I remember 75-80 from childhood, specifically grabbing them from a comic carousel at the local grocery store and my grandma buying them for me (1 per month, as they came out) and I remember, as a kid, thinking how cool this skeleton guy was that I didn’t recognize but who was nonetheless leading the decepticons.

 

Yes. Newsstand copies are even more rare than direct and demand a higher price in high grade. I love that issue 80 gets a little snarky stating that it’s issue 80 in a 4 issue limited series. Lol

 

The concept art for that commercial is a pretty cool find.  

 

Those are there versions I alwaysconnect to. Cartoon shockwave can't shoot for shit  

 

I grew up watching alot of TV in the 70's & 80's, it was my favorite pastime. I was really passionate about comedies like 3's Company, action like 6 Million Dollar Man, funny and serious cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Dungeons&Dragons.

Then it all changed in 1984 when I saw this commercial.
I realized at that moment, that this was the greatest thing I had ever seen on Television.

Thank you Sunbow, for changing my world.

 

Hey, that's my YouTube channel and my copy of that ad  

 

In Optimus Prime's 1st words on planet Earth,
"Thanks!"  

 

I had to upload a nicer version of it than whatever had been on YouTube for years

 

What a cool bit of history. Long live Transformers!

 

Now they\'ll feel old....

 

Man, all these years and Transformers is still a big part of my life.

I remember when the kids in my class were split between the Transformers fans and the Go Bots fans. Transformers just seemed cooler (imo).

No disrespect to Go Bots fans, but there's still a part of me that's still gloating about how those franchises did compared to each other.

Guess I never really grew up.

 

Bought it off the spinner rack (I think, it might have been a magazine stand) at The Tamrack when they had a restaurant back then we’d go eat at on the occasional Sunday. Read and re-read it until it was just falling to tatters. Never was able to get #2 until I found the digest that collect #1&2 in the little Archie size at a grocery store. Otherwise, I had a subscription starting with 6 or 7 until the bitter end!

Still have my originals of the Furman run.

One of my favorite things ever.  

also, #4, to my naive self had to have had one of the most shocking* endings of all time, when you that that was it, the only story we were ever going to get…. And everyone died!?!?!?

*pun not intended, but accepted.

 

I never liked the direction of comic much. And as much as I appreciate Budianski's contribution to the franchise (the bios) I felt that his stories were too marvel; way too much spotlight on humans and trying to put Transformers into this misunderstood/outlaw hero archetype. For me the cartoon did it better. I think it was a more suited medium for the franchise.

But dang 38 years old... That's a long time ago.. Also can't believe I'm that old and still feel connected to the franchise. Well done Sunbow and Marvel.

 

Happy birthday, Transformers! Here's to the next thirty-eight years of entertaining stories and cool toys!
 

 

Weird to see black helmeted Megatron, and a completely different Ark design! I vaguely remember seeing this before...
Still prefer the Marvel TF comics to any newer ones. Even with the UK/US discrepancies it tells a cohesive story, unlike IDWs.

LOL, I remember that cover. Funnily, due to distribution mess-up by Semic in Hungary (and Poland), we continued right after that issue with the one where Skids fights Ravage in a mineshaft (and gets erotic car washes from scantly clad ladies).  

Yeah, he focused too much on humans early on, thinking people would find the TFs too alien to relate to. That changed later though. I think we would not have War For Cybertron, game and toyline and all, without his Into the Smelting Pool stories.

None of us did, really, or we would not be posting here today!  
And yeah, even back in the 80ies (it wasn't until 87 or so that we over the Iron Curtain got to see Transformers cartoons) that I found Gobots to be much sillier. I watched it, sure, but it got old really fast that almost every episode just had the 3 main characters from both sides, plus the annoying humans, when Transformers focused on a much larger cast. And was better animated too, and the characters had no silly faces, like Turbo's clown nose.
I still collect Gobots - even japanese Machine Robo - and I like the toys, but when it comes to cartoons, Transformers was the clear winner.

 

Wow what a thought really makes a guy feel nostalgic I still remember the first time I read a marvel comic it was the Target 2006 story line. The only Transformers I had seen at the time was the 2007 movie so it was strange reading a transformers comic that had so little of Optimus but I loved Ultra Magus who quickly became one my all time personal fan favourites. Wonder what they\'ll come up with next? (Hopefully not some woke pc nonsense)

 

#4 had an alternate ending which wrapped up the whole miniseries, once the sales figures for the other 3 issues came in they knew they had a hit and changed the ending to fit an ongoing formula

 

Till All Are One!

 

Go-Bots sucked.  

 

Seekers with Gerwalk Mode. Kawamori should be proud.

That font Marvel chose though, now I see why it went to the Inhumanoids.