Q. Given the success of the Robotech Legacy Collection boxed sets, do Madman have any plans on releasing the Transformers Boxed Sets in Australian format similar to the ones released in the United States?

A. It's something that we would love to do and we're in negotiations now to release the Transformer TV series box-sets late in 2003 or early in 2004.

It was something that seemed initially too costly for us to pursue but the fan response has been so strong for the movie that it now seems like a much safer bet.

Q. Why exactly did Madman decide to release TF:TM on DVD? Was it because of the fans asking for it?

A. Funnily, it was because Madman's director is a big fan himself. This is a guy who can quote the entire opening monologue of the old Masters of the Universe cartoon. Tim was on a trip overseas, looking for product to license, when he stumbled across Transformers: The Movie.

His response, "I'll take THAT!"

All that said though, we do listen to the fans and we've tried hard to accommodate as many requests as we could with this release.

Q. Was a wide screen print ever found? Does the thing exist? Too many people are saying that it was never even released in wide screen even though I saw it in wide screen at the movies. I just don't know anymore.

A. Sure, there's a wide-screen print and yes, we found one. However, it was something like $20,000 U.S. to purchase (I honestly forget the figure, but it was in the "tens of thousands" realm).

Doing this project, it seemed to me that there are certain perceptions among small parts of the licensing guys that Transformers is still the juggernaut franchise it was in the mid-eighties. The Yanks also occasionally forget that there's a mere 20 million Aussies and that we only represent a very small fraction of their market. As such, I was offered ludicrous licensing fees on more than occasion when it came to purchasing materials. $20k would have made Transformers an impossible project in terms of turning a profit and although we're a "fan-ish" company (titles for fans, made by fans! ), we're still running a business! I mean $20k just gets us the print. After that there are a whole bunch of other expenses before we can bring it to DVD.

Who knows? Transformers is definitely going through a bit of a renaissance at the moment thanks to some great new toys from Hasbro and a fantastic series of comics from Dreamwave. In the future there may be a widescreen release, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

Q. If Boxed Sets of the seasons are released here, will it be likely that we will be seeing Dreamwave artwork on them as well?

A. We'd love to work with Dreamwave again and we've made some great friends there. My impression of Dreamwave is that they're another one of those "fan-ish" companies. It's definitely something we'd look at.

Q. Would it be possible to release the Japanese episodes as boxed sets here as well?

A. Again, anything's possible. We would love to do these episodes but based on what would be extremely high production costs (translations, licensing, etcetera! ), it's not likely to happen.

Q. Roughly what is the size of the production run for the DVD?

A. Hmmm... I'm not really supposed to say. How about I just say that it will be the largest quantity we ship out amongst March's retail titles.

You can go to our web site to find out what that includes! That's Madman.com.au folks!

Q. Any chance of getting the DVD cover art as a nice desktop?

A. Heh. No chance! We're trying to keep it fixed firmly on the DVD cover, where it belongs.

Q. Did the American Market Influence your decision to release the TF Movie in Australia or was it something you had already planned to do?

A. See answer two. I understand the TF: Movie did quite well on the American market, but it wasn't really a factor. We're more interested in the Australian market! ;)

Q. What kind of research went into the production of this DVD?

A. Boy... all kinds. As you all know, there were some lengthy delays getting this title out. That was largely because we were gathering materials and tracking permissions. With research, I'm a pretty cluey TF guy myself so I already has an idea of where to look for things.

Thanks to a couple of sites, TAAU and Bigbot primarily, I was able to get some great contacts. Like I said earlier too, we relied on the input from the fan community as well.

You know though, some of you wouldn't believe some of the trouble I went through to track some of these materials!

Q. Did you ever consider adding Weird Al's 'Dare To Be Stupid' music video clip?

A. It would have been a nice addition, but our budget was well on the way to being shot to bits already. I understand too that "Dare To Be Stupid" isn't a TF focused clip, unlike "The Touch"? I might be wrong on that though. Maybe when the series box-sets hit our shores?

Q. Are you happy with the final outcome?

A. Yeah, very much so and I'm excited to see the final product as much as you guys. I gathered the materials, wrote 12 pages of production notes detailing everything I'd like to see and outlining my ideas and handed it over to the Madman design guys.

At this stage the product went to a very talented beer-swilling designer named Matt Currie (whose email sig has his job title as "a dude who designs stuff" ), who came up with menus and layout based on my notes, including some improvements along the way. These notes by the way, also incorporated many suggestions made by the Transfan community. Matt shot me back a whole bunch of screen captures back about 10 days later for proofing and approval and the project was then handed to Steve "Dark Horse" Mellross, who authored the disc. That means he's the guy that makes the buttons click, works in little audio grabs and loops, hides easter eggs (if there are any! ) and so on. Basically, it's like programming a computer. Anyway, Steve brought some great ideas to the disc too, encoding some nifty little features on there... or so I'm told! I won't get to see this until the DVD is in our warehouse as everything was proofed (for the third time! ) over the weekend and sent to replication. We like to cut things close!

In short, I'm very happy with what I've seen and can't wait to play around with the finished product.

Q. If TF:TM does well, will Madman have any plans for other 80's favourites like Voltron and Thundercats, etc?

A. Rainbow Brite, Gem and the Holograms and the Adventures of Rubiks Cube.

Nah, just kidding!

There are a few 80's series that we would love to do and we're always looking out for the creme de la creme in that regard. This is my opportunity to plug Robotech (the fourth of seven DVD box-sets being available NOW!)

So there you have it folks! Thanks very much to Dean for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions, and we hope everyone enjoyed learning a little more about this stunning release!