Completing Transformers Universe

[Kingoji]

Jun 2, 2015 17:07:00 GMT @rossumgrey said:

Here's a preview of Emirate Xaaron. Text by myself, with artwork by Ed Pirrie. But to file him under "E" or "X"?

Can PDF files be uploaded to the forum? The font on the JPG here is a bit pixelated; the PDF is much sharper.

-- Graham

Meh-moriiiiiiies!

Jun 2, 2015 18:55:14 GMT Pinwig said:

The art for Xaaron is great, is it based on anything or just drawn in the style of the originals?

I basically had one Universe entry open on my monitor to match the inking style and drew whomever Graham asked me for straight from their comic appearances. Which was tricky with the Pretender beasts, as most of them looked different under each artist that drew them, and Chainclaw's robot form was never fully seen (his torso was always hidden)so in that case I went to the toy.
They were a lot of fun, and I think most of them still stand up. I kinda hate the ones I did for Flame and Death's Head now, though.

[Pinwig]

I think they're great! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest added to the collection.

Ark v2 arrived today. What a great book! It's brilliant! Only pain is that to accurately scan the characters I'm going to have to knacker the spine.

[Deleted]

If it's any help, I believe the typeface used in the original Universe book is Arial; 14pt bold for the name and 8pt regular for the body text.

And, kind of on the subject, the typefaces used in Marvel UK's AtoZ are Synchro Reversed for the name and Optima for the body text.

Yes, I am a bit of a geek when it comes to this sort of thing!

-- Graham

[Deleted]

Jun 8, 2015 18:58:12 GMT Kingoji said:

I kinda hate the ones I did for Flame and Death's Head now, though.

Oh, Ed, don't be so hard on yourself. A lot of your illustrations were perfectly adequate. Some, even, approached mediocre.

-- Graham

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jun 2, 2015 5:50:45 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

There is already an online database of all the Transformers Universe entries here:

www.ntfa.net/universe/english/index.php?act=intro&cat=AB

I keep spotting spelling errors and mistakes when it comes to first appearances (e.g. for the Technobots and Monsterbots) in the post-Movie TFU entries. Every one I've found so far appears to have been corrected on the above website. It's even added the first US comic appearances of Inferno and Red Alert. The website therefore appears to be a better source for character text than the original / IDW-collected 1987-1988 profiles.

Martin

[Pinwig]

Jun 9, 2015 11:41:03 GMT @rossumgrey said:

If it's any help, I believe the typeface used in the original Universe book is Arial; 14pt bold for the name and 8pt regular for the body text.

Hmm. I know Arial was designed as a Helvetica copy, so they're both very close, but having spent a good while on Sunday font matching I'm certain the Universe pages are Helvetica. You can tell from the capital R, Helvetica has a little serif flick on the leg that Arial doesn't have. The digital version of the IDW book isn't a brilliant scan, lots of the letters are corrupted around the edges, but if you look at the original trade (better quality print than the comics) it really doesn't look like Arial to me. 14pt and 8pt look right to me, but I'm still working on an exact match for the leading. I think the poor quality of the scans is making it hard from the digital versions to overlay new text with the same gaps between lines. But I'll get there. I spent a very long time creating a perfect clone of the BBC Doctor Who DVD covers once, including copying the DVD disc menus (for creating DVDs from Loose Canon recons). Its a labour of love, but getting the end result is extremely satisfying. 

However from my original assumptions, having laid a page out, I think the subheadings are Helvetica Bold, not Medium, and the heading does change between bold and bold extended at will. I'll know for sure once I've done a page and printed it to compare it to the original trade.

I'm working on Hub Cap at the moment, using Cliffjumper as a reference to draw from. 

Also finding it fascinating comparing the figures in the Ark v2 book to the ones actually in TF Universe. Did you say that for some characters there are US and Japanese models that differ? most are the same, but there are some in the Universe that clearly didn't come from the Japanese ones. When I get a chance I'll cross reference that to my list to see if there's a pattern (so I'll know if it's right to fill gaps using the Japanese version). 

