THE HEADMASTERS #3 was sold on August 4, 1987, two months after issue #2, and had a cover date of November 1987.  This issue was on newsstands at the same time as TRANSFORMERS #34, the second of two filler issues reprinting material from the UK comic book.

Our story so far: After fleeing from the wars on Cybertron, Fortress Maximus and a small contingent of Autobots arrives on planet Nebulos to try to lead a peaceful lifestyle.  However, an accident when encountering the native Nebulans sows fear and mistrust, leading to a confrontation between Autobots and Nebulans. Fortress Maximus surrenders to their leader, Galen, and negotiates a deal in which he and four other Autobots remove their heads and are deactivated, in exchange for the other Autobots being allowed to colonize on Nebulos and live in peace.  Galen's rival, Zarak, contacts the Decepticons on Cybertron and asks them to come to Nebulos to get rid of the Autobots.  Scorponok and a contingent of Decepticons arrive, intent on destroying the Autobots.  In order to defend Nebulos from the Decepticons, Galen and his team create exo-suits that can transform into replacement heads for the Autobots, becoming the Headmasters.  They drive off the Decepticons and claim their first victory.

Issue #3 of HEADMASTERS is called "Love and Steel!" and was written by Bob Budiansky.  Frank Springer drew the pencil art, Ian Akin and Brian Garvey inked the artwork, Pat Brosseau was the letterer, and Nel Yomtov colored the artwork.  The front cover shows an assortment of Nebulans (with Llyra prominently and provocatively in the foreground) trapped in floating bubbles, with the five Autobot Headmasters shooting (?!) at them.  "The Love That Kills!" the cover text blurb promises.  The cover was drawn by Springer and penciled by Akin & Garvey, but was likely colored by George Roussos, as was typical for most Marvel titles at the time.  (Notably, Fortress Maximus is mistakenly wearing the Cerebros head again—a character who still hasn't even been introduced!)

As the story begins, the Terrorcons and Horrorcons are demolishing the resort city of Splendora.  When the Technobots and Brainstorm and Hardhead arrive to stop them, the Terrorcons respond by combining into Abominus.  The Technobots likewise combine into Computron, and a fierce battle ensues in which Nebulan citizens flee for their lives.  The fight ends when Computron whacks Abominus with a metal beam with sufficient force to break him back apart into the Terrorcons.  After the Decepticons flee, the citizens worry about the Autobots until the heads of Brainstorm and Hardhead detach and transform, revealing themselves to be friendly Nebulans.  Peer Soriza, of the World Watchers, questions Galen's judgment of late, is his aim is to continue an alliance with gigantic, dangerous robots.  

Meanwhile, at a Nebulan industrial complex, Scorponok has rounded up Lord Zarak and his supporters and has imprisoned them.  Zarak is making noises about an alliance, but Scorponok sees himself as above such things, preferring to use Zarak and his bunch as raw materials.  They grab Monzo, a fat, shirtless test subject, and encapsulate him in a polymer bubble.  It floats into the air but pops, and Mindwipe is forced to catch him in mid-air and retrieve him.  The plan was to use the polymer bubble device as a disposal to dump the Nebulan population into space, but it requires alterations before it will work correctly.  

Apeface and Snapdragon return to camp, complaining of the Autobot ambush and noting that the Terrorcons fled in a different direction.  The Horrorcons attribute their defeat to the incredible fighting skill of the Autobot Headmasters, but Scorponok clocks Snapdragon and accuses him of making up excuses.  Zarak pushes the issue, suggesting to Scorponok that an alliance with his group would be advantageous for the Decepticons.  Zarak wants Nebulos to return to being a peaceful world that's safe for his daughter, Llyra, and he knows the Decepticons are the best chance of driving the Autobots away.  Scorponok has no idea what a "daughter" is, but he considers Zarak's proposal.  "Yes, perhaps I will share my power with you.  It is in my best interest.  But, beware—when possessed of such power, all other concerns fade.  Compassion.  Mercy.  Perhaps even daughters."  These words end up being far more portentious than either Zarak or Scorponok realize.

