that was inspired by Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” comics from DC Comics) it probably would’ve done better.

Even though the movie kinda broke even or maybe even lost a few million for Cannon, a sequel was written and planned. Unfortunately, Cannon ran into financial troubles in 1989 and could no longer afford the MOTU license. The sequel’s script would later go on to be re-worked into Cyborg starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and when that movie was played on television it was sometimes retitled Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg.

I think Masters of the Universe is a fun cheesy ’80s fantasy/adventure. It almost seems forgotten but I think it’s a real cult classic. Dolph Lundgren was a great voice (visually at least) for He-Man and Courtney Cox is cute as a button in her first movie role and plays her part well.

With plans for a new MOTU on the way, I’m sure a small spotlight will get thrown back on this movie in the next few years. I think the movie has been released on DVD twice. Once in 2001 through Warner Home Video but it was in a snap case. I made sure to order the 2009 edition because it features the standard DVD keep case which I prefer over the snap case that Warner Bros. well hell-bent on using for a number of years. Both editions have the same special features. My particular copy was made for distribution in U.S. & Canada so that’s why you see the film’s title in French on the cover.

I’m truly surprised they even bothered giving the movie a director’s commentary. You’d think something like would would’ve been made bare bones and then thrown into the $5 bin at Walmart. I usually never listen to commentaries but for this movie, I felt like trying it and enjoyed it.

Either DVD edition can be found for $6-8 and it’s well worth picking up for all He-Man fans. Sure, it’s not the MOTU we wanted to see but it’s a lot better than New Adventures of He-Man that’s for sure!

Buy the movie!

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume Two [25th Anniversary Edition] DVD Review

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume Two [25th Anniversary Edition]
(2009, Shout! Factory) Originally Aired: November 6, 1985 –  January 9, 1986

Special Features:
“The Combiner: Forming The Transformers Animated Series”
Rare PSAs
Archival Hasbro Toy Commericals
Concept Art

Ah… So HERE we have the special features. Looks like Shout Factory was saving them for the second volume of Season 2. Which I think is weird. Not that I’m a special features guy anyway but if it was up to me, I would’ve split whatever features they had between the two volumes.

So I’m starting to like the TF cartoon a lot more than I did when I was a kid. I still prefer G.I. Joe but it’s pretty hard to deny how cool it is to see giant robots knocking each other on their butts!

The second half of Season 2 is very strong. We get a lot more Transformers introduced, more sub-teams: Stunticons, Aerialbots, Combaticons and Protectobots. I really love these episodes, it’s always fun seeing a bunch of new Transformers join the team and it’s also fun to see what they can combine into.

On the Decepticon side, the Stunticons combine to form Menasor. Not really a fun of these guys. The Stunticons are stunt cars that Megatron used Vector Sigma (the computer that created Cyberton) to give life to. Tough cars, they love to speed around and crash into stuff but individually and combined as Menasor, they look generic. The other new Decepticon combiner is Bruticus who is composed of the Combaticons. The Combaticons and Bruticus all look pretty cool. Combaticons are earthly military vehicles that were given life by Starscream through the use of 5 Decepticon personality components that had been imprisoned on Cybertron.

For the Autobots, there is Superion, which is the combined form of the Aerialbots. The Aerialbots were originally used as transport shuttles on Cybertron and were also given life by Vector Sigma, with the help of Alpha Trion, in order to combat the Stunticons. Finally, there is the Protectobots and their gestalt known as Defensor. No origin story here, they just showed up in one of the last episodes and the seasons and seem to primarily spend their time in the city protecting humans rather than hanging out at Autobot HQ waiting for the Decepticons to strike.

There’s some good character/origin episodes in this set. We learn about more Omega Supreme and his relationship with the Constructicons, how Optimus Prime became Optimus Prime and as mentioned above we get to see more hows and whys of the combiners joining the ranks.

Granted, there are some pretty stupid episodes but that’s the be expected. “The Girl Who Loved Powerglide” is awful and shows Powerglide and some human girl falling in love (!!!). “Hoist Goes Hollywood” is another bad one and it features the Autobots becoming actors and they end up battling the Decepticons on set. I didn’t really care much for “Prime Target” either which has a human game-hunter going after Optimus Prime in order to mount his head on his wall.

Out of all 21 episodes included in this set, there’s only one I vaguely remembered from my childhood — “Auto-Bop” and that’s just for the dance club scenes alone. Ah, nostalgia!

