The Ultimate Guide to Vintage Transformers Action Figures

The Back of the book gives a fair bit about how great 'Mark Bellomo' is in his field as a top toy expert in the USA. and the amazon info notes particular knowledge with the transformers toys. Going through the book with this in mind, might make you think they confused with author with another person. There is also the issue with the book being the Ultimate guide to vintage transformers.. If we take Vintage is only refer to the 'classic' Generation One era (so called due to the launch of G2 1993, This book only talks about toys and variations released in North America, So Official released ones in Brazil, Europe and Asian are completely missed out, this also means the book ends in 1990 with the first wave of action masters. None of the Second wave action masters (so the 6 regular figures, 2 exo-suits, 2 motorized exo-suits or the 4 transforming Elites), the Japanese exclusive headmasters era, Masterforce, Victory, or Zone releases, or some others.When talking about various figures, it's more likely to make off hand comments to variations more then show pictures but while these comments aren't too bad, they are again limited to only North American variations, so rare ones like Red Foot Optimus prime aren't even commented on. There are kinda the odd changes.. Megatrons information, while making a minor mistake about the diaclone release name (forgetting the American version was based on the p-38 U.N.C.L.E. version) it comments about the Japanese one could figurebullets' but lacks the information on the colour change (red plastic swapped with Blue for the most part) and the Sword that was exclusive to the Japanese release. Some write ups have been fleshed out with information from the error prone and problematic Dreamwave source book series (More then meets the eye) while later toys have no write up at all. There are also some issues with incorrect photos being used (there is no photo of Gunrunner's robot mode, it's just a photo of Roadgrabber being used by mistake, and Snarler and Carnivac's robot modes are swapped) , and the odd part not being classed as 'easily lost' despite being parts you would often find missing on the second hand market.This might seam like I have nothing good to say about this book.. well, that's not correct. the author does seam lacking in some of his knowledge and information on G1 transformer toys, variations and some of the target prices for secondhand but most of the book isn't too bad. While you can find the information online (with some more stuff there), I got this for a quick reference guide as it can be much easier flipping through a book to double check the odd part or accessory then trying to search through the internet archives for it. Some of the book has problems with layout, and other problems said about, but as a basic guide to North American releases and quick reference, it's pretty good. As an ultimate guide for the G1 toys? it lacks too much to have anywhere near that title, not even featuring information on included sticker sheets. I can't say this effort makes me want to see any thing else the guy has to say on other toy lines, but as a quick visual reference, its worth the price I paid. if you see it for around up to £15, it's good if you are that interested. If you see it for higher? it's not worth it.

I liked this book well enough but really wish it contained more european releases and oddities. I'm sure there are other reference books that do so but Mark has nicely done photos of good examples. Would be fun if he did a book in the layout of a wish catalog from the 80s :)

Great to find/see these vintage pieces. He best part imo, is the fact that the production and release years bring you back down memory lane.

Perfect book!

A***