Shout Factory Headmasters Review; A Seibertron.com Exclusive

Here at Seibertron.com we were lucky enough to get a review copy of Shout Factory's forthcoming The Headmasters DVD box-set. The set has been reviewed by staff member Diem:

Street Date: July 5, 2011
Not Rated: For All Audiences
Suggested Retail Price: $29.93
4-DVD
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Japanese, English, stereo



This review will be in two parts. The first part will be reviewing the show itself so that those who've never seen the series before can see if this a wise purchase. The second part will concern the presentation of this DVD set so those who already own the UK release, some elderly VHS tapes or some utterly-legal downloads of the show may want to skip straight there.

Part One: The Show.

Exhausting the power of the Matrix to dispel the Hate Plague had worse consequences than anyone could anticipate. The supercomputer Vector Sigma was destabilised, leaving Cybertron defenceless. Even with the help of the mysterious “Four Warriors from the Sky”, and their battleship the Autobots won't make it out of this alone without making some serious sacrifices. And in the background Galvatron's new ally Zarak has some sinister plans...

In the west the Transformers cartoon ended a little differently to how many fans expected or were hoping for. Season 4 wound up being a 5-parter rather than a full season, and then that 5-parter ended up being reduced to a 3-parter, The Rebirth. Due to its short length and large numbers of characters and gimmicks being introduced the grand finale worked out to be little more than an extended commercial. And then that was the end of the G1 cartoon.

At least that was it for the west. In Japan they weren't going to give up so easily. The Rebirth was scrapped, and Japan produced their own series, The Headmasters, following directly on from The Return Of Optimus Prime. The Headmasters was free to give more screentime to those new characters introduced in 1987 without having to rush.

The Japanese producers were very keen to make Headmasters their own product rather than stick what came before, which may stick in the craw of some fans. Many of the characters and concepts from the US cartoon were drastically changed. Scourge and Cyclonus became a bumbling comedy duo more like Bebop and Rocksteady. Alpha Trion is a ghost who can charge up other Autobots by spinning with his arms outstretched like Superman. Wheelie is...well, Wheelie's still annoying but he's a bratty, arrogant flavour of annoying now.

Similarly the humour and themes of the show don't always translate so well. There's a lot of slapstick such as Hardhead getting “drunk” and dancing, Cerebros pulling funny faces to stop Daniel from crying or Tantrum getting unceremoniously knocked over by a train (that one was actually pretty funny). Similarly several of the episodes and story arcs end in ways that may seem unsatisfying or even silly to American eyes.

However, despite sophomoric moments Headmasters carries a level of dramatic and emotional weight that American viewers wouldn't experience until Beast Wars. Characters die in both heroic and pointless ways and nothing is glossed over. The heroes are often forced to face failure on personal levels and bad choices are shown as having consequences more serious than a simple reprimand. Sometimes the good guys lose. Headmasters starts slow but after a while those who have avoided spoilers will run into twists, turns and excitement.

The characterization in the show is mostly excellent. The role of main character is taken from the avancular, strong Optimus and the self-conscious, zealous Rodimus and is given to Chromedome. The Headmasters version of Chromedome is hot-blooded and confident, but learns and develops as the series goes on. Sixshot is another prominent character who breaks out of the typical villain mold and becomes a compelling and memorable antagonist. Other characters who got glossed over in the west such as Pointblank and Punch get more personality and screen time here too. Even some figures that never showed up in the US cartoon like the Duocons and the Monsterbots put in appearances.

Perhaps the most vital part of this series for those who have never seen it before is the important place it holds in Transformers history. This was the first time that Japanese continuity really set out on its own rather than adapting from the western storyline, and this path would lead into Masterforce and Victory, and would introduce luminary Transformers such as Minerva, Star Saber and Deathsaurus.

Watching a 35-episode series, especially with subtitles is a serious investment of time and if you've never been curious about the Japanese continuity this set isn't about to change your mind. At times it is ponderous and heavy-handed, and the animation and music are not about to wow anyone. And many of the big twists will have been defused by anyone with even the most casual knowledge of the 1987 toyline. On the other hand if you want to see a powerful, involved storyline that features otherwise-ignored characters that have been fleshed-out and many memorable moments it's a worthwhile investment.





Part Two: The Presentation.

The DVD set comes inside a plastic case which comes in a cardboard sleeve, a situation which would be less pointless if they didn't both have the exact same artwork and blurb. The inside of the plastic case features the same artwork inside in monochrome form (it is very pretty artwork, but they couldn't have commissioned two pictures?) along with an unnumbered list of episodes showing which disc each episode is on.

The DVDs themselves are unusually attractive and not too gaudy compared to those in the Metrodome set released in Europe. Unfortunately that is where the positive comparison ends. While the Metrodome version came with a helpful booklet explaining some of the translation choices and a brief summary of each episode the Shout Factory version doesn't come with any such extras.

The quality is what you might expect from a lowish-budget release of a cartoon from the eighties with colours and sound not as crisp as one might hope for and small scratches and jumps on the video. It's not enough to be annoying to anyone but the most hardcore A/V purists but it is a point against the set's favour. The subtitles are new and lack the errors of the Metrodome set but they do feature some odd quirks (Daniel uses “Scrap” as a curse? He's been hanging around robots too much.) Bafflingly while the back of the case uses the Japanese names the subtitles use the English names throughout.

The set comes with one bonus feature: a gallery of uncoloured line-art character models of the series' major players that will look very familiar to those who look at the Ark Addendum news posts on Seibertron.com. As bonus features go it's better than nothing but it would have been nice to see some interviews or commentaries or something.

As you may have guessed from my tone I'm not totally impressed by this set. It feels like Shout Factory produced the bare minimum for a box set and nothing else. One piece of artwork. One list of episodes. One audio track (yes, it lacks even the so-bad-it's good infamous English language dub). One subtitle track. One bonus feature. Given that the Transformers franchise has enjoyed some incredible popularity of late this release seems lazy when there was a chance to do something really special. My biggest worry for this set is that everything is being held for the super-collection. It just seems weak that this set is a step down from a set released over 5 years ago.

That all said, this is a competent set of a compelling and interesting series that will be retailing for around the same price as a large Human Alliance figure. That's a price that won't exactly be breaking anyone's banks. If you've wanted to see this series but have never gotten around to it this is a great opportunity. For those who have seen these episodes before I would recommend the Metrodome release or holding out for the super-collection instead.