Happy New Year TransMasters 2006

Click the imgage to
go to the web page
for a bit more
readable version
of this. Hope you
all have a great
new year.

TF flash cartoons....

Wreckgar posted these on ATT. According to the copyright, these were done in 2004 sometime but this is the first I've ever seen then. Check it out...


Transformers at War


Transformers Peace?



(you need to have the free Flash player to view them....get it at www.flash.com if you don't already have it).


Kinda neat--shows what people can do with a little time and creativity. :)

TransMasters Comic Issue # 1

Well, I'm as done with it as I'm going to be so here goes:
TransMasters Comic Issue 1
the contents page points to a revised (mostly just
updated with new logos, arrows for story flow, and
adjustment to colors toward what it should have been)
issue 0 1/2. Since it is entirely composed of my stuff
there are a lot of bios and a project I began before
taking over as Pres/Archivist: The Trans Blunders.
The cover is a poster I drew up, but I goofed when
I took the toy to work, those little shoulder thingies
came off and I didn't realize it so he's drawn without
them.
Hope you like.
Could someone please post this to the Yahoo Groups?
I'm still hard bouncing and it's my ISP's fault now for
sure. Gotta get it fixed soon. Thanks.

Transformers Galaxy Force Magna Comic

Yep, it's in Japanese folks. I decided to seperate this from the TransMasters Comic since
it is tempting the copyright fates and most likely won't be up long:
http://galaxyforce.50megs.com/part1/index.html
this covers the first 3 missions, part 2 will come out probably
next month since it's already scanned and I created a .bat
file to write the .html code for me. If any of you are interested in
the batch file let me know and I'll email it to you. Happy Holidays.
The TransMasters Comic should be up and ready for you soon.
Thanks.

A big present

A huge thank you to Tony "Thunder" K. for registering the
www.transmasters.org
domain name, so the club now has an easier to remember
URL! It is currently points to the Geocities site so I'd better
get it updated and fixed up pretty soon. I am ever greatfull.
Happy Holidays to everyone.

IDW's Christmas Gem: BW Preview

Check out this link for the IDW Beast Wars 12 page preview of issue 1 of the comic:
http://forums.idwpublishing.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=21;t=954
I got a kick out of it not dismissing the BW show, but rather creating a subplot
and an answer to where all those stasis pods might have disappeared to.

TransMasters: More Than Meets The Eye 2

Here's a Template for the Decepticons. If these don't come out right...ie this one is supposed to be about 933 x 1512 pixels let me know and I'll post them elsewhere. Thanks.

Transmasters: More Than Meets The Eye Templates

Here is a template .jpg file for the Autobots

Merry TransMasters Christmas

You should be able to send the above as an ecard on our ecard site now. In case you don't know this is Cybertron Hot Shot and Override. Yea, sure it'd look funny to those Japanese fans who call them Excellion and Nitro Convoy seeing as they're both male there. I originally thought I'd try to use the actual toys, but Override's arms are too short and it is real hard to get two figures that are the same hieght to even simulate a kissing position. I might post this pic to a couple of the forums I have accounts on too. (Anything to get people to realize we're still around.)

Beast Wars!

IDW's Beast Wars featured on this month's Previews magazine cover!



- Thunder

TransMasters : More Than Meets The Eye

Because I've seen several of these done by Matthew on alt.toys.transformers, and I liked them a bit too much, here's my attempt at a Binaltech/Alternators Brawn. I've decided my entries into this group will be called BINALTERTECH, mostly because I still want to sort of connect with the Binaltech story, but identify sort of with the Alternators too. OK, pete, get on with it.

Brawn TransMasters:MTMTE

I'm going to do up some like this for the TransMasters Comic. Starting out with the 3 toys in
the My 1st Transformers line. Actually giving them some character and better names than: Car, Jet and Truck. (Perhaps not by much, and the art's sort of quickie stuff. It was mostly for fun.) I plan to try to move into the Rescue Heroes and then maybe the Go-Bots after that. (I'm not sure if I want to make a story that ties them into G1 or if Cybertron would be the way to go since what are all those Autobots on Earth doing while the regular forces are running around the universe?)

I think we'll probably go with the TransMasters: More Than Meets The Eye for the forward character universe. I don't want to mix us up with the very popular TransMasters Universe from before. Let me know if you agree or want to keep the older name? I'm flexible here.

Thanks. I hope to do up some xmas cards to post on the e-card site. I used to try to do at least one pic for xmas and one for new years. Cross your circuits.

Transformers: Bootleg

As reported in Tony K.'s BotCon 2005 report there was

a b/w media being given out for free. This was a 43 page

media with art, some of those Generation Dumb comics,

and stories. For all of us who did not get it:

http://www.trixtersworld.com/bootleg.html

she has posted it up in .pdf format for all to see. I beleive

she used to be a former TransMaster member and produced

Roll Out!  I will try to contact her soon and see if she's

still interested in the club.

 

On another note, we have now seen the new merger

logo for the combined company. I thought they said

they were going to get rid of Takara, but it is now just

the Takara and Tomy names like before but in white on

a sort of purple background rounded square. So I guess

we have to say (C) Hasbro/Takara Tomy in January,

unless it's changed again....wouldn't surprise you now,

would it?

Transmasters Yahoo Groups Update...

We do and have had for some time a yahoo groups e-list. At Pierrimus' bequest, I went through and cut out all of the old emails that were coming up as "bouncing". Some are old people that are no longer interested and some are people who changed addresses but didn't update them with the list.
If, by some chance, you were cut off accidentally (your account was full and it was bouncing the posts back or you were just a person who stopped in and browsed the posts every so often) then I apologize. We're just trying to get things a bit more up to date with the list.

If you need to be re-added, or just want to join, go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transmasters/

You can either get the posts emailed to you directly, by daily digest or just put down "no emails" and come read the posts when it pleases you (I recommend the email option, but whatever's good for you).

Star Wars Transformers...Force meets Matrix?