Some of the later ones, like the Headmasters, are clearly not even redrawn, they're just coloured scans of the models. And I would guess that Scorponok wasn't done because his model, at least the Japanese one, is rubbish? you can't see most of his head. 

[Pinwig]

Jun 9, 2015 18:12:19 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

I keep spotting spelling errors and mistakes when it comes to first appearances (e.g. for the Technobots and Monsterbots) in the post-Movie TFU entries. Every one I've found so far appears to have been corrected on the above website. It's even added the first US comic appearances of Inferno and Red Alert. The website therefore appears to be a better source for character text than the original / IDW-collected 1987-1988 profiles.

That's useful to know. It also opens the can of worms that is correcting the existing pages rather than just adding to them. Not an impossible task, and it would help to make them more uniform and clean up the poor scans in the current IDW digital version, but quite time consuming! 

Metroplex needs laying out again anyway given the first part of his bio is on Menasor's page. 

[Grand Moff Muffin]

After 'The Return of Optimus Prime' the US and Japanese cartoons split away from one another, so in the US you had 'Headmasters: The Rebirth' introducing the Headmasters, Targetmasters, Clones and Punch / Counter Punch, while in Japan you had a different, longer Headmasters series. And they generally had two different sets of model sheets for the newly introduced characters. In Ark Volume 1 are the Headmaster, Targetmaster, Clone and Punch model sheets used in The Rebirth and TFU, including a comic-accurate model sheet for Scorponok, which I seem to recall Graham used to make a TFU entry for him. But the two Horrorcons are missing from Volume 1 (maybe the two series used the same model sheets for them?), so you have to go to Volume 2 for them and the Monsterbots.

For the 1988 toys, the Ark / Complete Ark doesn't contain anything except the model sheets for Masterforce, which are in a very different style to the art used in the TFU entries for Powermasters, Nightbeat, Landmine, etc. Maybe the TFU art for those characters was created purely for TFU, or maybe they were based on model sheets for a US cartoon that never got made...

As for text errors, the spelling typos don't bother me so much, but they were so sloppy when it came to first appearances. Getaway, Slapdash, Joyride, Repugnus, Grotusque, Scattershot, Nosecone, Crankcase, Ruckus, Windsweeper... all wrong in the TFU entries published by Marvel and IDW but fixed on the website. Website not perfect, however - doesn't mention the US comic appearances of Broadside, Sandstorm, Twin Twist and Outback - though in fairness they were probably not scripted and just the artist picking random characters to throw into the background of scenes. But there's no doubt they were there!

Martin

[Pinwig]

Very interesting. It makes sense that Rebirth/Headmasters would have different character models. I will expand my spreadsheet to get my head round this. I like spreadsheets. I like learning about Transformers!

[Philip Ayres]

Philip likes Spreadsheets. They paid his salary and now the ill health pension they provided pays our mortgage

[Pinwig]

Three cheers for spreadsheets!

[Pinwig]

Three cheers for google image search!

Transformers - The Ark Vol 1

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jun 10, 2015 21:07:55 GMT Pinwig said:

Three cheers for google image search!

Transformers - The Ark Vol 1

Result! I suppose it's not unethical, given that people who want to buy it can't.

Trivial observation - the IDW TFU collection entries for Astrotrain, Blitzwing and Octane don't list their first appearances, but the original Marvel TFU TPB does, so I suppose this is a difference between the original mini-series and the Marvel TPB. They must have added their first appearances to the profiles after the mini-series but before the TPB. I guess they were almost the last TFU Volume 1 characters to appear in the US comic, being introduced after at least one TFU Volume 2 character (Goldbug). Inferno, Steeljaw and others appeared even later, but long after their original runs in the toy line.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Oh! I see that contrary to my earlier statement, Apeface and Snapdragon are in Ark Volume 1. I've only got the Complete Ark, and they are omitted from its first half, only appearing amongst the Japanese model sheets in the second half. I assume they were left out of the first half to avoid duplication. Do they appear identically in both Volumes 1 and 2 then?

