The Ultimate Guide (Transformers)

Rating:
Summary: More Than Meets The Eye
Review: Every Transformer fan, new and old, needs to have this book. People who are only familiar with the newest incarnations can learn how it all started and long time fans will appreciate having a complete chronological account of the phenomonon. The book starts right where it should - before the original toy line or TV show and eplains the history of the Transformers homeworld Cybertron and the beginning of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. What follows is a detailed examination/explanation of EVERY incarnation of the Transformers up to and including Energon. Character bios, selected show synopsis, toy descriiptions and inner workings of key players are all covered and supported by detailed artwork and photographs. Multiple pages are givin to the Japanese toy line and continunity as well as the US and UK comics, including the latest from Dreamweave. What more could you ask for?

Before reading this book I was skeptical about it's ablity to cover the entire Transformers universe with the detail it demands. Now that I've read all 141 pages, it has become a jewel in my Transformer collection. For once the title "Ultimate Guide" has been used appropriately!

Rating:
Summary: More Than Meets The Eye
Review: Every Transformer fan, new and old, needs to have this book. People who are only familiar with the newest incarnations can learn how it all started and long time fans will appreciate having a complete chronological account of the phenomonon. The book starts right where it should - before the original toy line or TV show and eplains the history of the Transformers homeworld Cybertron and the beginning of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. What follows is a detailed examination/explanation of EVERY incarnation of the Transformers up to and including Energon. Character bios, selected show synopsis, toy descriiptions and inner workings of key players are all covered and supported by detailed artwork and photographs. Multiple pages are givin to the Japanese toy line and continunity as well as the US and UK comics, including the latest from Dreamweave. What more could you ask for?

Before reading this book I was skeptical about it's ablity to cover the entire Transformers universe with the detail it demands. Now that I've read all 141 pages, it has become a jewel in my Transformer collection. For once the title "Ultimate Guide" has been used appropriately!

Rating:
Summary: So close.
Review: First off, let me just say that this is a wonderful book. I heartily recommend it to all Transfans, despite its shortcomings.

Shortcoming which are, unfortunately, something this book most definitely has. Being a hardcore Star Wars fan, one of the things I look for in most science fiction series is continuity. Despite apparent evidence to the contrary, Transformers does indeed follow continuity, albeit rather loosely at times. And as with most sci-fi series, Transformers is set not just in one dimension, but in a multiverse of parallel realities.

It is here that this book fails. There are no clear-cut distinctions made between the various continuities of Transformers canon. The book is divided into sections according to the various series (G1, G2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise, Armada, Energon, etc.), but this fails to please because of the fact that some of these series co-exist in their own universe and others (most notably G1) include multiple continuities. For example, the G1 cartoon, Beast Wars, and Beast Machines all exist in the same universe, yet references are made to Marvel, UK, and Dreamwave continuity in the G1 section without noting that several of the compiled facts came from separate dimensions.

The book also fails to establish exactly which series co-exist. Do the Dreamwave G1 comics take place in the G1 cartoon-Beast Wars-Beast Machines universe? The Dreamwave prequels universe? A universe entirely their own? We aren't told here, leaving those of us who haven't read the comics to hang out to dry.

In the continuity aspect, the book succeeds by drawing from separate continuities in order to fill in the gaps with facts that are apparently common to every dimension of the Transformers multiverse. Yet even here it fails by also including information that can't possible be true in every universe.

I doubt that the average Transfan is overly concerned about continuity, but after being a Star Wars fan for so long, it's become one of my top priorities for a fiction series. This book has a few minor successes in this aspect, but those are greatly surpassed by its failures. If you don't care that much about the separate continuities of the Transformers multiverse, this book is for you. And even if you do, it's still pretty darn good.

Rating:
Summary: Caretaker of the TF universe unleashes this eye candy
Review: Furman was the chief architect behind the last few years of the Marvel TF comic (as well as a huge part of the UK continuity), and has been fostering the Dreamwave comic storylines, adding elements from the 80s and adding new surprises, not the least among them is this book. Since Furman penned this one, it does tend to focus more on the backstories and storylines he's most familiar with. Weighing in at under 150 pages, it's not the omnibus tome DK could publish (include Dreamwave's More Than Meets The Eye series, and we'd be talking).

