Well, 2024 was certainly a year. Losing both my parents within months of each other is what I’ll forever remember the year for, but they both raised me in a way that even out of such darkness came light. I’ve a newfound appreciation for my closest friends, who have very much become my chosen family this year. A couple of months ago I could also hear my mum’s voice in my head telling me not to let Christmas suffer because they’re not here. They wouldn’t have wanted that.
As such, this most horrible of years has ended with a holiday season surrounded by that chosen family of mine, who filled my Christmas with love, happiness, laughing kids (hi Ollie and Lily) and plenty of festive feelings. To all of you who sat around that table with me and toasted my dad over a cuppa, I can’t thank you enough. I love you all and you’ve really made the end of this year something joyful, which in itself is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
Due to the year it’s been, the project I hinted at this day last year never came to fruition, but that’s something I’m looking forward to in 2025 now. Also, the number of visitors the blog has had this year has grown four times as much as I wanted it to, so thank you to all of my regular readers and those who have joined us this year. As I look forward to the 12 months ahead Frank Cross’ (as played by Bill Murray) monologue from the end of one of my favourite Christmas movies, Scrooged comes to mind*. After 2024, I think that’s the way to see life in 2025.
I seem to recall this cover being used on one of Fleetway‘s UK issues, although after dipping my toes in with #1 of their comic I’d decided it wasn’t for me, so I must be remembering it from the newsagent’s shelves. Any fans of the Dinobots would’ve lapped this up, Derek Yaniger’s art perfectly capturing what drew young children to these characters. They were just so much fun, and inside Grimlock is the star.
He actually goes through quite a bit here, from leader, to remorsefulness, to having a blast stomping on baddies, making this the best issue yet! This fourth edition of the original US Transformers: Generation 2 begins with Optimus Prime having more visions of a dead world, slain Transformers rising from the ashes and once they touch him his body begins to dissolve, revealing his inner workings.
Interestingly, he hasn’t hidden these visions from his friends; everyone knows of them and no one is questioning his leadership. After his visions in the G1 comics this makes sense. Everyone appears to be on hand to help. It’s then we find out Grimlock has taken a captured Deception shuttle craft and left with some troops. Has he abandoned Prime? No, not quite. In fact, he’s doing it for Prime, even though they were all instructed to stay put.
Grimlock has decided to use a Decepticon craft to land aboard Jhiaxus’ ship Twilight and use the element of surprise to overwhelm the crew and stop their evil crusade in one fell swoop. This hasn’t come out of nowhere, there’s reasoning behind it, although he could’ve told the others. Judging by the panel below they all look miserable as hell!
They’re probably meant to be looking mean, ready for the attack, but instead they look like they’ve been told they’re not allowed any sweets before dinner. Behind all the bravado though, Grimlock has embarked on this unsanctioned mission to try to redeem himself in his own mind. He sees his “running to Prime” in #1 (when he realised the scale of the problem) as a sign of weakness, even though no one else does.
After everything he went through in the last couple of years of Generation 1, especially his dalliance with Nucleon which almost saw the end of the Transformer race’s most unique ability, he’s become much more critical of himself. Though he’ll never admit it out loud, his inner thoughts betray how he worries about his friends and the danger he puts them in with his decisions. I’ve always loved the comic version of Grimlock and here he’s better than ever.
Well, it was meant to be a surprise hit-and-run attack anyway. After pages of build-up, including Grimlock’s detailed tactics being really rather interesting, I actually laughed at it all coming to an ignominious end as soon as they set foot aboard the Twilight. However, Jhiaxus doesn’t kill them. Instead, he tells them they’re now prisoners and will be taken to “The Leige Maximo”, but not before Red Alert tries to launch his own surprise attack which fails spectacularly.
This comic certainly isn’t shy about killing off recurring characters right out of the gate! Grimlock asks what The Leige Maximo is, a person or a place, but he gets no answer. However, as their shuttle takes off Jhiaxus ponders if Grimlock will end up wishing they’d been killed by the Decepticons, and he appears surprisingly remorseful about sending them off to this… thing. Has Jhiaxus been on the receiving end of whatever this thing is? Is it his secret boss? Colour me intrigued! (No spoilers please.)
Back on board, Grimlock’s internal struggle resurfaces. Despite the cartoon depicting him as a dimwitted brute, the comic always gave him great depth. Well, apart from that awful moment in the original series when he became more like the cartoon just as he became Autobot leader but that was thankfully temporary! Apart from that blip he’s always been one of the more interesting characters.
