Customer Reviews

Transformers Animated: The Allspark Almanac, Vol. 2

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To sort-of quote Yuuto Sakurai/Kamen Rider Zeronus from Toei's "Kamen Rider Den-O", "Let me say this to start..."

...I LOVE THIS BOOK.

Once again, Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster - plus the folks that worked on "Transformers: Animated" - comes through with another almanac that's chock-a-block filled with references to Transformers and non-Transformers materials that many can spend DAYS researching over. Some are rather easy to spot if you know your trivia (that could probably rival "Cash Cab"), while others requires a good deal of working the gray matter to puzzle out.

The first volume, Transformers Animated: The Allspark Almanac, covers the first two seasons of "Animated" and fans were immediately left clamoring for more. This volume covers season 3 of "Animated", characters that appeared on-show briefly or were planned but never implemented, and expands on things that might've been only mentioned once in the show. In addition, a glimpse at what would've been the thirteen episodes that would've made up season 4 had the show never been canceled, answering some wild-mass guessing questions all the while creating more. In-jokes, obscure references, A BOARD GAME, even a CROSSWORD PUZZLE (that albeit had a few glitches), and more stuff than you can shake a stick at.

It's not just the numerous references that is given, there's also sections that are in a behind-the-scenes fashion, such as storyboards with deleted scenes that never aired and Animated touching shores in Japan, as well box art as done by artist Marcelo Matere. There's segments on the voice actors that give the soul - or spark, in this case - to the characters that make them so memorable or those that were TF voice veterans (such as Corey Burton and David Kaye). One of the cherries on top of this titanic sundae are pictures of figures that never got past the prototype stage and will forever stay there, such as a considered Hot Shot and an early look of Rhinox, and the bigger cherry being how Megatron might have looked like in season 4.

If you haven't been converted into being a fan of "Transformers: Animated" by the first AllSpark Almanac (also written by the same wonderful and wacky duo), then the AllSpark Almanac II will immediately convert you over. If you're already a fan of Animated, consider this a must-have in your shelf next to that shrine of Hot Shot or Ratchet (you know who you are!).

Transformers Animated was one of the best iteration of the Transformers brand not just a great tv series but also the quality of the toys that were made and there hasn't been anything better since. I have a 3 year old boy and a 2 year old girl who jump into dance and song when they hear the opening credits. Our collection of Transformers Animated figurines has been collecting dust until I received the new Almanac which sparked renewed interest in Transformers Animated in my son who's now playing with his Bulkhead and asking 'Where's the Headmaster?'.

Now about the Almanac, the best parts for me were the bits about actually making the series, the concept toys that were never made and then what could have been for season 4.

Transformers animated Is amazing! With more profiles of the heroic Autobots and evil Deceptions. They a lot give background information on the new characters form session 3, and give names to the characters that where just in the background. Even the ones Derrick Wyatt did for fun! show summers form session 3 tolled in the form of instant reports, personal journals, and news paper articles. There's even a section on how the toy is are made. All in all a great read!

I received my copy in the mail today. The book is incredible. It features art and bios of every character who appeared in the series (even the background characters seen on Cybertron who appeared on screen for a few seconds!). It's sad to see the concept art and plots for the 4th season that will never be produced.

IDW needs to produce a graphic novel to complete the series as intended.

Highly Recommended for any Transformers Fan!

This is by far the best issue of the Transformers: Animated Allspark Almanac series ever made. It has everything from pics of the Transformers that were not used in the series, prototypes of Toys that were never made (but should have been), and even info on what Season 4 of the TV series would have been like if the series was not canceled after season 3. If you are a very big fan of the Transformers: Animated TV series and Toy line, then you should buy this Great book.

Like all things of great beauty and genius, Transformers: Animated was with us for too short a time. Unfortunately, most great things are not graced with as inspired and lovely a tribute as the AllSpark Almanacs (I and II). I am happy to be a Transformers fan, just so I can be so lucky as to enjoy this book. The latest volume is a paradise of information about the show, the setting, the characters and, of course, the hard working humans behind the scenes. Makers of those occasionally interesting "behind the scenes" documentaries that are packaged in with every DVD should sit up and take notice, because THIS is how it's done. There is something for every fan here. Even our friends from other fandoms get some love as the grander universe beyond Cybertron is opened up to us. If you are a TF fan, you should own this, and if you're not yet a fan, by the time you're done reading, I think you will be.

This book satisfies every expectation I had about it and more. I couldn't have asked for a better book (well, I wouldn't have minded even more pages of material, but that's being greedy :P ). Gotta say that I absolutely love this book, and would recommend it to anyone thinking about purchasing it, or buying it for a Transformers fan.

