142 I had great joy in assembling and writing this scene -- The nominal comic or TV episode would have the introductory image at a low level, looking up at Megatron in his chair, lit by video screens in a darkened room.

197 Filmed in Soundwave-Vision! PJM

231 This scene, like the opening of issue 1, is straight from The Transformers: The Movie.

309 I like this image, too. Just the thought of Misato, sitting at a desk and console on top of the edge of a giant conference table tickles my fancy.

338 The existence of the non-aligned and Minicon settlements was something that was very downplayed during the prior Great Wars; their very survival depended on staying under the warring factions' radar, and very few managed to survive to the post-Decepticon period. But those that did, the Autobots recognized their tenacity, and kept them as independent sub-polities in the transition from a military government under the Autobots (and Optimus Prime) to something more representational.

355 This would be the permanent, less ad-hoc sequel to the Galactic Alliance Treaty Organization that formed during the events of A Day of Infamy.

393 Unbeknownst to anybody there, this is the initial "go" code transmitted to the geth who have just been shipped to the planet.

400 The involvement of the Zentraedi on Cybertron grew out of the development for the Mini-Story Serial Patience, which was being developed and written around the same time (2007). We ended up deciding that once the Zentraedi Alliance became allied with the WDF, having some of their warriors stationed on Cybertron as a WDF/Zentraedi joint station would be a good idea, because hey -- they wouldn't have to have any oversized facilities built! They'd need some sort of hydroponics system installed to help with the food situation, but the normal-sized humans would need that anyway, and Botanica always needed a new project to work on. Over time, the Zentraedi side of the setup became Queltaadu City.

456 Teletran-1 remains installed in the Ark.

464 This would be Megatron in his War Within form, designed by Don Figueroa. This story was written way before IDW got the comic license and E. J. Su/Don Figueroa came up with a different tank altmode for Cybertron-era Megatron. PJM

480 This is a recorded battle from the War of Liberation, in which the Decepticons and Autobots together drove the Quintesson invaders from Cybertron. The opposing force is an army of Quintesson drone robots, probably of Mandalorian manufacture.

509 Ironhide and Offroad (who is a new bio for the Transformers Energon Ironhide toy) seem to have reached an understanding since Lost Technology.

535 Another image I enjoyed writing. PJM

586 The saotome, named for one of the early pioneers of Getter ray research, is the international scientific unit of Getter ray intensity.

623 Naturally, there was a G.I. Joe cartoon in UF, courtesy of the Earth Defense Force's PR people.

686 The Neutral Zone is our own attempt at a TF/Zentraedi/Minicon/Human bar for Cybertron. It developed in parallel with the work on Patience. There already exist other bars in TF media ("Maccadams Old Oil House" in the Marvel comics, "The Burn Outs" in the Dreamwave Micromasters series), but those tended to be single-scale and robot-only.

700 Gratuitous Visual Joke.

718 This overall image - viewing the interior of the Neutral Zone bar from Misato's booth with Scarlett - was meant to be Issue 4's front and back cover, forming a panoramic view of the bar and lots of activity going on inside it. I managed to get a few character drawings, and a rough layout of the place, but the work on the image petered out at the daunting size of it became apparent. That, and the multitude of other things that I was working on, and the fact that my brain was starting to degrade by then, conspired to cause the image to be halted. I doubt I'll get back around to working on it. Maybe someday... but not today.

776 Chester Jettster is a cousin of Dexter Jettster, who runs a diner within a stone's throw of the Jedi Temple on Alderaan. They both own WA-7 droids, which came from the same production batch. (Yes, I liked the character from Attack of the Clones, and swiped part of the scene from it. So there.) PJM

835 The O'Coyne Guide to Cybertron was envisioned as a sort of tourist's field guide to the places, landmarks, and notable citizens of that interesting world - sort of a Transformer equivalent of Tobin's Spirit Guide from Ghostbusters, or a combination of the real world's Peterson Field Guide to the Birds and CIA Factbook. The name isn't, as far as I can recall, a reference to anything in particular. Presumably it was compiled by someone named O'Coyne, or put out by a publishing company called O'Coyne, or some such.

