First Australian Machine Men Promotional Comic and Catalogue
During the Australian Machine Men run a series of four comics was released via select toy retailers to promote the toy line.
The first issue, 'Space Wars' arrived at stores in time for Christmas 1984 and served as both comic and catalogue with a number of pages dedicated to the current to selection available.
Bandai's Machine Men release started prior to the US Gobots Tonka distribution and was well underway before Gobots character names had been successfully market tested. Australian customers, accustomed to locale specific names for the first time saw a hint of what would soon be a mass rework of the line. This change was made predominantly to take advantage of the Challenge of the Gobots cartoon. While the cartoon's into theme and logo were modified to Challenge of the Machine Men the rest of the show remained the same so the toy names had to change.
While Truck Man would eventually become Dumper on re-released blister cards, some figures weren't released in Australia at all so the comic left kids wondering who Screw Head, Blaster, Crain Brain, Pumper and Spoiler were!
The art appears to be an unorthodox mix of traditional illustration and traced or doctored black and white photographs of the toys themselves. Unfortunately the creative team behind this comic isn't printed.
The back cover shows competition details where participants had a chance to win one of six thousand silver Porsche Man / Crashers.
CREDIT: Jordan Morris - huge thanks for providing and confirming background details on these comics.
