One of our readers, Otto egil Sætre, sent us an e-mail this morning letting us know about this. Thank you very much, Otto! He pointed us toward a post on a
Transformers fan site's message board that led back to
this post at the AllSpark.com message boards. The post was made by Tim Finn, who is described both by the site and by himself as "Rhino's
Transformers and
G.I. Joe consultant." Additionally, Finn works on a
Transformers parody comic called "TransSpoof," and at the parody's website
his bio mentions that he "has animated for Soup2Nuts' "Home Movies," (part of ADULT SWIM on Cartoon Network)."
Finn has posted a LOT of information about upcoming Rhino releases related to the world of
Transformers in its various incarnations, plus has info about
G.I. Joe, Jem, the possibility of Rhino putting out
Visionaries DVDs, and more. His post repeatedly invites other sites, such as DVD websites like ours, to link in. So let's take a look at what he's saying!
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This is a massive Rhino update. Feel free to link to this thread from other TF sites, animation sites, and DVD sites.
Some of you know I'm Rhino's Transformers and G.I. Joe consultant. Staying in LA for a week after BotCon, I decided to "do lunch" with Rhino and here's some things we covered:
RELEASE DATES:
G.I. Joe Season 1 Part 2 IMMINENT
G.I. Joe Season 2 Part 1 Aug 17
Transformers Armada Vol 5 Aug 24
Transformers Armada Vol 6 Aug 24
Beast Wars Season 3 Aug 24
Jem Season 3 Part 1 Aug 31
Transformers Armada S1 P1 Nov 09
Beast Machines Season 1 2005
Beast Machines Season 2 2005
The announcement of Fox doing Beast Machines for Canada does not affect the US release.
G.I. Joe S2 P2 and Jem S3 P2 depend on Sunbow renewing with Rhino.
TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE
Rhino wants to do a 1-disc letterbox Movie. We disagreed over whether or not it exists. If it does and they can get it, they'll do it. If it does not, they won't.
VISIONARIES
Sam at Rhino couldn't remember if Visionaries was a part of the Sunbow deal that Rhino struck. If it is, they'll do a 2-disc set for 29.95 at some point, my guess is 2005. If they do not already have the rights, I suggested they get it. They'd be happy to get Flint Dille in for an interview or commentary, as he's already done an interview for G.I. Joe and lives in LA. Your letters and comments would help push this forward.
TRANSFORMERS: ROBOTS IN DISGUISE
is Saban, which is owned by Disney, which means not a Rhino possibility.
TRANSFORMERS ENERGON
If the Armada box sells, they would consider it. But that decision is a long ways off.
TRANSFORMERS HEADMASTERS
Rhino likes the idea of doing this, and I've been telling them for a year to do it. It all depends on if a deal could be worked out with Pioneer (or whoever did the Headmasters DVD box in Japan, I forget who is was). It is yet one more kind of deal and would require getting Rhino, Hasbro, Takara, and Pioneer (or whoever) to agree on terms of money, shipping, schedules, and then actually following through and delivering the digital masters.
I do not know if Pioneer (or whoever) remastered the Headmasters films when they did their Headmasters boxed set. Rhino, if a deal were to go through, would use whatever masters were used in Japan. If Headmaster was remastered there, they would be here as well. If not there, then not here either.
That said, if Rhino did do Headmasters, it would be subtitled, and they'd bring in a Japanese speaking Transformers fan to tweak the subs. They understand the show has idiosyncracies and wouldn't give it to a translator without running it by a TF fan.
RELEASES ARE COMING OUT TOO SLOWLY
In terms of speed and patience, we all have to remember that Our Favorite Animation is but a fraction of what the DVD team at Rhino handles. They've got MST3K, music concert videos, and live action stuff like Ed Sullivan. We may want more and faster releases, but they can only do so much and I'd argue that the above release schedule coupled with what's already come out in the first half of the year is actually a huge amount.
MASTERFORCE, VICTORY, ZONE, SCRAMBLE CITY
Would only happen if Headmasters happened.
DR. RHINO
The gentleman who reads the Dr. Rhino (customer service/suggestion) e-mail is a friend of Rhino's DVD head, and immediately forwards all TF/G.I. Joe/Jem/Beast Wars e-mail to her. So your notes to Dr. Rhino are going to the right place and are being read promptly.
PAPER MAIL
is always appreciated. Today Rhino showed me three decorated postcards from Jem fans saying Thanks/Good job/Please interview so-and-so for the next set. They were awesome.
DISAPPOINTING BONUS FEATURES
-For those of you who dislike Rhino's TFTM, that was before the current team.
-For those of you who want toy commercials, Rhino has to pay residuals to the child actors who appeared in those ads, and would need to track down said actors. Until they can do so, they cannot release the ads. They have the ads, and I believe they've already remastered them.
