Slaves of the Insecticons

Written by John Braden
Illustrated by Pablo and Judith Marcos

This book was published by Kid Stuff with a copyright of 1986.

• Full book on one HTML page. 21 images totalling ~1.4 megs. Text and images both appear in the scans. The images and HTML were both contributed by Derik Smith.
• Individual scans in the book's directory for those with slower connections or computers. Image numbers starting with "c" are covers. The front cover at a mimimum is available for all Kid Stuff books, back and interior covers as well as the record-holding flap are available for some.
• Hear the audio in MP3 format! This file was kindly sent by Derik Smith. It's roughly 3.8 megs.

Notes on this book:

This book features the deluxe Insecticon, Venom, as the Insecticon leader. His tech specs state that he is, in fact, the Insecticon leader, but he's seen so rarely in fiction that it's still strange in that respect.

Skyfire appears again in this book, but now instead of matching his cartoon design, he is drawn like the Jetfire / Veritech / Valkyrie toy.

As in his other Kid Stuff appearances, Skyfire is only seen in jet mode. None of the other superjets under his command are named, and only one is drawn, in a very generic fashion.

The jets on page one are the Decepticons moving to attack him, even though they aren't mentioned on that page and there is one too many... the top three are clearly the same three drawn on page two.

There is more flying Autobot action here, with Prime and Prowl in robot mode, and more dino-mode Dinobot flight.

The text states that the Insecticons turn humans into slaves using venomous fluid, and that this same technique works on Autobots as well. No cerebro shells.

In Prime and Prowl's battle with the Insecticons, a pair of tanks appear... why? Are these the Insecticons? Driven by the slaves? It's a mystery.

The flying red drill machine in this book may be the same one used in "Jaws of Terror", although the text implies that it was just built. I don't think this book can take place before "Jaws", though, because of the presence of the Dinobots.

Megatron then escapes from this drill machine when it gets stuck in mud using "a mole escape pod". Did you get that? His mole machine gets stuck, so he escapes in a mole machine. ::sigh:: Well, maybe the Thermo-borer in "Jaws" is actually this machine's escape pod, and I do have them in the wrong order after all. Or maybe I should give up and accept that Megatron has five million different drilling machines.

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