But that's my only complaint with the book. On the whole, much of the material here is fresh, and the illustrations are nothing short of amazing. To the G1 fans who grew up with this stuff in the 80s, it serves as a fine update to let us know what the Transformers have been up to since we "grew up". To younger folks, it's a fantastic source for discovering what the "real" Optimus Prime looked like, and how this all got started.

I mentioned the art already, but it bears repeating: it's amazing. To see Figueroa's handicraft work so well at so fine detail is little short of thrilling.

There's a real treat for all of us in there too, but I won't spoil it. It's guaranteed to be something no one who hasn't seen the book has ever seen before. And it's stunning.

In short, if your kids are into the Transformers, get them this book. If you, like me, are a thirt-something who really enjoyed them back in the day, get this book. Disappointment: unlikely.

Cheers.

Rating:
Summary: Ultimate, um no, I disagree.
Review: I expected magic when you put the words Ultimate & Transformers together. When I opened up the book at a friends house I was very discouraged to see that a look of the subjects and pictures are just not enough to warrant the title ultimate. If anything this left me wanting an Ultimate Transformers Volume 2 to expand upon some of the short coverage material.

Maybe I have collected Transformers too long to appreciate this. I have too much knowledge about the characters and prices to appreciate it. I could have written a much more comprehensive Ultimate Guide myself.

Bottom line, if you are a Transformers newbie, collecting for the first time, then this is the book for you. If you have been around a while and seen every collectors book written on Transformers then you know this book is nothing more then a way for Dreamwave publishing and Simon Furman to cash in on the Transformers craze that is taking place currently.

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite Ultimate
Review: I grew up loving the Transformers--the toys, US comic, and the television series--but most everyone grows up sometime and I stopped buying the toys into Season 2 of "Beast Wars". Seeing this "Ultimate Guide" however brought back some memories of the Good Ol Days of Transformers with metal parts and rubber wheels. It's worth buying for any fan (current or former) just to realize how far these toys have come in over 20 years.

While it doesn't contain enough to be truly "Ultimate" this book contains quite a bit of diverse information. There's an initial section that tries to provide the background of the Transformers and their homeworld Cybertron, attempting to integrate continuity from the television series, the comics (US & UK), and the movie. Unlike other properties like Star Wars or Star Trek, no one company really took charge of the Transformers story, so there are conflicting stories about how the Dinobots came into being, who created the Transformers, and so on. Furman makes some compromises to patch together a sort of timeline.

For each series--Generation 1, Generation 2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise, Armada, and Energon--there is some information about the major players and descriptions of some TV episodes and very basic synopses of the comic book storylines. The character profiles and synopses are not comprehensive enough for this to really be an "ultimate" anything, but it's a start. MY Ultimate Guide would catalog every Transformer toy made, but compromises I'm sure had to be made to keep the book's length short.

For former fans like myself who haven't paid attention to the Transformer line in a long time, this book is useful in helping you catch up on everything that's gone on. I also found the descriptions of the UK comics and Japanese toys interesting because in the '80s and early '90s there was no World Wide Web, so I was unaware of all that stuff.

There is of course a plug near the end for the latest incarnation of the Transformers comic book series that supposedly tries to bring back Generation 1, but I have no idea how successful it is.

This is not the comprehensive reference tome any rabid TransFan would want on his/her shelf, but for casual fans it's good for catching up with some old friends.

Rating:
Summary: One man's opinions and nothing more.
Review: I have read this guide and I am thankful that I did not buy it. Why? Because the author screwed up. Simon Furman used this book as an opportunity to pass off his own opinions and interpretations as Transformer canon, and I will never forgive him for that. He even allows his own prejudices about the G1 cartoon vs. comic debate to seep through, saying that the Cartoon continuity has a few inconsistencies but not leveling the same (equally valid) complaint against the comics. He presents comic-only elements of the mythos (such as the Primus creation story) as fact and ignores anything from the cartoon series (such as the Quintesson creation story) that doesn't fit into that.

A guide of this type must be as objective as possible. Simon Furman crapped all over that principle. Bad guide, period.

Rating:
Summary: the ultinate guide transformers
Review: This book is absolutely fabulous. The illustrations and graphics are wonderful. Definetly worth the wait and money. My son is 5 and adores this book. This is his new bible.

Rating:
Summary: How Ultimate Is It?
Review: This is a book that has guts - with its back cover proclaiming it to be "the first fully authoritative history" of the Transformers, and the interior introduction claiming that it is the "one true history" of G1, hardcore Transfans would not be frowned on for finding such statements insulting, sounding for all the world like the book will be dismissing the original comics and cartoon in favour of what IT says is right and wrong.

