Metrodome

Can't we just get beyond Metrodome?

Metrodome is a UK-based company that produces and distributes DVDs to the country, and is the current official distributor of Transformers Generation 1 DVDs. Unlike other distributors, they have not secured the rights to any other Transformers series, but have distinguished themselves by being the first to release the various Japanese Generation 1 series.

Metrodome is owned by TV-Loonland, who, until 2008, were the owners of Sunbow Productions and master license holder of the Generation 1 television series.

The budget label Prism Leisure was a sub-distributor of Metrodome's until they went into administration in June 2007.

Releases

Having inherited the Transformers license from previous holder Maverick Entertainment, who had only managed to release the first season before losing the licence, Metrodome, in a surprising move, opted to pick up where that company had left off, saving their own first season release until after they had gotten through the other seasons.

Generation 1

• PPA1412 — Transformers: The Movie (June 2, 2003)

The first release by Metrodome was a budget-range vanilla DVD of the Transformers movie, released through Prism Leisure.

• MTD5118 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (November 17, 2003)

Contains the episodes "Autobot Spike" through to "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" across three discs, plus extra features on the third disc including a blooper reel, the dialogue script to "Autobot Spike", some footage shot at Auto Assembly 2003, character profiles, a Titan comic strip, a fan art gallery, a promotional toy gallery and a quiz.

Also comes packaged with exclusive postcards feauring new artwork by Lee Sullivan.

• MTD???? — Transformers — Bumper Collection Special (April 5, 2004)

Re-release of the first disc from the Season 2 Part 1 set. Contains the episodes "Autobot Spike" through to "Enter the Nightbird".

• MTD5150 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (May 3, 2004)

Contains the episodes "The Golden Lagoon" through to "B.O.T." across three discs, plus extra features on the third disc including more character profiles and scripts, another quiz and fan art gallery, the Atari video game's trailer and a game called "Scrambled Transformers".

Also comes packaged with exclusive postcards featuring new artwork by Andrew Wildman, and "The Beast Within" mini-comic.

• 
  Transformers: The Movie
• 
  Season 2 Part 1
• 
  Bumper Collection
• 
  Season 2 Part 2

• MTD5162 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (August 30, 2004)

Contains the complete seasons three and four across four discs, plus extra features on the fourth disc including another quiz and fan art gallery, even more scripts, masks to print and cut out, some footage shot at Auto Assembly 2004 and exclusive interviews with Lee Sullivan, Andrew Wildman and Simon Furman.

Also comes packaged with exclusive postcards featuring new artwork by Andrew Wildman, Bill Gilson and Isabel Monstran (Age 9), as well as "The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences" mini-comic.

• MTD5168 — Transformers — Season 1 (October 11, 2004)

Contains the complete first season across two discs, plus a third disc full of extra features including the perennial quiz and scripts, some more character profiles, commercials, PSAs, footage shot at Transformerscon 2004, a run-down of animation errors from season 2, and interviews with Flint Dille, Earl Kress, Buzz Dixon and David Wise

Also comes packaged with exclusive postcards featuring new artwork by Lee Sullivan.

• MTD5169 — Transformers — Season 1 (October 11, 2004)

Limited run of the Season 1 set as above that also came with a "Free Collector's Tin" big enough to comfortably accommodate all four G1 box sets.

• MTD5214 — Transformers: The Movie — Reconstructed (September 5, 2005)

Given that the movie had seen multiple VHS and budget DVD releases in then-recent years, Metrodome sought to produce a special version of the movie that would distinguish itself from these cheaper options. "Reconstructed" was the result, featuring a new remastered version of the film that exposed the entire visible picture from the film's negative. An assortment of extras including TV adverts, trailers and comparisons between the US and UK versions of the film could not, however, make up for the poor standards conversion, inconsistent remaster, and general pointlessness of the project.

• 
  Season 3 and Season 4
• 
  Season 1
• 
  Free Collector's Tin
• 
  Transformers: The Movie Reconstructed

• MTD???? — Transformers: The Movie (UMD, September 12, 2005)
• MTD???? — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (September 4, 2006)

All four Generation 1 box sets, along with Transformers: The Movie — Reconstructed, collected together in one fourteen-disc set.

This set also contains a free double-sided poster depicting the US and UK movie poster artwork.

