Ideon is a masterpiece. I it to ignoring it for years because the robot looks stupid and the theme song wasn't super. But sitting down and actually watching the show is a whole other thing. The robot design is irrelevant. They did learn from it for future works. But the main thing is the story and the actors who pull it off to perfection. It is an absolutely stunning series that laid the foundation for everything that followed. It took me decades of perspective to appreciate Ideon for what it was.

Good blankety blank luck finding the Discotek release. It sold out instantly and was not reprinted. All you will find are scalper prices on eBay.

The big problems with your theory are that Gundam machines generally do not transform. Only a handful ever have and it was never a major element. Secondly, Gundam machines are piloted by people. Meanwhile, The Transformers are sentient machines that do not have pilots. Gundam stories involve factions of human forces. Transformers are always robots fighting robots.

So they have almost nothing in common and nobody would ever confuse the two universes. Well almost nobody. You do you.

Tooooobyyyy I know you are here Toby!

It's terrifyingly brilliant. I was shocked that it made it onto American TV given the astounding loss of life. Certainly thousands, maybe millions. It is phenomenally brutal.

There was also an episode of "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon which was a direct homage to Island of Magic. They used the same flute and a similar villain. If the viewer understands the references, it's a very scary episode. Way way beyond anything normally seen on kid's TV.