Comic Review

[Commander Megatron]

PERCHANCE TO DREAM

Along the same lines as the aspects of evil this one. We have a mystery Transformer searching through the Autobots Ark, trying te reactivate Autobot sin stasis pods so he can turn them into his slaves. His first choice is..

Part 1, Prowl: who is dreaming of a previous battle. Runamuck and Runabout are wrecking the place and he chases after them. They battle at a [petrol station and Prowl stops the it exploding. He chases them again and they cause a massive pile up! Optimus Prime arrives and admonishes Prowl for his part in the chaos.

Part 2, Ironhide Our mystery 'bot taps into the dreams of his subjects and watches them. Ironhide dreams of a human incident he was caught up in. He saves a load of hostages from getting killed. The police storm in and nearly blow it on him. He gives them a rollicking for it.

part 3, Sunstreaker He and jazz are on a covert mission to scout my new base. Thundercracker and Skywarp see them and poor Jazz is wasted by Skywarp. Sunstreaker runs away and leads the Decepticons to the military base that is camped outside Decepticon HQ. The army attack them and Meghatron calls the two jets back. Sunstreaker is relieved that he hasn't received as much damage as he thought.

Part 4, Wheeljack Snooping around the old GB blackrock aerospace plant where Shockwave made Jetfire. Ravage finds him and tells him he knows what he is loking for. They make a deal. The Decepticons want Jetfire back, Ravage has a mind device that wuill return Jetfire to the Decepticons. If Wheeljack does it then ravage will give him the information he needs to repair all the Autobots that are deactivated. Wheeljack doesn't do it and Ravage destroyed teh Aerospace plant anyway.

part 5, Silverbolt Menasor is attacking an oil refinery and the Aerialbots attack him. When they merge into Superion their minds meet and the rest of the team find out that Silverbolt is afraid of heights. As Superion he unloads his rage on Menasor, then the mind reading bug malfunctions. the 5 re-activated Autobots know they will have a visitor...

Part 6 The 5 Autobots stand ready as Galvatron arrives!!! they battle him and he ensnares Wheeljack and Prowl. His plan doesn't work and they capture him and put him to "sleep" as he dreams of being obliterated by Rodimus Prime.

Part 7 Nightbeat and Siren find a dead Autobot on a beach. Of course Nightbeat investigates. There are two others, Hosehead and Horsepower who flee when they see the 2 Autobots thinking it is their hunters partners. Siren traps them and when they realise that they are Autobots Thunderwing arrives and kills Horsepower.

Part 8 Thunderwing is sent to Earth to kill 3 released Autobot prisoners, his final test in his bid to become Decepticon leader. Hosehead and Siren escape and he follows them back to Nighbeat. The 3 Autobots use their heads and defeat him for now...

Part 9 This jumps ahead a little bit....
Thunderwing has a secret weapon and lurse teh Micromaster battle patrol into a trap. He needs to dissect them and find out the miniature fuel and Hydraulic systems that they possess. Emirate Xaaron orders the other teams to destroy the battle patrol so the Decepticons don't find out their secrets.

Part 10 The Off Road Patrol, Race Car patrol and Rescue Patrol are sent to carry out Xaarons orders. they don't and decide to try and free the battle patrol. The Decepticon Air Strike Patrol are active and the race car patrol get past them and they all escape. Roadhandler turns himself over to Emirate Xaaron and expects to be executed for not following orders. Xarron tells him its fine and he, not Roadhandler who is the one who is in error.

Part 11 Thunderwing is back!! He is on the search for the 3 Headmasters. Ruckus has a team of bots looking for him and they head down to get him. Thunderwing attacks them and they battle. He then takes command of Ruckus team and tells them they are going to attack the Ark!!

Part 12 They attack the Ark and board it!! The Autobots vastly out number them and in the end the Decepticons retreat. The Decepticon High Council name Thunderwing as the new Decepticon leader. he swears that a new era of Decepticon greatness will beginm with him in command.