I'm not sure whether every page has been scanned. Not all Sixshot's modes are shown on the website.

Martin

[Pinwig]

No, I realised looking at it afterwards that the webpage has a number of pages missing. However there were more on the photobucket account those images come from, but not every page is scanned. I'll rename the pages with the character names and put them on the google drive as reference.

I'm part way through now cataloguing all this. I'm doing a list of which characters appear in the two volumes and which are duplicated/have different images to see which ones have been used for Universe. To get up to speed mainly. I'll have all that done on Saturday and I'll stick it on here.

As for Apeface and Snapdragon, the art is the same in both books but there's more of it in Volume 2 as each character has a double page spread instead of just a single page in volume 1. That'll be why in the complete version they've been removed from the first part, it'd just be duplication.

[Pinwig]

Gobsmacked by how fast Amazon Japan's standard shipping is. Maybe being a book it didn't have to go through customs, but I ordered the generations book last Saturday and it came on Wednesday. I had to pick it up from the local dhl depot this afternoon though.

What a book! This is awesome! Every page is absolutely splendid. A real treasure trove.

[Pinwig]

Questions for experts!

I've been cross checking the model art in Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the Ark to see where it matches and have discovered that the Ark v1 has no US character models in for 1988, yet there are a lot of Transformers Universe pages for those toys that use models different to the Japanese ones in v2. Are there US models for the 1988 toys in the Complete Ark version? if not, do we know where they came from?

The above also applies to Fangry, who is the only other character that is in Universe, but not in the Ark.

[Pinwig]

I've had an interesting time this afternoon going through the two Ark books and comparing the art to see what's what. I've detailed all this in the attached spreadsheet (which has garish highlighting only because it's exported from the version on the Google drive).

For 1987 having looked at all the art I think the US character models use the Japanese ones as reference where Japanese ones exist, or in the case of some (notably the Decepticon head/targetmasters) they're the same. Those US ones are then basically traced for the Universe pages. I'm thinking the US ones are copied from the Japanese ones and not vice versa because some of the US stuff is really simplified and the Japanese Stylor model is clearly the basis for all four US Headmaster partners.

For 1988 as far as I know from these books, there are no US character models and the ones that have Japanese ones are totally different to the ones in Universe, so I guess by then Marvel were doing their own.

Transformers Universe Expanded Index.xlsx (72.71 KB)

Why am I doing all this? well apart from it being interesting generally, it gives some kind of guidance as to what the Universe art should be based on where art doesn't exist. I think I've exhausted all avenues of research now, so I'll get on with actually producing something. I am the kind of person who likes to define the ball park before swinging a bat. 

I've collated all of the Ark v1 pages I can find on the internet and have put them in the reference section of the google drive. Obviously if the book was readily available to buy or gets reprinted that'd be removed. There are 14 pages missing. Some of those are extra alt modes and human characters. The only actual robot mode models missing are Seaspray, Blades, Defensor, Vortex, Brawl, Swindle, Cyclonus and Trypticon.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

You may be interested to see all the "Ark Addendum" pages on the Ark author's blog:

boltax.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=ark+addendum&max-results=20&by-date=true

There are hundreds of them on there. These pages never got published in any book. There are a lot of cool transformation sequences there.

The Complete Ark doesn't contain any of the 1988 character Marvel TF Universe art, but it does have two pages for the Japanese model sheets of Fangry (Wilder) just before Horri-Bull (Bullhorn).

Martin

[Pinwig]

Yes, in my ransacking of the internet for references I came across the boltax stuff. I've downloaded all those into another folder with a view one day to putting together a definitive electronic version of the Ark with all the pages sorted into the right order. It's all absolutely fascinating. I just wish they'd reprint the complete version or do an electronic one themselves. Easy money for IDW.

Thanks for clearing up the question about 1988, and what you've said about Fangry has pointed out to me I had him twice in the spreadsheet under 87 and 88 so that clears up that anomaly too.