In the capital city of Koraja, a group of World Watchers led by Peer Soriza arrives to observe Galen and his group.  Galen and his team are examining the weapons of the Autobots who agreed to give up their armaments (Hot Rod and Kup and the rest).  It's not overtly stated, but it's clear they're considering the idea of turning the weapons into Targetmasters. In the meantime, Peer Soriza, in her infinite wisdom, has decided that the Council of Peers needs to be present during future Nebulan-Autobot operations. Galen warns her of the danger, but since they're legally allowed to do so, he is forced to accept.  

Llyra also shows up.  Galen warmly greets her, but she's still cold towards him, once against citing the armor he now wears as evidence that he's become a man of war, and not a man of peace.  However, her true reason for showing up is to deliver a message from her father, Zarak.  He claims to have smuggled a message out, professing to be a captive of the Decepticons and begging Galen and the Autobots to come rescue his group.  It's a bald-faced lie, of course., but Galen is a bit naive and falls for it hook, line, and sinker.  Soriza's group and Llyra both decide to tag along.  Of course, for storytelling purposes, the reason for this is to put these poor citizens in danger so that the Autobots must rescue them.

The Headmasters prepare for battle, with four of the Autobots transforming to vehicle mode but Fortress Maximus, alone, remaining in robot mode.  (I know he doesn't have a vehicle mode in the traditional sense, but he was using his battle station mode as a transport mode in earlier issues.)  At the industrial complex, the Decepticons have undergone the Headmaster procedure.  If Zarak feels at all bad about using Llyra as live bait to ensnare Galen, he shows no sign of it.  The Autobots arrive, surprised to find that Zarak and his men are free, and not imprisoned as they had claimed.  Zarak and his followers, now wearing bio-engineered armored forms, fold up into the heads of Scorponok, Mindwipe, Skullcruncher, Weirdwolf, Apeface, and Snapdragon, and combined with their respective Decepticon bodies.  (The narration describes Zarak and his men as taking "the exact shapes" as the Decepticon heads, suggesting that they're duplicates, and that the original Decepticon heads still exist, separate and distinct from their new replacements.)

There's an artwork glitch where Vorath transforms, but instead of folding up into Mindwipe's head, he's drawn as the head of the Vorath exo-suit.  Considering the sheer number of new characters to content with, though, there are surprisingly few artwork errors in this issue, especially when compared to issue #1.

One thing we got a little taste of in the cartoon episode "The Rebirth," but we don't here, is how the various allies from Nebulos feel about being paired with specific Transformers. It was a fun little scene when cartoon Vorath, for example, objected to being paired with a "mangy night scavenger" like Mindwipe, at least up until Mindwipe hypnotized him into obeying.  We get none of that here.  There was a little bit of set-up in the earlier issues of HEADMASTERS demonstrating what roles Krunk and Grax fulfilled, as disciples of Zarak, but we'll never see that again now that they've been binary-bonded to the Decepticons.  

(Also, does anybody find it odd that Gort chose to be paired with Highbrow, after Highbrow was the one whose actions resulted in his injury?  If I were Gort, I'd want to get as far away from Highbrow as possible.  It's like he developed a weird case of Stockholm syndrome.)

Combat between the Autobot Headmasters and Decepticon Headmasters ensues, and now the two teams are more evenly-matched than previous encounters.  Up above, a hovercraft filled with the Council of Peers looks on, and they're all utterly repulsed by this blatant display of carnage.  Scorponok, in particular, seems overwhelmed with battle fever—as this is now Lord Zarak controlling Scorponok's body.  He is positively giddy with his newfound power.  Where Galen had previously sidestepped Zarak in the political arena, now Zarak, as Scorponok, can simply take what he desires.