Part 13 Superion is on the rampage and is wrecking the place. Grimlock, Prowl and Springer get the help of a human newspaper reporter to stop him. He has to take the cerebro shell out of Superions head and he will get an exclusive tour of Autobase and an interview with earthforce Leader Grimlock. He gets into Superion and removes the shell.

Part 14 The human gets his scoop, but teh Decepticons have other ideas on how he will write it. The Stunticons attack Autobase and kidnap the human. This was the penultimate comic of the UK series.

Part 15 The Autobots give chase and try and get the human back. They dispose of the Stunticons and rescue him. Bombshell however planted a cerebro shell in him as he writes the story it says.

Yesterday I was thrust into the heart of the giant robot camp, where the evil faction of Transformers known as the Autobots held me prisoner, no doubt to blackmail the government...

That was it, the U.K. comic ended with that statement and the caption below saying

THE WAR GOES ON...



It still holds the recoprd of being the longest running toy based comic in the UK. 1985-1991. A very impressive run for any comic never mind a toy comic.

Next up

GENERATION 2: DARK DESIGNS

[Commander Megatron]

GENERATION 2: DARK DESIGNS

Part 1: We mett Jhiaxus for the first time and he is like a cross between Lord Straxus and Shockwave, a scary thought in itself. The Decepticons have attacked a planet and a crew of Autobots, under the command of Grimlock attack them and save the planet. Hound and Blades argue and Grimlock tells the to shut-up and to remember they are the Autobots.


Jhiaxus gets more and more frustrated at the Autobots attempts to thwart his plans to colonize little Cybertrons all over the galaxy. He captures the Autobots and tells them the war is over and that they are all one race now. They manage to escape Jhiaxus although Prime is getting visions of something horribly wrong in the Universe All this and Megatron is back!

Part 2 Cobra Commander had captured the Ark, in return for the transformers knowledge of weaponry and technology Megatron made a deal with him to give him a new body. Which he did and Megatron betrayed him and he ended up with nothing. Megatron took the Ark and left. Spike is aboard the Ark and reactivates Fortress Maximus, Megatron delivers a fatal blow... Max sacrifices himself in a vain attempt to stop Megatron. The Cobra are after Hotspot, they want to strip him and learn the secrets of Cybertronian technology. He destroys himself to stop them getting it.

Part 3 Optimus Prime battles Jhiaxus and Jhiaxus does some severe damage to him. The Autobots are battling Jhiaxus troops and doing well against them. Optimus convinces Jhiaxus that there is "more than meets the eye" with the current sitiation. They find a substance that reacts to hate as they fight and the only way to stop its reaction is to stop fighting. Jhiaxus allows the Autobots to leave.

He returns to his flagship "Twilight" and starts to slip into the madness of the tyrant he once was. the story shifts to Bludgeon and his decepticons, he wants Optimus Prime and the matrix. With this in mind he sets a course for Earth to lure him out into the open.

Part 4 Prime is dreaming and is woken by Kup to be told that Grimlock has taken a raiding party to attack Jhiaxus!! They get on board his shuttle only to be met by a code 5 alert. They run off the shuttle and every warrior on Jhiaxus flagship is waiting in front of them, with a gun pointed at them. they are not to be executed but taken to the Liege Maximo, as Jhiaxus put it Grimlock may wish he was executed instead.

Prime attacks the prison ship and frees Grimlock and the Autobots captured on it. Grimlock thinks he is in trouble but Prime puts him in charge of the Autobots until he returns from Cybertron.

Part 5 Bludgeon and his Decepticons attack planet Earth in hopes of luring Prime and the Matrix out of hiding. He fails with his plan and ends up facing Megatron and Starscream instead!! Prime is on Cybertron and witnesses the bio-morphing of the Transformers race. One into two, two into four. The Transformers had become hellbent on conquest and colonization, Prime realises he has to restore order.

Had Prime stayed in his limbo for a second longer he would have seen the energy being released, tinged with darkness and heading to Earth. On Earth, Megatron and Bludgeon battle for control of the Decepticons. Megatron takes control once more when he destroys Bludgeon.

