Customer Reviews

Transformers Season 3 Part 1 Boxed Set

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Season 3 -

01. Five Face of Darkness (Part 1)
02. Five Face of Darkness (Part 2)
03. Five Face of Darkness (Part 3)
04. Five Face of Darkness (Part 4)
05. Five Face of Darkness (Part 5)
06. The Killing Jar
07. Chaos
08. Dark Awakening
09. Forever is a Long Time coming
10. Starscream's Ghost
11. Thief in the Night
12. Surprise Party
13. Madman's Paradise
14. Nightmare Planet
15. Ghost in the Machine
16. Webworld
(they MAY also have another episode to this first part, and that would be:)

17. Carnage in C-Minor

Here is what Season 3 Part 2's will have:
18. The Quintesson Journal
19. The Ultimate Weapon
20. The Big Broadcast of 2006
21. Fight or Flee
22. The Dweller in the Depths
23. Only Human
24. Money is Everything
25. Grimlock's New Brain (One of my Favorites!)
26. Call of the Primitives
27. Face of the Nijika
28. The Burden Hardest to Bear

Now... Will Rhino add the following two ending episodes even though they have released these on VHS and DVD already? They better! They are part of season 3! :)

29. The Return of Optimus Prime (Part 1)
30. The Return of Optimus Prime (Part 2)

And Here is the 'Sometimes called' VERY short 'Season 4.
(also known as the Headmasters Series)

01 The Re-Birth (Part 1)
02 The Re-Birth (Part 2)
03 The Re-Birth (Part 3)

I wonder how they will/IF they will even release these last 3. Since these were the actual LAST episodes.. Time will tell!

This 'score' of 5 stars is, of course, based on the episodes contained in the first half of season three. Although many fans won't be quite as familiar with this, the last season, of the Transformers series, it provided a good continuation and development of the new characters introduced in Transformers: The Movie. Gone are Optimus Prime and Megatron; now, Rodimus Prime and Galvatron take the reins as the Transformers' war reaches new heights (although Optimus Prime does indeed return to lead the Autobots again near the end of the series...). The show took on a more sci-fi feeling with this season, as we see a great deal more of the galaxy with the Transformers frequently leaving Earth (and Cybertron) for places new and unknown. Many new characters continue to be introduced, such as favorites Metroplex and Trypticon (the biggest Transformers yet, excluding Unicron), the Technobots and Terrorcons, Sky Lynx, and the awesome Predaking. Many popular staples of the show remain, though, such as the Dinobots, including the ever-popular Grimlock, the Aeirialbots, a guest spot by Omega Supreme, as well as the duplicitous Starscream... or rather, his ghost! The show matured a great deal this season, both in creativity and characterization, and although Season 3's animation was a mixed bag, the series' absolute watermark high-points in animation, 'The Call of the Primitives' and 'The Rebirth' trilogy, look good even today next to modern anime.

This first half of Season 3 should include about 16 or 17 of the show's remaining 33 episodes. I sincerely hope that Rhino (are you listening, Rhino?) includes the Rebirth Trilogy on the end of the Season Three, Part 2 Boxed Set. Although Rebirth was technically the opening storyline for what was to be a fourth season (the plug was pulled before any more were aired), it is arguably the finest Transformers story ever done, and certainly among the finest animation television cartoons have ever seen, and unequivocally deserves to be a part of the Transformers DVD Boxed Set Collections.

I'm a little surprised to see that this set will be only three DVDs, as the estimated number of episodes - 16 or 17 - is the same as the First Season DVD Boxed set, which contained 4 discs. I hope this is not a sign that Rhino is cheapening the quality of their Transformers DVDs! It appears that Rhino has simply realized, after the fat 7 episodes-per-disc treatment in the Season Two boxed sets, that they simply didn't need as many discs as they used in Season One, which averaged only 5 episodes per disc. The box will probably look a little slimmer than the other sets, though, as it contains one less disc, so from a strictly aesthetic standpoint, that's a bit of a bummer. Still, it's a tiny issue if the Transformers can be finished in DVD sets!!