There's a lot of unusual coloring choices during the fight, with Autobots painted entirely in red and Decepticons entirely in blue.  We haven't really seen too much of this up to this point, though it's a commonly-cited complaint within the fandom when it comes to the Marvel Comics stories.  It does help the reader to clearly delineate the good guys on the battlefield from the bad guys on sight, which I imagine was probably the purpose of this.  Painting robots entirely one color does help them to "pop" on the comics page.  (This month also saw a change in Marvel's editorial direction, with Jim Shooter stepping down as Editor-In-Chief and Tom DeFalco taking the reins.  So, it's possible that DeFalco specified that he wanted to see this coloring style more frequently, since it will pop up regularly in subsequent issues.)

When the hovercraft is downed after being struck by errant laser fire, Scorponok seizes the opportunity and orders Mindwipe to hypnotize the passengers.  Under his instruction, they enter the building where they are all encased by the polymer bubbles.  Scorponok dramatically tears open the roof to the building, but when Llyra cries out, Scorponok reacts emotionally.  "L-Llyra?  My... my... daughter?!" he proclaims.  However, he quickly recovers, seemingly having to remind himself that he's Scorponok, Decepticon leader.  He zaps the bubbles with his shoulder-mounted cannons.  (The Hasbro toy instructions identifies these as dual photon cannons.  I imagine the script called for Scorponok to break out his handheld anti-gravity gun, in order to make the polymer bubbles float up into space.)

