ReBoot: The Trias Effect (NEW 2025 VHS Capture)

In October of 1994, when ReBoot's 4th episode, "Medusa Bug" first aired on ABC, production was behind schedule and the 5th episode was not going to be ready for the following Saturday. ABC put the show on hiatus and Mainframe created several short segments to air in place of new episodes for the next several weeks while they got caught up on production. These segments, known collectively as "The Trias Effect" (named after ABC executive Jenny Trias) were only aired once, including the alternate ending to "Medusa Bug", and have never been included on any home media release. An incomplete, degraded VHS quality version of The Trias Effect has floated around online for a couple decades and, until recently, one of the segments was considered completely lost media.
At the end of 2023, Reddit user "u/JnAnthony" shared their own recording of The Trias Effect, which included the missing segment and was much better quality than the old copy. Since then, JnAnthony got in contact with us and sent us their tape so that we could get a better quality capture from it.
Until we are successful in locating the Trias Effect segments in Mainframe's archives, this will be the best quality version of these segments that exists.
Special thanks to u/JnAnthony who initially shared this footage and sent us his tape.
VHS capture by Jacob Weldon
Video cleanup by Bryan Baker
To learn more about The Trias Effect and ReBoot's production struggles, watch Episode 3 of ReBoot ReWind, our documentary series: • ReBoot Rewind S1 Ep 03

[@bryanmakesstuff]

We're so lucky that this tape hadn't degraded further. It's no D1, but it's a massive improvement over what we were able to source before. Enjoy!

[@T_Black_Lodge]

My thoughts exactly. This is preservation in the truest sense.

[@Aeoncalcos91]

This is amazing! Having watched ReBoot primarily on YTV growing up, I never got to see the ABC Trias Effect promos, but I'd always heard about them. Thanks for this piece of history.

[@crazyrabbits]

Megabyte silently jamming to the Superhuman Samurai end theme is such a mood.

[@blingVolcano]

Literally never heard of these shorts! They never aired in Canada and the wikipedia page for ReBoot has no mention of them. When I was growing up, it seemed like nobody around me gave a damn about ReBoot, now in 2024-2025 people are resurrecting this old show and discovering how awesome it was! Excellent find!

[@Datalanche]

Looks really good for a 30+ year old VHS tape. :) I remember these well, there was actually some kind of glitch on my ABC station where the first Trias Effect clip played with music only, no voice, so when Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad started, I was quite confused and not happy! lol. Thankfully I kept tuning in and ReBoot finally returned.

[@rockhyde7775]

That’s awesome to see the Trias Effect recovered in all of its entirety! And better yet, higher quality! I’ve been wanting this to be unearthed for so long. Also, the scene in the anime Problem Children aka Mondaiji Tachi (the full title is a mouthful, hard to memorize) in episode 5 reminded me of the Medusa Bug where Laeus’s lackeys including Asuka and my girl You Kasukabe were turned to stone. But not to worry, my boy Sakamaki Izayoi saved the day. Brought that up since it reminded me of that episode.

[@rockhyde7775]

I’m also thinking of doing a remaster of my first full episode edit I did back in December 2016 and including the Trias Effect as a bonus.

[@GameTimeWhy]

So excited for the blue ray special edition.

[@mazgazine1]

This channel is amazing, I'm so glad this is getting put somewhere forever. Maybe porting those amazing remasters to 4k youtube is in the future? I'll still buy a box set but putting it on youtube means a exposure right?? I wish more people would check this channel..

[@TokuWaffle]

Seeing Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad in there was such a jumpscare. Never even thought there could be a crossover between them before.

[@KronoGarrett]

Honestly, it makes you want to toss elements of Gridman/SSSS, Reboot, Digimon, and MMBN into a blender, just to see what comes out...

[@TokuWaffle]

@KronoGarrett well maybe that's exactly what Mainframe did with The Guardian Code

[@KronoGarrett]

@ It was kind of a fiasco, though.

[@AutovoltGTS]

hilariously Tetsu Inada (Alexis Kerib from SSSS Gridman) is also one of the Japanese dub voices of Megabyte.

[@fakeo]

@@TokuWaffle also zixx

[@waltersanchez2623]

Its crazy how full-bodied Shirley Millner’s voice is in these clips. Obviously she’s older now so her voice isn’t what it was - but my god her voice is fantastic.

[@KronoGarrett]

@2:58 Oh right, Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad (the localization of Gridman) was contemporary with Reboot! Well, that's certainly a meta moment.

[@Kohakuchan]

This is really cool to see! Honestly I didn't even know about this bit of Reboot history.

[@PHUZface1]

recovered lost media!

[@VanguardSupreme]

Such -a- classic episode(s). Early ReBoot is vastly underrated.

[@aldoboeddha38]

Awesome, Many Thanks. Keep up the Good Work.

