The Energon Pub

Mark Bellomo, who has officially worked for Hasbro and IDW - for the latter, he edits and annotates the reprints and collections of the Marvel US Classics comics - has also released a number of book to do with the toy collecting side of the Transformers fandom. Most recently, he has prepared The Ultimate Guide to Vintage Transformers Action Figures Paperback, which is due this July 5, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com. If vintage toys are your thing, and you'd like the opinion of a long-standing collector on some of the earlier robots, this might just be your cup of Energon tea!

Bellomo's Transformers: Identification and Price Guide remains a holy grail of mine. Since I could not afford any actual vintage G1 TFs, the next best thing was the book containing every single one of them! The clean images and witty commentary really translated that nostalgic feeling of collecting the 80s originals to younger fans of the franchise.

If this could match up to his previous work, as well as mention the IDW canon, I'd be tickled pink!

Is this an official guidebook published under license by Hasbro, or another unofficial one?

Sabrblade wrote:Is this an official guidebook published under license by Hasbro, or another unofficial one?

I'm thinking if it were official it would be "the Official Guide" instead of "the Ultimate Guide". Probably use an official logo, too.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Is this an official guidebook published under license by Hasbro, or another unofficial one?

I'm thinking if it were official it would be "the Official Guide" instead of "the Ultimate Guide". Probably use an official logo, too.

Emerje

Simon Furman's "Transformers: The Ultimate Guide" was official.

In December, I placed my order (via Amazon.com) for The Ultimate Guide to Vintage Transformers Action Figures (scheduled to be released in July).

Sabrblade wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Is this an official guidebook published under license by Hasbro, or another unofficial one?

I'm thinking if it were official it would be "the Official Guide" instead of "the Ultimate Guide". Probably use an official logo, too.

Emerje

Simon Furman's "Transformers: The Ultimate Guide" was official.

Sure, maybe the title alone isn't enough indication, but there was no question of that being official being a DK book with official logo.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Is this an official guidebook published under license by Hasbro, or another unofficial one?

I'm thinking if it were official it would be "the Official Guide" instead of "the Ultimate Guide". Probably use an official logo, too.

Emerje

Simon Furman's "Transformers: The Ultimate Guide" was official.

Sure, maybe the title alone isn't enough indication, but there was no question of that being official being a DK book with official logo.

Emerje

Hence my asking if this one is official or unofficial, since it isn't as obvious and since Bellomo has done both official and unofficial TF works.

Sabrblade wrote:Hence my asking if this one is official or unofficial, since it isn't as obvious and since Bellomo has done both official and unofficial TF works.

He did, what, one official art book and around a dozen unofficial price guides including two other Transformers books. I really doubt this one is any different.

Still going to say the logo is the biggest giveaway. While unofficial books will use official and unofficial title fonts, it's unlikely an official Hasbro book would use an unofficial font like that.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Hence my asking if this one is official or unofficial, since it isn't as obvious and since Bellomo has done both official and unofficial TF works.

He did, what, one official art book and around a dozen unofficial price guides including two other Transformers books. I really doubt this one is any different.

He contributed to every single volume of IDW's reprints of the Marvel G1 comics.

Sabrblade wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Hence my asking if this one is official or unofficial, since it isn't as obvious and since Bellomo has done both official and unofficial TF works.

He did, what, one official art book and around a dozen unofficial price guides including two other Transformers books. I really doubt this one is any different.

He contributed to every single volume of IDW's reprints of the Marvel G1 comics.

That's great, but that's also considerably different work from the dozen or so unofficial guide books he's written.

Emerje