Boy, does Kup feel naked without his stogie.
Can't picture him without one nowadays.

 

Hopefully it's a sign that this series will get to finish, one way or another.

 

I wasn't expecting this! I mean... I guess IDW have the license until the end of 2022 and this broadly fits their "one Collection per six months" schedule... and I guess they would like to make money more than they'd like to not make money   so in retrospect I shouldn't be surprised.

 

Jeez. This only gets to OP 10 and LL 12. No way they finish this before the license goes. We’d need another 3 volumes or so?

Damn shame as I really a good collection of Unicron that incorporates the Optimus Prime issues.

 

If their sales are good, does anyone think it likely they might come to an agreement with Hasbro that they can complete their collection because it's not new works technically?

I really hope so, would love to collect the last phase of their collected volumes.

If idw said they could do it, that would probably boost their sales too.

 

No doubt Hasbro owns the work product for the IDW series so the new licensee should be able to republish/continue no problem, but it'd be nice if IDW rushed these out too, just in case the licensee isn't interested.

How many more volumes do people estimate? At the time I only read TF Optimus and Lost Light so I have no idea how many side series there are that might be padding out phase 3...

 

Wow, cool. Wasn't expecting it.

Then again, it's not in my hands and could go the way of delays....

 

I've seen a few people estimate a total of six for Phase 3, which would be three more volumes.

 

Three sounds so close. I wish they could figure out a way to do it...

 

That is such a weird concept but I feel you so hard on that one.

 

If they pick up the pace just a little bit, they may just make it. lets all hope.

 

One thing worth noting RE: whether this series will be finished is that IDW already let the licences lapse for several properties like Action Man and MASK, resulting in their solo books and crossovers like Revolution being delisted from digital platforms like comiXology.

Despite that, however, IDW are proving able to still release Revolution in these Phase 3 volumes. This is speculation, but it may be that IDW has negotiated some kind of agreement with Hasbro to allow them to continue releasing specifically just these IDW Collection volumes after the relevant licences end?

 

I wouldn't be surprised at all if they worked out some deal like that, or at least ensured that the new publisher would finish the series. 17 years of partnership has to earn IDW that favor, I'd think.

 

And I just learn of this now… dang, since I didn’t think of that now I have to hope there’s another sale for these collections soon…

 

I hope they continue them. I fell off the comic reading train several years ago. Maybe around MTMTE 5? Honestly can't remember. So last month I decided to start over from scratch with Phase 1 Volume 1.

I know a lot of people don't like the IDW Collection order but it's not too bad and, honestly, I almost always prefer publication date for comics. That's the order you would have read as a fan if you were keeping up with them as they released. Though that can sometimes not be great either due to different writers, deadlines, etc. There's been a couple slogs here and there but it's been fun overall.

I'm finally at Phase 1 Volume 7 or maybe 8 lol. It would be a shame if they can't finish Phase 3.

 

Later volumes seem to have fixed that problem.

 

Oh man - stoked about this! Good to know we\'ll get at least the volumes into stage 3. 
Hope you\'re right AwesomenessPrime - and they can keep publishing these until they\'re finished. 
Danforth - my only concern is that this collection was already in the pipeline and happens to be when they still have the license. Hoping that September will bring news of Volune 4 - then i won\'t have to panic and buy trades of the remainder.

Also, (passing thought) - wondering if the new book - Last Bot Standing, by Nick Roche and EJ Su could be read as part of the series - its meant to be a kind of end of franchise story. As per below:
Transformers: Last Bot Standing - Transformers Wiki 

 

Man, Revolution, Revolutionaries, and First Strike are all no longer available because of IDW loosing the rights.

So the omnibuses are the only means of getting them now. Guess that settles it then, I’m getting them.