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Post by The Doctor on Dec 24, 2020 19:19:40 GMT
Papadopolus?
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 24, 2020 21:16:24 GMT
Aye,him!
Harry.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 25, 2020 10:22:14 GMT
This '91 annual is deceptive. But not like a Decepticon. I haven't read this at all before, but picked up a copy a few years ago now for the purposes of the 30 Years readthrough. Nice minty one, nothing clipped or written on and the spine still has that tension in it that suggests it's never been read.
Initially you think, no new strip content? what bobbins is this! no wonder they didn't even mention it in the comic. But then when you look closer, it's full of nice things. Like a painted Geoff Senior cover and great Jeff Anderson endpapers. Tech Spec updates that at least try to service the Classics toys and fill a niche hole in the A-Z (even if most of them are "He's still got all his old abilities but he's a bit slower these days"), a really weird 'ships of the fleet' type display which should really feature in our 'best ship' thread and a text story by Furman as opposed to any of the usual annual writer stand-ins that has the feel of something special because it gives a glimpse into Cybertron's past that also ties into Furman's version of the present.
We're well past the time the annual was an event that tied into the comic, but this feels much more like the first two because of the reliance on the older characters. Very enjoyable.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 25, 2020 10:45:40 GMT
You can definitely see the budget isn't there anymore, but it definitely feels stronger than the previous annual, which has the feel of inventory material chucked in, despite the new content. I suspect I would feel differently if more had been done with the Dinobot story in the pages of the comic.
Be interesting to see how people rank the annuals, and reasoning behind it.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 25, 2020 13:29:23 GMT
Oooh! Poll! Poll!
Although I won't read the 92 one for a year yet and I can't remember much about the G2 one. Be a while until we get to 30 years for that.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 25, 2020 15:41:16 GMT
G2 isn't Marvel or indeed Fleetway so wouldn't look to include it.
Probably need to do a series of polls to winnow out a Hub consensus.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 25, 2020 16:01:10 GMT
Do a top three, three points for first, two for second, one for third, and total up.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 26, 2020 13:06:27 GMT
Not a fan of the 1991 annual, 'cos I still remember the disappointment of no new strips, plus a really annoying guide to spaceships that labels the Movie shuttle the Ark rather than using the Ark design from the comics. It also annoyed me that some of the Classic Hero A-Z updates used box art and some didn't. I'd have preferred consistency there. All in all, it felt very rushed.
I also remember thinking how much better the 1992 annual was when it came along, with a superior text story (possibly the best ever), newly coloured strips, and Combat Colin.
The 1991 annual had one of the best covers, though.
Martin
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 29, 2020 20:10:38 GMT
30 Years Ago This Week: Issue #303 In the National Interest 1.2 Reprinted from #75 The Human Factor - Part 2: Starscream searches for Hector Dialonzo, intent on turning him into a Powermaster human battery. Shockwave watches him from the shadows, apparently enjoying himself. Blackrock reveals he intends Josie Beller, Circuit Breaker, to become the final member of his super-human team, but unknown to him, Beller has already found Dialonzo. Just as she does, Starscream finds her. Elsewhere, Transformation reveals the winners of issue #296's Robocop competition; Colin defeats the netherworld demons with the help of Doctor Peculiar; readers are invited to join the new G FORCE club for just £4.95, offering a welter of perks including free GI Joe figures; and on the letters' page, Blaster is forced to admit that someone got a bit overexcited with toy box info for his original intro and he is in fact the real, proper Blaster and not one from an alternative future after all (and he knows nothing about Nucleon at all and won't until issue #307, nuff said).
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 29, 2020 20:29:22 GMT
Toy-Fu Nick himself was one of the Robocop video winners.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 29, 2020 21:22:45 GMT
This isn't the first time Joe/Action Force have had an appealing looking club. The membership perks look pretty good for a fiver, even in 1991 money.
I quite like Dwayne Turner's art in this, although everyone seems to be shouting all the time. I wonder why he ended up doing this one.
Reading In the National Interest again is a stark reminder of how strong the UK stories once were. Sometimes I think stories like this are the pinnacle, moreso than Target 2006.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 29, 2020 21:49:30 GMT
Furman had been heavily lobbying for Andy Wildman, but the editor was reluctant, but then Dwayne Turner turned in this effort...
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 29, 2020 21:53:08 GMT
The letters page from TF US #71 was all about the art in the Dwayne Turner issue, and I found the final letter very funny at the time. Scroll halfway down yoshicast.com/transformers-review-issue-71-surrender/ to read what people were writing about it at the time. Martin
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 31, 2020 0:11:36 GMT
Oh dear lord I made the mistake of reading the review...
