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Where's Mothra when you need her?
"Dinobot Hunt!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	Part 1: 1st February Part 2: 8th February Part 3: 15th February Part 4: 22nd February, 1986
Cover date	Part 1: 8th February Part 2: 15th February Part 2: 22nd February Part 4: 1st March, 1986
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Will Simpson (Parts 1 & 3), Barry Kitson (Parts 2 & 4)
Art assistant	Tim Perkins (Part 4)
Inks	Marc Griffiths (Part 3)
Colours	Stuart Place (Parts 1-4), Jeff Anderson (Part 2)
Lettering	Annie Halfacree (Part 1-2, 4), Mike Scott (Part 3)
Editor	Ian Rimmer
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity (Marvel UK)
Chronology	1986

The Autobots attempt to round up those crazy Dinobots but the Decepticons interfere....

Synopsis

Part One

After finding out that the Dinobots have probably lost control of themselves and reverted to their primal instincts due to their primary cybo-dendrons having burnt out, Optimus Prime assigns the Autobots into teams to capture Snarl, Slag, Sludge, and Grimlock before they can harm any humans.

Snarl has gone to ground in the Black Rock Desert, burying himself beneath the sands, but his protruding spinal plates are discovered by a human army patrol, who awaken the Dinobot with their poking and prodding. The Autobots' B-Team—Mirage, Brawn, and Trailbreaker—arrive in time to save the soldiers, but Snarl escapes, stampeding toward the covert army base in which the soldiers are stationed. Base commander General Carl Thompson sees the silver lining in Snarl's attack; long having sought to be reassigned to a different post, he orders the facility evacuated, then triggers the prototype molecular disintegration bomb being developed there. The Autobots and Thompson watch as Snarl is caught in the blast and knocked unconscious... but they are not the only witnesses to this scene, as Laserbeak has also been observing from nearby...

Part Two: "Swamp-Thing!"

In the waterways of Littlewood, California, A-Team—Windcharger, Gears, and Cliffjumper—search for Sludge, but the mission is not going well, as the swampy terrain is causing all sorts of trouble for the Autobots. Fortunately, the local humans face no immediate danger from Sludge; he has been found by reporter Joy Meadows, whose presence proves calming to him, and who now films him as he contentedly wallows in the swamp.

The Autobots, meanwhile, come under attack from a trio of police boats responding to reports of the "murdering robots" in the swamp, but Cliffjumper is able to scare them off with a harmless application of his glass gas. The group's attention is caught by blaster fire nearby, and they head to its source to discover that both Joy and Sludge have been blasted into submission by parties unknown. Caught by surprise, the Autobots are ambushed and taken captive by those same attackers: a Decepticon group consisting of Soundwave, Skywarp, and Scavenger!

Part Three: "Robot Rustlers!"

In Old River Valley, Idaho, Slag rampages through a cattle ranch, and is pursued by the over-eager young rancher Greg and his brother. Also on Slag's tail are the Autobot D-Team of Jetfire, Jazz, and Ironhide, though their mission is hampered somewhat by Ironhide's distrust of Jetfire, who has only just recently been brought online by the Creation Matrix and still bears the Decepticon insignia he was built with. Jazz smooths things over between the pair, and together, they all catch up to Slag just as Greg manages to mount him. As Jetfire wrestles Slag to the ground (his Decepticon symbol being gouged off by the Dinobot's horn in the process), Jazz gets Greg to safety. Ironhide spots Laserbeak monitoring the battle and snatches up the snooping Decepticon, tossing him to Jetfire, who stuffs him into Slag's mouth, blocking the Dinobot's flame-breath and causing an explosive backfire that knocks him offline.

A little later, Soundwave, Skywarp, and Scavenger arrive to find the wrecked Laserbeak, who fills them in on what has transpired. Soundwave is unconcerned by the Autobots' successful recovery of Slag; the Decepticons have Sludge in their clutches, and he will suffice for Soundwave's plan...

A few hours later, back at the Ark, Optimus Prime receives a call from the wounded Sideswipe calling for backup... only for his transmission to abruptly cut out!