853 Baffle, created by Kris Overstreet for Twilight, is a veteran of the Einherjar Transformer regiment, same as Ironhide, and thus possibly the only Decepticon he genuinely likes.

883 This, of course, is the iconic Prime vs. Megatron battle from the 1984 Transformers cartoon's multi-part pilot, "More Than Meets the Eye".

962 I love writing cranky Ironhide dialogue.

976 This, as we learn next issue, is Starscream, back from the dead once more. The body he's wearing is basically that of Transformers Cybertron Starscream, with some of the design cues - such as the "battle damage" - from the Transformers Energon incarnation of the same character.

1074 French for "No, I regret nothing." Also a very popular 1960 song by Édith Piaf.

1082 In an early episode of the Transformers cartoon, Sunstreaker claims to know a martial art called "jet judo", which basically involves jumping on the back of a jet-mode Sky Soldier and making him crash.

1127 Here's another example of the kinda-syncretic nature of UF's Transformers mythos. Where the internal parallel status computer comes from Beast Wars, the UF Transformers' habit of projecting virtual images of their robot mode faces on video screens when communicating (remotely or inside their own cabins) in vehicle mode comes from Transformers: Car Robot (or Transformers: Robots in Disguise, as the US translation was eventually called). Not all bother to do it - Soundwave, for instance, usually just causes his voice to issue from the radio - but it's considered polite.

1213 Not so lucky in that the lifting of the blockade allowed the geth to be shipped in...

1228 Yes, Previews is still around.

1230 Bacon BIG READERS! Because Fun Size has no upper bound!

1246 Actually, they do, but they're mostly in the Minicon Malls, which are too far for Misato to reasonably walk or drive without getting fully dressed again. She could have tried the Autobot PX, but they don't have late-night hours. There's also at least one in Cybertropolis, the mostly-human-scaled tourist town down near the Hydrax Plateau spaceport, but that's hundreds of miles from Iacon. PJM

1270 I don't know of any official Transformers fiction in which Sunstreaker has actually gone so far as to become a Decepticon, but he's usually portrayed as an asshole.

As the Transformers Wiki so politely put it, he's "A more kid-friendly sociopath."

1276 This happened due to the Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs Transformers comics series, plus alluding to the old Marvel G.I. Joe and Transformers crossovers, back in the day. In-UF, this was actually a calculated move by Shockwave ("suggesting" to Galvatron that it would be a good idea) to gain a new source of shells and sparks for the Decepticon forces, given that they were cut off from the more normal means of creating new Transformers, now that they were solidly exiled from Cybertron. PJM

1366 A well-worn Autobot joke, but to Sideswipe it just never gets old. Particularly when he's just pounded an entire six of Maccadams.

1375 One of the lesser known, but certainly handy, uses for onboard diagnostic computers.

1496 This is Grindor, a member of the Street Action Mini-Con Team from Transformers Armada. He was a skateboard in the cartoon and toyline, but that's so 1980s. (Though he did have rockets even then.)

1501 Grindor speaks electrocode because that's the way all Mini-Cons spoke in the cartoon. In the comics, all Minicons spoke normal speech. Go figure. In UF, it's a mix. PJM

1541 The joke here, insofar as there is one, is that Sideswipe is a Lamborghini Countach - a car that, though visually arresting, is infamous in supercar circles for being brutally uncomfortable. Though at least all Misato was doing was sleeping in one of those seats. They might be OK for that. They're certainly not much good for driving from, by all accounts I have received.

1581 And this is the geth starting to have themselves shipped to Little Iacon tram stations.

1571 Grindor, High-Wire, and Sureshock, an adventurous and personable trio, work with the Cybertron Visitor's Bureau, seeing as they work very well with organics, especially children.

1726-1759 Oh, to have Peter Cullen say this section of dialogue... PJM

I assumed it was a 25th century equivalent (or competitor) to the Fodor's guides.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter