So about a year ago during Wizard World Chicago 2008, my wife doodled up an idea for a line of creatures that she hoped to turn into a webcomic.  Well it's been percolating and brewing for awhile and she recently decided to try and make them into a line of stuffed animals.  We went out and hit Michaels this weekend and picked up some materials and she whipped together her first proof of concept…



She had been going through a creative funk, and was trying to find and outlet.  I think this first stuffed animal is great and I'm so proud of her for having her vision, and seeing it through to a very neat end!  We're planning out some other additions to the line and hopefully this'll lead to a new hobby for her, which she's needed for awhile.



She's even blogging now.  Holy crap, visit my wife at her Demonals page...

I just received my copy of the new Transformers season one DVD set and I was pretty darn impressed…



For the last few years it's been a wonderful time for fans of 80s cartoons.  Between the lovely Filmation sets released by the now sadly defunct BCI Eclipse, Warner Bros. stepping up to the plate and offering action cartoons like Thundercats and the Silverhawks, WEP/Anime Works/Media Blasters releasing the complete series of Voltron, Time Life releasing the complete Real Ghostbusters, and Shout! Factory picking up dropped licenses for a ton of DiC and now Sunbow cartoons, releasing 30-odd episode sets instead of the paltry 4 episode discs for shows like C.O.P.S. and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, it's just been great.

With the recently released Transformers season one 25th anniversary edition, Shout! Factory has stepped up its game and taken on a tent-pole series, looking to correct the mistakes in the show's past DVD releases (both in terms of price point, attractive packaging and actual animation and sound snafus from the 2002 Rhino releases.)  Taking a nod from Time Life and their release of the Real Ghostbusters, Shout! is putting together multiple DVD sets that'll hopefully appease both casual and hardcore fans.  This set is the first of 4 individual releases that will comprise the complete Transformers cartoon.

This first set includes all 16 episodes from season one, a 20 minute documentary featurette featuring a lot of the creative team responsible for the original toy line, the Marvel comics series, and the cartoon, a G.I. Joe-style "Knowing is half the battle…" PSA featuring Bumblebee, three archival Hasbro toy commercials, a printable script for the episode "Transport to Oblivion", and a large b&w Autobot magnet.   For the most part, these episodes are from the same masters that Rhino used in the 2002 releases, but Brian Ward and his team painstakingly researched the discrepancies between the original masters and the broadcast versions, and replaced most of the incorrect footage (and sound) with the correct sections from the 1" broadcast tapes.  For casual fans these changes will be transparent, but for longtime viewers, these new DVDs are the closest we've gotten to how the show was originally shown on TV.  Unfortunately, the 1" tapes segments tend to stick out a bit, and can be a bit jarring as the animation flows between the crisp sequences of the original masters and the softer, slightly duller 1" broadcast tape.  On the whole though, knowing that the original broadcast versions are preserved far outweighs the visual bumpiness.

Here's an example of the corrected animation from the episode "Fire in the Sky".  Look to the missing Decepticon symbol on Skyfire's chest in the original master footage from the 2002 Rhino release on the left, and the newly inserted footage from the 1" broadcast tape on the new Shout! DVD on the right...



The episodes included on disc 1:
-More Than Meets the Eye: Part 1
-More Than Meets the Eye: Part 2
-More Than Meets the Eye: Part 3
-Transport to Oblivion
-Roll for It
-Divide and Conquer
-Fire in the Sky
-S.O.S. Dinobots

The episodes included on disc 2:
-Fire on the Mountain
-War of the Dinobots
-The Ultimate Doom: Part 1
-The Ultimate Doom: Part 2
-The Ultimate Doom: Part 3
-Countdown to Extinction
-A Plague of Insecticons
-Heavy Metal War

As far as the packaging, presentation and bonus materials go, I was very impressed by the attention to detail and that Shout! had and eye on the style of the original toy packaging when designing the slipcase, sleeve inserts, disc art and the episode guide.  The foil embossed slipcase is brilliant and just plain beautiful (especially compared to the rather dull silver digipaks of the original 2002 Rhino release.)   This is the best work I've seen from Shout! when it comes to their 80s cartoon releases.  The menu navigation is light years better than the old Rhino DVDs as well, with an included feature to play multi-part episodes together without interrupting the flow of the cartoon by cutting out the opening and closing credits on the in-between episodes.  The 20 minute "From Toy to Comic to Screen" featurette takes its cue from the docs that Andy Mangels did for the BCI Eclipse He-Man, She-Ra, and Dungeons and Dragons sets, and is well produced.  The main focus of the doc centers around Hasbro acquiring the toy license from Takara, the development of the Marvel comic series, and eventually how the story-lines for the three platforms differed, and features creative talent that worked for Marvel, Hasbro and Sunbow past and present.  It's not quite as in-depth as I was hoping, skirting talk of the production of the series for the most part, but according to the specs of the Complete series set, we can expect two more docs in these individual sets, as well as two additional and exclusive docs on the complete set (including a voice actor reunion), so there's room for more down the road.   Also, it was kind of weird that the interviewees hid all mention of Marvel when talking about the comics, they'd just refer to "a comic company", or "that comic series".  As for the toy commercials, two of them pertain to G1 toys, while a third is for the G2 Optimus Prime re-release.   It's really interesting seeing these, though it can be distracting while watching them because the child actor's faces were blurred (I’m guessing for rights or residuals issues.)  There's also a glimpse of the Sunbow Marvel comics commercial in the documentary which kind of makes me hope that these will be included on future sets or maybe the complete set, but I'm not holding my breath...

