Auto Assembly have sent out the following reminder that the event is now less than 3 weeks away

Auto Assembly 2010 - Less Than Three Weeks Away

­­The convention is taking place over the weekend of 13th - 15th August 2010 at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England. If you've already booked you know what's in store, but if you haven't, you haven't attended for a few years or haven't made up your minds yet, we wanted to let you know what this year's convention will be like...

A NEW European Attendance Record!!

Last year we had a staggering 501 people at Auto Assembly 2009 making it not only the largest Transformers convention ever seen in Europe but also made us the first European event to break the 500-attendee barrier that we've all been striving for for so long. However, with three weeks to go, we've already set a NEW European record from pre-bookings with 506 at the time of writing! What this means is that we are going to SMASH last year's total. We know a lot of you may be leaving things until the last minute before you book, or may be planning on coming along and paying on the day, but we don't want any of you to be disappointed just because you waited "just one more day"...

Auto Assembly Needs You!

While we have a great line-up of activities and guests spread over the convention weekend, the most important part of the convention is the people who attend it... you guys! Last year, people felt that it had the best atmosphere EVER at an Auto Assembly event and we want to beat that this time and the more people who are there, the better! What could be better than being surrounded by over 500 like-minded people for a few days of fun?!

The Guests

Since we last contacted you, we've updated our guest list and we now have a massive 14 guests attending Auto Assembly 2010. So far we have:-

* Garry Chalk - voice of Optimus Primal in Beast Wars / Beast Machines and Optimus Prime in Armada / Energon / Cybertron
*Scott McNeil - voice of Rattrap, Waspinator, Dinobot and Silverbolt in Beast Wars and Beast Machines
* Derrick J Wyatt - lead character designer for Transformers: Animated
* Jim Sorenson - co-author of the Allspark Almanac
* Bill Forster - co-author of the Allspark Almanac
* Simon Furman - legendary Transformers comic writer
* Nick Roche - IDW comic artist
* James Roberts - IDW writer (co-author of Last Stand Of The Wreckers)
* Simon Williams - artist
* Liam Shalloo - IDW colourist
* Kris Carter - IDW / Titan colourist
* Jason Cardy - colourist
* Kat Nicholson - colourist
* Lee Bradley - Titan artist (Saturday only)

As you can see from the line-up, Guido Guidi is no longer able to be with us due to family commitments. However, we are now being joined by writer James Roberts. James is Nick Roche's co-writer on the stunning Last Stand Of The Wreckers series, and is also responsible for the critically-acclaimed fan novel Eugenesis.

And ALL of our guests will be on hand all weekend signing autographs and will take to the stage for Q&A sessions. Most of our comic guests will also be sketching for fans during the weekend.

The Activities

It's going to be a packed weekend. Infact it will be so busy that we don't think you'll have time to fit everything in! Starting at around 5:30 pm on Friday until 6:00 pm on Sunday, there will be something for everyone no matter what era of Transformers you are interested in!

The main part of the convention takes place on the Saturday and Sunday between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm but there are bonus programmes on the Friday evening from 5:30 pm until 11:00 pm and Saturday evening from 7:00 pm until 1:00 am so while you can attend for just the one day, it really pays to be there for the full weekend!

But what exactly will the convention be offering? Well, here's a list of some of the things we have planned...

Dealers
Video screenings
Guests
Guest talks - at least five Q&A sessions with different panels on each day!
Autograph Sessions
Game Zone - the ultimate Transformers video games area ever seen!
Toy Display
Art Display
Costume Competition
Party (Saturday night)
Script Performance with our voice actors (brand new script written by Simon Furman)
Charity Auction
Quizzes
Comic Art Workshop
Comic Colourist Workshop
Kitbash Workshop
Dedicated Children's Programme
Transformers Fan Forum Meets
Activities run BY fans FOR fans

And much, much more! More detailed information on many of the activities being held, along with a programme for the convention can be found on the convention website.

The Game Zone

Love video games? Well the Game Zone will be perfect for you!! It's the 10th Anniversary of Auto Assembly and it's been 25 years since the first Transformers game was released so we wanted to do something special...

We are aiming to have as many Transformers games running as possible spanning this 25 year history and will have games dating back to the very first TF game on the Commodore 64 right up to War For Cybertron on the Playstation 3 and everything in between. will  There will be games that many of you won't have seen for years, for some of the younger attendees, may have been released before you were born, and we are also hoping to showcase some of the rarer and more unusual imported games from America and Japan that never made it to the UK. And if for some unknown reason we can't have the game running, we will have them on display in a special TF video game showcase!

So what games can you expect to find? Well, here are just a few of the highlights...

