The Autobots Are Under Attack!

« S.T.A.R.S. continuity
The Autobots really need to find a new route.
"The Autobots Are Under Attack!"
Publisher	Hasbro
Cover date	1988
Art by	Mark Watts, possibly others

"The Autobots Are Under Attack!" is one in a series of mail-order flyers included with Generation 1 toys, offering various Transformers which had either been discontinued from the main line or had never been available in retail. A small amount of story content helped sell the characters.

Synopsis

Some parts of this flyer are written in the second person: The story declares that the Autobots' fate is up to "you" to decide. Also, the reader is encouraged to sign up with S.T.A.R.S. and thereby "join the heroic Autobots". As with the other S.T.A.R.S.-related material, we present the flyer here as though it exists within its own fiction.

The Autobots' fuel is running low in the wake of a Decepticon attack. A squad of Autobots goes out to search for new energy sources, but Reflector uncovers their plan. Megatron then masterminds a sneak attack carried out by Thundercracker. The Autobots are tough customers, though, and many of them are furious in battle.

The reader is told that the outcome is up to them, and that failing to join S.T.A.R.S. would "let the forces of evil destroy our Autobot allies."

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Cliffjumper (9) Cosmos (8) Mirage (5) Ratchet (7) Sunstreaker (6) Warpath (10) Wheeljack (4)	Megatron (1) Reflector (3) Thundercracker (2)

Notes

• This continues a loose story that runs through a few years' worth of toy pack-in flyers. The micro-continuity, taken at face value, cannot fit within any known larger continuity; however, the "unreliable narrator" factor prevents any declarations on the matter.
• The battle-scene artwork is reused from the previous flyer, but the story is new.
• Though the story involves the reader by declaring that the fate of the protagonists is in the reader's hands, it never explains how this is so, unlike many other flyers.
• Items available in this brochure include:
  • Megatron ($21.50 + 5 robot points)
  • Thundercracker ($10 + 2 robot points)
  • Reflector ($10 + 2 robot points)
  • Wheeljack ($8 + 2 robot points)
  • Mirage ($8 + 2 robot points). This was the final venue for the G1 Mirage toy, which is unique among main roster 1984 figures in never getting an official reissue.
  • Ratchet ($8 + 2 robot points)
  • Sunstreaker ($8 + 2 robot points)
  • Cosmos ($3.50 + 1 robot point)
  • Warpath ($3.50 + 1 robot point)
  • Cliffjumper ($3.50 + 1 robot point). Just as in the previous flyers, what is advertised as "Cliffjumper" is actually Hubcap. The toy's instructions showed both Hubcap and Cliffjumper.
  • S.T.A.R.S. membership ($5.00)
• This flyer's lineup is a variation on the usual mix, bringing the four Autobot cars back in, but dropping Optimus Prime. It's possible that Hasbro wanted to avoid competing with Prime's contemporaneous Powermaster toy.
• Ratchet "tackles the enemy with metal-rending fury!"
• Offer expires December 31, 1988. Better hurry!