UK Transformers Definitive G1 (comic) Collection
Those lucky fans in the UK have an opportunity to be the first in the world to own colourised UK comic issues from the UK run of the Original Marvel
series of comics (issues #214-289)... and unfortunately for us in Australia, this is not likely to be released here, or be easy to obtain later.
(although, I think IDW would publish it eventually, hopefully on it's own so that we aren't forced to (re)buy other stories we already own)
Have you seen at the newsagents, or a commercial on TV, an ongoing weekly/fortnightly/monthly series of magazines (or model parts) that builds
up to a complete set after a few years? (with the offer of the first part being REALLY cheap, but then each following issue is over-priced, costing a LOT over the life of the series)
Well, in the UK, a company called Hatchette that does those sorts of ongoing newsagent and subscription series, has started doing one for
Transformers (from January), but I only just found out about it today.
Their publication is set to be 80 volumes, with one each fortnight... which means three years until the set is complete... IF the publications aren't
cancelled later when subscriptions/purchases drop below a minimum amount.
The series is said to be covering all of the original US and UK Marvel comics, along with the concluding Regeneration comic, plus, the *printed*
Dreamwave issues, and all of the IDW comics that are part of their own Gen1 Universe (up until issues printed in 2016).
It looks like it might exclude the original Gen2 comics, and the GIJoe crossovers... and there isn't a mention of the 1986 Movie adaptation (both
Marvel and IDW versions), but if they are featuring the UK Gen1 stories, they would need to include the 1986 movie adaptation, just for them to make sense.
In addition to reprints and colourisations, there are bonus contents and new artwork on the covers.
Each volume is sold in a mostly random order, but the first ten so far are all in the first half of the series (under Volume 40), so they are just the
Original Series Marvel and first two years of IDW's 12 years (yes, it's been 12 years since they started printing TFs comics).
That means half of the set will be IDW reprints.
The first few issues have free gifts for subscribers, and get posted out once a month (two issues per shipment). The first issue was £2, and the
second issue was £7... while each remaining issue is £10.
That's about £800 for the full set over 3 years, which is almost AU$1400.
That's a lot of money, but with each spine having part of a larger image, the full collection will look spectacular on the bookshelf (if you have one long enough for them all)...
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2017/050801.jpg
The individual issues look like this...
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2017/050802.png
You can read more about this series here...
Simon Furman's blog - part 1
Simon Furman's blog - part 2
Simon Furman's blog - part 3 (with a sample image of recoloured UK comic art)
Hatchette's page for the Definitive Transformers Collection, for people in the UK to order selected issues.
The official website for the Transformers Collection, showing the subscription gifts (which are probably moot now, unless they still take
subscriptions and people play catchup with the past issues).
TFwiki's page, for the contents of each volume (for anyone wanting to buy specific issues, like the colourised UK issues), and their release order.
TFW discussion topic, that notes when issues are released, or if there are any problems - apparently, Hatchette reprinted and gave out free the first
volume, just because the number box on the spine was a different size to the rest. That's a big early loss, especially since it was a volume that is
only 20% of the price of regular issues (already being sold at a loss).
I would love to get the UK recoloured stories (UK issues #214-289), but that will probably mean paying some hefty second-hand prices for just those issues.