On Sunday, April 16, 2023 at 6:40:16 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> THE HEADMASTERS #3 was sold on August 4, 1987, two months after issue #2, and had a cover date of November 1987. This issue was on newsstands at the same time as TRANSFORMERS #34, the second of two filler issues reprinting material from the UK comic book.
>
> Our story so far: After fleeing from the wars on Cybertron, Fortress Maximus and a small contingent of Autobots arrives on planet Nebulos to try to lead a peaceful lifestyle. However, an accident when encountering the native Nebulans sows fear and mistrust, leading to a confrontation between Autobots and Nebulans. Fortress Maximus surrenders to their leader, Galen, and negotiates a deal in which he and four other Autobots remove their heads and are deactivated, in exchange for the other Autobots being allowed to colonize on Nebulos and live in peace. Galen's rival, Zarak, contacts the Decepticons on Cybertron and asks them to come to Nebulos to get rid of the Autobots. Scorponok and a contingent of Decepticons arrive, intent on destroying the Autobots. In order to defend Nebulos from the Decepticons, Galen and his team create exo-suits that can transform into replacement heads for the Autobots, becoming the Headmasters. They drive off the Decepticons and claim their first victory.
>
> Issue #3 of HEADMASTERS is called "Love and Steel!" and was written by Bob Budiansky. Frank Springer drew the pencil art, Ian Akin and Brian Garvey inked the artwork, Pat Brosseau was the letterer, and Nel Yomtov colored the artwork. The front cover shows an assortment of Nebulans (with Llyra prominently and provocatively in the foreground) trapped in floating bubbles, with the five Autobot Headmasters shooting (?!) at them. "The Love That Kills!" the cover text blurb promises. The cover was drawn by Springer and penciled by Akin & Garvey, but was likely colored by George Roussos, as was typical for most Marvel titles at the time. (Notably, Fortress Maximus is mistakenly wearing the Cerebros head again—a character who still hasn't even been introduced!)
>
> As the story begins, the Terrorcons and Horrorcons are demolishing the resort city of Splendora. When the Technobots and Brainstorm and Hardhead arrive to stop them, the Terrorcons respond by combining into Abominus. The Technobots likewise combine into Computron, and a fierce battle ensues in which Nebulan citizens flee for their lives. The fight ends when Computron whacks Abominus with a metal beam with sufficient force to break him back apart into the Terrorcons. After the Decepticons flee, the citizens worry about the Autobots until the heads of Brainstorm and Hardhead detach and transform, revealing themselves to be friendly Nebulans. Peer Soriza, of the World Watchers, questions Galen's judgment of late, is his aim is to continue an alliance with gigantic, dangerous robots.
>
> Meanwhile, at a Nebulan industrial complex, Scorponok has rounded up Lord Zarak and his supporters and has imprisoned them. Zarak is making noises about an alliance, but Scorponok sees himself as above such things, preferring to use Zarak and his bunch as raw materials. They grab Monzo, a fat, shirtless test subject, and encapsulate him in a polymer bubble. It floats into the air but pops, and Mindwipe is forced to catch him in mid-air and retrieve him. The plan was to use the polymer bubble device as a disposal to dump the Nebulan population into space, but it requires alterations before it will work correctly.
>
> Apeface and Snapdragon return to camp, complaining of the Autobot ambush and noting that the Terrorcons fled in a different direction. The Horrorcons attribute their defeat to the incredible fighting skill of the Autobot Headmasters, but Scorponok clocks Snapdragon and accuses him of making up excuses. Zarak pushes the issue, suggesting to Scorponok that an alliance with his group would be advantageous for the Decepticons. Zarak wants Nebulos to return to being a peaceful world that's safe for his daughter, Llyra, and he knows the Decepticons are the best chance of driving the Autobots away. Scorponok has no idea what a "daughter" is, but he considers Zarak's proposal. "Yes, perhaps I will share my power with you. It is in my best interest. But, beware—when possessed of such power, all other concerns fade. Compassion. Mercy. Perhaps even daughters." These words end up being far more portentious than either Zarak or Scorponok realize.
>
> In the capital city of Koraja, a group of World Watchers led by Peer Soriza arrives to observe Galen and his group. Galen and his team are examining the weapons of the Autobots who agreed to give up their armaments (Hot Rod and Kup and the rest). It's not overtly stated, but it's clear they're considering the idea of turning the weapons into Targetmasters. In the meantime, Peer Soriza, in her infinite wisdom, has decided that the Council of Peers needs to be present during future Nebulan-Autobot operations. Galen warns her of the danger, but since they're legally allowed to do so, he is forced to accept.
>
> Llyra also shows up. Galen warmly greets her, but she's still cold towards him, once against citing the armor he now wears as evidence that he's become a man of war, and not a man of peace. However, her true reason for showing up is to deliver a message from her father, Zarak. He claims to have smuggled a message out, professing to be a captive of the Decepticons and begging Galen and the Autobots to come rescue his group. It's a bald-faced lie, of course., but Galen is a bit naive and falls for it hook, line, and sinker. Soriza's group and Llyra both decide to tag along. Of course, for storytelling purposes, the reason for this is to put these poor citizens in danger so that the Autobots must rescue them.
>
