[FAQ] ATT FAQ v5.0 Part 1 of 4

[Steve-o Stonebraker]

The Splendiferous
Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ

Part One: Questions and Answers I

written by Steve Stonebraker
srst...@cc.owu.edu
bc...@freenet.carleton.ca
http://www.owu.edu/~srstoneb/

revised and edited by te...@mindspring.com

Version 5.0
Updated: 3/23/98

== Introduction =======================

This is the FAQ file for the alt.toys.transformers newsgroup. A FAQ is
a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Different FAQ's are used for different
purposes -- some aren't even organized by 'questions', but are straight
information. This FAQ has a few main goals:
A) to provide quick answers to various questions which come up
frequently on the newsgroup. This makes things easier for the person asking
the question, as well as less annoying to people reading the newsgroup.
B) to serve as a useful reference for all TransFans. There are
questions in this FAQ which have not been frequently asked on the newsgroup,
and probably some which have never been asked, but they are questions that may
be on people's minds regardless, or questions which, although you might not
have thought of them, you are glad to know the answer to.
C) to simply be entertaining to read.
If there is something discussed in the FAQ which you have a question
about, or have some new ideas to contribute, by all means do post a message
about it or send email to me. This is merely a reference guide, and is not
supposed to give the impression of having the last word on any issue. The FAQ
represents, for the most part, the collected opinions of the people who post
to ATT. Consequently, even though the FAQ is not God, if you disagree with or
disobey it, the people whose opinions it reflects might not be happy with you.
Additional posts on some topics are likely to be met with cries of "Read the
FAQ!", and in some cases much worse. :)
Also, if there is something which you would like to see included in the
FAQ which I have passed over, send me email about it and best bet is that your
suggestion will be in the next version. Revisions of this FAQ are irregular,
meaning that I normally revise when I have enough new info to make it worth
the effort and have the time to make the changes.
Lastly, if I have included your email or web address, and it is
incorrect or changes, _please_ be sure to alert me to this so I don't continue
to list an out of date address.

== Changes From Previous Version ======

- lots of outdated information in-dated :)
- checked\updated almost every URL, e-mail address and various 'Net sundry
- FAQ Parts Three and Four (Indexes) removed in favor of CTLP
- "Special Thanks" truncated in the interests of document size
- "ATT Strife" section added
- Information on the Brawn Argument(TM) added
- Additional info added to the BW Section (Transmetals, Fuzors, etc.)
- updated info on where to purchase the TF:TM on video
- new info regarding Stan Bush and Vince DiCola
- BotCon '98 info added
- Question about the blue Bluestreak added

== FAQ Availability ===================

As Steve Stonebraker's "stand in," I will attempt to maintain the level of
quality that Steve has put into this document over the eons. :) While Steve's
on hiatus, I will be compiling a mailing list for updates to the FAQ; to be
included on this updates list e-mail te...@mindspring.com with the Subject "FAQ
Mailing List." Please feel free to send me comments about further additions to
the FAQ, or notify me if you have contact information which you would like
changed.
Parts One and Two of the Transformers FAQ are posted every other Monday to
alt.toys.transformers.

The newest version will also always be available through the means
listed below. The FAQ may be freely distributed in its unaltered form.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/1985/faq/faq.html
http://cc.owu.edu/~srstoneb/tf/index.html

== FAQ Structure ========================

The TF FAQ is presented in two segments. Parts One and Two make up the
main body of the FAQ and are of nearly equal length. Resources referenced in
the FAQ are given with their appropriate links; the previously-included FAQ
Indexes have been omitted to ease the document's upkeep.
The current recommended Index site for the ATT FAQ is Renaud T. Lefebvre's
"Complete Transformers Listing Page." Due to Renaud's fine record of
painstakingly compiling and maintaining links to nearly every TF site on the
'Net, FAQ Parts Three and Four have been removed in favor of the CTLP.
The "Complete Transformers Listing Page" can be found at this URL:
http://pages.infinit.net/renaud/CTLP.html

== Contents ===========================

I. General questions relating to the newsgroups
1. Why don't you guys go and get a life?
2. What are appropriate topics for posts in ATT and ATTM?
3. Are their any guidelines for ATT posts?
4. What's the range of ages for people in this group?
5. Is it okay to post binaries to this group?
6. Where do I go to buy, sell, or trade TF toys?
7. Are there any guidelines for marketplace posts?
8. I can't read ATT.marketplace. What should I do?
9. I have some TFs but I don't know their names... can anyone help me?
10. What is "ATT Strife?" How can it be avoided?
II. Things ATTers might mention
1. What is FIRRIB / FIBRIR ?
2. What's a TF MUSH?
3. What's the TF Purity Test?
4. What's the TransFan code some people are using?
5. What should I not ask about on ATT?
6. What's this whole "Brawn" thing about?
III. Getting info and stuff
1. Are there any TF WWW or ftp sites?
2. Where can I get a list of all the TFs that were made?
3. Where can I get a list of all the TF tech specs?
4. Where can I get a list of all the TF fan fiction?
5. Where can I get a list of all the TF cartoon episodes?
6. Where can I get a list of TF quotes?
7. How about a TF encyclopedia or something?
IV. General TF questions
1. When did the TFs first come out?
2. Are there any TF conventions?
3. Are there any TF clubs?
4. What's happening with the current TF line?
V. TF related products
1. Are there any TF video games?
2. Is there a TF role-playing game?
3. What were those TF trading cards like?
4. What TF books are available?
VI. Continuity issues
1. Why doesn't anything agree with anything else?
2. What's the basic origin from the comics?
3. What's the basic origin from the TV show?
4. So where did Unicron come from in the cartoon?
5. Which origin for the Constructicons is right?
VII. General TF story questions
1. Does Cybertron have an atmosphere?
2. How big is Cybertron?
3. What's up with the female TFs?
4. But WHY do they have them at all?
5. How do TFs reproduce?
6. How did the Great War start?
7. Why do they transform? Why not just be big robots?
8. Where does Prime's trailer go when he transforms?
9. Are they immortal?
10. Is there a full Transformers history anywhere?
VIII. Beast Wars
1. Why Beast Wars?
2. Why did they change Prime and Megs?
3. Are the toys actually any good?
4. What's a Transmetal? What's a Fuzor?
5. What's the story behind the TV show?
6. Is it true that the show's writers read the newsgroup?
7. What's the setting for Beast Wars?
8. Are the Beast Warriors actually stranded on Earth? And what's the deal
with this Golden Disk?
9. What *is* the name of the Predacon ship?
10. Are the BW aliens actually the Quintessons?
11. What are "protoforms?"
12. Is there going to be a BW comic book?
13. What BW stuff can I get for my computer?
IX. Toys
1. What were the TFs based on?
2. What's the deal with red/yellow Bumblebee/Cliffjumper?
3. Why is Jetfire just like a Robotech Veritech fighter?
4. Was there a Skyfire toy?
5. I've got these weird tiny TFs. What are they?
6. What are those switches on the back of the Jumpstarters' heads for?
7. How many combiners did they make in the original TF line?
8. How many tapes did they make?
9. Did they ever make a Unicron toy?
10. Why have all the TF toys since [pick a time] sucked?
11. What's with Go-Bot Transformers?
12. What are the G2 Powermasters?
13. Was there ever a blue Bluestreak toy?
X. Cartoon
1. What's the deal with Rumble and Frenzy? Which is which?
2. Can Autobots fly or not?
3. Why'd they call Jetfire "Skyfire" and draw him different?
4. How'd they do Soundwave's voice?
5. Where can I find episodes of the show on tape?
6. What was "Five Faces of Darkness" about?
7. People have mentioned "Call of the Primitives". What was that
episode about?
8. What happened in "Dark Awakening" and "The Return of Optimus Prime"?
9. What was "Rebirth"?
10. Is there a list of the voice actors from the show?
XI. Comics
1. Who published it, and when was it in production?
2. Who wrote the comic?
3. Who drew it?
4. The whole story arc with Unicron was different in the comic, so where
did Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge come from in it? And where was
Rodimus Prime?
5. What about issue 43, "The Big Broadcast of 2006"?
6. Wasn't Spiderman in one issue? Does that mean the TFs are in the
normal Marvel Universe with the X-Men?
7. What about G.I. Joe?
8. I never got to read the G2 comics... what happened in them?
9. Where can I buy old TF comics?
XII. TF:The Movie
1. What happened in it?
2. Why weren't more characters featured?
3. Where was Snarl?
4. Why did the Insecticons keep showing up and dying?
5. Why would Astrotrain need to "jettison some weight" in space?
6. Who became Cyclonus, and why were there two of him?
7. Why'd they kill everyone?
8. Who did the voices?
9. What was the universal greeting they used?
10. Didn't they swear in it?
11. What changes were made between the theatrical and video releases?
12. Is there an uncut copy of the movie, which even has material that
was never seen in theaters?
13. Where can I get the movie on tape?
14. Where can I get the movie on laserdisc?
15. Where can I get the movie soundtrack?
16. What else is there to know about Stan Bush and Vince DiCola?
XIII. TFs outside the United States
1. Where else have TFs appeared?
2. What were the Japan-only toys like?
3. What other toys were never released in the US?
4. What were the Japanese TF cartoons like?
5. Wow! How can I get copies of the anime?
6. What's Transformers: Hero?
7. What's different between the American and British comics?
XIV. Miscellaneous Questions
1. What were those Cybertronian units of time?
2. Unicron vs. the Death Star: who would win?
3. How do you write out the transforming sound?
4. Which TFs died in the movie/comic/tv show?
5. What movie was it that had those TF cartoons in it?
XV. Closing Comments and Information
Fanzines and clubs
A note on translations
Behavior pointers: for people new to the net, or new to ATT
for established ATT regulars
XVI. Silly Random Questions
XVII. Revision History and Plans for the Future
XVIII. About the Author
XIX. Terms and Abbreviations
XX. Legalese and Special Thanks

== I. General Questions Relating to the Newsgroups

1. Why don't you guys go and get a life?

Contrary to appearances, many, and indeed most, of the regular posters
to alt.toys.transformers DO lead healthy and (somewhat) full lives. It
is true that we are holding on to our childhoods, but that's something
that most people would consider to be a good thing. :)

When it comes down to it, the main reason that most of us read and post
to alt.toys.transformers is that we simply think transforming robots are
a pretty cool idea. There's nothing wrong with adults liking toys. :P
Most TransFans also find a great deal of enjoyment in the background
story and mythos associated with TFs. There are so many interesting and
well-developed characters in the Transformer universe that many people
find it impossible not to get caught up in the legend.

Many ATT readers also read related newsgroups (such as rec.games.
mecha, and rec.arts.anime), and you may also want to check out a few of
those groups if you have not already done so.

2. What are appropriate topics for posts in ATT and ATTM?

Basically, anything related to Transformers in any way is appropriate on
ATT _except_ for sales, trades, and auctions. ATTM, ideally, should
contain nothing but sales, trades, and auctions. Sometimes marketplace
posts will prompt discussions -- if this occurs, please alter the
subject line of the thread to reflect that it is now a discussion
(something like [TALK] will do). Discussions are not forbidden in ATTM,
but they do really belong in ATT. If a marketplace discussion goes on
beyond a few posts (and does not relate directly to a sale), please move
it to ATT by crossposting. This keeps both newsgroups neat and tidy,
and tidiness was the point behind creating ATTM in the first place.

Most of the ambiguous topics are okay in either group, although there is
still a best place to post. Examples that are preferred on ATT are
requests for toy identification (since it's not a sale yet, even if you
intend to sell later) and announcements of new toys hitting store
shelves (ie: "Columbus area Wal-Mart gets BW Inferno!"). Warnings about
dubious sellers and requests for seller references are more relevant on
ATTM, where you are more likely to reach people who have dealt, or might
deal, with the individual in question. Posting one of these half-and-
half topics should not cause trouble, though, if you put it in the
"wrong" place.

Perhaps to most *inappropriate* thing to post on ATT is any personal
issues you may with another member of the NG, or with the group in
general. This will only lead to further ATT strife, something I'm sure
most ATTers could gladly do without. (see I, 11.)

3. Are there any guidelines for ATT posts?

They are about the same as on any "typical" newsgroup. Follow basic
nettiquette and you will be okay. Read "How to win friends and
influence ATT", posted regularly by H. Jameel al Khafiz (spectre@dhp.
com) for pointers on this sort of thing. Don't spread rumors unless you
*clearly* state that they are only rumors, and if possible, tell where
you heard the rumor. Make sure the article subject is appropriate and
informative. If you are posting a followup in a thread, *please* change
the subject of the thread if the topic has changed. For example:
"Cybertron tastes like chicken? (was: Unicron's motivation)".

To go further into article subjects: it is even more helpful to include
a "category" of sorts at the beginning of the subject line. Something
like [TALK], [KITBASH], [INFO], or [NEWS]. The most important thing is
to keep the subject both brief and useful. If you are asking a
question, make sure you indicate this.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Use of the qualifier "[OFF TOPIC]" is generally frowned
upon. If you *know* you're about to post something that doesn't belong in
the newsgroup, just *don't*.

Recently, mislabled posts have become an increasing problem on ATT. More
than a few times, Spoilers have been posted without appropriate
notification in the post's subject line, or with any "Spoiler Space"
included in the post. (see I, 11.) Aside from this, long-running threads
have often had the tendency of retaining their original subject lines,
even if the topic under discussion has changed several times. Paying
special attention to how your posts are labeled will help out your fellow
ATTers, and will reflect more favorably on you. In short, a good habit to
get into might be giving subject tags to *all* of your posts- it will
certainly have a positive effect on the organization of the NG.

4. What's the range of ages for people in this group?

In July '96 Joseph Neo did a statistical analisys of the TransFan ages
on ATT. His results fell into a typical bell curve with a mean of 20,
ranging from 11 to 34. Generally, it's the people who were the right
age to appreciate Transformers when they were really popular, from
around 1984 to 89 or 90. However, there are outliers on both sides, and
the range will continue to grow (mostly on the younger end) because of
Beast Wars's popularity. This question is *almost* on the "don't ask"
list, but unless we continue to get people asking about it with a fair
regularity, even though it's in the FAQ, I'll leave it off.

5. Is it okay to post binaries on this group?

Well, it's not really forbidden, but doing so is frowned upon. A
"binary" is a post consisting of many many lines of garbage characters
which, when properly decoded, becomes a file of some sort: usually a
picture or sound, but sometimes other things as well. There are
specific areas which were created for binary posts (the alt.binaries.*
hierarchy, go figure) in order to keep them out of normal newsgroups.
This is to save computing resources for sites which don't wish to carry
cumbersome binaries. Many people who use commercial internet providers
have to pay, one way or another, for the Usenet posts they read, even if
it's as simple as having to download message packets for reading
offline. Binary posts are _very_ long and take a lot of phone time,
which can mean bigger long distance bills. The main concern, though, is
that if a newsgroup gets a lot of binary posts, some net service
providers might stop offering the group altogether due to all the disk
space a group full of binaries uses up.

Because of their size a lot of people don't have access to the alt.
binaries.* groups themselves, since providers don't want to use all that
space to store them. For these reasons, if you have a file you'd like
to post, it is better to just upload it to an FTP site or send it to a
WWW page maintainer and post a message stating that you have done so.

However, if you prefer to post a file to Usenet, you can find an
appropriate group under the binaries hierarchy (alt.binaries.pictures.
cartoons, for example) to put it in and post a short note to ATT
informing us that we can find it there.

