Full On Triple Tronians All the Way Across the Page!

SNOOP AROUND Check out the line art of the thought-to-be-unreleased GoBot SR-71 Blackbird Snoop! She has appeared in ads from U.S. stores before.

I found this wonderful Bradlee's roboplastic smorgasbord buried in the back pages of a newspaper from December 23, 1985. It was rather impressive because it was so tall I think it took up three quarters the height of the page! It had all my favorite tronian lines of 1985-the Hasbronian Cybertronians, GoBotronians and Voltronians (sorry ChargerTronians)-and they were all at near clearance level discounts. A 25% off sale on the big three robot toylines of the 80s just before Christmas '85 is pretty crazy if you think about it. '85 was the year Transformers and GoBots peaked in terms of sales-what were they doing at near clearance markdowns before the hottest Christmas ever? Why did Bradlee want all them sold so badlee? This was 1985! Stores were supposed to be having hard times keeping robots in stock, not trying to clearance them out. What exactly was going on here?

IT'S SO BRIGHT AND VIVID

But before I ponder the pop cultural ramifications of the Christmas Eve toy robot pricing policies of extinct retail outlets I wanted to mention a few things about the ad itself. At first I thought the art was all new and original because the lines were so loose and the renderings lacking in detail in some places. There's lots of strange perspective shifts and scale inconsistencies, like Sunstreaker being smaller than Long Haul. It looked only slightly better than coloring books in some parts. After closer inspection I noticed the vast majority of these drawings were line art I'd seen before in other ads. Somehow Bradlee's managed to take existing line art and arrange it in a way that made it all look unfamiliar to me. That's when I realized line art in newspaper ads was traditionally used in a stand alone fashion where one drawing got one description and rarely did multiple drawings exist in the same ad overlapping each other. The majority of retailers avoided this sort of line art arrangement and that's what makes this ad so unique.

OH MY GOD WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

When I was a kid I became a little wary of sales like this after I saw Star Wars toys drown in a sea of red tag reduction stickers before they disappeared from toy shelves forever. Had I seen this ad when it came out in '85 I probably would have been a little freaked out because deep discounts usually meant either stores were going out of business or the toylines were running out of popularity. Now that I've found quite a few ads like this with stores liquidating more robots than a smelting pool I'm having to reevaluate just how big the toy robot craze really was back then. Case in point is the following BEST ad from December 18, 1985 where the discounts are super deep. Shockwave for $7, Robo Forcers for $1, GoBot Power Suits for 2 bucks. I get the impression that '85 didn't end on a high note for robots like I thought it had. It's just so hard for me to grasp the possibility that kids wanted to play with something other than cartoon robot Volkswagens and their transformable talking Tyrannosaurus cohorts. I know it seems like blasphemy to other toy robots historians but apparently there were more years in the 80s than just 1985 and I'm also starting to realize there may have been more aisles in a toy store than just the one with all the robots.

BEST 12/18/85


YOU'RE MAKING IT 1985 WRONG!

There are two articles available online that provide evidence of a huge slump in toy robot popularity during the 1985 Christmas season. The first is from the February 1986 edition of Discount Store News in an article titled "Toy retailers predict return to basic buys". One point that article makes is that toy fads were cyclical. It goes "The cycle is always the same. A year of innovative product entries followed by a year of oversaturation and eventual overkill." For toy robots, that initial year of innovation was 1984 and the oversaturation hit in '85. They quoted one buyer as saying Voltron started strong in the first half of the year and "was nothing at Christmas". An August 18, 1986 article from The Pittsburgh Press names names and takes no toy robot prisoners. It stated GoBots and Voltron were down sharply and Robotech was an outright flop. Only the Transformers were reported as still doing well after Christmas 1985. This all correlates completely with what I see play out in the newspaper ads but I still have a hard time accepting it. I guess my childhood memories are of a robot party that lasted forever, or at least a little bit longer than 1987.

HOT TOPIC IS THE VICTOR VON FRANKENSTEIN OF 80s TOY PROPERTIES

In the end it is better to have gone on clearance than to never have sold at all. It's kind of hard for me to accept that what I remember as an eternal golden age of childhood and toy robots prosperity was actually just a 2-3 year long fad during the 80s. What's really interesting is that something like Voltron which was a flash in the pan during the 80s still remains cultishly popular and even has a cartoon nowadays. It gives me hope. That's either proof of Voltron's enduring underground appeal or a testament to the power of having your robot on shirts at Hot Topic. Somewhere out there there's a pre-teen boy who's a big fan of Voltron and thinks that we're in the golden age of robot space lions. I'm glad for his sake that the newspapers nowadays aren't written by a bunch of Voltron haters like the Pittsburgh Press used to be when I was little. With Mattel's upcoming Voltron line hitting stores soon hopefully the dozens of other Voltron fans out there will get the chance to see their favorite robots on clearance in a newspaper ad one day. All fans of tronians non-Hasbronian should be so lucky.

