Transformation 139: 'Ello John, Got a New Motah?

9/1/2015

This week, it's a Roller-skating adventure for Blaster, a stressful day for Wheeljack, Scorponok has his bubble burst and Big Steve is exactly like what you'd imagine a second hand car salesman to be like.

All in my look at issue 139!

11 Comments

Harry

9/1/2015 08:57:35 am

Ah, the tyrannical Tyrannosaurus! Even as a boy, I felt that the heavy-handed treatment of Grimlock in the US-originated stories was too much, and it is difficult to believe that the Autobots, whose ranks still contained the battle-hardened 1984/1985 characters for the most part, would have stood idly by and allowed him to behave so abysmally. I suppose having Furman's hard as nails but fair commander of a crack platoon to compare him with always meant that King Grimlock would come across a poor second, however.
That said, I think the idea of an Autobot leader, even had they used Grimlock, and he could certainly make sense, less concerned with the welfare of humans and more wrapped up in finishing the Decepticon threat by whatever means was very interesting, and could have been excellent had he not been written as a de facto Silver Age supervillain with Captain Caveman speech patterns (though even this Grimlock is noticably more intelligent than his cartoon counterpart). Not to knock Budiansky, when he was good (the run of stories immediately after the initial 4 part mini, The Smelting Pool etc) he was damn good. It's tempting to wonder where he would have gone had he not felt constant pressure to continually introduce new toys to the ongoing storyline (though it could be argued that Furman also felt this pressure, yet dealt better with it).

snowkatt

9/1/2015 05:23:58 pm

nah furman didnt really had the pressure to introduce new toys
that was all budiansky
hasbro didnt really care much about what the uk comic was doing
the us comic was their main focus
the comic and the cartoon off course

and whatever new toys the us comic introduced the uk comic would automatically reprint so there was no need for furman to deal with it

and when he did the results were ...dubious
the only time furman had to specifically introduce new toys were the combiner teams in second generation
and that 3 parter isnt stellar

other times he just ignores the gimmick alltogether ( headmasters unless you had the toy or read a certain black and white two parter you'd never know nightbeat was a headmaster )
or pay lip service ( double header was a pretender when it became handy for the plot )

the only other time furman actually caterd to a toy was with the action masters and nucleon

and because nucleon was so vauge it could handwave any change away

Tim Roll-Pickering link

16/1/2015 01:59:17 pm

I think the biggest problem with Grimlock's leadership is that we don't actually get to see how he leads the Autobots against the Decepticons. Had there been even one issue where he achieves victory but at a dreadful price it would have made the Autobots' dilemma starker. Instead he just goes all tyrant in the Ark and gets angry with those who desert.

Perhaps there was something planned for the two issues that were displaced by the Man of Iron reprint? Or did either Hasbro or the Comics Code baulk at such a ruthless approach years before Generation 2?

That said his leadership does see the Ark repaired and virtually all the 1984 cast brought back on line so he's got achievements in medical and engineering if nothing else.

Stuart

20/1/2015 11:28:07 pm

IIRC the end of the American issue of Used Autobots promoted the events of Child's Play as happening next month, so it looks as if things just got shoved two issues back rather than anything being lost. Considering Bob almost certainly wanted off the book by this point I doubt there was much in the way of long term planning going on.

Indeed (again, IIRC) there's a stop start nature to the ongoing plots between now and the return of Optimus Prime in the American stories that suggest he hadn't really put much thought into balancing out the stories evenly with the introduction of the new toys.

Harry

9/1/2015 09:03:29 am

Also, and I realise the irony considering their fractuous interpersonal relationship later under Furman, another interesting 'less focussed on the humans' leader for the Autobots after Optimus Prime's demise would have been Prowl, but more so for his UK characterisation. He'd not really been developed much in the US stories at this stage, but his UK iteration had been quite hawkish when he suggested creating dedicated warriors to finish the conflict quickly and decisively.

Harry

10/1/2015 02:45:43 am

'the only time furman had to specifically introduce new toys were the combiner teams in second generation and that 3 parter isnt stellar'

There was also the less than inspired 'Worlds Apart' to hype up the Headmasters: Furman has stated that that was also written due to direct pressure from Hasbro.

Stuart

10/1/2015 03:54:57 am

There's the Classic Heroes towards the end of the life of the UK stories as well, but as that basically boils down to "Write the characters you like again" It's smoothly done.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

16/1/2015 01:52:02 pm

I'm not sure the biggest continuity mess in the comic is particularly smoothly done. Suddenly there are all manner of characters alive again with limited explanation and much reader confusion.

Is Enemy Action another Hasbro UK mandate? It's gushing with new toys that hadn't even been introduced in the US comics at that point.

And Target 2006 goes beyond the movie cast and introduces a number of others. Was Hasbro pushing for the Triple Changers to get some spotlighting and were the Jumpstarters just any previously overlooked characters or a deliberate request to help clear some shelf warmers?

Stuart

20/1/2015 11:24:09 pm

Yeah, Enemy Action has to be a more low key New Toy Push, there's actually a remarkable amount in there for just 22 pages.

The ultimate irrelevance of the Triple Changers to Target 2006 does leave the feeling that were forced upon the book as well.

Ralph Burns

10/1/2015 02:48:04 pm

This is the story that begins Wheeljack's slide into Grimlock's ignored housewife. The poor bastard.

Felicity link

5/11/2019 06:51:43 pm

Blaster speaking for Furman? Furman would never use a scream as normal as “AAAAAA!” He’d use some Furmanism like “UNAAAH!” or “SHEAGH!” ☺

(For some reason it took me a long time to realise the “UN” in “UNAAAH” was a grunt and was not pronounced “OO-NA.”)

The idea of the Ark actually being repaired and re-energised sort of blew my mind at the time. In both the comic and the cartoon the Ark had always been permanently crashed. Any time there was any movement towards repairing it and flying off in it, it went nowhere. IIRC at the end of “More Than Meets the Eye” the Autobots are getting ready to fly back to Cybertron but this is completely ignored in “Transport to Oblivion.” And in the comic there was occasional mention of repairing the Ark but it was always put off until later—once they were sure the Decepticons were defeated and Earth was safe. So to see them actually do it was pretty wild!

I like Llyra’s see-through coat (or long shirt?).

Transformation 139: 'Ello John, Got a New Motah?

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