He returns to Bludgeons warworld and is impressed by the volume of work entailed in it. On Earth the Decepticons are playing havoc with the humans on the lawn of The White House!! Rumble and Frenzy are re-animating Darkwing as optimus Prime arrives on Earth.

Part 6 Prime arrives and the Decepticons attack! Megatron and Prime battle and Megatron is to much for him and he batters Prime and takes the matrix from him. The Decepticons leave after Grimlock and his squad arrive, still with teh Matrix. the tangible mass that left Cybertron is called the swarm and strips everything down to its barest form when it touches it. The real battle has just begun...

Next Up Generation 2: RAGE IN HEAVEN

[Commander Megatron]

In the UK the first 2 chapters of the Generation 2 story was different than its US counterpart. Simple because of the GI Joe tie in. It was deemed unsuitable fo rthe UK market so the introduction two stories were retold as thus...

Part 1 Bludgeon and his Decepticons have attacked Earth in an attempt to lure Optimus Prime out into the open. (Unlike the result he got in Part 5 of the US story he gets him here.) Grimlock had sent him a message to come to Earth. Bludgeons Decepticons attack London England and Prime arrives on Earth and finds Bludgeon. They battle and holds his own against Prime.

The battle is very good and we see Bludgeon use his powers of metallikato against Optimus Prime. He pins Prime against the wall with his sword and tells him what he is going to do to him. Prime loses the head and beats Bludgeon into unconsciousness. Only to turn around and be face to face with Megatron....

Part 2 Just in case you hadn't guessed Megatron and Prime battle. Megatron wastes him and tells Prime, as he tries to get up...

"Forget it Prime. This is the one you don't win. there's nothing you can doand no-one to help you. Just lie back...... AND DIE!"

He is saved by the Decepticon Stormtroopers!!! They attack Megatron and tell him that his time is over. The Autobot reinforcements arrive and Megatron retreats. Grimlock tells Prime that the problem is a lot bigger than it seems and explains about the little Cybertrons all through the galaxy. Grimlock wants to strike immediately but Prime says no.

[Roar]

Okay.......I haven't read much of the Transformers comics continuity so please forgive me ignorance.

I can't believe there was actually a Decepticon leader who didn't want to destroy the Autobots when he had a chance but instead tells them that they are one race?

Did he mean as equals?

If so it sounds like a better deal than Megatron would offer. Jhiaxus sounds cool and like a more savvy leader too.

Wonderful job on both your profiles and the breakdown of the comic book stories, Commander!

[Commander Megatron]

Thanks Roar, that was very kind of you to say that.


Jhiaxus was a tyrant. He buried his instincts under an icy demeanor and tried to forget about them. He failed and returns to his baser instincts in the next instalment entitled...

Rage In Heaven


The second generation of Transformers left Cybertron, feeling no attachment to it like their predecessors. There was no Autobot/Decepticon they were Cybertronian and were mean't to go forth and colonize.

He believed that the first generation were relics, Dinosaurs that fought a pointless war for one planet. Anything less than a Transformer was to be wiped out and their planet colonized into a little Cybertron.

Definitely a better offer than they would have gotten from Megatron. Having said that, the second installment is still to be posted. Will do it this week..

[Commander Megatron]

GENERATION 2: RAGE IN HEAVEN

Part 1: The Decepticon head to Tykos in search Rheanimum gas. It makes metal super dense and resistant to damage. Starscream starts to realise that his days are numbered and decides

"...to get in there first!"

Jhiaxus decepticons attack Megatron and his Decepticons. The battle is brief as the second Generation of Transformers are a lot more powerful than there ancestors. Megatron takes on Jhiaxus and Jhiaxus batters him.Blasting him and leaving him to drop to the planets surface below. Jhiaxus was in error, Megatron lived.

Lying in his repair bay Prime laments the past. He hopes that Megatron will come and see him....which he does and he is in bad shape.