The days of fans and robos

AND SO IT WAS FORETOLDETH that Robotastic Armageddon shall descendeth uponeth Irving, Texas this October 8th and 9theth via a thunderous sky shattering roar courtesy American Airlines. Henceforth I forehence accomplished various pre-registrations and securedeth hotellish dwellings in grateful anticipation of the coming of our droid, R2-D2. Yeah I registrated myself into Fan Days which is some kind of Star Warsian convention in disguise or something. And much like Jhiaxus tried to terraform every planetoid worth bombing into some sort of mini Cybertron, I continue on my quest to transformerate every convention I go to into a kinda sorta mini me of Botcon, except if Botcon was actually about Shogun Warriors and Voltron instead of just Hasbrotronians. Actually this is all about me getting the chance to meet the legendary Herb Trimpe, who penciled all of Marvels' Shogun Warriors comic and also some of my favorite Transformer covers of all time (like the ones for issues 12 and 18). Plus a there'll be artists who had work in Voltron United and Drawn like Mark McHaley and artists who have done recent Transformer work for Hasbro like Brian Rood. It should be a great show for podcastalypsing and interviewing and all sorts of robo techspec-spectating!

Rudolph was a Cylon!

THE PULSATING RED NOSE TOTALLY GIVES IT AWAY

Santa's piloting a Colonial Viper in this Hecht's ad from October 25, 1978. And what an ad it is. It's got a great riff on the Santa reindeer roll call and some great toys from Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Micronauts and they even threw in a StarBird. I think it's the only ad I've seen for the Star Wars three packs. Also cool is how they call a spade a spade and describe the Micronauts as "dolls".

ALL THE WAY TO WILDSVILLE!

The 33rd seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse lay burnt and broken, as if mauled by great flocks of dragons and other vast predatory birds! Yes it 's the DragonCon 2011 edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse and this time the Nostrodomatron finds himself in Atlanta, Georgia amidst all manner of madmen, machines and mad machine men in a quest to find some dudes to talk some robots with. Have you ever wondered what inspired the look of the Transformers Generation 2 comic? Is our government working hard to keep us entertained? What size diaper did Darth Vader wear when he was a baby? Find out all this and more in this HERE THERE BE DRAGONCONONIANS edition of the podcastalypse!


Or download it directly




MOS EISLEY'S GOT NOTHING ON THIS PLACE

Okay let's get this out of the way first. No recollection of DragonCon would be complete without pictures of lots out of shape Darth Vaders and hot chicks in slutty cartoon costumes. I expected people to show up wearing (or barely wearing) stuff that was not at all appropriate in public or even appropriate at other weirdo conventions where people usually show up dressed like space hoochies and obese Darth Vaders. This was DragonCon-the most extreme, vile, wretched, scummy hive of vile wretched scummy hives and it did not disappoint. These people really kicked it up a notch and took it to eleven. This wasn't just sexy, obscene, bizarre and disgusting, this was DragonCon brand sexy, obscene, bizarre and disgusting and that meant nothing was sacred. Everything from sci-fi to PBS kids' cartoons to Nickelodeon game shows was fair game to be cosplayed and fetishized. It was awesome and beyond my ability to record all the wonderful debauchery so I highly recommend checking out rhysfunk's DragonCon 2011 photo collection on Flickr.


The unlikely combination of Pokemon and hookers. My deepest most heartfelt thanks to all the convention hoochies that make that possible.



THE WORLD OF DRAGONS AND ARTISTS IN DUNGEONS

I came to DragonCon with a single goal in mind-to hit artists' alley and meet as many people who have worked on licensed robot properties as I could. There were supposed to be a few there who worked on either Voltron or Transformers books and comics and I wanted to meet them all. I descended into the complicated labyrinth that was the deepest bowels of the Hyatt and found lots of incredible artists and writers from within and beyond the world of robots like Peter David and Bob Burdenall. It was overwhelming. Just the Artists Alley alone was enough of a convention to eat up all my time and it pretty much did. I want to thank the anonymous guy who took this picture of me outside the entrance because he really did a great job.



