| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Transformers - Season Two, Part 2 |  | |
Transformers - Season Two, Part 2
Based on a line of robots from Takara that was licensed to Hasbro, Transformers sparked a craze for metamorphic toys in the mid-'80s. Each robot-character could be reconfigured to form a car, a tank, a plane, etc. The Transformers series (Tatakae Cho Robot Seimetai Transformers or Fight Super Living Robots Transformers) was written in America, but animated in Japan. The 24 episodes in this collection, which ran between October 1985 and January 1986, conclude the second season and lead up to Transformers 2006. Each episode forms a self-contained story, with little in the way of larger character arcs or plot developments tying them together. Although the cast has expanded, the Autobots remain the good guys who defeat the bad guy Decepticons, and no one expects anything else. Although the character designs and animation are Japanese, the direction is pure American Saturday morning: instead of creating effective transitions, the filmmakers just cut to a shot of the logo--a standard practice in Hanna-Barbera kidvid. Web sites, role-playing games, fan fiction, and a brisk commerce in the original toys have kept Transformers alive in the hearts of its fans. But like Robotech, Transformers will appeal most strongly to nostalgic adults who watched the show as kids. (Unrated: suitable for ages 6 and older: robot vs. robot violence) --Charles Solomon
Manufacturer: Rhino / WEA
Price Range: $159.95 - $59.98
 Transformers - Season Two, Part 2
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| User Reviews |  | 2nd Season Stinks (Episodic for the A.D.D. Impaired)
rating: 3
Season 2 (Parts 1 & 2) is pretty lame compared to Season 1 (the best) and Season 3 (most epic).
I really love some the characters that came in Season 2. The Gestalts (combiners), Dirge, Ramjet, Thrust, Blitzwing and Astrotrain.
But then you get Seaspray, Beachcomber, Cosmos(Peter Laurie), Tracks, and Warpath (Plow, I suck, Bam!).
Thankfully the Movie saved the show. Which brings about Season 3, with it's continuous story line.
If you can score a copy of The Headmasters, forget about Season 4 also.
I actually sold Season 2 Pt 1 used on Amazon for 90 bucks and bought this whole set for 86 bucks: TRANSFORMERS Generation 1 (G1) : Complete DVD Box Set 15 Discs (98 Episodes+The movie) (In Chinese with Secondary English Audio Track)
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Childhood classics that are still awesome
rating: 5
Man, I just can't get enough of the Transformers. The second season opened up the storylines a little more and introduced a few more characters/toys for more complicated story lines.
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Do they EVER die???
rating: 4
No matter how many laser gun battles the Autobots and Decepticons get into, none of the shots ever seem to hit and those ones that rarely do, no matter how powerful, NEVER kill. It's beginning to get very annoying.
The second half of season 2 offers some refreshing stories that frequently take place in outer space, other planets or other cities as a way of basing the action outside of that generic desert/forest valley the Transformers so often fight in.
Of course that's not to say that the show still isn't riddled with hundreds of technical errors, plot holes, badly edited music that is cut and pasted from other episodes and silly science that confuses more than it entertains. Don't even bother trying to make sense of it, you'll only end up with a headache. It takes some effort to sit through all of these. You really need to be commited to the Transformers to take it all in.
And am I the only one who hates the fact that none of the stories really connect and no huge story seems to be brewing behind all of them? And why do the humans just not blast them off the face of the earth? Look at all the destruction and mayhem that they cause? No one seems to react to it in the slightest realistic way.
Also this second half of season 2 introduces loads of new characters as a way of Hasbro to flog more toys. You are constantly reminded of the fact that this show is a commercial first and a story second.
While there is loads of bad things to say about this DVD set, there are some great episodes on here but the quality does tend to be random with some being well written and others being just terrible.
As before each show is presented in 1.33:1 full frame, as originally drawn, with an inconsistant picture that varies from being crystal clear to downright poor with negative damage, dirt and scratches everywhere. The Dolby 5.1 sound design too can be dynamic and engaging in places and downright cheap and nasty in others. The extras are also pathetic.
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Even better the the last!
rating: 4
The second part of season two was my favorite of the whole series. It introduced four new sets of combiners, the only one not having an episode relating to it's creation was the Protectobots. On top of that, the background fleshed out for Omega Supreme, Optimus Prime, and the transformers history in general is well worth the cost of the set.
The series isn't perfect. It's dated, and still meant for children. However the animation has picked up considerably and the action scenes are actually pretty good. The storylines in this part of the season where the most complex and interesting. The only downside in general is that there isn't any appearance from the Dinobots, and once the combiners come into the picture, Omega Supreme gets faded out, used only for travel now.
These are also the last episodes before the movie takes place. So this is the last we see of many transformers characters before they are wasted. Enjoy the last scenes with Ironhide, Ratchet, and many others. As well as the last time for a long time that Optimus Prime would lead the Autobots. If getting the original series seems worth it at all, get seasons one, two, and the movie to polish it off.
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Horrible Animation Quality
rating: 2
By this point in the series, it was obvious that it was obly being created to make $$$. They kept introducing new and never before seen characters so that they could make more toys and make more money. The animation quality fell off drastically to the point where some frames literally go through other frames and the picture is just this big image of nothing. At other times, transformers will literally walk through their surrounding scenery without seeming to come in contact with any of it. Really, they walk through spaceships, giant pets, and trees without ever disturbing it, or having it disturb them. The animation was horrible!
The stories don't get much better either, honestly. Some of these plots are so fantastically lame (a disco club gone bad?) that the episodes are extremely difficult to sit through even for a mad-wicked Transformer fan like myself. If you want to see great Transformers watch Season 1 or the movie. This simply doesn't cut it.
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Transformers - Season Two, Part 2
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