Very good set that concludes a very good season. Looking forward to picking up that Season 3 & 4 DVD collection but there’s a movie I have to talk about first…

Highlights: ”The Secret of Omega Supreme”, “The Search for Alpha Trion”, “Triple Takeover”, “The Key to Vector Sigma” Parts 1 & 2, “Cosmic Rust”, “Starscream’s Brigade”, “The Revenge of Bruticus”

Buy ‘Transformers: Season Two, Vol. 2 (25th Anniversary Edition)’ at Amazon.com

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume One [25th Anniversary Edition] DVD Review

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume One [25th Anniversary Edition] (2009, Shout! Factory)
Originally Aired: September 23, 1985 – November 5, 1985

I actually own Season 1 (and talked about getting it way back in the day) but never got around to posting my thoughts on it… or at least I couldn’t find the link if I did. Honestly, I don’t know if ever finished watching Season 1 but it’s a pretty short season so maybe someday I’ll talk about it. For now, let’s get underway with Season Two, Volume One. I own Season Two, Volume Two but haven’t watched it yet so who knows when I’ll get around to talking about it.

Let me say this, I realize Transformers are a bigger deal than G.I. Joe to the rest of the world, but even as a kid, I’ve never seen it that way. Back in the ’80s, I liked TF but it didn’t compare to G.I. Joe or He-Man. Still doesn’t, IMO. I wonder if the fact that I didn’t have many of the toys factors into my enjoyment for the show itself (I did have a few awesome TF lunch boxes though). Another factor could be that I’m just not much of a sci-fi fan and can’t really relate to indestructible robots from outer space battling other indestructible robots from outer space (a superhero with a power sword battling a blue guy with a yellow skull-face — that I could relate to). As I was watching this set, I found myself enjoying the episodes that deal with the Transformers interacting a lot with humans (or human-like creatures). I definitely prefer that over seeing the Autobots and Decepticons blowing each other up in some unnamed desert.

Unlike with G.I. Joe or MOTU, I don’t have many memories of Transformers episodes. Even watching the show now, nothing is coming to mind making me go “Oh YEAH! I remember this!” other than the “Megatron’s Master Plan” two-parter. There’s not a HUGE nostalgia factor at play for me when I think of Transformers. And I think the movies suck. Nonetheless, the show was a part of my childhood and I liked the show so here I am watching and reviewing the series.

A lot of children of the ’80s say Transformers is the best cartoon ever but it’s pretty far from it in my book.  The main problem I see in the series so far is that it seems like every few episodes Optimus Prime is thought to be dead OR some of the Autobots get their circuits/memory chips messed with and they fall under the control of the Decepticons. It’s done way too much for my liking.

One of the highlights for this DVD set has been the Dinobots, who are introduced in this season. I remember playing with their figures at my friends’ house as a kid and I always thought they were really cool looking in both of their forms. I love how they are written as super-strong and super-dumb. Their dialogue and I like the voice-work done with them. Their fight scenes are done very well too as they put over just how powerful these guys are. They kinda remind me of Frankenstein’s Monster in a way. Even though they were built by Wheeljack and Ratchet, it still seems somehow wrong that the Autobots use them for a lot of their dirty work. To the Dinobots’ credit, there are actually times when they grow resentful of how the Autobots treat them and express desire to be left alone. This is the focal point of the fun two-part “Desertion of the Dinobots”. This show seems to excel at two-parters, by the way. Most of them are very well done.

A couple of other subgroups are featured in this half of Season 2. The Insecticons are kinda like the Decepticons’ answer to the Dinobots. They keep to their own for the most part and seem to come and go as they please and don’t always get along with Megatron. The Constructicons (who are full-fledged cooperating Decepticons) make frequent appearances after debuting in the final episode of Season 1. The Constructions combine to form the gigantic Devastator and I’d LOVE to see the Dinobots battle that monstrosity. Or even an Omega Supreme/Devastator battle. Hopefully at least one of those match-ups happens later in the series.

Surprisingly, even though this is a 25th Anniversary Edition, there are NO bonus features. I mean, the packaging is nice. There’s a nice booklet that summarizes the episodes (which is more than we can say for the G.I. Joe Series 2, Season 1) but why wouldn’t you include any short interviews, art or commercials for such an occasion? Really cheap of them to do that. You can pretty much bet the house they’ll do 30th Anniversary collections in 2014, maybe by that time they’ll add some bonus features.

Anyway, this is a great collection and I enjoyed it more than I thought it would. It seems as the series progresses the episodes keep getting better because I found myself liking almost all of Discs 3 & 4. I’m really looking forward to diving into the S2V2 set and seeing how things go from here.

There was a complete series box-set that was released in 2011 so you may be better off picking that up if you’re planning on getting the entire series. Or just wait 2 years and buy the 30th Anniversary editions.

Best Episodes: “Dinobot Island” 1 & 2, “Traitor”, “Changing Gears”, “A Prime Problem”, “Attack of the Autobots”, ”The Insecticon Syndrome”, “Megatron’s Master Plan” 1 & 2, “Desertion of the Dinobots” 1 & 2, “A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur’s Court”, “The God Gambit”, “Make Tracks”, “Quest for Survival”

Buy ‘Transformers: The Complete Series’ at Amazon.com

Buy ‘Season Two, Volume One [25th Anniversary Edition]‘ at Amazon.com