Transformation 172: Suck on my Chocolate Salty Balls.

28/8/2015

This week we get an interesting example of how little difference there can be between a story that works and one that doesn't which is a useful object lesson for any budding writer.

We also get lots of pipe laid for future stories, the first meeting of characters who haven't seen each other in two years and Special Guest Star Patrick Stewart. All in all a truly deep and thoughtful issue well worthy of serious discussion.

Unfortunately the entire piece is taken over by energy giving beefballs and the dark secrets they reveal.

All in my look at: Wrecking Havoc Part 1!

10 Comments

Cradok

28/8/2015 08:50:54 am

Man, I love this story, from the name to the art to how well everyone is written. This is *my* Galvatron, as it were, smart and cruel, and three steps ahead of everyone. I feel that this, rather than the similar Enemy Action, is probably him at his best. I didn't get to read this until it was reprinted in CC16, which looks to have been released in mid 1990, so several more Galvatrons had come - and mostly gone - but this story still stood out.

And the fight at the start between Scourge and Cyclonus and the USAF is equally great, showing how cruel but ultimately dumb they are, showing that while Unicron-born, they can't just rely on that to brute force wins, even against inferior forces, a nicely condensed version of how they'd acted on their own since Galvatron left them. It was a good thing that Budiansky never cared about using those two once his contractual obligations were over.

I used to spend time as a child wondering what exactly those 'beefballs' were, imagining them to be some wonderous creation. Thinking now, I'd guess they were stodgy reconstituted beef in a vaguely tomato flavoured paste.

snowkatt

13/9/2015 02:54:36 pm

1990 actually http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Tfcolcom16.jpg
doesnt mean you havent read it untill 1994 but it was released in 1990

and im stil bemused by how jovially unicron is making pirouettes in space

oddly enough the collected comics ran untill winter 1994 http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Tfcolcom27.jpg
so that means transformers in the UK were only out of print for all of 6 or so years

i tend to dislike how cyclonus and scourge were depowered and dumbed down as the series went on
they were powerhouses who could take on entire squads of autobots on their own in target 2006

scourge was viscose powerfull and smart in target 2006 and they have been reduced to a whiny pair of losers that are almost played for laughs and cyclonus meats a piss poor end in dry run

a far cry from the nigh unstoppable monsters in target 2006
thats not unusual for this series ( ratbat taking on max and winning ! omega supreme shrinking in the wash ) but its still vexing

Stuart

28/8/2015 09:53:08 am

Every time I try and do a comment on the PC it won't show up, so let's give the mobile a go:

I suspect those energy giving beefballs were not a good thing to eat before a game as well.

Was that worth the three attempts?

Rack 'n Ruin

28/8/2015 11:27:32 am

Another fine write up of a fine issue. Was it not Twin Twist acting as the (ahem) "drill" sargeant, though?

Stuart

30/8/2015 12:12:59 pm

Maaaaaaaybe.

Benway

28/8/2015 02:49:16 pm

I'm pretty sure this issue had a really terrible letter published with nightmarish 80s slang which even Ace from Doctor Who wouldn't touch with a three mile long pole?

Ryan F

28/8/2015 05:29:26 pm

Woohoo! A namecheck! You are never gonna let me forget that segue/Segway thing, are you?!

Love the fact that, at half-time during the game, all the Titans players have time for a plateful of grub. Who needs Lucozade when you can tuck in to energy-giving beefballs, eh?

You are right in that they tried to make American Football cool around this time. Channel 4 had the TV rights and there was even a Panini sticker album (which I believe will be advertised in an upcoming issue). I can also recall my local newsagent selling horrible American Football themed crisp/snack things, which were shaped like American Footballs and came in either hamburger or hotdog flavour (not energy-giving beefball, sadly). No wonder I decided to stick with Transform-A-Snack.

Why does Evil Eric call himself Evil Eric? Kinda gives the game away, doesn't it? If he was halfway clever he would call himself Good Eric, then no-one would suspect him.

Ralph Burns

3/9/2015 08:28:02 am

I MUST HAVE ENERGY-GIVING BEEFBALLS!

SPECIAL TEAMS! SPECIAL BALLS!

snowkatt

8/9/2015 12:29:09 pm

i get the feeling the bizarre comic ad was the best part of this comic because like part 2 part 1 is lackluster at best

even worse despite the even footing battle between cyclonus and scourge at the start of the comic which in my opinion lack any sort of kinetic punch and is hard to follow they continue to slide off in to irrelevance

in target 2006 they were able to take on multiple autobots with out a problem and blow fighter jets out of the sky without being touched
and now they have issues with a few fighter jets

the gradual neutering of cyclonus and scourge i always found egrerious because they are first portrayed as unstoppable monsters and finally end up as whiny washed up hasbeens and comedic foils
and this is one of the worst only dry run is even worse in portraying them

Felicity link

9/11/2019 09:16:28 pm

Aha, I see someone already mentioned the “segue” thing. Never mind then. :-)

Add me to the list of people who can’t get used to Cyclonus and Scourge being dumb, though in my case that’s more to do with their cartoon portrayals being the default ones in my mind than it is to do with any past comic book depictions.

However that panel of Cyclonus going “GNNK!” is one of the more pleasant memories I have of talking about British Transformers with my friend (the one who raved so much about Death’s Head). That’s funny stuff, and a good use of Furman’s quirky sense of onomatopoeia.

I don’t get that panel above--I didn’t think the Targetmasters had any control over the minds of their Transformer partners, unlike the Headmasters?

Galvatron’s space cannon mode can shrink to a size that can be carried around by a human, a la Megatron?!

Add “ex-lieutenant” to the list of minor Furmanisms, as I recall Starscream being called “my traitorous ex-lieutenant” a couple of times.

I’m surprised that Furman will feel the need to fit “Big Broadcast of 2006” into the main continuity, as I thought that it was understood that it was a one-off glimpse at a separate universe, the cartoon universe being separate from the comic universe. I don’t remember if the US comic explicitly made that distinction but it was at the very least implied.

For that matter, the comic’s adaptation of “The Transformers: The Movie” could be viewed as not taking place in the same universe as the regular comic. That didn’t stop letter-writers from asking how Bumblebee could go from being Pretender Bumblebee to regular Bumblebee between 1989 and 2005, though!

That beefball ad is indeed crazy, although for immature giggling opportunities you have to check out the TV commercials for Mr. Brain’s.

I also pronounce “fracas” the way they do in “The Rebirth”!

Transformation 172: Suck on my Chocolate Salty Balls.

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