Once again he’s wracked with guilt over the death of someone under his command and his respect for Optimus Prime is clear, albeit internally. I actually feel for him. His pride stops him from admitting any of this and it keeps getting him into trouble, despite his honourable intentions and clear wish to do good by Prime. Ironically, his internal struggles are what make him perfect leadership material, he and Prime unaware they both share the same doubts about themselves.
Who’d have thought all of this would be part of a toy comic, eh? Anyway, they’re soon attacked by another Decepticon craft and Grimlock is quick to transform into his dino mode and take advantage of the confusion to free his troops. And who says T-rex arms are too small to be of any use?
As it turns out the ship had actually been commandeered by Prime, Hot Rod, Kup, Hound and Prowl as a rescue mission. Below, Prime’s politeness while brandishing a huge cannon against the pilot he’s being so polite to is funny, and I can hear Peter Cullen’s voice when I read his “I disagree” speech balloon. Plus, doesn’t Grimlock just look like he’s having the time of his life in that middle panel?
I’ll give penciller Manny Galan kudos for how expressive his dinobots are in their alt-modes! Jim Amash’s and Marie Severin’s inks are as bold as ever and Sarra Mossoff’s colours pop more than ever. Still loving how Richard Starkings’ and John Gaushell’s letters give differently coloured boxes to each character and how they can change depending on the intensity of what they’re saying. A little bit of genius, that.
All of this fun art distracts somewhat from the ludicrous necks to be found elsewhere (see last issue) and writer Simon Furman rounds things off with a final twist in the tale as our two leads meet up and Prime offers Grimlock the position of Commander of the Autobots! Prime is returning to Cybertron as he believes his visions are a warning from the Matrix and he jokes that Grimlock’s only mistake was not stealing the crew too (because they clearly reported back). I think it’s clear Prime actually did know Grimlock struggled mentally and sees a kindred spirit.
The main strip was fantastic this month but yet again the back up (same creative team but with Derek’s art) is even better and begins with this apocalyptic scene on Earth as Bludgeon’s ship bombards the surface from orbit, his plan being to lure Optimus out from wherever he is in the galaxy, kill him and steal the Matrix in order to bring life to new Decepticons. I have to say, Bludgeon and his fellow Decepticon Pretenders are perfectly drawn by Derek.
News reports claim hundreds are already dead which makes this probably the most successful Decepticon strike ever. Well, apart from that alternate future where we saw Galvatron reduce America to rubble. Back in our reality this new, smaller army seems unstoppable. Unstoppable that is, until Bludgeon’s sword is blasted away by another Transformer weapon and we turn the page to be met with this scene.
Oh my! There’s so much to be excited by here! This is also just ‘Part One’ so it feels like one of those self-proclaimed ‘mini-epics’ the original UK comic ran to add depth to the main stories (when it switched to the three-story format), and given their history it’s interesting Megatron chose Starscream to reanimate! This begs the question, “why”? Whatever the answer, it can’t be good for Earth.
It’s the season of goodwill to all and someone really should’ve told Marvel US’s Ralph Macchio. His column in this month’s Bullpen Bulletin is horrendous! Some creatives had become disgruntled by Marvel and had left to set up their own indie comics. I can understand he’d be upset, but comparing that to communism?! Really? Wow! Around the border of the page there’s a disclaimer from the company. If they were so worried by this column they simply shouldn’t have printed it!
That’s insane, isn’t it? At least in the main bulk of the page we find out about Transformers Generation 1 colourist Nel Yomtov’s musical talents and his “Golden Harp” nickname, so there’s always that. But just… wow. I can’t get over that column. ‘Bitter’ doesn’t even cover it and this really paints Marvel in a bad light. I can’t understand how he thought that would be a good column to write and I’d say it probably had the opposite to the intended effect.
To end on a brighter note, the stories this month have been brilliant, the art has been incredible and I’m fully invested in this superb sequel comic. It may not have lasted as long as it so clearly deserved to but there are still eight glorious (I’m sure they’ll be glorious) issues to come and I can’t wait to see what 2025/1994 has in store. We’ll continue our galaxy-spanning adventure on Sunday 26th January 2025.