Well, I thought they would be just rumors...but we now have official notice that Star Wars and Transformers have collided. I know before that I wrote that crossover stories were a bad idea due to the property owner's rights involved. But since we now have an official crossover at least in the toys I'm going to say anyone who wants to do art/stories etc. for this line are free to do so for the TransMasters Magazine and Comic. Below is the web address for the official Star Wars toy site with their article on these new toys.
Star Wars Transformers Site

In their Terms of Use:"The creation of derivative works based on the materials contained herein including, but not limited to, products, services, fonts, icons, link buttons, wallpaper, desktop themes, on-line postcards and greeting cards and unlicensed merchandise (whether sold, bartered or given away) is expressly prohibited."

I guess I should warn you of their legal junk, but I say scrap it, just make sure you put this:

Copyright Lucasfilm 2005. All rights reserved

on any of the Star Wars Transformers stuff you may create. If there is enough of this type of material I'll put it in the normal TF disclaimer area.

Here's my quick take on a possible story line: This is an Alternate Universe story where in this Universe Unicron devoured Cybertron a long long time ago. The Empire came across some scattered remains of Transformers that escaped the Chaos Bringer's big meal. Though these were sparkless corpses the Empire was able to advance their technology through what they learned. In an effort to counter the Empire's edge, the Rebellion captured one of the dormant newly excavated Transformers. This robot does not seem as severely decayed as the others and the Rebellion Technicians are capable of repairing it. To everyone's surprise this turns out to be Alpha Trion or some other ancient Matrix Bearer. Through twists and turns we will come to learn that Unicron still exists and because of the bearer's reactivation he's now headed toward the Empire. To cut to the chase the story would end in a bang where Obi Wan has to keep Darth Vader and General Grievous busy while Luke uses his robot to deliver the Matrix into the heart of the power converter on the Death Star, which then will either be a new body for Primus or just blow Unicron to atomic particles..(Hey why not both?) LOL. (Don't expect me to write this up anytime soon, I'm probably already over my head on some stuff, but feel free to run with your own ideas.)

New E-Cards

Just in time for Halloween, we have 4 new e-cards posted by yours truely. I know they're sort of amatuerish in the art dept., but they're just for fun. Send them to all your friends and let me know if you want more.

TransMasters E-cards Site

If you'd like to have your cards posted, just send them to me with a little description for the alt tag and I'll try to get them up ASAP (as soon as I can). Thanks.

Transformers: The Movie: The Parody...

See this here (it's a script, but hey!)

http://bristol.riverdark.net/tftmtp/

- Thunder

Virtual Transformers TV Season 4 Project, etc.

I was recently contacted by Rodimus_2316, one of the Exectutive Editors of the Virtual Season 4 project and a member of Georgia Transfans in relation to my CDROM project. He wanted to know if I wanted to include the episodes, of course I said yes. Though, to date, it looks like there are none to include. There are at lest 35 people in thier Yahoo Group and I hope that soon there might be some material. If you are interested in this type of project please visit:

Virtual Transformers TV

It is possible that if they have enough interest they could branch out into other TF generations.

On what I would call a stange note: I just received my copy of this month's Master Collector (That thing the official TF Club's newletter arrives in every other month) and the ad I was running for the TransMasters was not in there. I know I selected the "run until I change" box. I also noticed that niether the Georgia or NE Transfans advertisements were there. I wonder what Fun Publications will say about this? So far my interactions with them have proved fruitless. Maybe he (Brian) didn't like my complaint about BotCon? I have to say that I am seriously wondering about spending my dues on real toys rather than continue membership with the official club (due to renew in Feb of 2006).

I have to say thank you to all of you that have graciously offered assistance with medias that I may not yet have. I will probably be getting ahold of you soon and we can swap lists perhaps? Mark Tisdale has given me the go ahead to scan in his TransVerse media (I have several of the originals, as I was for about a year his copier/distributor, though I by no means have the entire collection.) Right now I'm sort of kicking myself for not realizing there were 2 TransMasters Universe runs, the one for the TMUK and one Tony Buchanan had produced (4 issues I beleive). If anyone has the US version let me know. I think this would be a great start for an online verion, though you might want to send in updated character profiles.

I have been working on scanning in Teletran and I hope to post some new stuff to the ecards site in time for Halloween. I'm looking for a new job and it may be that my posts will have longer periods between them, I suppose that's life. Thanks.

Transformers Comic (Capsule) Review...

Transformers: Timelines #1
“Descent into Evil”

Format: One-shot
Availability: Convention Exclusive comic

Writer: Ben Yee
Artist: Dan Khanna, Makoto Ono
Inks: Chuck Gibson, Ted Pertzborn, Makato Ono
Chris Appel (wraparound cover art)

Synopsis: Tripredacus Agent Flamewar's ship hovers over the planet Ceti Alpha Seven as she delivers a report to the Tripredacus Council. She reports that Deathsaurus was successful in the creation of the first batch of Insecticon Clones, a project he hopes will help bolster his forces and eventually aid in the revival of the Decepticon Empire.
She explains that an Autobot team was sent to Ceti Alpha Seven to destroy Deathsaurus' Insecticon Clone lab. Four Autobots were dispatched to the ground, while two remained on the ship. The team on the ground consisted of Fallback, Chromia, Flare-up and Ricochet. They are soon attacked by Dirge (an Insecticon, not the jet character) and his legion of Insecticon clones.
They hold their own until Deathsaurus shows up and finishes them all off. Above on the Autobot ship, Ironhide and Ratchet watch the battle grimly and realize they have to go in to rescue the team. They fight well against the clones and also Dirge and Buzzclaw (both the Insecticon Generals). Deathsaurus arrives again and then Ironhide is attacked from behind by Flamewar, who knocks him out.
Deathsaurus is furious the Tripredacus Council would interfere with his plans, but Flamewar doesn't care. She explains she has also knocked out Ratchet and leaves the Decepticon steaming angry.
Inside the laboratory, Ironhide and Ratchet awake to find themselves captive. On a nearby screen, Deathsaurus explains that a second batch of clones was created, and he is leaving with them with the lab set to explode! Ratchet and Ironhide seem doomed until Ricochet shows up to free them and they quickly escape with the damaged Autobots in tow.
The Tripredacus Council is thrilled by this, seeing possibilities in Deathsaurus' success. Suddenly, their transmission to Flamewar's ship is interrupted by Autobot Intelligence Director, Bumblebee! Bumblebee explains that the second batch of Clones was infected with a virus that will cause them to malfunction and shut down, and any clones made from them will do the same. He is also happy to have found Flamewar, whom Autobot Intelligence has been hunting for ages. The Tripredacus Council now sees Flamewar as a liability, and with a touch of a button, they destroy her ship with her in it!
(Abbreviated synopsis from Ben Yee’s site).

