Cybertronian: The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide
Published by Antartic Press from 200?-200?, Cybertronian: The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide was an unofficial (surprise, surprise!) but highly useful guide to American-released Transformers up to and including the first waves of Beast Wars. Although not authorised by Hasbro/Takara and thus technically a fan-publication, it was nevertheless the first book (sorta) of its kind and remains one of the most comprehensive English-language sources on the pre-Beast Era toylines of G1, G2 and Machine Wars.
Content
Presented in a squarebound format slightly smaller than a standard American comic book (and with slightly inconsistent dimensions across subsequent reprintings), each volume featured all the released toys of about two waves of product, as well as backup features such as cartoon episode guides, summaries of the U.S. Marvel comic and an interesting but less-comprehensive round-up of early merchandise.
Most characters are afforded a whole page which pictures them (in colour photos) in both robot and altmode, has a close-up headshot and shows all weapons and accessories/loose pieces in a separate box-out for easy identification. Also included is a second box-out with a "detail view" of some aspect particular to the toy such as undocumented additional transformations or weapon storage. Known variants are mentioned, but not comprehensively, as are some Japanese mould reuses.
Particularly elaborate characters with multiple components, transformations and/or accessories such as Sky Lynx or Fortress Maximus are afforded multiple pages.
Text includes a reproduction of their Tech Spec stats and bios, including translations in instances where the only official toy bios for certain combiner characters were featured on Japanese gift sets (it shows).
Most characters also contain additonal text in the photo sections that contain some highly useful & interesting information, such as listing the real-world vehical models for all relevant characters, warnings of instances of common breakage or transformation-induced sticker damage, or other tidbits such as Gold Plastic Syndrome or pointing out how Bludgeon, Octopunch and Stranglehold are depicted only with melee weapons in the comic, yet their toys come packaged solely with guns. And that Stranglehold looks like Gabe Kaplan, apparently.
Some information about unproduced toys and European exclusives is also featured.
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Beast Wars Volume 1
They never got around to doing a vol. 2, apparently. Although given a separate numbering, this was to all intents and purposes the 7th and final volume of the series.
Cybertronian Index
Published some time later, this included Beast Machines and Robots In Disguise, but the quality of which was apparently shat on by some fans.
Trivia
- Just marginally preceeding the Dreamwave-led boom in G1's resurgant popularity and retro-nostalgia, Cybertronian featured some of the first publshed (if not exactly official) neo-G1 art since the G2 comic, in the form of several splendid covers (subsequent reprintings of some issues featured variant artworks). A couple of these covers have since been rendered somewhat "official" by publication in the coffee-table artbook Transformers: Genesis.
- These things cost an arm and a freakin' leg, even originally (it was even worse for those outside the U.S. who had to import them). Expect to pay easily US$25 now for the back issues on eBay, chumps.
