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Story by Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Art by Steve Ditko and John Tartaglione

This book was published by Marvel Books with a copyright of 1984. ISBN 0-87135-010-6.

The scans!

View the scans as... a single web page, a CBR archive, or a PDF.

These scans were contributed by an anonymous donor.

Summary:

This book starts out with several pages of character introductions, and then jumps into the story. As is typical for these coloring books, things mostly just sort of happen for no apparent reason.

At the Decepticon base, Megatron announces to his assembled troops that Prime and the Autobots are are their enemies. (Whoa!) He declares that the Decepticons will capture them and put them in his special Autobot prison. With this incredible plan now laid out--go capture the Autobots and put them in this prison--the Decepticons depart.

Meanwhile, Bluestreak and Sideswipe are having a race to see who is the fastest Autobot. (Apparently they haven't read Windcharger's tech specs.) The Decepticons show up out of nowhere and manage to capture all the Autobots (most of whom also show up out of nowhere). Everyone but Bumblebee, that is!

Bumblebee has Sparkplug and Spike build a billboard shaped like a giant Autobot. The giant frightens Laserbeak, who alerts the rest of the Decepticons. This distraction allows Bumblebee to sneak into the prison. He releases the Autobots, and together they all take down the Decepticons. The book ends with the Autobots tossing Bumblebee in the air in celebration, giving him a rousing "hip hip hooray". Probably safe to assume that since they've beaten the entire Decepticon force, those villains will remain captured and never cause trouble ever again, right?

General observations:

There are a LOT of interesting things going on with character models in this book. I've got a detailed breakdown below in the art/production notes, but we're got a diverse mix of early cartoon models, box art, unique models that seem to be based on limited toy photo reference, and unique models that seem to be based on in-hand toys.

Like in some of Zimmerman's other coloring books, there are moments where characters communicate with each other in code at completely inappropriate moments, like Gears' scrambled-letters message to Prime when they're about to be flattened by a rockslide, or Bumblebee holding up a sheet of paper with a mixed-up message for the Witwickeys who are right in front of him, with no bad guys anywhere nearby.

Also typical of Zimmerman, the characters' tech spec / bio traits and abilities are explicitly brought out. Laserbeak's cowardice, for example, shows up here much as it did in Decepticon Patrol. Prime splits up into his three components, with Combat Deck and Roller each getting a featured moment.

Other than showing up in the character-intro pages, Bumblebee doesn't appear until page 33 out of 48 despite the book being ostensibly about him coming to the rescue.

The book refers to Spike by name, but as in many of these early books, he's more like Buster in appearance with straight, swishy hair. This represents a moment in the brand's development after his name had been changed but before the new visual design percolated to the various licensees who were producing merchandise.

Specific story notes:

• I have a LOT of questions about the Autobot prison. It's clearly a huge facility, larger than many of the bases the Decepticons have operated out of. How many Autobots does Megatron expect to lock up in there? How long did it take him to build it? Was it always destined to be an Autobot prison or did it serve some other purpose before the inspiration for this story's plot struck him?
• In the Decepticons' attack, they use "sleep nets" which shut down Autobots and (for some reason) also Sparkplug.
• To enter the Autobot prison, Bumblebee must choose the correct door in a puzzle. The solution: it's the one door that has an Autobot sigil "doorknocker" on it instead of a Decepticon one.
• Soundwave stops gears by... unplugging power cords from his back?
• You might wonder how Sparkplug escaped after being knocked out by the sleep nets. I do too! Maybe the Decepticons just left him there. Regardless, Bee confers with him and Spike before the rescue mission.
• Trailbreaker actually gets to use his forecefield, and it doesn't break! He traps Soundwave, Rumble, and Ravage inside it.

Art/production notes:

• Steve Ditko is one of the credited artists on this book, along with John Tartaglione. Ditko is also credited on The Autobot Smasher! (by himself) and The Invasion of the Decepticon Camp (with Brad Joyce).
• On the cover: Prime appears in an early version of his cartoon model, but Bluestreak and Bumblebee are heavily based on their toy box art. This is a little odd because Prowl was part of the very first batch of models developed in Japan by Shōhei Kohara. Granted, Bluestreak is a different character, but...
• ...Inside the book: Bluestreak is consistently drawn as Prowl right down to having a lightbar on his car roof and the little pointed detail on his hood.
• The profile page for Sideswipe and Bumblebee exactly matches the cover to The Deadly Fuel Shortage, a book with no writing or art credits. This doesn't necessarily mean D.F.S. was drawn by Ditko or Tartaglione, though, as covers and interiors often have different teams. Their interiors don't really resemble each other stylistically, anyway.
• All the interior art of Bumblebee is clearly toy-based (as opposed to the box art on the cover). But, bizarrely, he is NEVER shown to have a left arm. His right arm is always visible, but his left is missing entirely. He does have two tires on his left side, but they're positioned horizontally from each other. I suspect that the artist was working from a single photo of Bumblebee's toy in which the left arm was raised in a way that made it seem to disappear through foreshortening.
• Trailbreaker's appearance is based on his box art, and in the absence of painted colors he looks very weird. His head-mounted force field projector looks more like giant sunglasses, relegating his actual head to silly-looking nose, mouth, and cheeks. He appears three times and always seems to have these huge eyes.





• As usual, Megatron, Laserbeak, and the Decepticon jets appear basically on-model, although Megatron is wearing his older round, black helmet. Ravage looks a little weird, but is basically on-model.
• The other interesting charcter model tidbit is that Rumble and Gears are drawn in toy-based models that may be unique to this book, probably developed by the artists from the toys themselves or very good reference photos of them. Gears even has the extra-thick treads on his tires!
• There are some generic/no-name Decepticons on page 37.







• Megatron's page in the character-intros section shows him symbolically holding the Earth in his hands. This art was later redrawn for A Message From Outer Space almost exactly, although Megatron's head is then updated to its later design. The art is very goofy-looking and awkward.
• Sparkplug is quite upsetting to look at during the race scene.