DVD

Paramount Home Entertainment have announced that Transformers Energon will be receiving the Ultimate Collection treatment with a DVD set containing all 52 episodes on 16th December in North America. Following on from the Cybertron Ultimate Collection, expect a bare bones release, with no extra features.

The news mentions that there will be 52 episodes running for 1092 minutes, or 21 minutes per episode. The only problem with this is that Transformers Energon only received 51 dubbed episodes, missing out Episode 33 - Scorponok’s Scars.

Today sees the release of Transformers: Animated Volume One - Blast from the Past, on DVD in Australia. Unlike North America, who last month got the complete first season on 2 discs, this is only a 1 disc set containing 4 episodes, Home is Where the Spark Is, Total Meltdown, Blast from the Past and The Thrill of the Hunt. These episodes are in fullscreen (4:3) with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and coded in region 4 PAL.

It seems Paramount Home Entertainment are mistreating international fans, with the same disc due to come out in the UK in October. It’s recommended that you avoid this and future Transformers: Animated releases until they are provided in their original widescreen format and come in full season sets.

Today sees the release of Transformers: Animated Season One on DVD in North America. The 2 disc set contains episodes 4 to 16. Extra features are minimal, with only a season 2 preview and a ‘Spanish language track’, which isn’t really an extra.

Below you can find the cover art.

Paramount Home Entertainment have today released Transformers: Animated - Transform and Roll Out on DVD in the UK. The 1 disc set contains the movie special, which runs for 68 minutes, with 2 animated shorts as extras, with English and German audio and subtitles. The disc is rated U.

You can read my initial thoughts on the release and the minor differences to the North American version here.

Play.com and Amazon.co.uk have updated their listings with a date for Transformers RID - Ultimate Collection on DVD. The set is due out on 1st December 2008 under the Jetix brand. It will be a 6 disc set, formatted as Region 2 PAL and have a RRP of £19.99 but Play.com have it for £12.99. Given the price, no extras are expected.

This set was originally announced to come out in September 2004, but was cancelled due to poor sales of the two individual sets. It seems the reissued sets, released last October, have sold well enough to justify this to be rescheduled.

Released yesterday in North America is Transformers Cybertron: The Ultimate Collection on DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment. The 7 disc set contains all 52 episodes of the series in full frame (4:3) with English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio and no extra features of any kind. The discs are Region 1 NTSC formatted.

Hopefully, if sales are encouraging, Paramount will hopefully release this in the rest of the world.

Paramount Home Entertainment have now sent out the cover for the transforming Megatron DVD case. In a similar style to the Optimus Prime version, it will contain the Two-Disc Special Edition of the Transformers movie, unlike the Bumblebee and Optimus Prime masks, which come with the 1 disc package.

The Megatron packaging is due out in North America on 2nd September, with no news on an international release.

Transformers Megatron Transforming DVD Case

We’ve already seen the Optimus Prime mask that will be included with the re-release of Transformers on DVD, but now the Bumblebee mask has been released by Paramount Hom Entertainment.

This version will be exclusive to Wal*Mart stores (and online) in North America, and will be released on the 2nd September, the same day as the Optimus Prime mask version and the Blu-ray release.

Another Transformers DVD cover has been released today, this time for Transformers Animated Season One. The image does seen to be using some early Animated artwork.

The set is due for out on 19th August in North America from Paramount Home Entertainment. It will contain 13 episodes from season one, not including Transform and Roll Out!, and no extras have been announced, so expect a disappointing bare-bones release.