G1 Marvel Comic Collections

CoffeeHorse said:

If you can figure out where Earthforce goes you'll be a legend.

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Heh, someone once tried to back in the day, and from what I've heard about it, it was a ridiculous attempt that tried to put it all after the final issue as a bridge between it and Generation 2, with a ton of bending over backwards to justify how Unicron was suddenly a forthcoming threat again and then suddenly not, among literally every other discrepancy.

Could another fake Megatron make it work?

Fake Unicron.

I also got the TAAO digital files the other day (the TAAO Compendium is basically my anniversary/birthday/Christmas gift for this year) and have cataloged them in my comic collection and started reading it last night. A couple things I noticed:

* The copyright page of Volume 3 omits the fact that it collects UK #198-205 (Time Wars)
* I was slightly surprised to see that everything that (presumably) doesn't fit the main US/UK G1 narrative got shoved into Volume 4: Earthforce, TF & GIJoe (since it conflicts with the UK origin of Goldbug) and all of the G2 stuff.
* I was even more surprised that there were no editorial notes or explanations or anything, just the stories presented by themselves. Not even back cover copy to tell you what it is you're reading.

Still a pretty sweet collection, and the hardcovers (when they arrive) are going to be amazing.

Salt-Man Z said:

I also got the TAAO digital files the other day

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Wait, there are digital versions of the TAAO compendiums? I thought those were strictly hardcover only.

Salt-Man Z said:

* I was slightly surprised to see that everything that (presumably) doesn't fit the main US/UK G1 narrative got shoved into Volume 4: Earthforce, TF & GIJoe (since it conflicts with the UK origin of Goldbug) and all of the G2 stuff.

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What's odd about that? Where else would they all get put?

Sabrblade said:

Wait, there are digital versions of the TAAO compendiums? I thought those were strictly hardcover only.

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Exatron said:

So Skybound released the digital files for their Marvel G1 Transformers Compendiums a few days ago.

I got the Til All Are One version that releases all the Marvel material interwoven in the UK order, with some alterations.

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By the way, I've been working on a spreadsheet mapping out the TAAO contents to help visualize it better. What can I say? I'm an engineer. I still need to work on page numbers, but here's where it stands at the moment:

Whoooole lotta comments from backers complaining about the poor quality, bad enough to the point Skybound actually put this out in response:

We appreciate all the feedback on THE TRANSFORMERS CompendiumPDFs and wanted want to make sure we addressed some backer notes.


Skybound is committed to delivering the highest quality editions with our TRANSFORMERS compendiums.


The files were primarily sourced from Hachette’s Partworks editions, as well as some additional sources in the TF community. We made hundreds of additional corrections, with the primary goal of keeping the material as close to how it was originally published, while correcting art, colors, and lettering to fix incorrectly colored characters, typos, broken balloons, and lettering, etc.


While that means there will be some visible imperfections such as creases, color fading, or scan artifacts as part of the archival material itself, we are confident these TRANSFORMERS compendiums will deliver the same reading experience as you've come to expect from us.


Thank you for your questions and we look forward to you holding the final hardcovers in your hands!

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Which is basically a nice way of saying "too bad, you'll get what you get." I wouldn't be expecting any differences between the PDFs they released and the final printed product, and everyone should've been expecting they'd be using the Hatchette versions (sadly), but disappointing they didn't fix some of the easier-to-fix errors (like "Soldbussy" in US #41) and there's actually stuff like creases.

Magnusblitz said:

(like "Soldbussy" in US #41)

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That one was IDW's fault.

Sabrblade said:

That one was IDW's fault.

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Right, but it easily could've been fixed for the new version. I would've preferred they fixed stuff like muddy art and the poor recolorings, but that understandably would've taken a decent chunk of effort and time. Fixing text is something that could be done rather quickly.

They made 4.6 million on that Kickstarter and couldn't afford to pay someone to clean up the art and mistakes?

I'm getting a little less sad about missing out on this.

And that hurts to say. This sounded like the collection I always wanted. If they did it right I would be their biggest fan, and I would find a way to get my hands on it someday.

The packaging art of the Comic Edition toys was so promising since it used Marvel G1 panel art that appeared to be remastered in coloring closer to the original Marvel-printed issues than IDW's remastered recolorings.

At his point I'd be happy with a reprint of the originals in any condition. Stuff the remastering and just release something authentic even if it's muddy.

Magnusblitz said:

Whoooole lotta comments from backers complaining about the poor quality, bad enough to the point Skybound actually put this out in response:



Which is basically a nice way of saying "too bad, you'll get what you get." I wouldn't be expecting any differences between the PDFs they released and the final printed product, and everyone should've been expecting they'd be using the Hatchette versions (sadly), but disappointing they didn't fix some of the easier-to-fix errors (like "Soldbussy" in US #41) and there's actually stuff like creases.

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Man, sell me what I grew up with first, THEN do all your little "touch-ups" and "improvements".

I want the same feeling now I had reading it back then, weirdness and all.

CoffeeHorse said:

I'm getting a little less sad about missing out on this.

And that hurts to say. This sounded like the collection I always wanted. If they did it right I would be their biggest fan, and I would find a way to get my hands on it someday.

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I thought about it, but simultaneously would have wanted the physicals, and also don't have enough nostalgia for the Marvel Comics to justify them at the cost they were asking for. It feels like I dodged a bullet.

(Cries in Dirty Pair Kickstarter)

I don't know what the specific complaints are beyond some text that didn't get corrected from earlier scans, which they said up front that they'd be using. I've still only done a quick skim through the files for mapping out content and haven't had a chance to start actually reading them yet. But at least from the digital copy perspective, I'm still largely happy with it so far.

I should note, while I grew up with the Marvel comics, I have little nostalgia for them. I acknowledge that they helped establish a lot of what's now core to the franchise, and have read the entire US run a couple times, but never really enjoyed it. I did like Furman's run better than Budiansky's, and I've always been intrigued by what I've seen of the UK stories, so the TAAO compendium specifically was appealing enough for me to go in on. At a quick glance, I haven't noticed any quality issues that look worse to me than what I otherwise have available. And I'm perfectly ok with the touch-ups that have been done, by whoever did them, given that I often hated the look of the original books.

Obviously, YMMV. I can understand someone who does have a lot of nostalgia for the originals not liking these. But as far as I can tell at this point, I've gotten what I wanted to get from them.