Start Your Own Decoy Collection

File:Startyourowndecoycollection.jpg

The second sentence is a lie, no matter how you read it.

"Start Your Own Decoy Collection" is a pack-in mini-comic included alongside a decoy with some carded Generation 1 toys. In addition to the comic proper (titled "The Decepticon Deception"), it also contains a checklist of all the available decoy toys.

Stats

• Writer: unknown<br />
• Originally published: 1986<br />
• Art: unknown

Synopsis

The easily-bamboozled Galvatron of Space.

The Decepticons have somehow stolen the Creation Matrix. First Aid (drawn as Ratchet) develops the decoys to distract the Decepticons, while the Autobots sneak into Decepticon headquarters and <strike>shoot</strike>retrieve the Matrix.

Upon learning of the ruse, Galvatron angrily declares that the Decepticons will develop their own set of decoys, presumably to try the exact same trick, later on. This plan cannot fail.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

<table border="5" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" align="center" style="border:#800000"> <tr> <th style="background:#FFEEEE"> Autobots</th><th style="background:#EEEEFE"> Decepticons </th></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#FFEEEE" valign="top">

• Blurr (4)
• First Aid (7)
• Hot Rod (3)
• Kup (5)
• Springer (6)
• Ultra Magnus (2)

</td><td style="background:#EEEEFE" valign="top">

• Cyclonus (9)
• Galvatron (1)
• Scourge (8)
• Sharkticons (10)

</td></tr></table>

Notes

• The comic takes place in no particular known continuity. It doesn't even show any signs of being part of the S.T.A.R.S.-related micro-continuity established in other pack-in flyers. While it may not necessarily fit anywhere in the larger scheme, these points are notable:
• The Decepticons are led by Galvatron, and the Autobots by Ultra Magnus. Rodimus Prime is nowhere to be seen, with Hot Rod in his place instead. This is a common situation in many micro-continuities, and it could even be accounted for in mainstream continuities by the Decepticons' "theft" of the Matrix.
• Ratchet's presence would eliminate the Generation 1 cartoon universe, were it not for him being called First Aid. Whether it was originally intended to be Ratchet, with a last-minute change obscuring the contradiction, is unknown.
• Sharkticons are seen in the Decepticon base. While certainly Quintesson/Decepticon alliances are not unheard of, it's still a point against mainstream continuities.

• The one decoy drawn clearly is a copy of Ultra Magnus, yet that decoy toy was never available in the US. It is therefore unclear whether the fictional decoys correspond at all to the toys.
• Judging from the map, Decepticon Headquarters is located somewhere in mainland China.
• Like some of the mail-away flyers, this pamphlet is quite tiny, folding down to just over 1" x 2". The small size allowed it to be packed in with small toys such as the Scramble City-style combiner limbs, alongside their equally-small sticker and combination-instruction sheets.
• According to the list, there are 52 unique decoys, far more than the number of carded toys available at the time. The only way to get them all would have been to buy multiples of the same Transformer. Hasbro, you bastards.