Ultimate Collection vs. The Works
 

I'm curious as to which is the preferred format between these two.
According to Amazon, the Works volumes are 2cm wider than the Ultimate volumes. Is there a difference in how big the pages are between the two, or is the cover on the Works just a bit wider to look more like a pizza box?
Are these two collections (Works and Ultimate) the exact same, except for the Works being colored like the Color Classics individual issues?
Does the Works volumes lack the extra Eastman and Laird articles/discussions?
If so why do both volumes have the same page count?
Do both formats collect the exact same issues?

My apologies if this has been addressed in a thread I've missed. Any clarification would be much appreciated as I'm only able to collect one format at the moment.

I'd vote for the Ultimate Collection. Black and white is how those issues are suppose to be enjoyed!

Yeah, I have some of the Ultimate Collections and they are tip top. Really good reading experience. I was always under the impression that they were superior products to the Works. They seem pricey here in the UK but for what you get it's not too bad.

I have both. The Works, I believe, are only lager due to the coves. Or the pages might be slightly, but not noticeably, bigger.

The Works also lack the Eastman/Laird commentary. That's a pretty strong vote for The Ultimate Collections, unless you really want the color (and it does mostly look good).

One other thing to note with The Works: because of the "pizza-box" style cardboard used around the cover, they tend to show shelf-wear a bit more readily. Mine already have several corner dings the Ultimate Collections don't have, and I don't know that there's any real way to avoid it.

In my opinion, I'd go with the ultimate collections.. just seems right to experience the issues in black and white as they were originally done.. plus, I feel like they are more readily found than the works editions and can be purchased a tiny bit cheaper due to the popularity/availablity of ultimates.

I just dont feel the need to have them in color and go with the original eastman/laird experience of the ultimates.

Thanks guys. :)
I have the first two volumes of the Ultimate ones, so I think I'm going to continue with this format. Thanks for the feedback. Almost broke down and grabbed The Works vol 1 before a voice in my head said, "how many different formats do you need of the same damn comic !"

I was skeptical about the Works collections but those are great packages, possibly one of my favorite IDW releases to date. Probably the biggest concern is that they will not get to volumes 4 and 5. If you're a weird completionist like myself, the ultimate collections might be your best way to go, for now. Those are at least complete.

They're not doing City At War in the Works format, eh? That's disappointing, I was hoping to get it all that way. I know it's blasphemy to some people, but I'm used to the First books editions and I like my TMNT in color.

Works also don't have issue #8 which one is the Cerberus crossover.

I think I will pick up works some day, but they're like 100 euros together, and that's a serious ammount of money for something I'd only get for completionism, because I already own them and read them multiple times in b&w format.

Actually the Works does have the Cerebus crossover, it was just the color classic floppys that didn't have #8.

Really? Colored too and all? That's pretty cool. :)

I imagine they'll do a Color Classics volume 3 run of single issues in early 2015 or something

Please tell me Cerebus was grey and not pink or purple or something.

He's gray (fun fact: "gray" vs. "grey" is American English vs. British English). If I recall correctly, Renet is wearing a pinkish outfit, but you know what? Whatever.

Really, only the Shredder shenanigans stand out as being really strange in the "Color Classics"/The Works books. Otherwise these things are pretty great presentations that really don't deserve a bad rap. Worth checking out.

I thought they were done with those? It makes sense to me to do City At War in color and so complete the main canon of volume one for CC/The Works, but I don't know how they were selling.

I agree. Both the First comics colorization and IDW's color classics are pretty impressive. The only thing that stuck out for me is how April's van went from blue to green to yellow, etc, but I chocked it up as her repainting the hippi-van every now and then. I really don't know why the colorizations get a bad rap either.

Well I've already gotten the Ultimate Collection since it does present the comics in their original black/white versions but I might get The Works once it finishes, it's like owning both the theatrical cut and special editions of a movie, even if I may prefer an alternate cut I would still prefer to see the theatrical cut first.

I love The Works versions, but am a bit put off by the possibility that they won't finish with a vol 4 and vol 5. As somebody said above, the completist in mean would then prefer the Ultimate collections as at least the run would "match" then.

But I prefer the colour, and am not so big a fan that the commentaries would sway me.

I too, would love to see a Works volume 4 & 5! I own all of City at War in singles, and the duoshade issue in Ultimate Collection v4 was just enough to dissuade me from double dipping. I figured I'd buy it in color down the line via the Works series, as that would be a fresh presentation of the story arc. Sad to hear they're not going that far with it. :tsad:

Lately I have been torn on which of these collections to keep.
I currently have copies of each series but I can no longer find room for them all.

On one hand, I feel a desire to own the Ultimates due to their authenticity but the colored versions are a great looking package aside from the really gross colors on Shredder.

Anyone else go through a similar predicament?

