I can’t count how many times my college roommate and I played the Transformers G1 theme song in our dorm room, appreciating the simplicity and impenetrable complexity of the exposition-laden tune. We did the same thing with Tiny Tim’s ‘Livin’ in the Sunlight’, except as loud as we possibly could, and projected into the dining hall courtyard. What a team we were.
I also have a confession to make. I never watched Transformers as a kid. I mean, not consciously. My heart and soul were owned by the Thundercats and Masters of the Universe, both of which were more comfortably fantastical and less explodey than the uber-masculine GI Joe and Transformers cartoons. I had a light green Transformers dumptruck that I lost the stickers to, and I’m sure that there was at least one Optimus Prime floating around the house, but despite my later obsession with all things robotic, Transformers just didn’t factor into those early years. I know – I’m a horrible child of the 80s. I’ll turn in my membership card at the end of this post.
This doesn’t mean that retroactively loving the Transformers, for what they were and have become, is out of the question. I maintain enough youthful glee and scholarly appreciation of pop culture and animation to ‘get’ what the Transformers were about. And if I ever forget, I’ll just refer back to that amazing theme song. And I’d be lying if I didn’t also admit to having a box full of Transformers toys, just because they’re neat as hell.
The Transformers, as in the original Transformers (or ‘Generation 1′ as they’re referred to) came before watching Beast Wars while eating cereal and getting ready to go to high school, and long before waking up at 5 AM with Cartoon Network blaring some especially obnoxious iteration of Transformers with huge anime eyes (which even I knew was trash).
It’s nice to get back to the roots of the Transformers with this Complete First Season DVD set, which is something a precursor to the Matrix of Leadership collection due out in mid-July, both of which celebrate 25 years of Transformers in the US. Let’s hope that the giant, complete Matrix set doesn’t preclude the slow release of the original season sets after this first collection. These newest releases are unique, however. Shout! Factory didn’t just re-release old DVDs of Transformers material – in these 16 episodes (many of them multi-part epics), Shout! actually went back and found lost footage and rearranged the animation so that it would appear as originally broadcast, so if you’re looking for a pure experience, this is the first place to find it…. I mean, next to taking a time machine back to the 1980s and hijacking a TV and some Nintendo Cereal System. That’s right, I said it.
So, the value of this DVD set to purist collectors is immediately apparent. Plus, there’s a freakin’ huge Autobot magnet in the package.
The first 2 discs in the 3-disc set are pure episodic fun, and I love diving into cel animation with lush, painted backgrounds and viewing ‘the art of doing a lot with as few frames as possible’. Disc 3 is all of the bonus materials, which are mostly comprised of a 20-minute documentary about the relationship between the toys and the cartoon – which existed to sell each other. No one’s shy about the fact that the original Transformers was a giant toy commercial, and while it’s not talked about quite as much anymore, it’s pretty obvious that this has never changed. Transformers has been one of the toy brands that never really disappeared from toy shelves over a 25 year history, which is a statement that doesn’t apply to many action figures at all.
Other bonuses : Transformers toy commercials that charmingly look like they were copied off of a jittery VHS tape, a vintage PSA about running away from home, and a printable script. This all leads me to believe that there’s a lot more coming by way of bonuses in subsequent sets. While these are nice, they only seem to scratch a surface of something that has developed a very complex mythos and dedicated fanbase.
Potential Transformers fans, this is your gateway in. Finally understand the difference between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Learn that robots actually have personalities and emotions and different powers. And finally, begin to grasp about a thousand cultural references that happen in today’s more awesome TV shows. Pick it up this week for around $30.