6. Where do I go to buy, sell, or trade TF toys?

Preferably, all Transformers sales and trades should occur in ATT's
branch group, alt.toys.transformers.marketplace. After a large,
somewhat messy debate over the possibility of a marketplace the newgroup
message was sent and ATTM came into being in late December, 1996. [If
your site does not carry ATTM, read question 8.] For instructions
regarding ATTM posting decorum, please read the next question as well.

An important point about auctions: if you are making bids, _please_ be
sure you send your bid over email to the person holding the auction. Do
_NOT_ post bids to the newsgroup. It annoys other readers and probably
won't get your bid recognized by the auctioneer either.

If you are looking to buy, whether you want a specific toy or are just
in a general buying mood, the easiest thing to do is look through the
current auctions and For Sale posts. If no one is selling what you're
looking for there are a few options:

Toy shows, and of course BotCon, are good places to look for old TFs.
Many of the Transformers you'll find at toy shows and conventions will
be in their box, possibly unopened, and also highly priced. They're
good places to find toys, though, and you can even get TFs that were
never released in the US at conventions. (Not familiar with any of the
non-US toys? Check out section XII.)

A frequent goldmine for TransFans are flea markets, and sometimes even
garage sales. Often at flea markets there will be tables piled with
random toys, and with a little searching you can find Transformers.
Their condition will vary of course, but you'll be able to buy them
cheap. Even if you're lucky enough to come across some foreign TFs
(which has happened -- once a lucky TransFan found three pieces
LioCeasar at a flea market) the dealer will likely have no idea what
they're worth. The important thing to remember at a flea market is to
never let on how much you want something, even a complete Fortress
Maximus. :) Act cool and slightly disinterested to get the best price.

7. Are there any guidelines for marketplace posts?

TF sales on the net are traditionally done in an auction format, but you
may certainly sell at a set price if you prefer. Make sure the subject
heading of your post is appropriate: auctions should have the word
"auction" in them, for sale and want to buy posts should say FS and WTB,
respectively. FT and WTT mean "for trade" and "want to trade". The
type of post should be placed at the beginning of the subject line,
either in brackets (eg. [AUCTION]) or followed by a colon (eg. WTB:).

To conduct an auction, make a list of what TFs you want to sell, give
some clue as to their condition, whether they are originals or G2, etc.,
etc.: anything that your buyers might want to know. You can always find
a current auction message and sort of follow its format if you're
totally clueless.

In an effort to make the auctions and sales held a little more
consistent, Burt Ward (bea...@cris.com) has written up some guidelines
for determining the conditions of TFs. This way people can know more
specifically what they're getting without worrying what the seller's
definition of "fair condition" is. This guide is highly recommended.
To get a copy, email Burt or check out his WWW page:

http://www.wvinter.net/~beavis/tf/text/tfauct21.faq
(Burt is also currently working on a "prototype" version of an ATTM FAQ.)

Remember, don't post auction bids! Email them to the auctioneer!

8. I can't read ATT.marketplace. What should I do?

If you are unable to access ATTM, the best thing you can do is write to
your news or system administrator and request that it be added locally.
Unless your admins are irresponsible they will most likely do this for you
after only one request. However, you may need to nag occasionally to get
some admins off their butts.

Depending on how your newsreader works, you might even be able to post
to newsgroups that you cannot read. If you are able, please do post to
ATTM even if you can't read it. Alternatively, you can read and post to
ATTM by visiting DejaNews at http://www.dejanews.com . DN is a newsgroup
archive site that allows free reading and posting via the world wide web.
Simply explore their site to figure out how it all works.

9. I've got some TFs but I don't know their names... can anyone help me?

Certainly. Many of the regular ATT posters (and I'm sure a lot of the
lurkers) can identify your TFs without even having to look them up.
Simply make a post with the subject "ID this/these TF" or something
similar, and you should get emails or follow-up posts about it before
too long. Even if the toys aren't _real_ TFs, be they ripoffs like
Shackwave, or just a similar toy like GoBots or MASK, or whatever, go
ahead and ask; just make sure you say that they aren't (or might not be)
Transformers so people know what to think about.

10. What is "ATT Strife?" How can it be avoided?

"ATT Strife" is just a general phrase to describe what some have called
the "downfall of ATT" or the general lack of mutual respect that many
individuals have noted on the group. It seems almost obvious that this
type of question *shouldn't* have to appear in the FAQ, but prevailing
suggestions have warranted its inclusion. To be blunt, many longtime
*and* newbie ATTers have noted that ATT has become an especially
unpleasant forum in recent months. The factors behind this impression are
not entirely clear, and as such there is no one solution to the problem.
However, there are a few obvious problems ATT has recently exhibited which
the following recommendations address.

As far as flamewars and personal insults go:

It is highly recommended that *any* individual who seeks to use ATT as a
forum to voice personal issues about other NG participants refrain from
doing so. Basically, this means take personal issues to e-mail. The
majority of ATTers simply do *not* care if person A offended person B's
delicate sensibilities, or if group X has a problem with group Y. Keep in
mind that every ATT post you make can potentially be seen by hundreds or
thousands of people around the world. Not even a marginal percentage of
these people will see any relevance in one ATTer's dislike for another.
Before you post something about someone else, try and make sure it belongs
on the group.

Off-Topic discussions:

If you are arguing or discussing a topic with someone, and that topic has
little or nothing to do with Transformers, REMOVE IT FROM THE GROUP. If a
discussion you are involved in has veered off-topic, and your best
attempts to bring it back on-topic have failed, either REMOVE IT FROM THE
GROUP or IGNORE IT. ATT can survive as an effective forum only if its
subject matter is given *nothing* less than the highest priority. This
does *not* mean that it is wrong to be punchy on occasion (heck, that's
natural), or that it is reprehensible to make the odd off-topic reference
for the sake of good humor. However, each ATTer should make it his or her
own personal responsibility to use the Newsgroup responsibly, and to set
an example by doing so. Each of us is the cause, and each of us is the
solution. ATT is a *shared* resource, forged both by our combined
enthusiasm and a respect for our fellow TransFan.

Leaving the Group:

If you have decided to stop reading the Newsgroup, ne'er to return, please
do not feel the need to post an emotional tirade about your reasons for
doing so. Most assuredly, many fellow ATTers may be sad to see you go,
and may miss your insight into the group's discussions. However, ATT is
not so formal an environment that "Hellos" and "Goodbyes" are necessary.
If you will no longer be subscribing to ATT, simply stop reading and/or
posting. This shows a respect for the integrity of the forum, as well as
a respect for the time and attention of your fellow ATTers. (Also, it
will keep you from getting egg on your face if you decide to return after
all. :)

Of course, if you'll be unavailable for a period of time and are involved
in a project/deal/discussion with other ATTers, there's nothing wrong with
posting an "I'll be out of the country" notice. :)

On posting Spoilers responsibly:

A "Spoiler" can be loosely defined as any bit of information that might
reveal plot points in a work of fiction, if that information is not yet
public knowledge. Essentially, posting a spoiler about a TV show might
reveal aspects of the plot that most people aren't aware of yet. As far
as what is a spoiler and what isn't a spoiler, use your common sense.
Mentioning what planet the Beast Wars story takes place on may not be a
spoiler, as it's been common knowledge for a while now. However, if a
major character dies in this week's BW episode, it's likely that more than
a few ATTers might not know yet, so discussion of the matter will likely
involve Spoilers.
As such, it's a good idea to appropriately label your post if you think
you may be discussing a Spoiler. Using the Subject tag "[Spoilers:]" will
help ATT readers identify what they are reading, so that they can avoid
your post if they wish to remain surprised. Also, make use of "Spoiler
Space," and include a good twenty-or-so carriage returns (blank lines)
before the text of your post. This is an important point, as some
newsreaders will automatically open and display the first new article
retrieved. In such cases, Spoiler Space will help hide the text of your
post from accidental reading.
Use of Spoiler Space and the [Spoiler:] tag will allow you to post
discussions about exciting new stories, without exposing plot points to
other TransFans who are unaware of them. Again, use your common sense as
far as spoilers are concerned; depending on the medium involved, a spoiler
might take a week or two (or more) to become common knowledge.

== II. Things ATTers Might Mention ===

1. What is FIRRIB / FIBRIR?

FIRRIB is an acronym for "Frenzy Is Red Rumble Is Blue". It's a topic
that has historically caused quite a stir on ATT Please do not
mention this topic. It's more trouble than it's worth, and no good will
come of its discussion.

FIRRIB/FIBRIR is a matter of dispute because of inconsistent coloring
between the toys and the cartoon show. If you go by the toys, Rumble is
red and black, while Frenzy is two shades of blue. On the TV show,
however, Rumble was purplish and blue, and Frenzy, who was almost never
featured, was red and black.

To make things even more confusing, sometimes they were both shown as
blue, or both as red. The comic book, near the beginning, often had
inconsistent coloring as well, and in fact both Frenzy and Rumble
sometimes looked sort of blackish. Also, the G2 Go-Bot version of
Frenzy is actually purple, perhaps in an effort to solve the red/blue
controversy... ;)

What it really comes down to is whether you consider the show or the
toys to be canon. For most people this depends on which they saw first.
One thing you will learn about TFs, though, is that there really is no
pure canon.

2. What's a TF MUSH?

A MUSH is an online game which many people can play at once. The
letters stand for "Multi-User Shared Hallucination." MUSHes are very
similar to MUDs, in that people connect to it and control characters
which interact with other players and the environment. However, while
the focus on MUDs is generally on fighting, MUSHes tend to be much more
plot-oriented and focus on role-playing. By that turn, *Transformers*
MUSHes allow you to "assume the role" of a particular Transformers
character, allowing you to act as that character would throughout a series
of events.

For an index of TF MUSHes, along with a list of their corresponding
contacts, visit The Transformers MUSH List:
http://www.tly.mudservices.com/mushlist.html

3. What's the TF Purity Test?

After reading through several "You know you're obsessed with TFs
when..." posts, Diana Calder (az...@freenet.carleton.ca) put together a
fan purity test in the style of the Animaniacs newsgroup's purity test
which was in the style of the normal purity test. Basically, it's a
long list of questions, some of which are quite silly, and you count
your number of "yes" answers to get your score. You can pick it up off
of Iggy Drougge's web page, at: http://www.canit.se/~optimus/tf/purity.txt

4. What's the TransFan code some people are using?

Originally created for us by Lizard (liz...@dnai.com), TransFan code
goes along the lines of Geek Code, which you may or may not be familiar
with. This isn't a way to encrypt messages, but a string of letters and
other characters to put in your .sig (or elsewhere) which summarize your
TransFan info. For example, the letter G is followed by a series of
pluses, the number of which express your "General love of TFs". There are
other letters for MUSHing, fanfic, toy collection size, etc.

H. Jameel al Khafiz (spe...@dhp.com) has created a TransFan code web page
at this URL: http://www.dhp.com/~spectre/Tformers/tfcode.html

5. What should I not ask about on ATT?

There are a few main topics (Threads That Would Not Die, TTWND) that are
good to avoid. These are questions, statements, etc., that have been
discussed so thoroughly, or are so incredibly pointless, that even one
post about them is a waste of bandwidth. Please respect other people's
wishes and do not bring these up unless you are _confident_ that you
have a completely new and fascinating idea to contribute. If you feel
that this FAQ is not informative enough on any "forbidden" topic, please
email me (te...@mindspring.com) and explain what is lacking. I will
improve that part of the FAQ to spare ATT from watching a TTWND remerge.

1) Unicron vs. ________. See XIV, 2.
2) FIRRIB / FIBRIR. See II, 1.
3) Scenes cut from the movie. See X, 10-12.
4) Brawn is Dead/Brawn is Alive. See II, 6.

6. What's this whole "Brawn" thing about?

In short, it's about the longest series of threads you'll ever see on ATT,
aside from "Decepticons/Autobots are Good/Evil." There's a long-running
argument among ATTer TransFans regarding whether or not the Autobot
character "Brawn" was killed in Transformers: The Movie. Some fans feel
that his death is a given (he was shot by a gun-mode Megatron), while some
others feel that Brawn's proven toughness would've ensured his survival.
The argument has gone both ways several times, but it most often ends up
in flamewars and bouts of mutual disdain. For the good of ATT, it's most
likely not a great thing to bring up.

== III. Getting Info and Stuff ========

1. Are there any TF WWW or ftp sites?

Yes! There are _tons_ of Transformers sites on the net. The number of TF
WWW sites alone is enormous and still growing. It's difficult, if not
impossible, to keep up with every new TF site that appears. In an effort
to streamline the FAQ and more effectively direct readers toward online TF
resources, it's recommended you take a look at the "Complete TF Listing
Page;" http://pages.infinit.net/renaud/CTLP.html The "CTLP" is the most
expansive TF Index site on the 'Net, organized alphabetically and updated
on a frequent basis. You should be able to find the information you're
looking for there (be it FTP, WWW, etc.), or at least find information on
the information you're looking for. ;-)

In an effort to bring together some of the TF Web pages out there, Phil
"SkyJammer" Zeman has created a Transformers WebRing. The main page
for the ring is www.geocities.com/Area51/1070/tfring.html .

2. Where can I get a list of all the TFs that were made? Where can I get
specific TF toy information?

There is an extremely comprehensive toy list undergoing constant
evolution by Robert Jung (rj...@netcom.com). It lists all toys from the
US, Europe, and Japan, along with years they were released and short
descriptions.

Andrew FrankeL (side...@earthlink.net) has managed to piece
together a checklist of sorts of the Japanese serial numbers of all the
TFs (that is, the C-XXX and D-XXX ID's from the Japanese toy boxes).
The list is available at Steve Stonebraker's page:
http://cc.owu.edu/~srstoneb/tf/index.html

You might also want to look at M Sipher's (msi...@aol.com) "That Big
Transformers Variations List", which enumerates the many toy variations
which have been released. (Only *toy* variations, not packaging vars.)

"The Ark Archives" has a wide array of catalogue and TF toy images
available; the goal of this site is provide a picture of every
Transformers toy, merchandise artifact, advertisement, and prototype made.
The URL for this site is:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/pratchett/169/index.html

"The Transformers Collector" is also a good source of information
regarding Transformers toys. The site maintains an image archive of
specific TF toy items as well as other "collectible" TF merchandise.
The URL for the site is: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/6215/

3. Where can I get a list of all the TF tech specs?

David "Hex" Tashjian is the keeper of the "Official Unofficial
Transformers Tech Spec Listing". It's pretty exhaustive, and is available
at Hex's web site:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/6798/tfs-idx.htm

Also, Lewis Brooks (BROO...@rhea.bentley.edu) wrote a tech spec viewing
program called Tech Spec 2000. It can be found at:
http://users.aol.com/autobot999/tf/techspec.htm

Jon and Karl Hartman have archive of tech specs images, which can be found
at: http://www.noblecan.org/~jhartman/tf/tsarchive/tsarchive.html

4. Where can I get a list of all the TF fan fiction?

Currently, Suzanne M. Ferree is responsible for maintaining the fanfic
list. This list is available from her WWW page,
http://www.cyberspace.org/~suz/beta.html , or by sending her email at the
addresses listed below. The list is rather large, as a lot of TF fanfic
has been written.

