Transformers: 25th Anniversary Matrix Of Leadership Edition
I started this blog on Oct 9th of 2009, and it was around that time that Shout! Factory released their version of the complete DVD set of the Transformers G1 animated series. Rightfully titled the 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Edition, this version is supposed to be superior in every way to the Rhino release that came out in the early to mid 2000s. This box set was released on Oct 20th to be precise, and so I made the news of its release my 2nd post in the history of this blog. You can read about that post here.
The first time I saw this set was at Botcon 2009. It must have been at the Shout! Factory booth. However, it was behind the counter in the display area, not available to be touched or inspected up close.
Today, I am happy to report that I have in my possession this awesome box set, and I will do it justice by giving it the proper review that it so deserves. Amazon frequently has this on sale for $86.99, and that’s what I got it for. This is the best price that I have seen anywhere for a new version of this box set. Definitely check Amazon if you are considering buying this set.
Let’s start with some pics. Here are the front and back of the box while it’s still sealed in the shrink wrap.
As you can clearly see, the graphic of the Matrix is printed on the front of the box. This box set is freakin’ huge! To give you some idea of its size, check it out next to a soda can.
The whole thing weighs quite a bit too. Sometimes I wish I had one of those things that you can weigh parcels with, like at the post office, so I can give some precise readings.
Now we get to why this is called the “Matrix of Leadership” edition. To open up the box set and remove the contents, what you do is slide out the boxes on the two sides away from the center until the middle portion is revealed. The side sections can only slide out so far, they will not fall off all the way. Now you can re-enact the scene where Rodimus opens the Matrix inside Unicron all you want.
Is that cool or what? Feel the power of the Matrix as you open it to watch some G1 Transformers.
After you have opened the Matrix, flip up the center cardboard piece to get at the knowledge inside.
The inside lid that flipped up contains a nice holographic image of none other than Optimus Prime. Looks very cool. After you take out all the contents in the middle section, at the bottom of the box is a nice image of Megatron. Check it out below.
This is basically the coolest DVD box that I have ever seen. Some fans have complained that the cardboard here is too soft. I guess it could have been cool if Shout! opted to use more solid material, like the ones used for the Limited Edition of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Vol. 1 box set. And it probably would have been nice to put LEDs into the center Matrix graphic so that it lights up when the box is opened. But all this is just nitpicking and wishful thinking, so let’s not lose sight of the fact that Shout! gave us a well-designed box that is way beyond anything that anyone else has ever come up with.
Now let’s take a look at the contents. You get everything in the pic below.
What you get is the complete 98 eps of G1 Transformers on 16 DVDs held in 4 cases. Each case has a graphic of an Autobot or Decepticon leader. In the center there is a collected book that contains episode summaries and some bios of the major Transformers. This book is made of high quality material and the print quality is superb. In the pic we also see the Autobot and Decepticon magnets. I currently have these up on my fridge. Show off your TF enthusiasm with pride!
The DVDs themselves look very cool. See for yourself.
The inside cover of each DVD case is the color graphic corresponding to the leader that appeared on the cover. The graphic printed on each DVD is also very nice. Shout! certainly paid attention to all the little details.
As of this writing, I have only watched 2 eps from Season 2. The transfer quality looked really good. My understanding is that Shout! took the best master of every scene so there should be no color goofs, unless of course the goof was never corrected in the 80s to begin with. Before I bought this Matrix set, I bought the complete Season 1 set, also from Shout!. I’m going to assume the transfer is exactly the same in both. In the Season 1 set, the picture quality was inconsistent for some eps, like for instance “Heavy Metal War”. This particular ep the varying of the picture quality is really noticeable, probably because the master came from different sources, but overall it’s not a distraction.
There are also a bunch of extras on the DVDs that I’m not going to list. Go to the Amazon listing of this item and see it for yourself.
Overall, I’m very happy with this box set. This is the definitive version of the G1 Transformers animated collection. I was kinda sore when I missed my chance to buy the Rhino releases (especially after they went OOP and dealers put an insane amount of markup on them), but this more than makes up for it. As a kid I dreamed of owning every episode of Transformers. Shout! has made this dream possible and at very reasonable price too.
At last, All Are One! Transform and Roll Out!
Figures from the TF Animated line are usually not at all difficult to transform, and Sunstorm is no exception. But he’s a classic case of bad instructions misleading the transformation process when it would be simpler to figure it out yourself. Going from robot to jet, I had a feeling the arms would go between the legs at the bottom towards the back, VF-1 style. But the instructions never indicated that you should do this. I wasted a good 20 min trying to do it like the instructions, but the arms just kept getting in the way. Then I finally gave up and simply started placing parts at where I think they should go, and lo and behold the jet mode practically formed itself. Once you know what to do, transforming Sunstorm is a breeze. But the bad instructions earns him a spot on this list.
