Hello, there! I was catching up on the now out of print Transformers Rhino DVD box sets. I found Season 1, Part 3 from a used media store on-line (wherehouse.com) at a decent price, so I bought it. I was sent this colorful 3-DVD box set from Manga (I think; there is no major logo anywhere, just “Manga” in small print by the copyright on box). It has all the episodes from the same Rhino version. It has a clear, hard plastic slipcase that goes over the digipak box. I saw no region code on it, but when I played it in my region 1 DVD player, it played fine. I didn’t see this available on Amazon or even listed in DVDaficionado.com. Anyone have any idea what this is? It looks like a very good quality release. I cannot imagine it being a boot.

the only official release in the US was the rhino version

Is there an e-mail address on it anywhere? Especially one for yahoo.com or hotmail.com? If there is, it is most likely a boot.

Any Chinese characters on it?

Interesting insight, littlefuzzy. Indeed it has an email address as you describe. This is the fine print line that seems to give it away: "Publish By Manga Animation Cartoon DVD Inc., E-mail:[email protected] Manufactured By Fansnear Animation Inc. Japan. Made in Japan." That was in very small print on the inside cover. Beyond their typo and the tell-tale email address, I really must admit this looks legit. I have never doubted a bootleg when I saw it, but this was the first one that made me unsure whether it was. It's really nice looking. It seemd to have fooled Wherehouse too, but I plan to take it back for a refund and get the Rhino version down the road. Boots are not my thing.

Wow thants so weird the Wherehouse would buy a bootleg from someone I know the store near me is real strict when it comes to buy backs, then again they are next to all the studios here in LA. I bought all my sets together on ebay for $250 shipped and the guy even threw in the movie dvd. The were all legit region 1 dvd box set. If I were you slowcloud I would send it back to them, maybe when you calll customer services they will give you a giftcard for the trouble they have caused.

Well, I reported the boot DVD. Wherehouse refunded me in full and actually let me keep it. The customer service rep. was suprised it slipped past them. Might as well hang on to it as a curiosity. I did ask if there was any reward for uncovering such a thing, they said maybe Rhino would give a reward, but I doubt they would care now since Sony got the rights.