The Transformers (issue)

This article is about the first comic issue of the first comic series about Transformers. For other uses of The Transformers, see Transformers (disambiguation).

The Transformers (US) #1 » The Transformers (UK) #1–2 »
Largest Transforming Transformers Optimus Prime! One of six blind-packed $500,000,000 toys!
"The Transformers"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Shipping date	May 8, 1984
On-sale date	May 29, 1984
Cover date	September 1984
Plot	Bill Mantlo
Script	Ralph Macchio
Pencils	Frank Springer
Inks	Kim DeMulder
Colors	Nelson Yomtov
Lettering	Michael Higgins, Rick Parker
Editor	Bob Budiansky
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity
Packaged with	Optimus Prime

A group of sentient warring robots crash-lands on Earth four million years ago. When they awake in the present day, their battle begins anew.

Synopsis

On the Saturn-sized mechanical world of Cybertron, life has evolved not through carbon bonding, but via "naturally-occurring gears, levers, and pulleys". The resultant sentient robots, the Autobots, live in peace for many eons, until some of their number fall victim to a lust for power. Rallying behind the banner of the powerful Megatron, these "Decepticons" rebuild their bodies, allowing them to transform into vehicles and weapons of destruction, and declare war on the Autobots, intending to conquer the planet and rebuild it as a cosmic dreadnought. The Autobots adopt the ability of transformation as well, but struggle to repel the Decepticon onslaught until a leader emerges from the city of Iacon: the wise and powerful Optimus Prime. Under his leadership, the scattered Autobots are successfully united to become an effective fighting force... and thus, an all-consuming war rages across the planet for a thousand years, while the planet itself—dislodged from its orbit by the titanic battles—spins out of control through the cosmos.

Eventually, the Autobots learn that an asteroid belt lies in Cybertron's path, threatening the planet with destruction. Optimus Prime and a specially-chosen group of Autobots set out aboard a huge spacecraft dubbed the Ark to clear a path through the asteroids... but their preparations are observed by the Decepticon spy Ravage, allowing the Decepticons to plot against them. The Autobots go on to successfully complete their mission, after which the Decepticons launch an attack against them, boarding the Ark and easily overwhelming the weakened warriors. Facing inevitable defeat, Optimus Prime sets the Ark on a suicide course towards the third planet of the solar system: prehistoric Earth. The ship crashes into a volcano, and all aboard are knocked offline.

Combat Deck bought a junker lot from eBay.

Four million years later, the volcano erupts, reactivating the Ark's dormant computer. Launching a probe to scan the planet, the computer proves unable to detect Earth's carbon-based human and animal life, believing instead that humanity's vehicles and machines are its dominant "life form." Under this mistaken belief, the computer sets about rebuilding and reactivating the ship's occupants, reconfiguring their alternate modes to match Earth's machines. Damaged, the computer is unable to tell friend from foe, and restores both Autobots and Decepticons alike. After checking themselves over, the Decepticons make a hasty exist to search for sources of fuel, leaving the Autobots to set about attempting to repair the Ark. Reviewing the footage the ship's probe has gathered from across the planet, the Autobots learn of Earth's machines, and—still labouring under the misconception that they are living beings—Optimus Prime vows to protect these "lifeforms" and their planet from the Decepticon menaces he has accidentally unleashed upon them.

In a nearby city, human teenager Buster Witwicky returns home from school late, having stayed behind to catch up on the library work involved in his literary scholarship. His father, mechanic Sparkplug Witwicky, despairs; he loves his son, but the Witwicky patriarch is a blue-collar guy who sees little value in literature and the arts, and wishes Buster would learn a manual trade so that he'll be able to make a living with his hands. Though a little annoyed that Buster has arrived home too late to help with work in the family auto-shop, Sparkplug gives the boy permission to head out and meet his friends at the drive-in theater.