> The Headmasters prepare for battle, with four of the Autobots transforming to vehicle mode but Fortress Maximus, alone, remaining in robot mode. (I know he doesn't have a vehicle mode in the traditional sense, but he was using his battle station mode as a transport mode in earlier issues.) At the industrial complex, the Decepticons have undergone the Headmaster procedure. If Zarak feels at all bad about using Llyra as live bait to ensnare Galen, he shows no sign of it. The Autobots arrive, surprised to find that Zarak and his men are free, and not imprisoned as they had claimed. Zarak and his followers, now wearing bio-engineered armored forms, fold up into the heads of Scorponok, Mindwipe, Skullcruncher, Weirdwolf, Apeface, and Snapdragon, and combined with their respective Decepticon bodies. (The narration describes Zarak and his men as taking "the exact shapes" as the Decepticon heads, suggesting that they're duplicates, and that the original Decepticon heads still exist, separate and distinct from their new replacements.)
>
> There's an artwork glitch where Vorath transforms, but instead of folding up into Mindwipe's head, he's drawn as the head of the Vorath exo-suit. Considering the sheer number of new characters to content with, though, there are surprisingly few artwork errors in this issue, especially when compared to issue #1.
>
> One thing we got a little taste of in the cartoon episode "The Rebirth," but we don't here, is how the various allies from Nebulos feel about being paired with specific Transformers. It was a fun little scene when cartoon Vorath, for example, objected to being paired with a "mangy night scavenger" like Mindwipe, at least up until Mindwipe hypnotized him into obeying. We get none of that here. There was a little bit of set-up in the earlier issues of HEADMASTERS demonstrating what roles Krunk and Grax fulfilled, as disciples of Zarak, but we'll never see that again now that they've been binary-bonded to the Decepticons.
>
> (Also, does anybody find it odd that Gort chose to be paired with Highbrow, after Highbrow was the one whose actions resulted in his injury? If I were Gort, I'd want to get as far away from Highbrow as possible. It's like he developed a weird case of Stockholm syndrome.)
>
> Combat between the Autobot Headmasters and Decepticon Headmasters ensues, and now the two teams are more evenly-matched than previous encounters. Up above, a hovercraft filled with the Council of Peers looks on, and they're all utterly repulsed by this blatant display of carnage. Scorponok, in particular, seems overwhelmed with battle fever—as this is now Lord Zarak controlling Scorponok's body. He is positively giddy with his newfound power. Where Galen had previously sidestepped Zarak in the political arena, now Zarak, as Scorponok, can simply take what he desires.
>
> There's a lot of unusual coloring choices during the fight, with Autobots painted entirely in red and Decepticons entirely in blue. We haven't really seen too much of this up to this point, though it's a commonly-cited complaint within the fandom when it comes to the Marvel Comics stories. It does help the reader to clearly delineate the good guys on the battlefield from the bad guys on sight, which I imagine was probably the purpose of this. Painting robots entirely one color does help them to "pop" on the comics page. (This month also saw a change in Marvel's editorial direction, with Jim Shooter stepping down as Editor-In-Chief and Tom DeFalco taking the reins. So, it's possible that DeFalco specified that he wanted to see this coloring style more frequently, since it will pop up regularly in subsequent issues.)
>
> When the hovercraft is downed after being struck by errant laser fire, Scorponok seizes the opportunity and orders Mindwipe to hypnotize the passengers. Under his instruction, they enter the building where they are all encased by the polymer bubbles. Scorponok dramatically tears open the roof to the building, but when Llyra cries out, Scorponok reacts emotionally. "L-Llyra? My... my... daughter?!" he proclaims. However, he quickly recovers, seemingly having to remind himself that he's Scorponok, Decepticon leader.. He zaps the bubbles with his shoulder-mounted cannons. (The Hasbro toy instructions identifies these as dual photon cannons. I imagine the script called for Scorponok to break out his handheld anti-gravity gun, in order to make the polymer bubbles float up into space.)
>
> The Autobots are forced to ignore the Decepticons and focus on shooting the bubbles in order to save the people inside. This allows adequate time for Scorponok and the Decepticons to switch to robot mode and prepare an ambush. It's interesting that Scorponomk dismisses the Autobots' actions as "trying to save those worthless fleshlings" when he is, himself, a fleshling now! As the last of the hovercraft passengers are saved, the Decepticons concentrate their firepower on the Autobots, shooting them from behind and immobilizing them. Galen's men apparently can't stay united to the Autobots while they're unconscious, as they pop off and revert to their humanoid forms. Zarak's men detach as well.
>
> At first, Zarak regrets being so blinded with Decepticon-driven battle fever that he almost killed Llyra during the fight. But, she was hypnotized by Mindwipe at the time, so she's foggy on events as they actually transpired. All she really remembers is the Autobots shooting at the bubbles, so Zarak plays up this fact. It's a cunning and manipulative way for Zarak to twist the knife and turn Llyra against Galen even more. So, becoming a Decepticon has given Zarak the two things he's always wanted most of all—he has the power to finally effect real change on Nebulos, and he has the power to discredit his rival Galen, both in the eyes of Nebulos and his daughter. It would seem that he's won.
>
> On a meta-level, we know that Galen is a "wrong" character, because the Hasbro toy equivalent of Fortress Maximus had Spike as his human component, not this random Galen upstart. We see that Galen is even wearing the Headmaster armor that belongs to the Hasbro version of the Spike mini-figure. So, with that knowledge in mind, it seems likely that Galen's days are numbered. How or why this happens within the context of the story, however, is harder to predict.
>
> Next month we'll look at the conclusion to the story in HEADMASTERS #4, as well as issue #35 of the regular monthly comic.
>
>
> Zob (the snow is melting like crazy in Utah, and there is talk of flooding)

