A week ago today we
passed along a report from industry journal
Home Media Magazine, revealing publicly for the first time that Shout! Factory's plans for both original Sunbow-produced cartoon seriess of
Transformers and
G.I. Joe would include complete series sets. Many fans have been confused, judging by various posts spotted on message boards, thinking that these would come out only after every separate season set for each program was released. After all, that's the traditional way of doing things with TV-DVDs.
In a nutshell, Shout! Factory isn't much on tradition. As we indicated last time, the plan was to put these out around the same time as the first of the season set releases (instead of after the last of those). Now,
a new report from HMM confirms that info. Here's what Shout! President Garson Foos was said to have told the article's writer,
HMM Asst. Managing Editor John Latchem:
The plan, according to Shout! Factory president Garson Foos, is to debut complete-series sets for each show exclusively for sale at San Diego Comic-Con International, running July 23-26, 2009. After that, the sets will be sold online directly to consumers, before a wide retail release. The hope is to capitalize on buzz surrounding the new live-action films for each franchise.
The article goes on to explain that the robot-based series would be titled
The Transformers - 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Edition: Collector’s Set, and that it will come in a package designed to look like the "Matrix of Leadership" (which was first seen in the 1986 animated theatrical film, then shown again on the television series in the final seasons that came afterward. Shout! DVD producer Brian Ward is quoted in the story, describing the packaging this way: "
a 'really cool' box with the Matrix on the cover, which slides apart to reveal a shiny blue foil core which houses the set’s 16 DVDs in plastic digistack trays. The set also will include a collectible booklet." Ward also tells
HMM that the
Matrix of Leadership Edition set will include exclusive bonus material, consisting of a "conversation" with Bob Budiansky (the Marvel comic book writer who created most of the background "mythology" for
Transformers) and a highly drool-worthy "
roundtable discussion with eight original members of the voice cast, including Frank Welker ('Megatron')."
The as-yet-untitled "complete series" set for
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero will reportedly "
come in a foot-locker package." Ward also answers two often-asked fan questions in the
HMM story as well: He says that the animated theatrical films for both
G.I. Joe and
Transformers will NOT be included on either show's "complete series" set. He also notes that there are presently no plans for a Blu-ray Disc release of either series. In the official discussion threads for these releases at Shout! Factory's message boards, Ward has explained the reasons why not: "
no one has successfully found the original BROADCAST film elements...which means there's nothing to restore and make high-def quality. So while we could do an up-convert to Blu-ray, you're really not...getting a quality that's any better than the standard-def DVD. I will say that the new interviews, however, are being shot and edited in high-def, just in case we can ever find those original film elements. Who knows? Maybe one day."
Pricing for the two "complete series" releases was not made available in the
Home Media Magazine story, nor any illustrations of the packaging described. Stay tuned, though, and we'll update you as more information arrives!
UPDATE: In a
previous story, we passed along Shout!'s reasons for not including the
Transformers animated movie in their complete season set (i.e., that Sony Wonder had just released a nice disc of it a couple of years ago, and they didn't want to ask fans to "dip a third time"). Now Ward has explained at the Shout! message boards why the
G.I. Joe animated film isn't included in that show's set: "
We aren't allowed to release the movie. Yet. However, there will a nice spot within the set's packaging just waiting for it."
Also, after seeing details in the
HMM story regarding the packaging, Gord and I checked in with Ward to bring up concerns over various specialty TV-DVD "complete series" packages over recent years that were constructed in ways that would not prevent the discs from getting scratched (for example, we've received complaints - or seen issues with our own eyes - over the years for
MacGyver, Charmed, I Love Lucy, Stargate SG-1, Fraggle Rock, Little House on the Prairie, The Flintstones and others). Brian alleviated our fears immediately, stressing again - as he did in the
HMM story - that "
the discs will be stored in digistacks; the outer packaging is an extremely heavy duty cardboard." Additionally, here are a couple of quotes by Ward, posted at the Shout! message board: one is from the
Transformers discussion, and the other from the
G.I. Joe discussion. He posted these following his response to us, and explains the safety of the DVDs in even more detail:
And, finally, a word about the "Matrix of Leadership" packaging. Make no mistake. We've not steered you toward a package that will harm your discs. We've not actually constructed a replica of the Matrix itself...Your discs will be safe and sound.
If anyone...owns the complete series set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, those seasons are packaged in digistacks. Imagine a cardboard "book" with "pages" made of hard plastic.