As night falls, Optimus Prime sends a team of five Autobots, under the command of Prowl, to scout out the new world and make contact with the natives. The group comes upon the drive-in theater, and, mistaking it for some kind of religious ritual, heads in to make contact with the "natives"—unaware that their movements have been spotted by Decepticon Laserbeak and reported back to Megatron. Eager to be the first to greet an Earthling, the young Bumblebee over-enthusiastically nudges the car in which Buster, his girlfiend Jesse, and his best friend "O" are sitting, and just as the three kids climb out to see what has happened, the Decepticons attack, intent on keeping their foes from establishing an alliance with the planet's natives. The villains' opening salvo injures Bumblebee, and the other Autobots reluctantly transform and defend themselves, turning the drive-in into a battlefield. During the battle, Prowl realizes that the automobiles are not alive at all, but the humans fleeing from them are; the Autobots retreat to draw the Decepticons' fire away from the apparently defenseless fleshlings, forced to leave Bumblebee behind.

Having heard the damaged Bumblebee cry out in pain when struck, a confused Buster tries to help, and ends up "driving" him away from the battlefield, back to the Witwicky garage. The noise of their arrival awakens Sparkplug, who is at first delighted to find Buster apparently showing an interest in auto-repair... but not so amused when the car cries out that it needs help, because it is dying...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (4) Autobot elder (5) Prowl (11) Ironhide (14) Cliffjumper (15) Sideswipe (16) Huffer (17) Bumblebee (18) Sunstreaker (19) Brawn (20) Mirage (21) Bluestreak (22) Jazz (23) Gears (24) Hound (25) Windcharger (26) Ratchet (27) Wheeljack (28) Trailbreaker (29)	Ravage (1) Megatron (2) Soundwave (3) Rumble (6) Skywarp (7) Frenzy (8) Laserbeak (9) Starscream (10) Thundercracker (12) Buzzsaw (13)	Buster Witwicky (30) Sparkplug Witwicky (31) Hitchhiker (32) Cashier (33) Jesse (34) "O" (35)

Quotes

"Uh, Prime, are you sure you've thought this through?"
"SORRY, WHAT? CAN'T HEAR YOU, PROWL! TOO BUSY SACRIFICING MYSELF!"
"* sigh* "

"We have lived peacefully with the Autobots for eons, slowly, secretly gathering our strength and pursuing our technology. Now we shall strike at those who have brought the stagnation of peace and plenty to Cybertron. They shall learn the way of conflict... the way of war... the way of Megatron."

—Megatron, have you thought this through?

"Strike! Strike! With all the might at our command! Death to the Autobots and the decay they stand for!"

—Megatron launches his war

"The Ark and its secrets must never fall into enemy hands, so I plotted an alternate course that would take us on a suicidal heading... directly into the third planet of this system. Farewell, my friend. Though we die, at least our enemies are taken with us."

—Optimus Prime pushes the fatal button

"Let us never forget our primary purpose -- to spare this world from the scourge we have unwittingly unleashed upon it!"

—Optimus Prime's "we" is more of an "I"

"Bumblebee, come back! We must reconnoiter first!"
"You can't check the exuberance of youth, Prowl!"

—Prowl and Hound

"I had hoped to Optimus we could avoid this, but... it seems our adversaries have left us little choice. Assume defensive configurations."
"Now yer talkin' my lingo."

—Prowl and Brawn

"So, Starscream, you strike at me because you think isolation makes me vulnerable? You have obviously never flown in the face of my glass-gas gun!"
"Yarrgh! The gas coats me, making my metal brittle and breakable as glass!"

—Cliffjumper and Starscream team up to tell the reader how CJ's special gun works

Notes

Production notes

Generic robots use the color schemes of Bumblebee, Trailbreaker, Sunstreaker, Hound, and Optimus Prime; the last of these, in the bottom right, bears a resemblance to Optimus and might be intended to represent a "pre-war" incarnation of him.

Since he's called out in the caption box, it's probably fair to assume that the robot armed with the ion blaster represents Optimus Prime, albeit miscolored. On his right is a robot using Sideswipe's design, apparently armed with a fusion cannon.

