Versions

 

One of the reasons the movie is so popular with fans is because it's the most available of all the Transformers cartoon adventures, and here's a guide to some of the releases. More will be added over time until a fairly comprehensive list is made of all the releases.
 

GUANGDONG QIANHE (region 2 DVD (I think))

Usually sold on eBay, this features both the movie (Metrodome's Reconstructed version with slightly worse video quality) and all the episodes from season 1, with the remastered English audio track, Chinese language audio, two kinds of Chinese subtitles and Chinese menus that are relatively easy to figure out. It's also really frigging huge and the inside smells like a barbeque.


KID RHINO (US VHS)

It's the normal version of the movie on video, which is nothing special, BUT! This version is rather famous with the fan base due to the blurb on the back of the box being totally crazy! Read it for yourself.

The year is 2005, and the Decepticons have retaken Cybertron from Optimus Prime and his Autobot warriors. Both sides are seething with anger, and that hatred has blinded them to a hideous menace headed their way. That menace is Unicorn, a monster so powerful he devours planets. Unicron has chosen to take control of the Autobot Matrix for his own evil purposes, and to accomplish this he has created a force of super robots. By gathering the remains of fallen Decepticons, including Megatron, and infusing them with life, he forms the Unicrons. With Decepticons on one side, Unicrons on the other, and Optimus Prime lost in battle, Earth and Autobot survival depends on The Chosen One who must rise up to open the matrix and use its full power. Who that is remains a mystery.

METRODOME RECONSTRUCTED (region 2 DVD)

Metrodome's first release promised everything but ended up being one of the biggest disappointments to the Transformer fan base when it was released in 2005. Whilst the movie was remastered, resulting with better colours and more visible picture, certain parts of the movie had unfinished animation due to too much being shown which shouldn't have been there. Coupled with sound problems, this release has now been forgotten about in light if Metrodome's more recent offering.

METRODOME ULTIMATE EDITION (region 2 DVD)

Metrodome released the movie again in 2007, only this time they just about got it right. This version's biggest feature is that it's been remastered once again, resulting in much better colour quality than any version seen before and more of the picture is visible, without the failings of the version mentioned above. As well as having a remastered version of the US release, it's also got the UK version but with the original master. Extras include commentaries, a poor quality version of Scramble City (although it's at least got audio), trailers, animated storyboards and more. The best version of the movie you can get, at least in the UK. It was also released as a "special edition" on one disc which just featured the remastered version of the movie.

SONY 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (region 1 DVD)

The best version of the movie to get if you live in the US, this DVD has a remastered version of the movie which looks great (although not quite as good as Metrodome's Ultimate Edition) along with loads of extras, including commentaries, trailers, featurettes and most famously, Scramble City without audio.

SONY WONDER (region 2 DVD)

This version is fairly bog-standard as the picture quality is the same as the original version of the movie, but it was given a PG rating - Spike's "oh shit!" was restored to this version, which was a first for the UK. It has a few features like some footage from the BBC program I Love 1984, images from a movie poster and and the first episode of Transformers: The Headmasters, with the terrible English dub.

UMD PSP

Released for the UMD format used by the Sony PSP, I really know little about this version other than it having the usual dark picture quality, but the sound quality is supposed to be quite good. No extras though.