Transformation 222: I Will Survive.

11/8/2016

It yet another end of an era in a...well era full of them as the final strip written for the old format concludes.

In it, Carnivac fails his work performance review, Catilla is just a bit too cheerful, Springer wants to smash the animation model inaccurate head off Skids and some monsters pop round for tea.

It's all in my look at Survivors! Part 4.

I better go start packing for TFNation I suppose...

12 Comments

Nathan webb

12/8/2016 06:15:18 pm

See you next week Stuart

Ralph Burns

12/8/2016 10:02:38 pm

By this point, Young Ralph's patience was being tested though I do agree that overall Survivors was pretty decent and renewed hope for me! I also quite enjoyed the following Aspects of Evil story (with its wonderfully grim ending done in the way only UK comics would). If I hadn't, I probably would have dropped the title at this point as peer pressure at school meant I was The Last Transformers Fan by this point!

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Nathan webb

14/8/2016 06:35:19 am

Ralph, I remember being the last TF fan at school it was a lonely place to be. I used to hide my comics collection in the loft when my friends came round,
the final TF toy I was bought as a child for my birthday was a nightmare I didn't want my mates to think I liked it but didn't want my parents to think I hated it. Oddly that was the last birthday party I had until I reached drinking age.

Ralph Burns

14/8/2016 06:27:19 pm

There were still a few folk into Transformers at school but this dwindled rapidly throughout 1990 as we are neared the end of Primary School. I hung on with the comic through sheer loyalty until #281 the week I started Secondary School. Kept reading a friend's issues thereafter (the only other person locally still reading: he had to order it from a newsagent though Specials were still easy to come by) until whichever issue printed Still Life part 1 at which point his newsagent couldn't get it anymore. For several years I thought the comic had been cancelled with that issue other than the Specials which kept coming out!

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Simon Hall

14/8/2016 12:33:12 pm

I was lucky compared to you guys then. There were a few of us kept up with Transformers at BIG SCHOOL, but it wasn't much talked about, tbh. More something each of us knew we liked.

I do recall trading my beloved Snapdragon with a guy at Secondary School for Groove I was so desperate to have all the Protectobots and he was impressed enough with the condition of Snapdragon he gave me Bruticus and the Decepticon Sports Car Patrol in return. A year or so later, I bought my mate's busted Megatron toy for £4 (the arms had come off).

Around this time, I'd also discovered a comics shop in Bradford (its long gone now) that was ...well, it was a bit overwhelming, tbh. I'd never known how big the US comics market was and it just put me off a bit.Too much stuff and where do you start?! I did pick up Wolverine #1 so that must have been sometime in 1988.

So, Survivors then! Yeah, I liked this (and still do). Good little story with a tight focus and small cast. Good show all 'round. And I like Snarler in these b&w stories, he's so grumpy.

Ralph Burns

14/8/2016 06:30:05 pm

Survivors tends to get overlooked as it falls between the short era where the format changed (so lots to talk about there) but before it settled into the 'designed for 5-page instalments' era and the shift in tone/audience that brought (which is remembered as the last hurrah for the comic as a distinctive UK entity). This is a shame as it is quite fun.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

We See The World In Ben-Day Dots link

16/8/2016 11:54:27 pm

It was certainly difficult being an ageing Transformers fan in the latter years of the 80s and even more so as we moved into the 90s. If I recall correctly, I abandoned the title in the summer of '89 with issue 227. Probably due to a combination of the format changes (particularly the black and white and the reprints of stories I'd already read) and a certain Dark Knight being everywhere at the time and therefore being much more socially acceptable for a first year high schooler to be seen to be a fan of. The comic and I were estranged for two, long years before I was drawn to it again with issue 320. Most likely due to that incredible cover by Stewart Johnson and being hooked once more by a full colour epic interior story by the dream team of Furman and Senior. I remained for three issues, hiding it (unnecessarily as it transpired) from my parents due to embarrassment, until it became to difficult to find on the shelves of the local newsagents. I remember walking for miles across the city trying to locate it, but to no avail. I just assumed that it had been cancelled. Which was understandable due to the ending of that storyline. Had I known, I would've simply ordered it at the newsagent, particularly considering it really was so close to the end. Those three issues have a special place in my heart though. No-one else I knew liked Transformers anymore. And no-one knew that I still loved Transformers. For those six weeks it was my just me and those comics. It was my secret. It was like becoming reacquainted with my old friend.

Stuart

17/8/2016 03:03:44 pm

Some interesting stories from people about the difficulties of being a TF fan at this point, I guess I was lucky I got to keep reading till the end with little comment from anyway. But then, I never really bought the book into school and they had pleanty of other reasons to think I was a dick...

Auntie Slag

17/8/2016 09:14:25 pm

I stopped reading Transformers at Issue 157 because it felt like it was getting too ludicrous, and I didn’t want a Pretenders issue to be my last!

Three times over the next few years I would buy one just to see what it was like. I bought this issue because it had Springer on it. By 1989 standards he was an old Autobot; not a micromaster, quadruple powermaster or some other dodgy gimmick.

Coming in at the last chapter of Survivors was a waste. I didn’t appreciate the art style, the fact they couldn’t even get Skids right (why not just refer to previous issues depiction if you don’t have the model reference?).

I didn’t like Inferno drawn as a fat Autobot either, I always felt he was supposed to be a big kick ass guy, which would’ve made him good Wrecker material. Black & white print was an insult, and the main story was reduced to a handful of pages followed by an old repeat. 38p for half a new story in black and white?

The Beano was the infinitely better choice by this point!

Felicity link

20/11/2019 07:27:56 pm

If only Inferno, Hoist, and Grapple had been given the more anthropomorphised models that Trailbreaker had!

LiamKav

8/10/2020 01:56:50 am

I dunno. I had Red Alert and remember appreciating the cartoon version looked a bit like his toy (I didn't even realise for years after that Sideswipe's toy was basically the same, due to how different his character model was.)

I always loved how, say, the Transmetals are almost identical in fiction and toy form.

Felicity link

20/11/2019 07:26:14 pm

My experience was that in junior high school (grades eight to ten) people acted like they were too old to watch cartoons, but by the end of senior high school/early university, those same people were reminiscing about those same cartoons and riffing on things like “Hey, where did Optimus Prime’s trailer go? And can the Autobots fly or can’t they?”

Transformation 222: I Will Survive.

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