Diamond said the release date is December 10 2008, but from my LCS, it's been out since last week. Oh well, knock yourselves out here.

I picked it up last week, too.

I thought "Shattered Glass" was fairly by the numbers mirror-verse stuff. Nothing special from a storytelling point of view. The implementations of some of the characters and choices of pre-existing toy molds for bodies was a little entertaining (Armada Wheeljack being the basis for SG Sideswipe, for instance). Art and coloring was great, at any rate.

Can't really say I dug some of the really, really nerdy in-jokes, like Cliffjumper saying "Ponderous, slagging ponderous". Yeah, that Casey Kasem thing was hilarious, but it didn't need to be worked into a Transformers story.

Anyhow, I've come to expect a pretty low level of quality in the storytelling from Fun Publishing (though the last special, taking place in the Classics/Marvel US universe, was actually pretty good), and knowing that Ben Yee wrote it pretty much sealed the deal that it was gonna be "meh" at the very most, if not downright awful.

But still, hey! Pretty art by Don! And I got some amusement from reading Prime's dialogue in my head with Cullen's Venger voice. So there's that.

Anyhow, "Shattered Expectations" was the best part of the special, even if I got to read that for free online months ago.

Really? Even the Sipher/Trent-penned prose stories?

Because those are the best pieces of Transformers fiction I've read in a long time, along with the Arrival comics.

To their credit, the current FP/Collector's Club fiction was leagues ahead of the old 3H stuff. But they gave us stories like "The Wreckers", which is pretty hard to trump in regards to being terrible.

I picked up the TPB for their "Balancing Act" comic, which was pretty boring. I might have likedit more had I read all of the "Universe" comic, maybe.

I read scans of "The Razor's Edge" which, alongside the Beast Wars Sourcebook (which is not affiliated with FP/Collector's Club, I know) pretty much solidified my opinion that Ben Yee could not write a coloring book, let alone any deeper piece of literature. I think the scans of "The Razor's Edge" are the only scans of a Transformers comic I've actually deleted from my computer, and I still have scans of "The Beast Within" hanging around.

"Dawn of Future's Past" would have been great if it wasn't for all the Airazor/Tigatron stuff.

"Games of Deception" I actually did enjoy, though I might have liked it more had I read all the Classic fiction they'd produced alongside it (which hasn't been released to mass retail yet).


Can't say I've read Sipher's prose stories, as I haven't found scans of those (and I'm not asking for them, since I know that's against the rules; I can find em on my own if I look hard enough). Seeing as how he wrote "Shattered Expectations", the one piece of FP fiction to thoroughly amuse me, I might have to check it out.

Overall though, the FP stuff comes off as being mostly lousy, at least when they give the pen to Ben Yee. Leagues ahead of the 3H stuff, though; but those always read like glorified fanfiction, anyway.

Ah well, they *have* been getting better. And if they'd just keep Yee away, they'd probably improve much faster.

Force Of Habit was free for all to read, though.
http://www.transformersclub.com/force-of-habitv3.pdf

I really recommend you check it out.

I must hasten to point out that everything I write, I write with Trent Troop.

"The New World" is also free. http://www.transformersclub.com/_images/MiniConStory.pdf


M "So You Have Those Two Stories To Look Forward To" Sipher

This came out already? Crap, I hope my comic shop set one aside for me.

Yeah, ya know? If they just removed all the Tigatron and Airazor stuff, that story would have been much less ridiculous than it was.

Anyway, on this particular Timelines issue, a fun read for the most part. Best line was "Straxus is insane in your universe? Pity, I always liked his poetry."

It was an ok read. Besides, a lot more happened in this than in 5 issues of AHM.......

Not a bad read, I've certainly seen worse, I was just hoping for a couple more extras though. The art by Don as always was perfect, such a shame he's not drawing Transformers anymore full time! This comic did do one thing to me though, now I want a Megatron figure, don't know why, but I do.

Bought this at Botcon in April, anyone care to list what bonuses are included in the retail version?

At the top of my head: the teaser "Shattered Expectations", and MTMTE profiles for both Rodimus and Starscream

Bought on the inclusion of Shattered Expectations alone. Wot?

Also if the forced, fan-wanky G1 Predacon connection was removed along with it. Wasn't too happy with Laserbeak and Buzzsaw as well, but since it followed in-line with Ravage I can barely let that sweek by.

This was a fun read, I always enjoyed the mirror-verse from Star Trek so it was familiar to me.

Some highlights/thoughts of mine are:
Since I like Nova Prime from IDW so much, this Optimus was a very fun read.

I want to see all of the Constructicons in those colors, and Devastator if they can combine.

I never thought Megatron could look so heroic. (Or Optimus looking so evil )

I didn't even notice that Starscream looks like Jetfire until I read the wikia, but I like it.

I wish we saw more of Cyclonus, but it's not hard to imagine his colors.

who were the wrecks on the walkway?

I recognise Clench and Skyquake but the other two completely escape me.

I had a thought....Does anyone think they may introduce Unicron in the mirror Universe?? If they did I bet they would use that Unicron redeco from Energon....Another thought was that I would love to see some characters swap like having Megatron Vs. Megatron.....Just a thought you know....Odds are we'll never see it.

In the stories we have heard most Transformers have reacted to Cliffjumper's mention on Primus and Unicron with either "never heard of them" or thinking of them as some sorta myth. It might be interesting if this Universe's Primus and Unicron were the same as all other universes Primus and Unicron, just that these Transformers had lost all touch with Primus when most of them went astray to the dark side.

I would love to see some universe hopping with alternate versions of the characters showing up. Maybe Cliffjumper can take a commando team of Dececeptions back to the Classicverse, and when they see Prime and the autobots they will freak out "Look out, it's the evil Autobots!"

Wow I totally forgot to check for this in stores and I've likely missed it by this point. Looks like I'll have to order it off the club site...

can someone post the cover? I want to see if I have this...