“The ultimate collection of another Transformers animated series that would introduce more Autobots, Decepticons and characters in 52-episodes. If you are a fan, especially a collector of Transformers merchandise, this anime alone brought so much to the fans. As for viewers, it might not be for everyone but for its sheer amount of characters, cool battles, even some deaths, it was an enjoyable series overall!”
DVD INFORMATION:
DVD TITLE: Transformers Cyberton: The Ultimate Collection
DURATION: 1144 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
COMPANY: Paramount Home Entertainment
RATING: 13 and up
STAFF INFORMATION:
DIRECTOR: Ono Manabu
CYBERTRON, the TRANSFORMERS’ home planet, is on the brink of destruction as an ominous Black Hole looms. In order to save their world, the TRANSFORMERS embark upon an intergalactic scavenger hunt across the universe searching for the lost Cyber Planet Keys. The evil DECEPTICONS, villains unlike any you have seen before, are in a race against the heroic AUTOBOTS to recover the Cyber Planet Keys – keys that have the power to unlock the CYBERTRON planet itself, creating the greatest TRANSFORMER the universe has ever seen! The battle will span the galaxy in a race to wield the all powerful keys and save their home world of CYBERTRON from certain doom!
The TRANSFORMERS CYBERTRON: The Ultimate Collection seven-DVD set is presented in full screen format with Dolby Digital English Stereo. The collection includes all 52 episodes from the series and has a running time of 19 hours, 4 minutes.
I’ve noticed a lot of reviews on other sites that are calling “Transformers Cybertron” the worst. A lot of these reviewers haven’t really watched a “Transformers” animation since the first series back in the 80’s or “Beast Wars” in the 90’s.
But of all series, “Transformers Cybertron” (aka Transformers: Galaxy Force in Japan) is one of my favorite “Transformers” animation series since the original G1 series.
Like most “Transformers” series, the target are children and hopes for children to buy the toys. But of course, among the older and hardcore collectors, this anime was so cool because it would introduce so many characters and also feature a large amount of Transformers merchandise.
The series focus on three young humans Coby (the teenager gifted at mechanics), his younger brother Bud (your typical young child) and Lori (a teenage friend of Coby and obviously she likes him. And a person that can easily get frustrated).
To make a long story short, the autobots have evacuated to the Planet Earth after the destruction of Unicron has left a black hole. With the black hole threatening their planet, the Autobots must find a way to stop the black hole from devouring their planet and the whole universe.
The three humans discover the Autobots and after developing trust and friendship, the humans assist the Optimus Prime and the other Autobots who are trying to find the legendary Cyber Planet Keys and Omega Lock thanks to the help of an ancient Autobot named Vector Prime. Of course, the Decepticons are after the same thing.
The four Cyber Planet keys are scattered in four worlds. Planet Earth, the Speed Planet (Velocitron), the Jungle Planet and Gigantion, the Giant Planet.
And the adventure focuses on the search for the keys and Omega Lock but at the same time, with each planet, introducing more characters (Autobot, Decepticon or neutral), as well as other earthlings who are curious about the alien robots.
The series is quite long and in Japan, typically the anime with longer series are typically good for merchandise sales. May it be “Gundam”, “Pokemon” or “Naruto”, the same here in the US as a lot of “Transformers Cybertron” merchandise came out and if you were a collector of the line, to have so many Transformers (Autobots and Decepticons) from the various planets, small, tall or humongous was just satisfying.
As an adult, I enjoyed this series and as a father, my son was introduced to Transformers because of this series.
There are many battles, there are some Transformer deaths as well. But overall, the series was enjoyable if you stayed in it for the long haul.
There are some differences between the Japanese and American animations aside from character names and opening and ending themes but one difference is the leader of Velocitron (Speed Planet) in the US version is Override (a female Autobot) but in the Japanese version Override aka Nitro Convoy is a male character.
But all in all, I found “Transformers Cybertron” to be enjoyable, as a fan of the series and a fan of mecha, is the sheer number of robots introduced in this series.
A little bit of inclusion of things from the past such as combining Transformers that would combine with Optimus Prime or Megatron, the addition of minicons and much more.
VIDEO:
As for the DVD, the video quality is as expected for a newer series. The animation is colorful, vibrant.
AUDIO:
The series featured more dialog and music, so don’t expect any major audio channels. I didn’t expect any inclusion of the Japanese audio on this DVD, especially since the US and Japanese names of the robots are all different.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
I was disappointed that there are no special features. That would have been cool to feature something but there are no special features included.
I know…I know… many reviewers who plopped this DVD expecting some major Autobot vs. Decepticon with the same amount of carnage as the first animated film or even the live film would probably be a bit upset that things seem pedestrian because of the humans and robots working together.
Again, “Transformers” is geared towards children but there are many adults who treasure the series and are heavy collectors as well.
But for me, the whole 52-episodes was fun to watch so many characters be introduced and then to see the many various battles, especially as the episodes starts to near its end. This was the only Transformers series that actually made me buy nearly every merchandise at that time because I enjoyed it that much and it was definitely a great series for me and my son can enjoy together.
Too bad there aren’t any special features but still, you do get a lot of episodes in this ultimate collection and the price to obtain it online is much lower than retail.
Granted, those who are coming into this series thinking of the old school Transformers may or may not get into it and I can understand why some reviewers may dislike it. But for those who are “Transformers” fans and also a collector of the merchandise, the series was one of the better ones to come in a long time in my opinion.
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