Transformers (Ocean) - Commodore 64
Transformers: Battle To Save The Earth (Activision) - Commodore 64
Challenge Of The Gobots - Commodore 64
Beast Wars - Playstation
Beast Wars: Transmetals - Playstation (US version)
Beast Wars: Transmetals - Nintendo 64 (Japanese version)
Beast Wars - Gameboy Color (Japanese)
Transformers (Atari) - Playstation 2
Dream Mix TV World Fighters - Gamecube (Japanese)
Transformers (live action movie) - PSP
Transformers: Animated - Nintendo DS
Revenge Of The Fallen - Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, PS3
War For Cybertron - Playstation 3
War For Cybertron - Nintendo DS
Guitar Hero - Wii

And many more!

Pre-Registrant Prize Draws

We have some great competitions lined up for all of you who book (or have booked) for Auto Assembly 2010. Everyone who pre-registers will be entered into a free prize draw and the winner will receive a family weekend ticket (up to 2 adults and 2 children) to Auto Assembly 2011!! One runner up will receive an adult weekend ticket for Auto Assembly 2011. Both will also receive additional prizes!

We will also hold some additional prize draws but you need to pre-register to be entered. You can't come along and pay on the door to enter these!

Convention Exclusive Comic

Yes, for the second year running we have a convention exclusive comic! Produced for us by Toyz And Gamez, this us a brand new convention edition of IDW's Transformers Issue 9 featuring new cover art by Nick Roche and Liam Shalloo. This is a stunning souvenir of the convention and is limited to just 1,000 copies!

Auto Assembly 2010 Non-Attendee Package

Can't make it to the convention? Why not grab our fantastic value Non-Attendee Package. For only £70 (£80 for those of you who live outside the UK), you will get ALL of the convention merchandise and goodies and a whole load of other great stuff:-

* The full Auto Assembly 2010 Goodie Bag (more items the earlier you book!)
* FOUR keyrings including the limited edition 10th Annversary Auto Assembly keyring that will NOT go on general sale!
* A copy of Issue 11 of The Cybertronian Times, signed by ALL our guests
* An original sketch by one of our comic artists
* The Auto Assembly 2010 commemorative mug
* IDW's Transformers Issue 9 Auto Assembly 2010 Convention Exclusive Variant Cover
* Entry into all our prize draws and bidding rights for our charity raffle
* A copy of the CD single for the official Auto Assembly theme song, "Transform"
* Additional fanzines produced for Auto Assembly 2010 by Transmasters UK

And much more...! Visit the website to get yours!

Auto Assembly On Youtube

If you haven't already seen it, we're quite active on Youtube these days. You can find footage from all our previous events as well as regular news updates on Auto Assembly 2010 on our official channel. There's some fantastic exclusive footage from Auto Assembly 2009 and you can check out the channel here - http://www.youtube.com/autoassembly and if you are an active Youtube user, why not subscribe and get updates as we add new videos!

Where, When And How Much?

So hopefully now that some of you will be thinking of joining us for the weekend, you'll want to know whwre it is and how much it is to get in! Well, the convention runs between Friday 13th - Sunday 15th August 2010 and takes place at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England which is right in the city centre.

Tickets are £45 for adults and £35 for children, students and senior citizens with under 5s being free. Reductions are available for family bookings and we also offer special family discounts and reduced rates for one-day tickets although the one-day passes for the Saturday are now sold out so the only single day tickets we have available are for the Sunday.

Late Bookings - Ticket Collection Option

Because the convention is only a few weeks away, some of you may be concerned about booking and receiving your passes in time. We are now sending out passes within 24-48 hours of bookings coming in (and in most cases the same day) but for added reassurance, we can give you the option to have your passes available for collection at the convention instead.

Just book your tickets through the website as normal but as soon as you book, email us and let us know that you want to collect your passes instead. Then just bring your confirmation email with you on the Friday night to collect your pass. Because of the number of people at the event, we can only offer this to weekend bookings.

* * *

If you have any questions about the convention, feel free to email us or pop over to our discussion forum at http://autoassembly.proboards.com where we'll be only too happy to answer any questions or comments you might have about the convention and keep checking on the website for all the latest news and guest updates as well!

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this and we hope to see many of you there in August!

The Auto Assembly 2010 Team

Auto Assembly 2010 - 13th - 15th August 2010.
The Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England

www.autoassembly.org.uk - official Auto Assembly website
www.youtube.com/autoassembly - official Auto Assembly Youtube channel
www.twitter.com/auto_assembly - official Auto Assembly Twitter page
http://autoassembly.proboards.com - official Auto Assembly forum

Auto Assembly 2010 is sponsored by www.transformertoys.co.uk and www.transformersanimated.com whose generosity have made Derrick J Wyatt, Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster's appearances at the convention possible.

Auto Assembly 2010 is also sponsored by:-

Science Fiction Collectables - www.sf-collectables.co.uk
Toyz And Gamez - www.toyzandgamez.co.uk
Big Bad Toy Store - www.bbts.com
3 Darths Comics - www.3darths.co.uk
Hobby Link Japan - www.hlj.com
Robot Kingdom - www.robotkingdom.com