Part 2 Jhiaxus has taken to overthrowing Worlds to lure out the Autobots so he can destroy them. Prime and Megatron agree to a truce and join forces against the Second Generation Transformers. The Autobots go to save the planet that Jhiaxus has attacked and are getting overrin when the Decepticons enter the fray and save them. Prime and Megatron are in a meeting when Soundwave interrupts them to tell them that Starscream is missing.

The swarm as it is called attacks planets as well and as Wheeljack put it

"...Structurally desatbilized at molecular level.."

It attacks a planet the Jhiaxus Decep... erm...Cybertronians are on and wipes out a load of them. Starscream approaches Jhiaxus and tells him that he will give him Prime and Megatron on a plate for a suitably eminent position in his new Decepticon hierarchy. Do I need to spell out what happens next?

Part 3 The Cybertronians attack the united Autobots and Decepticons and when they seem to be winning, Jhiaxus calls in all his batallions.... The order is given for them to scatter and regroup elsewhere. Starscream is on the Warworld looking for the Matrix and finds it. The swarm attacks three of Jhiaxus ships and wipees them out in minutes and heads to earth.

The Warworld attacks more of Jhiaxus Cybertronians and allows Megatron and Optimus Prime on board. razorclaw notices that some of Megatron's new troops are getting a little too comfortable with the alliance and makes a mental note to keep an eye on them. Starscream is now the warworld with help from the Creation Matrix itself!!!!!

Starscream tells Prime and Megatron that he is going to pay them back for all the humiliation and pain the two of them have wreaked upon him over the years. He tears int the Cybertronians and lays waste to them. little does he realise yet but the Matrix is turning him good!! Jhiaxus rages over th e loss of the warworld and continues to send troops to their death at Starscreams hands. Prime contacts Jhiaxus and he sees him blowing up the whole of San Francisco!! Starscream attacks theTwilight and stops him from doing it again. Now he realises he is being turned good as the Swarm arrives!!!!!

Part 4 The swarm once again attacks Jhiaxus fleet and kills 16,000 of Jhiaxus troops. starscream and Prime have agreed on a course of action and Starscream gives him the matrix back. Prime goes to speak to Jhiaxus and is nearly killed by him!! Megatron allows Starscream to live so he can load teh Rheanimum onto a ship so they can head to earth and help the utobots and Decepticons that are there. The Swarm breaks through the Twilights shields and destroys the ship and Jhiaxus. Megatron coats himself with teh rheanimum and heads to Earth without Starscream.

Part 5 Megatron left Starscream to assist Prime with whatever he needs. Grimlock and Soundwave and their forces are just waiting on the swarm destroying them. They battle against it but resistance is futile. Starscream leaves and gives prime a canister of Rheanimum, he doesn't use it but instead sacrifices himself.

The Swarm tears optimus Prime apart, the Matrix keeps his conscious alive for a few seconds more and he instills Primus ideals into it. It works. The Swarm, once a force for chaos and destruction was know a force for life. Its parting gift was to recreate Optimus Prime and instill a new era into the minds of the remaining Transformers.

The Final page shows us the Liege Maximo. A giant being who states that Megatron is not so much an ancestor but more of an Offspring.

The End.....?


Next up, a look at the MTMTE Profile Books.

[Commander Megatron]

The More Than Meets the Eye Profile Books.

As Sixshot has stated elsewhere, these are where I get the profiles for the Transformers from that are used in the Iacon database thread. These and the Transformers Universe books.

Part 1 An introduction at the start that is short and to the point. There are also some excellent unused cover art material as well. It starts with the Aerialbots and Air raid and finishes with the Pretender Monsters combined form of Monstructor. It gives everything that I type up plus there sub-group ie, Pretender, Micromaster Sports car Patrol, Dinobot etc. There is excellent art work of all modes, pretenders show their shell, robot and alt mode. the Decepticon pretenders come across really well in the art work.

For anyone that has recently bought the new released books you will of course notice (and i know that Rumble has) there are references to see Pretenders, see Powermasters these are referred to in the second book. Also if you look at the index page at the back you will see the pages are numbered up to 508. This is because the second book starts on page 256.

Part 2 Starts again with an introduction and an art gallery of covers. It kicks off with the Protectobots and Blades first and finishes with Vector Sigma. The references from the first book are here and it explains everything in detail. They are using the core elements of the Transformers concept and developing a seperate continuity and timeline. The only problem with the book is this....

The Combiner teams are all put in their alphabetical order. It works alphabetically, so S is Stunticons, P is Protectobots then it gives you the facts on the teams and their combined form at the end. In these individual "team" profiles it is done alphabetically again. Blades, First Aid, Groove... you get the idea. But, the likes of the Micromaster teams are all seperate. So you have to flick through both books to gather up their information. The Dinobots are together, granted I can understand that but then why not have the cassettes altogether?

They also didn't do the classic Actionmasters either. Prime, Megatron, Prowl, Shockwave, yet on one of the unused covers Fist Fight is there to see and he belongs to Shockwave. That is the only minor problem, nothing to put off anyone buyng these books. I still drool over them and I have had mine for 4 years!!!

Next up, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

[Sixshot]

I'm interested to hear your review on the Ultimate Guide as I've been mulling over whether 2 get it or not, for the past year,

[Commander Megatron]

I will post it up tomorrow for you Sixshot, but I think it is worth it if you can get it for a reasonable price. 10-15 GBP.

[Commander Megatron]

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

An excellent book that touches on every aspect of Transformerdom from G1 through to the Dreamwave comics. G1 is cobered mostly with 60 pages of information on Characters, Toys, cartoons, and comics. It doesn't go into great detail with anything that we find in proper toy guides but is an excellent read however.

Then we go to the G2 wave of Toys and Comics, a mere 6 pages but with mostly re-releases of G1 toys there is info on the other toys that weren't G1.

Beast Wars. The format stays the same through the whole book, it touches upon the characters, the toys and the cartoon show. Beast wars is covred in 16 pages. It also covers Fuzors and Transmetals as well.

Beast Machines are up next, same as before. Characters, cartoon and toys get the run down.

Up next were the Robots in Disguise. It wasn't explained in any great detail, a bit of history on where they came from and how and a look at the toys. No comics or cartoon mentioned. Though I know there was a cartoon around 2001.

Transformers Armada and ebergon were up next. a look at the toys and the cartoon and the usual brief history are mentioned.

The Dreamwave comics were next, generation 1, The war Within, Armada and Energon.

All in all an excellent read. Mine cost me 15 gbp, the price for the US on the inside cover is $24.99. Sixshot if you can find it in good condition for around the $24.99 I would pick it up. A lot of interesting facts and pointers in here!

Next up, The Transformers Identification and Price Guide by Mark Bellomo.

For anyone who is interested he is the first interview I did in the TFL interview thread. A very interesting read, Mark was very open with his answers.

[Sixshot]

I can actually get it for $17 USD, ! So that's a steal then, ! I'll get it, right away,

[Commander Megatron]

I can actually get it for $17 USD, ! So that's a steal then, ! I'll get it, right away,

Did you get it Sixshot?

[Sixshot]

Not yet, unfortunately, ! It's at a B&N in Delaware, so I haven't been in a while, but if it's been there this long, .....

[Commander Megatron]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!

[Commander Megatron]

TRANSFORMERS IDENTIFICATION AND PRICE GUIDE

Mark Bellomo has done an excellent job in presenting all the generation 1 toys in this book which is so much more than just an identification and price guide. The book is 253 pages long and all the toys are photographed in colour along with their accessories. The book begins with the series 1 Optimus Prime from 1984 and finishes with the series 7 Neutro-Fusion Tank with Megatron from 1990. Every Transformer through the 7 series of Generation 1 is profiled. Even the (S.T.A.R.S.) Autobot Command Centre which was only available through Hasbro Direct is profiled. Each Transformer is profiled with its function, motto, original tech spec biography and tech spec ability score. The author also gives the reader more facts about the robot's character and any interesting facts about the toy itself.

