Dave's Transformers Collectors' Club Magazine Rant June/July 2005 Somewhat briefer comments this time, since the basic format is the same as April/May. See also http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/Skyfall for the toy exclusive for this year, who appears in the comic. CAPSULE My opinions really aren't changed from last issue. It's an okay job, but overpriced and offering little that wasn't available earlier and in more detail online. RANT See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/CCApr05 for general comments on format and so forth. This issue is about 1/4" shorter vertically than last issue. Page 1: The upper half talks about BotCon, which I'm not going to, so I didn't really do more than skim it. :) The bottom half is a fairly sketchy review of Alternators Wheeljack with pictures, and it spends a big chunk of its limited space talking about what the toy is NOT. Page 2: Toy sneak peak, featuring the Legends of Cybertron toys and the wave 2 Scout Class. Somewhat informative to me, since I haven't been aggressively seeking out info on Cybertron. I was a bit dismayed to find that Legends of Cybertron will get the same deliberately lousy distribution scheme as Heroes of Cybertron: small chains (most of them nowhere near me) and online only. Page 3: Interview with Chris Sarracini. Standard interview stuff, no surprises. Pages 4-5: A pretty good and in-depth review of Vector Prime, with plenty of pictures. Pages 6-7: An article about the pack-in iron-ons that came with some of the smaller TFs in 1986, something I either never knew about or had forgotten. My one complaint about the piece would be that there were too many pictures of toys with the iron-ons inside, and not enough of the actual iron-ons. Pages 8-9: One and a half pages on Built To Rule, which is mostly a product listing and maybe a paragraph of actual review amid large pictures of Energon Prime and Scorponok. Not too useful. Then a review of Crumplezone starts in column two of page 9. Pages 9-10: Fairly good, if short, review of Crumplezone, dominated by good pictures. (Aside: ever since the jaAm comic, the name Crumplezone has been ruined for me. I keep thinking, "Crumplezone, hump that tank!") Pages 11-16: The comic. Forest Lee's writing has some truly horrible moments in among the merely mediocre. The coloring is oversaturated in places, but Khanna does have some good panels. There's a sort of Bionicle feel to the setting, with the Rumble (dunno what they'll be called in the US) figures as drone vermin. Overall, no better or worse than the April/May issue. It's not bad, but it's still kinda disappointing after the full-sized 3H version. Dave Van Domelen, notes Galaxy Force adds "Rumble is Yellow" to the eternal debate....