Transformers: Armada (Panini)

Unicron Trilogy continuity family Armada » Toyline Cartoon Commercials Dreamwave comic Panini comic Toy pack-in mini-comic Linkage mini-comic Coloring books Video game Trading cards

Transformers Armada, distributed by Panini (who had bought out the remnants of Marvel UK), was a comic based on the Armada toyline and animated franchise. The comic followed a timeline separate from, but very similar to the Dreamwave title, and developed its own storylines over nine issues.

The series was written by omnipresent Transformers scribe Simon Furman. Several pencillers worked on the series, including Generation 1 veterans Andrew Wildman and Lee Sullivan (who also did his own inking). Stephen Baskerville also showed up to ink a story in issue 9. Otherwise, ink was usually done by Bambos Georgiou, with colours by Junior Tomlin and lettering by Neil Porter.

The unreleased issue 10 was pencilled by Simon Williams, inked by David A. Roach and colored by Nigel Dobbyn, though art for what appears to be the issue's main pyramid-tastic story surfaced in 2024 from Andrew Wildman's personal collection bearing his signature.

	Transformers Armada issues:
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9

Overview

Cover image section for the unreleased issue #10.

Issue #6's incredible free gift.

The series contained a comic strip which soon became a main strip with a backup story. The main strip involved a central Autobots vs. Decepticons storyline for the possession of a Mini-Con or weapon, whereas "Tales of the Mini-cons" would explore the sought-after littlest Transformers' own adventures on Earth, and even dipped into their pasts on Cybertron. Characters who gained focus, as in the Dreamwave stories, were Cyclonus and the Destruction Mini-Con Team.

Comic strip art tended to hew more closely towards the Hasbro generated style-guide art rather than the style used by Dreamwave in the US. This is most evidently shown by how Starscream is consistently portrayed with his wings left flat in their vehicle mode configuration, an error in the part of the original style-guide art for him!

As usual for a UK children's magazine, each issue came with a free gift. Examples include stickers, plastic shooters, posters, and... a holding cell?

The comic continued the long-standing UK tradition of having a Transformer answer readers' letters. After a few installments of "Hot Shot's Hot Mail," though, Starscream took over and turned the page into "Starscream's Hate Mail," where he was exceptionally rude to the young letter-writers. And, like, not even in a funny sort of way. Like, maybe the guy writing it thought it was funny, but you could imagine the child, totally not old enough to understand the over-the-top-ness of the whole thing, crying their eyes out when they read the issue, and Starscream called them disgusting and told them they couldn't draw. Yikes.

Unreleased issues

After nine issues, poor sales led to the comic's cancellation. The partially-known plot of issue 10 involved the Adventure Mini-Con Team exploring a subterranean pyramid, which was found to contain the lifeless body of Sideways, along with Rook and Crosswise in stasis. Meanwhile, the Decepticons (now joined by Tidal Wave and Wheeljack) burrowed a shaft into the pyramid and sent their Mini-Cons inside, while they battled the Autobots (now backed up by the newly arrived Jetfire, Side Swipe and Blurr). To save the Adventure Team from the Decepticon Mini-Cons, the reactivated Crosswise transformed into head mode and brought Sideways back online.

In the final issue, the comic hinted at an adaptation of The Unicron Battles. None of the storylines have been followed up on, however.