This week marks the release of Shout! Factory's 25h Anniversary DVD release of Tranformers: Generation One season 1. While I'm certain many sites out there will be reviewing the series itself, I'm going to assume that at this point if you're here then you're familiar with the concept of Generation One and I won't have to explain that how in the 80's Hasbro came up with this awesome concept about Transforming robots that fought each other over energy resources to the degree that it depleted their home planet of Cybertron, forcing them to find new energy elsewhere. Or how that upon launching their very first mission to search for this energy outside their home planet, The Heroic Autobots were attacked by the Evil Decepticons causing both ships to crash on a primative organic planet over 4 million years ago. I also won't bore you with the details on how these robotic warriors were awakened on modern earth and in order to blend in with the humans and to disguise themselves from each other they took on alternative forms that resembled earth cars, jets, and even a Sony Walkman from the 1980s.

That said, let's dig in!

The DVD itself is very modestly packaged in a foil layered cardboard case. There are 3 discs in all. The first two contain all the Season 1 episodes, with the option to watch the multipart episodes together as a single story.  The second disc is a batch of DVD extras which aren't bad because they offer the casual fan a more in depth look at the mindset that was behind the creation of The Transformers as a property back in the early 80s. In the intereviews, you'll learn about how the Transformers were oringally just toys from Japan and how they went from random action figures to the American iconic figures you know and love today. There's also a few original toy commericials and a rare PSA from Bumblebee telling you not to run away from home (Something I guess he had to learn the hard way since that's exactly what he did in one of the early comic stories).

The picture and sound quality of the DVD is pretty fantastic. Prior release of this set have been riddled with errors and did not contain the original broadcast sound and video. Luckily, Shout! has taken it upon themselves to deliver a very traditional product. As someone who was around for the original airings, I am pretty pleased with how these turned out.

Bottom line is, if you're a G1 fan already, this set is a given. It will not disappoint. If you're new to Transformers G1 and the roots of the entire genre, this is a good place to go back and start.