Suzanne asks (and this is important!) that when you post fanfic, if you
want it to get on her list, that you include the word "fanfic" in your
post subject. Like, "[FANFIC]Unicron vs. the Death Star". That makes
it easier for her, and for other readers as well.

Suzanne's e-mail addresses are:
winter/spring: sfe...@s-cwis.unomaha.edu
summer: suz@.cyberspace.org

If you are interested in reading any of the fanfic, a *large* library of
titles is available at http://www.home.aone.net.au/charl/charl.htm ,
"Charl's Transformers Fanfic Page."

5. Where can I get a list of all the TF cartoon episodes?

Aaron Marsh (abm...@cs.rit.edu) has compiled a US TF episode guide,
sorted by approximate airdates. The list includes a brief summary for
each episode.

An HTML version of this guide is avalable at:
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~abm4111/tfepgd.html

A TEXT version of this guide is available at:
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~abm4111/tfepgd.txt

Marek Kozubal (prog...@max.tiac.net) has a fairly complete list on his
WWW page: http://staff.feldberg.brandeis.edu/~progrmer/transformers/
This list has all titles, and additional information (writers, etc.) for
certain episodes.

6. Where can I get a list of TF quotes?

Naomi Novik (sha...@brown.edu) compiled a list of favorite TF quotes a
while ago, but didn't have the time to keep it up to date. More recently
Robert Powers (repo...@artsci.wustl.edu) took the initiative and
reorganized the list himself.

The list is available from Burt Ward's WWW page:
http://www.wvinter.net/~beavis/tf/vault.html

M Sipher (msi...@ibm.net) has compiled an impressive list of quotes from
the Beast Wars show, which can be obtained here:
http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/tf/BW-Quotes.html

7. How about a TF encyclopedia or something?

Such a project is currently being undertaken by Stanley Lui
(ss...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca). Stan has basic information on nearly all of
the articles now, but is still looking for details on most topics.

Major articles in the encyclopedia are on specific characters, events,
and places from all TF fiction continuities. Although it focuses on the
American comic and cartoons, there are articles based on the UK Comic
and Japanese cartoons as well. For each item listed there will
eventually be a general info section, and then a history for each
continuity. For example, the article on Optimus Prime will start with
"Op is the leader of the Autobots, blah blah blah" and then have
subsections with his life story from each continuity.

The TF Ency is provided mainly as a reference tool for people who need
background information for FanFic writing, and for other TF fans who are
just trying to remember the name of a place or what a certain gun did.

The TF Encyclopedia is located at:
http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~sslui/tf-ency.html

On a similar note, here are a few other general Transformers reference
materials:

Aaron Marsh (abm...@vaxb.isc.rit.edu) has a painstakingly compiled list
of *every* TF appearance in the American comics, and it is a vailable at:
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~abm4111/comchar.txt

Sarai Feria has done the same for the American cartoons. The appearances
are organized by character, and list every issue / episode in which each
character appeared. The list is available at:
http://www.canit.se/~optimus/tf/character.txt

== IV. General TF Questions ===========

1. When did the TFs first come out?

The very first appearance of the Transformers was an animated TV
commercial for the Marvel comic book. This first aired in the spring of
1984. The first issue of the comic itself was dated as September 1984.
However, at the time of this writing Marvel is dating their comics about
2 months ahead of when they hit the shelves, so it's likely that issue
one was actually released in July '84. The first batch of toys were
released in spring '84, and the original three episodes of the show aired
several months later. The cartoon then went weekly (on Sunday
mornings in most places) a little before Christmas of 1984, and then
daily in 1985.

2. Are there any TF conventions?

Since 1994 there has been an annual BotCon (the name is derived from the
words AutoBOT and DeceptiCON, placing the obligatory "con" at the end of
the name) held every summer. The first BotCon was run by Jon and Karl
Hartman in Ft. Wayne IN. The Hartmans own the copyright to the name
"BotCon", and have final approval over who will run it each year. In
1995, Raksha organized the second BotCon in Dayton OH, and BotCon
'96 was run by Men-In-Black Collectibles in Chicago. BotCon '97 was
run by 3H Enterprises (The Hartman's/Glen Hallit's company) in Rochester,
NY on July 18-20, 1997.

BotCon traditions include dealer tables for toys,
comics, fanzines and art, showings of US and Japanese cartoons and the
movie, panel discussions about things like TF fanfic, toy repair lessons,
art, trivia contests, and a limited-edition TF figure available only to
people at the convention. In other words, BotCon is great. :)

BotCon '98 promises to be exciting as well! Aside from a whole bunch of
TF voice actors, writers from the Beast Wars television show and the
writer of "Transformers: The Movie" will be present. Also scheduled to
appear are TF comic craftsmen Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman, as well as
Vince DiCola, composer of TF:TM's popular score.
Information about BotCon '98 is available from the BotCon homepage, at:
http://www.noblecan.org/~jhartman/tf/botcon98/botcon98.html
(The show will take place in Ahaheim, CA from June 19-21, 1998.)

The Men-In-Black, the organizers of BotCon '96, also have a more
toy-oriented show in the works for the Fall of 1998. Continuing with
the "Transcon" theme developed in 1997, "Transcon III" is sceduled to take
place in September, 1998. More information can be obtained from:
http://htonline.htonline.com/Men_in_Black/transc.html

3. Are there any TF clubs?

There are a few major TF clubs that are still active today. Information
on some of these clubs is listed below. (Note: If you have a TF club you
would like to have listed in the FAQ, please feel free to contact me. :)

Transmasters (International):
-----------------------------
Tony Buchanan Tony Klepack Andy Dornan
1215 S Andrews Rd 9637 76th Ave. 9 Cuckoo Lane
Yorktown IN 47396 Edmonton Alberta Stubbington Fareham, Hants
USA TGC OK4 Canada PO14 3PJ England

TransMasters Homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/8034/
transm...@geocities.com.

TransMasters UK:
http://www.geocities.com/~tmuk/
webmaster: Graham Thomson.
Representative: Andy Dornan.

The Survivors:
--------------
Liane Elliot (Survivors Leader)
ele...@masterpiece.com

The Alliance: Transformer Fan Club :
------------------------------------
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/4260/alliance.html
TCD...@aol.com

Transformers Fans of The World (TFFW):
--------------------------------------
http://www.tffw.com
rum...@1starnet.com

In addition, there are many continuing TF fanzines and fan-made comic
books besides the ones published directly by these clubs. For a little
more info on them, please read section XV.

4. What's happening with the current TF line?

As should be rather easy to see, the main force of TF toys is now the
"Beast Wars" line. The two warring factions are the Maximals (good
guys) and the Predacons (bad guys). Both sides transform from robots
into animal and "animal inspired" alternate modes. An excellent computer
animated BW television show is aired two times a week, a video game is
out for the Sony Playstation, and the toys are a consistent top-seller in
the action figure market. According to Tomart's Action Figure Digest
(March, 1998), Beast Wars is the number six action figure line in the US
based on Unit Figure Sales.

Plans for BW's future include an expansion of the current "Transmetals"
and "Fuzors" sub-lines, and a slew of Japanese-release Beast Wars toys
designed by Takara.

Please see section VIII for detailed Beast Wars information.

For those interested in contacting Hasbro or Kenner, their phone number
is 1-800-255-5516, and their WWW address is http://www.hasbrotoys.com

== V. TF related products =============

1. Are there any TF video games?

Oh, yes. There are a few official games, and a lot of fan-made ones.

Although there have not been any official Transformers video games made
for a long time, a BW game for the Sony Playstation has finally been
released. The gameplay is similar in style to games like "MDK" and "Tomb
Raider," and basically involves running your chosen BW character around
and shooting at stuff. The game features nearly all of the major
characters from the first season of the BW series, and most playable
characters can transform into their beast modes at your command! :) The
game was scheduled to be released for the IBM PC, but as of March '98 the
game is still "vaporware."
More information on the BW game can be found at its official site:
http://www.beastwars.com

Some time ago there was a TF game made for the Japanese FamiCom (their
equivalent of our original Nintendo Entertainment System). The player
controlled Ultra Magnus and had to take out droves of Decepticon jets
and tanks in a Metroid-ish platform game manner.

To go further back than that: There were 2 different games released for
the Commodore 64. The original, merely called "The Transformers", was a
basic platform game. According to various sources, however, your mission
is to find 4 energon cubes which are scattered throughout the level and
bring them back to your home base. When you get the energon cubes back to
your base, they turn into parts of an Autobot symbol, and the object is to
complete that symbol. There are several different Autobots available to
control, and they all have cool transformation animations. Also, all
the Autobots fly... (See X 2.)

The second game was called "The Battle for Cybertron" and, like some of
the TF books (V, 4) had an ambiguous setting, as both Hot Rod _and_
Rodimus Prime were available to control. Your mission in this game was
to prevent the Decepticons from taking over various places on Earth, and
to stop them from building their ultimate weapon. There was a map
screen with about 15 different places on it, and you could send about 8
different Autobots to any of them, depending on where the Decepticons
were attacking (they tended to go to the same locations every time the
game was played, though, and some areas were never used at all). Once
your Autobot was there, the game switched to a first-person view, and
you had to move a crosshair to shoot at the nearly endless Decep jets
that flew onto the screen. You could be hit by their missiles, and if
you got hit too much your screen would "crack up" and you'd have to
bring another bot in. There was also a nearly impossible part where you
had to stop a tyrannosaur from stepping on the space shuttle.

For people interested in playing the above Commodore 64 games, both of
them, as well as C64 emulators for most platforms to play them, are
available on the Web.

Fabian Borges' Page, at http://tuanix.simplenet.com/rodimus/c-64/ , has
the original "More Than Meets the Eye" game incuded in a downloadable
games pak. His page also features a few links for downloading C64
emulators.

Iggy Drougge's WWW page has the second C64 TF game available for download,
at: http://www.canit.se:8000/~optimus/tfpics/Transformers.lha (make sure
to save the file with its .lha extension intact).

To download Frodo, a popular C64 emulator (which may allow you to run C64
software on your platform of choice), visit The Official Frodo Homepage
at: http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/FRMain.html

Also, Andrew Southam has completed some Transformers themed .WAD files
for Doom and Doom 2. He has a sound patch for both games (mainly
digitized movie sounds) and a graphics patch that changes some of the
enemies, and the player graphic in multiplayer games. He's working on
making these more complete. The patches are available on the web at:
http://www.bee.net/Optimus

There are also a few TF Quake pages available, offering TF Mod and Skin
files for Quake:
http://www.cs.buffalo.edu/~trs2/TFQuake/TFQuake.html
http://www.bee.net/optimus/tfquake.htm
http://members.aol.com/joshbot/tfquake.html

2. Is there a TF role-playing game?

In a manner of speaking, yes. There are extensions to existing rpg's
that make Transformers workable characters.

Dave Van Domelen has written a robot-oriented role-playing system called
RoboMACs which can be easily applied to Transformers. His email address
is "dva...@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu" , and he should be able to help
you out with RoboMACs info. :)

Mark Chase (mch...@cdc.net) has written a Mekton Z+ supplement to cover
the Transformers which provides a conversion section telling you how to
change tech specs directly to Mekton stats. This game is more stat-
based than RoboMACs. Information about this can be obtained from Mark's
web page, http://www.meta-earth.com/mearth.html

3. What were those TF trading cards like?

At the time of the TF's big popularity, Milton Bradley released a set of
Transformers Action Cards. There were 8 cards and a sticker in each
pack. Overall there were 192 cards and 24 stickers. Some cards
featured the tech specs and profiles of TFs on the text side and the
picture from that toy's box on the other, and the other cards had stills
from the 1st season of TF cartoons with text describing the action.
There were also two checklists, cards 96 and 192.

There were slight variations on many of the cards. Most of these
variations were differently colored backgrounds on the profile cards,
although there were also some flipped and miscolored cartoon cards.

Posting a message on ATTM to the effect that you'd like to sell, trade, or
buy cards will probably get you a response or two.

4. What TF books are available?

There are indeed a great many Transformers books out there; but if they
were all listed in the FAQ it would be quite a few pages longer than it is
now. :) Raksha's TF Artifact List has an extensive number of TF books
listed in it (as well as many other TF items).

The TF Artifact List is available from Rob Jung's TF page, at:
http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/tf/TF-artifacts.txt

Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ, Copyright 1998, Steve Stonebraker/Tengu.
(Full legal information is located at the end of Part Four.)

--Steve-o

Steve Stonebraker | alt.toys.transformers FAQ Keeper | Help end email spam!
srst...@bu.edu | http://cc.owu.edu/~srstoneb/ | http://www.cauce.org

[Steve-o Stonebraker]

Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ
Part Two: Questions and Answers II

Version 5.0

== Part Two Contents ==================

== VI. Continuity Issues ==============

1. Why doesn't anything agree with anything else?

As many readers will be aware, there are serious story discrepancies
between the TF cartoon and comic book, and sometimes even between the
cartoon and itself (and more rarely, the comic and itself). Many fans
enjoy finding ways to explain the discrepancies within the cartoon to
make everything still fit together, and for the most part they are
successful.

The important thing to remember when comparing the comic book and
cartoon series is that they have very little to do with each other, except
for having mostly the same characters and a few similar themes.
(Transforming robots from Cybertron are one example. ;)

The current Beast Wars series seems to derive some of its source material
from the comics (mentions of Primus, etc.), but also has clear links to
the cartoon series (Starscream's appearance). At this stage in the show's
evolution, it appears that BW's story editors are picking and choosing
from the existing TF continuities, focusing on what best benefits the
current story. While it has been rumored that the show's writers are
leaning toward the comic, the BW story up until now has been noncommittal
as far as previous TF continuities go. Beast Wars' continuity is
basically a whole new ball of wax.

2. What's the basic origin from the comics?

Way way back at the beginning of time, there was a god of chaos called
Unicron. He had an insatiable hunger, and a hatred of all of existence.
As there was no power in the universe to oppose him, he managed to
consume everything that was, except for one tiny microscopic dot. This
dot exploded (a la Big Bang) into the universe we know today. Unicron
was enraged and immediately began to eat again, but this time another
god named Primus fought him. Their powers were of equal measure, so
they fought for ages, with neither gaining the upper hand, but as they
fought they wreaked havoc on the universe around them. Primus saw this,
and in a desperate attempt to trick Unicron, he plunged himself into a
metallic asteroid. Thinking that Primus was indeed up to something,
Unicron also dove into a metallic asteroid so that Primus would not have
an advantage. However, Unicron soon discovered that he was trapped in
his asteroid, as Primus was also trapped within his.

As the millennia passed, Primus realized that he could alter the shape
of his prison, and so began to form his asteroid into a planet, and the
planet into a race of beings which he hoped would one day be able to
stand against Unicron, should he ever escape from his asteroid. These
beings were the Transformers. The Creation Matrix which allows
Transformers to make more of their kind contains a bit of the essence of
Primus' spirit.

Primus and Unicron possessed a mental link, so Primus knew that Unicron
had also learned to shape his prison. While Primus had created an army
to fight for him, Unicron had turned his entire asteroid into a new
body, a giant replica of his old form. He could change his shape from
this to one which more resembled the original asteroid as well. So that
Unicron would be unable to find him and his children until enough time
had passed that they would be able to fight against Unicron, Primus fell
into a deep sleep, basically severing the mental link. Thus the
Transformers were created on their planet Cybertron, with almost no
memory of their origin other than myth.