Conclusion: "The Final Rage!"

Hours earlier, the Decepticons successfully located the last of the Dinobots, Grimlock, near the small town of Doonstown, Canada, and unleash Sludge—controlled by a sonic lance—on him. Doonstown is devastated by the Dinobots' battle, and the Autobot C-Team of Sideswipe, Bluestreak, and Huffer wind up caught in the middle upon their arrival. Bluestreak and Huffer are knocked offline, while the wounded Sideswipe returns to their shuttlecraft and makes his call to Optimus—but the Dinobots are not far behind, and wind up chewing through the ship's fuel tank, causing the blast that cut off the transmission.

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Ratchet speed to the scene in response to Sideswipe's S.O.S., with Prowl in a second shuttle not far behind them. While Ratchet goes to tend the members of C-Team, and Bumblebee scouts the area in an effort to learn how Sludge wound up in Canada, Prime tries to keep the two Dinobots contained to the frozen lake in which they are now grappling. It seems a losing prospect; Prime overloads his gun, leaving himself at the Dinobots' mercy, until Prowl arrives, transfers the electrical systems of his shuttle to its hull, and crashes it into the lake. The shock knocks out Grimlock, but Sludge remains functional...

Concurrently, Bumblebee's search turns up A-Team's cloaked shuttle, containing both the captive A-Team members and the sonic lance that is controlling Sludge. Realizing that the lance is probably booby-trapped, rather than try to turn it off, Bumblebee gets A-Team to safety and then blows the shuttle up, deactivating the lance and causing Sludge to pass out before he can attack Prime.

Nearby, the Decepticons are almost done stealing energy from an oil rig when they hear the explosion, signalling the end of their little venture. They have wreaked chaos and destruction, and injured multiple Autobots—all in all, a wholly successful exercise in mayhem. Soundwave addresses the heavens and declares the Decepticons victorious... and across the tundra, Optimus Prime hears his words and grimly realizes he is correct.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Optimus Prime: "Prowl, how long till you and your shuttlecraft get here?"
Prowl: (via radio) "A matter of minutes now, Prime. Can you keep them in that lake until then?"
Optimus Prime: "Yes—yes I will. Or I will die in the attempt!"

—Optimus Prime goes big or goes home

Notes

Continuity notes

• The four Dinobots were last seen leaving the Ark to "pursue their own destiny" in issue #32. The unfortunate circumstances that have befallen them since, we are reminded by a footnote in part 1, were established in the previous issue.
• Jetfire was last seen in US issue #12, at which point he was still a non-living robot. Off-panel between that story and this one, Optimus Prime has brought him to life using the Creation Matrix. This is another case of a UK comic story being written with foreknowledge of an upcoming US issue—when Jetfire is next seen in the US series, in US issue #14, he will already have been given life between issues. That issue begins with his receiving an Autobot symbol in the Rite of the Autobrand, a development set up in this story by having Jetfire lose his Decepticon symbol beforehand.

• Ironhide and Jazz pursue Slag aboard a M.A.R.B., one of which was previously used by Ratchet in US issue #8.
• "Dinobot Hunt" serves to partially patch a gap in continuity between the US and UK stories. The majority of the Autobot forces were taken offline during the final battle in US issue #12, but this was not immediately obvious at the time, and all of them were depicted as fully functional and active in the UK stories that followed it. To reconcile this with the upcoming US issue #14, which opens with the offline Autobots in the repair bay, "Dinobot Hunt" features many of these 'bots being badly wounded by the Dinobots, providing a "new" explanation for their injured status for UK readers. That said, only Gears, Cliffjumper, Windcharger, Huffer, Bluestreak, and Sideswipe are taken off the table in "Dinobot Hunt"; in the US stories, Bluestreak is not one of the offline characters (although he will be removed from the active roster without explanation by US issue #19, ironically bringing them into line with the UK storyline), while Prowl, Hound, Trailbreaker, Brawn, Jazz, and Ironhide are also deactivated. "Dinobot Hunt" does not subject those extra characters to such serious injuries, and in fact, they will all continue to appear in future UK-exclusive stories, even though the US stories treat them as being offline.