• The Transformers was initially conceived as a four-issue limited series. At the start of its production, character models did not yet exist for the majority of the cast; only the early designs created for the first animated commercials (Optimus Prime, Sideswipe, Prowl, Jazz, Megatron, the three Decepticon jets, Soundwave, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw) as revised by Floro Dery in December 1983. As such, for the first two issues of the series, the appearances of the Autobots and Decepticons is quite variable, based on the toys themselves, and their package art (most evident on characters like Ironhide and Ratchet). The remaining characters' initial models were ready in time for issue #3, but the early color schemes used in these issues for certain characters—like Optimus Prime's lack of a silver stripe on his torso, Megatron's black helmet, Starscream's blue chest-vents, and the entirely-purple Soundwave—would persist throughout most if not all of the comic's run, in some cases becoming hallmarks of the characters' Marvel appearances.
• In addition to these teething troubles, artist Frank Springer and colorist Nelson Yomtov played fast and loose with what robot and technology designs they did have. Multiples of Optimus Prime's Combat Deck are used to represent the "revival drones" that rebuilt the Ark's crew on pages 11–12, while a Onebox component like that used by Ironhide and Ratchet appears mounted to the hull of the Ark, firing on the asteroids, on page 6. Further, a range broad of generic Transformers appear throughout the issue; some are wholly original (such as the one prominently displayed on the title page that fans would go on to dub "Big Red"), but others use and abuse existing characters' designs and/or color schemes (as seen in the images at right). As the brand was in its infancy at this stage, some of these might have been intended to represent actual characters, but whether they do so is probably best left up to you.
• Both an early advertisement featured in comic news magazines (such as "David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview #11, May issue; and The Comic Reader #218, June issue) and the announcement for the miniseries in Marvel Age #17 (August cover date) stated The Transformers would begin in April 1984 (possibly intended to ship April 3 and be "on sale" April 24, working backwards from other titles in the Marvel Age #17 checklist). However, the U.S. copyright office filing for the issue places its publication at May 8, which in turn puts its "on sale" date at May 29. Why the series apparently launched a whole month after it was supposed to come out, we dunno...

Continuity notes

It's never too early in the morning to infodump!

• Along with the first episode of the cartoon, this issue establishes several iconic aspects of the cartoon and the entire Transformers brand. The planet Cybertron and its city Iacon both appear in many other media and continuities. The crash of the Ark and the four-million-year slumber of its inhabitants likewise recur in several other versions of the Generation 1 story.
• As is only natural, some of this issue's early details would be retconned away or simply ignored as the series progressed and expanded its mythology, including the idea of Cybertron as "Saturn-sized," and the idea that the Transformers had "naturally evolved". In particular, this origin would be source of much mockery in the earlier days of online fandom, but modern media went on to dub the idea of spontaneously evolving mechanical life "atechnogenesis" and offer it up as one of several possible-but-unverified origins for the Transformers, who themselves did not know if it was true or not.
• Megatron's reason for starting the whole dang war is made pretty explicit in the text: He's bored. However, many years down the line, toward the end of the series' run Simon Furman would raise the claim that actually the Decepticons are a sub-species of Cybertronian with a built-in need for war, and further still in Generation 2 that all Decepticons are descendants of the evil Liege Maximo.
• Megatron's plan to turn the planet into a "cosmic dreadnought" would be further explored in the Marvel UK story "Legion of the Lost!".
• Megatron's statement that "one of our mightiest is missing" plants the seed for Shockwave's debut in issue #4. This brief mention parallels the character's cameo appearance in cartoon's pilot episode, which likewise set the stage for his full-fledged appearance in the first regular episode of the series proper. Shockwave was among the first, if not the first, of the second-year toys to be released.

