Here's what I've got, no guarantees it's perfect but I think this is pretty good. This leaves out anything TF wise prior to TAAO, TF 50, and MTMTE 56, since those can be mostly just be said to be before
most of this list.
Things do break down once the Hasbro Universe starts in earnest if you're looking for chronological linearity, but for good reason. There's a great deal of concurrency to deal with, which isn't a big deal but it makes a purely chronological order somewhat difficult. "Swim lanes" get appropriate post-Revolution, and maybe someday I'll jump into Photoshop and do that. Basically: YMMV, and have fun!
Scotty P's Attempt at a Hasbro U Reading OrderThe "Old College Try"/January 2018 Edition1 - Pre-Revolution - these occur prior to Infiltration #0 but after Shockwave has initiated Regenesis. Exactly where? That's - as of now - up to your imagination on the first couple entries.
- Rom: Annual
- Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armor 1-5
- Hearts of Steel mini-series (optional, in my opinion)
- Infestation 2 mini-series (also optional, in my opinion. For this and the above, extra/back-matter in Revolutionaries will fill in the gaps!
2 - The Road To Revolution and Titans Return- Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1 - "Roadies" opening short
- Transformers 50 - 55 ("All Hail Optimus"/Volume 10 TPB)
- Till All Are One 1-4 (Volume 1 TPB) - roughly concurrent with "All Hail Optimus"
- Micronauts 1-6 (Volume 1 TPB) - could really go anywhere before Revolution, because Time is All Things. I think it gives a satisfying real-life-reading-time gap in between some of the TF stuff going on here, making the transitions less jarring. YMMV
- Titans Return One-Shot
- Transformers 56-57
- More Than Meets The Eye 56-57
- First Strike #0 (Not a typo! Not the most satisfying place to read this but if you're looking for chronology, well...)
- Revolution #0
- M.A.S.K. Revolution - Rough guess with this being ~ a year before Revolution, but it would need to be after Blitzwing's capture.
- Rom #11-14 backup story "Tales of the Solstar Order"
- Rom #0
- Action Man #0-4
- Rom #1-4
3 - Revolution- ROM Revolution
- Revolution #1
- Revolution #2
- Micronauts: Revolution
- Till All Are One: Revolution
- Revolution #3
- G.I. Joe: Revolution
- Transformers: Revolution
- Action Man: Revolution
- Revolution #4
- Revolution #5
- More Than Meets The Eye: Revolution
4 - ReconstructionA list isn't the best representation here as there are a great deal of things happening
more-or-less concurrently. YMMV, this list is what I like and it purposely jumps around to different things just for the sake of it at times.
- G.I. Joe #1-4
- M.A.S.K. #1-5
- Till All Are One #5-8 (Volume 2 TPB)
- Micronauts #7-9
- Micronauts Annual
- Micronauts #10-11
- Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #2 - "Upgrades" opening short
- Revolutionaries #1-3 (Issue 1 occurs before Rom #5, Wrath of Karza is after issues 2 and 3)
- First Strike #1 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part One: Redcliffe Club" (Probably. It's all messed up so... this feels good enough. Different contextual clues put this in different places, but it seems to work pretty ok here and it will remind you of some folks existing amidst other things going on.)
- M.A.S.K. Annual
- First Strike #2 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Two: A Game of Chess"
- M.A.S.K. #6-7
- Till All Are One #9-12
- Rom #5-14 - Not including the "Tales of the Solstar Order" story (This could be split up, but I'm not comfortable suggesting you have to for these purposes)
- Wrath of Karza #1-5
- First Strike #4 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Four: Hitting the Big Time"
- Revolutionaries #4-6 (issue 4 takes place sometime after Wrath of Karza, issue 6 is sometime after MASK #6)
- Optimus Prime #1-8 (Optimus Prime issue 7 is stated to occur roughly a year after the events of Transformers #50-55, "All Hail Optimus")
- Transformers Annual (2017)
- G.I. Joe #5-9 (I guess, nothing really jumps out as placing it here but it has to go somewhere)
- M.A.S.K. #8-10 (It has to go somewhere and I like putting it in before Revolutionaries wraps up.)
- Revolutionaries #7-8
- Optimus Prime #9-10
- First Strike #3 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Three: A Little Bit of Mayhem"
- First Strike #5 backup story "The Origins of Evil, Part Five: One Unholy Machine"
5 - First Strike- First Strike #1
- Optimus Prime First Strike (events occur concurrently with First Strike #1)
- Optimus Prime #11 (events occur concurrently with Optimus Prime First Strike)
- Micronauts First Strike
- Rom First Strike (This and the Micronauts story basically stand alone with little else to do with the First Strike event, so may as well get them out of the way before the really interrelated stuff hits the forefront of the plot.)
- First Strike #2
- First Strike #3
- Optimus Prime #12 (events occur concurrently with First Strike #2-3)
- G.I. Joe First Strike
- M.A.S.K. First Strike
- First Strike #4
- Transformers First Strike (events occur concurrently with First Strike #2-4)
- First Strike #5
- First Strike #6
6 - The Road to UnicronSame disclaimer would apply here with respect to things that happen roughly at the same time as other things. Some of this is also very clearly speculative. This is the point where, outside of the Visionaries forced-feeding, the shared universe concept feels like it's just there and normal - right on time for it to get eaten...
- Rom and the Micronauts 1-5 (Seems to be running parallel to other stories, but we'll see once it finishes up. This might get moved quite a bit later!)
- Transformers: Salvation
- Optimus Prime #13-14
- Till All Are One Annual
- Optimus Prime Annual (this starts before the TAAO annual, but ends after. Movies take awhile to make!)
- Transformers vs Visionaries #1-5 (placement of 4-5 currently conjecture)
- Optimus Prime #15-16
- Scarlett's Strike Force #1-3 (#2 references the Ore 13 mine opened up in KY during OP #15)
- Optimus Prime #17
7 - Our Darkest Yet Hypest Hour- Unicron: Darkest Hour #0
You Left a Piece Out!No I didn't, we just have no idea where it's "supposed" to go and honestly? You can read these as a separate series, at least thus far. I think that's changing soon and when it does it will in a big, significant way, but now I'm speculating and you're not here for that!
- Lost Light #1-15