Kid Stuff
Kid Stuff was a publisher of children's read-along audio storybooks in the 1980s. They published innumerable titles based on franchises such as G.I. Joe, the Care Bears, Garfield, My Little Pony, and many others. The storybooks typically came with an audio cassette or 45rpm record.
Transformers books
Kid Stuff published a number of Transformers titles. There were two sets of books; one consisted of adapted Big Looker stories previously published by Marvel Books, while other group contained original stories. Many of the original stories are not credited, but similar plot elements and dialog styles make it seem likely that they were all written by John Braden.
The original stories form their own little continuity, with a common set of oddities. Among the defining aspects of the stories:
- Only Optimus Prime, Prowl, Megatron and Soundwave ever speak.
- Soundwave is a simpering toady.
- The Dinobots fly around in their beast forms.
- The Autobots fly around in their robot and vehicle forms.
- Megatron is obsessed with mole-boring machines.
- Megatron is obsessed with calling Soundwave a "tape-filled idiot" and variants thereof.
- Events tend to occur in obscure geographic locations, all of which are specified by name, with a particular focus on the Pacific Rim.
- Violence on a massive scale is disturbingly common. The Rocky Mountains are melted into a molten puddle, massive volcanic eruptions are triggered, entire jungles are leveled, the Andes Mountains collapse into the sea, world weather patterns are violently altered, coastal cities are flooded, and thousands of human slaves die in a huge explosion. Nobody seems very much bothered by any of this.
The artwork is heavily toy-based, and sometimes features direct copies of characters' package art, even when it makes little or no spatial sense.
Titles
Adapted Big Looker books
Kid Stuff originals
- Satellite of Doom
- When Continents Collide
- Storms of Destruction
- Jaws of Terror
- Slaves of the Insecticons
- Attack of the Decepticons (audio only - no storybook)
External links
Generation 1 books at Steve-O's Transformers Site