-For those of you who wonder why Rhino can't get a Peter Cullen interview or a Frank Welker interview or a Fill-in-the-blank interview with a certain actor, Rhino knows you want them and Rhino knows how to track down those actors. Rhino is not a SAG or AFTRA signatory, and many union actors will not do an interview with a company that is not a union signatory. The Cullen interview was lined up, but Mr. Cullen declined. The Welker, Berger, and Ross interviews are likely to fall through imminently for the same reason. Rhino is not likely to become a signatory because Rhino is one part of a larger Warner Music unbrella, which is to say red tape, red tape, red tape. Rhino's head of DVD has worked tirelessly this past week find a loophole that would make the Welker/Berger/Ross interviews happen. She deserves our appreciation even if the interviews don't happen. She has also worked hard to line up interviews with actors who will forego the union thing.
-Many bonus features require the assistance of a third party or multiple third parties. If Rhino wants something for Beast Wars, they have to get Mainframe to do the legwork. Rhino does not send a rep up to Vancouver to scour the Mainframe hard drives. (Nor should we realistically expect them to.) If Mainframe is busy, it may not happen. And Hasbro legal needs to sign off on it. If Hasbro legal is busy, things move slowly and it may not happen. If Rhino wants something for TFG1 or G.I. Joe, they have to work with Sunbow, which is in New York but owned by TV Loonland in Germany. More time and red tape. Sunbow didn't want any of the TF or Joe film elements to leave New York, so Rhino had to use a (long distance) New York lab to remaster picture and sound, rather than shipping the material to LA and doing it locally. And again, Hasbro has to sign off on everything.
This is to say that in some ways, in terms of time, budget, manpower, and approval, Rhino's hands are tied. So while it's easy to say "I'm so disappointed in Rhino! A different DVD company would do a better job!" that other home video company would have the same hoops to jump through.
GOOD WORK NEEDS TO BE RECOGNIZED
Just as Hasbro has told us they can't deal with exclusively negative comments, the same goes for Rhino. Hasbro needs to hear when we're disappointed with a toy or feature or episode, but just as importantly needs to hear when something goes right. "Strongarm's head sculpt is awesome." "I'm relieved you're releasing Alternator Tracks." "Episode 12 showed an improvement in script translation and dubbing."
The same goes for Rhino.
If you think the Beast Wars Season 2 set kicks ass, please tell Rhino. If you think adding the Broadcast Audio option to the latter Joe and TF sets was a good idea, please tell Rhino. If you're happy you can bypass the annoying "best of" Armada discs in favor of a large box, please tell Rhino.
But don't do it on a message board, do it directly:
drrhino@rhino.com
Rhino Home Video
DVD Production Team
3400 W Olive Ave
Burbank CA 91505
As I said at the top, feel free to link to this thread from other TF sites, animation sites, and DVD sites.
-Tim Finn
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Okay...breathe! There's a TON of cool news in there, and the first thing we have to point out is that, so far, Rhino hasn't officially said a word about any of it. When they do, we'll certainly post individual news stories about each show's DVD announcements, but at this time we should consider all of the above "unofficial, and subject to change."
However, at least one item up there is certain: that
G.I. Joe - Season 2, Part 1 has a release being cooked up. Over at QKTheater.com website, he already has
images up from the box and booklet for
Season 1, Part 2 (due in-stores next Tuesday 6/29), and the back of the booklet (last image on the right at the link just provided; click the image to enlarge) says "Look For Season 2, Part 1 Coming Soon." Our thanks to that site's creator and webmaster, David Thornton, for letting us know about those!
The mention that "Fox (is) doing
Beast Machines for Canada" caught us by surprise, since this info hasn't been circulated by our sources at Fox Home Video, which usually covers both sides of the border. We Googled up
this item, though, at yet another fansite called "Seibertron.com," based in Chicago. They had a link to
this listing at Amazon.ca (Canadian arm of Amazon), claiming that it is for the Fox
Beast Machines release. Well, the title's been removed from the Amazon listing, so we can't verify it at this time. It IS a listing for a Fox Video release, slated for August 10th, selling currently for $11.98 (CAN$). We'll follow up on this, and get back to you.
The
Jem information syncs up nicely with our
report from a couple of weeks ago, but the August 31st date Finn provided sounds a bit sooner than the "late 2004 or early 2005" timeframe we were given.
The mention of "Transformers: Energon" DVDs is fascinating. Paramount Home Entertainment has already announced that they have made a deal with Hasbro to bring out new direct-to-video DVD features based on Hasbro toy properties such as "Tonka" and "Transformers: Energon." According to
this report at Video Business (free registration required), the animated release for "Energon" will hit stores this October. Obviously, Rhino's release would be based on the
Cartoon Network Engergon series which has been airing since January 31st, and is planning to ramp up episode broadcasts in the coming weeks. The confusion caused by the identical names on DVDs will be an interesting marketplace challenge, though.
We'll dig deeper into all of this, of course, and get back to our readers with more specifics. Stay tuned, and hang on tight! It sounds like we're in for a bumpy - but wonderful! - ride with Rhino.
