Desert Island Risks!

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"And it looks just like a G.I. Joe logo!"
"Desert Island Risks!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	1st April 1990
Cover date	7th April 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencils	Pete Knifton
Inks	Pete Venters
Letterer	Stuart Bartlett
Cover	Pete Knifton
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity/Earthforce

Ironhide and Bumblebee destroy a project to re-construct Devastator.

Synopsis

These stories do not fit into the normal Marvel continuity. See Earthforce for details.

Ironhide and Bumblebee track a Transformer lifeform to an island in the Bahamas, hoping that it is their missing teammate Prowl. Instead, they discover the site of a project to reconstruct Devastator as a separate robot, since the Constructicons have lost the ability to combine.

Ironhide penetrates the automated defence ring protecting the project, using skills learnt from designing similar systems as Autobot security chief while Bumblebee looks on. The ring consists of various trivia questions and riddles, which Ironhide negotiates successfully before getting close enough to ram the scaffolding and destroy the Devastator reconstruction.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Ironhide (1) Bumblebee (2) Prowl (3)	Devastator (4)

Quotes

"Well - this is it, Bumblebee. Not much to look at, is it?"

—Ironhide on one of Earth's tropical paradises.

"Let me. As Autobot Security Chief, I used to design these things. I know how they work."

—Ironhide seconds before tripping a trap.

"Had your fun? Good - now it's my turn! Devastator - come on down!"

—Ironhide destroys the would-be Devastator.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• TBD

Continuity errors

• TBD

Continuity notes

• The search for Prowl follows his Bucky-impression after UK issue #261. He will turn up alive in the care of some kindly Louisiana farmfolk in issue #266.
• Devastator's appearance here is presumably intended to promote his Action Master toy. No in-story explanation is given as to why the Constructicons can no longer combine; Nucleon is the obvious suspect, but it's never mentioned in the story. Ask Vector Prime would eventually canonize this theory.
  • A popular (but false) myth ties this story to a re-release of the Generation 1 Constructicon toys in some European markets, which were retooled and lacked all of the Devastator-related accessories so they could no longer combine. However, the yellow "Euro" Constructicons weren't released until two years after this story came out.
• Ironhide and Bumblebee reach the Bahamas on nifty branded hoverbikes; the same transportation will reappear in "Where Wolf?".
• One of the defence systems mentions the Hydrus Four system, home of a subterranean lifeform called the Axustian.

Real-life references

• The front cover of the issue depicts Bumblebee shouting "There's somethin' moving out here, an' it ain't us!" This is a reference to a line in the 1986 film Aliens, where in one scene Private Hudson (played by Bill Paxton) says exactly the same thing, verbatim.
• The title is a play on the name of the long-running BBC radio series Desert Island Discs.
• Ironhide's final line to Devastator—"Come on down!"—was a catchphrase on the TV show The Price Is Right.

Other trivia

• In Dread Tidings, Dreadwind mentions Cybertronian football teams Cybertron United and Polyhex City. Both got relegated. The Cybertronian version involves more attacking of the ball. He also evades rumours that before the war he fronted a band called The Rusty Buckets.

Back-up material

• Additional Transformers story: "Bird of Prey!"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Manoeuvring for Position" and Combat Colin

Cover

• Issue #264 cover: Ironhide and Bumblebee in the jungle, by Pete Knifton.

• 
  Issue #264

• Grandstand "Stop Thief" electronics
• The Monstrous Transformers Micromaster Competition, Mark II

• 20 top prizes of a Micromaster base - Groundshaker and the ATV or Skyhopper and the Helicopter.
• 100 runners-up prizes of "Micro-Transports" - Roughstuff, Overload and Flattop are pictured. No sign of Erector...

Reprints

• Transformers: Earthforce cover: Grimlock thumps a table — crop of the cover to UK issue #263, by Stephen Baskerville.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road: Bludgeon (art reused from Dreamwave's More than Meets the Eye profiles) above an interior scene of Grimlock punching through Fangry (from US issue #80), by Andrew Wildman.

• 
  Transformers: Earthforce
  (Titan Books, 2005)
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road
  (Hachette Partworks, 2018)