Beast Wars II DVD Boxset Package Art

Man I have never understood why DVDs are so expensive in Japan. Even if the Yen and the dollar were the same value right now, this set would cost $294. With the current exchange rate, it's around $385 currently. At a one-to-one rate, that'd still be about $264 more than the $30 this should cost. Hopefully Shout Factory will release this in the future. I've got my fingers crossed!

El Duque wrote:Nico Nico Chokuhan have posted a mock up of the package art for the upcoming Beast Wars II DVD Boxset. This will be the first time this series has ever made available on DVD format. The set will include all 43 episodes that aired 1998 on 8 discs and is scheduled for release October 20th for 29,400 yen. They note the final packaging is subject to change.

Oh, SNAP! That artwork is GORGEOUS!!! DANCE: DANCE: DANCE:

Seibertron wrote:Man I have never understood why DVDs are so expensive in Japan. Even if the Yen and the dollar were the same value right now, this set would cost $294. With the current exchange rate, it's around $385 currently. At a one-to-one rate, that'd still be about $264 more than the $30 this should cost. Hopefully Shout Factory will release this in the future. I've got my fingers crossed!

I second the hope for shout factory to release this.
i thought my exchange rate was a little high until i read this post.
talk about costing an arm and a leg.

El Duque wrote:

That's weird, why put Megastorm there instead of Galvatron?

And ersonally, I would have probably liked the art more had they gotten this guy to do it:


Just look at that!

These guys in Japan can come up with designs for complex transforming robot toys but cant come up with a cast of english speakers to do voice overs. No disrespect to the Japanese, but cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies with voice overs...HOOK US UP !!!

triKlops wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Man I have never understood why DVDs are so expensive in Japan. Even if the Yen and the dollar were the same value right now, this set would cost $294. With the current exchange rate, it's around $385 currently. At a one-to-one rate, that'd still be about $264 more than the $30 this should cost. Hopefully Shout Factory will release this in the future. I've got my fingers crossed!

I second the hope for shout factory to release this.
i thought my exchange rate was a little high until i read this post.
talk about costing an arm and a leg.

And hopefully they'll learn from their mistakes with the subbing of the Japanese G1 series.

cannonfodder4000 wrote:That's weird, why put Megastorm there instead of Galvatron?

Good question, actually.

cannonfodder4000 wrote:And ersonally, I would have probably liked the art more had they gotten this guy to do it:


Just look at that!

B-E-A-Utiful!

Sabrblade wrote:

El Duque wrote:Nico Nico Chokuhan have posted a mock up of the package art for the upcoming Beast Wars II DVD Boxset. This will be the first time this series has ever made available on DVD format. The set will include all 43 episodes that aired 1998 on 8 discs and is scheduled for release October 20th for 29,400 yen. They note the final packaging is subject to change.

Reminds me of the Shout Factory's box art for Beast Wars: The Complet Series.

Rated X wrote:These guys in Japan can come up with designs for complex transforming robot toys but cant come up with a cast of english speakers to do voice overs. No disrespect to the Japanese, but cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies with voice overs...HOOK US UP !!!

You have no idea what goes on in the process of dubbing, have you? Why are you being so Xenophobic?

Rated X wrote:These guys in Japan can come up with designs for complex transforming robot toys but cant come up with a cast of english speakers to do voice overs. No disrespect to the Japanese, but cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies with voice overs...HOOK US UP !!!

Actually, the redubbing is done by separate studios (be them or be them not located in the US) who buy the rights to do so for such a series, not by the studios who originally created them. Why do you think we have studios like Funimation or 4Kids (blech)?

Besides, the "I scratch your back and you'll scratch mine" does not work in the business world.

Sabrblade wrote:

Rated X wrote:These guys in Japan can come up with designs for complex transforming robot toys but cant come up with a cast of english speakers to do voice overs. No disrespect to the Japanese, but cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies with voice overs...HOOK US UP !!!

You have no idea what goes on in the process of dubbing, have you? Why are you being so Xenophobic?

No I dont, but Im sure somewhere out there in Japan there is a group of fans with enough talent and time on their hands to take on the job. But hey if you like sub-tites, go for this version. Id rather create a onlize buzz calling for the real deal. I know Im just a drop in the bucket, but you never know who reads these posts.

