|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 18, 2017 18:32:36 GMT
One found it's way to me and then back to Toy-Fu.
Andy
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Feb 21, 2017 8:11:23 GMT
30 Years Ago This Week: Issue #102Fallen Angel, Part Two. In which Galvatron's big fight with the Dinobots is held up by several pages of exposition from commentators Blaster and Shockwave, who take the opportunity to recap the story so far and explain how all this will fit into the US continuity. In a shocking twist, Galvatron then runs away so he doesn't have to defeat his own future troops, and Professor Morris expresses his undying love for Swoop in an endearing conclusion to a plot that's rumbled on for almost 60 issues. Elsewhere, Transformation has forgotten about the impending Action Force launch and turns its attention to announcing Thundercats instead, on sale from March 16th; Marmite one-ups Heinz's recently advertised Invaders club by revealing fans of the yeast based spread can join the 'Marmiteers' and get a free hat in exchange for 16oz's worth of jar labels; and with the GI Joe Action Force back up strip reaching its conclusion a week before the new comic goes on sale, the 'next week' box announces that it will be replaced by the 'awesome' INHUMANOIDS. 
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Feb 21, 2017 8:15:24 GMT
I have googled, but cannot find a picture of the Marmite Hat. Which is a great shame.
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Feb 21, 2017 8:20:36 GMT
I never liked how they kept trying to shoehorn in the whole Galvatron is mad thing. It was never interesting
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 21, 2017 8:46:11 GMT
I wouldn't say shoehorn - as we are seeing in the current US material - Megatron is not exactly the model of sanity, so it makes sense that Galvatron, a future version of him would share that same madness. You would argue though that as Galvatron he seems to be more in control of it for the most part but when pushed that control can slip (something Furman would later revisit with Jhiaxus in G2).
Andy
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Feb 21, 2017 9:15:23 GMT
I've been looking at this from the point of view of the cartoon recently for Sunbow Sundays. I'm sure in that case it's just a simple plot device Dille put in that meant Galvatron is further divorced from Megatron, so when he finally gets back to his old troops there's no awkwardness about who they seem him as. If I was Soundwave the first thing I'd want to know is whether I'm talking to a new leader or the old one with a new face, and the madness angle means that conversation doesn't have to happen.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 21, 2017 12:44:24 GMT
I want a Marmite hat.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Feb 21, 2017 12:59:06 GMT
I do. I'm disappointed I can't even find evidence of what they looked like. Surely someone, somewhere joined the Marmiteers. Perhaps 16oz worth of labels was just too much Marmite to consume.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 1, 2017 7:04:12 GMT
30 Years Ago This Week: Issue #103Resurrection, Part One. In which Optimus leads the Cybertronian Autobots in a successful attack on the Decepticons, while on Earth, Perceptor's team learn the remaining Autobots believe their leader to be dead. In the opposing camp, Octane gets some page space for more Furman style flashback fun, and Lord Straxus initialises his plan to try and steal Megatron's body. Elsewhere, its finally the week that saw Action Force reach shops and by bagging issue two free with issue one ensured a two week on sale window for the launch; Grim Grams is replaced by a competition to win the newly released fourth Video Gems title - The Key To Vector Sigma and War Dawn; we're introduced to Herc Armstrong, leader of the Earth Corps team who feature in the new Inhumanoids back up strip; and on the back page Sooner Foods advertise new crispy bacon flavour Thundercats potato snacks. Thank heavens they weren't based on pigs. 
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 1, 2017 7:40:26 GMT
What a great issue, that Octane bit of one of the highlights of the series for me.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 1, 2017 8:16:00 GMT
Loved the Thundercats snacks.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 7, 2017 22:25:35 GMT
30 Years Ago This Week: Issue #104Resurrection, Part Two. In which Simon Furman carefully puts all the toys he's been playing with just where Bob Budianski needs them next week: Optimus teams up with Ultra Magnus to try and take down MegaStraxus; Ratbat takes advantage and sends all three (four?) to Earth using the space bridge; the Predacons comically turn up just after their quarry went the other way; and back on Earth, Megatron doesn't know who he is, Magnus doesn't know where he is, and Prime doesn't know what the Dickens is going on when he walks into his own tombstone. Little does he know. Elsewhere, it's busy week throughout with no space once again for Grim Grams. Transformation reveals that Captain Rik is hiding somewhere in the comic and finding him over the next three weeks will allow eagle-eyed readers to send off for a free Ricicles felt pen set; there's a competition to win one of a hundred pairs of Battle Beasts - on sale now in toy shops at the bargain price of £2.49 for a pack of two; and Action Force gets a full two page photo-comic advert to promote the new Dragonfly Assault Coptors as they take on some Cobra F.A.N.G.S. 
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 7, 2017 22:26:12 GMT
One of my fave covers from the 332. Absolutely love that. Another one I got signed by Furman & Senior when I had the chance.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 8, 2017 8:00:27 GMT
Captain Rik must be found!
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 8, 2017 19:38:56 GMT
I have looked! I can't find the bugger anywhere!
I realised actually - if he's hidden in the strip art, does that mean he's also in the scans used for the Classics UK reprints? and the Hachette books? He is allegedly in #104-106, but the other two issues are obviously US reprints.