I, like many others, have been rather non-plussed by the extras in these sets, but I suppose Rhino realizes that the extras won't make or break their purchase for most of us, so the extras are really just that - extra. The meat of all of these sets is obviously the shows themselves, and they look pretty darn good for their age - we thank you, Rhino, for taking the time to master these to their best possible video quality. Likewise, the fact that Rhino remastered them in (albeit rather subdued) Dolby Digital 5.1 surround is simply an added (and huge!) bonus. With superb video & audio quality, the most important - indeed, critical - bases are covered. Interviews with such luminaries as Peter Cullen and Frank Welker (Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively) would be huge additions to the final set, should you choose to pursue it, Rhino. And we'd still all *LOVE* to see an animorphic widescreen DVD release of the movie, as well, perhaps as a crown after Season Three, Part 2 to end the Original Transformers Saga on DVD!

As a side note, how many fans think it would be utterly awesome to see a new Transformers movie - using the same dialog and voices is the classic, simply dubbed over brand-spanking new animation?! How cool would THAT be?! :)

Almost there, Transfans! One more season to go! Thanks, Rhino, and keep it up! Transform, and roll out!

I bought this just because, back when they originally aired, the cartoon was moved to a time I couldn't watch it -- so I wanted to see them.

They're not good. Good from a nostalgia standpoint, but pretty bad otherwise. I'm somewhat ok with the Quintessons as a manipulative third party, but it's tough to swallow that they didn't attack, say, right after Megatron and Optimus and everyone else left because the planet was dry of energy.

Carnage in C Minor? Yegods -- Cop Rock. . . in a cartoon. . . with robots. . .

The animation is almost laughably bad and stilted in parts, and they clearly cut corners with stuff like cutting episodes to 20 minutes and adding recycled "primer" shorts. Lots of goofs, too -- combiners alongside their components, incorrect coloring, etc. It makes the animation in the second season look like Disney masterpieces.

The plotlines are gimmicky. Galvatron is one-note. One saving grace is Cyclonus, who has a great voice and carries himself as the dignified warrior. The idea that Rodimus is still learning the ropes is a decent enough premise, but they wrote him with zero charisma or natural leadership qualities.

Great for a single viewing for a hardcore Transfan, but I'll be selling mine used, I doubt I'll rewatch them.

As a child and as an adult, I remember seeing both season 1 and season 2. To be perfectly honest, I, as well as many other transformers fans was alienated from the season 3 series, due to the killings and replacements of many autobots and decepticons, don't get me wrong, this whole new spaceage era in cybertron, despite how boring that may sound, wasn't bad at all, it was good, since if there's no change in a series, it will eventually get boring anyway. I missed starscream and his naive plots against megatron, ironhide, optimus, etc, but the birth of many new robots wasn't bad at all either. The season three series, unlike the former episodes, doesn't take place on earth, it's primarily based on the planet cybertron about 25 or so years in the future. At first, i thought that they ruined the series, but if you actually see them all, you'll love it like i did in the end. The animation did not have the good quality that season 1 and 2 had though. Another thing that really annoyed me was that galvatron(which was a morphed megatron) seemed strong and powerfull in the movie, just like his former self (megatron) was, but in the series, galvatron was like a spoiled, tempered, immature little brat that simply liked to shoot at his fellow decepticons. The excuse that was used in the series was that his brain was dammaged due to the battle suffered in the movie (completely ridiculous reason to give him an uncharismatic character). Also, Rodimus Prime, the replacement for Optimus prime was immature and is an obvious reason why fans wanted an episode in this season which consisted of optimus prime being revived. Well, beside this criticism, i recommend people to buy this as a good completion for the transformers collection, it's well worth it. Till all are one!