So did you remember to buy enough batteries before Christmas Day for your children’s toys? Did you remember to charge the others? Is your house now a cacophony of tiny electric motors, repetitive music and flashing lights? Of course, it all depends on the age of your kids, but that’s what Christmas was like for us back in OiNK’s days. What were we playing with back then? What did Santa bring us?
For the third part of this series the topic is toys and games, and the pages from OiNK we’d shove in front of our parents’ faces before writing the details on a piece of paper and firing it up the chimney. We kick things off in the very first edition, the OiNK Preview Issue and it’s promoting a smörgåsbord of delights that could have been part of our previous selection of food and drink adverts.
Forget the bags, hats and pens, I can remember my first BMX bike and portable TV, both of which I very gratefully received from Santa Claus. Although I’m sure any younger readers will probably be wondering what’s so “portable” about a very heavy CRT television with a 12” screen. Well, it was so portable we could move it all the way from one corner of the bedroom to the other any time we wanted!
This is of course a competition set by Barratt of Sherbert Dip fame but it showcases some of the hottest tickets in town as far as those chimney lists were concerned. I’m not so sure the next range from Britains would’ve had me as excitedly entering their competition though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there was a market for them but these adverts make toy cars and trucks seem rather old fashioned even by 1986 standards.
They weren’t the only company that would try to tailor their adverts to the comics medium by introducing panels, captions and speech balloons to make them feel less out of place. Perhaps it was an attempt to get us kids reading their adverts before realising they were ads, or perhaps it was just for a bit of fun. I like to think it was the latter. However, finishing your comic strip would be nice.
I’m not sure whether to laugh at the idea behind this advert or laugh at the audacity! I get the idea obviously; we’re meant to go and buy the toys and finish the story for ourselves and it does get that point across in an original way. Still, you’ve got to hand it to them, it’s a rather cheeky way to cut back on the effort (and cost) to produce it.
In the early issues a series of adverts appeared that actually told a story in three parts. They were for TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, something a handful of my friends at school were into. I never understood the appeal at the time of playing a game completely in their imaginations, nor did I have the patience to learn. In later years I’ve met friends in my adult life who have D&D nights and the way they’ve explained it does make it sound like fun.
I think as a kid I was used to games that had pieces and a board and rules etc. I couldn’t wrap my head around how D&D worked and always figured it would be too easy to cheat and just make stuff up as you went along. I know better nowadays, of course. I worked beside a guy in an office for over a year who was the Dungeon Master of his group of friends and I’m now very aware of how much preparation goes into a good session.
In 1986 Hasbro’s Transformers toys showed no signs of slowing down but that didn’t stop them from wanting to replace the original line up with a fresh batch of Autobots and Decepticons. What better way could there be of getting that point across than replacing the iconic Optimus Prime and Megatron with new leaders? And what better way to introduce them to the world than through a movie at the cinema?
While Ultra Magnus was leader was five minutes, Galvatron would be rather more successful. My old school friend Roger (who I know reads the blog, so hi Roger) had both of these toys and as a young child they felt massive my tiny hands. They really were incredible, and just in case Magnus turned out to be a naff leader he had a hidden Optimus Prime inside. That’s right, isn’t it? Of course. It certainly wasn’t a way to cut costs and recycle part of a previous toy, no.
There are moments in your life when you realise you’re a lot older than you care to admit. I remember playing with water pistols and threatening to soak the adults around us, never fully understanding why they didn’t want to play such games in the middle of winter. As my best friend Vicki now has two kids of her own and her eldest, Ollie, is approaching six-years-of-age I’ve been on the receiving end of many such “threats”… and of many Nerf bullets! Yep, I’ve become one of those adults.
Given the fact this advert is 38-years-old that’s a pretty damned good water pistol/cannon that fires over 30 feet. Saying that, I’ve no idea how far today’s top-of-the-line toys squirt water and I’m hoping I won’t find out any time soon. At least not until the summer please, Ollie!
That’s us at the end of our Christmas look back at the toys and games advertised within the pages of OiNK between 1986 and 1988. We’re halfway through this occasional series now and I’ve lined up the next two instalments for next year, beginning with one close to all our hearts: comics and books. Watch out for that during 2025, which is on the cusp of greeting us as I type.
A few Christmases ago now I received a shoebox in the post in shiny wrapping paper with strict instructions not to open it until Christmas Day. It was from Helen Jones, partner of the late OiNK co-editor Mark Rodgers. I remember my mum was also eager to know what she’d sent me and when I finally got to open it she laughed while I grinned from ear-to-ear. After decades I was the owner of an OiNK mug once more!
