Hi All,
HMV has released all of season 1 now, but does anyone know if they are releasing season 2 in the UK? I would love to see these again, and I do have a multi region player, so could get the R1 releases - can anyone suggest a good source for them?
Thanks,
Joe
Chris here…
I have no idea whether HMV will be releasing season 2 here in the UK, but if I’m honest, before buying the region 1 sets, I personally would hang on for a couple of months and see if a UK announcement is made. That is, unless of course you’re like me, and already own the region 1 sets but feel compelled to own them in both regions, LOL! 
The exciting thing if season 2 of ThunderCats was released on UK DVD is that, to my knowledge, this would be the first time these episodes have been available to a UK audience - “ThunderCats Ho!” was released as “ThunderCats Ho! The Movie” on official UK VHS back in the 1980s, but apart from that season 2 has never been broadcast over here. I didn’t even know that the season 2 episodes existed until I gained Internet access in 1998! :yikes:
In terms of where to get the US DVD sets, for myself I generally use www.amazon.com, but a lot of that is more out of habit than anything else and someone else here may be able to recommend somewhere cheaper, etc. I would say that if you did order the sets from www.amazon.com, if I could point you in the direction of the links we have to the sets on our front page - if you buy from www.amazon.com through those (even if you click on one of those and then navigate away from that page to purchase a different product!), this site actually earns a tiny commission, which helps to pay for the hosting, etc., of this site! 
Hope some of this info is of help, Joe!
Take care…
Thanks for that - extremely useful:)
When you get Season 2, Chris, you and your fellow Brits will have to say what you think of it, especially the stories where the Cats go back to their reformed planet of New Thundera. A lot of people flat-out hated the New Thundera stories to the point where they refused to watch them ever again, so the British take on that will be interesting to hear.:bengali:
Chris here…
Well, I do have the US releases of season 2 (and have owned VHS copies for several years prior to that), so I personally have seen all the season 2 episodes! I have to say I did like the second season, even the episodes that take place on New Thundera, but I do think that the second season as a whole was significantly inferior to the outstanding first season - in terms of animation quality a lot of the episodes blow season 1 away, but for me personally the storylines from season 1 were just more exciting and original. Even though it could be argued that nostalgia is influencing me I don’t actually think it is, given that several of my favourite episodes (notably “The Last Day”, “The Telepathy Beam” and “The Keystone”) all take place in season 2, but somehow season 2 at times almost became like a parody of itself… 
I also feel that, whilst the New Thundera storyline was interesting and entertaining, and helped to create a really worthwhile story arc, it was something of an emotional anti-climax given how much having his home planet back should mean to Lion-O when taken in context with season 1 episodes like “Return to Thundera” and “The Time Capsule”!
Take care…
Yes, I too have the Season 2 episodes, but they are only copies off the TV put onto DVD’s and they played in my old machine, but don’t work in the one I’ve got now. I liked the first half of the season, but I must admit I wasn’t so keen on the New Thundera episodes as much as the older ones, though I suppose in fairness there was only so many storylines involving Thundercats vs Mutants/Lunataks/Villains of the week set on Third Earth, while Mumm-Ra did prove a worthy enemy, along with the Ancient Spirits who were manipulating him…I always really liked the Mutants so was surprised to learn that they were virtually superseded by another set of bad guys (Lunataks) and didn’t like the idea at first, but they were quite good adversaries, and again there was only so much they could have got out of the Mutant characters I suppose. That said, I thought Ratar-O was underused - he got some great lines!
Ah memories…time to watch some more S1 episodes I think!
I agree, Joe, that Ratar-O was very underused considering that he was the head Mutant. What did he get, three episodes altogether? That’s miniscule, to say the least.
And I agree with you, Chris, that while the New Thundera stories were beautifully animated, the plots fell flat on their faces. Lion-O should have been literally dancing with joy to be back home, but the show being what it was, I guess that was too much to expect. The discovery of Torr and his family should have been another emotional high for Lion-O, but it was treated as nothing more than Cat-business-as-usual, which was a let-down for me. And to have New Thundera be a mirror image of Third Earth was not a good idea. New Thundera should have looked more like a traditional sci-fi world than a fairytale one.