Figures from both Michael Bay films are usually on the difficult side, partly because their designs are so radically different from what TransFans are normally used to. Love or hate the Movie designs, the toys themselves did do good of capturing the Movie look, but this meant some very unorthodox implementations in the transforming mechanism. Movie Ironhide gave me a lot of trouble on my first try because he’s got this funky thing you gotta do with the chest part that didn’t seem all too intuitive. At first I thought it was only me, but then 
Alternity Cliffjumper is complex with lots of moving parts, but overall he’s not too bad. The only real issue is in the legs. There’s just so much there and its all compacted into a relatively small area which makes it hard to figure out. The instructions did not help me in this area and I found watching Youtube vids of other people transforming him to be a big help. I gave him 
MP Optimus Prime is really not that difficult. I’ve done one round trip (from robot to truck and back) and I really didn’t see any issues, and I feel I can do it from memory if I need to. But he’s on here purely because of the complexity of the figure in terms of the number of steps you have to do to transform him. This is not a figure you can transform fast (at least not for me), because there is so much involved. In essence, not hard to do, but a lot to do. MP-04 is the best Optimus Prime figure ever made hands down, and I expected nothing less from a 
OK, now we’re getting into figures where things can get really frustrating. Galvatron is the only deluxe figure I put on this list, and that’s saying something. There are other deluxe figures that have challenged me (ROTF Sideswipe, Classics Tankor), but Galvatron takes the cake. He is by far the most complex deluxe figure I have ever seen in terms of number of moving parts and steps required to transform. Hasbro really crammed a lot into a $10 figure, and in this case I really can’t say if that’s a good or bad thing. My theory is that Galvatron was originally designed to be a Voyager class figure (which explains the pieces and the complexity), but for whatever reason Hasbro decided to make him deluxe. Adding to the difficulty is that a lot of pieces are designed to come off to prevent you from breaking them. If you are transforming him for the first time, I guarantee some parts will cast off (and I don’t mean in the good way like anime figures).
Hybrid G1 Optimus Prime can be thought of as a miniature version of the MP-04. But when you take one of the largest figures in the TF universe and shrink it down to one of the smallest, all while keeping much of the same complexity, the figure becomes frustrating. Hybrid Prime is not even 4 inches tall. Trying to transform such an intricately small piece would test the hands of even the most dexterous. My hands are small by guy standards, and I had a difficult time with Hybrid Prime. The overall mechanism on the Hybrid is dumbed down a little from the MP-04, but the complexity is still too much for a figure of this size. On the toy there are also these pieces covering Prime’s hands that love to fall off. To add insult to injury, Hybrid Prime’s truck mode looks unflattering at best. It kinda leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you realize you spent a good amount of time and energy to produce an alt mode that many have described as box on wheels. I did one round trip of this figure (robot to truck and back) and I’ve had enough. I will probably never transform this piece again, unless someone pays me.
As already outlined in the intro above, Alternator Smokescreen is difficult enough to bring a grown man to his knees. I first attempted this on the Alternator version, but the Binaltech versions transform exactly the same (I got both BT-07s). Smokescreen looks good in both modes so the transformation is well worth it. I’ve done 3 or 4 round trips now, and it does get a little easier with each attempt, but he’s still quite a challenge. Smokescreen kicked off the Binaltech/Alternator line, and even after a dozen or so molds later (and all of them challenging), he still remains one of the most difficult.
Of all the TFs I opened, Movie Leader Class Brawl gets the proud distinction as my least transformed Transformer. I got him around late 2007, and to this day I have not even made one round trip transformation of this figure. I got him from robot to tank, twice. Let me explain. I bought him at TRU. He comes in robot mode, and after I got him to tank mode, I realized there’s a peg that came broken (this is unlike Samurai Prowl, where 
There’s hard, and then there’s HARD. ROTF Leader Class Optimus Prime is not for the faint of heart. This is an updated figure over the 2007 Movie version. While the 2007 version was already very good, the ROTF version improves on it by leaps and bounds by being much more movie accurate in both transformation and appearance. However, this figure will test your skills as a TransFan. Keep in mind that ROTF Prime was made to be a toy, and not a collector’s piece, yet I put him at #2 on this list which means I feel he is more difficult than most MPs and Binaltechs. I applaud any TransFan who can do this piece without looking at the instructions. Not only are there a gazillion steps, each step must be performed in the right order or you wind up backtracking and undoing steps you’ve done to account for stuff you didn’t do. And once you know what to do, actually doing them is no easy task. There are so many pieces on this thing that if they’re not combined in perfect harmony, they don’t combine. I know all this sounds tough, but you feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment when you get him into that equally awesome-looking truck. If you are attempting this, just know that all the pieces on this figure are designed to come together, and with enough time and patience you will get there. I’ve done 3 or 4 round trips of this now, and each time it is still a challenge, but going from truck back to robot is not half as bad. On the box it says age 5 and up, and I’m sure there are some genius TF kids out there, but I sincerely believe this is not for the typical 5 yr old.
Masterpiece Megatron. These words alone evoke pain and fear from all TransFans, much like Megatron’s name evokes the same feeling from Cybertronians all over the galaxy. Ask any TransFan worth his Energon to name the most difficult TF ever, and 4 times out of 5 MP Meg will be the answer. The complexity of this piece is unquestioned. Like the MP-04, there’s a lot to do. But unlike MP Prime, many of the steps required to transform him is not by any means easy. MP Meg is designed to be a collector’s piece and it shows in the construction. He is more delicate when compared to TFs of the “toy” variety, but at the same time, he’s got some parts and pieces where some force is required to budge them from their place. So on one hand you need to apply pressure to transform him, but on the other you need to be careful that you don’t break such an expensive piece. MP Meg is the only TF where my hands actually began to hurt midway thru, because of the tight pieces and the sharp angles. Transformation from gun back to robot is equally as hard as robot to gun. To this day I have only done one round trip, and I’m hoping it will be easier on future attempts now that I’ve loosened up the pieces somewhat. SEANxLONG of TF Youtube fame has described this piece as “excruciating”, so he’s selling (or has sold) his. While I do agree with the adjective, I question his choice of selling it because MP Meg is the symbol of the ultimate Transformer challenge. To have this in your collection and to say you’ve transformed it and survived is proof that you belong among the elite of TransFans. Many brave souls were lost in their attempt to transform Masterpiece Megatron. The process may be harmful to pregnant women and small children. Consult your physician before attempting.