3. What's the basic origin from the TV show?

Millions of years ago, the Quintessons were the heads of a huge galactic
corporation. They built the planet of Cybertron as a huge factory in
which to build robotic slaves. There were two basic models: household and
entertainment robots ("consumer goods"), and warrior / gladiator robots
("military hardware"). Whenever one of their slaves began to show signs
of true intelligence, the Quintessons had them immediately smelted down to
be used as raw materials for the next line of robots.

Eventually, however, more and more of the robots began to gain sentience,
and they started a revolt against the Quintessons which culminated in the
Quints fleeing Cybertron for their lives, and the Transformers taking
control of the planet. It was sometime after this that the first
hostilities arose between Autobot and Deception.

4. So where did Unicron come from in the cartoon?

Unicron's origin was not discussed in the TF Movie, although that was
when he first appeared. His origin was not revealed until the post-
movie ep, "Call of the Primitives".

In the cartoon storyline, Unicron was built by an alien named Primacron.
He built Unicron to destroy worlds and leave the universe as a blank
slate for his use. Unfortunately, Unicron revolted against his control
and started to eat various planets for his own amusement. In the TV
show, there was no special bond between Unicron and the Matrix of
Leadership as there was between the comic Unicron and the Creation
Matrix. The Matrix of Leadership just happened to be the most powerful
object in the universe, the only thing which could stop him, and he knew
it. That is why he wanted it destroyed.

It is also interesting to note that, according to the Transformers
Universe comics (which were essentially reprints of Marvel's original
character "bible"), the Quintessons were the *minions* of Unicron. Their
job was essentially to hunt down those who escaped Unicron's wrath, and
then summarily execute them. Truthfully speaking, it is unclear how
closely this notion can be integrated into either the comic *or* cartoon
continuity. However, it's an intriguing sidenote which leads to some
interesting possibilities when resolving the cartoon with the comics.

5. Which origin for the Constructicons is right?

This is the ultimate example of the cartoon's tendency toward continuity
flubs. Through the course of the American cartoon, the Constructicons
are featured in three contradictory origin plots.

Their first appearance was in "Heavy Metal Wars". In this episode,
Megatron says something to the effect of "they were worth the effort it
took to build them here in these caves". This implies that they were
built on Earth by the Decepticons.

In "The Secret of 0Omega Supreme" Omega relates a story to Optimus Prime
concerning his old life on Cybertron as a Guardian Robot. He had at one
point been friends with the Constructicons, but when Megatron released a
device called the Robo-Smasher, it caught them and made them become
evil. They then destroyed Crystal City, which Omega was sworn to protect,
and he became their sworn enemy. This implies that they were on
Cybertron long ago, and Megatron turned them into Decepticons.

While Rodimus Prime journeys through the Matrix in "Five Faces of
Darkness", one of the flashbacks he sees is the moment of Megatron's
"birth". He is seen being put together by the Constructicons. This
implies that they were on Cybertron long, LONG ago, and built Megatron
themselves.

There have been attempts to reconcile this huge mess, but they were not
very convincing. While it *is* possible that the Constructicons existed
far back in Cybertron's past and switched sides a few times, it's easier
to just call it a mistake and move on. :)

== VII. General TF Story Questions ====

1. Does Cybertron have an atmosphere?

Undoubtedly. It is obvious that there is an atmosphere there after
Spike travels to Cybertron and breathes without a space suit, but some
people maintain that it did not have an atmosphere until the TV episode
"The Ultimate Doom". In that episode (actually a three-part story)
Megatron drew Cybertron into orbit around the Earth. They claim that at
that time it picked up some of Earth's atmosphere. However, there is
more evidence to show that it has always had its own air. Although it
might have been some mixture of gasses unbreathable by humans before
TUD, there is little doubt that an atmosphere of some sort existed:

Firstly, there is apparently sound on Cybertron, and you can't have
sound without a medium. Secondly, even in the first episode of the
show, the Decepticon "triangle" jets were clearly shaped
aerodynamically, which implies an atmosphere. Thirdly, according to the
TV origin of the TFs, Cybertron was originally a factory planet run by
the Quintessons, who are (more or less) organic. Therefore, Cybertron
must have had an atmosphere or the Quints would not have been able to
survive there. Fourth (fourthly?), oxygen is needed for any combustion
which might have taken place on any planet. Although it could be argued
that the Autobots ran on energon until coming to Earth (when they had to
resort to using our primitive fossil fuels), jet engines for the 'con
seekers and rockets for spaceships would need oxygen to operate.

2. How big is Cybertron?

Again, this is a matter of continuity choice:

Issue #1 of the TF comic stated that Cybertron is "Saturn-sized". Of
course, a Saturn-sized planet made of metal rather than hydrogen would
have an incredible gravitational pull, and would in fact be *many*
orders of magnitude past the limits for becoming a black hole.
Thankfully, the TF mythos already provides us with an explanation for
why it is not: Cybertron is not solid. Its interior is a honeycomb of
corridors and chambers. And this makes sense -- most asteroids, in our
solar system at least, are much smaller than the Earth. Unless Primus
was doing the ol' subspace jig, he couldn't avoid making Cybertron
largely porous when expanding its radius to Jovian standards.

In the cartoon continuity, Cyberton's size is never clearly dictated,
although "The Ultimate Doom" provides a good basis for estimate.
Judging from the visuals in TUD, a story-arc in which Cybertron is
placed into Earth orbit, the consensus is that Cybertron is about the
size of our moon. Cartoon Cybertron also contains a good amount of
empty space, although probably not as much as Comic Cybertron.

3. What's up with the female TFs?

In the episode "The Search for Alpha Trion", a band of female Autobots
was featured on Cybertron. In that episode, Prime and several other
Autobots went to Cybertron to save the females from Shockwave, who had
captured the female leader, Elita-1. Elita was an obvious love interest
for Optimus Prime. The other female Autobots also seemed to be paired
up with their respective "guys".

Also in this episode, Elita is almost killed, but Alpha Trion informs
Prime that he alone possesses the correct energy interface to save her,
and so Prime "interfaces" with Elita and transfers energy though a cable
which oddly goes from the area of his lower torso to the area of hers.
;) When Alpha informs Prime that only his power module will properly
interface with hers, Prime is shocked, stating that "only my creator
could know that".

The other episode that had Elita-1 was called "War Dawn", in which the
Aerialbots go back in time to the golden age of Cybertron and meet a
robot named Orion Pax. At the end of the episode, Alpha Trion turns Pax
into Optimus Prime, and turns Pax's girlfriend-bot into Elita-1.

There was also an episode entitled "Enter the Nightbird" in which a
human scientist invented a ninja-like robot with clear female curves to
it, named Nightbird. This robot had no personality, although it was
rather dangerous. Megatron captured and took control of Nightbird, but
in the end she was recaptured by the Autobots and deactivated.

In TF:The Movie, and in the post-movie eps, there was another female
Autobot named Arcee. She was pink, had a tiny waist, and transformed
into a futuristic convertible. In the movie, she seemed to be
interested (mutually) in Hot Rod, but in all the post-movie eps, she and
Springer were an obvious item. There was also a female in "Forever is a
Long Time Coming" named Beta, a mint-green colored copy of Arcee in
"Fight of Flee", and a companion-bot for Wreck-Gar in "The Big Broadcast
of 2006".

Arcee was featured in the UK comics, although she was built specifically
for the purpose of improving relations between TFs and humans and did
not represent the existence of either male or female TFs on Cybertron.
In addition, the Japanese HeadMaster Minerva was characterized as a
female both in the Masterforce cartoon _and_ in her toy incarnation
(this toy was released with a sex change under the name of Nightbeat in
the US). Also, one of the two engines for the GodMaster Overlord was
female, and possibly a Japanese MicroMaster as well.

The first female TF toy released in the United States was Nightracer,
the BotCon '95 exclusive toy. Nightracer's tech spec card was written
by the Con's organizer, Raksha. With the coming of Beast Wars, however,
we now have "official" female TFs -- the first was the Predacon
Blackarachnia, followed by the Maximal Airazor.

Originally, there was some debate over how to spell the name "Elita-1."
With the release of the Takara-sponsored Elita-1 resin-cast model kit,
this issue seems to have been "semi-officially" resolved. The kit itself
is indentified as "Elita-1," and the accompanying box art corroborates
this. Basically, the "Elita-1" name is now official, seeing as Takara
"signed off" on the model kit's release.

4. But WHY do they have them at all?

Personally, I think it's a little bit silly to force genders upon
robots. I do like the female TFs as characters, and I admit that to be
socially responsible, it is important for Hasbro / Marvel / Sunbow to
introduce females. Technically, however, I still think it's silly. :)

All of the non-obviously-female TFs were quite clearly modeled after
males, and I feel that this makes a certain amount of sense. Since the
TFs are all fighting a war, it follows that they would be built big and
strong. When we look at them we see big, wide frames, and broad
shoulders: characteristics which we identify as "male". To me, TFs
don't really have gender at all. We simply identify them as male
because to us they look more like males than females.

When following the cartoon continuity, it's helpful to remember that the
Quintessons were selling Transformers as consumer products throughout the
galaxy. As any good marketer knows, it helps to adapt what you're selling
to the needs and desires of the buying public. Assuming that the Quints
were selling to humanoid, sexually dimorphic beings, it's possible that
the first female Transformers were designed for a specific "target
market." In essence, the Transformers themselves may not be "sexed" per
se, but they may have had gender roles *applied* to them as part of a
business scheme. :)
On the Beast Wars series, the characters Blackarachnia and Airazor seem to
be keeping with the established "female TFs" trends. Blackarachnia has
been specifically referred to as "female," and Airazor shared an obvious
more-than-friends relationship with Tigatron.

5. How do TFs reproduce?

There has been a lot of discussion on this question. There are several
different answers provided by "official" sources, and there is also a
lot of speculation by fans.

In the original comic book series, Transformers could only reproduce by
building new TF bodies and infusing them with life via the Creation
Matrix. In the Generation 2 comics, an alternative method of "budding"
was introduced which is explained in detail in XI, 8.

In the cartoon, on the other hand, it sometimes seemed enough to simply
build new robots. The Dinobots, Technobots, and Trypticon are examples
of this. When Starscream built the Combaticons in "Starscream's
Brigade", he actually only built bodies and downloaded the personalities
of Cybertronian criminals which were on file somewhere into those
bodies. However, when the Aerialbots were created they had to be given
life by Vector Sigma, a supercomputer at the heart of Cybertron.

A more complete list of TF reproduction methods has been compiled by
"Playground Psychotic" (tenor...@psnw.com). It's available at:
http://www.canit.se/~optimus/tf/reproduction.txt

6. How did the Great War start?

This depends on which story you are following.

In the comics, the war began simply and realistically because some of
the Transformers were power hungry and hostile. They formed a group
called the Decepticons, and began to make strikes against Cybertron's
cities in order to take it over. Transformers who opposed this formed
another band called the Autobots and fought against the Decepticons.
This idea is explored in more detail in a UK annual text story called
"State Games".

In the cartoon, the war began soon after the Quintessons were driven
from the planet. The warrior robots were in general more hostile, and
wanted to control the planet. They began to call themselves
Decepticons. The household robots, who called themselves Autobots,
tried to resist this takeover.

7. Why do they transform? Why not just be big robots?

Following the comic book timeline, Primus incorporated the ability to
transform in his children to mimic the shape-changing method which
Unicron used.

On the TV show there are a few slightly conflicting answers given. In
MTMTE Spike asked Trailbreaker about transformation and gets the
following answer: "Disguise! Besides, it sure beats walking." Another
answer, put forth during FFoD, is that transforming was a technological
innovation which the Autobots "discovered" as a secret weapon to use
against the Decepticons, who had superior firepower. It's that "robots
in disguise" thing. This advantage was quickly turned against them,
however, when the Decepticons also began to use this technology. Of
course, in this same episode when the very first Autobots were shown,
even before they knew how to transform they had wheels on their
shoulders... :)

8. Where does Prime's trailer go when he transforms?

Although it wasn't ever explained in the TV show, the generally accepted
(or invented, rather) theory among TransFans is that each Transformer
has their own "compartment" in subspace. The TF can teleport anything
to or from subspace at will for storage purposes. Each Transformer is
"frequency locked" to a certain pocket of subspace, so there isn't any
possibility of a transformer stealing weapons that were placed into
subspace by another transformer. Subspace storage is the "official"
explanation used on the TF MUSHes.

Subspace can also be applied to size changes which accompany the mode
changes of several Transformers, such as Soundwave and Megatron. The
mass which they lose when shrinking can be stored in subspace, and drawn
out again upon transformation. Although Megatron can clearly choose
between a normal and giant size when in gun mode, we never see Soundwave
as a 12 foot tall tape deck, or either of them as a one foot robot.
Options of size in various modes therefore seem predetermined, probably
at their time of creation (or in some TF's cases, the time of their
redesign at the hands of the Ark). Also, a Transformer has never been
shown walking around in any in-between size, so it would seem that the
mass transfer with subspace is all or nothing.

The subspace theory seems to be consistent with the cartoon, and is even
supported by a scene in "Demon's Swamp", when Kickback's gun suddenly
materializes in his hand in plain sight for no apparent reason, as well
as one of the post-movie commercial bumpers in which Blurr transforms
and his weapon appears in his hand. In the UK comic story "Dinobot
Hunt", Jazz opens a hidden compartment in his hip from which he removes
a small version of his gun that grows to its full size for use. In this
case, although the gun is stored in the real world, there is still a
size change to contend with, and the subspace theory can explain it.

Of course, sometimes in the UK comic Prime's trailer didn't go away. It
was often treated as a separate unit which had its own things to do
while Prime was busy walking around and acting noble.

Again, the "subspace" theory is not the end-all-be-all of explanations,
but it is generally accepted by a great number of TransFans.

9. Are they immortal?

Barring injuries or being killed in battle, there is no reason to believe
that, with proper maintenance, a Transformer could not live indefinitely.
So, in short, they pretty much are.

To confuse matters a bit, there was an issue of the UK comic which
showed a Rodimus Prime from the future who appeared aged; he was frail,
bearded, and generally geezer-like. According to later issues, however,
Rodimus appeared this way due to the polluting effects of Unicron's
essence within the matrix, and not because of being old.

10. Is there a full Transformers history anywhere?

There is a Transformers Chronology file which was written by Jeremy
Pace, and is available at the WWW at the address below. This chronology
follows the TV show's Quint theory, so you may or may not like it. :)

http://www4.ncsu.edu/eos/users/j/jhpace1/WWW/Files/Transformer_Chronology

== VIII. Beast Wars ===================

1. Why Beast Wars?

When HasKen realized that the G2 line was going nowhere, and that they'd
handled it poorly, the new TF team at Kenner decided that they wanted to
get as far away from G2 as possible, and go in an entirely new direction
to try to get people interested. Thus the Beast Wars line was born.

Unlike G1 and G2, all the BW toys are being designed by Americans at
Kenner's HQ in Ohio. All of the G1 toys were old Japanese designs, and
even with G2, Takara was probably responsible for the planning of the
new molds. BW, and purportedly part of MW, are being designed by Kenner
with posability and playability as their top concern. (For more on
Machine Wars, see IV, 4.) Takara is still producing the TFs, but no
longer designs those released in America.

