Transformers: Animated on DVD - Acts of Frustration!

Some of you may already know this, but I've been recently bitten by the Transformers: Animated bug. If you've seen some of my recent YouTube Goody Haul videos (take a peek at my channel if you haven't), you'll also know that I got a whole slew of the TFA figs.

I actually don't know much, if anything, on TFA. All I know at this point is that they look very cool, much better than any of the previous TFs I've seen so far (sorry if you've just heard the thousand screams of TF enthusiats out there!). I actually resorted to watching a few episodes of the show here and there on YouTube, just to get some semblance of the characters and storyline (also partly doing some research of what neat figs to get!). I thought the show was pretty neat enough to warrant purchasing the shows on DVD.

That's where my frustration with TFA begins. First off, the series was cancelled after three seasons, with only two seasons on DVD produced, and no announced plans for the third. The final season was shown over a year ago! What gives? Now, I'll have to resort going back to YouTube to watching the final season. Bummer...

OK, now on to the two seasons that were released. Yeah, I said, "were". Apparently, they're no longer in current production, so I just can't go to Target or Walmart and pick them up. And after doing some searching on Amazon, the season sets are going for $30-40 each! Frick! There's now way I'm paying that much for the sets!

So, I resort to some local shopping at the new and used music/video stores. Fortunately, the local shop here, (Dimple Records), has both season sets! Woot! Buuut, they're not located in the store where I was at, but at another store in another town. Grrrr. Dimple does offer to ship the sets to the store here, but it'll take a couple of weeks. Ok, I'll wait.....

Only a couple days later, I get a call from Dimple. They're here! Faster than I expected, that's always nice! I go over there the next day and purchase the used sets for only $15 and $17 each (much nicer than paying $80 total!). At least that's one good thing that's happened so far.

Last night, I sit down in bed, finally ready to begin watching TFA. I stick the disc in the player, and begin to watch the initial adventures. Something's not right. It just feels like I'm already in the middle of the story. I know the basics of these guys, but I'm just not properly introduced. OK, maybe I stuck in the wrong disc. Nope, Disc 1 of Season 1. So, I go to a wiki page to look up the episode titles for Season 1, and what do I find?

For whatever crappy reason, the first three episodes of the series, "Transform And Roll Out!" were not included in the Season 1 discs, but was sold as a separate set! WHAT THE FUCK?!? After doing more research, "Transform And Roll Out" was originally sold on a separate set, as a sort of preview of the coming season set a month later. OK that's fine. But why exclude those first episodes from the season set?!? Did some executive bozo think they were saving money becauseeveryone buying the season set had previously purchased the "preview" disc? Did they not think about people (like me!) who were not even aware of this "preview" set?

Oh, fuck it. I call Dimple, since I'm guessing this "Transform And Roll Out" DVD is probably no longer in production as well, and I'm not bothering to try spending any more time at the stores looking for it. Well, guess what? NONE of the Dimple stores have it! Arrrrgh! They do recommend looking for it on Amazon, which I was hesitant to do since I was afraid to know how marked up in price it might have been. It turns out, not by much (whew!).

Alright. I purchase the DVD through Amazon (and a cheap Leader Class Bulkhead fig I found too, in order to get the free shipping (yeah, I'm a cheapskate)), but it's still going to take a couple of weeks to get here. Uuuugh. I really want to start watching this show! I guess I could resort to watching bits and pieces of what I can find of "Transform And Rollout" on YouTube while waiting for the disc.

Damn, this is frustrating. At least the toys are cool...