Real-life references

• Mount St. Hilary is obviously inspired by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
• Unlike the contemporaneous cartoon, which was always shy about specifics, the comic immediately lets us know that the action is set in the state of Oregon. Issues #5 and #7 will later name Portland as the location of Sparkplug's garage, presumably making it the unnamed city we see here and elsewhere in the next few issues.
• A hitchhiker compares the sound of a team of Autobots driving down the highway to the Indy 500.
• The Autobots visit a drive-in movie theater, which in the early 80s were still a thing.
• The cover for the Marvel UK Transformers #2 edition is an homage to the famous cover of EC's Weird Science #16. The Martians of Mars Attacks were inspired by the same cover.

Continuity and plotting errors

• It's said in this issue that the war between the Transformers knocked Cybertron out of its orbit, which sounds...very improbable because of the sheer magnitude of force required for something like that to happen; Cybertron would have likely been completely obliterated before it would've been knocked out of its orbit.
• Numerous generics show up aboard the Ark, when per story continuity, it should only have the 18 crew members shown here (plus, according to issue #4, the future Dinobots, whose characters presumably didn't exist yet in real-life terms). That said, the art on page 12 seems to provide a possible "out" for this by showing what looks to be a huge pile of unrepaired Transformers between behind Optimus and Megatron as they re-awaken.
• Page 10: "The drone swiftly plots its return to the Ark"—it's not clear from context if "it" is the jet scanned by the probe, or the probe itself. Neither makes a lot of sense.
• A solitary reference is made to "Aunty" as the name of the Ark's computer. This was an early name conceived by Jim Shooter when he wrote the original treatment for the Transformers backstory, at a time when the spaceship itself did not yet have a name. During hand-written re-writes of his treatment, Shooter replaced the name "Aunty" with "The Ark," which came to be treated as the name of the ship itself, with the apparent intent being to make the computer and ship synonymous with one another. Consequently, the inclusion of the outdated "Aunty" name in this issue appears to be in error; it would never be used in the US series again, but did reoccur in one early UK-original story.

Artwork and technical errors

Hoo-boy.

• The iconic cover of this issue depicts Optimus Prime in a design that appears to have been based on a reference image in an early model sheet that was offered on eBay in 2016, which in turn is based on an early prototype or mock-up for his original toy's Diaclone predecessor depicted in an early Diaclone catalog.
• Page 1: The third sentence has an "its/it's" typo: "It's content was entirely--mechanical."
• Page 2: In his very first appearance, parts of Soundwave's backpack, arms and legs are colored red.

Jazz experimented with electrum before it was cool.

• Page 5: As he and Optimus Prime report to the Autobot Elders, Jazz is colored like Bumblebee. Additionally, he is drawn to be extremely toy-based, complete with Earthly car parts, right down to having the toy's conjoined uni-feet, and has two missile launchers instead of one.

...Nemesis Prime, is that you?

• Page 7:
  • Panel 3: As the Decepticons first strike the Ark, Optimus Prime is colored almost entirely red.
  • Panel 5: A blue-chested, red-legged Optimus Prime is among the invading Decepticons! In the same panel, Optimus himself is colored entirely red and is missing his chest windows. Prime's thought "Our firepower - no match" is missing its punctuation.
  • None of the invading Decepticons resemble the ten Decepticons later shown to compose Megatron's crew.
• Page 8: Prowl is missing his door/wings, though one could retcon this as being his "Cybertronian" body.
• Page 12:
  • The robots undergoing repair don't really correspond to any Transformer known to be present.
  • The speech bubble beginning "The Autobots, too" is pointing to Optimus, but it seems to be being said by Megatron: it refers to the Autobots as if the speaker is not one, and the line continues into Megatron's line at the start of the next page.
• Page 13: Soundwave converts to his tape player form and flies off with the jets! Or starts to, at least—he's not shown in the next panel as the Decepticons flee the volcano.
• In the giant two-page Autobot spread:
  • Sideswipe seems to have a made-up or at least off-model head.
  • Wheeljack's "ears" are kind of folded up against his head.
  • Bluestreak is missing his door/wings and shoulder rockets.
  • Gears is a strange alternate model bearing almost no resemblance to his toy or later design.
  • Hound, Wheeljack, and Sideswipe are all missing their shoulder launchers.
  • Trailbreaker is missing his force field projector.
  • Due to the overhead perspective, Windcharger looks taller than Hound.