Here are the questions for the Battle Beasts competition (I so want some Battle Beasts now. You don't know HOW much I want some Battle Beasts):
Name the following Transformers with elemental links:
1. The Protectobot Special Team member who you'd call if there was a fire.
2. The Decepticon cassette character who can slice through wood
3. The Mini Autobot who can race over water as well as land!
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 8, 2017 19:40:38 GMT
Were there ever any air Battle Beasts? I suppose that breaks the rock/paper/scissors nature of the game.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 8, 2017 20:37:06 GMT
Name the following Transformers with elemental links: 1. The Protectobot Special Team member who you'd call if there was a fire. 2. The Decepticon cassette character who can slice through wood 3. The Mini Autobot who can race over water as well as land! 1: Hotspot. 2: Buzzsaw. 3: Seaspray. -ralph |
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 8, 2017 21:16:33 GMT
When I get as far as the issue with the answers I will verify yours.
I will not rest until I find Captain Rik.
|
|
|
|
Post by Benn on Mar 8, 2017 22:44:44 GMT
A quest for the Ages!
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 14, 2017 20:17:34 GMT
30 Years Ago This Week: Issue #105Afterdeath, Part One. In which Ethan Zachary is working late playing games on his amazing Spectramax 1000 when Megatron and the Combaticons show up outside, intent on stealing the Hydrothermocline machine he's working on. Meanwhile, Wheeljack reverse engineers the bug implanted in Optimus Prime by Bombshell fourteen issues previously and listens in on the Decepticon plan. Prime takes the Protectobots to head off Megatron, but instead of flattening the research complex with SPECIAL TEAMS action, Ethan suggests the two sides compete in the virtual world of his game. The leaders agree, but Megatron adds the caveat that the loser in the game will also die in real life. Elsewhere, Captain Rik is again at large in the comic and this week gets his own one page strip, in which he appears to defeat the blandly named 'Space Aliens' using the power of condoms. No, really. Grim Grams is absent again due to the Action Force advert incursion, and both Transformation and the 'next week' box can't do enough to spell out the fact that in seven days, SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE. 
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 14, 2017 20:36:07 GMT
I realised this is a significant moment for me and the comic, and then that actually, it isn't. I think Afterdeath is the first issue I owned as an American comic before the UK version came out, although that might have been Decepticon Graffiti. So there was me thinking, oh, it must have been about now when I started going to the Central Hall Westminster comic marts, but then remembered due to cover dates and reprint delays over here that would actually have been the previous August/September. I reckon it was my friend at the time who bought Decepticon Graffiti and I remember thinking it was silly spending cash on a comic I'd get in the UK edition in time, and then caved very quickly afterwards so I could join him being a know it all. That for me made the UK stories even more special - the weeks when US stuff was being reprinted, I'd already read it from hereon in.
Which extrapolated tells me that I was beginning to experience the world of American import comics and back issue buying in September 1986, so as Target 2006 was starting, I was reading about Op being pointlessly destroyed in a terrible Bob Budianski strip. I do remember that time.
What's odd is that I didn't start buying 2000AD until August 1987, and those marts were the place I filled in most of the first 500 issues, spending all the money I was making doing a paper round to buy a rucksack full each trip. So there's a year there where I must have been going up to London and buying handfuls of back issues of something else. Which I know was Transformers, Power Pack, West Coast Avengers, X-Factor and Iron Man.
Coo. Funny how a few dates can help you slot memories together.
So yes, my US TF collection (which I still have a complete run of) started last September, 30 years ago, and Afterdeath was the first issue I know I bought. Wow. I need to go back to last September and do that again. That was the month I started secondary school 30 years ago, and also when Iron Maiden's Somewhere in Time album came out, which is a seminal work in my own musical history. I remember that so well. That's a lot of jigsaw pieces just come together for the first time in ages.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 14, 2017 21:01:32 GMT
But WHO DIES next week???
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 14, 2017 21:02:03 GMT
23 was the first US issue I bought.
I was going to the same mart and buying X-Men, Alpha Flight and 2000ad!
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 14, 2017 21:17:02 GMT
Oh wow! Small world. That's amazing. Going to those marts was the absolute highlight of the... Wait, were they bi-monthly? I've also just remembered I was buying Flash at that point too, which I think is the only time I've ever regularly bought a DC title.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 14, 2017 21:23:55 GMT
But WHO DIES next week??? -Ralph After 104 barnstorming issues, this story is a truly awful way to get rid of one of the comic's icons. The difference in depth between US and UK stories at this point is massive. |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 14, 2017 21:26:57 GMT
ok, so Afterdeath is brilliant
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 14, 2017 21:29:01 GMT
Oh wow! Small world. That's amazing. Going to those marts was the absolute highlight of the... Wait, were they bi-monthly? They were! |
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 14, 2017 21:32:03 GMT
ok, so Afterdeath is brilliant oh no. No no no. Blueshift, I have nothing but the utmost respect for your brilliance, but in this you are not right. It's a terrible story. |
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 14, 2017 21:36:00 GMT
Oh i did find Captain Rik this week, which was obvious enough to make me think he isn't in last week's issue despite Transformation saying he is.
I'm not joking about the condoms either. I must scan that.
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 14, 2017 21:54:07 GMT
I genuinely love Afterdeath.
It is brilliant.
Andy
|
|
