We Blessed and Hung Low, Like Bernie Mac.
Berni cover to issue 101. Note how the main difference is cut off...
Addendum 16: The Berni Inn Funtime Specials: Issues 101, 107, 113, 115, 130.
The most obscure (if not valuable, as my weeping bank balance will testify when it comes to some of the latter reprint specials) Transformers comics Marvel ever did were originally given out for free as a means of placating bored children whilst their parents tried to enjoy what Wikipedia claims was the Great British Meal.
Berni Inns were a bit of a puzzle to me, despite it turning out that we had one in my town. It seems however they were basically a fast food steakhouse, the first attempt to bring the McDonald’s formula to the UK, resulting in what at one time was the biggest such franchise outside of America (again, according to Wikipedia). Now long since took over and absorbed into Beefeater, they sound pretty tacky with their faux Tudor décor and exotic prawn cocktail starters.
Luckily, it’s not the food we’re here to discuss but the deal they did with Marvel in 1987 to provide free comics. Doctor Who Magazine is the only title other than Transformers I’ve found to be included, but (and expect to hear this a lot), there’s so little information available it’s hard to be sure, certainly the time period is right for them to include this promotional work in their attempts to make people care about Action Force.
Readers of the interview I did with Lloyd Young (as mentioned last week, which can be read HERE) will know there were at least five issues made available as the chain, though the long gap between 115 and 130 suggests there might be at least one extra one in there. These don’t come up for sale very often, so when the Berni versions of 101 and 107 popped up on Ebay last week it was an offer I couldn’t resist. I was especially excited to see the nerdgasm inducing differences that would no doubt exist from the “regular” versions, especially when it came to editorial content that presumably would have to be shifted. Would there be a special Transformation introducing the series? Would the Next Week box be changed? After all, they’d altered the covers to remove issue numbers and the price, plus to add a Berni Funtime cut out voucher (what these get you didn’t come up on my research), so it wasn’t just a straightforward re-purposing of surplus stock.
So imagine the slight sense of anticlimax when the two issues arrived and, covers aside, they were completely identical to the originals in every single way, including the Captain Rik competition in issue 107. This last detail suggests the issues were made available the same week they hit the shops (rather than, say, Marvel recovering old surplus stock or printing up issues picked as a show-piece), so as to avoid entries to a long closed competition, though considering the gaps between Berni issues they might have been available to grab for longer than seven days.
The most obscure (if not valuable, as my weeping bank balance will testify when it comes to some of the latter reprint specials) Transformers comics Marvel ever did were originally given out for free as a means of placating bored children whilst their parents tried to enjoy what Wikipedia claims was the Great British Meal.
Berni Inns were a bit of a puzzle to me, despite it turning out that we had one in my town. It seems however they were basically a fast food steakhouse, the first attempt to bring the McDonald’s formula to the UK, resulting in what at one time was the biggest such franchise outside of America (again, according to Wikipedia). Now long since took over and absorbed into Beefeater, they sound pretty tacky with their faux Tudor décor and exotic prawn cocktail starters.
Luckily, it’s not the food we’re here to discuss but the deal they did with Marvel in 1987 to provide free comics. Doctor Who Magazine is the only title other than Transformers I’ve found to be included, but (and expect to hear this a lot), there’s so little information available it’s hard to be sure, certainly the time period is right for them to include this promotional work in their attempts to make people care about Action Force.
Readers of the interview I did with Lloyd Young (as mentioned last week, which can be read HERE) will know there were at least five issues made available as the chain, though the long gap between 115 and 130 suggests there might be at least one extra one in there. These don’t come up for sale very often, so when the Berni versions of 101 and 107 popped up on Ebay last week it was an offer I couldn’t resist. I was especially excited to see the nerdgasm inducing differences that would no doubt exist from the “regular” versions, especially when it came to editorial content that presumably would have to be shifted. Would there be a special Transformation introducing the series? Would the Next Week box be changed? After all, they’d altered the covers to remove issue numbers and the price, plus to add a Berni Funtime cut out voucher (what these get you didn’t come up on my research), so it wasn’t just a straightforward re-purposing of surplus stock.