"Follow your dreams, you can reach your goals; I'm living proof. Beefcake. Beefcake!"

• Page 16:
  • Panel 1: Bluestreak is colored like Prowl.
  • Panel 1: Sideswipe is colored like Sunstreaker.
  • Panel 1: Gears seems to have an entirely new, entirely different model.
  • Panel 2: Bumblebee suddenly has the toy-based "backing plate" behind his head, whereas before he didn't.
  • Panel 3: Not all of the silhouettes correspond to actual characters.
  • Panel 4: Sunstreaker's "ears" are misshapen.
• Page 17:
  • Panel 5: Sparkplug's "okay" is missing a period at the end.
  • Panel 6: Sparkplug is meant to say "learnin'," to parallel the way he drops the g from the end of "readin'" in the first half of his sentence, but the word is written with the g... and the apostrophe meant to signify its absence.
• Page 19: When an Autobot asks Prowl "why would machines worship moving pictures of strange objects?", Prowl identifies the speaker as Bumblebee, but the art shows the speech bubble emanating from Brawn. It's not clear which is in error.
• Page 21: Buster refers to Bumblebee as a Volkswagon; that should be Volkswagen.
• Page 22: Starscream's entire cockpit cowling is colored as though it were a canopy.
• Page 23:
  • Panel 2: When Ravage confronts him, Hound has two shoulder launchers.
  • Panels 5-6: Soundwave is colored like Megatron as he attacks Prowl and Cliffjumper. His gun is missing its narrow tip, looking more like Megatron's fusion cannon, which is likely what caused the coloring error.
• Page 24: Cliffjumper's arms are colored white as Prowl orders the retreat.

UK printing

Issue #1:

• Published: 20th September, 1984
• Back-up strips: Machine Man ("Introducing Machine Man"  & "Byte of the Binary Bug!"  part 1)
• Free gift: "Action Transfers"; page 16 of the comic is a full-page pin-up of a street featuring Sparkplug's garage that the transfers can be stuck on to create action scenes (right)
• Other features: Spot-the-difference contest to win a Jazz figure; pin-up of Prowl, Jazz, and Sideswipe, made using a screengrab from the original Transformers comic book animated commercial; "Robot Round-Up," a two-page text feature looking at modern advancements in robotics
• The letters printed in issue #1 of the UK comic were provided by pupils from Greycourt School (in Ham, near Richmond in South West London) who were visiting the Marvel UK offices. Their visit was written up in a magazine published at the school. The teacher who arranged the visit was Stephen Payne, former president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and soon to be publisher of Visual Imagination Magazines (Starburst & TV Zone).

Issue #2:

• Published: 4th October, 1984
• Backup strips: Machine Man ("Byte of the Binary Bug!" part 2)
• Free Gift: More "Action Transfers"
• Other features: "Design a Decepticon" contest to win a Decepticon jet figure; "Robot Round-Up"
• While the first issue was published in full-colour, this issue introudces the half-colour, half-black-and-white format the UK series will adhere to until issue #27. Almost the entire Transformers strip is in black-and-white, with only the two pages of Buster returning home after school, and the Autobots departing on their survey mission, appearing in colour.
• The two-page spread of the Autobots introducing themselves (right) is omitted from the story, probably because the way the comic is laid out would have resulted in half of it being in black and white, and half in colour. New text captions added to the end of the preceding page and the start of the next to link them together. The spread is included in the issue, however, repurposed to become a full-colour pull-out poster, with the Transformers logo pasted over the two panels in the top-left corner (showing the Decepticons escapsing, and Prowl and Optimus watching them go). The spread would also be printed in this edited form in the the 1985 annual. In a sense, this means the early UK continuity initially lacks an in-story list of the Autobots originally on Earth, making appearances by Red Alert in "The Enemy Within!" and Inferno in "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" a weeeee bit easier to reconcile.

