Another update (I hope nobody minds, this is a progress trail for me and hopefully it may help someone else).
The problem still seems to be limited to Windows 8 and 8.1. I have built fresh master images of Windows 7, 8.0 and 8.1. Windows 7 has no issues, but Windows 8 and 8.1 master images will not join the domain. They will however join the domain if their snapshot is a workgroup member.
I also tried the recommendations in the KB found here but no luck. I am now going to log a ticket with VMware support.