Comments:
It all sounds complicated but the story is actually pretty simple and there to help sell fans on this current batch of convention exclusives. I especially enjoyed that it was an enclosed one-shot and not the kick-off to some over-complicated, time and space epic like past convention comics have done. The story was competently written by fan Ben Yee, who pays respect to the classic characters of Ironhide, Ratchet and Deathsaurus without needing to have them show up and be killed or conveniently reformatted for story purposes (they’re already changed but Ironhide and Ratchet still look right while Deathsaurus has a newer, more powerful form that makes sense in the story).
The art by is pretty nice looking. Not necessarily the best art ever done but much better then some of the previous con comics.
The comic is more or less a throwaway story. It doesn’t make any real difference to the TF cannon and will not be followed up (as far as this reviewer is aware). However, it is there to sell the convention exclusives and I believe it accomplishes it’s goal very well. Additionally, a one-shot story is more interesting then past convention comics and their complicated, unresolved epic storyline. The wraparound cover is the same as the artwork on the toy set and it’s a beautiful painting of the Autobot team vs. Deathsaurus and his Decepticons. I love the cover!

Recommended.


Transformers #0
“Prelude to Infiltration”

Format: ongoing
Availability: Convention exclusive first then general release (available late October 05)

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: EJ Su
Cover art by Aaron Archer (convention exclusive version).


Synopsis: The story begins when a teenage runaway named Verity Carter steals a laptop from a business man on a bus with her. The teen thief believes she’s gotten herself a nice new toy but it’s not long before she discovers she’s in for more then she ever bargained for. Verity leaves the bus and hitches a ride from a conspiracy theorist named Hunter O’Nion. Not long after, they find her bus was attacked by two mysterious cars (Runamuck and Runabout, btw) and that her mark (the salesman) is now missing from among the passengers. Verity and Hunter continue warily along their way where he tells her he’s out in the desert looking for...extraterrestrial robots! She thinks he’s nuts until they’re suddenly assaulted by an F22 fighter (that has no pilot. Appears to be Thundercracker). It blows up their van and comes around for another pass when a white van (Ratchet) shows up and shoots at it, scaring the jet away for the moment. The van’s holographic driver tells them to come with it if they want to live.
The comic also includes an editorial by Chris Ryall and short interviews with Simon Furman and EJ Su (separately).

Comments: This one definitely has a more interesting story. Simon Furman is at his best with this issue. He begins the story from the token human’s perspective but it works very well and the humans in this have enough variety in personality that they may prove able to support the story itself when the big bad kewl robots aren’t around. EJ Su’s artwork is more...functional then the Dreamwave art previously was. It’s less shiny pin-up style but it also works to tell the story better–also, we don’t have to suffer Pat Lee’s pseudo-anime style with Humans (which I didn’t care for).
The TFs only appear in vehicle mode in this story (except for somebody in silhouette, issuing orders–I think this is Starscream) but all are sharp and angular looking like hard-built, tough machines. The preview art I’ve seen makes them more mechanical looking, which I think will suite this comic’s story well.
The purpose of an issue zero is to give a taste of things to come, to tease you with the story’s potential. This comic does that very well and, for the first time in a long while, I actually am looking forward to the next issue of a Transformers comic.
This Botcon version of issue zero comes with an exclusive Aaron Archer cover. It’s okay looking, maybe even well-suited to show a comic with Prime and several sketches beyond him. It gives a sense of design or beginning, which is appropriate for the beginning of a new comic. If you have to settle for the newsstand versions, you won’t be disappointed though–one cover in particular is awesome. The Prime/Megatron battle scene is painted and just beautiful looking (by comparison, the BC cover is kind of sparse).

Recommended.



---Reviewed by Thunder

TMUK Metrodome DVDs

As many of you are probably already aware,
Metrodome in the UK has gained the rights
to the Takara series released only in Japan
and have began to release subtitled versions.
Below are some of the views of the UK TransMasters
members.
Metrodome TMUK Reviews

For Transformers
The Movie: Reconstructed DVD

For
Headmasters DVD:

I'm trying to see if any TMUK member would
be interested in becoming a middle man and
take paypal payments for these. You can use
your credit card to buy directly from Metrodome,
but I don't like to when doing something international.
Your call there.

Botcon 05 report...

Find it here:

http://www.karmicsalt.com/bc05report.html

A bit long winded...not for those who just want the straight-up facts (I like to talk about everything I
did so I can remember it years later).


http://www.karmicsalt.com/bc05pics.html

Pics of several things.... I took even more but tried to cut it down to the most interesting ones (I have a film camera and scanning this stuff takes forever). Also, botcon.com has pics of stuff like the Hasbro booth, so I figured why bother rehashing that stuff again? (If anybody wants to save/DL my pics, please feel free to do so. They eat a lot of space on the site and I won't be able to keep them up forever).

- Thunder

New Tshirt Avery Design Pro Files

I recently completed this new design for TransMasters Tshirts. The below images link directly to my Avery Design Pro versions. The text uses TF fonts that are widely available online. I left a 1/2 inch more than the 1/2 inch margin on the right side so if you wanted you could put your TransMasters character name vertically. I figure Hasbro shouldn't blow a gasket for just outline representations, crossing my circuits there. I attempted to keep to our symbol colors in case in the future we decide to actually try to get them printed up through a screen process. Feel free to tweak the colors if you just want to use an iron on anyway.