Other trivia

• This mini-series was printed on high-quality Mando paper.
• On May 22, the first Usenet post about Transformers is posted by Ted Nolan to net.comics, regarding this issue. Capsule review? "Worst comic of the year."
  • In 2018, TFU.INFO interviewed Ted Nolan about the post.
• The cover price is 75 cents, which would be about $1.80 when adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars. Comics as an industry are rather notorious for their price increases over and above standard inflation; today, a standard Skybound Entertainment Transformers comic costs $3.99.
• The cover corner box, a staple of Marvel's covers from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, features a character model of Optimus Prime. A new, more dramatic pose would debut with the first ongoing issue (issue #5).
• The cover banner that promotes this issue as "#1 IN A FOUR ISSUE LIMITED SERIES" would be spoofed for the final issue of the series ("#80 IN A FOUR ISSUE LIMITED SERIES"), and again for the final issue of the modern-day sequel Regeneration One ("#100 IN A FOUR ISSUE LIMITED SERIES").
• Other latter-day references to this issue include:
  • A loving homage in IDW's Robots in Disguise 2012 Annual
  • Various parodies and homages to its distinctly surreal cover art including an incentive cover of "The Death of Optimus Prime", Cover B of the final issue of Regeneration One, a convention exclusive cover for Till All Are One #1, the "cover" for "The Inexorable March", and a retailer incentive cover to Unicron #1.

Bot Roster

• Autobots: 18 active.
• Decepticons: 10 active; Shockwave missing in action.

Courtesy of my...

• Laserbeak mentions his optical lasers.
• Sunstreaker boasts about his ground-to-air missiles.
• Cliffjumper talks up his glass gas, later using it to damage Starscream and Thundercracker.
• Jazz says he's ready to fight with his photon rifle and overhead flamethrowers.
• Trailbreaker mentions having to use his force-field projector to protect himself from Wheeljack's shrapnel shells.
• Hound scares away Ravage with a holographic missile projected from his turret gun.
• Soundwave shoots at Prowl and Cliffjumper with his concussion cannon.

Covers (3)

• US issue #1: gigantic Optimus Prime, tiny Starscream, Gears, Laserbeak and the Witwickys, by Bill Sienkiewicz.
• UK issue #1: Soundwave and Buzzsaw kick Prime's ass, by Jerry Paris.
• UK issue #2: the Autobots depart the Ark, by John Ridgway; inspired by the cover of Weird Science issue #16 (November, 1952)

• 
  US issue #1 – First he will crush the planes, then he will crush the giant floating heads.
• 
  UK issue #1 – Is Soundwave on Ultra-Energon?
• 
  UK issue #2 – Is this girl that into her doll that she didn't see the giant f* cking robots?

Reprints

• 
  Collected Comics #1
  (Marvel UK, 1985)
• 
  Collected Comics #1: The Story Begins...
  (Marvel US, 1985)
• 
  The Transformers: A Federal Super Special
  (Federal Publishing Company, 1985)
• 
  The Transformers: The Complete Works Part 1
  (Marvel UK, 1986)
• 
  Die Transformer #1
  (Condor Verlag, 1986)
• 
  The Transformers Comics Magazine #1
  (Marvel US, 1986)
• 
  Transformers: Beginnings TPB
  (Titan Books, 2003)
• 
  Transformers: Beginnings HC
  (Titan Books, 2003)
• 
  Pack-in with 25th Anniversary Optimus Prime toy
  (Hasbro, 2009)
• 
  Classic Transformers Volume 1
  (IDW Publishing, 2008)
• 
  The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1
  (IDW Publishing, 2011)
• 
  The Transformers 30th Anniversary Collection
  (IDW Publishing, 2013)
• 
  One Hundred Penny Press Edition
  (IDW Publishing, 2014)
• 
  Transformers: Classic Comic Collection Volume 1
  (Chrirpy Bird, 2015)
• 
  Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 1: Power Play
  (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2017)
• 
  The Transformers: Classics Vol. 1
  (Hero-X, 2018)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  Cover A
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  Cover B
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  Cover C
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  Big Time Collectibles exclusive A
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  Big Time Collectibles exclusive B
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  Maximus Books N' More exclusive
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  SuperManila Comic Con exclusive
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  Transformers #1 40th Anniversary Edition
  New York Comic Con exclusive
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2024)
• 
  The Transformers Compendium Volume 1
  (Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment, 2025)

