OMG!! GOBOTS COMING TO DVD!!

*UPDATE: You can buy WB's MOD DVD's @ WB Archives & Amazon...

from tvshowsondvd:

After Shout! Factory released the original cartoon version of The Transformers on DVD in 2009-2010, to celebrate that show's 25th anniversary, fans of the GoBots began inquiring about whether or not they would see the similarly-themed cartoon series on home video. The general thinking was that Hasbro owned both the 1984 TV show Challenge of the GoBots AND the 1986 theatrical film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords, after acquiring the GoBots brand in 1991 when they bought out the Tonka company. Since Hasbro also owns The Transformers brand, including home video rights, the popular opinion was that Hasbro wouldn't want to release GoBots on DVD, because they wanted to keep the focus on the Autobots and Decepticons, rather than possibly confuse the public with the Guardians and the Renegades.

Still, there was always the thought that perhaps the home video rights to the TV show and/or film might instead lie with Warner Brothers, through their ownership of Hanna-Barbera (which was responsible for the GoBots animated productions). And the Warner Archive Collection (WAC) has been putting out lots of Hanna-Barbera TV shows lately on DVD, as part of their manufacture-on-demand (MOD) program. So earlier this week, Nick Simmons reached out to the studio at WAC's fan page on Facebook, asking them straight-out about ownership, and getting a concrete answer to this at last! Here's the exchange:

• Nick - Do you own the rights to Hanna-Barbera's Challenge of the GoBots cartoon series or its movie GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords? I'd really like to see both on DVD some day.
• WAC - The GoBots are heading your way soon!
• Nick - Sweet, both the series and the movie then?
• WAC - At this point, just the series.....

The folks at the Warner Archive confirmed for Nick on Twitter that their GoBots plans are for the "TV series. Not the film." No word yet on when we'll see the show become available on their MOD program, nor what the configuration will be. Since Challenge of the GoBots consisted of 65 half-hour episodes, it's likely that Warner will have to break this up into more than one multi-disc DVD "volume" sets. We're keeping an eye on this, and how it eventually becomes available (and when, etc.). Stay tuned for further updates!

*PERSONAL NOTE* I can't believe it!! This much sought after & near impossible gray market title is seeing a eventual MOD DVD release proves that anything still has a chance of coming to dvd even in this slumping consumer day & age. The Gobots series has been considered to be "forever in limbo" or "eternally dead" due to Hasbro acquiring the rights to Tonka & thus US Gobots trademarks, most assumed they also had absorbed the HB animation, but with WB owning HB's animation the impossible is now coming true. I'll be looking forward to retiring my gray market set for the nice quality WB MOD dvd sets!!