Transformation 168: Flame is Fully Booked.

31/7/2015

This week, the book of Transformation is now out and avaliable to buy from Lulu! It looks like it will take about 6-8 weeks to appear on Amazon (and may wind up on there twice due to me accidentally submitting it again whilst correcting a typo in the blurb. This typo will still be on the back cover itself and anyone who spots it wins the chance to make me cry) and can be ordered by going to my snazzy new shop links page HERE!

Wait... there was something else I needed to do other than shamelessly whore myself... Oh yes: This week Xaaron reveals his dark secret; Broadside makes a cheerful friend and Magnus realigns his moral compass. All in my look at:

Meltdown! Part 1.

20 Comments

Harry

31/7/2015 09:43:32 am

So, Combat Colin destroyed a remote control that a 'man' was using to control Nessie? Hmm, I suspect that real man was being held in an organic spaceship...

Stuart

31/7/2015 09:45:37 am

It'll be curious to see how much it's a homage to the Saint episode I've mentioned when my rewatch gets that far as well.

Ralph Burns

31/7/2015 09:55:26 am

I have ordered...THE BOOK.

Chums, use coupon code FWD15 to save £2.25 so that then you can savour the printed commentary on the...

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Stuart

31/7/2015 09:57:55 am

To save time I've actually replaced the entire write up on that story with the words "SPECIAL TEAMS!" repeated over and over again.

Ralph Burns

31/7/2015 10:07:38 am

You give hope to those who have none.

Ralph Burns

31/7/2015 10:09:34 am

Words cannot convey how exciting Marvel UK's Galaxy Rangers comic was as well as the crushing shock of 'Exciting News About This Comic: Inside!' in #9. The series is bloomin' hard to find though. My copies are lost to me. IIRC Wildman did some work on it.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Ryan F

31/7/2015 11:28:11 am

After months of you calling it simply "The Book", both on Twitter and elsewhere, it confused me a second when I saw you post the cover art and it was called "Transformation". Had you actually gone ahead and just called it "The Book", that would have been way-cool!

Alex

31/7/2015 12:44:06 pm

Poor Broadside - his character model as seen in the UK comics is so generic (particularly in the later black and white strips) that as a kid I always assumed he was a made-up Wrecker like Rack'n'Ruin.

Speaking of generic designs, I'd love to see a gold G1 Megatron kitbashed into Xaaron. You'd just need some way of removing his, erm, helmet...

Nathan Webb

2/8/2015 03:26:45 pm

Masterpiece have made a Gold megatron, it just needs a head swap.

Alex

2/8/2015 05:30:31 pm

He needs the old toy's head though - the Masterpiece one is too nice and Sunbow-ish. Megatron's big forehead becomes the top of Xaaron's helmet. So to speak.

It's an expensive kitbash. If I were a rich man, though...

Alex

31/7/2015 12:55:15 pm

Ah, and I had a thought regarding the comic Duocons (and Sky Lynx too, come to think of it) - given we know Transformers can shift mass, perhaps Flywheels is splitting into two vehicular modes (sorry) and simply shrinking one of them and hiding it somewhere on his person? So it's a kind of optional gimmick.

Stuart

1/8/2015 08:02:07 am

I don't know about Flywheels, but Battletrap's toy could carry his 4X4 attached to the undercarriage of his helicopter. That's how I like to think they get about.

Alex

2/8/2015 05:31:35 pm

Doesn't that trigger his auto-transform, though? Does on Flywheels. Besides, a tiny little jet hiding out on a big tank is more fun, surely?

Tim Roll-Pickering link

4/8/2015 06:25:28 am

I think I was the one who put the bit on the Wiki about Flame's symbol many years ago now. I don't have the story to hand to check if it's this week or next but there's one panel where Flame shoves Xaaron away with one hand whilst holding up his other in a weird way that covers his symbol. Given the perennial debate on violence in comics it did strike me as though someone was nervous and wanted to avoid a single image that could be presented out of context as how even the good guys are violent.

As for the Duocons and Sky Lynx, split Transformers are very difficult to write for, especially if they're not the focus of a story. Past comments have gone over Nebulans vs Transtectors for the Headmasters and other splits create a mess because you either have conflicting personalities (and questions about whether Flywheels and Battletrapcan swap sections) or an entity in two places at once. Even Optimus Prime virtually never used the "three in one" concept from the tech specs and the one time he did it seems Furman wasn't too sure how it was meant to work.

snowkatt

10/9/2015 01:11:37 pm

i have noticed that in most if not all media sky lynx appeared in
both G1 comics G1 cartoon and later comics they all portrayed sky lynx as a triple changer and not a a transformer that can split in to two entities and then combine while both entities are still autonomous

Stuart

5/8/2015 12:59:17 pm

@Alex: What about Combiner Wars Megatron? He actually has a vehicular combat mode!

@Tim: It's certainly possible, but if so it's only done in a very half arsed way, and with his body language being so odd even in panels where he's not covering it up--and across both artists so I think it was a scripted thing, presumably to accentuate his dementia--I suspect it's a coincidence. If there was such an attempt Furman doesn't seem to remember it as it doesn't come up in the UK Classics book interviews.

Stuart

7/8/2015 07:06:49 am

And having reread the issue now, in the panel Tim mentions, Flame's Autobrand is there, it's just half obscured. There are other panels with Flame's arms in front of his chest where it should be at least partially visible (hard to be sure, but I get the feeling Smith was a cut'n'paster when it came to the logos and didn't usually bother if it was going to be fiddly), but oddly the only panel where there's a clean view of his chest where it's missing is when he's having an act of violence committed against him by Ultra Magnus!

Colin H

30/1/2018 06:39:28 pm

Is the cover an homage to something else? I only ask as there's an Avengers one from the early 00s (Vol 3 #40) that's more than passing similar.

Stuart

30/1/2018 07:05:53 pm

Ohhh, good catch! Not sure though.

Felicity link

9/11/2019 07:15:43 am

Holy cow, there was a “Galaxy Rangers” comic?! I loved the cartoon. I never knew there was a comic!

Have plugged the book on my FB.

My best friend is a big Bond fan but is not so much into the Gardner novels.

For some reason it never occurred to me that Xaaron might be able to transform. But now that the idea has been brought up, I hope we do find out what his other mode is.

Also, I see that his design has changed over the years. He looks different in the stories you’ve reviewed here (or as far I’ve read currently) from how he looked in his appearances towards the end of the American comic. I think I like his later, all-gold form better. I still don’t like those things over his mouth, though. I know they’re supposed to be a grill, but to me they always look like the robot equivalent of if a human had grown two strips of flesh between their upper and lower lips. The same thing bothers about some of Iron Man’s armour!

Transformation 168: Flame is Fully Booked.

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