Reprint notes

• The UK Collected Comics #1 omits the double-page Autobot roll-call scene, as the original UK printing of the issue did (see UK printing, above).
• The Complete Works reinstates the Autobot roll-call spread, but replaces the two panels in the corner with a single exterior shot of the Ark, re-used from UK issue #42, drawn by Geoff Senior. Presumably, this had to be done because Marvel UK either damaged or lost the original panels after removing them to edit the page into a poster for their original printing of the issue (again, see UK printing).
• The 2024 Image Comics facsimile reprint uses the IDW Transformers Classics version of the comic.

IDW Transformers Classics edits

For The Transformers Classics series of trade paperbacks, IDW Publishing "remastered" the coloring of the series with varying degrees of success. These changes were sometimes to fix errors, but often to alter characters' color schemes to make them resemble their toy and/or cartoon selves, and were rarely applied with consistency. IDW's recolored version was also used for Hachette's The Definitive G1 Collection and Skybound's Transformers Compendium.

• Soundwave is recolored blue throughout the issue, erasing his standard Marvel purple color scheme, as well as correcting the coloring errors on pages 2 and 23.
• Page 1, panel 5: The blue thighs of the generic red robot (second from the left) are recolored to also be red.
• Page 3: Haphazard text recreation for the IDW reprint results in Michael Higgins' last name being misspelled "Hissins".
• Page 5: Jazz's colors are corrected as best they can be, changing him from incorrect yellow to white and blue.
• Page 7: Optimus's colors in panels 3 and 5 are largely corrected, though his pelvis remains blue.
• Page 13: More imperfect text recreation results in a blue quadrangle replacing the letter "S" in Ravage's speech bubble, resulting in the word "slip" becoming a nonsensical "■lip". Meanwhile, Buzzsaw's speech bubble screws up the letter "u" in his own name, resulting in "Blizzsaw".
• Page 15: Wheeljack is recolored to add a patch of green to his chest.
• Page 22, panel 4 and page 23, panel 1: For these two panels alone, Starscream is recolored into his finalized, predominantly white color scheme, as opposed to the early blue scheme he has in the rest of the issue.
• Page 23-24: For these two pages, Hound's legs are recolored from their standard Marvel solid blue to green with white thighs.

Advertisements

US

• The Last Starfighter (Inside front cover)
• Free Spider-Man Comic from Fig Newtons - between pages 4 & 5
• Olympic Sales Club - between pages 5 & 6
• Mile High Comics (2-page spread) - between pages 13 & 14
• Block of various Sketchy Things (I.E. Charles Atlas) - between pages 16 & 17
• Helen of Toy mail-in military scenes - between pages 22 & 23
• Marvel bonus certificate
• Muppets Take Manhattan storybook & record (Inside rear cover)
• Star Wars home console video arcade cassette (Rear cover)

UK

Issue #1

• The Transformers toyline, spotlighting the Autobot Cars, Autobot Mini-Vehicles, Decepticon Planes, and Mini-Cassettes.
• Indiana Jones #1
• The Savage Sword of Conan #85
• The Best Pals Club

Issue #2

• Mail-away "Robot Watch" offer
• Weetabix cereal home computer competition
• Grandreams 1985 hardback annuals
• The Transformers toyline
• Mail-away Spider-Man watches offer