In 1984, Hasbro unwittingly gave pop culture the world over a swift kick in the balls when it unleashed The Transformers onto an unsuspecting and surprisingly hungry public. Boys (and girls) the world over would run home from school every day to take in the weekly animated adventures these robots in disguise. The ability to turn from an average every day vehicle (or in some cases, a gun, a dinosaur, or a Walkman) into a bad ass robot was something that, for whatever reason, just clicked with the kids of the eighties and it's something that really hasn't gone away twenty-five years later, thanks to spin off series' galore, an animated movie, a big budget dumbed-down Hollywood film and sequel, and of course, plenty of very cool toys.

The series revolves around the Autobots, lead by the noble Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons, lead by the sinister Megatron, two warring factions from the planet of Cybertron who have unwittingly crash landed on the Earth when our series begins. They bring their conflict with them to their new home and soon find themselves battling it out across the globe, each side hoping to find the energy source it needs to return back to their native planet. And that's more or less it, kids. Good guys fight bad guys while the fate of a world hangs in the balance. This series deviates only slightly from countless other children's shows in that, like the competing Go-Bots (who were not so much robots in disguise as they were might robots and mighty vehicles), they had the super cool ability to transform.

The first season introduced us to the core characters - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz and Spike on the Autobots side and Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave comprising the Decepticons as well as The Dinobots, and the Constructocons. All of those characters are still here but this time around we get some other interesting Transformers thrown into the mix. Omega Supreme plays a big part in the first episode in this collection where we learn of his origins and how he ties in with the Constructocons. Smokescreen gets his fifteen minute of fame in this collection and Elita One and the female Autobots show up to make trouble for the Decpticons only to get captured forcing the female Autobots to have to work hand in hand with their male counterparts to save Elita and Optimus. Powerglide, Astrotrain, Blitzwing, Seaspray, the Stunticons, the Arielbots, the Combaticons, the Protectobots and other assorted oddball supporting characters come and go throughout this collection as well, making it sometimes a fair bit more interesting than the earlier episodes that centered around more or less the same few characters.

Of course, as it is with most kids cartoons, there are some stories that are, well, dopey. The second episode in the set, Child's Play, is a perfect example. Here the otherwise massive Transformers are sent to a world full of giant's when the Spacebridge breaks. Accustomed to being the biggest things around, they have to deal with no being smaller than anything else around them. It stands to reason, given the series' target demographic, that a child will be their salvation. In another groan inducingly bad episode, Auto-Bop, Megatron is controlling dance crazed club kids with subliminal music with some help from Soundwave, forcing the Autobots to have to burst into action before the Decpticons ruin dancing and music for everyone. In yet another goofy storyline a European aristocrat who has hunted and killed every animal on earth sets his sits on Optimus Prime to complete his trophy collection. Kremzeek! finds the Transformers forced to save the good people of Japan from a being of energy who proves to be far more dangerous than anyone ever thought... as well as far more annoying.

The complete list of episodes that make up the first part of the second season of the series is:

Disc One:

The Secret Of Omega Supreme / Child's Play / The Gambler / The Search For Alpha Trion / Auto-Bop / Prime Target / The Girl Who Loved Powerglide

Disc Two:

Triple Takeover / Sea Change / Hoist Goes Hollywood / The Key To Vector Sigma Part 1 / The Key To Vector Sigma Part 2 / Masquerade / Trans-Europe Express

Disc Three:

War Dawn / Cosmic Rust / Kremzeek! / Starscream's Revenge / The Revenge Of Bruticus / Aerial Assault / B.O.T.

Plenty of cliffhangers are found this time around and there's tighter than average continuity here as well, for a kid's show at least. There's still a lot of formulaic writing on hand even if it is more interesting than the extremely formulaic first season, but younger viewers probably won't mind so much, in fact some might see that as a plus. There's something to be said for children's entertainment delivering what you expect it to and hope it will and this series definitely falls into that category.

As the second season winds to a close you can see that the stage is being set for Transformers: The Movie, the animated feature film that hit theaters the summer after this season finished airing. The movie would in turn set the stage for the third season, the series' last full length, and the very brief fourth season. These would prove to be considerably different in tone and which featured a vastly different array of characters thanks to the repercussions of the events in that film.

Video:

Well, aside from the fact that the fullframe transfers contained in this collection are interlaced and as such may be subject to some ugly combing artifacts depending on your home theater set up, the picture quality is pretty good. The colors are appropriately bright and bold without looking too overcooked while the black levels stay strong throughout the duration of the series. Detail levels look about as good as can be expected - the animation style employed on this series is a little more minimalist than, say, the newer Transformers animated series - but generally, everything looks quite nice here and the episodes look just as good if not better than they did when originally broadcast on television a quarter century ago.