The Special Teams Have Arrived

The Transformers
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"The Special Teams Have Arrived"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	22nd March 1986
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Barry Kitson (and Tim Perkins?)
Colours	unknown
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity
Packaged with	The Transformers #54

Introducing 24 new characters in three pages!

Synopsis

A TV news channel announces that Pullen Power Plant is been evacuated due to risk of landslides. Optimus Prime is concerned that the Decepticons might take advantage of the distraction and leaves the Protectobots in charge of keeping the plant safe. His hunch appears to be correct—as he leaves he spots several suspicious military vehicles heading the way he just came. Meanwhile, Blades warns the other Protectobots about a truck and four cars arriving at the plant. The truck announces that they are the Stunticons and they combine into Menasor but are in turn surprised when the Protectobots respond by forming Defensor.

Optimus Prime contacts the Aerialbots to warn them about the military vehicles he saw earlier. Air Raid pursues a space shuttle with a Decepticon insignia to see it merge with the other Combaticons and form Bruticus. To even the odds, Silverbolt orders the Aerialbots to unite into Superion.

To be continued in Transformers UK #63–65!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (2) Hot Spot (3) First Aid (8) Streetwise (9) Groove (10) Blades (16) Defensor (18) Skydive (20) Silverbolt (21) Air Raid (22) Slingshot (23) Fireflight (24) Superion (26)	Brawl (4) Vortex (5) Swindle (6) Onslaught (7) Drag Strip (11) Motormaster (12) Breakdown (13) Wildrider (14) Dead End (15) Menasor (17) Blast Off (19) Bruticus (25)	NTV news anchor (1)

Quotes

"You're late, Blast Off, fifth member of the Combaticons. Quickly - join Vortex, Swindle, Brawl and I, Onslaught to form... BRUTICUS!"

—Onslaught, first member of the Combaticons.

Notes

Production notes

• "The Special Teams Have Arrived" came about at the insistence of Hasbro, who requested the UK Transformers comic do a tie-in story to promote the Special Teams toys that were hitting shelves in the country at the time. The only problem was, the issues of the US comic introducing the characters were still several months away from being reprinted in the UK title. To circumvent this continuity roadblock, the story "Second Generation!" was conceived, in which the Autobots and Decepticons were granted a brief look into the future, to a point in time when the Special Teams had already been created. "The Special Teams Have Arrived" was the "trailer" for that story—a glossy four-page mini-comic (including the cover) that folded out into a poster showing off the toys (right), which was given away free at toy shops, and was also included with issue #54 of the regular Transformers series.
• "Second Generation" retells and expands "The Special Teams Have Arrived" (adding an ending after its cliffhanger), with some panels and dialogue directly lifted (below right, and see the "Second Generation!" trivia section for more). The story was also adapted to become the UK audio cassette adventure "The Special Teams," though we don't know the exact sequence of real-life events: was the story conceived first, then used as the basis of the mini-comic, "Second Generation!", and the audio cassette independently, or did each of these works precipitate the other?
• With finished character models for the Special Teams obviously unavailable to the comic's artists, all twenty-four of the new arrivals are consistently drawn based on their toys and package art.

Continuity notes

Artwork of the Protectobots transforming is copied between "Second Generation!" (top) and this mini-comic (bottom).

• This story doesn't actually seem to fit into future comic continuity. When they are eventually introduced in issue #105 (US issue #24), the Protectobots and Combaticons appear to be meeting for the first time, after which Optimus Prime dies at the end of the story. That would mean the events of this mini-comic—in which the teams have a separate encounter while Prime is still alive—doesn't fit. One could argue there's a little wiggle-room in issue #105's dialogue to handwave it and fit the events of the story between issue #104 and #105, but there's little need; as "Second Generation!" would show, the story is actually a "dream" planted in the mind of Buster Witwicky by the Creation Matrix, and can be seen as being merely a non-literal prophecy instead of an actual vision of the future.

Errors

• Streetwise refers to Blades's alternate mode as a "police helicopter", an error that is later repated with the wallchart included with issue #63.
• Skydive identifies Blast Off's alternate mode as a "Space Shuttle [...] An SS-125 Class, to be precise." That's not a real designation for a real-life space shuttle. The only thing even close in real life was the STS-125 mission, which took place in... 2009.
• Pullen Power Plant is drawn inconsistently. Several panels on page 1 depict numerous buildings right next to the big cooling towers, but on pages 2 and 3, it appears the only thing close to the cooling towers is a transmission tower.

Other trivia

• No credits are included for the comic. John Stokes has been identified as the artist in a few places online, which led to him being credited for it in The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2, but it's pretty clearly Barry Kitson (inked by someone else, probably Tim Perkins).
• Seriously, that's over 1.5 new characters per panel of story. That's got to be some kind of record.

Reprints

• 
  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 (IDW Publishing, 2012)