So maybe this a bit of a silly question, but don't you think it's ironic that The Works are designed to look like pizza boxes when (I think) there's no pizza in the issues they collect? Maybe there's pizza places in the background but I don't think anyone eats a pizza in there.

What do you think: will the Ultimate Collecten be continued with the issues of vol.2?

Yeah that's bothered me since day one, but since these are clearly marketed at the more casual audience (people that are probably only familiar with the cartoons) it makes sense.

Also, I was prepared to hate on these collections, hard but the quality of the package is so impressive I'm able to brush off the pizza thing all together. I say get both sets of collections, sure its expensive, but both are worth it.

I know that they're aiming for the more casual readers, and I'm fine with that since it does mean more people will finally read these comics, instead of assuming TMNT was created to be all "Cowabunga! Pizza Time!".

It's still kind of weird to market to the "Cowabunga!"-crowd when it has "Do you fear us?"-content. Seems paradoxically well played and misdirected at the same time...

Was at Borders bookstore yesterday and saw The Works Volume 3 on sale, so I bought it home. This is my first ever TMNT comic collection! Also my first book purchase in 2015. I'm so glad I got it just in time while the Return To New York arc is coming soon in the Nick series!

http://i.imgur.com/Sh8WCeX.jpg

I'm really happy with it so far, I feel like hugging it all the time! :tlove:

I grew up on the turtle cartoons in the 80's and recently have gotten into the comics as an adult in his 30's. I bought a copy of the FCBD #1 and it got me hooked into reading more. I just bought all three volumes of The Works since my kids wanted to see it in color but I like all the extras the Ultimate Collection seems to have. Hope to buy the Ultimates down the road and get into some of the modern comics as well.

How many different covers does the ultimate collection have?

I been on the fence of getting the works. So I want top ask you guys that own BOTH the works and the Ultimate collection Books. Is "The works" worth buying if you have the Ultimate collection books?

The Works isn't worth it. They colored the Shredder clones into Power Ranger colors.

Straight and to the point. It doesn't help that older colorings done by Mirage feel much more in touch with the stories.

I'm considering picking up City at War in The Works vol. 4 and 5 if it turns out well.

Are IDW going to make The Works Vol. 4 and 5?

Presumably yes. They are currently coloring and releasing Color Classics floppies that would be collected in Vol. 4 and since that covers less than half of City at War, chances are they will finish it and Vol. 5 out.

I'll be surprised and disappointed if Color Classics vol 3 doesn't become The Works vol 4 & 5. I wouldn't expect them to come out until at least late this year though.

Crazy as this may be, I don't think I'd ever read "Shades of Grey" before now. I just skipped straight to "City At War."

Ultimate all the way. I have all 5 con editions. Despite the fact so much was lost in translation in both editions (works and ultimate), I can't get with the coloring jobs.

So I've been looking at this, and I'm a little confused.

I know the Ultimate Collections are the mirage issues in original form, blown up larger... with annotations... from Eastman and Laird.

The works are just the color classics issues blown up or more or less the Ultimate Collection in COLOR?

Anything extra in these? Any annotations? or anything different?

Someone please clarify this for me.

I have all of the color classic issues 1-11 or something... so I'm just on the fence about buying up the harcover "the works" stuff.

The color classics have no extras in the back, just an advertisement.

I don't think there's anything extra in the works, other than that they included #8 which can't be printed as a single issue for some reason, and they fixed some errors that are present in Color Classics, like pages being out of order.

hmm I was unaware that pages are our of order in the color classic issues

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=39609
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=53294

I actually don't have any of the works (or ultimate collection for that matter, but I'll probably buy them at some point in the future to read the annotations), but Tom said that the errors are/will be fixed in the Works collections, so that's the only difference. I already have the single issues of the color classics (as well as all of the original issues), so the works would be somewhat pointless.

Well this is my opinion on these 2 collections.

If you had to pick one or the other, you need to go with the Ultimate Collections.

They have annotations in the back, and are in the original form of Black n White as they came out in the mid 80s. Ultimate Collection all the way if you can just have 1 of them.

The Works are cool, but basically have the covers in a cover gallery in the back of the books and that's it for the extras. They do look very cool though, and that large size in color on thick paper stock is nice.

I would reccomend getting "The Works" collections if you have room/can afford it. The big plus is in Vol. 2, where you get the #8 issue in color, which is hard to get in color right? As they can't reprint that one?

Officially Vol 4 of the WORKS is supposed to be released Christmas Eve 2015. So we need to support that and we'll get a Vol 5 too soon..

I do think it is worth having essentially the Ultimate Collection books in color, with super cool covers and designs, but you are double dipping strictly for color versions and for the #8 in color.

for me, I have The Works Vol 1 and 2 in issues already, so I'm torn between selling my issues and getting them all oversized or just keeping what i have. I don't know