Marvel G1, Classics, Shattered Glass, and the ties that bind them.
There are 4 official branch timelines that are all recognized as official continuations of Marvel Transformers Issues 1-80. They are:
* Another Time and Place – Featured in the 1992 UK Transformers Annual
* Transformers: Generation 2 – July 1993-August 1994
* Classicverse – February 2007-April 2012
* Regeneration One – March 2012-May 2014
This page is being set up to provide fans/readers with all the resources needed to fully enjoy the entire run of the Classicverse, from Marvel Transformers Issue 1 released in 1984 through Transformers: Invasion released in April of 2012. Now, a special note should be added to the end date of the Classicverse. While the Universe itself did in fact end in 2012, many of the characters found themselves in NEW universes. Most of the characters wound up in what is a shattered mirror version of the Marvel G1 -> Classics universe, known as Shattered Glass. As a shattered reflection though, this universe had many other elements from the G1 era, with some new concepts thrown in as well!
The following provides both a reading guide and a synopsis (links and special features to be released December 2024) as to how the Transformers fiction from Marvel G1, Classics, and Shattered Glass are connected.
Shattered Glass was created by Aaron Archer, Brian Savage, Pete Sinclair, and Benson Yee. The ‘very’ short origin story of how the concept was developed is as follows.
After trying to talk his G.I. Joe team at Fun Publications in to developing a ‘mirror” universe for the G.I. JoeCon Convention Set, Brian Savage asked his Transformers advisory council if they thought a mirror universe would work for Transformers. Unlike the Joe team, the Transformers guys jumped at the opportunity as it had never been done on the Transformers brand. At BotCon 2007, an impromptu round table meeting with Aaron Archer, Pete Sinclair, and Benson Yee led to the initial notes for how the core cast of Shattered Glass should look. Taking those notes and tweaking/expanding upon them, the BotCon 2008 convention toy offerings were developed at Fun Pub with the story concept being conceived of by Benson Yee and Pete Sinclair. The story name “Shattered Glass”, which would also go on to be the name of both the concept and that universe, was thought up by Pete Sinclair. The idea was that this universe wasn’t just a mirror, but rather a shattered reflection of the regular “Classics” universe, with some things being the obvious “opposite” or ‘color swaps” of the characters/events from G1, while others being various twists/changes that one would not expect. The universe debuted April 2008 in the pages of Transformers: Timelines Issue 3 with featured art by Don Figueroa.
During it’s run at Fun Publications from 2008-2016, there were around 30 Shattered Glass toys produced and over a dozen comic book/prose stories set in the Shattered Glass universe. These comics also appeared at retail at various points during the Fun Pub era through the title Transformers: Timelines. Benson Yee would go on to write the Collectors’ Club Story “Beast Wars: Shattered Glass” while Pete Sinclair managed both the toyline and contributing to the comic book/prose fiction as Managing Editor, Co-writer and/or Story lay-out.
Shattered Glass has continued on from 2016 ’til present day in the form of new toys, comics, and memorabilia offered by Hasbro, Takara-Tomy, their licensees, and various comic book publishers both in the U.S. and overseas.
A special thanks to all of the additional writers and artists that contributed to both the Classicverse and Shattered Glass franchise during it’s time at Fun Publications.