Helen knew of how I’d accidentally left my own OiNK mug at a previous workplace in my late teens and that I’d been hunting for a replacement for years. She still had Mark’s mug in a display cabinet and very kindly sent me it for Christmas! That and the OiNK 45 record were the only pieces of piggy pink merchandise I owned as a kid and the latter was warped by the hot sun very soon after I got it. Thankfully I was able to buy a mint condition replacement for the latter on eBay a couple of years back and there’s a blog post in which you can listen to all three of its songs.
Reading the comics again as an adult I’m surprised I never had more of Uncle Pigg’s bits and pieces. If it were today I’d definitely be lapping up everything I could get my trotters on (and there’s an exciting Christmas update further below!), but perhaps having to go through parents curbed that somewhat and then OiNK’s cancellation put paid to any more collecting. But earlier on this year I got to thinking about other pig pals who had been luckier. What if they’d held on to it all?
I reached out to some OiNK fans through social media and asked them if they’d like to show off their merch on the blog. It was a silly question! Who wouldn’t like to boast about having some of this stuff? First to reply was Neil Clarke who has kept a wealth of OiNK pieces in mint condition for three decades. This could be down to the fact that he was a bit older than the rest of us careless kids.
“I got into OiNK as I was a big fan of The Fall and Marc Riley played with them,” Neil told me. “I was into punk music when I was 12 or 13 and OiNK came out when I was 20ish!” Not only that but his brother was a bit of a pig pal too. “My brother Ian won a drawing competition in OiNK and received this bag (like you, I’m jealous of it), so I got him rummaging up in his loft.”
To make you just as jealous as me, here are some photos of Neil’s collection including said bag, his Pig Pack membership club pack (including the letter from Uncle Pigg) and even a photo of the time he met the creator of Harry the Head, Marc himself.
Not only that, as you can see from his not-at-all-smug photo he’s wearing the one-and-only OiNK sweatshirt! That’s the holy grail of OiNK merch right there. Who can forget the “Get sweaty! Get shirty! Get this sweaty-shirty!” advert? Looking back, I really can’t fathom why I didn’t ask my parents (or Santa) for the t-shirt. I’d have loved that! I still would. Hence my daily email from eBay updating me on anything in their clothing selection with the word “oink” included these past several years.
Neil wasn’t the only person to show off the latter piece of pig apparel. When Jackie McCree got back in touch with me she told me she had the t-shirt but during recent renovations it had been put into storage… somewhere! Bless you for going to all the trouble Jackie. Saying that, you can just tell she’s got a huge grin behind this t-shirt, can’t you? Show off!
“I was a big supporter of OiNK,” Jackie told me as a way of curbing my jealousy. “Bought the merchandise, joined the pig pals, and bought extra comics to give to people and leave in doctor/dentist waiting rooms. If I remember correctly my friend Aly Fell submitted a comic strip to OiNK and they used it. I didn’t know Aly at the time but we’ve been friends for decades.” Might have to look into that!
It’s at this point I’ve got that special Christmas Day update!! Jackie very (very, very) kindly packaged up her never-worn OiNK t-shirt and offered to send it to me! I couldn’t believe it! It even came gift wrapped. Naturally, given how much I love both OiNK and this time of year, I didn’t open it until today.
As a kid we received our presents from Santa first thing in the morning but presents under the tree never got opened until after Christmas dinner, and that traditional carries on to this day. So it’s been a long wait but after three-and-a-half-decades a few hours more were nothing. I can’t believe I’ve finally got it! I never, ever thought this would happen so thank you so much Jackie and Merry Christmas to you!
Okay, so I can’t exactly wear it (it’s a child’s small) but I’ll be sourcing a frame and getting this up in my writing room after the holidays, that’s for sure!
Next up is camera shy Steve Finch who has the mug, the pig pack paraphernalia and also a rare piece of OiNK memorabilia in the shape of the promotional folder used by IPC Magazines around the time of the comic’s launch. In fact, it was Steve’s folder that he kindly let me use in one of several posts on the blog detailing the pre-pig days.
Steve also has an original copy of the piece of OiNK gear that’s received the most coverage on the blog to date. Still in its box is his OiNK computer game from CRL. It’s even for the best computer of the 80s, the Commodore 64! (Even though I didn’t get my C64 until 1991. I’ve apparently always been a retro head, even when I was retro.) Now for any young readers that thing sitting in front of the box is called a ‘cassette’.
