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The TFcon website has been updated with the following annoucement:

Transformers Universe figures will be available at TFCon next weekend. While Universe has not yet hit mass retail anywhere in the world we are pleased to be able to announce that there will be Transformers Universe figures available for sale at TFcon on June 21st. On a side note we'd like to remind our American guests, a passport is only required if you are flying into Canada. Americans driving into Canada DO NOT need a passport to cross in either direction. Visitors may be asked to verify citizenship and should therefore carry any one of the following documents: birth certificate, naturalization certificate, Green Card or passport. Photo identification is also required so visitors should carry their driver’s license or other photo ID with them.

Auto Assembly 2008 Prize Draw!!

re-registrations are coming along really well for Auto Assembly 2008 and we're well on course to beat not only our all-time attendance record but the European attendance record as well, but there's still plenty of time to get your bookings in if you haven't already and there are plenty of reasons for you to pre-register!

Early Admission

Not only will pre-registrants get earlier access to the convention compared with on-the-door attendees, therefore giving you a better chance of grabbing the early bargains from all our dealers, but with our now infamous goodie bag, there are some items that are limited in terms of how many we have. Some have already run out but with others that we are trying to negotiate, these may be limited so the earlier you book, the better chance you have of getting more free gifts on your arrival!

A Better Convention

Next, as you know, Auto Assembly 2008 is a non-profit making event so every penny we get from registration fees goes back into the convention towards venue hire, guest expenses, equipment hire, stationery, printing, postage and producing items for the goodie bag such as our postcards. Now, the more people who pre-register, the quicker we can pay all our costs and then the more money we have left over the more we can invest to give YOU a better convention!

For example, if we break even well in advance, then not only will we have two exclusive postcards but we may be able to afford to produce a third postcard free for everyone, or book an extra UK comic guest or add extra items to the programme for the day. Who knows, but we can't do it without the money being there!

Prize Draw

Finally, EVERYONE who pre-registers will be entered into a FREE prize draw to win a selection of Transformers goodies! We're talking to some sponsors at the moment to see what items we can get but we already have some items prizes up already! We won't say what right now but keep an eye on the website for news on what they will be but remember, this is for pre-registrants ONLY and the winner/runner up will be announced on the day!!

What's Happening On The Day

It's going to be our biggest Auto Assembly yet with no less than TEN guests including all our usual comic guests and headlined by G1 voice actor Dan Gilvezan (Bumblebee). There will be a comic guest Q&A panel, a talk/Q&A session from Dan later in the day, guest signings, a charity auction and raffle, videos, a quiz, toy and art displays (including a display of rare "lucky draw" toys), plenty of dealers and much more besides!

So if you haven't already booked, head on over to the website now to book your tickets and we hope to see many of you there in August!

Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008

web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

Tel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406

That's right the BBC website is currently running a story on Transformers and Auto Assembly.

The story, which includes a small interview with Sven Harvey, touches on the long running Transformers convention, the impact of the Transformers Movie.

From that came a small local Star Trek fan club but as interest in Star Trek wained, we thought we could try meeting I the same vein with Transformers. Along with Star Trek and Star Wars, Transformers is the most popular science fiction franchise on the internet."

Auto Assembly 2008 Update - 1st June 2008

With only 62 days to go until Auto Assembly 2008, we thought it would be worth starting the first of our pre-convention weekly updates bringing you some of the latest major happenings in the final run up to Europe's biggest Transformers event in 2008...!

Quite a few things have happened in the last 7 days and we've been fairly busy so we'll try to cram as much in here as we can...

* Guests *

Our guest line-up for AA2008 is probably one of our biggest and best ever and we currently have TEN confirmed guests so far! Our guest of honour is Dan Gilvezan - the voice of Bumblebee from G1. Supporting Dan is a plethora of comic guests including legendary writer Simon Furman, artists Andrew Wildman, Simon Williams, Geoff Senior, Staz Johnson, Lew Stringer, and colourists Jason Cardy, Liam Shalloo and Kat Nicholson.

That's not all though, we are STILL talking to more possible guests although it's partly down to YOU whether we get more! Remember, the more people who pre-book, the greater our budget is for the convention!

* Competitions *

We've got a load of competitions taking place at the convention and in the run up to the day itself - art, fiction, model and kitbash competitions, a kids colouring competition and a quiz on the day itself. We've now got full details of all of these and information on how to enter up on the website as well as a downloadable entry form! There will be plenty of toys up for grabs so why not give it a shot!

* Charity Auction *

We started to give you all some details on this year's charity auction earlier in the week but it's already looking great. As well as a load of signed items from a lot of Transformers voice actors, we've now confirmed at least three pieces of BRAND NEW artwork from some top Transformers comic artists that have been specially commissioned for Auto Assembly 2008! Obviously, we're open to anything that anyone wants to donate to this or our charity raffle so please get in touch!