PIC OF THE DEVIL!

This is Mark Brooks, an artist who has done lots of robot work including drawing a ton of profiles for Dreamwave's More Than Meets the Eye Transformer character encyclopedia. He also did covers for Image's G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers and the Devil's Due Voltron from 2003. He was sort of a last minute addition to the show so I was unprepared to ask him for an interview but I got this great shot and he signed a couple comics. Check out his DeviantArt where he goes by Diablo2003.



BUZZIN'!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't there just to meet Derek Yaniger. Getting to talk to and interview the man who established the gritty, gory look of The Transformers Generation 2 comic was the entire reason I flew out from Miami all the way to Atlanta. I will always remember how he was just one of the nicest, most patient people I have ever met. I can't thank him enough for agreeing to talk with me a few minutes for the Podcastalypse. I can't believe every artist I've ever asked has agreed to talk to me in the first place and then for them to be so cordial and gracious throughout always makes me feel like the luckiest obscure toy robots blogging guy in the universe. You can check Derek out at his site DerekArt.com and he's also got the DerekArt Facebook fan page (that I also happen to be a member of).


GENERATION WILDSVILLE!

One thing that really strikes me about Derek's booth at conventions is that you'll be hard pressed to find licensed characters of any sort throughout his displays. Were it not for the DragonCon 2010 prints he was selling I don't think he'd have any material that wasn't 100% totally original. He's really unique in this regard. A lot of other artists will have tons of established licensed characters dominating their tables but here's Derek doing his own thing and in a really wild way. That sign with his name was so gigantic it could be seen from nearly every part of the convention floor!


EVERY COVER A ROBOPLASTIC APOCALYPSE

This is why I loved Derek Yaniger on Generation 2. Every cover was a hellacious vision of robot armageddon. It was Transformers from hell and it was awesome. As you can tell by the signatures I love me them scribbles. Here's my G2 #1 and #7 signed by both Derek and Simon Furman. Talk about great convention memories.


Here's my Derek haul. I had to get the "Peepshow" print he made of the art he created for the DragonCon 2011 official hotel keycards and program covers, especially since my program got messed up and I didn't stay at the official hotels. I also wanted that "Throttlejockeys" poster for my wall and his book Wildsville: The Art of Derek Yaniger is something you can just stare at for hours.

Shawn Robare and me

Thank you, your government!

SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE

• Everyone at DragonCon is looking at me!
• The allure of things DragonCononian
• Derek Yaniger bringing an extreme edge to Transformers comics in '93
• This line is really dragon!
• Even the cars and trucks are cosplaying
• RedNeckNoks
• DragonConfusing
• Dommo no got no Mister Roboto
• Thanks for the Pokemammaries
• It's like R-rated halloween for kids
• Break-Madame Kamay's Filipino Palace
• Pocket program protection problem
• Derek Yaniger's great taste in t-shirts
• Optimus Prime cosplayer avoiding me
• Break-DragonCon Commercial
• Vintage Space Toast Tour Atlanta!
• The 40 minute search for 40 year old Lionel Playworld ads
• Awesome 8 year old artist alley table hijacker
• Losing my DragonPass at DragonBreakfast
• The relative rarity of Estebans in Atlanta
• Almost losing my Voltron virginity in the DragonCon dealer room
• Kabillion dollar animation cells and other stuff in the dealer room
• Not a M.A.S.K. collector, a M.A.S.K. rememberer
• Interview with Derek Yaniger
• Where the Transformers Generation 2 style came from
• The influence of Simon Bisley's ABC warriors art
• Where Derek's original G2 art is now
• Derek's progression through comics, animation and then in the retro scene
• Derekart.com
• The DerekArt Facebook fan page
• Early art influences in Derek's life
• Derek's art in the Nickelodeon cartoon Good Vibes
• Whatever flips your switches!
• Closing thanks (including baby Darth Vader and Bender)
• Don't Rocket Punch Your Friends!

Also check out my Not Enough Pictures from DragonCon album over at Flickr!

Toys R(obots) Us!

Toys R Us 24 November 1977

I've started an album over at Flickr Macrocrania called Non-circular Toys R Us ads 1977-1987 and it's full of old Toys R Us ads (or at least it will be soon). By "non-circular" I mean these aren't the full color Sunday circulars but instead they're the newsprint ads that were run in the regular pages of the newspaper during the week. They're not all of the weekday ads TRU ever ran from 77 through 87 but just the ones I liked. Obviously there is strong pro-robot/sci-fi toy bias and I'm not including ads that were nothing but bikes, baby furniture or dolls.