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 5, 2021 20:17:58 GMT
30 Years Ago This Week: Issue #304In the National Interest 2.1: Reprinted from #76 The Human Factor - Part 3: Starscream and Circuit Breaker fight and Circuit Breaker is knocked out. Blackrock arrives with his crew by air and Rapture sends Starscream into a dream state, making him believe he has taken over the Decepticons, before Thunder-Punch moves in on him. Elsewhere, there are cheers on the Transformation page for the news that GI Joe will finish in the comic next week so that a rerun of the UK strips from issues 1-100 can replace it; there's an advert for Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Comic; Colin meets Giggly Granddad; there's a highly detailed plan of Cobra Island; and on the letters' page, Blaster claims no one knows who writes the editorial page because it arrives in a sealed box delivered by Securicor each week.
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 5, 2021 20:32:26 GMT
I remember Transformation being strangely cheerful about dumping the backup strip it's had for almost half the comic's life.
-Ralph
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The Huff
Thunderjet
Hufferlover
Posts: 4,082
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Post by The Huff on Jan 5, 2021 20:44:20 GMT
I remember Transformation being strangely cheerful about dumping the backup strip it's had for almost half the comic's life. -Ralph Yes. It was very disrespectful. I'm sure lots of kids liked it. I preferred it over stuff I'd already read (and still owned).
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 5, 2021 21:04:33 GMT
Given that Marvel UK presumably had access to Marvel's entire back catalogue from which to select backup strips, they must have had reason to believe Action Force / G.I. Joe was popular with the readers, or why else would they have stuck with it for so long?
Martin
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 5, 2021 21:24:25 GMT
It was a bit unexpected, that. There's never been any negativity toward GI Joe before. The tone of the editorial voice does seem to have become more direct since dreadwind went, in Transformation and the letters' page. Maybe the new editor didn't like Joe so decided to bin it.
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 5, 2021 21:33:59 GMT
May also have been a budget cut.
Was this when Gi Joe went to The Incredible Hulk Presents or had that already been and gone?
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 5, 2021 22:06:50 GMT
I wonder what the relative costs are of the comic's content, like colour pages, reprinting marvel US content, reprinting their own content, strip Vs text stories (like thundercats did).
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 5, 2021 22:28:46 GMT
May also have been a budget cut. Was this when Gi Joe went to The Incredible Hulk Presents or had that already been and gone? -Ralph Already been and gone.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 5, 2021 22:32:07 GMT
I wonder what the relative costs are of the comic's content, like colour pages, reprinting marvel US content, reprinting their own content, strip Vs text stories (like thundercats did). Colour printing always more expensive in those days. Strip content is more expensive simply for the people involved, text story you can get away with less people so less expensive. As for what they could reprint, would Hasbro have had a say in what goes in, otherwise why wouldn't you just hotshot in a popular Marvel US strip as the back up (of course that runs the risk of it supplanting your main strip.
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 5, 2021 22:49:21 GMT
Yes, but what I mean is where the tradeoffs were. Like would it have been cheaper to put b/w pages back in rather than replace GI Joe with their own strips; would a text story have been cheaper than reprinting Joe. That kind of thing.
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 12, 2021 19:35:25 GMT
30 Years Ago This Week: Issue #305In the National Interest 2.2 Reprinted from #76 The Human Factor - Part 4: The Neo-Knights batter Starscream after he fails to convince Dialonzo to join him. Blackrock eulogises about ensuring the world knows the Autobots are friendly, but Beller reinforces her opinion they are all bad. Blackrock asks her to join them and she reluctantly does. When Starscream comes round, he finds Shockwave before him, asking for a partnership. Elsewhere, Transformation continues to celebrate the departure of GI Joe from the comic and gets excited about how Marvel UK's film vaults are being raided to find early Transformers strips for the backup slot; Colin gets smacked by a table; and on the letters' page, Blaster claims his favourite band is the Happy Mondays.
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 12, 2021 20:29:00 GMT
What is happening in GI JOE?
-ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Jan 12, 2021 20:48:12 GMT
It ended on a cliffhanger with lots of Cobra people coming out of the sea off boats running towards some other Cobra people with evil intent. What happens we will never know because the next issue box said SOUND THE LAST CALL as if it wasn't a cliffhanger at all and the story was over.
So that's that.
It's interesting, the editorial kind of implies this week that they've been trying to find the Man of Iron to reprint it, but the films are either missing or damaged. They talk about looking for pre-Furmanian stories, yet the reprints seem to start with Enemy Within.
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 12, 2021 20:51:56 GMT
What a way for GI Joe to end.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 12, 2021 20:55:42 GMT
Story was continued in a special.....
.....continued but not finished!
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The Huff
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Post by The Huff on Jan 13, 2021 11:01:01 GMT
Hmm, that cover doesn't look familiar at all. And it doesn't spoil the reveal of the mystery Decepticon at the end either.
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