Reddit reviews Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume 1

There’s the Transformers idw collections you can get on amazon but there’s like 18 that span both phase 1 and phase 2 and each cost $40-$50. They have everything but it’s still ALOT

heres the first but it looks like it’s now only available from third party sellers

It depends on what you want to read.

If you want to read the 80's Marvel comics, pick up the Classics trade paperbacks.

If you want to read the new IDW comics, I would advise you to start with the IDW Collection Phase Two. It collects the first few issues of the More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise (now just "Transformers") comics. These are the current ongoing books, and the ones everyone talks about today, so it's a good place to start if you want to catch up with the current storyline.

If you want to start at the beginning of the IDW comics, you can pick up the Phase One collection. It's good, but the story is a bit of a slow burn.

If you're a G1 cartoon fan, you could start right in the middle with All Hail Megatron. The art is mostly spot on for the cartoon, and it's easy to pick up for a new reader, but the story overall is a bit...meh.

There are other collections besides the ones I linked to if you don't want to splurge on a hardback. Those collections are just a good start if you're interested in the comics.

Do these fit your bill IDW Collection

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1600106676/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1421690015&sr=8-1

This one.

r/idwtransformers would be able to go into things in more detail and would be the more on-topic location for this.

Basically, though, there are three 'eras' of IDW. If you're looking to start from the very beginning, that's what the IDW TF collections are for. They collect all the stuff in order. Furman's IDW run of Spotlight issues and miniseries, All Hail Megatron and the ongoing that span out of that, and then the More Than Meets The Eye era of IDW (this is all the post-war stuff, the adventures of the Lost Light, Starscream as a political figure, Windblade, Autobot Megatron, and so on).

I call them three eras because Furman's stuff feels different than AHM onwards (which is designed as a jumping on point), and this in turn feels different from MTMTE and Robots In Disguise, which are also designed as jumping on points for the third 'era' (these two ran at the same time).

If you want all the things, pick up the collections starting at volume one of Phase One. (amazon link to make it easy to tell which book I mean)

All Hail Megatron starts with volume 5 of the 'Phase One' collections (amazon link). Aside from being a soft reboot, the main variation is that Furman's line focused more on the 'in disguise' content and presented Earth as just one front among many, with an overplot involving the 'Dead Universe'. All Hail Megatron has the Decepticons conquer Earth and kind of brings things back to an Earth-centric focus.

If what you're looking for is the post-war stuff, the content most people talk about when they say IDW, that's helpfully noted in the collections as Phase Two. Pick up volume one of that (amazon link) and start from there.

It's worth noting that the read order with these collections can be a little jumpy, especially in Phase Two where the intended chronological read order means it has to juggle two largely unconnected ongoings and also the various miniseries. It's still perfectly readable and everything and is far from a major issue, you'll just go from the adventures of these guys to those guys to these other guys and back again a lot.

The Complete Collections.
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-IDW-Collection-Simon-Furman/dp/1600106676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419370797&sr=8-1&keywords=transformers+idw

Or here
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-IDW-Collection-Phase-Volume/dp/1631400401/ref=pd_sim_b_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1RZ86J3726T4SD8DVF5M

So obviously the dude is biased. Watch everything for what they are. I recommend to start from the start: G1 Seasons 1 and 2 then 1986 movie. And then move on from there chronologically. If you’re not liking something, then skip to the next. On comics, you can also start with the Marvel G1, or you can go ahead and start reading the IDW Collections .

Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1600106676/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_OLASAb280Y5XA

Couple of third party sellers have it.

There was an post a few weeks back about that, I just picked up the hardcover IDW Vol1, and I'm about half way through that. There's 9 volumes right now, and each run $30-40. It's going to make my wallet cry, but I can't find the CW figures right now anyway, so... there's that.

It's the perfect place to start. Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume 1 (Transformers Idw Collection Hc) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1600106676/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_qigRybZA436QZ

I definitely agree with the posters above...if you have the ability then you should definitely support the franchise and buy them when you can...you should check out the collected editions