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Post by Pinwig on Feb 16, 2021 20:21:43 GMT
Ooh! What was the story then? The poster promises the true story of all the Autobots' battles against the Decepticons.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 16, 2021 20:41:01 GMT
Ooh! What was the story then? The poster promises the true story of all the Autobots' battles against the Decepticons. How good is your eyesight? LinkAt least they've drawn the Ark the comic way! Martin |
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Post by Pinwig on Feb 16, 2021 21:05:35 GMT
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 16, 2021 21:13:19 GMT
Very pleased to finally be able to see this!
-Ralph
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 16, 2021 21:18:21 GMT
That's interesting. If you tie the reference to St Helens with the Overlord/Motivators bit to a reference on TFWiki it sounds like that story text came from a Euro 91 catalogue. Did that catalogue have a story in it? Yes, and it mentions the wall chart too! Martin |
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Post by Pinwig on Feb 16, 2021 21:27:19 GMT
Nice!
Good bit of detective work there, so the story text on the poster comes from the 1991 catalogue and the catalogue promotes the poster as well as the comic. So that catalogue must have been around pretty early in 1991 then.
I wonder if the St Helens reference was just a mistake or if the writer of that synopsis was a Hasbro marketing person who used an early product guide as a reference that had Budiansky's original reference to St Helens instead of St Hillary.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 16, 2021 21:32:01 GMT
What's odd marketing-wise is that the wall chart is dominated by Powermaster Optimus Prime rather than either of the two Optimus Primes in the catalogue / on sale in 1991.
Martin
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Post by Pinwig on Feb 16, 2021 21:56:15 GMT
Knocked up from whatever stock art was around?
WAIT A MINUTE!
The one in the advert is different to the one in the twitter post. The advert has a knobbled Metroplex at the top and the twitter one has Trypticon. There are other bits in different places too. I would say that's because those are stickers applied by the owner, just in a different place, but the Twitter one looks like its sticker sheets are unused and there isn't a Metroplex on the sheet shown.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 16, 2021 22:09:12 GMT
This is like The Ninth Gate! If we dig too deep we will discover the secrets of communicating with Unicron...
Martin
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 17, 2021 5:51:27 GMT
And I didn't ruin mine by colouring Powermaster Primes head in green!!! Perhaps the kid in the picture is German and is simply copying it from one of the covers of the great Comic Magazine. No, that's just how the Action Master Powermaster Prime toy was going to look. Why else would they make him prominent in 1991? Martin |
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The Huff
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Post by The Huff on Feb 17, 2021 8:51:38 GMT
And I didn't ruin mine by colouring Powermaster Primes head in green!!! Perhaps the kid in the picture is German and is simply copying it from one of the covers of the great Comic Magazine. No, that's just how the Action Master Powermaster Prime toy was going to look. Why else would they make him prominent in 1991? Martin Yes! He woyld be the only one able to take on AM Thundercracker. |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 2, 2021 19:31:52 GMT
30 Years Ago This Fortnight: Issue #310The Price of Life! - Part 2: The fused form of Megatron and Ratchet continues to wreck the Ark and Kup demands Optimus destroys it. Prime falters in his resolve to keep it alive when he sees the rest of his crew in agreement with Kup and decides to do the job himself. Ultimately he can't, even when Ratchet holds his gun to his own head and pleads for death. Meanwhile, on Hydrus 4, Grimlock finds the source of the nucleon and tests it on himself, discovering that it makes him feel immensely powerful. Back on the Ark, Fixit examines the creature and announces that he can save Ratchet, but only if he saves Megatron too. Prime considers this and then agrees. Machine Man 2020 - He Lives Again! - Part 2: Previously printed in #28 Elsewhere, There's a fantastic free fold out poster using the endpaper art from the '91 Annual; Transformation promises a GI Joe special at the end of April to continue the Cobra civil war storyline; Optimus Prime gets an 'update' in the A-Z which manages to be less informative than his previous entry in #177; Steve pulls Colin's hat off; and on the letters' page, James Roberts pops up again to tell everyone what the Transformers creative team are currently working on in America while Blaster reveals his brother is a toaster.  
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 2, 2021 21:45:10 GMT
Did the GI Joe special come out? The editorial says it is supposed to be the first of several to finish the civil war storyline.
You have to wonder why they felt the need for another Prime A-Z here. It's less detailed than the previous one and doesn't do anything to push the Action Master toy; it's more in line with the PMOP still in the comic. Whichever way they went with it, it would be missing something.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 2, 2021 21:58:19 GMT
Fairly sure that Joe special came out.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 2, 2021 22:08:32 GMT
What was the content in the Action Force monthly? Was that Joe reprints too or original stuff?
