The Episodes

Oh, Transformers original series, how we love thee. Despite your simplicity, repetition, and utter predictability, it is impossible not to be fond of your distinctly 1980s cartoon robots shooting lasers at each other, episode after episode, with no apologies for lacking any sort of depth whatsoever.

This collection features the first twenty-eight episodes of the original Transformers series' second season, which means there's a lot here to watch. While practically all of the episodes follow the basic Autobots-versus-Decepticons framework, the writers managed to find a decent amount of variety within those parameters. Science fiction fans are particularly apt to enjoy to first episode, "Autobot Spike," which features the conscious of the human character Spike being transferred into a Transformer constructed Frankenstein-style with various, mismatched robot parts. There is also, for example, an underwater episode, an episode centered on a race of people on a moon, and three episodes centered on the Dinobots.

It's nice to see that some of the series' humor can still provide laughs. Grimlock's innocently idiotic way of speaking is always amusing to hear, and his spaz-out when surprised by other dinobots at the beginning of "Dinobot Island, Part 1" is borderline hilarious if you're in the right frame of mind. In "The Autobot Run," the Autobots race each other for charity, and when the robots walk up to the starting line, one clueless goofball in the crowd yells, "Hey! Where are their cars?!" At the very least, these moments will cause you to smile.

If you're watching Transformers, you're not doing so for the story. You may not be doing so even for the action. You're probably watching it out of nostalgia. This set gives you exactly that. Just don't expect to rediscover it as some sort of gem.

The Extras

This is where things start to get bad. Though the box for this set is shiny and textured and boasts "1984-2009: 25 YEARS," there is not a single extra on the disc. No commentary, nothing. The discs hold episodes and nothing more. Couldn't we have gotten commentary on at least a single episode? Howabout a Transformers commercial?

Video/Audio

This is where things remain bad. I'll refer again to the box that the DVDs are contained in. It looks like they spent more money making the box look pretty than they did transferring the episodes to DVD. There is no sign of any clean-up process. The picture is scratchy, speckled, and pixelated through all episodes. At times it can be a minor annoyance, and at other times it can be outright bad.

Not that audio is a huge concern for a cartoon from the 'eighties, but there is no pizazz whatsoever in this department, either. Whether you're listening to it via surround sound or stereo setup, all sounds come flatly and equally through every speaker.

Packaging/Menus

As I stated above, the box for this set is nice and shiny with a little texture on the front. The four discs are housed in two mini-cases, contained within the outer cardboard box. The whole set is roughly as thick as a standard DVD case. There is comic-cover-worthy Transformers artwork on everything. Also in the box is a rather comprehensive insert booklet listing the episodes contained on each disc, as well as the writer, the original broadcast date, a screenshot, and a summary of each episode. Good artwork throughout here, too.

Given that there are no special features, the menu system is simple. Either play them all or pick an episode.

Conclusion

There are a lot of episodes contained in this set for a fair price ($29.99 MSRP, which means you will be paying around $20 for it). However, if you want anything more than what you saw in the 'eighties or if you want equal or better visual quality than what you saw back then, you will not find that here. The box is deceptively pretty, and there are plenty of fun episodes, but these discs are the bare bones minimum.

Click here to buy Transformers: Season Two, Volume 1