Most ATTers have found that after getting past the initial shock, they
can appreciate Beast Wars as a good line. Of course, not everyone has
warmed up to BW. Some ATTers say that, although they can appreciate BWs
as nice toys, they can't accept them as TFs because they just don't "feel"
like TFs to them. There are also vocal critics of BW who consider it an
insult to the TF mythos and fandom. Whatever your initial opinion may be,
allow yourself to give BW a chance. Buy a toy or two, watch the show, and
then decide to support it or not. :)

For more BW information, definitely visit Ben Yee's BW homepage:
http://acweb.com/ben/bw/
There you can find the BW FAQ and "In Defense of Beast Wars", as well as
other BW info and several BW links.

2. Why did they change Prime and Megs?

They didn't. Optimus Primal is not Optimus Prime, and BW Megatron is
not Megatron. This has been explicitly stated by Kenner, and is rather
obvious from their characterization. As with the G2 line, when the
names "Optimus Prime" and "Megatron" were used over and over again,
Kenner's marketing department has attached the names to BW toys to draw
attention and make the figures sell better. Plotwise, the idea is that
Optimus Primal and BW Megatron have changed their names to such as a way
of honoring OP and Megs, heroes from their past. Furthermore, Primal
and BW Megs are not neccesarily even the leaders of their factions. Larry
DiTillio and Bob Forward, story editors for Beast Wars, have clarified
that Primal is merely a ship's captain on an exploration mission- and that
Megatron is basically a Predacon criminal on the run. It has yet to be
established what links the Predacons and Maximals have to the Autobots and
Decepticons, but one thing is certain: Maximal does not equal Autobot,
and Predacon does not equal Decepticon, period.

3. Are the toys actually any good?

Good lord, yes! The BW toys are actually better than most G1
Transformers. Their posability exceeds that of even the late Generation
2 toys like the Cyberjets and Laser Rod OP. They have neat robot modes,
detailed beast modes, cool shooting weapons, and no loose parts.

Although some BW robot modes suffer from "animal on my back" syndrome,
most of them have relatively nice transforms, and the designs are often
innovative. Besides, "car on my back" was just as common for the G1
TFs, and most of them were practically statues; an average of maybe 2-4
swivel points compared to BW's _minimum_ of 8, with at least 4 being
those super ball-and-socket joints. :)

BW toys are divided into four groups based on their size and price. The
smallest figures (Drill Bit, Airhammer, Quickstrike) are called
Regulars. The next size up, which includes characters like Cheetor,
Retrax, and Tarantulus, is the Deluxe line. Both Regulars and Deluxes
are packaged on cards. The next group, the Megas (Transmetal Optimus
Primal, Transquito, etc), are packaged in boxes, as are the fourth and
largest set, Ultras. The only Ultras currently in general release are
ape Optimus Primal, t-rex Megatron, Tripredacus, and Magnaboss. Future BW
releases in 1998 include additional toys for all price points.

4. What's a Transmetal? What's a Fuzor?

Transmetals and Fuzors are the first two "sub-lines" to stem from the
Beast Wars toy line. It seems as if the "normal" Beast Wars line has come
to a close, and all Beast Wars toys released in 1998 will be identified
under the name "Transmetal" or "Fuzor." This may be bad news if you're
partial to "straight" Beast Wars animals, or good news if you're into the
more "roboticized" animal forms.

Fuzors, in short, are Beast Warriors with "hybrid" beast forms. Rather
than having a beast form derivative of one animal, Fuzors' beast modes are
combinations of two animals, "fused" into one. Some of the Fuzors
released to date are "Skyshadow," a dragonfly combined with a lizard;
"Silverbolt," a wolf combined with an eagle; and "Quickstrike," a cobra
combined with a scorpion. The explanation for Fuzors in the BW show has
to do with stasis pod malfunctions, which caused certain protoform TFs to
be programmed with scrambled DNA-scan data. (see VIII, 10)

Transmetals, on the other hand, are "Beast Wars turned inside out."
Rather than having mechanical parts in their robot modes alone,
Transmetals have robotic animal modes, with "hidden hide" animal parts
displayed in robot mode (ie: Cheetor has spots in robot mode, but not in
beast mode). Transmetal toys sport nifty vac-metallized paint jobs, and
each Transmetal has the benefit of an additional (third) vehicle mode. On
the BW show, Transmetals were created due to the explosion of an alien
device, which bombarded the BW planet with Quantum radiation. Certain
characters were exposed to this bombardment, causing them to become
Transmetals. *How* exactly this process occurred was not clearly
explained, aside from Airazor's comment that the Transmetals'
superstructures had been "mutated."

5. What's the story behind the TV show?

In the US, Beast Wars normally airs two days a week (Friday and Sunday)
on Fox, WB, or UPN, but isn't necessarily limited to those networks. In
'98, you might expect Beast Wars to be showing up on your local WB
station, as the network is expanding and has added purchase Beast Wars
for WB syndication. Additionally, Claster, the company which distributes
the show, has made plans to have the show run *five* days a week next
season.
In Canada, the program airs on YTV and is called "Beasties" due to a
legal difficulty with the word "war" appearing in a children's program /
toy name.

BW is a fully-rendered, computer animated program crafted by Mainframe
Entertainment, Inc. and produced by Alliance Communications. Mainframe
also makes ReBoot, and is currently developing a CGI series based on the
War Planets toy line. The level of quality displayed in Beast Wars has
risen consistently over its first two seasons; animation effects have
become more complex and the show's camera direction is far beyond what it
was initially. The show's evolving technical merits, coupled with a fine
stable of writers and very talented voice actors, have combined to make
Beast Wars a breakaway hit (It's currently number one in the US for its
target age group, 6-11 yrs).

Alliance Communications and Mainframe Entertainment each has their own
official homepage. The URLs are, respectively:
http://www.alliance.ca/
http://www.mainframe.bc.ca/BEAST/index.html

6. Is it true that the show's writers read the newsgroup?

Yes. At least, two of them do. Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio read ATT
at least occasionally, and sometimes even post. They have both been
extremely cooperative with fans. Between the two of them is the writing
credit for nearly all of the first season episodes.

Both of them welcome correspondence from fans, but please, do keep it
nice. For example, don't send mail complaining about BW as a disgrace
to the TF name. Also, keep in mind that as *writers*, they have no
control over things like when the program is shown in your area, how
frequently new episodes or repeats are broadcast, or if the camera
movements in a fight are too jerky. Also, for legal reasons, DO NOT
SEND STORY IDEAS to either of them. The addresses Bob and Larry have
given are secondary ones which they don't necessarily check all the
time. For understandable reasons, they are keeping their primary email
addresses private. It may take a while to get a response from them, so
don't think they're blowing you off if you don't hear back quickly.

Mr. DiTillio has been making posts to the NG to answer questions, as
well as responding by e-mail. If you have a question, make a post with
the subject "LARRYBW", and if he sees it, he will read it.

Bob Forward: beas...@aol.com
Larry DiTillio: diti...@aol.com

Transformers Productions
1045 Howe Street, Suite 710
Vancouver, Canada, B.C. V6Z2A9

7. What's the setting for Beast Wars?

BW is set some 300 years in the future, after the end of the G1 cartoon.
In the first episode, the main characters are involved in a starship
chase, with Optimus Primal and the Maximals chasing after Megatron and the
Predacons. Both ships involved in the chase end up traveling through a
transwarp gateway, sending them through both space and time. The Maximals
and Predacons end up crash landing on an Earth-like, unknown planet, and
are forced to cope with survival and an extreme over-abundance of pure
energon. To shield themselves from the planet's harmful energon
radiation, both factions assume "beast" transforms, which protect their
robotic insides from damage.

The TV setting is inconsistent with the initial toys' tech specs, several
of which mention humans as if the Beast Wars were going on around us in
the present.

8. Are the Beast Warriors actually stranded on Earth? And what's the deal
with this Golden Disk?

It has recently been established that the Beast Warriors are indeed
stranded on Earth, and that the golden disk Megatron stole has some sort
of relevance to his ultimate goals. Two different "golden disks" have
been recovered on the show, the one which was stolen by the Predacons and
one which was recovered, planetside, by Inferno. Common consensus seems
to be that at least one of these disks came from the Earth-based Voyager
probes, while the other appears to be alien in origin (and features alien
symbols).

MaLin Huffman has written a good synopsis on the golden disks and their
significance, which can be found on his BW page:
http://members.aol.com/unicron2k5/disc.html

9. What *is* the name of the Predacon ship?

Although it's been firmly established that the name of the Maximals' ship
is the "Axalon," the name of the Predacon ship has yet to be clearly
stated. Many fans have taken to calling the ship "The Darkside" after
Terrorsaur's comment "Welcome to the Darkside" from the episode "Equal
Measures." Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward haven't explicitly stated
whether or not the ship has a name, but most folks just assume the name
"Darkside" is cool enough for now. :)

10. Are the BW aliens actually the Quintessons?

Although it may sound like a really cool idea, the mysterious Beast Wars
aliens are *not* the Quintessons. This is verified by the writers of the
show, who note that the BW aliens are of a group not yet seen in the TF
mythos.

11. What are "protoforms?"

According to the show's creators, "protoforms" are basically the raw
materials needed to create a new Transformer (think nanotech). Each
protoform is endowed with a "Spark" (essentially that TF's soul),
programmed with basic knowledge of Cybertronian culture and society. It
should be noted that each "Spark" is unique unto itself, and is the basic
template for its host's personality.

The Axalon was outfitted with a large cargo of protoforms when it left
Cybertron. These protoforms were initially intended to be dropped off on
unexplored worlds, where they would then be adapted to the environment by
the "stasis pods" which delivered them. As the Axalon completed its
expedition, these explorers could be retrieved and taken back to
Cybertron. Unfortunately, the Axalon's original exploration mission was
cut short when it was called to chase after Megatron. The Axalon's
contingent of protoforms was jettisoned into orbit as the ship crashed,
kept safe by the stasis pods which carried them. As events have
progressed on the Beast Wars show, stasis pods have fallen from orbit to
be recovered by both the Maximals and the Predacons.

12. Is there going to be a BW comic book?

Well, there have been Beast Wars comics, but not in the sense of any
normal, consistently released ones. The first Beast Wars comic was
released with the Optimus Primal/Megatron two-pack, and was mostly a
haphazard, poorly written piece of work meant to flesh out the (then-
unspecified) details of BW's backstory.
At BotCon '97, the convention-exclusive toys were packaged with a BW comic
written by Simon Furman with art by Andrew Wildman. While this wasn't the
same as having a monthly BW book, it was nice to see a comic made by two
of the gentlemen who worked on the original Transformers book.
For information about purchasing the BotCon '97 comic, visit:
http://www.noblecan.org/~jhartman/tf/botcon97/merch.html

13. What BW stuff can I get for my computer?

A few Beast Wars desktop themes are available for Windows95; they can be
downloaded from:
http://www.casba.com/95Themes/categc.htm

There are quite a few Beast Wars pages out there with sounds, images, and
video clips of the show. Again, the "Complete Transformers Listing Page"
is a good place to start: http://pages.infinit.net/renaud/CTLP.html

== IX. Toys ===========================

1. What were the TFs based on?

All of the original Transformers were re-released and often recolored
versions of older Japanese toys. This is the reason behind the double
copyright date on most early TF toys; they were originally copyrighted
when first released in Japan, and then again in the US when Hasbro
released them. Most of the toys came from one of two lines produced by
Takara: Microman and Diaclone.

The Minibots and the cassettes were part of the New Microman line, which
had the distinction of needing few or no accessories (no missile
launchers to lose, no guns to misplace). NM was a sequel to the
original Microman line which was imported to the US under the name
"Micronauts". The Gun-Robo line which Megatron is from was a subset of
NM. Each Microman mold came in a wide array of colors, which partially
explains the proliferation of red Bumblebees and yellow Cliffjumpers.
On most of the minicars you can easily locate a "M" in the plastic which
represented the brand name in Japan.

The Diaclone series contained toys which we now recognize as the Autobot
cars and Decepticon jets. The Diaclone story was one of humans piloting
mecha to fight against evil alien invaders. The toys came with little
human figures with magnetic feet which were interchangeable among all
the Diaclone toys. This is the reason behind the mysterious "seats"
found on so many TFs (including the Insecticons and Dinobots). Optimus
Prime was also a Diaclone toy. The generic Diaclone semi truck was
called Convoy, and several different trailers were available, including
the box container (for OP) and the car-carrier (Ultra Magnus).

Some of the other toys came from companies other than Takara. For
example, the Deluxe Insecticons were originally Bandai designs. Also
made by Bandai was the Jetfire toy, originally a Macross design, and
Roadbuster and Whirl which were from a Japanese mecha show called
"Armored Trooper Dorvack".

With a few exceptions (such as Jetfire), all of the toy robots purchased
by Hasbro for their Transformers line were without a well-established
background story, cartoon, or comic book. (Diaclone, for example, did
have a story to it, but there was no real 'mythos' associated with
them.) Working together with some of the people at Takara, Hasbro and
Marvel developed a backstory for the Transformers involving two factions
of warring robots. John Romita, of Spiderman fame, headed a team of
artists who took the toys designs and altered them drastically for
portrayal on television. He is responsible for the more human-looking
Ironhide and Ratchet that we've become accustomed to, as well as putting
actual faces on all the robots rather than visors and faceplates.

2. What's the deal with red/yellow Bumblebee/Cliffjumper?

They were both originally from the Microman toyline. In that line, the
toys all came in a range of colors, including the ones we know as
Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. When Hasbro bought the rights to the toys,
they bought some backstock which included both colors. About 1 in every
20 Bumblebee toys sold during the first year was red (and, presumably,
the same goes for the yellow CJ). They are, as one would expect, more
valuable than the "correct" versions. At BotCon '96, the dealers were
trying to sell red BBees for anywhere between $20 and $120.

Aside from Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, there was another similar minibot
named "Hubcap" who was released at the same time as the other minibot
recolors (eg. Outback, Swerve, Tailgate,...). He was, or at least was
supposed to be, yellow. There was another, fourth, TF in this "family"
which was sometimes mistakenly packaged as both Bumblebee and
Cliffjumper in both colors. Without any real name, this toy is usually
referred to as Bumblejumper, or just Bumper. Bumper is much more "boxy"
looking than the other three.

This is just one example of the many variations on TF toys. Another
well-known variation is the metal feet / plastic feet Hot Rod. For a list
of all variations, try out M Sipher's (msi...@ibm.net) "That Big
Transformers Variations List". Sipher's list details toy variations from
G1 straight through to the most current TF toys, and even includes
imformation on Go-Bots and Battle Beasts. The list is posted with some
regularity on ATT, and is also available from:
http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/tf/TF-variations.txt

3. Why is Jetfire just like a Robotech Veritech fighter?

Technically, it's a Macross Valkyrie, as the Robotech show was a
derivative of three separate Anime series: Macross, Southern Cross, and
Mospeada. Hasbro felt that the Autobots were too short on air power,
and their search for a cool airplane toy came up with Bandai's Valkyrie.
To leave a lot of legal technicalities out, Hasbro and Harmony Gold (who
released Robotech in America), as well as a few other companies (like
FASA, the makers of BATTletech) bought the rights to use that "shape" of
robot, and Jetfire was born.

