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Written by Regina Weyn
Illustrated by Frank Springer and Mike Esposito

This book was published by Marvel Books with a copyright of 1986. The original edition was ISBN 0-87135-104-8, but these scans are from Australian publisher Budget Books with ISBN 0-86801-715-9. See my general observations, below for details.

The scans!

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

These scans were made by an anonymous contributor.

Summary:

After a few pages of character introductions and background, the story begins with Hot Rod racing home to "the Autobot city" to refuel. He briefly runs into Springer and Ultra Magnus, who refer to him as "boy". Hot Rod drives off, determined to prove his bravery to the others.

He conferrs with Daniel, who tells him about an airplane wreck nearby and suggests they go scrounge it for parts that might be useful to the Autobots. They head off, but Wheelie overhears and is concerned for their safety, so he follows discreetly.

Scourge leads the Sweeps to the plane to attack Hot Rod and Daniel. Wheelie tries to warn them, but it's too late--Daniel gets stuck and the Decepticons capture them. Hot Rod tells Wheelie to run for help.

The Sweeps drive away with Hot Rod and Daniel just sort of riding on their hoods, unrestrained. Blurr and Springer are the first backup to arrive. Then Hot Rod and Daniel simply... hop off the hoods onto the ground. This is apparently what constitutes Hot Rod's Escape.

Hot Rod distracts the Sweeps, and shortly afterward the Dinobots arrive and scatter the Decepticons. The day is saved! Back home, Magnus praises Hot Rod for helping out in the fight, and Hot Rod gets to feel proud of himself. (Nevermind that the whole thing happened in the first place because he ran off without backup.)

General observations:

Regarding 1986 stories: Although '86 art is usually pretty standardized, the setting is often ambiguous, taking place in a strange continuity based on the 84-85 seasons of the cartoon and the 86 toy bios, where Galvatron and Ultra Magnus were framed as "city commanders". They seem to have been written either without full knowledge of the story in Transformers: The Movie or with a deliberate attempt to avoid spoiling it. These stories sometimes feel like they take place "in the middle" of TF:TM after Optimus and Megatron have died but before Hot Rod is upgraded to Rodimus Prime, leaving Magnus in charge of the Autobots. Also, sometimes Bumblebee is around (instead of stationed on a moon base) and Starscream isn't dead yet. If you insist on shoehorning these stories into TF:TM, then they take place after the battle of Autobot City and the creation of Galvatron and co., but before Galvatron interrupts Starscream's coronation ceremony. Despite the large number of cartoon-centric conceits in these books, it's probably better to think of them as taking place in a universe where the events of TF:TM do not occur at all, and these characters reached their current status (existence, leadership role, etc.) through unknown other events.

In a more direct connection to TF:TM than we usually see in 1986 books, the Matrix of Leadership is said to have been passed from Prime to Magnus. Even mentioning the Matrix makes it seem like the writers knew more about the movie than they are letting on... and yet we're still in this limbo universe with Galvatron & Co. but no Rodimus. The passing doesn't seen to have happened under duress or in an emergency. Also it looks like a cylinder or oversized relay baton.

Despite Frank Springer getting first art credit, none of the pages here really "look like" what I assumed to be his pages in other coloring books, as in A Message from Outer Space or select pages from The Lost Treasure of Cybertron like the delightful "Hungry Starscream". About half of the character drawings are wooden, stock poses. Even the novel drawings are a bit lacking in life.

The plane crash aspect is preplexing! When first mentioned, the text just says that Daniel "knows of" a nearby wreck, which makes it sound like something that's been there for a long time. But the picture shows a bunch of humans standing around it as if they're survivors, rescue workers, etc.. If it just happened, then Daniel and Hot Rod should be going to HELP, not to loot the wreckage. When they arrive, though, there's no mention of other people being there. But if it happened a long time ago, why would they expect valuable components to be salvageable? For that matter, why would a standard Earth plane have anything of use to the Autobots anyway?

Australian printing: The copy I'm hosting here is actually Australian, published by "Budget Books" under Griffin Press Limited and has a different ISBN than the original USA copy from Marvel Books. The "86801" section of the ISBN refers to Budget Books, as opposed to Marvel Books' "87135". There is Budget Books branding on the front cover and title page, and the rear cover is essentially blank instead of showing cross-sell info like the US printings typically did. The person who contributed the scans for this book was also kind enough to send a photo of the rear covers for it alongside their copies of Battle at Oil Valley and The Lost Treasure of Cybertron, which are similarly blank. Below are that photo, and also the USA edition's covers and title page, just for completeness, since the US one is going to be more common out in the physical world. I chose not to mix printings in the scans page/pdf/cbz, so those are 100% Australian.

Specific story notes:

• Autobot City is referred to by name on the next-to-last page (47), but twice earlier in the book as "the Autobot city" as if that's merely a description instead of a name.
• Also, Autobot C--I mean... the Autobot city is drawn yet again as a highly generic sci-fi city, clearly just improvised by the artists without any reference.
• Hot Rod's characterization seems less like a brash adolescent and more like a child, a bit like Bumblebee's portrayal in a lot of books from the first two years of the brand.
• Meanwhile Wheelie, often portrayed as a child on par with Daniel and even explicitly called "wild boy of Quintesson" here, is responsible!
• Wheelie speaks in his standard rhyming style here.
• The Sweeps are described as "a pack of tracker-terminators".
• Scourge supposedly "receives a transmission" that tips him off about Hot Rod and Daniel investigating the plane, but... what transmission could that even be? They discussed it in person and didn't tell anyone else.
• Scourge says, "We must seek out and destroy," when heading to the plane. But when they arrive, he tells the Sweeps to take them alive instead because Galvatron has asked for hostages.
• Although Galvatron is mentioned a few times, he's drawn only once during the character intro pages. Other than this, Scourge and the Sweeps are the only Decepticons in the whole book.

Art/production notes:

• There's a page about how Hot Rod idolizes Magnus and Springer and seens them as "ten times his size" with a nice picture of tiny Hot Rod looking up at them as giants.
• When the Dinobots leave the Autobot city to join the fight, they dash off like excited puppies.





• Swoop gets shot down during the Big Fight At The End, but this doesn't stop his fellow Dinobots from flying around, engaging in battle from the air in their dino modes. It's pretty silly-looking!
• Meanwhile... despite a brotosaurus zipping overhead, Scourge and the Sweeps spend the whole book (except the cover) traveling along the ground like hovercraft. They certainly LOOK more like hovercraft than airplanes, but it's still unusual for them.