As a child and as an adult, I remember seeing both season 1 and season 2. To be perfectly honest, I, as well as many other transformers fans was alienated from the season 3 series, due to the killings and replacements of many autobots and decepticons, don't get me wrong, this whole new spaceage era in cybertron, despite how boring that may sound, wasn't bad at all, it was good, since if there's no change in a series, it will eventually get boring anyway. I missed starscream and his naive plots against megatron, ironhide, optimus, etc, but the birth of many new robots wasn't bad at all either. The season three series, unlike the former episodes, doesn't take place on earth, it's primarily based on the planet cybertron about 25 or so years in the future. At first, i thought that they ruined the series, but if you actually see them all, you'll love it like i did in the end. The animation did not have the good quality that season 1 and 2 had though. Another thing that really annoyed me was that galvatron(which was a morphed megatron) seemed strong and powerfull in the movie, just like his former self (megatron) was, but in the series, galvatron was like a spoiled, tempered, immature little brat that simply liked to shoot at his fellow decepticons. The excuse that was used in the series was that his brain was dammaged due to the battle suffered in the movie (completely ridiculous reason to give him an uncharismatic character). Also, Rodimus Prime, the replacement for Optimus prime was immature and is an obvious reason why fans wanted an episode in this season which consisted of optimus prime being revived. Well, beside this criticism, i recommend people to buy this as a good completion for the transformers collection, it's well worth it. Till all are one!

Season 3, Season 3

I have just finished watching season 3. I really love it. It's a shame that it's criticized for being original, taking chances, being epic and having continuity.

I think it's great having explanations of where the transformers come from and devlving into their history and their past. The quintessons are really cool and have an interesting spin on the series having another race of bad guys that created the transformers.

Season 3 is darker, more serious and more sci fi. Rodimus Prime is very entertaining. He may not be as likable as Optimus but his "I don't care" "let's just do it" attitude is entertaining. Galvatron is in my opinion the greatest bad guy of all time. I mean common, a complete lunatic who shoots his own teammates. He makes me crack up. This seasons really took a risk and even having galvatron in an episode for himself with no autobots was intriguing.

The concepts are really cool. "Carnage in C-minor" is a concept I have never seen done before. "Webworld" "the galvatron episode" where they try to fix Galvatron (tell me cyclonus isn't mad cool)
is a planet that is a computer and the creatures are living extensions of the planet. Whatever happened to the other runaway autobots from cybertron? We find out in "Fight or Flee". Starscream returning as a ghost is more entertaining than ever for his character and being able to posess others? That is just great.

The "Chaos" episode which is my personal favorite lineup of characters for an episode. I've always loved Kup. He is very entertaining and likable. This episode has it all. Story, concept, and fun characters (oh and action with Predaking!). We get into Kup's past and even have grimlock around who is so much fun. Sky lynx, blurr, and wheelie come along for the ride.

Grimlock is more fun in season 3 than ever before (madman's paradise is a Grimlock episode). In "Madman's Paradise" they go to another dimension that resembles "lord of the rings". How cool is that? A rejected qunitesson has the power to shapeshift into a wizard. And the trees turn into centaur creatures.

It's also always a pleasure to have A3 or alpha trion the father of the autobots and the braveheart of the cybertronian wars show up. Time travel concepts abound in "Forever is a long time coming" (growing younger? how cool is that?)

Going into a black hole is an interesting premise for "the Killing Jar" where a Quintesson sees autobots, decepticons and humans as toys to experiment and study. What happens when you go into a black hole? And how would you get out? I love sci fi.

Maybe I'm biased but I think the new Decepticons are really cool.
Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge are really cool on their burned up planet of Char. It's cool seeing the storyline go in a direction you never would have guessed it would go. Who wants the same old same old? New autobots like Kup,blurr and Sky Lynx are great.

Rodimus is a very original character. It's like having Darth Maul, you can't expect him to live up to Darth Vader; you just have to appreciate him for what he is. This new direction in storyline is entertaining. Optimus has the passion, the respect, the regalness.(and bringing him back as a zombie was quite creepy and cool in Dark awakening). Rodimus is different, matter of fact, does what needs to get done and that's it.(in season 3 part 2 he begins complaining that he's not as good as Optimus which is original. It's interesting seeing a leader who has to fill these big shoes and have doubts.)

By the way Dark Awakening orginally did have a different ending.
It later on became the precursor to "The return of Optimus Prime" but originally was not. It's confusing because Rhino has the altered ending, yet placed in the original air date order.

All in all I recommend this season. I wish there was more of it. Oh yeah part 2 is coming out.

