Source: Transformers UK #160

Comments: For a lot of you, this one isn't going to mean anything. This man here is a Richard Branson. Richard Branson was during the 80s, is now, and probably will be until he dies, the owner of the Virgin group.

Richard Branson was also one of three 'real life' humans to appear in the Transformers comics! This appearance got publicity in mainstream media, and appears to have been sanctioned. (I can't imagine that it wasn't; because they sure made a big deal of it!)

Richard Branson appeared in Transformers, doing just the sort of thing he'd really do. If you don't think this is an oddity, then you probably have never heard of him.

When Matthew asked Simon Furman whether there was a story behind Richard Branson's appearance in the TF comic, he had this to say:

"Only that at the time, Branson was spearheading a "Keep Britain Tidy" campaign, and it fitted that he might be the one to raise Megatron/Centurion from the Thames. It was an indulgence, and a challenge artist Lee Sullivan rose admirably to, but it did get us some mainstream press coverage in the likes of Time Out and even the N.M.E."

Source: Transformers UK issue #87

Comments: Yes, you're seeing right. Hot Rod IS customising Skywarp and repainting him so he looks like Starscream. 

That's right boys and girls, the first official Transformers kitbash. Just for the record; the 'kitbash' included adding a talking Starscream voice box and was convincing enough to fool Galvatron.

Though one must remember that Galvatron once mistook Centurion for Rodimus Prime.

This may be only time that an official canon acknowledged the fact that Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp all look identical. Though quite obvious to any observers this was never mentioned, or taken advantage of in any way, shape or form anywhere else in the Transformers canon.

Source: Transformers UK issue #101

Comments: For some reason, in some issues of the UK comics, pages would get printed pink. This is clearly a printing error, but it is incredible amusing.

This page puts lie to the mistaken belief that Beast Wars II Galvatron was the first pink incarnation of this character. Sorry boys and girls, G1 Galvatron beat him to it.

Oh, and remember how just above I said that Galvatron once mistook Centurion for Rodimus Prime? This is that sequence!

Source: Gen1, Season 2 episode Atlantis, Arise! (or whatever that episode is called)

Comments: Okay, okay. This isn't THAT odd, to look at just off the bat. The cartoon had a MILLION of these. So why does it get into oddities? After all, weren't there two Frenzies flying side-by-side in the movie when Soundwave had launched Rumble and Frenzy?

Yeah, I suppose so. But this is Optimus Prime!

More importantly, and it's something you don't see in this image, the Prime who charges forward, doesn't just come off the side of the screen. He runs out of the other Optimus Prime!

I'm not kidding you. Prime stands for a second, like he's about to charge forward, then another Prime just pops outa him! Power Chip Rectifier my arse, Prime has powers out the ying-yang. A second later Grimlock is helping Prime to hold up the Washington monument.

He should have just gotten the other Prime to lend a hand! 

Source: Gen1, Season 1 episode Divide and Conquer

Comments: I know I said I'd shy away from this stuff. Miscolours are the stock-and-trade of Transformers. The cartoon had them coming out of their ears, and with Yomtov as the colourist, the comic-books had no chance of escaping.

So don't you dare point out miscolours in the cartoon and say they should be oddities. I don't wanna hear it. 

The reason this is in is simple: That's Diaclone Ironhide, boys and girls! A Diaclone Ironhide with Transformers Decals! Kick butt.

Source: Transformers UK #196, though I'm sure it appeared in other issues.

Comments: The company that brought you... err... batteries, comes a Powermaster Torch! For all you Americans, "Torch" is real-people speak for "Flashlight". 

If you don't believe it's real-people speak, then just read "Prince Caspian", Edmund has a torch. C. S. Lewis couldn't be wrong.

It's sad really. With the number of ads in the Transformers comics over the years, so few of them had Transformers endorsing second-rate products. I want more Transformers endorsements. Where are my Transformers cheese snacks? Sure, Thundercats cheese snacks, but what about Transformers?!

Source: Gen1, Season 2 episode The Insecticon Syndrome

Comments: Transformers is filled with all kinds of Madness. Frank Springer's brilliant mix-ups in "Headmasters", half of season 3 and all of season 4 of the original cartoon, Beast Wars Megatron being defeated by a fart.

But none of it is quite this mad.

Spike, has a gun.

That's right people Spike has a gun. He's not old enough to drive and the Autobots have armed him with a laser rifle.

More Spike-has-a-gun madness!

Source: Transformers UK annual 1986

Comments: This is like an image from some sort of really weird dream. Starscream, with Megatron's fusion cannon.

Wait it is an image from a really weird dream.

Welcome to Grimlock's nightmare. There's a lot of other oddities madness in this story (Victory), and I'll probably scan it in the future. However, I thought that the first and only official images of Starscream with a fusion cannon might just be weird enough to satisfy you for a while.

A lot of people have been pointing out Starscream's colour scheme to me so I've decided to comment on it. Most seem to think he's been coloured to look like Grimlock. However another fan suggested that he was coloured to match Megatron's colour scheme. This seems almost as accurate as the Grimlock assessment, if you remember that in the early UK comics Megatron was given a yellow chest, not a grey one.

Source: Some episode of Gobots. Who really gives a crap? That was an even worse cartoon than Transformers!

Comments: This is 'Good Knight', a Gobot. No, this isn't really Transformers related. Nor is this really an oddity.

But I do have this toy. It's not that great a toy, and has one of the worst robot faces ever. I think I'd recommend Super Leader-1 rather than this guy, or maybe Loco. Some of those Gobot toys really were pretty neat. (Though most of them, like poor old Good Knight had terrible faces.) 

Oh, and for those of you wondering, yes I do like Gobots. The cartoon was, as I've said above, terrible. Terrible even when compared to something as bad as Transformers, though admittedly this was less to do with storylines or voice acting and more to do with the way it was drawn and animated.

Check out some more images of the red menace we call Good Knight.

Source: Issues 281 to 285 of the UK comic.

Comments: This is a sequence of corner boxes taken from the cover of the UK TF comics. Here we have Dreadwind, who was answering the letters column at the time, ousting Optimus Prime from the corner box.

No reason was given for the ousting, though it was probably just because Prime had been there too damn long.

To my eye, it looks like the first box is Lee Sulivan, second looks like Dan Reed, number three is a very Staz Optimus head, and the last two were probably drawn by Andrew Wildman or Stephen Baskerville. Could be wrong; the fourth one might be Staz too.

This image appears courtesy of the Transfan known as Liquid Velcro!, Graham Weaver, Ernie the Keebler Elf, Whatever. (Though I'm assured it's pronounced 'Throat-wobbler-mangrove')