Transformation 82: Fangs for the Memories.

6/12/2013

This week, it's all off to the pub for a drunken diversion full of references that only mad Robert Rankin fans will really love.

All in my look at:

Target: 2006 Part 4!

But that's not all, as part of an experiment, may I present the first Transformation Christmas Quiz!

The questions aren't intended to be super hard, it's more a bit of fun, but there are prizes to be had.

4 Comments

Tim Roll-Pickering link

6/12/2013 11:54:23 am

I have sometimes wondered if this was a fill-in issue, since it has all the hallmarks of a story treading water just to fill another issue. If so then it might be another sign of the uncertainty about when the Movie would actually reach British cinemas. Though given the new characters it's equally possible someone from Hasbro UK demanded even more toys be promoted, including perhaps some shelfwarmers (if the stories of the Jumpstarters being in oversupply are true). It's often forgetten just how many new toys there are in this story, including some who have no movie connection.

Stuart

6/12/2013 12:31:37 pm

It's entirely possible it's a fill in, though if it is it's a sign of how confident the comic was by this point that even the treading water is this good.

What I didn't mention is how the subtitle is considerably bigger than and placed above the Target: 2006 logo. Obviously there was some concern that the length would be off-putting to casual readers or those picking up for the first time (counting the prologue this is the point it becomes longer than any UK story to date bar the cut-up-at-the-last-second Enemy Within). It'll be interesting to see how that's played as we go on, as I honestly can't remember how the logos are handled in the rest of the story.

As an aditional Fun Fact, according to the Classics books, worries about length is why the Galvatron and the Volcano storyline would be presented as a series of two parters the following year as well.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

6/12/2013 01:08:46 pm

Marvel US at this time had a firm policy of "every issue is someone's first" with a particular focus on making middle parters accessible to casual readers; it's quite possible this sentiment was pushed across the Atlantic. Certainly it's standard for US books to give each issue of a multi-part storyline its own title (although in later years "Tremendous Crossover: Part 17" started appearing on covers) as part of a reader friendly strategy. I wonder if this is also why "Optimus Prime returns to Cybertron" is broken up into individual parts and mixed with other bits.

Alex link

6/12/2013 05:34:35 pm

Maccadam's Old Oil House always stuck with me, though mostly for the later story "Out to Lunch". To this day I'm still amazed at how much boozing Hasbro has let the TFs get away with - that stuff, as my old mate Dave was wont to remind me, kills more people than smack.

In any case, it stuck enough to inspire this short story from myself back in my TMUK days, that some people found amusing back then. Hopefully it still is: http://theunderbase.co.uk/fiction/bar_culture.pdf

Strangely, when I wrote this I had never worked behind a bar. Many, many years later, and with ten years in pubs under my belt, I'm amused at how accurate parts of it are...

Transformation 82: Fangs for the Memories.

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