The Transformers brand was effectively finished by 1991 in the US, with the last embers fading out early in the year as the long-running Marvel comic finished in both the US and the UK – with a promise that the comic would continue in the UK being utterly, cruelly dashed at the last by Marvel UK itself folding. The Transformers toyline in Japan started to slow down with fewer new toys released as Takara’s new Brave franchise found its legs and took Transformers’ place as the company’s main transforming robot action property. In Europe, Australia and Canada, some toy releases continued, with a handful of additional Action Masters, reissued original toys and even some Japanese imports. Even in this bleakest of times, the Transformers brand soldiered on.
Marvel’s Transformers issue #80, End of the Road, marked the end of the Generation 1 Transformers comics[/size]
Marvel’s Transformers comics came to an end with issue 80 (of a four-issue limited series) published in May 1991. The final issues of the series found the Autobots without their leader and with a Cybertron that was falling apart now that Primus had been terminated; the fragile alliance with the Decepticons quickly crumbled without a common enemy. Amidst it all, the Neo-Knights and Optimus Prime’s former Powermaster partner Hi-Q were left behind and forgotten. They would prove to be the salvation of the Transformers’, uncovering the ancient Transformer known as the Last Autobot. The Last Autobot recognized the hidden truth about Hi-Q, and through him, Optimus Prime was reborn. The newly reborn Optimus Prime intervened in a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on the planet Klo. In the final moments of the issue, Optimus Prime revealed that Cybertron was saved by the awakening of the Last Autobot, and the Autobots returned home, while the remaining Decepticons under Bludgeon’s leadership departed for distant systems.
For the final issues of the Marvel UK Transformers comics, the main strip was a reprint of the US strips, with a reprinted UK strip as the backup comic, some of which was presented in color rather than black and white like the original strips.
Illustration from Marvel UK’s 1991 Transformers annual story “Another Time and Place”, which tied up some of the loose ends from the final issues of the series[/size]
The 1991 UK Transformers annual is of special significance. In addition to reprints of the “Survivors” arc featuring Carnivac, the annual featured a text story titled Another Time and Place, which was set after the final issue of Generation 1 and served to wrap up a few loose ends from the story. The story has Grimlock and the Dinobots returning to Hydrus Four to find a cure for side effects related to the use of Nucleon, which Grimlock felt guilty about. Grimlock discovers Bludgeon is commandeering a facility on the planet to revive Megatron. Optimus Prime, initially withdrawn, is roused into action and personally leads a strike team to save Grimlock. Swoop kills Bludgeon, using the machinery that was rebuilding Megatron to dismantle the Decepticon. Grimlock discovers the Decepticons have refined Nucleon and uses it to restore his transformation, and together with Optimus Prime they destroy the partially-revived Megatron. The story ends with Optimus Prime vowing not to become withdrawn again, even as a new threat creeps into the picture.
Another Time and Place is an interesting story. As a conclusion to the series, it wraps up the story of Nucleon and of Bludgeon quite nicely, and also gives Optimus Prime some interesting characterization, following on from his death and rebirth in issues 75 – 80. While this version of the conclusion of Generation 1 is obviously truncated by being fit into a dozen pages of text, there are a lot of parallels with the later Regeneration 1 series, including a withdrawn Optimus not being roused into action until one of the other Autobots decides to go it alone and Grimlock seeking a cure for the side-effects of Nucleon. While the other details differ, it is curious how much the broad-brush elements are in step with the later Regeneration 1, suggesting that at least some of that series was what might have happened, had Transformers not ended with issue 80. The ending suggests a plan to continue the story in a version of Transformers Generation 2, but the other elements of the published Generation 2 comics are at odds with other details of the story.
Return of Convoy’s leading ‘bot, Star Convoy, was a reborn version of the original Convoy / Optimus Prime. He was reissued in 2005 which is the version you see here. Photo by Chaos Muffin[/size]
The Transformers toyline continued in Japan, in a much reduced capacity, and notably 1991 saw no new Destrons released for the Japanese market. This was in spite of the original big bad, Megatron, appearing in the backstory of the year’s toyline in Japan in a new form. 1991’s toyline in Japan was titled Return of Convoy. The premise was that a new evil entity named Dark Nova had arisen and in his first act of evil, he resurrected Galvatron (still lost under the ice of the arctic after his defeat in Headmasters) as Super Megatron. To combat the menace of a resurrected version of their ultimate nemesis, the Cybertrons resurrected the original Convoy (Optimus Prime) as Star Convoy. Together with the Cybertrons Sky Garry, Grandus and Sixliner, Star Convoy defeated Super Megatron and his upgraded formUltra Megatron, before putting an end to the evil of Dark Nova once and for all – but not before Megatron and Dark Nova merged into a single, monstrous creature known as Star Giant. The story was primarily told across a series of story pages in the 12 issues of TV Magazine published in Japan between February 1991 and January 1992.
As noted, the villains for this story never got toys of their own – although rumors persist that Super Megatron might have been designed at one point. The basis of these rumors seems to be a similarly designed toy named Gunkid in the 1996 Brave Command Dagwon toyline. This is likely just a coincidence though give the limited number of ways to design a transforming space gun robot. Also of interest is that an early story treatment, found in the first promotional catalog for the line, suggested that the Megatron-reviving big bad was Unicron, although he was never referred to by name – there was just some artwork which was clearly Unicron.
On to the toys that actually did see the light of day. Star Convoy, the “hero” character for the line, was a large futuristic truck who could transform to robot form as well as a base for Micromasters, much like the Powered Masters from the 1990 Zone series. Like Dai Atlas, Star Convoy featured motorized treads that let him roll out in truck mode and robot mode. His release was accompanied by Sky Garry, a large flying carrier, and Grandus, a squat, bulky robot who effectively laid down on his chest to transform. Grandus’ strength though was as a base – in base mode, his whole front opened into a series of platforms, served by a lift. The lift could be powered by the tread unit on Star Convoy by way of a special connector part. Sky Garry’s gimmick was completely unrelated – he had no special features that could be powered by Star Convoy. Instead he could carry up to three “Microtrailers” in his vehicle mode, and drop them at the push of a button. Microtrailers were included with all the 1991 release Micromaster sets. They were trucks that could fit a single Micromaster in their trailers. Spring loaded catapults let them launch the Micromasters into action.
The other notable release of the 1991 lineup was Sixliner, a combiner made up of six Micromasters. Like Devastator in 1985, Sixliner’s combination was made possible by a lot of additional parts. The Sixliner Micromaster set was, along with the Powered Masters and team Star Convoy, a Japan only release; indeed none of these toys have ever seen a release outside of Japan. Sixliner was only sold as a set, and presumably proved popular enough to warrant a further four teams being made in 1992.
1991 Action Master Transformers, including Sideswipe, Thundercracker, Bombshell, Slicer, and the Action Master Elites Omega Spreem, Turbomaster, Double Punch and Windmill[/size]
Europe, along with Australia and Canada, also got new Transformers in 1991. Some of the new releases carried on the Action Masters series, with a further set of six Action Masters. These six, which included Action Master versions of Sideswipe, Bombshell and Tracks, varied the Action Master gimmick – their partners, instead of forming weapons, would attach to the backs of the figures and form armored helmets. This new theme continued through the boxed releases, who came with vehicles that transformed into exosuits for an Action Master to pilot. The exosuit series included an Action Master version of Thundercracker who is the epitome of the garish colors of the era, along with the evil Wheeljack clone Slicer, his Autobot nemesis Rumbler, and the Autobot Circuit. Slicer and Rumbler came with motorized vehicles which rolled in vehicle or exosuit form.
The final, and rarest, Action Masters released were the Action Master Elites. The Elites were a set of four Action Masters who could transform. The transformations were admittedly crude – one release, Omega Spreem, basically just bent over for his alternate mode. The four were all new names, though three of the four seemed to resemble older characters – Omega Spreem was effectively a new take on Omega Supreme, Double Punch was something of a Black Zarak / Scorponok lookalike, and Turbomaster was a pink and purple Bruticus. The odd one out was Windmill. The four are notoriously rare, only being available in a few markets. They are also some of the best designed figures in the set, all four being nice, chunky yet detailed robots.
Beyond Action Masters, 1991 also brought more Classics reissues, including the Combiner teams. 1991 also brought over some Japanese toys for foreign markets. These releases included Overlord, whose release could have been a testing of the waters for how well a larger toy might perform, and the three Transformers Victory Brainmaster cars as the Motorvators. The latter trio had their combining parts removed and all these releases had their decos tweaked for this release. The release of Overlord in Europe, in addition to being the first and only outing outside of Japan for the toy, would inspire two fans, Nick Roche and James Roberts, who would nearly 20 years on incorporate Overlord into a little something called Last Stand of the Wreckers…
Superquad7
Agreed! Maybe @Sol Fury can give another one soon!
Back in
Need a update but that ok
Phantformer5533
Thank you for all these links! I definitely needed this in order to make my own list. Glory to transformers!
Vik
Awesome, such a dense history!
Metro Prime
Thanks. I have been doing that since that post. TF Wiki has been answering a lot of questions.
batfan007
You can always read some pages over at TFWIKI to catch up on those years, covers pretty much everthing.
John Does
Awsome looking forward,…
Metro Prime
It took me days to read all of this!
Excellent and informative write up. I'm impressed and it filled in a few blanks for me. I've been collecting since G1 with a few years of breaks until I started a major effort into collecting through the Energon era, the beginning of the Classics line, and intermittently through the years til I saw Titans Return and have been heavily collecting since. This write up has shown me where some of my more eclectic figures have originated.
Is there an update from 2015 to current in the works? I'd love to see what else I've missed.
Excaliberprime
good info here
Abishai100
Gen 1 – Gen 2
I think a good way to think about the immense shift in style and content between TG1 (Transformers Generation 1) and TG2 is to think about how the toys, cartoons, and comics focused more on variability of character significance for various storylines. TG1 offered stories relevant to particular characters, but TG2 offered a more liberal attitude towards who could be a randomized figurehead in a given storyline!
That's why TG2 was the 'gateway' to the modern Transformers era which focuses much more on general concepts and character randomization than did TG1.
That's also why TG1 is the ideal intro for anyone looking to become a Transformers fan. Hey, isn't that why we all love Transformers: The Movie (1986), the real art-piece that began showing us conceptual bridges between TG1 and TG2?
ChromedomeMaster
35 years of transformers, and i have only been apart of it for 10 years
3 Wheeler
I like the Long Haul Pic!!!
Djin
Great read
Blam320
That's really too bad. You're missing out on a lot, and I mean a lot of really good Transformers stuff by only caring about G1.
Rodimus Prime BetterPrime
For years I've wanted the G1 series in a blu-ray release. With this year marking its 35th anniversary, hopefully we'll finally get it. I don't care about anything but G1.