Some years are lacking in coverage so it's not all that robotty now but there's a lot coming. Like for example I haven't gotten up to posting anything from 1985 yet and that year is all sorts of robot fun. So I have a lot of ads to work through. In the meantime check out some cameos from '77 through 84 by famous robots from Shogun Warriors, Star Wars and maybe even a Zoid or two. I think fans of non-toy robot lines and just people who like Toys R Us might find this interesting. It's not complete yet but hopefully over the next few weeks I'll round out the rest of the missing years (and eventually do something similar for Lionel Playworld).

Virtual Space Toast Tour Fort Lauderdington D.C.: Robotastic Smorgasborgal Libraryerections

It's the 32nd seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse smacking you in the face like a kiss from a semi truck as we roll out to the Fort Lauderdale downtown library in this Gobackatron 1985thousand powered edition of the podcastalypse! Join the Nostrodomatron in a patriotic celebration of the nation's retail scene from the 80s as I crack open some fresh rolls of 1985, Washington D.C. style! Why do I love these old crappy scans of newspaper ads more than those full color department store catalogs on Flickr? Is a robosmorgasbord something you order at a scraplet cafeteria? Was Caldor a retail chain in the northeastern United States or somewhere on Eternia? Is there anything more patriotic than getting erections over old toy robots ads from 1985 Washington D.C. newspapers? Find out in this FOUR STORE AND 25+ YEARS AGO edition of the podcastalypse!


Or download it directly

THAT MY FUTURE SELF IS NOT ALREADY PAYPALLING ME LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY ONLY PROVES THAT IN THE FUTURE I AM STILL TOO CHEAP TO PAY PAYPAL FEES

As the current presiding Nostrodomatron of this dimension I enjoy absolute dominion over space and time as long as that space is the second floor of the Fort Lauderdale library and the time is when I am looking at newspapers from 1985. Unfortunately my Gobackatron 1985thousand is only able to reveal blotchy monochrome glimpses into the world that was 26 years ago one newspaper page at a time. But like they say, it's the next best thing to being there and I'm cool with this being as close to real time travel as we'll ever get. I love doing it. However, if some smart guy does invent affordable time travel for ordinary schmukos like me and the day comes when the library is not the portal to the great Toy Robots Wars of the 1980s then I will not be sad that my golden age of staring at blotchy screens is over. In fact, if that day comes I have an idea that should make me just as rich as the guy who invented time travel, but with none of the hard work!

IT'S LIKE MY LITTLE PONIES PRINT ALL THE MONEY THESE DAYS

Kings 11/09/80

There is an inherent implausibility in real time travel and I don't just mean because it's physically impossible. When I think about time travel I think about the practicality of visiting wonderful events in human history like the sermon on the mound or the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the day after Thanksgiving sale at Richway in 1984. While it seems nice, I seriously doubt the average schmucko who thinks, "Man if I just had a time machine and 50 bucks I'd make a killing by going back to 1985 and buying buttloads of Starriors!" really understands what he's wishing for. The big problem here and the crux of my moneymaking scheme is that 1985 money looks way different from today money. If you took fifty 2010 dollars back in time and tried to spend them you'd be jailed under suspicion of counterfeiting, or worse, people would just laugh at you and think you're an idiot from some magical fairy land where money is all the colors of the rainbow with ten different fonts and magnets, lasers, holograms and all the other stuff they have on dollar bills these days. That's where my idea comes in.

TIME TRAVELLING TO 1985 IS LIKE VISITING JAPAN (OR ANY OTHER PLACE US DOLLARS ARE WORTHLESS)

What I'm thinking of is a business that does currency conversion for time travelers so they have the correct amount of ancient money from the appropriate year. And here's the kicker-inflation has so devalued currency that money from 2010 is half as valuable as it was in 1985! So in order to go back in time and make that killing on GoBots, time travellers would not only have to pay me twice as much today money, but they'd have to pay my transchronological currency conversion commission on top of that! Once time travel takes off I'll be rich not only IN a year, but in ANY year!