All in all, for a set retailing between $20-30, fans couldn't really ask for anything better considering the Rhino DVDs have been out of print and fetching upwards of $100 a set.  This is the first time the Transformers series has been released with this much loving detail at such an affordable price in the US, and hopefully it's just the icing on the cake as there are three more sets, as well as the G.I. Joe series to look forward to. Brian Ward and the team at Shout really did a great job with this set.

There sure has been a lot of radio silence coming out of Branded this year.  Sheesh.  I have been working on a project that I'll hopefully be able to talk about soon, but in the meantime I thought I'd throw out an update on two of my favorite 80s cartoons getting the royal treatment on DVD, G.I. Joe and Transformers.  I've mentioned recently about Shout! Factory acquiring the rights to release a bunch of Hasbro owned properties and how excited I am about finally getting affordable releases of my two favorite cartoons.  This whole process has been rather transparent on Shout!'s end, with Brian Ward inviting fan input on both shows during the DVD production via the company's community forums (Transformers thread & G.I. Joe thread.)  Though I'm not nearly as well versed in the minutia of the cartoons, knowing the various differences in broadcast versions vs. the original masters, all the little sound and picture errors, etc., I'm glad there is a community of dedicated fans who are and that, that knowledge base was tapped in the creation of these new DVDs.

   

Well, we've finally gotten around to seeing the fruit of Shout! Factory's labors with the Transformers season 1 set finally hitting store shelves this past week (I'm still eagerly awaiting my copy from Amazon as I type this.)   The season 1.1 set of the G.I. Joe cartoon is just around the corner as well, which should be available for purchase on July 21st.

Well, one of the aspects of this whole push to re-release these shows is that Shout! Really is concerned with "getting it right" so to speak, and they've taken a cue (I believe) from Time Life's Complete Real Ghostbusters set, in that in tandem with the announcement of the season 1 DVDs they've also put the wheels in motion on two complete series sets for both shows.   Unlike Time Life (which has only released the individual season 1 set of the GB cartoon), they've also committed to releasing the full run of each series in separate individual sets, giving the casual fan, the strapped-for-cash fan, and the uber fan buying options that best suit their needs.

So on July 13th you'll be able to pick up the complete Transformers G1 series on DVD in a very nice set that really looks like it's going to outshine the original Rhino releases in terms of packaging and special features…



Besides being packaged in a slipcase designed to look like and open like the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, there's also a 60-page book, a bunch of archival toy commercials and PSAs, galleries featuring concept and fan art, as well as a couple of Autobot and Decpticon magnets.  The set also includes five featurettes on the series (including two which are unique to the complete series set, an interview with Bob Budiansky, and a cast reunion with Jack Angel (Ramjet), Michael Bell (Prowl), Gregg, Berger (Grimlock), Aurthur Burghardt (Devastator), Corey Burton (Spike Witwicky), Richard Gautier (Rodimus Prime), Neil Ross (Slag), Frank Welker (Megatron).)  The complete set clocks in at 16 discs (with what appears to be alternate disc art from the individual releases) with all 98 episodes for $140 (shipping included) and is available for preorder.  Click the image below for a nice enbiggened version…



The set that I'm really looking forward to is the Complete G.I. Joe seeing as Rhino lost the rights before completing the original run of DVDs back in the early 2000's.  This will be the first time that a good chunk of the series will be released on DVD, and even though I was skeptical of what sounded like a boring "footlocker" package, I’m really impressed with the presentation…



This set is also available for pre-order ($145, shipping included) and will be released on July 22nd.   Click the image below for a nice enbiggened version…



Again, this set comes with a lot of special features including a 60-page book, a 1gb dog tag shaped USB flash drive (which includes two silent comics, which I'm assuming are akin to CBZ versions of the comics), all the "Knowing is half the battle" PSAs, 25 archival toy commercials (though it looks like the Marvel Comics commercials missed the cut, which is a shame since they were the origin of the animated series), and a couple of rub-on tattos.  Also included are 8 featurettes, again including two which are exclusive to this set (a conversation with Larry Hama and a voice cast reunion featureing: Jack Angel (Wet Suit), Michael Bell (Duke), Gregg Berger (Spirit), Arthur Burghardt (Destro), Corey Burton (Tomax), Richard Gautier (Serpentor), Neil Ross (Shipwreck), B.J. Ward (Scarlett).)  I'm surprised Frank Welker didn't sit in on this one as well seeing as he shows up for the Transformers session and voiced Wild Bill.

I'm probably going to end up picking up the complete series for G.I. Joe if for nothing else than aesthetic reasons as I’m a huge fan of the original toy packaging artwork which is used exclusively in this set for the disc art.  I guess I'm just goofy that way.  Besides, knowing my luck something will keep the full run of individual sets from being released again and I don't want to miss out on any of the episodes this time around.  Also, both sets will be available for purchase at San Diego comic con this year, if you're attending and can afford it.  If nothing else, I hope that these sets move a bunch of units as I've love to see enough profit generated so that Shout! Might consider licensing and releasing some of the other Sunbow shows that Hasbro recently re-attained the rights to including Jem, the Visionaries and the Inhumanoids.  Hell, I'd also be happy if some of that cash could go to pushing second releases of some of the other 80s cartoon properties that Shout! Already holds like C.O.P.S. and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, but that seems like a pipe dream.