You might want to use the right-click, save target as option to download the files to your hard drive. Tell me what you think?

Introducing...TransMasters E-Cards

Well after playing with the code for two nights I have finally gotten it right. Here is a new service to all you TransMasters and anyone else who you think will enjoy this: http://pws.internet49.com/phelpscomp/ecards/index.html

There's a POV RAY image of the Matrix I made, A picture of Apex Prime kicking Overlord while blasting Black Zarack, The next two pictures I entered into BotCon2004's Art Contest and Auction. "Can't Get That Itch" was titled that way because I have Kicker using the Energon Sword to scratch his back (though you might not notice unless it was pointed out to you), "G1-Energon Rhettro" was an attempt to recreate the classic G1 poster using Energon characters. This one actually sold at BotCon, so all I have of it were a few digital pics I took before I went.

OK, In the Miscellaneous catagory is a character that is actually based on a toy I bought from Grocery Outlet, but later sold. For a while I created some of my own Transformer type characters, first called Cyber-Roids but I decided later to rename them Phasers. This is one of my Medieval Phasers, Leo. The very first time my fair let in 3D computer art I won a first prize with this picture.

Hopefully we can put some more pictures up for this kind of thing. Thanks.

Fw: CD

----- Original Message -----
From: "L. E."
To: <pierrimus@internet49.com>
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 12:56 PM
Subject: RE: CD

You are taking all the medias that Tony is sending to you and putting them on CD for all to see? That is a massive undertaking! Understatement of the year, I'm sure. Still wow, just wow. Kudos, big effing huge kudos. If you want to put in TransAction and Overlord II that'd be great. You have my permission to copy them as printed. TransAction is mixed media and so is Overlord II, just so you know ahead of time.

Oh and if you need to borrow any of my BotCon tapes let me know (which reminds me I have to contact the guy that borrowed them off me). Let me know when you get the first CD going, love to see how it comes out.
---------------------------------
I received the above here from Liane Elliot about her medias today and I think you will all be pleased to hear I have the green light for thier inclusion on the CDROM.

Transformers Media

Have any of you been listening to the TF WIRE (Stands for TF Week In REview) Podcasts? I've been downloading the .mp3 versions whenever I get the chance to visit my friend that has the cable modem. They tend to focus mostly on toy news right now, giving their oppinions of the BotCon exclusive set, the Legends of Cybertron toys, etc. You can get their .mp3 files at: http://tfrollout.com/podcast/index.html These are not small, about 30-40 MB files.

I was wondering if you were interested in this type of media commentary, video files or those comics that are created by people who take digital pictures of their toys in various positions? Ie. Generation Dumb. Not sure how often I might be able to come up with the audio or video files, but I now have an all-in-wonder video card and have sucessfully digitized video from my camcorder. Are their other types of media that you might be interested in? Let me know. Thanks.

CAN SPAM

In an effort to try to reduce or completely eliminate the spam posts we have been seeing I have activated the word verification feature. In order to post comments you have to type in the matching letters. I have been spending a bunch of time the last couple of weeks deleting these posts, especially when some have been about adult items. This will only helps try to keep down the posts created by webbots and crawler programs. It will not keep out people who are registered Blogger ussers and have come to create these posts manually. I'll cross my circuits this works.

Expanded Archive

Thanks to Johan Piest for the scans of AutoUpdate 40, 41. By my own error I had issue 41, and still need issue 39. But all of the rest of the issues are now scanned and online. I've also fixed the index page so you should now be able to just go to: http://transmasters.250free.com
to get the site.
I've added my Unofficial Beast Wars Transformers Comics and a link to Johan Piest's War Log site. If you have medias you want to add to the archive by either links or through scans sent to me, please let me know and I'll try to get them up ASAP (or as soon as I have some time...)

A question I'd like to pose: Do you think we should try to have another proposed media, perhaps back to the b/w copied-snail mailed version for Fanfic/Stories? (I know I probably shouldn't have sent that Universe story as HTML through the Yahoo Group, next time plain text.) Perhaps it's a moot question right now, since we have so few active members so far. But I can envision a point where the Magazine might not be the best forum for the stories. I guess it comes down to wether you prefer to have something physical in your hands to read or if you are fine with the digitized versions. I still like to read paper more than off the computer screen or to try to use my Visor's eBook software (that usually translates into HTML files anyway). The TMUK's forum had this question before and they said about 90% of the votes were still for a paper format. What do you think?

Pre-Order your copy of IDW Transformers #0

GO to:
http://store.idwpublishing.com/
to pre-order your copy of all 4 cover variants of issue #0 due out October 31, 2005 for only $3.96 (not sure if that includes the shipping, probably not).

I don't know about the rest of you but I tried 5 times to set up an online account whith Dreamwave and never got it to take. It took me less than 5 minutes to set up one at the above store. As there is only one comic store in my county right now and they seem to not be too engrosed in knowing the comics (I had to tell them IDW got the TF license), I'll probably see if I can buy direct instead. I hope they come up with some kind of subscription to the Transformers comics so I don't have to spend a bunch of time ordering every quarter. They'd better not wreck the TFs too badly.

More Knockoffs/Bootlegs

When I was down at Big Lots I came across these. They have to be some of the sorrier KOs of the G1 combiner toys I've seen. But 2 for $1.49 is really cheap and they'd probably be good for kitbashing or creating some kind of diorama scene where you wanted to smash up or melt some plastic. The reason I say this is that the plastic is much more brittle than the originals or even good KOs use. I no sooner began to transform the Skydive clone than I broke off his right arm. I have one of those wierd Menasor KOs (It has 2 technobots rather than all the Stunticons), for which I decided to put the Streetwise KO onto, the post was a *bleep* to get in and then the hole was too loose and Menasor's hand kept falling out. This makes me beleive they are copies of copies if you know what I mean.

