Let's Draw Manga: Transforming Robots
ISBN: 1-56970-991-2
Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications (US distributor)
Author: PLEX International Design (Yasuhrio Nitta specifically)
Publication Date in English: September 2003
Series: Let's Draw Manga
Price: $19.95 (sensing a pattern?)
Pagecount: 128
Color: No
Breasts: No
Short Impression: How to draw Bandai transforming robots (Power Rangers,
     Machine Robo Rescue, etc).  Very thorough, but very focused on
     Bandai designs (which tend to be blocky and kid-safe).

     Okay, this book is actually ALL about transforming robots, the first
book I've seen to do so.  In fact, there's very little about the basics of
drawing robots, it seems to assume you've already got that part down.
Instead, the opening section is about laying out transformation schemes using
block representations. 
     Well, the opening ART section.  The first section is a history of all
transforming robots that ever existed.  In a world where PLEX is the only
group to design transforming robots, of course.  The entire book keeps coming
back to a "There are no other transforming robots" tone, which bugged me.
And while PLEX designs (used by Power Rangers, GoBots aka Machine Robo, etc)
are solid and kid-safe, they tend to be dull and blocky as well.  If you're
old enough to even come close to drawing with the level of precision and
detail shown in ths book, you're probably also getting bored with PLEX
transformation designs.
     Anyway, back to the art stuff.  After introducing the basics of sliding
block transformation design, they use the idea over and over in sample
transforming robots.  Chapter 3 covers various land vehicles, Chapter 4 goes
over aircraft, and Chapter 5 is animals.  The table of contents is fairly
sparse, but complete.  There are numerous clear block-transform diagrams of
just about every design, which is good.  However, almost every design is
really simplistic, at the "simpler Mini-Con" level.  Every so often there's
an example of extra detail (head designs, weapons, etc.), but I really found
the transformation design advice to be lacking.
     If you've never really put any thought into working out feasible
transformation schemes, this is a good place to start.  But it has little to
offer even a low-intermediate transformer designer in terms of schemes.
Also, if you really want to design Bandai type transforming robots, this is
obviously a good place to go, just as the How To Draw Manga book is good for
Go Nagai-inspired stuff.