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 2, 2021 22:54:54 GMT
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 2, 2021 23:12:57 GMT
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Mar 3, 2021 9:01:30 GMT
You have to wonder why they felt the need for another Prime A-Z here. It's less detailed than the previous one and doesn't do anything to push the Action Master toy; it's more in line with the PMOP still in the comic. Whichever way they went with it, it would be missing something. It's 'cos the US comic printed a lot of 1987-8 character profiles for the first time near the end of its run, unused material from the never-printed TF Universe Volume 2, including PM Prime and Fort Max, and the UK comic used them to extend its own A-Z feature series. You'll see a lot of obscure profiles appearing randomly in the remaining UK issues. The UK's earlier Powermaster Op profile was an anomaly because it came in the middle of the run of A-Z profiles of characters from 1984-6, but because he was now a Powermaster they obviously felt it would be silly to profile the 1984 version, so they updated it to the Powermaster at the time. Martin |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 3, 2021 9:29:57 GMT
Yes, I know where these last A-Z entries come from but it seems odd to put one in that doesn't really fit when there were so many others to use. Prime in that form already had an entry, so why put him in again when this was supposed to be all new stuff, especially when this entry is weaker than the previous one and very heavily cut down from the US one.
I suppose the then still new editor may have assumed Prime's previous entry would be the '84 one so this was a valid update, and looking at it, the UK edit plays up Prime's weakness as being compassion and a lack of ruthlessness - which directly relates to his actions in this issue, whereas the US one has that as a footnote and keeps his proper weaknesses (damage to one module affects the other two).
Okay, so I'm going with, new editor given a pile of new Universe entries from the US, cuts down the Prime one to fit it on the page assuming as this is the Powermaster version it's an update on what would have been printed before, not realising the UK comic did it's own version back in #177. Which has also made me realise that Prime's original TFU entry never appeared in the UK comic.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 3, 2021 10:20:25 GMT
It was just a page filler in a dying comic.
-Ralph
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Mar 3, 2021 10:34:07 GMT
I don't think the TFU Powermaster Prime artwork had appeared in the UK comic before.
Martin
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 3, 2021 18:26:31 GMT
I don't think the TFU Powermaster Prime artwork had appeared in the UK comic before. Martin You are correct, well aside from sneaking in in a few Delbo panels. The A to Z entry used some Robin Smith art from Prime Bomb. |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 6, 2021 13:09:34 GMT
My copy of this issue didn't have the poster. I've not been that fussed about missing gifts while re-reading my issues, but the art for this one is really nice so I struck a deal with an eBay seller who had a copy with poster. It's just come - the issue itself is in worse condition than mine, but the poster is mint and attached and the staples align with my issue. So I shall swap that into my copy I think.
I'm pretty sure I never threw away any of the posters that came with the issues I had originally, but a fair few are missing atm. I reckon they're buried in a box in the parentals' loft. This one though I don't think I ever had originally. I still don't seem to have reached the point I started rebuying the comic.
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 16, 2021 19:34:20 GMT
30 Years Ago This Fortnight: Issue #311Surrender! - Part 1: In Cybertron's distant past, Optimus Prime claims the Autobots will never surrender as he defends Iacon from the Decepticons. In the present he kneels before Scorponok and offers him his badge. In an attempt to unite the Transformers Prime has surrendered, and a gleeful Scorponok orders his troops to disarm their former opponents. Zarak hopes this will cause Triggerhappy and Mindwipe to come crawling back to him, but somewhere off the coast of England the deserters are in conversation with Shockwave. Meanwhile, Prime hopes that Scorponok will honour the agreement to listen to him. Machine Man 2020 - He Lives Again! - Part 3: Previously printed in #29 Elsewhere, Transformation encourages readers to send in their drawings of Transformers for a fantastic competition to win new Classic Hero Triplechangers; Joyride and Getaway feature in the A-Z; Colin defeats the Mad Hatter; and on the letters' page, John 'blip' Moore of Nottingham tells Blaster about the Transmasters club and claims Hasbro are going to make a new toy line with a 'second universe mini series' to support it. 
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 16, 2021 19:35:14 GMT
I reckon this is where I started rebuying the comic. There's something about this cover that tells me that was what did it.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Mar 16, 2021 19:44:22 GMT
 Martin |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 16, 2021 19:46:59 GMT
Indeed. I've always thought the UK version is much more striking.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 16, 2021 20:24:20 GMT
US cover makes more dramatic sense: we see Prime surrendering to someone. In the UK cover he's putting his badge on the ground in the rain, randomly.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 16, 2021 20:30:26 GMT
Yes, it's the isolation that makes it work. He's surrendering his ideals to himself. That's much more significant to me.
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Post by The Huff on Mar 16, 2021 21:07:25 GMT
John Moore! Now there's a name from the past - and the start of TMUK.
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