Mini Micro-Combiner Gesalt KOs

I'm sure most of you have probably already seen posts about these on the forums, but here goes. I was able to get down to Sacramento a few weeks back and hit up the Big Lots store for these Bootleg/Knockoffs of Devistator, Sixwing and Sixbuilder. The differences here are mostly in size and some in colors. My original Sixwing KO is 20cm tall where the one from Big Lots is 16cm tall, and for some oddball reason he comes with a KO of a Kenner Go-Bot swamp plane. The G2 Dev.KO is 21cm tall where the Big Lots version is 17cm tall. I don't have a KO or otherwise of the original Sixbuilder, but this Big Lots version is 16cm tall. These toys are $3.99 each. (I'm ashamed to say I've dropped the Devistator toy a few times now, so far I've been able to reassemble all the little pieces.)

Spychanger Omega Prime

Well, it perhaps isn't ready for Transtopia, but here's one of my first real kitbashes. (I consider all my other attempts just repaints.) No, this doesn't still transform and is just basically a model now. The ladder gun makes him a bit heavy up front and I guess my add on parts weren't heavy enough to compensate. That's why you see my hand there keeping him up. This is the sort of stuff I'm looking for for the upcoming TransMasters Magazine. Hope you've been thinking of something to submit. Thanks.

Armada Scavenger Problem

OK, So I am a complete idot for overlooking the fact that this toy had rubber parts! I'll admit it. I was moving around and dusting off the collection and found the above. I guess I totally spaced on the fact that it was really rubber and needed to be Armor-Alled just like all the G1/G2 tires, and now probably all the Alternators too. I guess this post is for newbies and I expect to get chewed out for this, not that I don't already feel dumb enough here. Check those toys, you may not be safe assuming nothing was made of rubber after G2.

Beginings of the Online TransMasters Archive

So far I've only scanned and posted Tony Buchanan's Auto Update 1-50 missing the 2 issues I don't have yet. Here's the address:
http://transmasters.250free.com/main.html

I couldn't get my index file to work right, they don't like the frames. I'll probably edit the main page to include the TransMasters logo/symbol and rename it so it's the index page in the future. I hope to post more issues as I get them scanned. The site has a 250 MB bandwidth limit per month, so don't be too surprised if we use it too much and it cuts you off. Right now I'm using 67MB of the 250 allowed for space. Just a warning, like most freebie sites there's plenty of advertising and pop up junk. Sorry about that, but unless we want to start paying fees that's how it gonna be.

Retro Review...

I just took the plunge and bought Energon Galvatron (I know, I know! I'm like almost a year behind the times). Here's some random musings assembled into a half way coherent review.

Energon Galvatron

The Good...

When Energon Megatron was initially released, everybody commented on his aesthetic similarities to the classic Galvatron character. It wasn't long before Takara and Hasbro went and recolored him, releasing him in a brilliant purple color scheme and calling him Galvatron, the "powered-up version" of Megatron for that concept (this has become a recurrent thing they've done for the last four or so lines).
This mold has come out four times technically. Once as Megatron, once as Galvatron and also a smaller form that was Megatron in an exclusive two-pack and also General Galvatron in Japan (this toy I bought was the larger Galvatron incidentally).
In short, this toy is awesome. In robot form, he embodies G1 Galvatron in every way, far more then even the original Galvatron toy ever did. His shade of purple is brillant and also appropriate. His face mold is also nice looking--no more of that stupid grimace that so many of the Beast Wars era Megatron toys possessed. His twin shoulder cannons make him look heavily armed and dangerous. His ship mode is also quite asthetically pleasing. This is the ultimate Galvatron tribute toy and everybody should have him.

The Bad...

There's few bad things to say about Galvatron, but I have a few nitpicks. For some reason, the box calls Galvatron a "level four" transformation toy. This indicates that he is very advanced/difficult to transform and I did not find that to be the case at all. All you do is flip him over, fold his legs down and swing his head up. How is that worthy of level four designation? I had far more trouble with toys like G1 Hot Rod, BW II Galvatron or any Alternator in exsistence.
Perhaps my biggest peeve about this toy is the lack of a real hand weapon. Galvatron comes with a tank extension thingy that resembles Armada Megatron in its form. It doesn't transform or really look all that good. Basically, it seems to be there for him to hold as a ungainly hilt for his sword (he comes with an "energon" sword blade that fits into the tank's rear). The japanese release of General Galvatron, by contrast, came with a real energon sword, complete with hilt (apparently, the same sword as Cruellock had). I wish they'd tossed the weird cybersword idea and went for something like that with this mold as well.
Finally, the price. At $60 Cdn (Ben Yee's site had it at $40 Usd for Megatron), this toy is a bit on the high side despite it's size and features. The aforementioned tank addition has two sound effects (which I haven't tried yet) but is otherwise a worthless hunk of plastic that you're paying for. It doesn't transform (which would've been awesome) and doesn't really have much in the way of playability factor (although it can shoot a missile out of it's turret). I would've been happier if they'd ditched the tank component alltogether and given us a nice sword for Galvatron instead (all they'd needed to do was give the blade that comes with him a proper hilt). The sound effect stuff is traditionally lame anyway and they could've knocked about $10-15 off the price that way.


Still, all in all, this toy is awesome and easily the best of the Energon toys released. It's cool looking, a G1 hommage and well worth getting if you don't already own one and like the character or just appreciate a good TF toy. The sword is unfortunate but most of the previous Megs/Galvs had bad hand weapons too (G1 Galvatron's rifle, Armada Megatron's nothing) and this is easy to overlook.


- Thunder

New TransMasters Logos/Banners

I've cleaned up the logo that was used on the comic some and created some other banners for links with our new symbol, etc. Hope you like them:

http://www.geocities.com/pierre-pedro/transmasters/newlogos.html

Please, if you have any you want posted or ideas for new ones let me know. Thanks.

Galaxy Force Galvatron, Soundwave and much more...

Some new japanese TF stuff of note (pics, but still interesting)...

Click Here

This info courtesy Doug Dlin (who supplied the URL on ATT).
-Thunder

GF Galvatron, Soundwave and much more...

Some new japanese TF stuff of note (pics, but still interesting)...

http://snakas.hp.infoseek.co.jp/event/0508charaho.htm

This info courtesy Doug Dlin (who supplied the URL on ATT).
-Thunder

I threatened to do this...