Now all I have left to do is beg Hasbro to make and release more of the toys soon, and to give us some more Animated content in some format. Pretty please, Hasbro?

A highly informative and entertaining manual, written mostly from an 'in-universe' perspectie, with commentary done by the characters themselves. Not only do you get a peek into how they view things, but you get a grasp of the way that the characters thought, interacted and their viewpoints on things! Quite hilarious at times, the Animated universe left it with the sense that we were only getting a small view of what this universe was. And for here, we see it far better fleshed out, with ties to virtually every Transformers series ever, in jokes from linguistics, homages to other science fiction and fantasy series, and the fandom as a whole. All in all, an excellent product for someone wanting a quick and light read, to pore over for every in-joke and hidden detail to grasp a glorious universe with a wonderful depth behind it and of creators who loved it as much as the fandom did.

Enjoying Transformers as more than just a toyline presents a staple diet of ups and downs. For years, we've been dealt constant sea changes across all manner of TF media, from animated series to comics to umpteen new attempts at continuity pinball. In the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit I've become rather jaded and sick of it all. I carry a great G1 bias from having grown up in the era, but I try to keep an open mind. Beast Wars felt fresh and new to me, while Beast Machines seemed meandering and cold. Since then, a gradual snowballing of TF products and interest coupled with numerous miasmatic live action movie tie-ins have made the world of TF media seem like a rotating wasteland of moving targets and hit-or-miss opportunities. Transformers: Animated really changed all that for me, and I really believe that Transformers Animated: The Allspark Almanac 2 (AA2) is perhaps the best literary tribute the show (and toyline, actually) could ever ask for. By that token, it's even more well-crafted and enjoyable than the first volume.

I realize talking up this book in such a forum is probably like preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, I found myself reading it today, realizing that there must be some folks out there who wouldn't like it, while maybe assuming said individuals would already carry such predispositions based on extant displeasure with the Animated concept. Be that as it may, this is the best Transformers book I can remember buying in recent memory. I try to recall the enjoyment I received from books like the Ultimate Guide and the various Generations books, but in doing so I can't associate such tomes with the obvious, evident, ever-loving joy of the concept that has gone into AA2. Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster have done the Animated concept justice, to be sure, but their means of doing so in AA2 are more a celebratory sustainment of the mythos than a compendium of it. I almost have to take issue with authors' use of the term "Almanac," because it seems so limiting in terms of the highly novel and creative content that comprises the book. Maybe "bible" would've sounded too dogmatic, and "encyclopedia" seemed too pedestrian; maybe the fact that I'm even prone to question the title indicates how effective the book is at what it does and what it hopes to represent - "a rose by any other name," as has been said.

Like the first volume, AA2 is well produced, technically well-written, and so jam-packed full of information it is almost hard to take in. It begs the reader to move one step inward with each immersive page, and that's a good thing, because there is so much to see. While the story and characters are the primary terrain features that dot the landscape of the book, there are also fascinating insights into the production, design, and overall creative processes that fueled both the Animated toyline and television series. The amount of effort and actual research that have gone into it almost make me embarrassed for paying so little. There are scores of $200.00 textbooks on the market with less rigorous attention to detail.

Make no mistake, this is not "just another Transformers book" that is either worth your fifteen bucks or not worth it. Like its predecessor (the great but not-nearly-as-great Transformers Animated: The Allspark Almanac vol. 1), AA2 is a paean not only to Transformers: Animated, but to the greater corpus of Transformers Fandom. It succeeds in a way no other TF books ever really have, be they convention or mainstream, comics or prose, in drawing together what "we" as fans like in a manner that is neither hamfisted nor pandering. Like Animated itself, it masterfully weaves the world of the gimmicky in-joke with that of a sensitive attention to character, and welds nostalgia and adoration together without losing a sense of proportion. This is, after all, just a fun book about silly robots from another planet. You never lose that sense of fun and leisure in the book, but you also never get the feeling that the lightness of its content has to do with the density of its information. It's hard to compile, compel, and be comedic at the same time, but this book does it - the authors do it, in spades.

If I were you, I'd buy this book, even if you didn't like Transformers: Animated. At the very least, it can show you that in a wasteland of Transformers media, you should run toward an oasis when it presents itself.

Being a fan of Transformers Animated this book delivers everything i could ask for, it has character bios for every single character: even those seen for only a few seconds. episode guides, toy galleries, what would have happened in season 4, even a map of the universe. I would really recommend this book to anyone. and teamed up with Transformers Animated: The Allspark Almanac Vol 1 it makes the best resource available for Transformers Animated.