If there’s one OiNK-themed item even trickier, nay impossible, to get our hands on today it must surely be the bubblegum. What? OiNK had bubblegum? It did indeed. It was only ever seen in one issue as a competition prize in #62, the final weekly before the big revamp. This was a sticky treat with a use by date so you’re not exactly going to see any on eBay, but that’s not to say there isn’t a remnant of this particular piece of comic history somewhere…
That somewhere is the house of OiNK co-editor Patrick Gallagher. Thanks so much for taking part Patrick, I just hope all of the actual gum is long gone and there isn’t anything too scary growing inside that thing. Bright pink (of course) bubblegum and only 2p each? I know I’ve turned 47 four days ago but now I feel old.
“I need to find my Weedy Willy hat.” That’s what pig pal Sue Hall told me when she was rooting around her house looking for her Pig Pack membership goodies and her old school folder covered in one or two OiNK stickers. Sue’s handiwork has appeared on the blog before, when she somehow built the impossible-to-build cut-out Street-Hogs Road-Hogg from #11!
Kevin Tuson is a man who not only has a large OiNK collection to show off, he’s a man who knows exactly how to show it off. I asked everyone if they could supply a photo of them with their merchandise and Kevin certainly agreed! I’m not saying there’s a smugness to his pose but, well, there’s a smugness to his pose. With the complete comics collection, the free gifts, the Pig Pack membership goodies and more, including several letter correspondence from OiNK (which we’ll take a look at some point in the future), I can’t blame him.
That last photo is of Kevin’s son, Sacha. Taken about ten years ago when Kevin quickly needed someone who would actually fit inside the child-sized t-shirt for a photo, I’m sure the now-22-years-of-age Sacha will be ecstatic that his dad sent in this photo for publication on the OiNK Blog.
To round things off we move from OiNKtown to Beanotown with Danny Pearson, current writer for the legendary comic who reached out to me a while back to tell me he’d found a piece of merchandise for OiNK’s spiritual sequel, something I’d been trawling the auction site for to no avail. Created by OiNK’s Mark Rodgers, Patrick Gallagher and Tony Husband, TV show Round the Bend also had a one-off comic special. This is like hen’s teeth on eBay today, so cue a bit of well-deserved smugness from Danny. (Love the background too, bonus points for that.)
That’s us, folks. I thought having a little look at some of these items with fellow pig pals would make for a nice Christmas Day treat, given how some of us may have received these as gifts when we were children (or after I turned 40 in my case). I’d like to thank everyone who took part for showing us their OiNK merchandise and thereby sharing their personal memories.
I hope everyone reading has been having (or have had) a lovely day so far, that you’ll go heavy on the turkey and roasties, polish off at least three bottles of Schloer and enjoy your afternoon nap before your turkey sandwiches for tea. Come back in a few days for more Christmas-like feels when I take a look at the toys and games (real ones) advertised in OiNK. More 80s fondness to come!
“So here it is, Merry Christmas, Everybody’s having fun. Look to the future now, It’s only just begin.”
After the year it’s been for me personally James Whild Lea‘s and Neville John Holder‘s lyrics have resonated deeply with me this Christmas season, and so far it’s been one filled with peace and joy in the company of friends, of both the human and furry variety. I hope you’ve all been having very Happy Holidays too and that your Christmas Day is filled with too much food to eat (but you will anyway), fun gift giving (and receiving of course) and plenty of cheer (how much of that is literal and liquid is up to you).
As per usual I’ll be taking my annual couple of days away from social media, so I’m here to remind you tomorrow on The Big Day itself you’ll be able to see a new post featuring pig pals showing off their OiNK merchandise. The post won’t be up until late in the afternoon because one very generous pig pal has actually sent me a Christmas gift which I’ll be photographing for the post when I open it.
As a kid we received our presents from Santa in the morning, while everything under the tree was kept for the afternoon; a tradition I keep to this day. So when you’ve awoken from your post-Christmas dinner nap and are contemplating the turkey, ham and stuffing sandwiches you can check that post out for some holly jolly fun. I’ll be back on the 27th with some of the real 80s toys and games adverts from the pages of OiNK, so in the meantime all that remains is for me to wish you all…
OiNK Blog 