19 | September | 2024

This site may be named after OiNK but my complete collection of Marvel UK’s epic Transformers is my pride and joy. Back in 2017 I wanted to do something with the comic for the original blog but two things stopped me. Firstly, reviewing a weekly comic for seven years was too daunting at the time (I was just starting out) and secondly, the stories had already been covered in depth all over the internet.

I landed upon the idea of a photographic journey through the series instead, as a way for former UK readers to reminisce and relive treasured memories, and to show the physical comics to those in the UK and elsewhere who had read the stories in book form but had never seen the original covers, the back up strips, fact-files, letters pages, special features, competitions and even the contemporary adverts.

The perfect place for such a journey was Instagram. So for seven years I read Transformers in real time, taking a handful of photographs of each issue and posting them up on the original release dates. When it all ended in January 2024 I realised that if I gave blog readers links to the posts, Instagram doesn’t let users navigate between them when accessed from an external link like that. Damn.

No one was going to scroll back over seven years of social media posts just to check them out, and the more time passed the more out of reach that mammoth project would become.

Well, to mark the comic’s 40th anniversary I’ve come up with a solution.

TRANSFORMERS G1

I’ve gone back over all 375 Instagram posts I made during that read through and added two hashtags to each and every one so that you can locate any issue you want, in any order. You can check out your favourites or go right back to the beginning and see the whole lot in order. It’s taken me over a month to do this and they’re now ready for you to check out any time you wish.

When I began the read through the blog didn’t have its own social media accounts so it started on my personal one. I also only owned a handful of issues from the first year of fortnightly comics. However, by Transformers’ 35th anniversary I’d been able to buy all of that first year and finally covered all those issues. Confused? You don’t need to be, just use the hashtags below and you’ll get them all in their proper reading order from issue 1 to issue 332.

The early posts on my own account have a few photos and a write up with some basic details. As the series progressed on to the OiNK Blog’s account however (issue 71 onwards), I was taking more photos and writing more and more information in the captions, including full art credits.

HOW IT WORKS

Every single post contains the hashtag #OiNKTransformers and Instagram will throw them up in random order when you search it. However, I’ve also included an individual identifying hashtag to each and every post, eg. #OiNKTransformers192. Listed below are the groups of hashtags you can use, beginning with the regular issues and then all of the special editions released during the run.

If you’d like to read the entire collection in the correct order, with each of the special editions and personal posts slotted into the correct reading order amongst the regular comics, further below you’ll see the full ‘Reading Order’ to follow.

(Please note all hashtags work with all lower or upper case too, they’re presented here as they are for ease of reading.)

REGULAR iSSUES (332)
#OiNKTransformers1
to #OiNKTransformers332
Issue 192 has two additional posts:
#OiNKTransformers192a
and #OiNKTransformers192b

ANNUALS (7)
#OiNKTransformersAnn1
to #OiNKTransformersAnn7
The fifth annual has an additional post:
#OiNKTransformersAnn5Answers

COLLECTED COMICS (19)
#OiNKTransformersCC1
to #OiNKTransformersCC19
Collection Comics 11 has two additional posts:
#OiNKTransformersCC11a
and #OiNKTransformersCC11b

COMPLETE WORKS HARDBACK BOOKS (2)
#OiNKTransformersCW1
and #OiNKTransformersCW2

TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (2)
#OiNKTransformersMovie1
and #OiNKTransformersMovie2

FREE GIFTS (2 additional posts)
#OiNKTransformers54gift
and #OiNKTransformers200gift

ACTION FORCE CROSSOVER EVENT (4)
#OiNKTransformersAF1
to #OiNKTransformersAF4

INSECTICONS SPECIAL
#OiNKTransformersInsecticons

TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE
#OiNKTransformersUni

MARVEL BOX ANIMATION
#OiNKTransformersBoxes

FINAL COVERS
#OiNKTransformersFinalCovers

READING ORDER

To read the entire collection in the correct order, alongside each of the following issues you should read the accompanying issue/post:

Alongside #OiNKTransformers22
read #OiNKTransformersCC1

Alongside #OiNKTransformers35
read #OiNKTransformersCC2

Alongside #OiNKTransformers41
read #OiNKTransformersAnn1

Alongside #OiNKTransformers54
read #OiNKTransformers54gift

Alongside #OiNKTransformers56
read #OiNKTransformersCC3

Alongside #OiNKTransformers62
read #OiNKTransformersCW1

Alongside #OiNKTransformers66
read #OiNKTransformersCC4

Alongside #OiNKTransformers90
read #OiNKTransformersMovie1

Alongside #OiNKTransformers93
read #OiNKTransformersAnn2

Alongside #OiNKTransformersAnn2
read #OiNKTransformersInsecticons

Alongside #OiNKTransformers94
read #OiNKTransformersMovie2

Alongside #OiNKTransformers108
read #OiNKTransformersCC5

Alongside #OiNKTransformers108
read #OiNKTransformersCW2

Alongside #OiNKTransformers116
read #OiNKTransformersCC6

Alongside #OiNKTransformers126
read #OiNKTransformersAF1

Alongside #OiNKTransformers127
read #OiNKTransformersAF2

Alongside #OiNKTransformers128
read #OiNKTransformersAF3

Alongside #OiNKTransformers129
read #OiNKTransformersAF4

Alongside #OiNKTransformers136
read #OiNKTransformersCC7

Alongside #OiNKTransformers145
read #OiNKTransformersAnn3

Alongside #OiNKTransformers160
read #OiNKTransformersCC8

Alongside #OiNKTransformers169
read #OiNKTransformersCC9

Alongside #OiNKTransformers176
read #OiNKTransformersCC10

Alongside #OiNKTransformers189
read #OiNKTransformersCC11

After #OiNKTransformers192 read:
#OiNKTransformersCC11a/192a (same post),
#OiNKTransformersCC11b
and #OiNKTransformers192b

Alongside #OiNKTransformers198
read #OiNKTransformersUni

Also alongside #OiNKTransformers198
read #OiNKTransformersAnn4

Alongside #OiNKTransformers200
read #OiNKTransformers200gift

Alongside #OiNKTransformers220
read #OiNKTransformersCC12

Alongside #OiNKTransformers227
read #OiNKTransformersCC13

Alongside #OiNKTransformers241
read #OiNKTransformersCC14

Alongside #OiNKTransformers250
read #OiNKTransformersAnn5

Alongside #OiNKTransformersAnn5
read #OiNKTransformersAnn5Answers

Alongside #OiNKTransformers256
read #OiNKTransformersCC15

Alongside #OiNKTransformers271
read #OiNKTransformersCC16

Alongside #OiNKTransformers279
read #OiNKTransformersCC17

Alongside #OiNKTransformers285
read #OiNKTransformersBoxes

Alongside #OiNKTransformers302
read #OiNKTransformersAnn6

Alongside #OiNKTransformers313
read #OiNKTransformersCC18

Alongside #OiNKTransformers327
read #OiNKTransformersCC19

Alongside #OiNKTransformers331
read #OiNKTransformersAnn7

Alongside #OiNKTransformers332
read #OiNKTransformersFinalCovers

I hope you enjoy reliving (or even discovering for the first time) this incredible Transformers series from Marvel UK. Currently elsewhere on the blog the US Transformers Generation 2 series is enjoying its own real time read through and from this Christmas there’ll be a new yearly series of posts about this original G1 series. There’ll be much more from the Robots in Disguise over the years to come, so keep it tuned to the OiNK Blog.