• MTD???? — Transformers — The Classic Episodes (April 30, 2007)

Contains the episodes "More than Meets the Eye", "S.O.S. Dinobots", "Dark Awakening", "Heavy Metal War", "The Golden Lagoon", "Call of the Primitives", "Starscream's Brigade" and "Ghost in the Machine".

• MTD5296 — Transformers: The Movie — Ultimate Edition (June 4, 2007)

In the same vein as Sony's 20th Anniversary Edition of the movie, this two-disc set features a new widescreen remaster of the film. A multitude of extras include trailers, tv spots, character profiles, interviews with Flint Dille and Peter Cullen and commentary on the film by Chris McFeely. Like the other special editions of the film released around this time, the set includes "Scramble City", also with commentary from McFeely.

• 
  Transformers: The Movie UMD (2005 release)
• 
  Complete Generation One Collection
• 
  The Classic Episodes
• 
  Transformers: The Movie Ultimate Edition

• MTD???? — Transformers: The Movie (Blu-ray, October 1, 2007)
• MTD???? — Transformers: The Movie (UMD, December 7, 2007)
• MTD???? — Classic Transformers — Series One: Part One (December 26, 2007)

Re-release of the first disc from the Season 1 set. Contains the episodes "More than Meets the Eye" through to "S.O.S. Dinobots".

• MTD???? — Classic Transformers — Series One: Part Two (December 26, 2007)

Re-release of the second disc from the Season 1 set. Contains the episodes "Fire on the Mountain" through to "Heavy Metal War".

• 
  Transformers: The Movie Blu-ray
• 
  Transformers: The Movie UMD (2007 release)
• 
  Classic Transformers Series One: Part One
• 
  Classic Transformers Series One: Part Two

• MTD???? — Transformers — Season One (June 15, 2009)
• MTD???? — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (June 15, 2009)
• MTD???? — Transformers — Season Two: Part Two (June 15, 2009)
• MTD???? — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (June 15, 2009)

• 
  Season One
• 
  Season Two: Part One
• 
  Season Two: Part Two
• 
  Season's Three & Four

The Takara Collection

• MTD5197 — The Takara Collection Vol 1 — Transformers: Headmasters (September 26, 2005)

A four-disc box set collecting the entire Headmasters anime series. The set features the original Japanese audio track with newly-created (and inconsistent) English subtitles, with the infamous Omni Productions dub as a second option. The masters supplied to Metrodome proved slightly incomplete, however, lacking the "next episode" previews, and the few segments that come before the title cards of certain episodes. The set features audio commentaries on three episodes by UK fan Chris McFeely.

• MTD5249 — The Takara Collection Vol 2 — Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (May 15, 2006)

A five-disc box set collecting the Super-God Masterforce anime series (omitting the clip show that was broadcast as the final episode of the series in Japan). This set includes only the Japanese audio with subtitles, this time translated by Jordan L. Derber. The set again features three audio commentaries by McFeely. Cover art by Nick Roche.

• MTD5262 — The Takara Collection Vol 3 — Transformers: Victory (December 26, 2006)

A four-disc box set collecting the entire Victory anime series. As with Masterforce, the set includes only the Japanese audio, subs by Derber, and three commentaries by McFeely. Notably, the set omits the six (!) clip shows present in the original broadcast run of the series, featuring only the core 32 episodes. Cover art by Nick Roche.

• MTD???? — Transformers — The Complete Takara Collection (September 3, 2007)

A collection of the three Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce and Victory box sets. The final disc of the Victory set is re-authored to include the set's sole new exclusive - Zone, with a commentary by McFeely.

• 
  Headmasters
• 
  Masterforce
• 
  Victory
• 
  Complete Collection

Notes

• Metrodome's Generation 1 releases use the remastered production masters which originated with the Kid Rhino release of the series (and contain all the inherent errors). Additionally, they include Magno Sound & Video's 5.1 audio (with added sound effects), but use a modified version of their 2.0 track.
• One of the sets' most distinctive extra features is a collection of dialogue scripts for nearly every Generation 1 episode.
• The packaging and title menu for the third disc of the Season 2 Part 1 set both claim that it includes the dialogue scripts for "Episodes 16-17", but only the script for episode 17, "Autobot Spike", is actually included on the disc.
• in-keeping with the low production values of the disks themselves, [Doctor Arkeville|Doctor Arkeville]]'s name is misspelled 'Dr. Octoville' throughout the Season 1 set menus.

External links

• Metrodome's Transformers DVD homepage