Transformers 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Edition DVD Set

TRANSFORMERS

25^TH ANNIVERSARY

THE MAXTRIX OF LEADERSHIP EDITION COLLECTORS DVD SET:

Growing up in the 80’s was awesome! I don’t think I’d want to grow up in any other decade. When I was a kid I was into a ton of cartoons. Then again what kid isn’t? I was all about Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo (and Scrappy too), Mighty Mouse, Voltron, Thundercats (and to a lesser extent Silverhawks), He-Man, She-Ra, G.I. Joe somewhat, but the cartoon that had me at hello (YES I USED A JERRY MAGUIRE REFERENCE GET OVER IT!) was Transformers! I have no idea why I was so attached to G1 or Generation 1 as it’s also called. But I was four years old and outside of Red Sox Baseball, Bruins hockey, and Celtics basketball Transformers was everything to me. Hell I even remember “playing” Transformers at recess in school. The characters were so freakin cool. I think my two favorite autobots from Seasons one and two were Optimus Prime and Bumblebee as for the Decepticons I liked Soundwave and Astrotrain the most. Skywarp’s teleport ability was awesome. I know a lot of my Transformers fangirl friends hate me for hating Starscream, but that was just one character I never ever liked! He was always scheming and fucking up Megatron’s plans. Thank god Galvatron came along and blew his ass up. Or disintegrated his ass whichever you prefer……. However I digress on the Starscream hate.

By the time 1986 rolled around Transformers was getting extremely more popular by the minute. Especially when there was a major motion picture made from the cartoon. Technically it was an animated movie, but still Transformers on the big screen back then had to be awesome! I found the movie on DVD about a year after its release. Yes I cried my eyes out when Optimus Prime died!! I’m not scared to admit that at all. When I first saw the movie on VHS I was like ok cool there’s Optimus, Cliffjumper, Jazz, and the others. However when we cut to earth and see Daniel and Hot Rod I was like huh? What? Backing up slightly I gotta say the ship battle before going to earth was horrifying poor Ironhide!!! Taking the kill shot aside from Megatron to Prime and watching him fall back, the Death Scene where Optimus is lying on the table is very very sad.

I think after the movie I was so devastated about Prime’s death that I really wanted nothing else to do with Transformers then. By that time it was 1987 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the craze, but I’ll stay on topic here. I have two very distinct memories of Transformers back in the 80’s as far as the cartoon goes. I remember seeing Powermaster Optimus Prime on TV with a kid and either rerun episodes of G1 or something new I can’t remember. The second memory is the fact that my Aunt Debbie forbade me to watch it at their house. I can’t remember her saying it was too violent or it had cursing in it. I’m not sure which it was.

Then there were the toys. Oh I sooo wanted my friend Jonathan’s Soundwave!!!! I had the Insecticons and Blaster I think. I might have also had a Warpath, but I can’t remember. I honestly don’t remember having Optimus Prime as a kid. However I started back collecting the 80’s Transformers in 2008.

Now years after G1 was over and I’d been out of the Transformers fandom for a number of years. Along with my toy collecting I tracked down the now out of print Rhino DVD Sets. These were the end all be all acquisition of any Transformers Generation 1 fan. Because they are out of print the set of 5 DVD boxsets can range from $325-$900. After shipping I paid $330.00 I believe. At the time it was a awesome investment in getting my childhood cartoon back.

Then the awesome news from the great people at Shout! Factory came down the pipeline that Hasbro had tapped them to rerelease the G1 cartoon in an all new style. I believe the cartoons are remastered and there are volume sets like the Rhino sets. However as you say wayyyy up there the picture of the Matrix box. Shout! Factory put together The 25^th Anniversary Maxtrix of Leadership Collector’s Edition DVD set. This has become my end all be all acquisition now. When Shout! Factory first announced the details of their deal with Hasbro I was super excited. One reason being that when Sony/BMG released the 20^th Anniversary DVD Edition of Transformers The Movie there was an ad on that DVD set announcing that the G1 cartoon would be returning to DVD. However when Sony/Wonder went under those plans were scrapped. As I said before Hasbro and Sout! Factory announced their deal and we were going to get an Official Complete Series DVD set.

I’d been putting off buying the Complete Series Matrix Set because of other financial obligations. However today May 4^th 2010 I finally have it. As of this writing I’ve not watched any of the special features or the cartoons themselves. I will make a separate blog post for that. However it is finally mine!!!!!

I so can’t wait to explore this DVD set. I think this is the one set I’ve been most psyched about in a long time as far as Complete Series go.

I will either update this post or create a new one with the set in hand.