[Deleted]

Jun 12, 2015 22:17:31 GMT Pinwig said:

What a book! This is awesome! Every page is absolutely splendid. A real treasure trove.

Sounds like you quite like it.

-- Graham

[Philip Ayres]

Having talked about TFU the other day I had a go at formatting the known unpublished entries into the TFU style:

Jan 13, 2019 14:59:31 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Jan 13, 2019 14:25:39 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Back to Transformers, your list matches my understanding. Of course, 1987 wasn't the first year to have omissions - Hubcap, Swerve, Roadbuster, Whirl and the Deluxe Insecticons' entries never having been published, though they have emerged online.

Whirl & Roadbuster boltax.blogspot.com/2011/01/extended-bio-whirl.html

SPOILER: Click to show

Whirl

Profile: Whirl is one Autobot who really loves his job. As a helicopter, he doesn't just fly, he careens across the sky in what appears to be a wild, joyful dance. But the crazy patterns he spins and weaves in flight only disguise the method to his madness. He calculates that an enemy would be far more terrified by someone who appears to be insane than by a purely rational opponent. Indeed, he is right. One single, lunatic dive of Whirl's will often send Decepticons scurrying for cover even before he starts firing at them. "An attack of insanity can be just as effective as an attack by a proton bomb," says Whirl.

Abilities: As a helicopter, Whirl can fly at a speed of 400 mph. He has a range of 16000 miles. His manoeuvrability is amazing -- he can fly at virtually any angle except upside down, and even that he can achieve while doing loops. He packs four incendiary-shell cannons and a high-energy photon beam rifle. He has enormous strength in robot mode and carries a hand-mounted null-ray module that shields him from any energy beam directed at him, and a leg-mounted paralyzo-box that injects a powerful, disabling fluid when bought into contact with other robotic life.

Weaknesses: Being reckless, Whirl is prone to disabling himself by damaging his rotor blades.

Roadbuster

Profile: 'Demolishing Decepticons' is the way Roadbuster prefers to pass the time. If he's not fighting, he's just not happy. This isn't because he's particularly hot-tempered -- he just bores easily. When not in battle he's usually the most quiet of all the Autobots. But give him an enemy and he reverts to rough no-nonsense form and attacks with a zest unsurpassed by any of his comrades. It is in combat situations that his charisma surfaces, inspiring his fellow warriors and making him a natural leader. "With Roadbuster leading us, no one worries about consequences," says Tracks. "We just want to scrap some steel!"

Abilities: In jeep mode, Roadbuster can cross all but the most extreme terrains. He can traverse swamps, rocky hillsides, ice and mud without any problems. He has a range of 600 miles. He carries a turret-mounted linear blaster gun which can blow a hole through two feet of concrete. In robot mode he has a laser rifle as well as a shoulder-mounted shrapnel-missile launcher.

Weaknesses: As a result of his tendency to tune out non-combat situations, Roadbuster is sometimes unaware of impending danger. It is only when he is directly confronted by it that he will react, and by then he is often in more trouble than he can handle.

Swerve & Hubcap boltax.blogspot.com/2010/12/extended-bios.html

SPOILER: Click to show

Swerve

Profile: If Autobots needed driver's licenses, Swerve's would have long been revoked. He's a definite menace on the highways. He doesn't mean to be, but he is so easily distracted that he rarely pays attention to where he's going for more than a half-minute at a time. Usually, he's too busy reading roadside billboards, changing his internal radio from the inter-Autobot frequency to a disco station, or looking for vanity license plates. It takes the frenzied honking of a nearby car's horn or the sudden approach of a telephone pole toward his front end to rouse Swerve from his stupor and save him from wrecking himself -- and, often, others as well. Although a loyal and brave Autobot, Swerve exhibits the same lack of concentration when being given orders by a superior. Invariably, his mind wanders and he only hears part of his instructions. It is not uncommon to hear Optimus Prime advising Swerve to "Keep your optical sensors on the road -- and your cerebro-circuitry on the plan!"