Ok, so I just couldn't ignore the obvious pun on the BotCon 2005's slogan:
"Changing Gears"
Let me know if you laughed.

Simon Furman released online Alignment

Go check out http://www.transforce.org.uk/alignmentbook.swf and click on the blue box to download a .pdf format version of a comic Simon Furman made up for the Transforce Convention. It's just a bit under 900Kb. I posted this before reading, so if it sucks sorry. It's supposed to be about how the Liege Maximo came to power. Hey, if it's free, it's for me.

Me and IM

I've finally decided to take the plunge into Instant Messaging with Yahoo's version. My user ID is: pierrimus. So send me you IDs or just add me on to yours if you use this. Thanks.

What's in a name?

Today on Siebertron.com it was reported that the merger between Takara and Tomy will end up being called Tomy and the Takara name is to be "disolved". I for one think that this is a very sad move and only can hope that the new Tomy company will be as willing to work for the fans of Transformers. The only good thing I can think of here is that now we can shorten that line about copyrights down to just Hasbro/Tomy.

Jokes and Energon goodies

Ever wanted to know what the full line of Energon party goods were? I saw this once in my mom's catalogs and pulled the page out but the company hasn't carried them again, so just if you were curious:
Energon Party

Here's the reason no one sees cross generation parties:
Bumblebee Doesn't like Hot Shot

If you have ever owned a VW Beelte (I had both a '64 and '73 Super) you will get this:
Prime no happy with 'bee

I practically rebuilt my engine every year and finally got tired of it and got a Toyota.

TransMasters Magazine: also Comic schedule

TRANSMASTERS MAGAZINE

GOALS: To produce content exclusive for 6 months to the
TransMasters membership in a format that can be
posted in both online and print formats (so the material
can be viewed/purchased at conventions, etc.).
To inform the membership about club medias, functions,
changes, and to educate Transfans through links, forums,
web log (blog), etc.

CONTENT: Fan created art, stories (fanfics), articles, editorials,
reviews, fanmail, question and answers and other PG13
content. (Unless we should decide to split the club along
the lines of age, say 10 and under and call this BotMasters
for the Gobot and younger fans?)

SECTION TITLES/ITEMS/SUGGESTIONS:
· Creation Central –Birthdays of members
· Top Tens
· Toy Previews (ie. Fan2fan, eBay prototypes)/Reviews
· Video Game Reviews
· Book Reviews
· Cartoon Synopsis & Reviews
· Comic Synopsis & Reviews
· Puzzle Corner
· Alpha Trion’s Q & A –If a TransMaster can’t answer it we’re in trouble.
· Grim’s Tales: A short story section (Longer stories might need new publication?)
· ‘Former Humor –TF funnies, etc.
· Poet’s Phrase –TF poetry section
· TMUK Happenings –News from The UK Chapter
· Kitbash Pick – Info on a chosen kitbash
· Web Base – web site links, member emails, etc.
· The Vector Sigma Base – Transformers Universe or MTME type entries (Use official text, but with drawings by TransMasters. We might make up our own if Hasbro/Marvel/Dreamwave did not cover them.)
· The TM Underbase – TransMasters Profiles/Spechs
· Beastly Bonanza –Anything BW/BM/Universe/RID
· Takara/Japanese news
· Bootleg/Knockoff Watch (both because we’re cheap and because we don’t want someone to get ripped off by not knowing the differences.)
· Auto/Con – A place to discuss the differences between both sides. (Publicity/Propoganda/Full fledged arguments about ideas, I won’t publish personal attacks, so keep it friendly and fun. OR ELSE!!! I’ll have Hook, Line and Sinker from that alternate universe give you a visit straight to Unicron’s maw.)

FREQUENCY: I plan for both this and the TransMasters Comic to become quarterly productions. Should there be more demand and enough material we might increase that to bi-monthly (I don’t see myself having the time to try to do it monthly any time in the near future…so unless someone else is willing to help out on the work end, that’s how it’ll be.) I haven’t posted the schedules for the comic or this new fanzine, so here goes:

COMIC: All entries for the January 2006 issue 1 should be in/submitted by December 17, 2005. The deadline for submissions will be set to the Saturday that allows for two full weeks prior to the 1st of the month of publication in April, July, and October. (March 18, June 16, September 17 respectively.)

TM MAG: All entries for the Febuary 2006 issue 1 should be in/submitted by January 14, 2006. The deadline for submissions is similar to the above comic’s for publication in May, August, and November. (April 15, July 16, October 15 respectively.)

COST: Online format will be free to both members and non-members.
Printed format will depend upon the number of pages, whether it is in B/W or color, postage and packaging, taxes, and other expenses. I would love to do something that was full color, but the cost involved to print up just my 0 ½ TransMaster Comic probably outweighed what I tried to charge for it. I have found a new source for the photo inkjet paper I used for the front cover that will drop that down from nearly $ .35 cents a sheet to $ .125 cents a sheet (that is for just the paper). Basically this is just so we can showcase what we’ve been doing at conventions, etc. Unless enough of you decide they want it in this format, it might become a dead issue.

FILE FORMATS: For graphics: .jpg, .gif, .tif, .png, where .png and .jpg are the best for color while .tif and .gif are best for b/w files. For text: .txt, .rtf, .htm/.html files. (I will not open a .doc file attachment due to the whole macro virus affair and I will not send this format to you. My chosen types for this is usually .rtf for something I want to retain some formatting, but .txt is good if you just want to leave it to someone else to format the document.) If you have a mixture of the two it may be best to create an .htm/.html file send it with its related files in a .zip file. Or you may use a .pdf file, but they can sometimes be larger than full page .gif or .jpg files. I’d like to ask that the resolution be 300dpi or higher please.

If your files are large (2+ MB) you might attempt to post it online and just send me the link. (I am still on dial-up, but a friend has Comcast cable Internet and she allows me to use it, so I’d keep these links for then.) If you are into creating media that is TF related: like .mp3, .mov, .avi, .wmv, etc. then this is definitely the way to go to have it featured on just the online publication (Though we might try a screen capture to stick in the printed version with a web address and credits.)

