Finally, I’ve clawed my way through the last two of these DVDs we were sent for review. The previous six discs can be read about by checking out the links over on the right.

In this gripping installment, we have our three young protagonists of Rad, Alexis and Carlos. And I think there’s some more. They all hang out with The Transformers®™, a group of strange robots who can reshape themselves into cars and trucks and heavy machinery like industrial vibrators. They’re here on Earth in the not-too-distant-future to find the Minicons®™, a breed of specialty robots who can’t even talk. If the big robots connect them to themselves, they get extra power. Or their paint stops flaking or they get an oil change or something. It’s different for each and there’s no end of metaphors I could use (but won’t).

Of course the bad robots, the Decepticons®™, could easily kick the good guy’s arses (the Autobots®™) if they’d stop their squabbling, but there’s a none-too-subtle message there for the kids; you can be ahead of the game if you demand discipline and order from your evil underlings. And don’t be afraid to kill one of them every now and then as a warning to the others. Of course, you need a monster baseball bat if you’re a Decepticon®™, but for us humes a regulation bat will suffice.

So what else have I taken from this series? I know you’re hanging on the edge of heading to a porn site, so I’ll be brief: nothing. I’ve learned nothing. Or have I? All will be revealed in the review for Transformers Armada Volume Eight. Head on over if you’re one of the two people still reading this far.

The picture quality here is fairly good and delivered in the telly aspect ratio of 4:3. Naturally, we get enough cool tech from the robots, so there’s no 16:9 enhancement and also because that doesn’t happen on 4:3 stuff. The colour is sensational here, without question, transferring brilliantly and in razor sharp fashion. The overall picture is incredibly appealing and there’s no doubt the kids will get into it like the eye candy it is (for them).

Audio is classical Dolby Digital stereo and does the job just fine without any disturbing issues. The subwoofer gets a little work whenever the robots meet in battle, but generally it lays down. Sound effects are okay, occasionally silly, but mostly powerhouse metal collisions. Music too is okay, and has been scored for the show in a collection of pieces that get trolled through to suit any scene. Maybe there are like 14 individual pieces they can choose from (I made that number up, but you know what I mean).

There aren’t any extras here, save for the Transformers Armada advertisement running for 30 seconds before the show opens. Ka-ching! (I wonder if it works? What am I thinking? Of course it works).

The New Transformers - B.A.Bot

This is just like the six volumes that have gone before it in having three episodes (each is one single chapter running around 21 minutes). It has nothing else and barely menus and is delivered on a DVD5 (single layered disc). For those still involved in the series and forging on, this is exactly like the others and will sit neatly easily alongside them on the kid’s DVD shelf. I find it a little ordinary overall and quite cheaply produced given the pricetag, but if the kids watch these episodes maybe six or seven times I guess they finally pay for themselves.

Stick around for the last in this series of eight reviews to see the final cartoon of ‘The New Transformers’... I promise it’s killer material.