Abilities: Sensors in Swerve's hands allow him to determine a multitude of chemical and physical properties of metals: electrical and heat conductivity, melting point, tensile strength, coefficient of elasticity, ductility, brittleness, magnetism, and others. Miniature acetylene torches and lasers in his fingers allow him to fuse metals together into new alloys. Swerve is constantly trying to create stronger and lighter metals for use by the Autobots. In vehicle mode, Swerve can reach speeds of 120 mph and has a range of 500 miles. Considering his careless driving habits, he luckily is extremely resistant to damage.

Weaknesses: Swerve's frequent lapses of concentration result in many accidents no one of which is usually severe. But the accrued effect of all of them often leaves him a walking (or driving) wreck.

Hubcap

Profile: Hub Cap has everybody's friendship but nobody's trust. He is affable, witty, generous, even charming -- it is no wonder that his fellow Autobots find him such pleasant company. But he's also a con artist. He is likely to enthusiastically accept some work detail one moment and then try to sucker someone else into doing it the next. Or he might try to smooth talk a comrade into trading his weapon for an inferior one. Hub Cap is surprisingly effective at his scams. Perhaps it's the smiling, sincere way he talks or perhaps it's because he looks small and unthreatening. Whatever the case, Hub Cap is living proof of the old Cybertronian adage, "You can't tell an Autobot by it's finish."

Abilities: Not only is Hub Cap adept at speaking, he's even better at listening. Equipment within his head module allows him to receive a broad spectrum of electromagnetic signals -- AM and FM radio, shortwave, UHF and VHF television broadcasts. He uses his phosphorescent windshield as a television screen when receiving TV signals. Amplifying circuits allow him to detect signals as weak as .000001 watts. His audio circuitry can hear a pin drop 500 yards away, and has a frequency range of 5 to 50,000 Hertz. In car mode, he can travel up to 90 mph and has a range of 1000 miles.

Weaknesses: Hub Cap is physically among the weakest of the Autobots. Even low-speed crashes can result in severe damage to his body.

Barrage, Chopshop, Ransack and Venom boltax.blogspot.com/2010/12/extended-bios.html

SPOILER: Click to show

Barrage

Profile: Only when the ground is scorched and leveled does Barrage cease his onslaught in a battle; merely winning is not enough to satisfy this Insecticon. He wallows joyously in the misery and ruin he causes. Merciless and cruel, he believes kindness only stirs hope in the hearts of the vanquished. So thoroughly rotten is Barrage's mechanical soul that even his fellow Decepticons consider him, on a personal level, very unpleasant company. On performing his function, however, they have nothing but praise and envy: Barrage encompasses all the worst qualities that symbolize the Decepticons.

Abilities: In insect mode, Barrage can unleash a nearly non-stop torrent of explosive charges from the gun-mounts in his eyes. His antenna module can shoot discreet packets of high-energy photons; each packet can blanket a 100 sq. ft. area with a temperature of 3000 degrees for 30 seconds. He can fly 15 mph with a range of 400 miles. In robot mode he uses a sonic rifle, which can flatten a small brick building at a distance of 600 yards with the vibrations it produces.

Weaknesses: Being virtually totally offensive-minded, Barrage often leaves himself exposed to counterattacks.

Chop Shop

Profile: Nothing that isn't bolted to the ground is safe from Chopshop's greedy grasp. He can carve up a moving bus and haul away its engine block before it rolls to a stop. And he can do all this while at his small insect size. Easily the sneakiest of the Insecticons, Chopshop prides himself on his subtle talents. No challenge is too great for him: the more difficult it is to steal something, the more he wants to steal it. Once he targets an object, it's as good as gone. And once he has it he will disassemble and reshape it with the consummate skill of a brain surgeon to fit it to Decepticon needs. Chopshop sums up his philosophy this way: "I take no prisoners, just spare parts."