Real-life references

• In Part 1 (page 6, panel 2), Optimus Prime looks straight into the "camera" and points, declaring "The humans need you!" (pictured at right)—a riff on the famous Lord Kitchener Wants You British Army recruitment poster.
• The title for Part 2, "Swamp-Thing!" (as given by the "next issue" box at the end of Part 1), is a reference to the DC Comics character of the same name.
• The cover to issue #50 seems to be drawn in a style that evokes the brawling monster battles of a Godzilla series film poster.

Continuity and plotting errors

• It's not an error but... Part 3 is staged and paced in such a way as to try and make the audience believe that Windcharger, Gears, and Cliffjumper are the ones attacking humans in pursuit of information about Sludge, expecting us to be "surprised" when the Decepticons turn out to have been involved on the final page. We mean, Gears is a bit of an arsehole, but... who'd actually be taken in by that attempted storytelling trick? The scenes of human "interrogation" are so uncommonly brutal—with bodies lying limply in the water and clutched in Decepticon hands, and a child even being cradled in an adult's arms, all of them looking for all the world like they could well be dead—that the idea the Autobots could be behind it never seems credible.
• That said, the three Autobots come off as about as dumb as the story wants the readers to be, as they can't figure out what's going on either when they see blaster fire and find Sludge zapped into unconsciousness, standing around until they get blasted themselves.
• Cliffjumper uses his glass gas to actually turn one of the police boats into glass (right). That's not how that's supposed to work! It doesn't actually turn things into glass, it just makes them brittle like glass! The dialogue refers to the weapon as his "glass gun" (no "gas"), indicating the writer had missed that particular bit of info.
• Repeating an error seen before in US issue #4 and UK issue #18, Jazz uses his flamethrower, which is supposed to be the shoulder-mounted weapon included with his toy, only for the story to depict his hand-held photon rifle in its place.

Artwork and technical errors

• Throughout all four parts of this story, the Dinobots continue to be coloured with the early colour schemes seen in previous UK appearances; Snarl has a grey dino-mode head instead of a golden one (though the title page of Part 1 does colour his upper jaw gold), Slag has a golden dino-head instead of a grey/purple one, and Swoop has a blue dino-head instead of silver/white.
• Trailbreaker's shoulders are solid yellow throughout Part 1, instead of blue-black like the rest of him. That's a weird one.
• Part 1, Page 5:
  • Panel 2: Bluestreak's head is coloured solid red.
  • Panel 4: The words "California" and "Colorado" are misspelled on the Autobots' map of the United States, the states' partially-visible names appearing as "Calaf-" and "Colara-".
• Laserbeak has a yellow beak and feet throughout this story, when they should be blue-black. Additionally, on the final page of Part 1, his... well, uh, his butt is yellow too.
• Part 2 neglects to credit Stuart Place, who assists Jeff Anderson with colours; a correction printed in issue #52 would remedy this.
• Part 2, page 3, panel 3: Windcharger's grey parts are coloured blue.
• Part 2, page 8, panel 6: Skywarp is coloured like Scavenger. Colouring error notwithstanding, the fact that he (and Soundwave, in the background) appears so clearly in this panel must surely be an error in its own right, since at this point, the story has not yet "revealed" that the Decepticons are involved.
• Part 2, page 11 (right):
  • Skywarp's colours are all over the place. He's got solid purple wings instead of black with purple stripes; black forearms instead of purple; black shoulder intakes instead of silver/white; a grey cockpit canopy instead of orange; and red vents on his knees instead of purple. Plus, he's missing his traditional arm guns, and is holding a small hand-held pistol instead.
  • From his introduction on this page onward, Scavenger's head is coloured green instead of blue-black throughout the story.
• Unsurprisingly, Jetfire remains coloured in the early colour scheme seen in his previous US appearances, which makes his jet mode largely red, and gives him red wings in robot mode.
• During Part 3, Slag's horn pierces Jetfire in the chest straight through the middle of his Decepticon insignia. Yet when Soundwave finds the torn-off insignia later, it is only "buckled," but otherwise in one piece.
• At the end of Part 3, Sideswipe's right arm is hanging limp, barely connected to his body by a few wire, but at the start of Part 4, it's in working condition, and he's using it to speak into the comm.
• Part 4, page 2: Grimlock's head is cartoonishly huge in proportion compared to both the rest of his body, and especially to Sludge.
• Part 4, page 3, panel 2: Grimlock's neck turns grey for this one panel, instead of gold.
• Part 4, page 4, panels 3-5: After being drawn and coloured correctly in Part 3, Skywarp's colours have gone wrong again; he's got the correct orange cockpit canopy, but his guns are once again absent and he's still got the black shoulder intakes, and now every bit of purple is missing from his body.
• Part 4, page 5, panel 4: The centre of Prowl's forehead crest is coloured red instead of white. It remains coloured this way throughout Part 4.
• Part 4, page 8, panel 4: Prowl's bumper turns red.
• Part 4, page 10, panel 6: Bluestreak is drawn with his right leg severed at the knee, when it was intact on page 1.
• Part 4, page 11:
  • Panel 1: Skywarp's shoulder intakes are now the correct silver/white, but his cockpit canopy has become black, his thighs white, and his wings solid purple (with still no other purple accents visible anywhere else).
  • Panel 4: Prowl's got a red bumper again.

