Super-Size Coloring Activity Book
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 This book is as big as you remember your Transformers toys being. | |||||||||||||
| "Super-Size Coloring Activity Book" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Books | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 1984 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Suzanne Weyn | ||||||||||||
| Artist | Carlos Garzón | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 22 | ||||||||||||
The Transformers Super-Size Coloring Activity Book is so big, it reads you.
It's so big they reinforced the spine and the back just so it could stand upright.
It's so big there's room for the Ark and the Nemesis to crash into Mount St. Helens together!
(It is a large book. Like 3 feet tall.)
Synopsis
[edit]Millions of years ago, on the planet Cybertron, the peace-loving Autobots were locked in combat with the war-like Decepticons. This battled raged over both land and outer space. In one battle, a Decepticon spaceship chased an Autobot craft to a distant part of the universe, above a primitive planet. The Decepticon ship accidentally rammed the Autobot ship and they both crashed landed on the planet. That little planet grew up to be none other than Earth. Millions of years later, a volcano erupted, freeing the conjoined shipwrecks from their rocky tomb. The Autobot computer, The Ark, began to revive its crew, giving them new alternate modes based on native Earth vehicles. But Aunty couldn't differentiate between the Autobots and the Decepticons and so revived both! While the Autobots sent a distress call into space, the Decepticons attacked the Ark, which only just raised its shields in time. The Autobots were safe from the Decepticons for now, but knew that their enemies would soon refuel and attack again. And so the ancient war between Autobots and Decepticons lives again on Earth!
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
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Notes
[edit]- Okay, we were exaggerating with that 3 feet tall comment. But it is 22 inches by 17 inches, still pretty big.
- Per the US copyright office, this book was published March 30th, 1984, meaning it predates both the publication of The Transformers #1 (5/8/84) and the TV pilot airing (9/17/84). It might be the oldest Transformers-related media!
- The book's story is based on the origin story used as the basis for both the animated series and Marvel comic, but so heavily simplified that it becomes somewhat garbled. A prime example of this is the Ark rebuilding the Decepticons as though they're on-board, even though they rammed the Autobot ship rather than boarding it.
- The Ark is referred to on one page as "Aunty", a hang-over from Jim Shooter's early treatment. Similarly, Jazz is called "Jazzz".
- Starscream is described as being known as "the Silver Snake".
- The artwork features a tonne of Transformers that straddle the line between generics and so off-model to not be recognisable - even once the Transformers are reformatted on Earth - so we've limited the cast listing only to those specifically named in the text, along with Sideswipe, whose early character model is copied verbatim into a crowd shot.
- The colouring book story has a variety of pictorial and language puzzles mixed into it, from a Rebus to a dot-to-dot of a dinosaur to a simple substitution cipher and more!
