So, there's a bit of confusion surround these reprints, and I think I've figure out what's what.
"The Transformers Compendium" is a two-volume reprint of the Marvel US stories, with the first 46 stories of the main series and the four-issue Headmasters mini being in the first volume, while the second volume's contents are yet to be known at this time (but will presumably contain the remaining 34 stories of the main series and other stuff to match the first volume's 50 issues' worth of content). These two volumes will be normal retail releases.
The Kickstarter campaign is for hardcover editions of eight individual Compendium volumes. Two of these hardcover volumes will contain all the US stories (presumably the same volumes as the two described above, but with special edition hardcovers), two more volumes will reprint the UK stories, and the other four volumes are a Kickstarter-exclusive "Til All Are One Definitive Edition" four-volume set that contains all of the US and UK stories arranged together into a single narrative.
So it looks like there's actually three different options here:
- The normal-retail two-volume US reprints,
- The special hardcover two-volume US reprints and two-volume UK reprints (which may be a Kickstarter exclusive; the text is vague on the matter but since the information come from Kickstarter...),
- The four-volume "Til All Are One Definitive Edition" that reprints the US and UK stories together in one narrative (which IS a Kickstarter exclusive).
There are also a few other unknown factors related to this. Like, if the reprints will be newly remastered by Skybound or if they'll just use the same remastered versions that IDW used for their "Classics" reprints, which were also used by Hachette for their UK/Ireland-exclusive "The Definitive G1 Collection" reprint volumes.
And regardless of whether they use new remasters or the same ones from IDW, there's also the notion that using the US versions of the US stories creates some continuity issues with the UK-original stories, as several US stories had some edits made to them for their original UK releases in order to make them better fit with the continuity of the UK stories, such as adding references to Galvatron being on Earth as he was in the UK stories, removing references to Cobra since the G.I. Joe crossover was out-of-continuity with the UK stories, changing the dialogue of Shockwave's "death" to make it more apparent that he didn't die so that the UK stories could continue to use him after he stopped appearing in the US stories, and more.
When Hachette used the IDW remasters of the US stories for their "Definitive G1 Collection" reprints, the IDW remasters were of the US versions of the US stories, which lacked those UK edits and made for a slightly awkward reading experience.
But of course, even if the US stories were to be reedited to put back in the original UK edits, that would make things awkward regarding the G.I. Joe crossover since it is in-continuity with the US versions of the US stories, as it tells how Bumblebee became Goldbug. Since the UK stories ignored the crossover (and did their own unrelated crossover with Action Force), Bumblebee was given a new origin story for Goldbug in the "Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!" mini-saga set between certain US stories. So the US and UK comics are already separate continuities on their own, with the UK continuity having slightly altered versions of almost all the same events from the US continuity.
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