There has been some debate on exactly what model of Valkyrie Jetfire is.
His body and head match the VF-1S, although there was no VF-1S with
Jetfire's coloring in the series. There was a special edition release
of Valkyrie toys to accompany "Macross: The Movie", in which Hikaru
(Rick Hunter) flew a white VF-1S with red and black trim. Although the
colors are Jetfire's, their placement is reversed -- that is, black
where Jetfire has red, and red where he has black. The Super Armor for
movie edition Valkyries was red but their eye strips were green. Also,
Fokker's "skull special" Valkyrie was a VF-1S with black and yellow
paint. Change the yellow to red, and paint the nosecone, and you have
Jetfire. So, although there are a few close cousins, there was never a
Valkyrie that looked /just/ like Jetfire in Macross.

Since he was based on a Macross toy, some Jetfires have a small Macross
symbol (a circle with a double-winged thingy inside) on one wing along
the red stripe. Some toys have this symbol painted on, some have it as
a sticker, and some do not have it at all.

4. Was there a Skyfire toy?

Despite the occasional rumors that may pop up, neither Hasbro nor Takara
ever made a Skyfire figure. However, at BotCon '95 there were several
origami TFs on display designed and created by Hirofumi Omichi, which
included both Skyfire and Arcee, and they both transformed. These toys
weren't *completely* made out of paper -- Omichi used a real Jetfire to
build his Skyfire around, and Arcee used parts from several toys,
including a Gundam robot. For Skyfire he even made a box, complete with
artwork on the front. Also, at BC 96 a Skyfire ActionMaster was entered
into the art contest, created by George Hubert Jr.

5. I've got these weird tiny TFs. What are they?

Unless they're Micromasters, which you could hopefully identify, you've
got either Minispies or Decoys. Both were limited-time offers, and were
packaged with other TFs.

Minispies came first, and were about an inch long. They were the first
TFs to have the black rub symbols on them, the point here being that
since they were spies, you had to check which side they were really on.
Later the rub symbols were put on all TFs to show that they were "real"
Transformers and not rip-off ones.

Transformer decoys were made later, and were nothing but small rubber
statues of various TFs in their robot modes. The Autobot decoys were
red, and the Decepticon ones were purple (although there were a few red
'Con decoys, which are worth about 2.5 times more than normal ones). To
see Dave Van Domelan's wonderful painted decoys, visit his WWW page:
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/decoys.html

6. What are those switches on the back of the Jumpstarters' heads for?

This switch was actually mentioned in the Jumpstarter instruction books,
but as many people never read the instructions, the switch has caused a
lot of confusion for some people.

For those of you who don't know about Jumpstarters, they were two
Autobots with a very simplistic transformation (their legs fold up and
they turn into something that's supposed to look like a tank / spaceship
kind of thing). However, the cool thing about them is that they had
pull-back motors inside them, and when you let them go they would roll
for a few feet, and then their spring-loaded legs would suddenly flip
back to their robot mode position, and the momentum of this flip would
cause the TF to jump off the ground and land standing up in robot mode.

The switch in question is a small triangular piece of plastic on the
back of their heads (marked with an A and a B) that could be shifted
slightly from side to side. The purpose of the switch is to act as a
counterweight during the jumping part of their transformation. If your
Jumpstarter always falls over to one side when he tries to transform,
then you can move the switch over a bit and he'll suddenly grow out of
his awkward adolescence and land on his feet every time.

As a bonus for those of you that wonder: Yes, the pictures on the tech
spec cards for the Jumpstarters were usually messed up. Topspin is the
pontoon boat, and Twin Twist is the drill tank. End of story.

7. How many combiners did they make in the original TF line?

The combiner or gestalt Transformers were among the most popular of the
toys. The first combiner was Devastator. Also, Devastator and
Predaking, and Monstructor were the only ones made up of characters who
were all approximately the same size. For all the others, the main body
of the gestalt (who was also always the team leader) was significantly
larger than the other team members. Predaking was made up of only 5
animals, but because that team was so well designed they were all the same
size.

One of the reasons for this is that, excluding the two I've just
mentioned, all of the G1 gestalt teams were part of a Japanese set
called "Scramble City". The point of the Scramble City toys is that any
group of robots from any teams can be put together. Every "limb" piece
works equally well as an arm or a leg for any of the "body" robots.

For information about the origins (according to the TV show timeline) of
some of the combiner teams, contact Dairenn Lombard (piero@cyberverse.
com). He has a fairly long write up of the Combaticons' origin
prepared, and is interested in getting the origins of the other teams as
well. Also, many readers may be totally unfamiliar with the Monster
Pretenders (the American version of the 'con DinoForce from TF:
Victory). If you want to see who they were, they were featured in issue
67 of the US comic (see XI, 5).

There were also a large number of other combiner teams which were
released in Japan but not in the US. See XIII, 2 for a little more info
on them.

Here is a list of the gestalts, in the approximate order that they were
released in the US (note: the word "Piranha" is misspelled in the name
"Piranacon"):

Devastator - 6 Constructicons
- Hook, Long Haul, Bonecrusher, Scavenger, Mixmaster,
Scrapper

Superion - 5 Aerialbots
- Silverbolt, Slingshot, Air Raid, Skydive, Fireflight
- Stunticon counterpart

Menasor - 5 Stunticons
- Motormaster, Dragstrip, Dead End, Breakdown, Wildrider
- Aerialbot counterpart

Defensor - 5 Protectobots
- Hot Spot, First Aid, Groove, Blades, Streetwise
- Combaticon counterpart

Bruticus - 5 Combaticons
- Onslaught, Blast Off, Swindle, Brawl, Vortex
- Protectobot counterpart

Predaking - 5 Predacons
- Razorclaw, Rampage, Tantrum, Divebomb, Headstrong
- extremely cool

Computron - 5 Technobots
- Scattershot, Strafe, Lightspeed, Nosecone, Afterburner
- Terrorcon counterpart

Abominus - 5 Terrorcons
- Hun-Gurr, Sinnertwin, Blot, Cutthroat, Rippersnapper
- Technobot counterpart

Piranacon - 6 Seacons
- Snaptrap, Seawing, Overbite, Nautilator, Tentakil, Skalor
- after making 4 limbs, Piranacon uses the last TF as his gun

Monstructor - 6 Monster Pretenders
- Birdbrain, Bristleback, Icepick, Scowl, Slog, Wildfly
- about the height of Hot Rod and very chunky

8. How many tapes did they make?

Overall, there were six Autobot tapes and ten Decepticon ones released in
the US. A list of them follows, deceps first:

Buzzsaw - gold condor, came w / Soundwave
Laserbeak - red condor
Ratbat - purplish bat
Ravage - black panther
Slugfest - green stegosaurus
Overkill - grey / silver tyrannosaur
Beastbox - pinkish ape, combines to form Squalkbox
Squalktalk - green condor, combines to form Squalkbox
Frenzy - blue robot (red in cartoon :P )
Rumble - red robot (blue in cartoon)

Grandslam - red tank, combines to form Slamdance
Raindance - blue plane, combines to form Slamdance
Steeljaw - yellow lion
Ramhorn - rust-colored rhino
Eject - blue robot
Rewind - black robot

9. Did they ever make a Unicron toy?

Although there was never a released Unicron toy, Takara did make two
prototypes for consideration. The first prototype was small, and when
Hasbro USA saw it they did not like it, so Takara made a larger
prototype which is a little shorter than Fortress Maximus. The big
Unicron also had some sort of a recording of Orson Welles so that it
could say 10 phrases in his voice.

One of the larger Unicron prototypes, from the personal collection of
Hasbro Marketing executive Vinnie D'Alleva, was on display at BotCon '96.
The consensus was that it was a pretty ugly toy, and probably wouldn't
have had any play value at all. The voice chip was not functioning at
the convention (it may have simply needed batteries). The toy's colors
are bland (although apparently this is common for prototypes, and
doesn't have a lot to do with the colors of the final toy), his legs are
spindly, his body is completely spherical, and his arms are poorly
shaped (they become the planet's ring in robot mode -- ack). Also, one of
the toy's arms was hanging halfway off of the body, due to the fact that
it popped off during shipping and the convention organizers were
explicitly told not to move it. Add all of these factors together, and
you had a big, ungainly lump that looked very little like a "Universal
Dominator." (The toy actually resembles Orson Welles a bit more than
Unicron... ;)

To see a few pictures of the unproduced Unicron Prototypes, visit the "Ark
Archives," at:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/pratchett/169/index.html

10. Why have all the TF toys since [pick a time] sucked?

It isn't universally agreed upon, but most people tend to think that the
TFs decreased in quality in the last few years of G1 production, and
never (until Beast Wars) came out of the slump.

Some people feel that Hasbro switched to making TFs out of cheap plastic
rather than good plastic and metal. Another opinion is that the *Master
themes got out of control. Every new toy had to have some new gimmick; it
wasn't enough to make cars that turned into robots anymore. Part of the
TF charm was that they LOOKED like toy cars or toy planes or a real tape
player, but also turned into robots. Later toys no longer looked like
real things. They had to be futuristic cars, or cars that had people who
turned into their head or their gun or their engine.
The ActionMasters also took a lot of flak, but like most TFs, deserve to
be defended. Yes, they are Transformers that don't transform, and yes,
that is a bit of a paradox. But on the other hand, they actually are
pretty nice action figures that added a new dimension to the TF universe.

When G2 came around, most of the re-releases were made with bad plastic
in ugly colors, but there were a lot of good new toys as well
(particularly the Cyberjets and Laser Optimus Prime). One of yhe biggest
problems with G2 was the tech spec cards; basically all of the
personality write-ups and mottos were awful. TF personalities and
characterization have always been a strong point of the line, and then
they started making characters with mottos like "Want to race?" It was
sad, so in response a lot of ATTers took to rewriting G2 tech specs to
make them bearable for fanfic purposes. Unfortunately, this syndrome
seems to have continued with the Beast Wars line, which also suffers from
some pretty atrocious tech specs.

For those who are curious, the reason G2 Megatron is a tank rather than
a Walther P-38 pistol is probably that it's no longer PC (or maybe even
legal) to sell realistic looking toy guns.

The same defenses can be given for Beast Wars. See IV 4 and VIII.

11. What's with Go-Bot Transformers?

One of the early G2 Autobots belonging to the water-squirting group was
suspiciously named "Gobots". This name is quite ironic, because during
the TF's first run, their major competitors were Tonka's GoBots. After
Gobots was released, one of the next major Autobot groups was announced,
and they were called: Go-Bots. These TFs are the size of Matchbox cars
so that you can use them on Matchbox / Hot Wheels tracks.

Kendrick (kend...@io.com) managed to clear up some of the commotion on
this matter, however. Apparently Hasbro had bought out Tonka since the
last time they went head-to-head with the transforming robots idea, and
in a slightly unnecessary effort to prevent other companies from
reviving GoBots as a competing line, Hasbro intentionally used the name
in the TF line to assert their ownership of the concept.

To prevent confusion on the newsgroup, Tonka GoBots are usually referred
to specifically as Tonka GoBots, but also get called various derogatory
names.

12. What are the G2 Powermasters?

In the European G2 line there was a group of four TF's called
Powermasters. These had _nothing_ to do with G1 PowerMasters. They had
pullback motors in them, sort of like the Throttlebots. Their packaging
listed Hasbro's US headquarters, rather than the UK HQ which most
foreign-only toys mentioned, so it seems that they were originally
intended to be released in the US, but never quite made it.

13. Was there ever a blue Bluestreak toy?

Many TransFans state that they can vividly remember either owning a blue
Bluestreak toy or seeing one first-hand many years ago. While there are
pictures of a blue Bluestreak toy in original G1 catalogues, it is
generally accepted that these were photos of the Diacron version of the
toy, released by Takara. To this day, no one has been able to publicly
verify the existence of a blue Bluestreak toy in its original package.
If you come upon a blue Bluestreak toy in your travels, it may simply be
a Diacron toy. The question of whether or not any blue Takara Bluestreaks
were ever released in G1 TF packaging currently remains unanswered.

Burt Ward has written a FAQlet on this question, which can be found at:

http://www.wvinter.net/~beavis/tf/text/bsnew.use

[Steve-o Stonebraker]

Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ
Part Three: Questions and Answers III

Version 5.0

== Part Three Contents ==================

== X. Cartoon =========================

1. What's the deal with Rumble and Frenzy? Which is which?

For the answer to this, read "What is FIRRIB / FIBRIR?", question 1 in
section II, "General Questions Relating to the Newsgroup." Also refer
yourself to II, 5: "What not to ask..."

2. Can Autobots fly or not?

In general, they can't. If you are willing to put the inconsistencies
away as merely that, the basic rule is: Decepticons fly, Autobots don't.

However, to go further into those inconsistencies: in the first few
episodes of the show most of the Autobots WERE shown flying at one point
or another. This also happened a few other times through the run of the
show, like "Forever Is a Long Time Coming". Technically, (in the first
few eps) it should only be Gears with his compressed air jets, Wheeljack
with the solid fuel rockets in his arms, and Sideswipe with his rocket
backpack that should be able to fly unaided. At one point in "More Than
Meets The Eye", Prime even borrows that rocket backpack from Sideswipe
to attempt to chase the Decepticon ship.

After the first batch of TFs, there were of course exceptions. A lot of
Autobots could CLEARLY fly, like the Aerialbots and Skyfire. It also
seemed as if the Dinobots could all fly, making them another exception.

3. Why'd they call Jetfire "Skyfire" and draw him different?

Bandai, the maker of the original Valkyrie toy, is a major competitor of
Takara, the company which designed most of the Transformers. When the
cartoon was being planned, due to the fact that it was to be shown in
Japan as well, Takara did not want a Bandai design appearing in the
Cartoon (for reasons involving both competition and legality). However,
because Jetfire was such a popular toy, the decision to modify him for
the small screen was made. The only time that Jetfire has been seen in
animation is the initial TV commercial which advertised both him and
Shockwave. A similar thought process was probably behind Marvel's
decision to draw Skyfire yet name him Jetfire in the comic book. The
anti-Bandai sentiment also explains the absence of a few other characters
(like the Deluxe Insecticons) from the cartoon series.

4. How'd they do Soundwave's voice?

Thanks to Kendrick for this one; the quoted statements are his. :)

All of the voices on the show were altered to make them sound more
robotic and less human. The process they used is called flanging, which
means that a stereo recording was made of the voice actors, and then one
channel of the sound was slightly delayed in a random fashion to
produce, as Kendrick says, the "swooshing" sound in all their voices.

For Soundwave in particular, the voice recording was also sent through
an analog synthesizer to remove "all the tonality but none of the
enunciation or cacophonous sounds." The removed tones were then
replaced artificially by someone on the voice processing team to produce
the cool-sounding voice we all know and love.

There are various sound editing programs which feature "flanging"
capabilities. If you're looking for this type of application,
http://www.shareware.com is a good place to start.

When performing Soundwave, Frank Welker "simply uses his deep growling
bad guy voice". The same voice can be heard as Dr. Klaw on "Inspector
Gadget". Sometimes the editing team on the TF show would mess up, and
bits of Welker's unaltered voice ended up in the cartoon. One of these
times was in "Roll For It". When Ravage brings Chip and some vital info
to Soundwave, he says "Excellent, Ravage" in a Dr. Klaw voice. This
also occurred in "Webworld", when Soundwave reports that Ratbat has
found something on a nearby asteroid. In addition, in "Fight or Flee"
Soundwave ended up speaking with Shrapnel's characteristic repetition of
his last word.

