Desert Island Risks!

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File:Desert island risks.jpg "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, and destroys it.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

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

Notes

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.

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.

Back-up material

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

Covers (2)

• Issue #264
  Issue #264
• 
  Earthforce

• Issue #264 cover: Ironhide and Bumblebee in the jungle, by Pete Knifton.
• Earthforce cover: Grimlock thumps a table, cropped from the cover of issue #263, by Stephen Baskerville.

Reprints

• 2005 — Transformers: Earthforce