So I was reading old TFCC issues a while back and came across that old 'road map to the transformers universe' thing. Me being me, I opened yED and tried to make a new version. Why? Well, we all like diagrams, but the main reason was that some of this stuff is a real pain to put in any sort of order. The Timelines fiction especially. The idea behind this is just to show what leads into what, not specifically with any 'universes' or stuff. It's got most of the dates and notes as to which form of media the stuff is. At the far right is a rudimentary IDW reading order based 100% on the trade paperbacks, with ongoings down the middle, secondary ongoings on the left and miniseries down the right. Thoughts on that would be appreciated - I've seen reading orders issue-by-issue or as they are in the IDW collection, but the diagram at the back of the comics nowadays doesn't really line things up chronologically when it comes to the minis and stuff. It's confusing. Things have generally been organised to show adaptations on the same horizontal axis - this is most noticeable in the Movie, Aligned and Animated sections. Also, arrows aren't hard-and-fast 'this is the way you're supposed to read this', more 'the thing the arrow is pointing to happens after the thing it is pointing away from'. It's a subtle distinction that comes into play mostly in the IDW section, where many of the miniseries have an arrow pointing to them but not back to the main story. They ain't splinter timelines, they're just a bit foggy. I have zero familiarity with the 3H stuff and do not intend to ever get into it, so if an expert could give me some pointers on how to tidy that stuff up I'd appreciate it. Marvel stuff likewise is a little ropey. There is a key at the bottom left. I can provide the original graphml file for those of you who want to deviate. Anyway, I'm interested to see what you all think. EDIT: The image has been compressed to heck, so here's a dropbox link to my copy. I might upload a higher quality version too, later.
Yeah, I know how you feel. Cool. I'll have a gander on TF Wiki and add that. I've decided not to even touch the Japanese stuff. Fact of the matter is that for the most part it's obscure even for us fans, and there's a lot of overlap with the series while having things be different. Car Robots / Robots In Disguise is the example that comes straight to mind. I know there's a bunch of Western stuff I've missed, so if people can point me to TFWiki pages that'd be rad.
Interesting. I'm curious as to why you placed Dark Prelude before MTMTE/RiD Vol 5. Everything else is the same, from the looks of it. I haven't read the six Target-exclusive movie pack-in comics and don't know where they fit, don't suppose you could shed some light on that? Other than that, everything seems pretty much identical. It's nice to know I got most of the stuff correct.
the dark prelude spotlights came out in parallel with mtmte/rid v4, so i say read them before v5. they introduce the titan hunters who show up with pharma and tyrest in mtmte v5, and the general idea that people have been trying to figure out titan space bridge tech throughout the history of the war, which is suddenly a thing in rid v5. i didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the movie comics and i'm not really certain where the target pack-ins go chronologically, and i'm not even certain exactly when they were published, but they were written by barber and i think maybe available before sector 7 so that's where i stuck them. tfwiki has continuity notes. generally, my preferred reading order is publication order, unless things get thrown out of whack by delays or marketing decisions.
ahahaha mate, this is one heckuva necro - glad you like the diagram, but I made it at a time when I didn't really know all that much about TF stories and I certainly wouldn't recommend it as a resource for reading stuff! A year after making it I completely reworked the Timelines page on the TFWiki to explain every story of theirs in plain English, and I think it works pretty well as a guide to new readers. If you find yourself getting overfaced by all the stuff Fun Publications put out, I'd recommend just reading the twelve Beast Wars: Uprising prose stories, which stand head and shoulders above the rest of their output. And if you're after an order for IDW's comics by any chance, the wiki's page for their first continuity is mostly my doing too, and works similarly. Thanks for reminding me this thing existed - maybe I'll try and rework it at some point lmao