Kings 11/30/80


AND WHILE YOU'RE BACK THEN, GET ME A NEWSPAPER

Kings Micronauts 1980 inflation tracker:

If it cost this in 1980:	It would cost this today:
$4.99	$13.03
$6.99	$18.25
$15.99	$41.75
$19.99	$52.20

So as a convenience to time travelers I am including along with these ads some tables showing how much today money you'd need to exchange for yesterday money if you wanted to go to any of these stores that no longer exist and make a killing on old toy robots, the majority of which went on clearance and nobody bought anyways. (Transchronological currency conversion commission not included.)

Zayre 07 October 1984

CLEARANCE GETS THE DEADEYE OUT!

Alas, this Starriors smorgasbord was all casseroled in with other Tomy toys and the individual prices can't be ascertained. But it's still a great show with figures from every Starriors size class except the transfer ring two packs.

Richway 25 November 1984


I HAVE GIVEN YOU YOUR COORDINATES, TIME TRAVELERS

Richway Transformers 1984 inflation tracker:

If it cost this in 1984:	It would cost this today:
$2.99	$6.19
$4.99	$10.33
$5.99	$12.40
$8.99	$18.62
$12.99	$26.90
$19.99	$41.40

Several podcastalypses ago I talked about how running an ad for Transformers in late '84 was a recipe for broken limbs, chaos and disaster. Well that's just how Richway rolled in '84 as they put out this awesome Transformers smorgasbord on the back page of their November 25th circular. Wanna get trampled by crazy bloodthirsty moms in '84? Get in the car, Marty, we're going to Richway! (I'm sure they also sold bandages and aspirin so put aside some 1984 money for that stuff, too.)

Bradlees 13 October 1985

AND YOU THOUGHT SPYGLASS AND VIEWFINDER WERE DUMB NAMES

Bradlees GoBots 1985 inflation tracker:

If it cost this in 1985:	It would cost this today:
$3.49	$6.98
$4.97	$9.93
$8.88	$17.75
$14.88	$29.74
$15.88	$31.74
$16.97	$33.92
$19.97	$39.92

The GoBots camera makes its only ad appearance I've ever seen thanks to Bradlees! Quick, how many Deceptercons did it take to take a picture? Well it only took one GoBot if he had GoBots 110 film camera. It's kind of a shame they didn't give GoBots camera a more GoBotty name like Pic-Tor or Film Flam. Well at least they didn't go all Machine Robo and call it Camera Man.

Bradlees 13 October 1985

MONSTERS, WITCHES, COFFINS AND LIONS OH MY!

Bradlees Voltron 1985 inflation tracker:

If it cost this in 1985:	It would cost this today:
$2.97	$5.94
$4.97	$9.93
$6.49	$12.97
$7.97	$15.93

Voltron was like robots vs. Halloween. The occult undertones of the original show are missing from its current incarnation. Seeing this Voltron smorgasbord makes me sad that a show and toyline like that will never happen again. Voltron bad guys were really demonic and each show was a robeast snuff film. It was great as a kid but I can understand why it may have driven some adults crazy. Have action figure coffins ever been marketed to children before or since Voltron? Can you imagine the uproar if Hasbro sold G.I. Joe body bag accessory packs?

Bradlees 8 December 1985

ALL IT NEEDS IS THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND SHREDDED WRAPPING PAPER

Bradlees Transformers 1985 inflation tracker:

If it cost this in 1985:	It would cost this today:
$4.88	$9.75
$7.88	$15.75
$8.88	$17.75
$9.88	$19.75
$10.88	$21.75
$11.88	$23.75
$19.88	$39.74
$39.88	$79.72

Oh man, Transformers 1985. That was the Christmas when living rooms across America looked like this ad. At least for a few minutes anyways. After a few minutes, living rooms across America looked like a bunch of snapped in half robots with broken windshields and sad children.

Caldor 8 December 1985

ONLY THREE OTHERS SHARE THIS SECRET-OF FABULOUS SAVINGS!

Caldor Robotech 1985 inflation tracker:

If it cost this in 1985:	It would cost this today:
$3.99	$7.98
$9.99	$19.97
$29.99	$59.95

Was Caldor Skeletor's lesser known brother that went into retail? Whoever he was, it fills me with great joy to see the SDF-1 actually in an ad instead of the store just using a line art representation of it. The blurb about Matchbox moving to outer space makes me think the Caldorian ad writer was unaware of that other Matchbox space robot, Voltron. But maybe Voltron didn't stick in people's minds as a Matchbox product the way GoBots are synonymous with Tonka or Starriors with Tomy because there were so many different licensees of that line.