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 7:56:56 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:

> All in all, do you prefer the Nebulans as human analogues, or as weird green-skinned aliens (who speak English)? Or the Japanese take, which is that the head robots are alive and controlling the larger bodies?

I'm kind of divided, to be honest. The way Marvel Comics handled it has always bothered me a little. They're aliens in name only—they otherwise look and talk and act just like human beings. The TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles even described them as the "human component" to their Transformers counterparts, which REALLY bothered me. By definition, humans are from Earth. If they're not from Earth, they shouldn't be called human. (Of course, Star Wars suffers from the same problem.)

But, the weirdness of the green-skinned aliens is a bit too weird. I wonder if it was a mistake to make the Headmaster partners as being from Nebulos.. It would have been better, perhaps, for storytelling purposes to make them all humans. I can't really think of what advantage was served by making them aliens.

I do like the premise of humans, or humanoids, teaming up with Transformers on an essentially permanent basis. Transformers toys were meant to have drivers and pilots since the inception of the toy line, and we missed out on it for years. It's the natural extension of ideas from David Wise that were laid down throughout the series (like Bluestreak winning the race in "Trans-Europe Express" because he had a human driver helping him, an idea that was recycled for the beginning of "The Rebirth").

I don't like the idea of the Headmasters being tiny robots who power up to control larger bodies. That makes the Transformers themselves not-alive, and not-alive robots in fiction are uninteresting to me.

Zob (good against remotes is one thing... good against a living, that's something else)

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 10:15:13 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 7:56:56 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:
>
> > All in all, do you prefer the Nebulans as human analogues, or as weird green-skinned aliens (who speak English)? Or the Japanese take, which is that the head robots are alive and controlling the larger bodies?
> I'm kind of divided, to be honest. The way Marvel Comics handled it has always bothered me a little. They're aliens in name only—they otherwise look and talk and act just like human beings. The TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles even described them as the "human component" to their Transformers counterparts, which REALLY bothered me. By definition, humans are from Earth. If they're not from Earth, they shouldn't be called human. (Of course, Star Wars suffers from the same problem.)

Their society seems somewhat retro-futuristic - if they had been humans plucked from the ancient past, they might have been more interesting (King Arthur pilots Chromedome, Lancelot pilots Highbrow, etc).

>
> But, the weirdness of the green-skinned aliens is a bit too weird. I wonder if it was a mistake to make the Headmaster partners as being from Nebulos. It would have been better, perhaps, for storytelling purposes to make them all humans. I can't really think of what advantage was served by making them aliens.

Even the incredibly long journey ("a million miles a second") from Cybertron to Nebulos is undercut by Optimus Prime's ability to essentially hop a bus and get to Nebulos without breaking a sweat.

>
> I do like the premise of humans, or humanoids, teaming up with Transformers on an essentially permanent basis. Transformers toys were meant to have drivers and pilots since the inception of the toy line, and we missed out on it for years. It's the natural extension of ideas from David Wise that were laid down throughout the series (like Bluestreak winning the race in "Trans-Europe Express" because he had a human driver helping him, an idea that was recycled for the beginning of "The Rebirth").

I'd forgotten about that one.

On Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 1:40:45 PM UTC-4, Codigo Postal wrote:

> Their society seems somewhat retro-futuristic - if they had been humans plucked from the ancient past, they might have been more interesting (King Arthur pilots Chromedome, Lancelot pilots Highbrow, etc).

Now that's a pretty cool idea...if we absolutely have to have Headmasters, of course.

