Transformers Classics UK Volume 1

I love both the US & the UK Transformers comics. While the US Transformers comic had a great start it then got spotty for a bit until Simon Furman took over. The UK comics however were nothing but awesome straight from the get-go. Even when the format turned into 5 page stories in black and white each issue, it still had some very good stories for the most part, although I wish Furman had made the Earhforce stories a little easier to place in the continuity. It was only towards the very end that it jumped the shark, but even then the last 3 stories weren’t the worst of the series. I have all of the Titan Books collections (except for Legacy of Unicron & Second Generation) & have read them countless times over the years. They always entertain, though I wish they had arranged the stories in a more chronological order. It wasn’t so bad for the color collections, but the black and white volumes were just all over the place but hey, what can you do? I got this collection because it’s the only way to get some of these stories. I paid less than $10 for it with shipping & handling, & it was so good I for one won’t mind double dipping (like I did with the DVDs of the cartoon) if it means a better and more complete collection, especially if they color the black & white strips. Here’s a review of the stories. Man of Iron: I had read this one previously in issues 33 & 34 of the US comic, & it’s still quite good. By the way, if you’re wondering about where this story and the next 2 fit in the continuity, don’t believe what the text says in here. I’m going to quote TFArchive. It’s best to slot this story after issue #40. Enemy Within: This was actually one of the major incentives for me to buy this (along with Crisis of Command). I am a huge Brawn fan. He was the first character I latched onto in the cartoon. This was a wonderful spotlight for him & Starscream. I’m sorry Mr. Furman was hesitant to see this reprinted. True, it’s not his best work but it’s definitely not his worst (That would be the black and white story where after the Time Wars Rodimus Prime & crew find themselves in a future where Galvatron is alive despite having just been killed and the Decepticons rule Cybertron and Rodimus can’t kill him because he’ll kill every other Autobot-I’m sorry but, what were you thinking Simon?!). As for the continuity, I quote TFArchive. This story & the next one best take place between #56 & #57. The only problem is the reference to Windcharger beating the Guardian in #32, but you can easily ignore that line, can’t you? Anyways, the only bad thing about this story is the art. Raiders of the Last Ark: Almost as good as the previous story, though Auntie is the dumbest name for a computer ever. I always pretend it‘s Teletran-1. Decepticon Dam-Busters: A very good adaption of the cartoon episode. Wrath of the Guardian/Wrath of Grimlock: This is where Furman really came into his own. The Dinobots rock in this excellent story. Christmas Breaker: I actually enjoyed this. I didn’t think I would, but it was not bad in the least. Circuit Breaker has always been one of my favorite villains in the comic. Crisis of Command: My other favorite in this collection. This is a fantastic little story, probably the best story in the comic not written by Simon Furman or Bob Budiansky. Then there’s the 1985 Annual, which consists of these stories: Plague of the Insecticons: The weakest of this Annual’s stories. It doesn’t fit either in the comic series or the cartoon, & it’s not very good so why bother? And There Shall Come… A Leader!: By far the best story in the Annual. Missing In Action: I liked it. Hardly the best story, but not bad. While it might be hard to place in the comic, it could easily fit in the cartoon. Hunted: Readable, but not memorable. The Jumpstarters on Earth make it impossible to fit in the continuity, though I suppose this could take place in the cartoon. Another really good collection of Transformers comics. Highly recommended if you like the US Marvel comics.

I loved this book. The first volume of 5, it reprints the early Marvel UK Transformers stories, with a history of the comic and background and interviews with the creators.

I have read the us transformers before but never the uk ones. I found that the uk stories were far better than any of the us comics I have read so far . My only complaint is that the plot can be hard to follow since it mainly just works around the us stories and heavily references them so its best to read the us stories first.

It was amazing to read the story of the Transformers UK comic book series. I was fascinated to find they re-printed the American comics but also added stories of their own in the second half of their issues. This series of collections volumes are the UK stories. I enjoyed the artwork, which was hand-painted and beautiful. The stories themselves were fun to read and because they had to be self-contained they all had a good resolutions and were complete stories in themselves. I can’t wait to read the rest of these. Top notch content and seeing the British dialog was a lot of fun, especially when a story was taking place in America.

I like the Transformers Classics UK But these books including volume 2 are too expensive! I understand these books have Marvel UK original Transformers comics material but I feel the prices are too high! I only recommend these Transformers UK Classics books if you can afford them. But for people who have a limited budget, I would not recommend buying the new volumes as they are published. There must be an easier way to get these books without having to pay $25-$30 for each book purchased. I like the Transformers UK Classics books but if you can't afford it, Do Not buy them. C

It is a good book, interesting stories. It was a great read!

I've always wanted to read the UK-exclusive comics, but it was too daunting to collect because info on which issues contained exclusive content was extremely hard to find. The work has finally been done for me!! This book is AWESOME. The stories are fantastic. The artwork is great, as many of these strips are painted with paintbrush. But most important to me (with my extreme collect-em all mentality) is that this is the COMPLETE works of UK Transformers, including material from the main comic strip as well as material that appeared elsewhere, such as the "Transformers Annual". There is tons of bonus materials. Every strip has background info and interviews with the creators, which sometimes gets too technical, but may be of interest to comic diehards... but I'd rather them deluge us with info, than leave things out. This book contains all the UK covers, old Transformers ads, all kinds of other Transformers segments that appeared in the comics, tryout artwork from current artists, and everything else they could find. This book was meticulously assembled by someone who really cared. This piece of G1 is finally available for American fans. I can't recommend it high enough for fans of the cartoon and toys.

IDW's collections of Transformers Classics UK are awesome. They are a must for any Transformers comics fan! The quality of the paperback and paper stock is good. The pages are not the glossy stock most comics and tpb's are the quality is still good and fits with the 80's style. But the extras are what make it worth it. Many times when a comic is reprinted and/or collected there isn't many extras included (except maybe cover reprints). So having in-depth articles, etc make it accessible for fans (such as myself) who wouldn't normally know all the cool little bits of info. and funner to read the stories because of it! The extras include in-depth articles with Simon Furman and others about the history of Transformers UK and each story. Plus there are adverts, covers and other bonus reprints.

Having being a fan since issue 3 of the UK Transformers comic (it would have been since #1 but I couldn't find it anywhere!) I ordered this for nostalgia more than anything. I still have most of the original print run but they are getting worse for wear these days. This is a pretty amazing collection offering a plethora of extra material along side the reprinted stories. From Page 3 with the reprint of the very first page from the first Transformers annual, you know you are in for a special ride. Following the foreword by James Roberts there are 16 pages of information regarding the TFUK comics, from pictures of the 2 page calendars they ran every month, the posters, free gifts and even the legendary letters page. From there it's to the stories proper. Each story is preceded by several pages of the covers as well as text bringing the reader up to pace on what's happened, why and how it fits in to the timeline. The stories are presented mostly in colour although there are the occasional black and white pages, but they are few and far between. Once the main stories are complete you are presented the original 1986 annual! The comic and prose stories! Fantatsic! There's then a few old adverts from the comics and a few "Interface Fact Files" to top it off. Overall, I am well impressed by the thought put into this collection. The quality of the reproduction is as good as you could expect for its age and is printed on heavy quality matt paper. This is one for fans, regardless of whether you were there at the beginning or not.

Transformers Classics UK Volume 1 is the first in a series of books providing the definitive collection of Marvel UK's weekly Transformers comic series, which ran from 1984 to 1992. Whilst a few of the UK series best stories have been collected previously, this is the first time that all of the UK originated material has been collected in one place. This particular volume collects the following stories: 'Man of Iron', in which Autobots and Decepticons travel to England to investigate signs of Transformers life buried below a medieval castle. 'The Enemy Within', where the Autobot Brawn and Decepticon Starscream must do battle to the death to prove their loyalty to their respective factions. 'Raiders of the Last Ark', starring the Arks sentient computer and the first appearence of the Autobot 'Guardian' robots. 'Decepticon Dam Busters', a comic book recreation of episode 2 of the Transformers animated series, which saw Optimus Prime and Megatron battle atop Sherman dam. 'The Wrath of the Guardian/Grimlock': The first UK story featuring the Dinobots, recently recovered by Ratchet from the Savage Land, and returning to the Ark to discover it protected by a rogue Guardian robot. 'Christmas Breaker', starring the human hero Circuit Breaker v's Jazz. 'Crisis of Command', where Optimus Prime must decide how to unite the divided ranks of the Autobots, half of which want to remain loyal to their Autobot ideals, with the other half wanting to create a breed of dedicated Autobot warriors to end their war with the Decepticons, despite the cost to the human population of Earth. Also reprinted in this volume for the first time are stories from the 1986 Transformers annual, 'A plague of Inscecticons', 'And there shall come a leader...', and the text story 'Missing in Action'. Whilst the quality of story and art vary quite dramatically in the stories collected here, the quality of both improves markedly as the volume goes on and as the creative teams began to find their feet with the characters, concepts and ideas. All however are an essential part of Transformers lore, with most of the stories here never reprinted beyond the 'collected comics' that were released periodically during the 80's and early 90's, and none of these stories (apart from 'Man of Iron') were ever printed in the U.S comic series that ran alongside the U.K series, and so were largely denied to American fans. If you, like me, are a long term collector of Transformers comics, was there from the beginning, or have previously managed to collect all of these stories in their individual issues, then dont distress because there is still plenty of additional material here that may make a purchase worthwhile. This includes reprints of all of the advertisments, factfiles, covers, competitions and calenders that appeared in these issues, as well as a comprehensive history behind the history of Transformers UK, including a digest of each individual story, interviews with artists and writers, and other bonus material (such as artist Geoff Seniors try-out for the comic). For any person looking for quality Transformers tales, interested in the history of the Transformers comic franchise, or looking for the definitive collection of UK material, then this book is a must for you.

Bought this book out of nostagia for the Transformers comic I used to get as a child - certainly a superior incarnation than the current films. The book comes with a bit of background about how it came to be created, which is quite interesting. Credit is deserved for creating an interesting plot around something which could have been seen as a cynical marketing exercise. Knowing now that the UK comics were non-canon, makes them seem limited in scope, although at the time they seemed to fit in quite well. Did find I got tired of the constant changing of the characters eventually, but the comics did have a good run.

I am in some ways the ideal purchaser for these volumes. I loved the Transformers Comic when I was young, waiting excitedly each week for the next issue (I can't believe that was about 28 years ago!). Over the years my collection of comics have been lost but to now have them available again is fantastic. To look through the book and see the great artwork, some of which I could still remember, and to see the covers reproduced brought memories flooding back. These are only the UK stories. It would have been nice if we could have had the US stories too, so we could have had the complete linear sequence of all the stories available in the UK comic. However the US stories are available elsewhere. As others have said too, there is also quite a wide border around the comic strips and it would have been nice if that could have been made a little smaller and the strip itself made correspondingly larger. These are only minor gripes however and basically I loved this book. I will now have to get all the others in the series too: Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 Transformers Classics UK Volume 3 Transformers Classics UK Volume 4 Transformers Classics UK Volume 5

A great volume allowing me to read the early marvel uk editions before I started reading the comics every week. As well as the stories you get articles from the authors and some of the fact files and letters pages from the comics. This is a great edition for a fan at the time or someone new to any of the transformers franchises.