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Transformation 317: DEATH TO OPTIMUS PRIME.

7/6/2018

18 Comments

 
Picture
This week, the UK team play their best ever gag. 

Plus, Primus hits you with the exposition, Grimlock doesn't know better than to check what he sticks his nozzle in and Thunderpunch thinks laughing in God's face is a good idea.

All in my look at ISSUE 317!


18 Comments
Gareth
8/6/2018 04:30:07 pm

I like the 2 TF life signs on Earth reference - it teases the Fort Max/Spike conflict in issue 329-330 without giving away too much and shows that Simon was already considering a post-Unicron story. I'm not sure I understand your retcon comment though, Stuart. Are you suggesting this would have been played differently if the comic had been given more time? e.g. a human/robot merger story (ala HiQ&Prime) for the headmasters.

Reply
Stuart
8/6/2018 06:33:53 pm

Retcon in that there will turn out to only be one "part" of Fort Max on Earth, Spike. The rest of him is at that moment on the Ark. Presumably Furman's original plan they'd still be together if not always linked after Man in the Machine.

Reply
Stuart
8/6/2018 06:34:18 pm

Retcon in that there will turn out to only be one "part" of Fort Max on Earth, Spike. The rest of him is at that moment on the Ark. Presumably Furman's original plan they'd still be together if not always linked after Man in the Machine.

Reply
Gareth
8/6/2018 07:08:00 pm

I'd forgotten about that. Excellent point!

Tetsuryu
8/6/2018 06:38:02 pm

This right here is where it all ended for me. The Finnish publication of the comic did a weird thing by splitting this one in half, ending at the page where the labeled chambers are shown, ending with Megatron and also ending the issue with a nice cliffhanger.

...a cliffhanger it took me damn near 20 years to actually get the conclusion of. To this day I still haven't seen the final issue of the domestic version for sale anywhere; issues from summer 1990 onwards seem to be exceedingly rare and on the pricy side when they do crop up.

Reply
John D. link
8/6/2018 11:05:19 pm

Think I sold my issue of U.K. 332 on eBay for about £40 back in 2012. I think I still have a copy of this issue somewhere. But not many others. Loved Andy Wildman’s 2 page splash. Target Masters Stu? Are those the guys kind of middle-left? In regen one I struggled to ID the target masters. Loved the black Transformation gag too. The Neo Knights were really rubbish, was it an extended ruse for Furman and Wildman to try and show they could do super hero stuff? I never thought the life signal thing was a retcon. Instead very nice writing. I have asked here before, but on the topic of fort max, why was Cerebros written into the comic in such an obvious way, and after fort max had been introduced? Had somebody made an oversight? Was the fort max toy even bigger than Scorponok? Seems odd since they were “new leaders” introduced at the same time.

Reply
John D. link
8/6/2018 11:13:52 pm

I meant action masters 😂 not target masters
Make peace not war..

Reply
Snowkatt
10/6/2018 10:43:25 pm

Yes, the Fort Max toy was bigger then Scorponok.
Scorponok comes about to Max's waist.
Fort Max is about the size of a toddler, at around 2 feet\ 60 cm.

bouncelot
10/6/2018 11:24:48 am

I always assumed that the two parts thing was a reference to Thunderwing/Dark Matrix, who were last seen in Earth orbit.

Reply
Tim Roll-Pickering link
12/6/2018 01:00:53 pm

"Now Unicron is the survivor of the Universe before this one"

i.e. someone had given Furman the Galactus origin (although Galan/Galactus was merely a survivor not the destroyed of the previous universe).

Who are the original Action Masters in the crowd? And that shot of Fixit at Prime's foot really shows up the problems with scale and the Micromasters.

Reply
John D. link
13/6/2018 12:08:05 am

No idea who the action masters are. Fixit’s scale looks ok? I mean scale has always been a disaster - Starscream should be far bigger than Prime etc. One of the very few things Bayformers did right, or was at least interesting, was the idea the robots didn’t change size when they transformed. So I think that’s why the deceptions are squat and Prime is the biggest truck possible?

Reply
Tim Roll-Pickering link
13/6/2018 12:45:49 am

The problem is that the Micromaster vehicle modes are the same size as regular sized Transformers'. Were it Ratchet or First Aid in the shot the ambulance would be much higher than Prime's shin. For sure scale in general is a pain in the series, but the Micromasters probably should have been treated as tiny robots transforming into little toy cars, which is the implication of the adverts and also the set-up of the Microman line from which the original Mini Autobots came. Instead they're small robots transforming into regular sized vehicles and that seems to defeat the point of the exercise.

Alexander Hayden James Smith link
19/6/2018 04:56:15 pm

As a young lad first finding out about the wider Marvel Universe I too came across the Galactus origin, and also the fact that he appears differently to each race. Since, in my head, the Transformers were obviously still in the Marvel Universe, I assumed Unicron and Galactus were merely one and the same.

Reply
Snowkatt
3/7/2018 02:17:06 am

the two next to soundwave might be the actionmasters
Sprocket https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Sprocket_toy.jpg or possibly Over run, its a tad hard to tell. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:G1_Overrun_toy.jpg
But its honestly very hard to tell and the one immediately next to Soundwave might be Grotesque.

Reply
John D. link
13/6/2018 12:09:43 am

Nice to see Snowkatt back! Nobody seems to be able to Explain to me why the fort max toy was so insanely huge. And why Cerebros was written in later. Something weird happened!

Reply
Snowkatt
3/7/2018 02:05:23 am

I am back ish.
At a guess, Fort Max was so huge, because hero characters are much more popular in Japan.
And the villain characters and line up in Japan, tend to be rather anemic.
( The Decepticon line up in 1990 for Zone in Japan was a repaint and 1 Micromaster team https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Zone_%28toyline%29)

But why Cerebros was written in later ( and then forgotten) is easy.
The Headmasters mini was a complete and utter mess,
and the heads and designs seemed to switch at random.

Hasbro most likely wanted to promote their huge 90 dollar toy a bit more, and there you go.
Spruced up Max with Cerebros, who never made a return after issue 39. ( uk 158-159 )

Reply
Felicity
28/12/2019 09:20:02 pm

I notice that the image at the top of this comments page is a blank square—at first I thought a JPEG went missing but it occurs to me that it could be a clever reference to the void! ☺

Reply
LiamKav
26/10/2020 10:55:29 pm

I will defend your right to use any and all offensive words that you want, but calling Ravage a dog is an insult that will not stand.

Reply



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