The quality of the art in the episodes seems to fluctuate. (I'm not talking about how cool the action is but the actual art). I really like the art in "Chaos" and tolerate in the "Five Faces of Darkness". Each episode and sometimes within an episode the art quality has a range. "Killing Jar" and "Madman's Paradise" are pretty good. Webworld is great and Fight or flee parts are good. The rest are okay or tolerable, if I remember correctly (maybe I missed other good ones it's tough to keep it straight).

I love the original audio. Cooler and weirder sound effects than tsuit sci fi. More varity in sounds than the updated version and you can still hear the characters talk when you have them. (Plus the nostalgia factor kicking in).

I would have liked an interview but I content with the package.

While no one can deny the greatness of characters like Optimus Prime, Megatron, Star Scream, Iron Hide, Soundwave, and the Dinobots, I do think that people have misunderstood and therefore unfairly underestimated this odd but very interesting season. Yes there were some unwatchable episodes (Surprise Party and Carnage in C Minor come to mind), terrible animation gaffes with the Sweeps for instance, and a Myriad of pointless new characters with no intelligable origins. But considering the circumstances surrounding the series, this season is great example of people doing what they could in the face of mass confusion and unpredictable chaotic events.

By the time season 3 came along, Hasbro had given up the pretention of trying to entertain and just demanded the all out advertisement of their new toys in the episodes. Plots didn't matter and the writers were rushed into creating these promotions before the fervor of the movie (Perhaps the best animated action film of all time) died down. Yet given all this, no one can truthfully deny the fact that the five faces of darkness episodes that opened the season and directly followed the movie were among the best episodes to come out of the series. Who reading this can say that the Sky Lynx/ Predaking battle didn't get their adreneline flowing. Or that they weren't amazed at the depth of the Quintessons and the meticulous investigation of their methods and personalities. The stuff novels are made from.

But by far the biggest crime critics of this series commit is in the their disregard of the third greatest character ever created for the show. The combination of Galvetron's awesome might and undeniable insanity gave his character a depth never before seen in any kids cartoon. The idea that Megatron was somewhere in there and the identity issues that brought up (underscored perfectly by a conversation between two decepticons in one of the Faces of Darkness episodes)was disturbing and comforting at the same time. He was so charismatic that you couldn't help but root for him most of the time. The "Jack Sparrow" of the show if you will, or one of those troubled eighties music and sports stars we used to read about in the tabloids around the time these episodes were written. His exchanges with Cyclonis throughout the season steal the show and almost made you feel disappointed when the symbol on the screen told you an autobot scene was coming up.

Not coincidentally, you find the autobots and decepticons uniting to save themselves from other evils many times throughout this season. The mixing and matching of certain autobots and decepticons provide some very interesting moments throughout these episodes. The autobots are admittedly boring througout most of the season, but in the end the writers seem to channel their pain through them. No time, no direction, just trying to keep thier noses above water. And that describes this season in a nutshell.

This season deserves an honest view without the biased memories of the great Optimus Prime years getting in the way. We know those seasons were great. But one of the things that made the movie great was the fact that it took away our innocence. I and surely many others cried following Optimus Prime's death and was shocked by the death of all those characters that had in a way become a part of my life. With that, our generation knew things would never be the same.

This season was the perfect continuation of that loss of innocence. Of the dissolution of our black and white perceptions of the world and of the thought that things could last forever. The gray area had expanded and season 3 would envelope us in it whether we liked it or not. No absolutes. Just a shattered version of all we'd taken for granted. An irrelevant soundwave. One Dinobot. Unicron's mangled head with no body. Optimus Prime, the representation of all that was good to us, coming back to us in a creepy, almost possessed, state. And in that particular episode there is the microcosm of what season 3 meant to us. Optimus Prime, in a spaceship, heading to the sun to burn himself up for the good of his fellow autobots. Leaving that same empty feeling we always seemed to feel at the end of these episodes; not because of their shortcomings, but because we were unknowingly beginning to learn how to mourn and how life went on even after our heroes died and the structure of our lives slowly but surely began to resemble Springer after that Junkyon machine was thorugh with him.