Regarding the Western vs. Japanese takes on the concept, I have to agree with Zob that I don't like the Japanese version because it renders the big robot into effectively a non-living suit and not a real character. So in that regard, I prefer the Western version, with the caveat that the timeline stops before they get their bonded partners. A cheat maybe, but it is what it is. I've always been vocally against the concept because I find it degrading to the Cybertronians as I like to envision them. In fiction, at least. I can acknowledge that getting an extra little robot to play with is cool for the toys.

Regarding if I prefer the Nebulans to be green-skinned aliens like the cartoon or human-looking aliens like the comic, eh, split the difference, because I don't care either way for reasons outlined above. I will say that if we absolutely had to have the concept, I would much rather all the partners be regular humans from Earth. That at least lends a touch of familiarity to the proceedings, and it would be interesting to see the kind of humans who would bond with a Decepticon because in that scenario, neither the evil humans nor evil robots can attempt to screw each other over at the earliest opportunity like we usually get in human/Decepticon team ups (Arkeville, etc). It makes things just a little stickier when both parties are effectively a part of each other.

I also find it very odd that the kind of fans who are always clamoring for more humans to make the story "relateable" (ignoring of course that the TFs are so human-like in many ways that they already ARE the human perspective for all intents and purposes) never seem to come up with the idea to make the Master partners regular Earth-native humans.

On Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 9:36:13 PM UTC-4, Sky Raider wrote:
> On Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 1:40:45 PM UTC-4, Codigo Postal wrote:
>
> > Their society seems somewhat retro-futuristic - if they had been humans plucked from the ancient past, they might have been more interesting (King Arthur pilots Chromedome, Lancelot pilots Highbrow, etc).
> Now that's a pretty cool idea...if we absolutely have to have Headmasters, of course.
>
> Regarding the Western vs. Japanese takes on the concept, I have to agree with Zob that I don't like the Japanese version because it renders the big robot into effectively a non-living suit and not a real character. So in that regard, I prefer the Western version, with the caveat that the timeline stops before they get their bonded partners. A cheat maybe, but it is what it is. I've always been vocally against the concept because I find it degrading to the Cybertronians as I like to envision them. In fiction, at least. I can acknowledge that getting an extra little robot to play with is cool for the toys.

Masterforce attempted to split the difference by having the humans pilot the mechs, until the mechs regained their sentience and returned to being living Cybertronians, which I found an effective way of incorporating the Master pilot concept.

>
> Regarding if I prefer the Nebulans to be green-skinned aliens like the cartoon or human-looking aliens like the comic, eh, split the difference, because I don't care either way for reasons outlined above. I will say that if we absolutely had to have the concept, I would much rather all the partners be regular humans from Earth. That at least lends a touch of familiarity to the proceedings, and it would be interesting to see the kind of humans who would bond with a Decepticon because in that scenario, neither the evil humans nor evil robots can attempt to screw each other over at the earliest opportunity like we usually get in human/Decepticon team ups (Arkeville, etc). It makes things just a little stickier when both parties are effectively a part of each other.

An Arkeville headmaster for Starscream...intriguing...

>
> I also find it very odd that the kind of fans who are always clamoring for more humans to make the story "relateable" (ignoring of course that the TFs are so human-like in many ways that they already ARE the human perspective for all intents and purposes) never seem to come up with the idea to make the Master partners regular Earth-native humans.

One concept they could have explored further was the idea that being a -Master would be a form of rehab for humans trapped in paralyzed or immobile bodies (Daniel, the Hive). For an effectively immortal being like Arcee, Daniel's entire lifespan would pass in a matter of minutes, so the sacrifice to her might not be so great. But what does it mean for a young boy to go through adolescence, and to see the world, through entirely alien robot eyes? What about his parents - do you choose a life of paralysis, or a life where your boy is permanently bonded to an alien warrior, who presumably will take him to Nebulos, and beyond, to be in harm's way? Dr. Morgan was aghast at the thought of his daughter even having a robotic exoskeleton, after all....