So imagine the slight sense of anticlimax when the two issues arrived and, covers aside, they were completely identical to the originals in every single way, including the Captain Rik competition in issue 107. This last detail suggests the issues were made available the same week they hit the shops (rather than, say, Marvel recovering old surplus stock or printing up issues picked as a show-piece), so as to avoid entries to a long closed competition, though considering the gaps between Berni issues they might have been available to grab for longer than seven days.
More funtime to be had with issue 107.
This is backed up by the issue choices, all the first part (or billed that way anyway, two issues are really from the far longer Galvatron and the Volcano storyline) of two part stories. Effectively a free sample to get kids hooked before they’re forced to actually go and buy the conclusion the following week. Making Marvel UK fiendishly like Mr Big from Live and Let Die.
And I thought that would be all I’d be writing on this, until my attempts at research came across a thread at TMUK where poster Jim Wilson happened to be talking about the contents of the Berni version of issue 130. Which had no Transformation page—I don’t mean they replaced it, it’s literally a lazy white page apart from the box with artwork from the issue—and replaced the Headmasters competition with an advert for Action Force. His photos of the differences in the two versions of 130 can be seen below.
Why they bothered here but not before is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps there had been entries for finished competitions and the annoyance of this resulted in a quick edit. Or it might be a side effect of the shift from Ian Rimmer to Furman as editor of the comic. Or there’s another reason, lost to the mists of history (if Berni had branches in the Republic or Ireland or other places that competition might not have been valid for example). Either way, it’s an interesting little curio that the style changed during the run of issues.
But, other than acknowledging this promotional stunt must have been considered a success by Berni to be run for at least seven months, a curio is really all these issues are. When it comes to the rare stuff, even the most bizarrely covered Special from the final days of the Marvel licence is more interesting in and of itself. Unless you were a kid who first discovered the book through Berni or are an insane completest, they’re very easy to skip and not worth the very patient waiting it takes for one to come up for sale.
Hell, I’m an insane completest and I suspect I’ll be selling these on. I mean, they didn’t even have the Funtime voucher. And I want my Funtime.
Oh well, let’s hop forward in time again and see if Optimus Prime and Scorponok are as impressed by the Funtime Megatron has just sent them.
ISSUE 247
1989
COMMENT
And I thought that would be all I’d be writing on this, until my attempts at research came across a thread at TMUK where poster Jim Wilson happened to be talking about the contents of the Berni version of issue 130. Which had no Transformation page—I don’t mean they replaced it, it’s literally a lazy white page apart from the box with artwork from the issue—and replaced the Headmasters competition with an advert for Action Force. His photos of the differences in the two versions of 130 can be seen below.
Why they bothered here but not before is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps there had been entries for finished competitions and the annoyance of this resulted in a quick edit. Or it might be a side effect of the shift from Ian Rimmer to Furman as editor of the comic. Or there’s another reason, lost to the mists of history (if Berni had branches in the Republic or Ireland or other places that competition might not have been valid for example). Either way, it’s an interesting little curio that the style changed during the run of issues.
But, other than acknowledging this promotional stunt must have been considered a success by Berni to be run for at least seven months, a curio is really all these issues are. When it comes to the rare stuff, even the most bizarrely covered Special from the final days of the Marvel licence is more interesting in and of itself. Unless you were a kid who first discovered the book through Berni or are an insane completest, they’re very easy to skip and not worth the very patient waiting it takes for one to come up for sale.
Hell, I’m an insane completest and I suspect I’ll be selling these on. I mean, they didn’t even have the Funtime voucher. And I want my Funtime.
Oh well, let’s hop forward in time again and see if Optimus Prime and Scorponok are as impressed by the Funtime Megatron has just sent them.
ISSUE 247
1989
COMMENT