* Goodie Bag *

The infamous goodie bag is shaping up reasonably well at the moment. We've got four items confirmed right now with more in negotiations. Every attendee will get two more Auto Assembly exclusive postcards, one featuring Bumblebee illustrated by Simon Williams. The other will be drawn by another top TF artist but we're not saying who yet! Also, all attendees will receive a pack of Cards Inc G1 stickers and we have plenty of other gifts but these are going to be limited so if you want some of the other items, you'll need to register quickly. For example, we have assorted copies of the ladybird G1 storybooks, but these were limited for the first 80 or so attendees so they've all been allocated already. We do have a lot more items to sort so keep an eye on the website.

As you can see, it pays to pre-book early!

* Booking Confirmations *

We know that many of you have been asking - both directly and through various forums - about booking confirmations and when you're going to be receiving them. Well, now that we've been able to secure our guest of honour, we're now working on getting them sorted!

We're working like crazy on getting the information pack finalised, talking to hotels to chase up discounts on accommodation so we can sent out the most accurate information packs possible and these should start going out in the next 7 days to the first batch of attendees who have booked.

Obviously, as soon as we have hotel discounts sorted, details of these will also go straight on the website and we're hoping to have the first of these done by the middle of the week at the latest.

* Pre-Registrations *

One thing we can't stress enough for those of you who haven't already done it is the benefits of pre-registering for Auto Assembly 2008. Not only does it get things out of the way and means that it's one less worry for you on the day, but all pre-registrants get earlier entry than those paying on the door so you can get at all those bargains sooner!

Not only that but pre-registering helps US as convention organisers. At Auto Assembly, we have a break-even point financially. Not only do we have to pay to hire the venue and cover our guest costs, but printing, postage and numerous other expenses. However, once we have covered all of those, anything left over can be reinvested to make AA2008 a better convention either going towards bonus guests or extra gifts in the goodie bag.

For example, we are producing two exclusive postcards this year but once we have covered all of our costs, all it needs is an extra 15 adult attendees to give us the extra funds to produce a THIRD card for everyone but we can't do that if people leave booking until the last minute or pay on the door and it's the same when it comes to finding extra funds towards bonus UK comic guests!

Put simply, if you want a bigger and better Auto Assembly 2008, it's in YOUR hands...!

* Volunteering *

Finally, as always, we're looking for volunteers to help out with the convention on the day and in the run up to the event and in helping us to promote it. For more information, see the volunteering page on the website and download a form!



Well, that's it for now, but we should have a few more announcements over the next few days so keep an eye out on all the major TF websites and forums and look out for our next update next weekend and we hope to see a lot of you all on 2nd August!

As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this weekly update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk


Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008

email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

tel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406

Thanks to Simes for posting the following news on our Transformers Forum regarding the Auto Assembly charity event.

As usual, Auto Assembly 2008 is holding one of it's now traditional charity auctions to raise money for it's nominated charity, Help A Local Child, and this year we're hoping that it will be our best yet!

Help a Local Child was launched in 1994 with a commitment to helping the children and young people of the West Midlands, who experience the negative effects of poverty, abuse, neglect, homelessness, violence, crime, illness and disability. There are many children in and around the Birmingham area who are carers for their own parents or who are indirect victims of domestic violence or suffer daily pain due to illness. In this world of glamour and gain, these are the children that BRMB want to help. Their focus is local fundraising, with all money raised being awarded locally and really benefiting our community. With the help and support of their listeners, local celebrities, corporate partners, volunteers, and their employees, the fundraising year on year will help more and more children in the area, enabling them to achieve dreams and ambitions they would never have thought possible.

Last time we managed to raise just over £1,000 (almost $2,000) for our nominated charity from our auction and raffle thanks to many generous donations and support from those attending and we are hoping to beat this figure from Auto Assembly 2008 and we are already off to a flying start with donated and pledged items including the following:-

Auto Assembly 2004 RiD Sideburn/Mirage postcard - signed by Wally Wingert
Auto Assembly 2005 RiD Optimus Prime postcard - signed by Neil Kaplan
Auto Assembly 2006 Beast Wars Megatron postcard - signed by David Kaye
Signed photo of Neil Ross (G1 - Slag, Springer, Hook, Bonecrusher...)
Auto Assembly 2008 postcard original artwork - Simon Williams
Auto Assembly 2008 original artwork - Mike Collins
Auto Assembly 2008 original artwork - artist TBC
Signed photo - Wankus (RiD - Prowl)
Signed "something" - David Sobolov (Beast Wars - Depth Charge)

We are waiting for a lot more items as well so it's shaping up to be a great auction this time around but we want more and this time we're asking for YOUR help! If any of you have any items that you would like to donate we'd love to hear from you!

