I imagine it's simply that they didn't want to pay for a bunch of licenses to only use them in one book (Revolution), since the plan was for 80 volumes, with the possibilty of extending it if it proved popular. If they were to ectend it, the licensrs should be easy to pick up since, as you say, they're dead licenses* outside of IDW.

*I'm not sure how Action Man would fit in - if there's a grey area, it's probably there since it's been an active UK property and the comic license may lie elsewhere even if it's not currently being used.

 

That's true, Action Man completely slipped my mind. The character appeared in some ironic TV ad recently so I guess that means someone is keeping track of the license. Hopefully it all gets sorted by issue 81, if it ever comes.

 

I've been enjoying it. I'm only sorry I missed one or two early books.

It's been nice seeing the black and white UK stories in colour though it's a shame they went the Regeneration route of trying to match the old style. I'd prefer they used modern colouring styles.

For some reason, I'm enjoying reading the IDW comics more in this form. Maybe I was missing something when I'd read them on my phone, often in haste during a lunch break.

I also enjoyed reading World's Collide again after all these years.

It's strange seeing some changes they made to Marvel US stories, like colouring Soundwave blue instead of purple or Hot Rod bright red rather than magenta.

It's a shame they didn't outright recolour the US material.

Also during Second Generation, they used the original issue as they retain the mistake where Menasor calls Dragstrip Dead End. The Collected Comics issue back in the summer of 1988, had corrected the error.

I'd love to see the Collector's Club magazines included and the Japanese comics. I always loved the artwork in the Robotmasters and Classics comics that were included with the toys.

I wonder if they'll reprint the Dreamwave More than meets the eye profile books or the Marvel Universe books?

Originally, I wondered why they printed the books out of order but I've grown to appreciate not knowing what's in the next issue.

 

I have the MTMTE profile books, but I'd dearly love a Transformers Universe collection as part of the series. I adored those profiles when they appeared in the comics.

 

Here here! Big love for the expanded bios.

 

Wish it was up to more than issue 37, at least I'm only 6 months behind now

 

The recoloured US stuff was done by Hasbro for IDW & not for this series - explains why the art for all Soundwave wasn't done. Hasbro don't have scans of the corrected CC pages or the UK pages for #107,108 so they have not been used.

 

Hi everyone...

Apologies if I've missed discussion of this in this thread but trying to skim 24 pages worth means I've probably missed it...

A couple of months back I sold off nearly all my Marvel UK Transformers run as it'd been sat around in my mum's loft for the best part of 25 years. I had decided to hang on to some of the unsold issues rather than making further attempts to sell them (as some of the unsold ones do have some of my favourite Geoff Senior art) when I heard about the Hachette Partworks and decide to order three volumes of the stories I particularly wanted for the nostalgia factor from their website. (Target: 2006, Wanted, Galvatron Dead or Alive, and Legacy of Unicron).

I won't go into the farce that the ordering process was - just let me say that after about 5 weeks and several complaints I ended up with not one but three copies of WGDoA and LoU, and four copies of Target 2006...

Anyway, then I opened the first Target 2006 volume and was somewhat disappointed by the reproduction quality of the UK strip - it all looks like it's ever so slightly out of focus, like a photocopy. The US strip in contrast seems fine.

The copies of WGDoA and LoU I've opened seem to be a lot better (although I'm struggling to decide if there's a printing issue in the reproduction of parts of one issue - either the pages are faint in spots or there was a smoke effect in the art that I don't recall in the original comic).

I've opened a couple of the other Target 2006 volumes which seem to be equally poor in terms of reproduction of the UK strip, so is this an issue with all printings of this volume or have I got extremely unlucky with the samples I've been sent?

 

This is Hasbro files - they have poor scan of the comics & aren't bothered about getting high scans. Hasbro have the comics scanned in poor quailty so they aren't bothered & these are the only files that they give to Hach.

 

Yup you can see the pixels from the scans in some issues, dreadful

 

If that's the case, does that mean that any previous collected reprints will be the same quality-wise, or might there be older editions that are worth tracking down on ebay?

 

Titan didn't use the Hasbro files - but IDW do

 

Richard Branson has been removed from the Cosmic Carnival collection, replaced with some fella called Mister Johnson. Pics with comparisons to the originals on my twitter here:

Wilson Jim on Twitter

 

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Brans- err, Johnson.

 

The "Definitive" UK Transformers comic collection literally erasing a bit of TF history, you couldn't make it up!

 

Furman explained on Twitter that the paperwork for the agreement with Virgin was lost long ago and they did actually try to contact Branson about it, but with no luck. At least Lee Sullivan himself redraw it and they took the effort to edit it rather than skip it.

 

I still feel they went a bit far by de-bearding him and picked a naff generic name over something more characterful. Give him brown hair and slightly fuller beard/a 'tache & soul patch with sideburns, and call him Ransom, or Brandon, or something, anything else that has a PR-savvy tycoon ring to it. "Johnson" is just so generic and flavourless.
Just seems half-assed, which is keeping in character with the shenanigans so far TBH.

 

Heck, make it a bit of a cheeky wheeze keep him blonde stick, some glasses on him and a thicker 'tache, call him "Mr. Sandstone" and, boom, he's a UK analogue to G.B. Blackrock humorously on theme!
A distinct lack of imagination is very apparent.

 

"I was in junior high, dickhead."