Review – The Art and Making of Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy.

Posted on October 13, 2022 in Reviews

Although it’s been a year since the conclusion of the Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, VizMedia takes fans behind the scenes of the production with The Art and Making Of Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy. However, casual fans may find the book underwhelming, while hardcore fans of this series and Beast Wars alike will be hard-pressed to find a legitimate reason to pick this one up.

Written by Mike Avila, the 191-page release provides a broad overview of the production rather than a deep dive. The foreword is written by writer and showrunner F.J. DeSanto. Three of the chapters are dedicated to each of the three seasons (Siege, Earthrise,and Kingdom) while the other three chapters are dedicated to the origin, worldbuilding, and toys. Unfortunately, these chapters only get 12, 18, and 5 pages of coverage for respectively. Honestly, the book reads more like a souvenir magazine than a tome of commentary.

That said, the oversized book (9 x .75 x 11.5 inches) does reward fans with stunning images of the characters and the world they inhabit. A portion of the book even shows off the propaganda posters – details you might have missed if you weren’t looking for them. Some images are brand new to fans such as sketches and (pre-production) concept art, while others are much more generic content (screenshots, marketing images, box art, etc.).

Your love of these characters will definitely determine your enjoyment of this book because the strongest images are reserved for the character bios, which provide an in depth look at the designs and models. Beast Wars fans are in for a treat too, because the bulk of the book (64 pages) is dedicated to the final installment of the franchise.

The third season reintroduced the Maximals and Predacons just in time for the 25thanniversary of Beast Wars, and the Kingdom chapter gives fans a detailed look at these “long lost” characters.

Rating: I’d give this book a 2.5/5, which is fairly good for casual fans; however, I’m inclined to bump the score to a 3.5/5 for the Beast Wars crowd since this is our first look at these characters in a long time.