You may also snail-mail me materials at: Peter Phelps, PO Box 386, Somerset CA 95684, USA. (If you need them back please send along a S.A.S.E.) Also, if you plan to create a fanzine, etc. of your own as Archivist it would be nice to have a copy in the files sent to the same address. This is also probably the fastest way to let me know there are new medias (begging for the membership to do their own stuff too) so we can advertise them both online and in any print materials.

NOTE: You do not have to be the best artist or writer to submit. Just take a look at the archive and you can see what I mean. Though, we would prefer that stories are at least spell checked and reviewed for grammar errors. (I don’t have time to ensure everything is right, but I may return materials with blatant errors for correction.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Can’t think of anything to do? Here’s a few suggestions:

The War Without (Or some better name?) Project
Ever wonder what happened in the history before Dreamwave’s War Within comics? Who were the Decepticon leaders before Megatron? (In my opinion the Quintessons were not the TF creators, but Cybertron’s enslavers until the revolt—I believe they were created by Primacron in order to delay the evolution of the Transformer race created by Primus as a line of defense against Unicron, whom was only "created" by Primacron as far as an upgrade was concerned. Just my line of thought here.) How long did Alpha Trion hold onto the Matrix and why wasn’t he counted as a Matrix bearer? The war between the Autobots and Decepticons waged 4 million years, so how old is Cybertron anyway? What happened to all of those Consumer Goods and Military Hardware robots that were manufactured on Cybertron and sold throughout the universe? (How many might have evolved and revolted, either as an influence from their home world or because Vector Sigma gave them more than just a basic drone program?) I would like to see this become a collaborative projects all TransMasters can add to. I am sure many of us already have varying concepts as to how Sentinel Prime should look (either from Five Faces of Darkness where Rodimus is learning about the Quintessons and Autobot history as a fallen leader hands the Matrix to Alpha Trion, or from the Hardwired book).

The Lost Ages Project
Another cooperative project for all TransMasters to work on. Here we want to collect stories and images from times that have gaps unexplained by any of the official materials. Dreamwave seemed to step back into the cartoon continuity to explain their comic, but it heavily relied upon pieces of the story from the book trilogy. Thus, if we use the cartoon there’s a gap between their work and the Movie. Or you could go to the last show before the Movie and work from there? I suppose we’d have to set Daniel’s age to have any accurate guess at the length of time gap there. The Marvel comic series went all the way from 1984 to sometime well past the Movie with a different story line. There was an unknown gap here between the end of G1 and G2 beginning, though probably not significant. (Though I would have liked to know the hows and wherefores that rebuilt the Action Masters into functional TFs again. Then there are the voids of time between G2-RID, RID-Beast Wars, etc. This is pretty much up to you if you want to define your own timeline, or look up the UKs and try to find gaps in it. I am not a stickler for continuity and probably am guilty of contradicting myself in my own story universe from time to time. (Transformers Universe toy line allows me to create a multiverse in which anything can happen along parallel universes. I wrote a story based on these toys since Hasbro’s seemed lacking any real significance in the larger scale of things so far.)

The Quantum Files
What will the future of the universe of Transformers look like? Who will lead the Autobots/Decepticons/Maximals/Predacons? Will the technorganic Cybertron survive the future? (I would prefer it died off and returned to a purely cybertronic state, but it’s up to you. I just can’t see beings that are nearly immortal bonding together with matter that will eventually die past the lifetime. Can you imagine what Cybertron must smell like?) What will be the ultimate goal, purpose of the Transformer race?

What If…
I know, we’ve stolen this from Marvel for a long time. The color BotCon 2004 art contest winner was a picture of Fortress Maximus standing behind the Wolrd Trade Center towers with the title "What if…" If you don’t know what this is, where have you been and how young are you? Basically we take events in the original Transformers story: cartoon, comics, books, and yes even Fanfic/Fanzines. Then we try to come up with what might have occurred if some little item was changed. I know this is very much just like our multiverse created in the Transformers Universe line, but usually here we have a character like the Watcher telling us how things should have gone. Of course, we might need to use some TransMaster character to do this so Marvel won’t be upset.

The above are just some suggestions, you can do anything you like within decency boundaries. If you’re into smut, go look elsewhere.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE:
I would suggest we keep away from crossover stories/etc. Those that belong to Hasbro, like GI Joe are probably safe since they’ve been done for a long time now. Also it would not be uncommon to see Death’s Head (I or II) in some crossover since he was prominently featured in the UK comics and would have been difficult to rip him out over there. The problem will occur when we begin to mix with intellectual property owners who have not given the club any permission to use their characters. I won’t forbid you from creating this type of material, but I will also not print any of it either online or in paper media. You can post them onto your personal web pages and link to them through the Yahoo email group to announce them. The TransMasters just can’t afford to be "officially" tied to such material.

Please don’t take offense if we place some little disclaimer line on the web page and printed materials, we’re only trying to protect the club:

All articles, images, comics, and editorials contained herein are the express opinions of their creators and are not the official position of the TransMasters club, unless otherwise noted. Transformers are Trademark Hasbro. Copyright 2006 Hasbro/Takara Tomy, all rights reserved.

--Peter "Pierrimus" Phelps
Transmasters President/Archivist

TransMasters International CDROM-web page debug

I know it's probably overkill to post this here and on the Yahoo groups, but here goes:
Wanted: Art, stories, comics, etc. to be used to create the first TransMasters International Archive CDROM. I figure this will become a once per year product if there is enough materials submitted. This is sort of a backwards look at where we have been and what we have done. Plus, it's an invaluable research source. You can email the materals to my new pierrimus@internet49.com , or you can snail mail me at Peter Phelps, PO Box 386, Somerset CA 95684.

I've built a temporary test web site out of Earlwin's:
http://www.geocities.com/pierre-pedro/transmasters/index.html
It is still in the debugging stage, but you should be able to use the online membership and Tech Spech forms (I still want to see if I can make it attach .jpg and .gif files to the sent email). Some of the links might not always work, be patient with me. Thanks.