With the book being an American publication all the monetary values are in U.S. dollars. But this in no way detracts from what is a quite remarkable work of reference for anyone who is a fan and/or collector of the G1 toys. It is an essential read for any TF collector.

Also, don't forget that there is the Warmans pocket guide to G1 Transformers. It is the same as above but only covers the name and motto of the toys. No facts or anything like that, it does however show the alternate forms. It is still a great book to have and I owned it before I got the ID book.

The smaller book has 508 pages and starts with Optimus and finishes with Megatron and his Neutro Fusion tank.The first few pages are introductions and advice how to use the book. Then, pages 10-36 are a text only price list for speed. Another fantastic read also. Not only that but Mark has told me that he is planning on doing a new book and adding the European exclusives to it.

Next Up, The Unofficial Guide to Transformers 1980's-1990-'s

[Sixshot]

Thanks, Megs, ! Me 2,

[Commander Megatron]

The Unofficial Guide to Transformers 1980's-1990-'s


This pictoral guide is a wonderful companion of any fan of the Transformers toys. It's collection of pictures from across the years, from the original Transformers of 1984 up to the Beast Wars: Transmetal/Fuzor series provides fans with an easy way of identifying toys: the additional pictures of boxed toys and the wonderful miscellanious section means there are several priceless relics of the Transformers buried away inside this book. There are still several problems with it. For a start, there are several inexplicable ommisions: where are Grandslam and Raindance, Slugfest and Overkill, Pretender Starscream, any of the Action Masters? (OK, we could argue that they aren't /really/ Transformers, but they had the logo, they had the characters and they appear in the damn price list: four of their vehicles are shown, but no actual Action Masters present!) One could argue that after all these years the toys are hard to find, but ironically it is mainly later toys that are missing.

Also, there are one or two errors and somewhat odd conventions. Sizzle and Fizzle , the red and blue Sparkabotsare reffered to as "Sizzle and Guzzle": Guzzle, the tank, is in fact nowhere to be found.

Though it's not exactly an "error", the fact this tries to sell itself as a price guide, with sealed and opened prices throughout, is kind of pointless to me. Within no time at all the prices in the book become invalid and this is too expensive a work for people to constantly rebuy to get the latest info. However, a rough comparison of different prices (e.g. "A Fort Max costs x times more than a Hot Rod) can be done with the book, and as such can help as a rough guide to buyers.

Overall, this is still a good book for Transformer fans and can be an asset to remember "what's his name", but most of the info is already available on the net anyway and the errors & ommisions dotted throughout are a pest. All told, its still worth a look if you come across it cheap enough.

Next up, The Unofficial Guide To Japanese and International Transformers.

[Commander Megatron]

When I first seen this I was a bit wary of buying this unofficial guide given that it is quite expensive. However, it more than makes up for it in the scope of whats covered here and some beautiful photographs. What the book does lack, is any indepth coverage as to why Europe and Japan got exclusive lines. The Japanese series Headmasters,Masterforce and Victory all rebooted the transformers franchise in the east, and made some sense out of the line's dafter ideas (pretenders, anyone?) yet there's no discussion of why these ideas were not brought back to the West.

Certainly waning sales would have been a key factor but we don't get any explanation. Likewise with the gimmick heavy 1992 european line - which introduced characters and concepts that would eventually form the backbone of Transformers:Generation 2. As a die hard fan, I would have liked a bit more from the author on the reasons for these diversions from the core US range and it would have made for a more satisfying read.

However as the breadth of photography covering these admittedly rare toys is outstanding.there are some spelling and typo errors in the book as well which also detract from the experience. Overall, a nice readable reference book, and if like me you are unfamiliar with the Japanese line and are interested in a bit of knowledge to have at hand buy the book. Or talk to Decepticon Lieutenant Commander Deszaras, he knows more than the book says. Only problem with that is there isn't any pictures.

[Commander Megatron]

Here it is Ratchet!!