5. Where can I find episodes of the show on tape?

All of the "unnamed" episodes from season one were released on VHS.
Also put on tape were the movie, "Five Faces of Darkness", "The Return
of Optimus Prime", and a first season three pack which included the
episode "War Dawn". In addition, the first few seasons of the Japanese
cartoon were released on laserdisc. Unfortunately, these have all been
discontinued. The tapes that are still in stock in various warehouses
can sometimes be ordered at stores that specialize in movies. You may
want to check video rental places for old TF tapes and ask if you can
buy them, as they most likely aren't rented out very often (this is how
I got my copy of the movie).

Also, there are TransFans on the net that will make copies of their
collections for a modest fee.

6. What was "Five Faces of Darkness" about?

FFOD is one of the most maligned TF cartoon story arcs. It was a five-
part story which immediately followed the movie, and attempted to tie up
various loose ends such as where Galvatron went when Rodimus Prime threw
him out of Unicron, and what the deal was with the Quintessons. The
animation for FFOD was pretty crappy. There were a lot of editing
mistakes, and it just in general looks bad.

The basic story revolves around the TF origin (see VI, 3) and the Quints
trying to take back Cybertron. A lot of elements from the movie turn
up, such as the Junkions repairing fallen Autobots, shuttles separating
and blowing up, the Quints putting people on trial, etc., etc..

7. People have mentioned "Call of the Primitives". What was
that episode about?

This episode takes place after the movie. In it, Primacron, in the wake
of Unicron's failure, sends out his other creation, Tornatron. Unicron
was a creature of matter, but Tornatron is a creature of energy. He
goes about sucking stars dry and such, trying to empty the universe for
Primacron. Before Tornatron attacks, Primacron's "Assistant", calls all
the primitive TFs (like the Dinobots and Predacons) away. The
Assistant, which looks exactly like the Matrix of Leadership, sends the
primitives to fight Tornatron. In the end, Grimlock gets into
Primacron's lab and destroys the control device for Tornatron, saving
the universe.

The main reason that people would be talking about "Call of the
Primitives" is that it has about the best TF animation ever other than
the movie itself (excluding the Anime). It was produced by a different
animation studio than the other eps (most of which were done by Toei)
and it really shows in the artwork. All the TFs are highly stylized and
look practically like traditional Anime mecha.

Matt Bloomfield has created a CotP web page at:
http://www.bucknell.edu/~bloomfld/vs_chamber.html

8. What happened in "Dark Awakening" and "The Return of Optimus
Prime"?

In "Dark Awakening" we have the familiar scene of the Autobots
detonating three quarters of their shuttle to escape Decepticon pursuit.
Our heroes soon find themselves drifting near a giant Autobot cemetery
barge. Against their best superstition, they dock with it to make
repairs. Once there, they are surprised to find Optimus Prime walking
around. Eventually, it is revealed that he was revived and reprogrammed
by the Quints in an attempt to capture the Matrix. In the end Prime's
personality overcomes the Quint reprogramming and he sacrifices himself
to save the other Autobots.

Or does he? In "The Return of Optimus Prime", a two part episode, we
open with some humans, a man and a woman, who are testing a new metal
alloy by flying a ship constructed of it near to a star. They encounter
a shuttle with Prime aboard, flying towards the star. The two humans
rescue him, but he is already dead.

They return Prime's body to Earth, where the woman's father wishes to
melt him down due to a deep-grained hatred of all Transformers.
However, at the last minute he decides to instead use Prime's body to do
all the TFs in. When the humans' ship was near the star, it picked up
the traces of a fungus of some sort which infects living things and
causes them to hate everyone around them and want to kill and destroy.
The father laces Prime's body with this, and then calls the Autobots to
pick up their leader's body which he "salvaged". TF after TF becomes
infected with the Hate Plague, which spreads to not just humans, but the
entire galaxy. Sky Lynx manages to fetch a Quint and bring him back to
Prime's body. The Quint agrees to revive Optimus to help stop the
plague which threatens Quintessa as well. Prime coats himself with the
new metal, thus becoming impervious to the plague. He is then able to
get the Matrix from the infected Rodimus Prime, and uses it to stop the
plague (apparently, there is more than one darkest hour).

The art in "Return of Optimus Prime" is high-grade. It contains many of
the animation flubs common to post-movie eps, and of course the frames-
per-second isn't impressive, but the actual drawings were nicely done.

Rob Jung has an article on Optimus' return on his web site:
http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/tf/news/Return-of-Optimus.html

9. What was "Rebirth"?

"Rebirth" was a three-part story, and the last three episodes of the
American TF cartoon. It followed TRoOP and introduced Head and
TargetMasters. Most ATTers were not very impressed, so don't be upset
if you missed it. The animation is typical of post-movie cartoons (eg.
not so hot), and several story elements were handled poorly. In fact,
the later Japanese continuity ignored Rebirth completely.

10. Is there a list of voice actors for the show?

The responsibility of maintaining the voice list has been passed on to
Cris "Jinx" Haaser (cri...@owlnet.rice.edu). This frees up several
screens of space in the FAQ, and makes things easier for me. :) It's
available on her web page at:
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~crispy/textfiles/voices.txt

Scatman Cruthers, the voice of Jazz, is deceased. Bill Ness at
"bil...@pb.net" came across a biography of Scatman, and pulled out
several sections about the Transformers cartoon and the impact that
working on TF had on Scatman's life and career. The Scatman bio is now
on Steve Stonebraker's TF web page:
http://cc.owu.edu/~srstoneb/tf/

== XI. Comics ==========================

1. Who published it, and when was it in production?

_The Transformers_ was first released as a four issue limited series
from Marvel Comics. The first issue is dated September 1984, and the
last time I checked, a good condition copy cost about $10-15. The
limited series was published bi-monthly, and then at the end of issue 4
it was announced that the book was to become a monthly, continuing
title. The first issue of the monthly book was dated June of 1985.
_The Transformers_ remained a monthly title until its cancellation at
#80 in July 1991.

Contained within the seven year run of the TF comic there were several
related books released. Marvel published a four issue TF / G.I. Joe
crossover, a four issue Headmasters limited series (which then merged
with the regular TF comic), a four issue "Transformers Universe"
following the "Marvel Universe" format, and a three issue adaption of
the movie. From independent publishers, there was a "How To Draw
Transformers" book, as well as a short-lived TF in 3-D comic, which was
rudely and with no warning canceled right at the beginning of a
promising multi-issue story.

November 1993 marked the beginning of Transformers: Generation 2. This
comic, also by Marvel, ran for 12 issues and was then stopped.
Preceding it was a short introduction / crossover in issues 138-142 of
G.I. Joe. TF:G2 was not a limited series, although the writer
intentionally planned the first story arc to last for 12 issues in the
event that the book would not be continued, so that it could end with a
sense of closure. Unfortunately, it was a good thing that such
foresight was taken.

Following is a list of all TF titles ever published, including the
publishing company and number of issues printed:

Transformers Marvel 1-80
Transformers: Generation 2 Marvel 1-12
Transformers: The Movie Marvel 1-3
Transformers Universe Marvel 1-4
Headmasters Marvel 1-4
Transformers vs. GI Joe Marvel 1-4
Transformers in 3-D Blackthorne 1-3
How to Draw Transformers Blackthorne 1-4
UK Transformers Marvel UK 1-332
UK Transformers Annual Marvel UK 1-7
UK Transformers: Generation 2 Fleetway 1-5
UK Transformers: G2 Annual Grandreams 1
Collected Comics Marvel UK 1-19+

Raksha and Martin McVay provided me with more information on some UK
comics. For that, see XIII 7, the section on UK TF comics.

There were also 11 "Transformers Digest" books printed in the US, each
of which reprinted two issues of the comic and included several TF
Universe entries. In addition, there were a few trade paperbacks (TPB)
and one-shots released:

TF vs. G.I.Joe, 1993, new cover by Wildman and Baskerville
TF Universe, 1987, two page intro by Jim Salicrup
TF:G2 Halloween Special Edition, 1993, reprints the Furman / Senior
story "Ghosts" from TF:G2 #2
Transformers Universe Vol. 1, Marvel UK, US Universe 1-4
Transformers: The Movie, Marvel UK, US Movie 1-3
The Complete Works Volume 1, 1986, Marvel UK, two issues, UK annual
style hardback, reprints US 1-8
Plague of the Insecticons, Marvel UK, reprint of story by that name from
UK Annual 1

2. Who wrote the comic?

After the first four issues which were penned by Ralph Macchio, all but
about three TF comics were written by either Bob Budiansky or Simon
Furman. Budiansky was on the book until issue 56, at which point
Furman, who had been the writer of the British TF comic for a long time,
took over. At this point the quality of stories took a major upturn.
He stayed on the book until its cancellation, and wrote the entire run
of G2 as well. After Furman showed us how good a TF comic could be,
many people started to resent Budiansky's predominantly juvenile plots.
Budiansky wrote a comic book about giant robots. Furman wrote an epic
adventure rich with mythical archetypes, religious conflict, and tragic
heroes. It should be clear which was better.

3. Who drew it?

The TF comic did not have just one or two major artists, although it did
change less than many other books. There were probably a dozen or so
people that drew TF over it's 80 issue run, but the main names to notice
are Jose Delbo, Andy Wildman, and Geoff Senior. Jose Delbo is of note
because of the long period of time that he stayed on the book, working
with both writers.

Geoff Senior and Andy Wildman are the two main artists from the end of
the comic's run. Both came over from the British book with Simon
Furman, and both were incredible. Geoff's art was blocky and low in
detail, but his shapes were well-defined and visually pleasing. He also
had the remarkable ability to depict the mass and inertia of TF bodies
in motion. Many of his fight sequences truly give the impression of
giant robots throwing each other around. Andy Wildman drew extremely
detailed illustrations and created appealing layouts for the book. He
gave the TFs smooth and extremely human facial features (sometimes even
teeth and eyeballs), which annoyed a lot of readers (these are robots,
after all), but it also allowed the pictures to much better convey the
emotions of the characters.

The G2 book was drawn mainly by Derek Yaniger and Manny Galan. The
artistic style of this series was MUCH different than the G1 books.
Manny Galan's art to many seemed a poor imitation of Yaniger's dark,
spooky TFs. In the last couple of issues, as a welcome change, we got
Geoff Senior back. Unfortunately, the book was canceled soon after.

4. The whole story arc with Unicron was different in the comic, so where did
Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge come from in it? And where was Rodimus
Prime?

As far as the US comic is concerned, Cyclonus and Scourge was just
regular, everyday Decepticons who were introduced during the Headmasters
limited series, which took place parallel to issues 30-36 of the
Transformers comic. However, in Simon Furman's UK future, Cyclonus and
Scourge were accidentally thrown back in time where they came to be
under Scorponok's command. They later disappeared from US continuity
due to their travel back to the future in the UK "Time Wars".

Galvatron was brought to the comic book continuity from outside its
timeline by the comic Unicron. In issue 67, Unicron sent three of his
servants, Hook, Line, and Sinker, to an alternate dimension (which was
SIMILAR to the cartoon reality, but not the same as it, and was also
different from the normal UK future) where Galvatron had beaten the
Autobots almost completely, and killed Rodimus Prime. Hook, Line, and
Sinker appeared in that reality, took Galvatron, and brought him back to
the comic book's normal reality. For those of you that asked, no, this
Hook has nothing to do with the Constructicon of the same name. :)

This all caused understandable confusion for Galvy when he met the
comic's Megatron, who, although he had died several times, was still
Megatron and not Galvatron.

5. What about issue 43, "The Big Broadcast of 2006"?

This issue, as well as the two-part "Man of Iron" story from issues 33
and 34 take place out of the normal comic continuity. "Man of Iron" was
a short storyline from the UK Transformers comic. "Big Broadcast" was
simply an episode of the cartoon which was transferred to the comic for
some reason, although in the UK version of this issue, it is stated to
be no more than a story being told by Wreck-Gar during his captivity at
the hands of the Quints.

6. Wasn't Spiderman in one issue? Does that mean the TFs are in the regular

Marvel Universe with the X-Men?

As was once said in response to a letter in Transmissions (the TF letter
column): "Please, please don't mention issue 3." Yes, Spiderman was in
issue three of the original limited series. However, he was ONLY in one
issue and that was the only issue in which any Marvel Universe character
appeared in the book (a few other MU folks got about one panel each in
#4). There was also a mention of Dazzler in another part of the
original 4-issue run, but after the series became ongoing and changed
writers, Marvel Universe characters stayed out of the book. These
appearances can be considered story flubs, and ones that you shouldn't
pay much attention to. Spiderman also showed up in an issue of "Ren and
Stimpy", but no one claims that they're part of the Marvel Universe. :)

The TF comics also included the Marvel Universe's "Savage Land" in
issues 7 and 8 or so, and Circuit Breaker appeared in issue 3 of the
"Secret Wars II" miniseries / crossover. However, I would assume that
these both go under the same "don't ask" category the Spiderman's cameo.

7. What about G.I. Joe?

Yes, the TFs are in the same universe as G.I. Joe. There were two
crossovers with G.I. Joe. One was the "Transformers vs. G.I. Joe"
limited series which ran during TF issues 24-27. The other was a brief
crossover which took place mainly in G.I. Joe in order to introduce the
TF:G2 comic.

Interestingly, "TF vs. GI Joe" is the only US comic story omitted from UK
continuity. There, Bumblebee's death and reconstruction as Goldbug are
accomplished by Death's Head and Wreck-Gar, respectively. However,
after leaving out the original G.I. Joe crossover, the UK comic later
created its own Action Force (Europe's name for the Joes) crossover
entitled "Ancient Relics".

On the cartoon side, TFs and G.I. Joe didn't seem to be in the same
universe, because if they had, they'd certainly have encountered each
other. However, in the post-movie ep "Only Human", an old and decrepit
Cobra Commander turns Rodimus, Springer, Magnus, and Arcee into humans.
No other G.I. Joe characters show up in the ep, however.

8. I never got to read the G2 comics... what happened in them?

Basically, the G2 comic picked up where G1 #80 left off. I'm going to
leave out a lot of events and give a broad outline of the main story.
Unicron has just been destroyed and Cybertron has been lost. During the
G.I.Joe lead-in, Megatron falls out of the sky on Earth and is rebuilt
by Cobra into his tank form. Also early on in the story a new group of
Decepticons (a second generation, get it?) shows up, wreaking havoc on
various planets and expanding their empire. They are led by a 'con
named Jhiaxus. Most of the new Decepticons seem like mindless minions,
and they all have a similar "look" and color scheme.

There is an inevitable first encounter between these new Decepticons and
the Autobots, and Optimus Prime's forces suffer heavy losses. In an
effort to understand who these new enemies are, Prime takes a trip into
the Matrix to learn what to do from Primus. Instead of answers, he gets
a history lesson. It starts with the birth of the first Transformer,
and then shows him something he had never seen before: budding.

The way the budding story goes is that in their early days, TFs
reproduced through a process similar to cellular division. New
Transformers sort of grew out of old ones in a rather painful process.
Once Primus felt that the population of TFs was great enough, he
produced a race-wide memory wipe and erased the knowledge of this
process from all TF minds. At this point the Matrix took over as the
only way of creating new Transformer life. However, Primus' plan had
not worked entirely, and eventually a group of Transformers rediscovered
budding, and used it extensively to swell their ranks. This is where
the droves of blue and white G2 cons under Jhiaxus' command came from.

