Transformers: The Ultimate Guide: Difference between revisions

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Transformers: The Ultimate Guide is an offically licensed guide from [[DK Publishing]] published in 2005. written by Simon Furman in 2004. In 2007, a second edition was published, increasing the page count from 144 to 152 (visibly different by having a reflective background on the cover instead of white).
Transformers: The Ultimate Guide is an offically licensed guide from [[DK Publishing]] published in 2005. written by Simon Furman in 2004. In 2007, a second edition was published, increasing the page count from 144 to 152 (visibly different by having a reflective background on the cover instead of white).


=Contents=
==Contents==
 
* Introduction
* Introduction
==[[Generation 1]]==
 
** When not explicitly stated otherwise, all information is assumed to apply to the [[Dreamwave]] comics continuity.
===Generation 1===
 
The Ultimate Guide is one of many similarly-titled publications by Dorling Kindersley, which cover the histories, characters and worlds of comic characters such as [[Spider-Man]], the [[Wolverine|X-Men]] and many others. However, the Transformers tome is distinguished by one major detail - while the other books serve as encyclopedias of the characters' long histories in print, ''Transformers: The Ultimate Guide'' gives only the most basic of treatment to the historical aspects of Generation 1, and instead, its articles are focused entirely on the then-current [[Dreamwave]] comics continuity. However, as Dreamwave had barely been around for any length of time when the book was published, their universe was so monumentally underdeveloped that most of the information in the book actually had to be created ''for the book''.
 
Additionally, the book appears to deliberately favor story material from comic continuitues as opposed to the animated continuity. This is most conspicuous in dealing with the origin of the Dinobots in the Dreamwave universe, where Furman dismisses the notion that they were built on Earth by Wheeljack (as in the cartoon) on the basis that it is in contradiction with the "historical evidence" that the Dyno-bots existed on Cybertron - from the ''War Within'' comic Furman himself wrote nearly 20 years later. 
 
Finally, in the sections where book ''does'' deal directly with historical aspects of Generation 1 (in the pages covering the Marvel Comics, the cartoon and the toys), not one page passes without several errors. Several names are spelled incorrectly ("[[Teletraan I|Teletran-1]]," "[[Carly|Carlee]]," "[[Elita-1|Eleta-1]]", [[Shawn Berger|Sean Burger]]"), various 'toon and comic summaries have inaccuracies in them, and the toys used for images are old, ratty artefacts with peeling, misapplied stickers and various missing accessories.
 
Subjects covered include:
 
* [[Cybertron]]
* [[Cybertron]]
* The City of [[Iacon]]
* The City of [[Iacon]]
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* [[Optimus Prime (G1) toys#Generation 1|Powermaster Optimus Prime]]
* [[Optimus Prime (G1) toys#Generation 1|Powermaster Optimus Prime]]
* [[Pretenders]]
* [[Pretenders]]
**On several points this book appears to deliberately favor story material from comic continuities as opposed to animated continuity.  This is most conspicuous when dealing with the origin of the Dinobots, as Furman claims the episode in which they were built by Wheeljack is in contradiction with the "historical evidence" from the War Within comic Furman himself wrote nearly 20 years later. 
* Japanese G1 Toys
* Japanese G1 Toys
** This section deals largely with toys that were [[Pre-Transformer|later recycled into Transformers.]]
** This section deals largely with toys that were [[Pre-Transformer|later recycled into Transformers.]]

Revision as of 16:00, 21 August 2007

He's bigger, faster and stronger too, He's the first member of the DK crew!

Transformers: The Ultimate Guide is an offically licensed guide from DK Publishing published in 2005. written by Simon Furman in 2004. In 2007, a second edition was published, increasing the page count from 144 to 152 (visibly different by having a reflective background on the cover instead of white).

Contents

  • Introduction

Generation 1

The Ultimate Guide is one of many similarly-titled publications by Dorling Kindersley, which cover the histories, characters and worlds of comic characters such as Spider-Man, the X-Men and many others. However, the Transformers tome is distinguished by one major detail - while the other books serve as encyclopedias of the characters' long histories in print, Transformers: The Ultimate Guide gives only the most basic of treatment to the historical aspects of Generation 1, and instead, its articles are focused entirely on the then-current Dreamwave comics continuity. However, as Dreamwave had barely been around for any length of time when the book was published, their universe was so monumentally underdeveloped that most of the information in the book actually had to be created for the book.

Additionally, the book appears to deliberately favor story material from comic continuitues as opposed to the animated continuity. This is most conspicuous in dealing with the origin of the Dinobots in the Dreamwave universe, where Furman dismisses the notion that they were built on Earth by Wheeljack (as in the cartoon) on the basis that it is in contradiction with the "historical evidence" that the Dyno-bots existed on Cybertron - from the War Within comic Furman himself wrote nearly 20 years later.

Finally, in the sections where book does deal directly with historical aspects of Generation 1 (in the pages covering the Marvel Comics, the cartoon and the toys), not one page passes without several errors. Several names are spelled incorrectly ("Teletran-1," "Carlee," "Eleta-1", Sean Burger"), various 'toon and comic summaries have inaccuracies in them, and the toys used for images are old, ratty artefacts with peeling, misapplied stickers and various missing accessories.

Subjects covered include:


Generation 2

Beast Wars

Beast Machines

Transformers: Robots In Disguise

  • A New Wave
  • Autobots and Decepticons
    • The Robots in Disguise show dub was inadvertently bought by Disney in 2002, creating legal problems with images from the series. As a result, RiD's section in The Ultimate Guide was perfunctory, covering only the toys.

Transformers Armada & Energon

Dreamwave Comics


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