Transformers (1984) #3 Never Before Seen (? Probably not) Fourth Print? 3 3

[Beyonder123]

This throws a bit of a wrench into my previous prediction. But still valuable information. Here is another multipack, all with Star Wars back cover ads. (Including the issue i originally posted about)

[BrooksR]

On 10/22/2022 at 8:01 PM, BrooksR said:

I’ve seen quite a few 80’s GI Joe reprints graded by cgc as first prints, something a Joe collector would notice immediately 

case in point...

 

 

[MAR1979]

On 10/23/2022 at 3:17 PM, BrooksR said:

case in point...

 

 

Knowing is half the battle!

[Beyonder123]

On 10/23/2022 at 12:17 PM, BrooksR said:

case in point...

 

 

The worst part about this is that these ones are actually noted in the indicia. At least with the Transformers ones there's no note inside of the printing. Is it too much to ask for a little consistency? But I digress.

[Lazyboy]

On 10/22/2022 at 7:01 PM, BrooksR said:

On 10/22/2022 at 4:21 PM, Beyonder123 said:

Looking through the census and Ebay it seems CGC is not very consistent with what they label as second and third prints.

I’ve seen quite a few 80’s GI Joe reprints graded by cgc as first prints, something a Joe collector would notice immediately 

CGC is inexplicably, unbelievably awful at properly identifying/labeling later printings.

[Lazyboy]

On 10/23/2022 at 4:04 PM, Beyonder123 said:

The worst part about this is that these ones are actually noted in the indicia. At least with the Transformers ones there's no note inside of the printing. Is it too much to ask for a little consistency? But I digress.

There is for Transformers #1 Third Print, at least.

[Beyonder123]

On 10/23/2022 at 5:13 PM, Lazyboy said:

There is for Transformers #1 Third Print, at least.

Ahhhh! Thank you! And with a little looking I found a photo.

[Beyonder123]

And the Acne 12 ad set of issue 3

[707comics]

So is it safe to say that ads are directly linked to a "print"? Or is it possible the print run stays the same but the ads change? So for example 5,000 are printed with ad x, 5,000 with ad y but both have indica that state "print 1"? 

[fastballspecial]

On 10/22/2022 at 11:14 AM, Beyonder123 said:

While I think it's unlikely, the idea can't be completely discounted. Maybe someone here can enlighten us on how advertising in comics worked in the 80s.

I also wanted to share this.

You can make out what looks like the advertisement for "Risk" on the back covers of all these books. So perhaps the first three issues with the Risk ad sets were released in the three packs.

Yeah one of those prints has to be the K-mart comics along with Secret Wars. I am sure they were sold elsewhere
but I always saw them in K-mart. Wolverine Mini Series as well, but they didnt 2nd print them. 

 

[Beyonder123]

On 10/23/2022 at 7:51 PM, fastballspecial said:

Yeah one of those prints has to be the K-mart comics along with Secret Wars. I am sure they were sold elsewhere
but I always saw them in K-mart. Wolverine Mini Series as well, but they didnt 2nd print them. 

 

Regardless of whether or not they are mutlipack editions, (which i think we can confirm at this point) I think they are still later printings, as supported by the fact that the ads in the multipack issues line up with the ads printed in the same title a couple months later.

Right now I'm looking for any evidence that any of the 3rd printings were released in multipacks for the first 6 issues. 

But in summary issues 1, 2, and 3 with the "Star Wars" ad sets, and issue 3 with the Montezuma ad; are first prints. And issues 1, 2 and 3 with Risk ads are second prints. And here is my theory for why there are 2 (technical) first prints for issue 3. 

Timeline:

Both issues 1 and 2 go on sale on newsstands by 11/84. When the 3rd issue comes out, they also intend to release a three pack including issues 1, 2 and 3. Issue 3 is set to go on sale by 1/85, but for the multipack there is an extra step between being printed and going on shelves, and so issue 3 needs to be printed a little earlier to make up for that lost time. The problem is next months advertisements aren't ready. Whether that be because they haven't secured advertisers, or they haven't yet received the advertisements from the advertiser, etc etc. 

So what do you do? You print issue 3 with last months advertisements specifically for the multipack. By the time those are done and bagged, the advertisements are ready. Now you can print the rest with the correct months advertising. That would give you the same comic on sale on the same month with 2 different advertisements. One in a multipack and one on shelves.

The next month, the multipack is re-released; this time with this months advertisements (3/84). And so all 3 issues get printed with Risk ad sets, same as issue 4, which is on sale on the same month. 

