There are just a few days left for the arrival in theaters of ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’, the seventh installment of the franchise based on the dolls of Hasbro and started by Michael Bay in 2007 and which, in my opinion, reached its peak five years ago with the wonderful ‘Bumblebee’. paramount He had already bet heavily on his previous editions in physical format, but now he has thrown the house out the window with a limited edition distributed by Badge which seems essential for lovers of this successful science fiction saga despite its high price of €179.99. From today, June 1, it is on sale in stores such as Amazon or El Corte Inglés.
The protective case
The pack includes the six films of the franchise released to date, dedicating a steelbook to each one of them. and well protected inside a careful magnetic case with a careful design using different motifs from the saga. Below I include several images of that case made with very rigid cardboard so that you can get an idea of what you will find in case you decide to get a copy:
This is how you will have it as soon as you receive it from the front and back, but the sheet with the information about the contents that it includes must be extracted to be able to access the content of the pack. Don’t worry, it’s attached to the pack the same as in any steelbook and It is very easy to remove without the case suffering any damage. So, the back of it is as follows:
To open it you have the magnetic touch on the front so that it closes properly and protects the metal boxes that you have inside. There is nothing between them that separates them individually, but they go in and out easily but without remaining loose, thus minimizing the possibility of marks arising from rubbing against each other.
There are few faults with the outer case. Perhaps an individual separation between films would have been useful to increase the feeling of security, but as it comes it already works very well.
the steelbooks
As you can see in the image above these lines, Paramount has chosen to try to give the greatest distinctive touch to each of the metal boxes, choosing a single character to appear in each of them. In addition, the dominant colors change depending on the film and, with the exception of ‘Bumblebee’, a numbering is included in all of them. I imagine that it is the easiest way to differentiate them and that the most clueless viewers know the position of each one of them.
Yes indeed, Only the Paramount logo and the title in the original version of each of the films are included on the spinewhile the logo that appears on the back of the metal boxes matches the character that appears on the front and includes other details as an extra that seem to be the result of one of the battles in which they have participated.
Regarding the interior design, all of them choose to include a montage with several images of the film in question. Just above these lines you have what you will see in the case of ‘Bumblebee’.
I don’t forget about autobot emblem which is included as a physical extra. You will find it inside the steelbook of the first installment and the back of it includes adhesive, so you can put it where you see fit. For my part, I think that it is better stored where it comes from, because I still remember the wear and tear suffered by some magnets that I have in the fridge.
The content
Each of the steelbooks includes two discs, one with the film in UHD format and another on blu-ray with the extras. Here it is worth noting that in the case of ‘Bumblebee’ a copy of the film is also included on blu-ray, but it is the only one that is also included in that format and it has a very simple explanation: the discs included here are those that already existed before.
One thing that has drawn attention so far from the editions of the ‘Transformers’ saga released in Spain in 4K is that the additional content of the films when they were released on blu-ray was conspicuous by their absence, since they were included on a second disc which in the case of some deliveries disappeared in subsequent reissues. That didn’t happen with ‘Bumblebee’where its somewhat tighter footage surely helped to fit everything into a single disc.
With all this I want to say that if the only thing that really interests you about the ‘Transformers’ universe is having the movies in 4K, you will not find anything different here. And if you want to have all the extras, you may already have them if you bought the blu-rays at the time. But if you want both together and don’t mind “losing” the blu-ray copy of the movies, this is your first chance to get it all together.
And don’t worry, we are not facing one of those cases in which additional content has been left out, since this franchise has always been generous on that side, including at least more than an hour of extras. There, for example, it is worth noting that the first two installments are the only ones that include audio commentary -the first with Michael Bay alone and the second with the writers. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman– and that here is also included in the 4K version, while all of them include extensive documentaries around different aspects of how it was made. And when I say long, I should put it in capital letters, because for example those of ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ and ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ easily exceed 2 hours. Sadly, such a thing is unthinkable in any current release.
If they already gave us the best possible within this saga in terms of additional content, it’s almost better to leave it that way to try to sell us the bike with some new extra that doesn’t really contribute anything.
final impressions
179.99 euros may sound like an excessive price for an edition in which the presentation changes and not the content, but it is clear that Paramount hasn’t messed around to deliver the best to all those who have made the leap to 4K and want to get the most out of these films in audiovisual terms whenever they feel like (re) seeing one.
And for those who also want something that just looks good on the shelf, this ‘Transformers’ collection has enough personality to stand out in your collection. Obviously, the question remains as to whether they will keep the same design as the steelbooks in subsequent installments and it is always better to buy this type of pack when the saga is complete, but it currently seems that no franchise is ever going to end.
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