Other trivia

• Jazz is seen removing his "flamethrower" from a hollow inside his hip, revealing the weapon is stored in a shrunken form that then expands to full size in his hand (right). This is one of the earliest in a small number of visual "cheats" used in the comic and cartoon to explain where Transformers store their weapons while not in use, which would be rolled together by fans to create the idea of the subspace storage pocket that later crossed over into official canon.
• Bumblebee mentions that he has eight other senses besides sight. It's not clear what these are; towards the end of this year, The Transformers Universe would be published by Marvel, in which the profile for Streetwise would note that Transformers only have seven standard senses, rather than nine. Either Bumblebee's packing a little something extra, or we can call this one retconned.

Back-up material

Issue #47:

• Back-up strips: Iron Man ("From the Ashes," Part 1), Robo-Capers and Matt and the Cat

Issue #48:

• Back-up strips: Iron Man ("From the Ashes," Part 2), Robo-Capers and Matt and the Cat
• Who's Who: Decepticons

Issue #49:

• Back-up strips: Iron Man ("From the Ashes," Part 3), Robo-Capers and Matt and the Cat

Issue #50:

• Back-up strips: Iron Man ("From the Ashes," Part 4), Robo-Capers and Matt and the Cat. The first run of the Iron Man back-up concludes this issue; the strip will return in issue #119.

Covers (4)

• UK issue #47: Snarl, Slag, Sludge and Grimlock, by David Lloyd.
• UK issue #48: Sludge, by Jeff Anderson.
• UK Issue #49: Jetfire vs Slag, by Geoff Senior.
• UK issue #50: Grimlock vs Sludge, by John Higgins.

• 

  UK issue #47 - The Dinobot singing group was never a hit.

• 

  UK issue #48 - Not that Swamp Thing.

• 

  UK issue #49 - Someone get Jetfire a rope.

• 

  UK issue #50 - Me Grimlock say Sludge getting too close for comfort.

Reprints

• 

  Collected Comics #7 (Marvel UK, 1987)

• 

  Transformers: Dinobot Hunt (Titan Books, 2004)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #2 cover A; reprints Parts 1-2 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #2 cover B; reprints Parts 1-2 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #2 cover RI-A; reprints Parts 1-2 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #2 cover RI-B; reprints Parts 1-2 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #3 cover A; reprints Parts 3-4 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #3 cover B; reprints Parts 3-4 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #3 cover RI-A; reprints Parts 3-4 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots #3 cover RI-B; reprints Parts 3-4 (IDW Publishing, 2007)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK: Dinobots TPB (IDW Publishing, 2008)

• 

  The Transformers: Best of UK Omnibus (IDW Publishing, 2009)

• 

  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 (IDW Publishing, 2012)

• 

  Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Vol. 3: Dinobot Hunt (Hachette Partworks Ltd, 2018)