Make sense? Lol. What do people think?

[Cat]

On 10/23/2022 at 4:48 PM, Beyonder123 said:

This throws a bit of a wrench into my previous prediction. But still valuable information. Here is another multipack, all with Star Wars back cover ads. (Including the issue i originally posted about)

That's a bit cruel, giving kids 3 parts of what they thought was a 4 part story. 

[F For Fake]

On 10/23/2022 at 8:04 PM, Lazyboy said:

CGC is inexplicably, unbelievably awful at properly identifying/labeling later printings.

It really is terrible. You'd think that at some point they'd institute some sort of fail-safe. Like, when a book is scanned in and bar-coded, a prompt of some kind might come up that says "Check printing!" on these books which are widely known to exist in multiple editions. They've had SO many years to get this right, and yet...

[jdandns]

On 10/24/2022 at 6:09 AM, Cat said:

That's a bit cruel, giving kids 3 parts of what they thought was a 4 part story. 

Haha, true, but the pack with Transformers 4-6 in it might've been for sale right alongside the 1-3 pack, or at least at the same store shortly thereafter. They did at least 5 different 3-packs going up to issue #15 on the Transformers series, possibly more.

[BrooksR]

On 10/24/2022 at 12:30 PM, jdandns said:

Haha, true, but the pack with Transformers 4-6 in it might've been for sale right alongside the 1-3 pack, or at least at the same store shortly thereafter. They did at least 5 different 3-packs going up to issue #15 on the Transformers series, possibly more.

He may have been talking about the wolverine mini series? I didn’t even know those were released in a multipack.

[Cat]

On 10/25/2022 at 2:30 AM, jdandns said:

Haha, true, but the pack with Transformers 4-6 in it might've been for sale right alongside the 1-3 pack, or at least at the same store shortly thereafter. They did at least 5 different 3-packs going up to issue #15 on the Transformers series, possibly more.

Oh that's neat. I really need to start collecting this series. I've got it a few times over in various reprints (Titan, IDW) but a scattered assortment of originals in poor condition from my childhood. I'm still a massive Transformers fan and collector, so I really should have these issues. 

[MetalPSI]

I have the astronaut back cover for my newsstand 6

[Beyonder123]

On 10/25/2022 at 5:54 AM, MetalPSI said:

I have the astronaut back cover for my newsstand 6

Definitely a first printing 👍

[Lazyboy]

On 10/23/2022 at 10:26 PM, Beyonder123 said:

Regardless of whether or not they are mutlipack editions, (which i think we can confirm at this point) I think they are still later printings, as supported by the fact that the ads in the multipack issues line up with the ads printed in the same title a couple months later.

Right now I'm looking for any evidence that any of the 3rd printings were released in multipacks for the first 6 issues. 

But in summary issues 1, 2, and 3 with the "Star Wars" ad sets, and issue 3 with the Montezuma ad; are first prints. And issues 1, 2 and 3 with Risk ads are second prints. And here is my theory for why there are 2 (technical) first prints for issue 3. 

Timeline:

Both issues 1 and 2 go on sale on newsstands by 11/84. When the 3rd issue comes out, they also intend to release a three pack including issues 1, 2 and 3. Issue 3 is set to go on sale by 1/85, but for the multipack there is an extra step between being printed and going on shelves, and so issue 3 needs to be printed a little earlier to make up for that lost time. The problem is next months advertisements aren't ready. Whether that be because they haven't secured advertisers, or they haven't yet received the advertisements from the advertiser, etc etc. 

So what do you do? You print issue 3 with last months advertisements specifically for the multipack. By the time those are done and bagged, the advertisements are ready. Now you can print the rest with the correct months advertising. That would give you the same comic on sale on the same month with 2 different advertisements. One in a multipack and one on shelves.

The next month, the multipack is re-released; this time with this months advertisements (3/84). And so all 3 issues get printed with Risk ad sets, same as issue 4, which is on sale on the same month. 

Make sense? Lol. What do people think?

1. That's not how it works/worked.

2. The multi-packs are not from Marvel, they just contain Marvel comics. I'm not sure who distributed them or when.

[Lazyboy]

On 10/23/2022 at 9:12 PM, 707comics said:

So is it safe to say that ads are directly linked to a "print"?

Yes.

On 10/23/2022 at 9:12 PM, 707comics said:

Or is it possible the print run stays the same but the ads change?

No, unless there's an error that gets corrected but the error copies are still used.