TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE issue #3 was released on November 11, 1986 with a cover date of February 1987.  It was sold concurrently alongside TRANSFORMERS #25 on newsstands.

This issue documents characters R-S, and includes profiles for Rampage, Ratbat, Ratchet, Ravage, Razorclaw, Red Alert, Rewind, Rumble, Runabout, Runamuck, Sandstorm, Scavenger, Scrapper, Seaspray, Shockwave, Shrapnel, Sideswipe, Silverbolt, Skids, Skydive, Sky Lynx, Skywarp, Slag, Slingshot, Sludge, Smokescreen, Snarl, Soundwave, Starscream, Streetwise, Sunstreaker, Superion, and Swindle.  Of these characters, five had yet to appear in the pages of TRANSFORMERS (Ratbat, Red Alert, Rewind, Sandstorm, Sky Lynx) but everybody else made appearances, including the Predacons, who made their debut the same month this issue hit newsstands.  Ratbat would go on to become a featured character, and Sky Lynx eventually showed up for the Spacehikers story arc.  The Autobot cassettes didn't make it into the TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE adaptation, so Rewind remained a no-show.  Red Alert and Sandstorm did technically make appearances eventually, but only as background characters.  

Eight of these characters are effectively out of commission (not alive, but nor what you would term "dead!")—Ravage, Rumble, Runabout, Runamuck, Sideswipe, Skywarp Starscream, and Sunstreaker.

One curious item of note is that Steeljaw appears on the cover of this issue despite not getting a profile.  But, he shows up in issue #4 as part of the final sixteen 1984-86 characters plus seventeen characters from THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (and shows up again on the cover of issue #4 as a result).

Some notes on the individual character profiles:

The personality description of Rampage has always struck me as a dig against MTV.  The more mindless the television program, the more Rampage is enthralled, and as a result he's been known to stare at music videos for hours on end. ( If this profile were written today, Rampage would probably a YouTube or TikTok junkie.)

Ratbat's first appearance is correctly given as TRANSFORMERS #27 despite that story being two months away by the point this issue was printed.  Ratbat is described as basically a vampire, only he sinks his fangs into cars to drink fuel, instead of drinking blood.  There is no hint whatsoever as to his future role as Decepticon leader.  

One wonders what precisely happened to cause Red Alert (and Inferno) to never be properly introduced in the comic, though "Hasbro interference" and "too many characters" are two phrases that quickly spring to mind.  

Rewind's profile has an editorial oversight.  There are two trivia questions presented but three answers to questions, so the third trivia question remains unknown.  Telemark VI on the planet Ganzvort is apparently of some sort of esoteric significance, at least to Rewind's mind, but we'll never learn just why it was mentioned in his profile, because it is the answer to a question that is never asked.

The concept for Rumble as a character was realized very differently in the comics than the cartoon.  The original idea behind him was that Rumble could produce low-frequency sound waves and Frenzy could produce high-frequency sound waves.  But, the cartoon simplified this by just giving him pile-drivers for arms so that he could pound the ground, a concept that I guess was simpler for kids to understand.  But, Rumble's profile here specifically describes how he can roll drum-like constructions in his body to transmit waves through his feet, which is a very different concept.

The toy gimmick of the Battlechargers being able to spring into robot mode is reflected in their profiles.  Runabout can transform in 0.4 seconds, while Runamuck transforms in 0.5 seconds.  This is less impressive when you consider that every character in the cartoon takes about a second or two to transform, but I think the contention in Marvel Comics is that the robots take about as long to transform as it takes for a person to convert the Hasbro toys, which can sometimes take much longer than they can accomplish it it on TV.  I think Devastator's transformation, for example, was specifically described as taking thirty seconds or so.  

Sandstorm's toy was orange and yellow and black, but in Marvel Comics this translates to red and yellow and blue.  He looks like he belongs on the Predacon team.

Scrapper and Shrapnel are both drawn using an early character design that shows them with individual eyes, rather than their visors.

Much has been discussed already about how Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's character descriptions were seemingly swapped accidentally.  Sideswipe's profile describes how his arms can be used as pile drivers, which is something the Sunstreaker toy can do if you switch his fists with his shoulder rockets.  Likewise, Sideswipe's profile talks about a rocket backpack, but it's the Sunstreaker toy that has an assembly behind his head that looks like rocket thrusters.

Sky Lynx's profile seems to depict him as some form of Triple Changer, seemingly able to change from space shuttle to dino-bird to lynx and back.  There is no mention that he splits into two forms, and no mention of the form where the dino-bird and lynx combine together.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's profiles make references to their abilities in "Autobot mode" and the profiles for Sludge and Slag talk about what they can do in "Dinobot mode."  Aren't they *always* Autobots and Dinobots, regardless of what mode they're in?

There's a weird smudge or something on Soundwave's mask in his profile, and it definitely looks like a mouth.  I honestly think José Delbo was referring to this profile when illustrating Soundwave.  His helmet is drawn so indistinctly that it would definitely be possible to arrive at that weird helmet with the pointed Batman ears if this were being used for reference.  (It's the same reason Delbo always drew Starscream with only one ear.  His other ear is hidden behind the air intake on his shoulder.)

Also, Soundwave is still purple.  Just throwing that out there.

Starscream was typically colored with a blue upper body for most issues until he was demolished by Omega Supreme in issue #19.  In this profile, however, his body is red, which is more consistent with the Hasbro toy (and his cartoon depiction).  When he comes back for the Underbase saga, he will have adopted the new, revised color scheme.

Streetwise's profile says that Transformers have seven senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, short-wave radio transmission, magnetic sensitivity, and electronic sensitivity.  No sense of taste, though. (It's actually misspelled as "magentic" here, but we know what they mean.)

Sunstreaker's profile is a little vaguely-written, but it appears to contain a reference about how Sunstreaker thinks Sideswipe's vehicle mode was ruined by the visible rear-mounted engine.  But, Sunstreaker's the one with the visible engine.  Sunstreaker's profile also specifies that he has a rocket launcher on his right shoulder.  The Sunstreaker toy had two rocket pods, one on each shoulder.  But, Sideswipe had a single shoulder launcher.  Sunstreaker's profile also assigns him a handheld weapon, which the Sunstreaker toy did not come with.  

The design for Superion is a little screwed up, since his arms look like they're made out of Air Raid and Skydive, but in the cartoon they're colored as if they were Slingshot and Fireflight.  However, there are lightning bolts on the wings on one of his legs, which is a feature of Skydive.  The comics correct the coloring problem, and his arms are colored like Air Raid and Skydive, which makes far more sense (but this doesn't fix the Skydive lightning bolts on his legs).

This is a great issue, with profiles for a lot of the key players (particularly the Decepticons—Soundwave, Shockwave, Starscream).  The next issue seems to throw in the characters from THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE almost as an afterthought, and there's a notable drop in quality when it comes to the profiles themselves.  But, we'll look at that next month.  

Zob (is sometimes drawn with one ear)