Rated X wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Rated X wrote:These guys in Japan can come up with designs for complex transforming robot toys but cant come up with a cast of english speakers to do voice overs. No disrespect to the Japanese, but cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies with voice overs...HOOK US UP !!!

You have no idea what goes on in the process of dubbing, have you? Why are you being so Xenophobic?

No I dont, but Im sure somewhere out there in Japan there is a group of fans with enough talent and time on their hands to take on the job.

I'll just restate what JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

"Actually, the redubbing is done by separate studios (be them or be them not located in the US) who buy the rights to do so for such a series, not by the studios who originally created them. Why do you think we have studios like Funimation or 4Kids (blech)?

Besides, the "I scratch your back and you'll scratch mine" does not work in the business world."

Rated X wrote:But hey if you like sub-tites, go for this version.

For the bazillionth time, this is the DOMESTIC Japanese DVD release. There are NO subtitles in this this set. NO ONE OUTSIDE OF JAPAN is intended to buy this set. Stop jumping to conclusions when you don't know the whole story.

Rated X wrote:Id rather create a onlize buzz calling for the real deal. I know Im just a drop in the bucket, but you never know who reads these posts.

There is NO PROFIT in producing an English dub for a show about toys that haven't been for sale in 13 years. Hasbro would have to spend more than they'd earn on a new dub in order to make one.

Sabrblade wrote:

Rated X wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Rated X wrote:These guys in Japan can come up with designs for complex transforming robot toys but cant come up with a cast of english speakers to do voice overs. No disrespect to the Japanese, but cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies with voice overs...HOOK US UP !!!

You have no idea what goes on in the process of dubbing, have you? Why are you being so Xenophobic?

No I dont, but Im sure somewhere out there in Japan there is a group of fans with enough talent and time on their hands to take on the job.

I'll just restate what JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

"Actually, the redubbing is done by separate studios (be them or be them not located in the US) who buy the rights to do so for such a series, not by the studios who originally created them. Why do you think we have studios like Funimation or 4Kids (blech)?

Besides, the "I scratch your back and you'll scratch mine" does not work in the business world."

Rated X wrote:But hey if you like sub-tites, go for this version.

For the bazillionth time, this is the DOMESTIC Japanese DVD release. There are NO subtitles in this this set. NO ONE OUTSIDE OF JAPAN is intended to buy this set. Stop jumping to conclusions when you don't know the whole story.

Rated X wrote:Id rather create a onlize buzz calling for the real deal. I know Im just a drop in the bucket, but you never know who reads these posts.

There is NO PROFIT in producing an English dub for a show about toys that haven't been for sale in 13 years. Hasbro would have to spend more than they'd earn on a new dub in order to make one.

No profit in english TF DVD's ??? I suppose all the Rhino releases were just made for charity...

Rated X wrote:No profit in english TF DVD's ??? I suppose all the Rhino releases were just made for charity...

No profit for making a new DUB. There's profit for selling DVDs, that's an easy feat. Creating an entirely new ENGLISH DUB from the ground up (when one never existed) is a whole different story.

That's partly why they didn't create one for the Headmasters DVDs.

Sabrblade wrote:

Rated X wrote:No profit in english TF DVD's ??? I suppose all the Rhino releases were just made for charity...

No profit for making a new DUB. There's profit for selling DVDs, that's an easy feat. Creating an entirely new ENGLISH DUB from the ground up (when one never existed) is a whole different story.

That's partly why they didn't create one for the Headmasters DVDs.

Food for thought:

Any movie or series with an existing English soundtrack are easy to do. Just slap the series on a couple DVD's and you're done. However, when the soundtrack including the voice-overs is missing, one has to be made, so one must contract a studio to do so. That adds additional cost in shape of the studio fee, which among other thing pays the voice actors and the actual translation of the Japanese.
It's a rather big investment, and only worth if there's a large enough amount of potential customers. Some animes have a large knowledgeable fanbase to be worth it, but with Transformers it's bit trickier than that. In my opinion we're really lucky with Headmasters, Choujin Masterforce and Victory on DVD, even without redubbing, as those series can be obscure. Beast Wars II and Neo are worse in that, some have never even heard of them (seriously, go check comments on YouTube!) or confuse the two series (which still irks me to bits).

Don't get me wrong, I'm still holding out for a domestic release, but I don't see one coming any time soon.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Don't get me wrong, I'm still holding out for a domestic release, but I don't see one coming any time soon.

However, the release of these DVDs in Japan makes a better chance for one to happen in the West. As a subbed DVD release, that is, as a dub would be, realistically, next to impossible at this point.

Sabrblade wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Don't get me wrong, I'm still holding out for a domestic release, but I don't see one coming any time soon.

However, the release of these DVDs in Japan makes a better chance for one to happen in the West. As a subbed DVD release, that is, as a dub would be, realistically, next to impossible at this point.

Well, Media Blasters partially dubbed Yuusha-Oh GaiGaiGar which was in the same time frame more or less, and it was a show for a Takara line. Of course, that was back in 2006-2008, but who knows?

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Don't get me wrong, I'm still holding out for a domestic release, but I don't see one coming any time soon.

However, the release of these DVDs in Japan makes a better chance for one to happen in the West. As a subbed DVD release, that is, as a dub would be, realistically, next to impossible at this point.

Well, Media Blasters partially dubbed Yuusha-Oh GaiGaiGar which was in the same time frame more or less, and it was a show for a Takara line. Of course, that was back in 2006-2008, but who knows?

Yes, but if Shout! Factory gets to release, then we can kiss a dub goodbye. And frankly, I don't really want a dub since it'd be severely edited from the source material.

Though, what do you mean by they "partially" dubbed GaoGaiGar?

Sabrblade wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Don't get me wrong, I'm still holding out for a domestic release, but I don't see one coming any time soon.

However, the release of these DVDs in Japan makes a better chance for one to happen in the West. As a subbed DVD release, that is, as a dub would be, realistically, next to impossible at this point.

Well, Media Blasters partially dubbed Yuusha-Oh GaiGaiGar which was in the same time frame more or less, and it was a show for a Takara line. Of course, that was back in 2006-2008, but who knows?

Yes, but if Shout! Factory gets to release, then we can kiss a dub goodbye. And frankly, I don't really want a dub since ti'd be severely edited from the source material.

Though, what do you mean by they "partially" dubbed GaoGaiGar?

First half is dubbed, but the second half was only subbed either due to poor sales or poor fan reception.

I prefer subbed too (accurately that is, our dutch subbing takes some liberties), but i want my wife to enjoy it too. She's not as used to subtitles as I am.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:First half is dubbed, but the second half was only subbed either due to poor sales or poor fan reception.

Well, that's... a let down.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I prefer subbed too (accurately that is, our dutch subbing takes some liberties), but i want my wife to enjoy it too. She's not as used to subtitles as I am.

It's not that I prefer subs over dubs, but rather that I prefer accuracy and faithfulness over unnecessary change (which is why I'm already ticked off by what Shout! Factory's doing to the JG1 DVDs). There do exist some very good and accurate English dubs out there, but BWII is one of those shows that would most definitely be edited in an English dub (about as edited as RiD was from Car Robots). For example, Tasmania Kid's peeing scene would likely get removed (not that I liked that scene to begin with, but the damage is done and it already exists, so removing it would be further damage).

cannonfodder4000 wrote:

I think I just found my next tattoo. That is the most amazing image I've ever seen of Lio Convoy.

Sabrblade wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I prefer subbed too (accurately that is, our dutch subbing takes some liberties), but i want my wife to enjoy it too. She's not as used to subtitles as I am.

It's not that I prefer subs over dubs, but rather that I prefer accuracy and faithfulness over unnecessary change (which is why I'm already ticked off by what Shout! Factory's doing to the JG1 DVDs). There do exist some very good and accurate English dubs out there, but BWII is one of those shows that would most definitely be edited in an English dub (about as edited as RiD was from Car Robots). For example, Tasmania Kid's peeing scene would likely get removed (not that I liked that scene to begin with, but the damage is done and it already exists, so removing it would be further damage).

That is the only reason why I watch subtitled series, there's so much more emotion in the acting and more plot development when compared to an English dub, which due to the difference in pacing of acting, results in a poor delivery of the script and a story full of plot holes due to editing out some parts. The only exception to this would be Adieu, Galaxy express 999, being the first anime I've seen and on Sci-Fi's Saturday Anime (which was on right before MST3K, the show I cut my first tooth to).
On a semi-related note, what changes were made by Shout, aside from the obvious localization of the names and factions?

Rated X wrote:Great, more subtitles. I have downloaded every Japansese TF series ever created but I just dont have the interest to watch them because subtitles ruin a show. I just cant seem to enjoy anything I have to read and watch at the same time. You cant keep up.

Read above comment for the reason you need to train yourself to watch subtitled anime.

Rated X wrote:These guys in Japan can come up with designs for complex transforming robot toys but cant come up with a cast of english speakers to do voice overs. No disrespect to the Japanese, but cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies with voice overs...HOOK US UP !!!

Really? I think after America dropped not one, but two atomic bombs on them, and then years later, drop this turd bomb of a series on them, I think we owe them far more. Michael Bay is a hack, I've been saying it, and I'll keep saying it, he can't direct anything without changing everything good into dick and fart jokes, adding in lots of explosions and computer fight scenes that cost far too much and are barely visible due to fast camera movements and rough edits. If you like it, cool, keep watching it, but its not like Japan owes us anything for giving them a horrible movie.
I mean it, I'm not starting a fight, I just have a lot of hatred for him, this started before I even knew he was directing Transformers.

Back on topic, I may just start saving my pennies for this, I don't care if there are no subtitles, I just want to watch it, and hopefully, this means Beast Wars Neo will also come out. The only way this will change is if Shout! Factory does decide to release this after the complete box for the Takara Collection is (finally) released.

Rated X wrote:.....cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies

I'm not sure how much of a bargaining chip this actually is. LOL.

In total agreement with IAmThePeej. Maybe I'll spend the money I was considering buying the movie blu-rays and throw it at this BWII set.

gothsaurus wrote:

Rated X wrote:.....cmon we gave you micheal Bays movies

I'm not sure how much of a bargaining chip this actually is. LOL.

X just doesn't know what he's talking about. Making assumptions without knowing the whole deal is all he's doing.

Yeah, I'm not counting on any subtitles on the DVD release. Sigh. Pipe dream.

In the meantime, there ARE torrents of this stuff somewhere with fan subtitles, right?? If I get it and have trouble figuring out the action, I can hit those.

gothsaurus wrote:In the meantime, there ARE torrents of this stuff somewhere with fan subtitles, right?? If I get it and have trouble figuring out the action, I can hit those.

Yes, but they're A) incomplete, having only subs on the first 12 episodes, and B) terrible video and audio quality having not aged well.

wow. that's disappointing. How long have fans had to work on these... not even fan-DUBBING, but simply SUBBING.

Gads I wish these weren't so pricey. It's like $40 a disc or something. It's not like you get box and minicon with each disc for these.

Lets see, if I charge admission in my apartment, and charge admission at $5 a head.... *does maths*

gothsaurus wrote:wow. that's disappointing. How long have fans had to work on these... not even fan-DUBBING, but simply SUBBING.

Well, how would they do anything with good quality source videos? This the very first DVD release of BWII, 13 years after its original broadcast. The only things fans had to work with before now were VHS tapes, yet those do not age well. Plus, given how this show is often considered to be the Beast Era equivalent of Transformers: Energon, there hasn't been that great an interest in fansubbing it once the subbers got to see what it was really like.

Good point about the VHS tapes. Maybe there will be some renewed interest in fan-subbing these.

It has been released! As of yesterday, Japan now has Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers available on DVD in full for the first time ever in 13 years!

Amazon Japan has it in stock for the discounted price of 22,442 yen (instead of its full price of 29,400 yen).

IAmThePeej wrote:

cannonfodder4000 wrote:

I think I just found my next tattoo. That is the most amazing image I've ever seen of Lio Convoy

Just in case you wanted to know, it's by a dude called Zouni(Xavier) (If there are like, any minors reading this, I don't suggest looking at his other stuff ), who sadly, didn't do any other Transformers related art.

Ring-u wrote:Is the DVD still listed there? Where is the

Sabrblade wrote:It has been released! As of yesterday, Japan now has Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers available on DVD in full for the first time ever in 13 years!

Amazon Japan has it in stock for the discounted price of 22,442 yen (instead of its full price of 29,400 yen).

Now discounted down to 22,156 yen.