The two episodes I enjoyed the most from the New Thundera saga were “Leah” and “The Shadowmaster”. In “Leah”, I loved watching Lion-O interacting with this little girl; it was a softer side of him that you never saw except when he was showing affection for Snarf, and I could easily see him holding her without any embarrassment. No wonder Purrsia had Lion-O become a father in her Signal in the Sky story. He’d be a good one. “The Shadowmaster” was where you saw Lion-O’s father Claudus as a young adult ThunderCat, which was great! And the part where Claudus says good-bye to his son before going to the Astral Plain was very touching. It’s one of my favorite moments in the entire series.
Well not to be a downer, but I myself was not right impressed with the second season after watching it. I always liked the Thundercats as a kid for the sort of ongoing plot they had. I know it was a weak one, but at least one existed, they were a space race trapped on a planet with their arch rivals and a kick ass sorceror of the dark arts.
Then with the second season, they just started throwing characters in left right and center with no real reason. How many bloody people from thundera somehow managed to make their way to this one planet, amidst the hundreds out their. Eh, it just went off at too much of a tangent for my liking.
“Oh look, Thundera has reformed… how quaint”
Actually Season 2 Part 1 is up for pre-order since last Saturday on hmv.co.uk. It will be released on March 24. Unfortunately there is no picture of the box available yet.
Chris here…
Chris, many thanks for this outstanding info - I’ve just posted about it on the front page of this site!
Take care…
I don’t know if anyone’s interested or not, or whether this has been mentioned already but I just spotted that HMV is now advertising a “Complete Series 1” box set to be released 21/01/08 and currently priced at £33.99 (about £10 more than it currently costs to buy Vol.1 and 2 separately).
I’m sure there’ll be no real advantage to such a buy since it will probably be the same discs as before but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
I’d assume that price is about right :? Volume 1 was about £15.99 and volume 2 was £17.99, combined that is £33.98.
I’ve been informed by WHV UK of new release dates:
-
Complete Season 1 DVD Set will be released on February 18, 2008
-
Season 2 Part 1 will be pushed back to April 14, 2008.
Stay tuned for more information regarding these releases!
They’ve also posted the picture of what Season 2 Vol 1 will look like…
http://www3.hmv.co.uk/hmv/Large_Images/HMVVIDEO/D075359.JPG
Eurgh, very ugly. Just doesn’t fit, that colour.
Chris here…
It’s in sync with the colour scheme they went for with the US box sets, but with just the Eye of Thundera symbol on the front rather than the holographic box art of the US sets, it makes the thing rather too yellow - I agree, I’m not liking the visual appearance of this one. Still, for the chance of owning ThunderCats season 2 in PAL DVD quality, I’d take it in a plain brown slip cover!
Take care…
Dunno what other colour would really mesh with the Thundercats logo.. I suppose it’s keeping the theme of the logo being at the front and the fronts should be all different but maybe a silver or a gold colour could be used.
What they’re doing with the British releases is similar to what they did here with the American ones. The releases are color-coded: Red for S1V1, blue for S1V2, yellow for S2V1, and purple for S2V2. The final release will have the T-Cat logo in purple. I don’t know why they chose that particular color scheme. You’ll have to ask them.:?
Has anyone purchased this Complete Season 1 DVD Set, which got released last month. Are the individual disc covers any different from the previous R2 set.
http://www3.hmv.co.uk/hmv/muze/video/xlarge/24/742941.jpg
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000YEU412/ref=cm_rdp_product
http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=742941
Chris here…
ThunderaPrincess gives some great info in her most recent post in the LE Comic thread: http://www.thundercatslair.org/forums/showpost.php?p=19198&postcount=12 . After an embarrassingly delayed reaction from me in replying, I’ve asked her if she could supply pics - so far I’ve yet to see any online anywhere, so it would be great to finally get a look at the set!
Take care…
I’m very much awaiting the Season 2 Part I of the Thundercats boxsets seeing as I’ve watched, over and over again, my Season 1. Recently watched the Excaliber episode which I hadn’t seen and admitted liking 
Just wondering - is the movie split into episodes or just one feature?