Symbol Vote Results

We have a winner! Matrix's Third Eye is our TransMasters symbol:

I might also keep the miniTM to use later as bullet icons? How many
of you could tell that Combotron had its origins in Unicron's head?
Thanks to all of you who participated in the voting.

I hope to bring more stuff soon. (I've been working more on the
Archivist part lately, scanning AUs, etc.)

Warlog site new color scheme

well.....not really spectacular news.
but, I thought I'd mention a new design and colorscheme for the warlog site. also I'd like to say that I'm working on a few comic stories set in the warlog universe. so.....new stuff is on the way.
Greetings,
UNB
www.warlogthecomic.tk if you should feel the desire to visit the site. do not suppress your intentions ;)
one note: there is no new art on the site.(only a new design) but when I do post new stuff I'll also post it here.

Note on Blog

Just wanted to let you all know that if you want, you can post to the blog using your email program:

transmasters.prime@blogger.com

Perhaps that will make it easier for some of you?
Thanks.

July's Master Collector

Well, if you haven't received your issue of Master Collector from the Official TF Collector's club you should soon. The advertisement that I mentioned before is inside the Transformers section. Now we really do need to get the main TransMasters Central web page updated soon so the potential new members will see something useful. I'm working with Earlwin on that.

TransMasters Comic 0 1/2

Alrighty then...

Here's the TransMasters Comic issue 0 1/2

http://pws.internet49.com/phelpscomp/tmcomic0.zip

You should be able to just click the above and it will ask you if you want to open or save it to your hard drive. If you downloaded that CDisplay program, you should be able to use it to view the images directly from the .zip file. One note: You should right click to bring up the menu in CDisplay and then click Configure, then check the Fit if Oversize box to make sure they don't go off the screen. I learned this trying to view the Warlog comic.

Otherwise you can just unzip the files, they're all .jpg format, and view with your favorite web browser, etc. They are image0.jpg = cover and imagea.jpg-imagei.jpg.
Please let me know if you like, hate, comments, etc. $2.00 was the price at the show and probably cheaper than they cost me to make. Enjoy.

Cybertronian Conference of 2005

Report on CybCon2005:

If you are interested in seeing my pictures and report please go to:
Click Here

This is where I attempted to gain awareness that we are still around. I worked with Liane Elliot since she gave me a ride and brought her own tables.

I hope to post the comic I made for this soon, even if no one bought one. :-(
I'm still looking for AutoUpdate 39&40 and Teletran 23+ if anyone has copies?
Thanks.
-Pierrimus

TransMasters Symbol Vote

Since no one else has posted anything yet today for the symbol contest I've created some more and here's the poll to choose which you like the best. For the most part I'm just after a shape the colors, etc are subject to change. Thank you for your participation.

Which of the following symbols do you think should be the new TransMasters symbol?
	Matrix's Third Eye
	Matrux
	Autor
	BumbleBot
	Combotron
	Screamer
	MiniTM
	Secta
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Edit- July 18,2005. I've decided to extend the voting period to July 30, 2005 to allow more of you to give your oppinion. So vote and thank you.

Warlog 1 online

As I said before, I'll blog again when Warlog 1 is online. I made some scans and put them in a compressed file. this file is 3,23 Mb in size which should present no problems with downloading. to view it after downloading, you can do 2 things(maybe more, but I've forgotten) first, unzip with winzip and view each page seperately or view it with THE comic reading app: CD Display. download the free program here:
cddisplay.
I should just say that this is the original version that also got published all those years ago, so glance in horror at the mistakes I've made and not even mentioning the inaccurate, incomparable editor's page. 23 pages of warlog coming your way here:
warlog 1
have fun with it! greetz UNB. p.s. let me know what you think.

Warlog Comic.....

well, first blog here then.
seeing the comic I just couldn't stay behind. I recently dug up some stuff from my Harddrive and I also had some stuff "hidden"on my attic. toys in the attic so to speak....
that stuff will be online soon as soon as my scanner starts working again. in the meantime is www.warlogthecomic.tk online (1 popup) in it's old form as I'm in the process of reshaping the site to make it more picture friendly.
It's more or less supposed to be a site for my art, be it TF or otherwise.
It's great to see things livening up again.
Thanks for listening.
Greetz UNB.
I'll blog again when I put Issue 1 of warlog online.

TransMasters Comic

Well, I've been working to put together a comic I can take to the Cybertronian Confernece that'll be something new that the kids might recognize. In other words, Energon based. It takes the story of Wingsaber vs. Shockblast after the death of Padlock and gives it a conclusion the show couldn't. I just finished coloring up the Decepticon cover and thought I'd post a small version to the Blog. Hope you like it:

TransMasters Symbol Contest

Want to make your mark on the club? Here is your chance to do so. Introducing the first ever TransMaster Symbol contest. Between now and June 30th work to design your own symbol to post a link to it here in the blog and then make sure that between July 1-5 you vote for your favorite by adding comments to this post. Whoever wins the contest will receive my
BotCon 2004 G2 Breakdown Action Master. (Before you all jump up let me give you the skinny: The package is faded and somehow his left leg has come loose inside the package. It might also have a bit of water damage to the package.) I'll send this to anyone that wins. Including to the UK since I'll be posting this to the email message boards too.

Here is my example of a symbol:
I call it Matrix's Third Eye

Thank You for your participation. Good luck!

Transformers News: IDW Editor-In-Chief Chris Ryall Speaks With SEIBERTRON.com

Transformers News: IDW Editor-In-Chief Chris Ryall Speaks With SEIBERTRON.com

Welcome TransMasters to our new Web Log

Earlwin Famor and I have decided to move up into the future with a Blog so you can all share your experiences and other works more easily. If you are familiar with this, great. I know you should be able to use the Google Toolbar to send posts directly to this Web Log and I hope this helps build a better sense of community within the club.

Sincerely,

Peter "Pierrimus" Phelps.
Club Archivist/President