The sort of things we are looking for are items that are a little bit different, rare, more collectible or unique, so we're not looking for more modern items really. The convention itself is going to have more of a focus on G1 although we are still going to be open to donations of almost anything. If you can send items to us in advance that would be great but if not, if you can let us know in advance (and ideally send us a photo or two) and then make sure we have them on the night before the convention then that will be fine!

The best things we are looking for would be signed items, original comic artwork, convention exclusive toys, old mint boxed G1 toys, toy prototypes, limited edition comics, toys and similar items that are hard to find - that sort of thing. If in doubt, get in touch!

If any of you can help, it would be greatly appreciated and we're sure it would help us to smash our previous fundraising efforts. If you could help, our postal address for all donations is:-

Auto Assembly 2008 Charity Auction
PO Box 8966
Great Barr
Birmingham
B43 5ST
England

As well as the auction, we will be holding a raffle so if you have any regular items you may wish to donate as prizes for this, please feel free to send anything or bring these along on the Friday evening and again, funds raised from this will go to Help A Local Child.

Many thanks and we look forward to seeing you all on 2nd August!

Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008

email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

tel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406

Auto Assembly have announced two more guests, Jason Cardy and Kat Nicholson.

Comic colourists Jason Cardy and, Kat Nicholson will be joining the likes of G1 voice actor Dan Gilvezan, TF comics legends Simon Furman, Geoff Senior and Andrew Wildman and 'Combat Colin' and 'Robocapers' creator Lew Stringer at this year's convention at the Clarendon Suites, Birmingham on Saturday 2nd August.

Transformers fan Fatguy was lucky enough to attend Transfunket 8, a Transformers convention (of sorts) which took place in Japan. He's uploaded lots of images to a share as well as to his site, as posting some information on his blog.

Some of those customs look amazing.

TFWorld2005 Boards Member Kenucme reports that he has received the latest edition of the Transformers Collector's Club magazine featuring a Botcon roundup issue, and also looks forward to next year's 25th anniversary convention and the release of Transformers 2.

Topspin makes his debut in the Transformers Comic but the magazine announces that the exclusive Topspin figure (based on the Energon Storm Cloud mold) will not be delivered now until late July as they did not arrive with the Botcon exclusives as previously hoped.

This is made worse with the latest eBay auction under Transformers Prototypes which is a finalised, bagged, Transformers Collectors Club Topsin toy.

Fun Publications have updated the Transformers Collectors Club website with the following announcement.

"We are excited to announce that the pre-order page for the TCC Club Exclusive Seacons and Nightbeat will be going up here in the next 7-10 days. We are getting everything set up and will be taking orders then. We will be sending an email out to all club members notifying everyone of when the pre-order page is up.

The prices for each are as follows:
Nightbeat with exclusive Transformers Timelines Digest Comic - $48 plus s/h
Seacons gift set - $119 plus s/h

Each item will need to be pre-ordered separately as they will not be shipped together. Also, over the next couple of weeks we will be putting up some preview pages of the Timelines Nightbeat Comic that will come with the toy as well as some profile art that will only be able to be seen on the "Members Only" page for now."

Auto Assembly 2008 Guest Of Honour Confirmed!!
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
Forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

A quick reminder to everyone that the UKs only dedicated Transformers Convention this year, Auto Assembly, takes place on Saturday the 2nd August 2008 at The Clarendon Suites, Hagley Road, Birmingham. Though the guest of honour is still to be announced, many of the other guests have already been confirmed. They are:

• Simon Furman
• Staz Johnson
• Geoff Senior
• Liam Shalloo
• Lew Stringer
• Andrew Wildman
• Simon Williams

We'll be at the event, most likely with a display, but you can pre-register today by visiting the AA website. Entry is £16 for adults, £8 for children (5 and over), student and OAPs. Children under 5 are free.

Simon Furman dropped us a quick email to let us know that he'll be squeezing in an appearance at the London MCM Expo, at the Excel Center, this Saturday (24th May) . Simon will be brining along various bits to sign and sell, along with various other comic writers and artists.

Squeezing its way into a packed few months of signings, conventions and personal appearances (post Bristol Comic Expo and pre-Derry con) is the London MCM expo (at the Exel Centre, Royal Victoria Dock). Ill be there this Saturday (May 24th), along with a clutch of other comics writers and artists, and Ill be bringing with me a whole heap of Transformers stuff to sign and sell, including scripts, books and comics.

The Hobby Stock website was updated recently with lots of images from the Shizoka Hobby Fair. Included are more images of the up coming four Transformers Binaltech releases, including Arcee, as well as the new version of the toy Roadbuster was taken from.