Abilities: In insect mode, Chopshop has two small jets on his back that allow him to fly in near silence at 30 mph. His range is 250 miles. His pincer-like antennae can slice through two-inch thick vanadium-steel plate. He can also use twin pinpoint lasers that protrude from his mouth assembly to carve up objects that require more precision. He can lift up to 30 tons with his six clawed legs, even while insect-size. He can operate as an insect at either insect or normal size. As a robot he carries a high-powered photon cannon which can blind as well as blast opponents.

Weaknesses: His tremendous ego sometimes leads him to taking on a challenge that is too great for him, resulting in his eventual defeat. Frequent mechanical breakdowns in his legs are a result of his carrying off heavy objects during his burglary operations.

Ransack

Profile: With a fury unchecked by concern for the safety of innocents, Ransack enters into a battle like a howling tornado. If necessary, he will level an entire town to hunt down an enemy. The destruction and misery he leaves in his wake only serve to spur his manic cravings for more. Truly, he is one Insecticon whose mechanical heart is as cold as his metal hide. Among his fellow Decepticons he is known as a tough-talking, straight-to-the-point soldier who is always looking forward to the next conflagration. His comrades have the utmost confidence in his abilities to wage war--but they know enough to let him lead the way since Ransack won't take the time to shoot around them.

­Abilities: Ransack can operate at normal size or shrink down to insect size when he's in his insect mode. His abilities are the same either way except he can leap 200 feet at insect size and 1.5 miles at normal size. A kick from his rear legs packs enough power to knock over a bulldozer and shatter a foot-thick steel vault. The vibrations produced by rubbing these legs against his tail assembly can crumble a brick wall. His antennae can shoot 80 Kilovolt electrical charges. In robot mode he carries a high-intensity concussion blaster gun. Each of his arms has two razor-sharp talons mounted on it which he can spin at 300 rpm and use as a buzzsaw.

Weaknesses: Ransack's rear legs are susceptible to complete mechanical failure if any foreign matter gets into their joints.

Venom

Profile: Venom will use his poisonous talents even on his fellow Decepticons at times. This is because Venom trusts no one. least of all his fellow Insecticons, any of whom, he feels, might be tempted to usurp his role as Insecticon Leader. What little self-esteem Venom has he draws from this title. So nervous is he about losing it that his behavior borders on paranoia: he would rather try to eliminate a comrade he barely suspects of coveting his position than risk letting him live. Some Decepticons say disparagingly that Venom would be better off if he were captured by the Autobots -- at least he would no longer have his fellow Decepticons to worry about.

Abilities: The stinger mounted on Venom's head can discharge a variety of fluids harmful to both mechanical and organic life: acids that break down metal alloys, catalysts that alter molecular structures, toxins that paralyze human nervous systems, and several others. The stinger itself can penetrate ¼-inch steel. In insect form, Venom can fly 15 mph with a range of 300 miles. In robot form, he carries an electric-blaster gun, powerful enough to short-circuit a tank.

Weaknesses: Being as suspicious as he is, Venom has few friends, and fewer still who will come to his aid in times of trouble. His stinger often gets stuck, in his target, which sometimes leads, to it breaking off.

They're not perfect by any means, there's a brief bit overlap text where I cut each entry down to size, should have done them with individual files, and the images aren't full page size, but how do these look?

[Pinwig]

They look great!

I had got as far as working out the column width and page dimensions to make them match the size of the pages in the digital version of Classics 8. I had also done an analysis of the font used and worked out to match the original it should be:

Name - Helvetica 73 Bold Extended 14pt
Headings - Helvetica 75 Bold 8pt
Body Text - Helvetica 55 Roman 8pt

[blueshift]

HELVETICA!!!!!

[Pinwig]

Yeah, come on, the comics were printed in 1986. There wasn't exactly a huge pool of regularly used typesets to check against.

[Philip Ayres]

I left the mottos off!

[The Doctor]

Keep going!!!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

These are the only ones we have the completed write ups for.

Redone them with mottos now but need to turn them into JPGs