Gomess' Forbidden Folder of Wonders

[Gomess]

ACHTUNG! Optimus hat eine kamera!



Ahhhh, THERE they are! Guess I wanted to keep Starscream and the Autobots separate... or something... man I was a weird kid. Glad that's over.



Yes, this catalogue DID survive a fire. And check it out! There's no German word for "MICROMASTER ANTI-AIRCRAFT BASE".



Emirate Xaaron marches fearlessly into battle against Jungle Ravage (with delightful red nail polish). Optimus gets ready to work on some dry wall. Spike is blond.



Welp, we're definitely in 1988 now folks. Check out how finely balanced the gimmicks are! Though I always hated that the Autobots had ONE more Powermaster. Unfair!



Look at the effort that went into catalogues back then! When did Doubledealer EVER walk through a background this badass?? He just did.



Always loved this artwork, don't know why. Might be Skullgrin's bent knee exposing all the wiring, or something. Maybe the Visionaries-style effect of him emerrrrging from his Pretender shell in a Skullgrin-shaped burst of energy.

[Dominic]

Random thoughts:

-what is with all the German?

-was Prime's gun shortened by virtue of censorship?

-the Pretenders have no stickers. Bad presentation by Hasbro there....

-my god, old UK comics had some bad coloring. (The US was just as bad of course.)

-TF package was generally good. But, yeah, year 5 was exceptionally well composed.


Dom
-wants posters of the old box art.

[Gomess]

what is with all the German?

Short answer: I got that catalogue in Germany. Long answer: I got that catalogue in Germany.

was Prime's gun shortened by virtue of censorship?

Nah, there's a similar picture on the back cover where he's in fully decked-out Powermaster Prime mode, with the guns on his shoulders and stuff, and the gun has a full barrel. You're right in thinking Germany has strict censorship laws, though.

my god, old UK comics had some bad coloring.

...Thought it was pretty clear that's a *German* comic. =p The actual contents were reprints of US and UK stories, while the cover was likely produced in either Germany or France.



So what the heck is this??



My, how interesting!



Seems about right. Let's have a look at Mindwipe...



DANG, Mindwipe is buff!!

More Headmasters fun next time!

[138 Scourge]

Wow, that little "Data-scan" thing is pretty neat. Simple enough gimmick, but no lie, as a kid, that would have kept me entertained for a good long time.

I'll second Dom's desire for box-art posters. Those things were really pretty cool.

EDIT: Also, man, Pretenders Classics. I still need to find a Grimlock shell one of these days. The humanoid Pretenders were such a damn goofy concept, but still has it's appeal.

[Dominic]

My mistake. Bad colouring was an international phenomenon.


Dom
-seriously, remember blue and orange jetfire in the early US comics?

[Gomess]

The humanoid Pretenders were such a damn goofy concept, but still has it's appeal.

I always figured the human ones made perfect sense (see Masterforce), but the monster ones were just like... er... you want to scare people? YOU'RE A GIANT BLOODY ROBOT

That said, the Pretender Classics shells were patently ridiculous. They had the perfect opportunity to break the cycle of Generic White Guys, and... well, do I really need to point out the obvious issue with Jazz's shell in particular? Ho-hum. Love how Grimlock's shell looks decidedly intelligent and laconic, too.

remember blue and orange jetfire in the early US comics?

Actually I don't, but I can imagine. For me, the biggest colouring mistake of all was Megatron's helmet. Why was it a darker shade of grey, why?? Made it look even more like my girlfriend's hair.

ANYWAY



This... is possibly my most wrecked catalogue. It's '87, so it's pretty massive, and provided us poor limeys with our first view of....



己フォートレス!!



And here's the guy who uttered those previous words, also sporting the aforementioned miscolouring. Does that count as Black Zarak...? Wah wah wahhhh



Another favourite miscolouring of mine as a kid: completely silver Monzo. Always thought he looked cool.



And the WORST bit of the catalogue: taunting us with toys that WEREN'T EVEN RELEASED HERE ¬_¬

Next time: SPECIAL TEAMS (did they call G1 combiners that anywhere else?)

[Onslaught Six]

Actually I don't, but I can imagine. For me, the biggest colouring mistake of all was Megatron's helmet. Why was it a darker shade of grey, why?? Made it look even more like my girlfriend's hair.

Because he's this:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:P-Megatron.jpg

[Gomess]

Hmmmm I guess that's likely where it came from. Anyhoo, now we've finally made it to my OTHER favourite G1 era: the movie!!



Yeahhh check out that weird sparse artwork. And what's that...?



NEW LEADERS? Omg! Take note, Habsor. As a Marvel UK story once said: TOO MANY MEGATRONS



Mmm delish. Check out the selection!



Hahaha. Headless Bruticus. It's practically a tradition of these catalogues for Bruticus to be messed up. Plenty more of that to come.



...At least THIS catalogue's honest about who actually got released in my country. Only four Dinobots? 'Fraid so. I still haven't got Swoop. =[



Now this is the back of a.. sort of combination catalogue / comic book.. thing, as a teaser for the original Special Teams.



And here's the front. Notice how they've tried to give Menasor an elbow by awkwardly stretching Drag Strip. Also double Slingshot.



And here's the first panel of the internal comic book! Cool thing about this? It was adapted into a short audio cassette story narrated (including VOICES) by John Hurt. It's truly excellent to hear him say stuff like, "Everything about Brawl is LOUD, MOVING, TALKING- But the same can't be said of Blast Off..." with eeeevil enthusiasm is just great.



The comic features Drag Strip actually USING that "cushion of air" thing his tech spec mentioned. A little more exaggerated, maybe, but it's there.



I love this panel. I don't think I need to say much about it, except that how often do they put this much thought into this process? The rockets in Onslaught's feet are a fun touch.



And then there's... this. Last guy I saw with a sentient arm didn't go too far in life before getting his comeuppance.

[Gomess]

One of the favourite parts of this little folder coming up in this post... But first, a rather ill-conceived "sticker album" sort of deal with profiles on the original four Special Teams!



As you might be able to make out, only the leaders and gestalts are really "stickers"... and they're not. They're small cards that you had to stick to the paper yourself. Yay?



The coolest thing about it is that, because Defensor and Bruticus hadn't actually been released yet, they didn't have official artwork for their combined forms, so they had to make it up. I suspect Andy Wildman got the task. And what a surprise! Bruticus is headless!



And here's Defensor. Notice that this thing actually tells you where the limbs should go. Kinda defeats the point of Scramble Power, no...?



BUT HERE IT IS! The rather nifty "Transformers Fact Book". Yeahhh.



What a dry wit that Megs is.



NOW YOU KNOW



AND KNOWING



IS HALF THE BATTLE



Gotta love the artists' renditions of their own faces. That's Jeff Anderon, INK MASTER Steve Baskerville, Barry Kitson (one of my personal faves) and Dan Reed.



I really don't think they really needed to point out which one was Geoff Senior. Look at those cheekbones. He's even got the TF-goatee!

[Dominic]

Scramble Power was only official in Japan. Generally, the US and UK were pretty consistent with limb arrangement.


Dom
-kind likes it better that way.