PICTURE QUALITY (4/5 STARS)
The overall image quality has definetly been improved: brighter colours and very sharp images. Nearly no mistakes, at least this counts for the remastering process... some intro sequences and a few scenes within the episodes are unsharp, simply not remastered but most of the work is done great.

SOUND QUALITY (5/5 STARS)
They have learned!! At last an option for the "Original Broadcast Soundtrack". Everything is done good so far I can see, additional soundeffects only in the 5.1 and 2.0 mixes.

EXTRAS (2/5 STARS)
They really could have included so much more! What about the toy commecial spots? They are hardly to find and in bad shape if you find them. Scanned images of the toy catalogs is great but findable all over the Internet. They really used up everything in the first boxset it seems!

SPECIAL/UNIQUE ON THIS DVD RELEASE:
- all new transfer from the original 35mm negative
- Dolby Digital 5.1 remix & Dolby Stereo & Original Broadcast Soundtrack
- 2 limited-edition cels of Transformers characters (limited?? just to the availability of this boxset LOL!)

COMMENT:
One reviewer mentioned that the episodes are not in order, actually THEY ARE IN ORDER in terms of their air date. This boxset has 3 discs, not 4 (Amazon made an error here). Rhino has bungled the episode listing on their homepage. HERE IS THE CORRECT EPISODE LISTING FOR THIS BOXSET:

D i s c 1 :
Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1
Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2
Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3
Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4
Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5
The Killing Jar
Chaos

D i s c 2 :
Dark Awakening
Surprise Party
Madman's Paradise
Webworld
Carnage In C-Minor
Forever Is a Long Time Coming
Fight or Flee

D i s c 3 :
Thief In the Night
Starscream's Ghost
EXTRAS

The only additional thing I can write about here is season 3 itself. It is still G1 and for fans a must-have! But there are so many errors in the scripts/voices/animation that most of the episodes are just bad. At least episodes like "Fight or Flee" and "Webworld" are actually worth buying the boxset!

The writers of the Transformers series should be ashamed for the sorry and rather stupid episodes of Season 3. Interesting characters such as Shockwave, Grapple, Hoist, and Skyfire (who seem to speak with an advanced vocabulary) are nowhere to be found. Instead, irritating characters such as Blur, Wheelie, Blaster, and Wreck-Gar seem to drag the series down with extremely childish expressions and pointless plots. Gone are the imaginative themes that revolved around ideas such as the "Transfixatron," "Space Bridge," "Solar Power Tower," and the "Golden Lagoon."

Storywise, there is nothing to this season at all. The Decepticons have no set agenda and the Autobots seem to simply chase them. The Decepticons do not seem interested in stealing energy to rule the universe. Instead, they just fly around space for no particular reason. In the first series, the Transformers could not even go into space without the aid of a master spaceship, Skyfire, or Omega Supreme. In this season, Ultra Magnus, Powerglide, and Perceptor simply fly around outer space on their own. What gives?? The animation errors are even worse because in one particular fight scene (The forever irritating "Carnage in C Minor"), Autobot "Brawn" is seen fighting side by side with "Bonecrusher" against Galvatron's rocket propelled iceball in deep space!? Wasn't Brawn "killed" in the movie?

Also, Galvatron seems more intent on "killing" the Autobots than anything else, and there are more references to "death" in this series. Isn't this a tv program aimed at children? I don't recall Megatron ever saying the word "dead" in reference to Autobots. Come to think of it, Skeletor and Cobra Commander never did either toward their enemies.

I fully understand why the transformers merchandise failed miserably after the movie. The interesting characters vanished from the series, and stupid characters suddenly appeared to replace them. Also, the toy structures of the movie and season 3 transformers are quite pathetic when compared to the Season 1 and 2 transformers. Season 3 transformer toys are pure plastic, and lack the die cast metal and intricate details of their predecessors. Attention to detail might have saved this otherwise great toy line.

As I was watching this and recently finished it, I noticed a LOT of the episodes were out of order. Like the one where the Quintisons brought back Optimus Prime, and the narrator says at the end "Find out in the next Episode - The Return of Optimus Prime!" - whiche if you look, will be on the Season 3 Pt. 2/Season 4 DVD set. Which is really messed up.

That is the only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 5. They mixed alot of episodes up.