Shout! Studios

Shout! Factory is the latest company to hold the U.S. distribution rights to the original Transformers cartoon. They also have released DVD versions of many other nostalgic cartoons, like C.O.P.S., Captain N, and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. Oh, and that one show always getting mixed up with the Transformers.

Shout! Factory's DVDs are not as bristling with extra features as Kid Rhino's or Madman Entertainment's, but they have notably cleaned up the extra sound effects and animation errors originally seen on Kid Rhino's release.

Generation 1

Transformers: The Complete First Season - A three-disc set containing the entire first season as well as an extra disc of bonus features (the same features as included on the Matrix of Leadership Collection).

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye - This "lite version" of the complete first season set contains the entire original pilot, as well as the episodes Transport to Oblivion and Roll For It.

Transformers: Season Two Vol. One - Contains four discs and 28 episodes of G1's season two. No bonus features are present; presumably these will be included on volume two of season two.

Transformers: 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Collection - Released in 2009, this gigantic 16-disc collection represented the first time any fan could own the entire G1 cartoon in one set (at least legally, anyway). The set contains all four seasons of the G1 cartoon, as well as interviews, galleries, commercials, and PSAs, among other things.

Restoration

In an improvement over previous DVD releases, Shout! Factory conducted a painstaking editing process to correct animation errors and sound effect additions made by Kid Rhino and Magno Sound & Video. From the DVD insert: "Transformers DVDs release prior to our 25th Anniversary Edition were missing animation seen in the original broadcast. We did extensive research, found the discrepancies between the original broadcast masters and the restored masters used for the last DVD release, reinserted the correct animation, and color corrected it as best we could to match the shots before and after. But because a one-inch master tape simply can't hold up to the quality of the restored masters, you may notice occasional shots -- or even scenes -- in some episodes that seem slightly softer than others. Just take comfort in knowing that laser blasts have been reinserted, backgrounds have been corrected and Starscream is Starscream once again."

Weirdly, the extra sound effects added to the intro by Magno can still be heard on the DVD title menu, but not in the actual episodes.