TRANSFORMERS (THE)

Started as a four issue mini series and then just carried on after a break of three months. Very collectable title, especially the early ones.

Most issues were Non Distributed in the UK so as not to conflict with a Marvel UK title (see British section).

Here's the background story to The Transformers....

For over one thousand years, the war between the valiant Autobots and treacherous Decepticons waged over the surface of their home planet Cybertron, a world of steel and iron. When it is detected that Cybertron's path is drifting close to an asteroid field, Optimus Prime, leader of the autobots, is dispatched with a small cadre of Autobots to clear a safe path for the passage of the planet. But a sneak attack on the Ark by Megatron, the head of the Decepticons, forces Optimus to plot a suicide course directly into the uninhabited third planet of the Sol system - Earth.

Four million of years pass until the Ark's computer is awakened by the eruption of the volcano it had crashed into upon its arrival. Restoring and rebuilding both Autobot and Decepticon alike into the forms of what it erroneously believes are the dominant forms of life on the planet (cars, trucks, airplanes and other mechanical devices), the Ark returns life to both sides.

Not far away from the site of the volcano, "Sparkplug" Witwickey and his high school-aged son Buster are among the first to encounter a Transformer, when Bumblebee is injured in a Decepticon attack and Buster drives him back to his father's repair shop.