Eckerd 08 November 1987

BUYING THEM AT A DRUG STORE SEEMS APPROPRIATE

Eckerd Transformers 1987 inflation tracker:

If it cost this in 1987:	It would cost this today:
$2.88	$5.45
$3.67	$6.95
$8.88	$16.81
$12.47	$23.61

Eckerd's a little late to the robot party with this 1987 Transformer ad but any ad with Weirdwolf is okay by me. It's a strange little phenomenon but I've noticed that when a major toy fad hit, drug stores would heavily advertise knockoffs of the popular stuff during the height of popularity and then it would be a few years before they'd advertise the big name brands. So in '84/'85 I see a lot of ads for Convertors and bootleg GoBots in drug store ads then I see legitimate Transformers years later. Overall what tended to happen is the big chains would advertise stuff when it was hot then the lesser chains and discounters would have it in their ads years later. By the time you saw a once popular toy in a drug store ad the party was over.


SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE
coming soon

THE ORIGINAL DON OF CYBERTRON!

The 31st seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse KRAKKKS apart like the front of your truck as special guest Don Perlin takes you for a spin through the Car Wash of Doom! Mr. Perlin's career as a writer, penciller, inker and cover artist spans so much comic book history you'd need a space bridge to get through all of it! Listen in strange suspense as I tell uncanny tales of my journey to Ancient City Con 2011 to meet a living legend of comics and ask him about his days as the regular penciller on Marvel's Transformers comic from late 1985 through 1987. Did being the man drawing the greatest toy robot comic of all time change his life profoundly (and if not, did it at least bag him a cool robot collection)? Did he know Stan Lee was a big fan of Battlechargers? And where can I get some original pages from Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom? Find out all that and more in this DECEPTICON GRAFFITI CAR WASH TIME MACHINE edition of the Podcastalypse!


Or download it directly

Transformers #25 pg 8	Transformers #31 pg 18

These are just the two pieces I bought. You can see more original Transformer art Mr. Perlin took to the show at my Facebook album of Ancient City Con pictures.


DRAW!-With weapons like this, Stormtroopers, cowboys, aliens, Jedis, robots and blank paper all feared Don Perlin at Ancient City Con. Nobody pointed a blaster, lightsaber or Pokeball at him and got away with it. I think some Stormtroopers might have peed themselves.

SHOOTING STAR!

Of course huge thanks goes out to Mr. Perlin and Ancient City Con for making all this possible. You can find Mr. Perlin on Facebook and check out his gallery at ComicArtFans. He's still taking commissions and selling original Transformers comic art so drop him a line at DPerlin@Bellsouth.net to score some great art (Transformer or otherwise) or just to say hi.

SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE

• Ancient City Con!
• A brief overview of Don Perlin's career
• Don Perlin's entry at ComicBookDB.com
• Don Perlin's run on Transformers
• The best a man can hope for
• Bob Budiansky is my Stan Lee
• MegaCon 2011 "The Art of the Cover" panel at the SupermanFan podcast
• Interview with Don Perlin
• Starting on Transformers after leaving Defenders
• Staying as a penciler on books for the long haul
• How to start an instant Transformer collection
• The limitations of working from Sunbow model sheets
• Still taking out the garbage
• The Stan Lee Transformer fan letter
• The difficulties of conveying emotion when your characters all wear facemasks
• Designing Scrounge, Straxus and Spanner
• The huge Transformer commission I mentioned in the interview
• Don Perlin's page at Comic Art Fans
• Working with inker M. Hands
• Reluctance of artists to work on toy books
• Turning down G.I. Joe and regretting it
• Still doing commissions and selling original art
• Post interview thoughts
• Buying original Transformer art
• Scrounge's significance in my life
• Grimlock's crown and other stories I didn't catch on tape
• Not getting issue 13 signed
• Living with post-convention wouldas and shouldas
• The Masterpiece Grimlock Transformer toy that is a tribute to Don Perlin
  
• Don't rocket punch your friends!

(P.S. During the interview I mentioned Bob Budiansky told of how Stan Lee once sent a fan letter complimenting a Transformers book Mr. Perlin worked on, specifically issue #23, "Decepticon Graffitti". You can read this story in interviews Mr. Budiansky has done at AlteredStatesMag.com and also at the Transmasters UK's geocities page. Mr. Budiansky has also mentioned that the Perlin-era Space Bridge story arc from issues 17 and 18 of Transformers is one of his favorites from the time he wrote Transformers.)