[@RossJr8604]

I remember these from when ReBoot would air on ABC Saturday Morning in the 90s. This is definitely some rare media!

[@GWKTM]

And in better quality than the previous rip(s)

[@TeamBelmont91]

At last! Now, all that seemingly remains is ReBoot the Ride 2, unless there is any more lost ReBoot material that exists out there somewhere...?

[@baddabaddabaddaswing]

Was there any better footage found from the ReBoot PS1 game?

[@bryanmakesstuff]

@@baddabaddabaddaswing Perhaps... A bit of unrelated history: Back when I tried to get the footage on the Shout! DVDs, we encountered a licensing issue with EA. Even though it was 2011, and the game was long out of print, EA refused to even release any footage stating "If they want to see it, they can buy the game." It was a really odd response given EA wouldn't make any money on resales, but it was a barrier.

[@Eidlones]

@@bryanmakesstuff That's a such a bizarre response. Altho, this is EA we're talking about...

[@TeamBelmont91]

​@@bryanmakesstuffJust a friendly reminder: You do not hate companies like Ubisoft, ActiBlizzard - or in this case especially - Electronic Arts, hard enough. You think you do, but you don't hate them enough.

[@bryanmakesstuff]

@@TeamBelmont91 "Challenge Everything" really has a different meaning nowadays...

[@noodles2459]

Oh my God seeing Grid man aka SSSS woth kilokhan and megabyte was amazing.

[@northernplacecorporation]

*Kilokahn

[@NeoTechni]

You should get a DomesdayDuplicator, it rips VHS from the RF source in the VCR, rather than it's video output

[@webbox100]

Megabyte and Kilokahn laughing together? Dude.

[@alexgeorge501]

3:11 Megabyte and Kilokahn laughing together?

[@DevinGates]

Of course Weldon helped. It was the least he could do after we got him the body his null state could drive.

[@SessleIsosceles]

I love this show from the bottom of my young child heart, growing up with this show was amazing, I own the dvd set but impatiently am awaiting the master taoes to be converted into UHD Blu-ray set , my credit card has never been more ready 😂 same with Beast Wars

[@Willcollective]

That was a scary couple of seconds!

[@cartoonfanboy9139]

I always through Reboot rocked, but this is ridiculous!

[@redratcrawford]

that would have made for a good episode alone.

[@charleschamp9826]

I do recall reading that there were ReBoot bumpers were Megabyte talked about Superhero Samurai Syber Squad and specifically Kilokahn, as well as other shows. But I could never find a solid answer on just how many there were and other than SSSS no agreement on what shows these bumpers were for. Is that SSSS segment the only bumper like this or could there be more in the Mainframe archives?

[@bryanmakesstuff]

It's the only one we've found. This tape was an individual's recording as we haven't found anything "official" as of yet. Since it was a temporary production (You can find out more about it in the documentary), it may not have been archived as aggressively as other media. We may come across more as we move forward, but we're currently preserving what we can get before it's lost forever.

[@noodles2459]

Super human samurai syber squad/gridman got an anime sequal years later. Maybe we need a 2d reboot sequal? Who knows.

[@TokuWaffle]

@@noodles2459 nah Reboot has to be CGI

[@KronoGarrett]

@@TokuWaffle Yeah, with a very synthetic/stylized look. I do wonder how more modern hair/cloth physics might work out...

[@ThatMovieGuy90s]

It's odd that this one didn't come with the D1 tapes. I wonder why?

[@TokuWaffle]

Description says they just haven't located it. Maybe it's still in there.

[@ThatMovieGuy90s]

@@TokuWaffle I know, I read the description. I'm just wodnering why it wasn't with the other archived D1 tapes if everything was in Mainframe Studios. Why would that one tape be somewhere else?

[@ReBootRewindDoc]

@@ThatMovieGuy90s From what we understand, each segment was recorded to an individual tape. In the collection of ReBoot tapes we've logged, there is a tape for segment #5 (the last one) and a tape of Medusa Bug with the alt ending, but we haven't located the other segments yet. It's entirely possible that the other tapes got put in a different box in the archive, or they've just been lost to time. We'll continue to investigate.

[@Calypso694]

is the FPS higher? it looks great but feels "off".

[@blingVolcano]

ReBoot was originally mastered in 25fps, the DVD Mainframe edition was mastered in 24fps, but the original broadcasts would have been in 60/30 for NTSC. Then factor in analog VHS recording which regularly suffers from degradation and inconsistent frame timing. There has never not been frame rate chicanery with this show lol

[@r4zi3lgintoro65]

needs domesday capture

[@ReBootRewindDoc]

@@r4zi3lgintoro65 we’re looking into that

[@jackflak]

Nice ..

[@maxcardun]

Yeah that's ABC for you always screwing around with ReBoot's production.

[@SegaNintendoGuy64]

I still prefer the ending of the episode that we got.