Transformers Classics UK Volume 1 Paperback – 25 Oct. 2011

Transformers Classics UK Volume 1 is the first in a series of books providing the definitive collection of Marvel UK's weekly Transformers comic series, which ran from 1984 to 1992. Whilst a few of the UK series best stories have been collected previously, this is the first time that all of the UK originated material has been collected in one place.This particular volume collects the following stories:'Man of Iron', in which Autobots and Decepticons travel to England to investigate signs of Transformers life buried below a medieval castle.'The Enemy Within', where the Autobot Brawn and Decepticon Starscream must do battle to the death to prove their loyalty to their respective factions.'Raiders of the Last Ark', starring the Arks sentient computer and the first appearence of the Autobot 'Guardian' robots.'Decepticon Dam Busters', a comic book recreation of episode 2 of the Transformers animated series, which saw Optimus Prime and Megatron battle atop Sherman dam.'The Wrath of the Guardian/Grimlock': The first UK story featuring the Dinobots, recently recovered by Ratchet from the Savage Land, and returning to the Ark to discover it protected by a rogue Guardian robot.'Christmas Breaker', starring the human hero Circuit Breaker v's Jazz.'Crisis of Command', where Optimus Prime must decide how to unite the divided ranks of the Autobots, half of which want to remain loyal to their Autobot ideals, with the other half wanting to create a breed of dedicated Autobot warriors to end their war with the Decepticons, despite the cost to the human population of Earth.Also reprinted in this volume for the first time are stories from the 1986 Transformers annual, 'A plague of Inscecticons', 'And there shall come a leader...', and the text story 'Missing in Action'.Whilst the quality of story and art vary quite dramatically in the stories collected here, the quality of both improves markedly as the volume goes on and as the creative teams began to find their feet with the characters, concepts and ideas. All however are an essential part of Transformers lore, with most of the stories here never reprinted beyond the 'collected comics' that were released periodically during the 80's and early 90's, and none of these stories (apart from 'Man of Iron') were ever printed in the U.S comic series that ran alongside the U.K series, and so were largely denied to American fans.If you, like me, are a long term collector of Transformers comics, was there from the beginning, or have previously managed to collect all of these stories in their individual issues, then dont distress because there is still plenty of additional material here that may make a purchase worthwhile. This includes reprints of all of the advertisments, factfiles, covers, competitions and calenders that appeared in these issues, as well as a comprehensive history behind the history of Transformers UK, including a digest of each individual story, interviews with artists and writers, and other bonus material (such as artist Geoff Seniors try-out for the comic).For any person looking for quality Transformers tales, interested in the history of the Transformers comic franchise, or looking for the definitive collection of UK material, then this book is a must for you.

Having being a fan since issue 3 of the UK Transformers comic (it would have been since #1 but I couldn't find it anywhere!) I ordered this for nostalgia more than anything. I still have most of the original print run but they are getting worse for wear these days. This is a pretty amazing collection offering a plethora of extra material along side the reprinted stories. From Page 3 with the reprint of the very first page from the first Transformers annual, you know you are in for a special ride.Following the foreword by James Roberts there are 16 pages of information regarding the TFUK comics, from pictures of the 2 page calendars they ran every month, the posters, free gifts and even the legendary letters page. From there it's to the stories proper. Each story is preceded by several pages of the covers as well as text bringing the reader up to pace on what's happened, why and how it fits in to the timeline. The stories are presented mostly in colour although there are the occasional black and white pages, but they are few and far between. Once the main stories are complete you are presented the original 1986 annual! The comic and prose stories! Fantatsic! There's then a few old adverts from the comics and a few "Interface Fact Files" to top it off.Overall, I am well impressed by the thought put into this collection. The quality of the reproduction is as good as you could expect for its age and is printed on heavy quality matt paper. This is one for fans, regardless of whether you were there at the beginning or not.

I am in some ways the ideal purchaser for these volumes. I loved the Transformers Comic when I was young, waiting excitedly each week for the next issue (I can't believe that was about 28 years ago!). Over the years my collection of comics have been lost but to now have them available again is fantastic. To look through the book and see the great artwork, some of which I could still remember, and to see the covers reproduced brought memories flooding back.These are only the UK stories. It would have been nice if we could have had the US stories too, so we could have had the complete linear sequence of all the stories available in the UK comic. However the US stories are available elsewhere. As others have said too, there is also quite a wide border around the comic strips and it would have been nice if that could have been made a little smaller and the strip itself made correspondingly larger.These are only minor gripes however and basically I loved this book. I will now have to get all the others in the series too: Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 Transformers Classics UK Volume 3 Transformers Classics UK Volume 4 Transformers Classics UK Volume 5

Bought this book out of nostagia for the Transformers comic I used to get as a child - certainly a superior incarnation than the current films.The book comes with a bit of background about how it came to be created, which is quite interesting.Credit is deserved for creating an interesting plot around something which could have been seen as a cynical marketing exercise.Knowing now that the UK comics were non-canon, makes them seem limited in scope, although at the time they seemed to fit in quite well.Did find I got tired of the constant changing of the characters eventually, but the comics did have a good run.