1. New Roadbuster
2. Binaltech Arcee robot mode
3. Binaltech Arcee car mode
4. Binaltech Bluestreak robot mode
5. Binaltech Bluestreak car mode
6. Binaltech Agent Meister robot mode
7. Binaltech Agent Meister car mode
8. Binaltech Convoy robot mode
9. Binaltech Convoy car mode

Simon Furman has updated his blog with inforamtion on the various Comic conventions he'll be attending.

1. I’ll be at Bristol’s Comic Expo on Saturday May 10th, which is held at the British Commonwealth & Empire Exhibition Hall and Ramada Plaza Hotel. My two confirmed slots on the day will be from 2PM-3PM, when I’ll be signing at the Titan table in the main dealer/exhibitor hall, along with the likes of Steve White, Gary Erskine (currently hard at work on interior art duties for Aftermath pt1, see previous item) and (all being well) Geoff Senior.
2. Then, right afterwards, from 3PM-4PM, I’m over at the Ramada’s Park Suite for my ‘Crossing the Ts’ panel, where I’ll be talking about Transformers, Terminator, Torchwood and Turtles (and maybe Starcraft as well, even though it’s not a ‘T’). Expect special guests! I’m just there on the Saturday this year, so if you’ve stuff you want signed or just want to chat, make sure you track me down at one of the above.
3. Then, on June 7th, I’m off to Derry for the 2D Northern Ireland Comics Festival, an event I attended last year and thoroughly recommend.

TFWorld2005 have a nice round up from the Transformers Collectors Club Panel, which included the comment that they may look at releasing other unreleased toys, such as the Generation Two Stunticons.

• Transtech comic is not building up to a big payoff, but not a Crisis on Infinite Cybertrons.
• The theme of the story is a political conflict rather than a military one - Optimus and Megatron on that world are like leaders of political parties.
• Prose stories - Two more are planned for the Transtech Universe - Withered Hope, featuring the E Hobby Gobots, who are Bugbite's crew, and I Lowtech, a story with Nick Roche providing the illustrations.
• They will then be moving on to Shattered Glass Prose, and where possible, we are getting some elements of the AFD jokes. The first is Dungeons and Dinobots, a sample picture was shown with Grimlock saying "Quite the precarious predicament, wot?". There will be two more strips in addition to this one and a Club Exclusive Shatteredverse toy.
• Speaking of Shattered Glass, you too can own a Shattered Glass Nemesis Prime! Brian joked that the Classics Ultra Magnus would fit the bill, and also be the happiest buy you know.
• The Nightbeat comic is currently in limbo, it is planned as a pack in with the club toy. A Nightbeat profile like the Cyrotek one is also coming soon.
• There is also some sort of fiction planned for the Seacons, but they are currently uncertain on what.
• It is highly unlikely that the staff will combine the cons, simply because A) we're Transformers fans not Joe fans, and there are Joe fans who are not Transformers fans, so it would be counterproductive because then for most people it would not feel like "their" con. B) It would be twice the work for the staff.
• The possibility of adding souvenir figures to the pre-reg forms to cut down on the time queueing was raised - Fun Publications will consider it, contact them to voice your support if you like this idea.
• Once again the question of online registration was raised, the staff explained that hand-written faxed forms means a person looks at it and can interpret, unlike on an electronic form where there is no such leeway. Also, the costs of setup were raised, especially since the structure changes for every convention that they do.
• Energon packages (entry to all events like a Primus package but without toys) may be kept. Again, contact Fun Publications to voice your opinion on if they should stay or not.
• About this year's figures - it was a gamble, they did not expect it to sell like it did. They tried to get the number of sets raised, but it was too late. In future they are working to take registration before they have to give final numbers, to better gauge the numbers. However, it is a good thing when the sets sell out, because it means they have done their job and will be able to make more sets in future. In particular, if demand reached the 4-5000 range, it would help with Takara Tomy, who are reluctant to do the runs. They will also not limit sales of sets to individuals because it hurts their ability to sell out, they don't want sets over. However at the same time, they want everyone to be able to buy the sets at the original price not Ebay prices.
• The reason that non-attendee sets got cut first is that the majority of sales were for attending sets - hence catering to the demand.
• On the subject of Takara Tomy, they apparently hiked the price on the production of the exclusives.
• Next year's set may be another new idea for Transformers - the idea of Zombie Transformers was batted around by the staff.
• Blurr got a remolded head, because Brian Savage did not like the original head. In retrospect he noted that if he was redoing the head, he should really have looked for a different toy for the body.
• Nightbeat was chosen for the club exclusive over Elita-1 because it was thought that he would sell better, and also because Airazor did not sell as well as they had hoped.
• Talking about Piranacon, the team suggested that if people were in favour of it they might go back and redo other older unreleased toys, for example, the Generation 2 Stuntacons.

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