Thankfully, the reader will discover that this is NOT the case. The "one true history" that the entire G1 section revolves around proves to be that of the latest incarnation of G1 - the Dreamwave comic book series. While perhaps a little disrespectful to the cartoons and comics that CREATED the universe that these comics have to thank for their existence, it's understandable that this is the route taken - and the cartoons and comics themselves are hardly set by the wayside, getting multiple pages to cover their own stories. With everything from the geography of Cybertron, the history of the civil war, massive cutaways of Optimus Prime, Megatron and Unicron, profiles on selected individual soldiers and sub-groups like the Dinobots, Constructicons, Headmasters and Pretenders, the book provides a wide, general look at the G1 universe. However, it is in the cartoons and toy sections that its weakness shows, as scribe Simon Furman's lack of knowledge outside of the DW and Marvel comics results in several niggly factual errors - he's done his research, but he hasn't gone far enough to eliminate all his errors. The look of the pages is worsened by the fact that many of the toys photographed are mis-transformed, or look somewhat worn. It would have been child's play to find fans with toys that looked better than this, but they didn't bother.

Of course, the book doesn't stop at G1. There are sections for all the ensuing series - Generation 2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise, Armada and Energon. The Beast sections are some of the nicest-looking ones in the book, with beautiful CGI art from animation company Mainframe, but each section could have done with just one or two more pages to add a little more details on the events of their latter seasons, with information on the BW events relating to G1, Transmetal 2's, or BM's Noble, Botanica and Megatron's numerous bodies limited only to the vague episode guide page (like every section of the book dealing with cartoons, the episode guide only has enough to room to include selected key episodes, so the whole story evades the reader even in these entries).

The G2 and Robots in Disguise sections, however, leave a bad taste in the mouth. There is very little to say about G2, and the section required nothing more than a comic summary and toy pictures, but in addition to this, it's been padded with an entry on G.I. Joe crossovers and fanfiction - two things which, while presented and written perfectly fine, are simply needless, and whose pages would have been bettered served elsewhere - namely in the RiD section, which is stuck only showing pictures of toys, lacking any real information on the cartoon series or characters (speculation was that this was because Disney, who own the show, wouldn't allow competitors DK access to it in time for print, but other comments by Furman imply it was bumped for the Energon section). Worsening the matter is that most of the pictures for the section are taken from adverts and package art for the toys, and feature some pretty bad mistransformations and missing parts.

The book ends with a look at Armada and it's current, sequel series, Energon, then a brief look at the Dreamwave comics, two of the best-handled sections of the book.

Looking back at what I have written here, it seems overly critical - but please, make no mistake, I heartily recommend this book. It's a brilliant overview of the history of Transformers and as concise a written guide as you could want - but it's just infuriating to me that DK's other guides for characters like Superman and Spider-Man, with their 60 and 40 years of history, could be so comprehensive, and yet the 20 years of Transformers has to be so abbreviated, with so many characters and episodes flat-out left out, to make the book an acceptable length. I am not pointing the finger of blame at anyone, however - Transformers simply has a *massive* history of characters, concepts and scenarios, making it all the more impressive and enduring. Furman's name power may make him come off as the most qualified person to write a book such as this, but some fan assistance would not have gone amiss. This would have stopped the mis-spellings (Elita One becomes "Eleta-1", for example, or the Armada episode "Cramp" becomes "Clamp") which are just the result of carelessness and not enough research, and would have provided superior toy pictures, and more accurate information about them. The toy pages are truly the weakest sections of the book - not one of them goes by that a factual error is not made. A fact-checker who truly knows his stuff - or perhaps several of them, one to each category, toy, comic, cartoon - would have caught these errors, and the book would have felt as though more care had gone into it.

Bottom line - this book is by no means an "Ultimate" guide. Entirely too much is left out, generalised or glossed over for that. But it's still a brilliant overview of Transformer history that both hardcore and casual fans should not hesitate to add to their collections.

Rating:
Summary: reveals more than meets the eye
Review: This is a great book to have as it divides the world of the transformers into Generation 1, Beast wars, beast machines, and beyond.

I have a few gripes with the book but I'm a transformer purist and was a little ticked off when they forgot to include primes original transformation vehicle from the comic books. But all in all everything in this book is great.

Get it and be informed.

Safe travels:

David