Unfortunately, because it does not involve the Matrix (and hence Primus'
life force), budding tends to create less "pure" Transformers, and after
several generations of budding the G2s lost their most basic sense of
morality. In addition, budding is always accompanied by an energy
discharge. At first, this discharge appeared merely electrical, but in
time it became evident that there was more to it than that. Later
budding produced dark energies which floated off and amassed into a
lifeforce called the Swarm. Because it had been created from the
Primus-deprived G2 Transformers, the Swarm lacked purpose and sought the
Transformers out, leaving a swath of destruction and death behind it.

When the Swarm finally reached Earth, where the Autobots, the
Decepticons, and the G2 'cons were in the middle of a full-scale war,
Prime allowed himself to be devoured. When the containment vessel of
the Creation Matrix was breached, the Matrix energy spewed out and
filled the emptiness in the Swarm's soul. Having found purpose and
happiness, the Swarm reconstructed Prime, returned him to Earth, and
flew off into the proverbial sunset.

The last issue of TF:G2 ended with a cliffhanger ending in which the
Liege Maximo, a sort of ultimate evil force from the UK comics, made
some menacing statements, said that Jhiaxus' forces had been under his
command, and implied that the war was far from over.

9. Where can I buy old TF comics?

Really the best thing to do is check the backstock at any comic book
store you might run into. Most stores will probably have a few issues,
and if you look at enough stores, you'll probably be able to put
together a decent collection.

The people at Dave's Comics, a large seller which frequently advertises
their backstock in comic books today, contacted me to let me know of
their website, http://www.davescomics.com. They have a lot of TF
comics available, although only from certain periods of its run.

== XII. The Movie =====================

1. What happened in it?

The basic plot of the movie goes as follows:

It is the year 2005, and the Decepticons have fully conquered Cybertron.
The Autobots have bases on Cybertron's two moons, as well as "Autobot
City" on Earth (which is NOT Metroplex or Fortress Maximus, although
after the movie Metroplex is revealed to be a small living component of
Autobot City). The movie opens with a spectacular sequence in which
Unicron, a living mechanical planet, eats the thriving world of Lithone,
thus killing all but one of its inhabitants who escapes in a spaceship.

To counter a coming Autobot offensive, the Decepticons attack Autobot
City, and a huge battle occurs which ends with the defeat of both
Optimus Prime and Megatron. Prime passes the Autobot Matrix of
Leadership on to Ultra Magnus. Megatron is revived by Unicron and
turned into Galvatron, and Unicron sends him to destroy the Matrix.

Galvatron goes to Autobot city to kill Magnus and get the Matrix, but
the Autobots escape and split up. The Dinobots, Kup, and Hot Rod crash
on Quintessa. Kup and Hot Rod are captured and put on trial, but the
Dinobots and their new found friend Wheelie rescue them. The Deceps
follow Magnus and co. to the planet of Junk. Galvatron attacks and
takes the matrix, and then the Autobots fight with the Junkions and
Wreck-Gar. Soon Hot Rod and the Dinos show up, placate the Junkions,
and everyone goes off to fight Unicron, who has spent his time eating
Cybertron's two moons and the Autobots on them while everyone else was
running around.

The Autobots attack Unicron, who has finally gotten around to eating
Cybertron, and after most of the main characters are swallowed Daniel
rescues his dad, Spike, and the other Autobots who were eaten
previously. Hot Rod gets the Matrix back from Galvatron, uses it, turns
into Rodimus Prime, and destroys Unicron.

2. Why weren't more characters featured?

The movie took about two years to make, being released on August 8,
1986, so when the movie was written, they only had the first set or two
of TF characters to work with, which didn't include most of the gestalts
like Superion and Menasor. So, Devastator was the only gestalt in
existence when the movie was written, which explains Kup's fear of him
when he first forms. :)

3. Where was Snarl?

Snarl was mysteriously absent from all the Dinobot scenes in the movie.
There is only one place where he shows up: for about one second during
Galvatron's attack on Autobot city, you see Snarl with the other Dino's,
but afterwards he's gone again.

4. Why did the Insecticons keep showing up and dying?

As was shown in a few pre-movie episodes of the cartoon, the Insecticons
had the ability to make almost unlimited clones of themselves. It is
therefore likely that the Insecticons thrown out of the shuttle and
turned into Sweeps were only clones, thus allowing Shrapnel to harass
Daniel on Junkion later in the movie, and for the Insecticons to show up
again in later cartoon eps (as well as SS's coronation). Also, when Kup
and Hotrod run over the Insecticons on their way into Autobot City we
must assume that their wounds weren't fatal -- we know at least the
Shrapnel in that group was the Real McCoy because he was called by name
while they were eating the door. There is also evidence to show that
the clones didn't have the ability to speak in the first place, so the
Kickback can also be assumed not a clone.

5. Why would Astrotrain need to "jettison some weight" in space?

While it's true that there is no "weight" in space, there is mass. The
more mass on board, the more fuel is required to accelerate and
decelerate. It is possible that Astrotrain didn't have enough fuel to
(a) accelerate enough to get to Cybertron within a reasonable amount of
time, or (b) decelerate enough once they get to Cybertron to actually
stop and land there. Once the extra scrap metal was thrown overboard,
however, there was little enough mass remaining for him to get home
quickly and land.

6. Who became Cyclonus, and why were there two of him?

Most people would like to think that Skywarp became Cyclonus, as he was
a very cool but underused character and it would seem only fitting for
Unicron to turn him into a major leaguer. Unfortunately, due to the
fact that this scene is shown without color, and the fact that there
were at least temporarily TWO Cycloni, it's very hard to tell for sure
which jet became what. With a little care, however, it can be
ascertained with a fair amount of certainty that it was indeed
Thundercracker who became Scourge, which means Skywarp must be one of
the two Cycloni.

Here's a little more detail: When the Deceps are discussing how to
lighten their burden, the wounded 'cons are clearly shown to consist of
exactly six members: Skywarp, Thundercracker, Megatron, and the three
Insecticons (or clones thereof). These six characters are then thrown
overboard. Thundercracker is changed into Scourge, and Shrapnel and
Kickback become two Sweeps. Bombshell and Skywarp are both turned into
robots that look like Cyclonus. Bombshell is in the foreground when
this occurs, and Unicron announces them as "Cyclonus, the warrior, and
his armada," with no clear indication of which is Cyclonus. It would
make sense for Cyc to be the one in the foreground, but to a TransFan
who wants it to be Skywarp and not Bombshell, it seems reasonable to say
that it could indeed have been Cyclonus in the back.

Unicron's statement about the "armada" has prompted some TransFans to
treat the second Cyclonus as a character of the name Armada who then
wasn't shown again in the movie, and is sometimes presumed dead.
Apparently, during part five of FFOD, there are two, and even three
Cycloni shown simultaneously with no explanation. I would tend to
dismiss this as FFOD silliness, but others out there might not. Reports
of other appearances of the Armada, or even confirmation of this one,
would be appreciated. My theory is that there might have been an early
intention to place a legion of twins under Cyclonus' command, just as
Scourge had the Sweeps. After all, if exactly two Sweeps can multiply
to countless drones in the time of a flight to Earth, why couldn't a
single ship of the "armada" turn into at least a few of itself? :)

Also, in a continuity flub typical of TF animation, during Starscream's
coronation Thundercracker and Skywarp (who had been dead not 10 minutes
earlier) can be seen among the Decepticons jumping out of the way when
Galvatron flies in, as well as at least one Insecticon.

7. Why'd they kill everyone?

The movie was intended to introduce a new batch of characters, which it
did, and to make "room" for them it's understandable that they might
need to take other people out of the way. Also, the deaths of so many
major characters added to the drama of the movie. Someone also
suggested that the deaths of many original Autobots was intended to make
the Deceps seem more evil than could be shown on a daily "kid" cartoon.

8. Who did the voices?

The starring roles include:

Eric Idle -- Wreck-Gar
Frank Welker -- Megatron
John Moschitta (the Micro Machine guy) -- Blurr
Judd Nelson -- Hot Rod / Rodimus Prime
Leonard Nimoy -- Galvatron
Lionel Stander -- Kup
Neil Ross -- Springer
Orson Welles -- Unicron
Peter Cullen -- Optimus Prime
Robert Stack -- Ultra Magnus
Susan Blu -- Arcee
Victor Caroli -- narrator (as always)

As many people know, Orson Welles passed away before work on the movie
was completed. In fact, his death was a mere two days after voice
recording began. However, in this time he had recorded most of his
lines, leaving only a few areas near the end of the movie unfinished.
If you listen carefully, you will hear two distinct voices for Unicron.
The previous FAQ writer decided to settle this once and for all and
sampled some clips with an audio digitizer and sped them up. The other
voice was none other than Leonard Nimoy.

9. What was the universal greeting they used?

Spelling on this varies, but following the lead of the comic adaption:
"bah weep graaagnah wheep, ni ni bong".

10. Didn't they swear in it?

There were two cases of swearing in the theatrical release, and one of
those was stricken from the video version. In the scene in which
Bumblebee and Spike are sucked into Unicron, in the theater version
Spike said "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?" This was edited for
video to just "What are we gonna do now?" with a silent space just long
enough for "shit" to fit in. The other scene was on Junkion, where
Magnus tries to open the Matrix to save the Autobots from the Decepticon
attack. In both versions, he says "Open! Damnit, open!"

11. What changes were made between the theatrical and video releases?

Aside from the wide-screen to pan-and-scan format change that almost all
movies suffer, the only difference is the omission of "oh shit". There
have been claims of several other edits as well, but the main sample of
posters on ATT has not supported them.

One of the ideas that pops up more frequently is an alternate version of
Prime's death. At one time there were two or three people on the
newsgroup claiming that when Prime died in the theater, his body turned
to dust and blew away, but that this was changed for video where the
scene ends with Daniel crying on Prime's hand. However, most people
distinctly remember the scene ending with a fade-out of Daniel and the
hand in the theater as well (it's much more dramatic, IMHO). It's
possible that memories of Starscream crumbling at his death are getting
mixed up with Prime's death scene.

The other main edit-claim relates to Magnus' death at the hands of the
Sweeps on Junkion. Some people seem to remember Magnus being quartered
(the Sweeps attach tractor beams to his limbs and fly off in different
directions, tearing him apart). This IS the way it happens in the comic
book version of the movie and even the original script. In the video
version he simply gets perforated by several laser blasts. If you watch
closely you can see that the four Sweeps who attack him each shoot a
continuous, straight beam before the angle switches to Magnus getting
shot, at which point the lasers become short and rapid. Hmmm. Fishy,
but as with Prime's death, most memories of this scene in the theater
match the video version. It's a good guess that the producers changed
their minds on the manner of Magnus' death at the last minute, after the
continuous beams were drawn.

Other supposed edits include changing the order of some scenes and
removing other footage altogether (anything from one-second shots of
things to entire short scenes). All in all, it has been claimed that
some 20 minutes of footage are missing from the video version, but I
stress again that most readers of ATT disagree, and it is still the
"official" position of the group and this FAQ that "oh shit" was the
only change.

For the most part, making a post that there was more than one edit for
the video release will not earn you any respect on ATT. This doesn't
mean that if you really _do_ remember something being changed, that we
wouldn't want to know, but think long and hard about how sure you are
before making a post about it, and be prepared to offer some hard
evidence. Basically, every time someone claims that a scene has been
altered, it is followed up by 10 to 15 posts from other readers saying
"No, you're remembering it wrong," in tones ranging from polite to
flame. To put it simply: if there were edits besides "oh shit", you
probably wouldn't be the only one to remember it. In fact, at least one
person will have already remembered it, told us, and we would have all
said "ohhh yeah!" and changed the FAQ to indicate our epiphany.

Clearly, this has not happened.

12. Is there an uncut copy of the movie, which even has material that was
never seen in theaters?

As with all movies, there was footage prepared and filmed for TF:TM that
never made it through the final cut before the initial theatrical
release. Some of these clips are shown in the Japanese preview /
trailer for the movie, which can be found on a few different tapes. One
of them, called "Transformers: Hero", was available at BotCon '95. At
BotCon '96 there was another tape for sale with BW eps 1 and 2, the
American and Japanese movie trailers, and the movie itself.

The missing footage on the tapes, some of it rather impressive, includes
more fighting scenes and extended transformations for Autobot City and
Unicron. There are also alternate versions of some scenes that were in
the movie, implying that these were early animation tests, and were not
necessarily EVER intended to be in the actual film. Nowhere on these
tapes does Optimus crumble to dust. It is conceivable that such footage
does exist, was cut before the film's release, and for some reason is
not among the other cut scenes, but it seems extremely unlikely.

During early 1996 the newsgroup went through another round of debate on
movie edits when Adam McCormick made a series of posts describing the
events by which he had an original film reel of the movie imported from
Japan to a film rental place (he had to then return it) which was
completely uncut, and contained a significant number of previously unseen
scenes. However, he failed to provide a scrap of evidence to support his
claims. The FAQ maintains a position of skepticism. Although I have no
reason to mistrust Adam, we haven't heard anything from him since. :)

13. Where can I get the movie on tape?

As with the soundtrack, there are several so-so ways to try finding the
movie, and one sure fire bet.

One reasonably reliable way to find it is to look in long-established
video rental places in your town, and see if they have it. Newer rental
places probably won't have copies, but stores that were around when it
came out on tape almost certainly do, unless they've already sold it to
some other TransFan. :) There's a good chance that they don't rent it
out very often and you could buy it cheap. Also, some people have been
able to order it from Blockbuster Video. Look for it under the
"Animation" section or even the "Children's" section. The success of
the Blockbuster method varies with no clear pattern, though, so don't
count on it.

If you're not too concerned about getting the original FHE release of the
film, check out http://www.videoflicks.com . Just this past year, a
Canadian company called Malofilm re-released TF:TM and a bunch of other TF
episodes. This new version *does* include the previously-edited "Oh Shit"
line. It has fairly good video quality, even though its sound is recorded
in Mono. The "official" answer most ATTers will give to this question is
"go to videoflicks.com," so the store has definitely been proven
trustworthy. :)

14. Where can I get the movie on laserdisc?

Try catalogue number MCA026561011. Until recently, however, the answer was
"only as an import from Japan, catalogue number HCL-7001". The TF laserdisc
is not currently in release, so it will be difficult to find.

The LD was put out by HillCrane and made and distributed by SOHBI KIKAKU
Corporation. The digital tracks have the English dialogue version, and
the analog tracks have the Japanese dialogue version. "Oh shit" is not
in the english dialogue, although it may be on the Japanese track.
Suggested retail is 6000 yen ($60-75). The laserdisc is CLV. It is NOT
letterboxed. Differences from the VHS / film version are: opening
credits are presented differently and with a Star Wars-like scrolling
intro, movie's trailer included on the disc, character names written in
Japanese kana at the bottom of the screen with their first appearance.

If you're interested, FFoD and TRoOP are also on laserdisc, numbers
MCA027353011 and MCA026786011 respectively.

15. Where can I get the movie soundtrack?

It's not extremely hard to find. It was released by Scotti Bros.
Records, and isn't still in production, but _is_ still available. You
can have some music stores order it on tape or CD, although a lot of
major distributors don't carry it.

If you have trouble finding it anyway, or want to save the trouble of
looking, you can get it over the net for as good a price as you'll find
anywhere else from CD Connection. Telnet to "cdconnection.com" or try
their WWW page, which is at (big surprise):
http://www.cdconnection.com
It costs about 10-12 US dollars on CD.

The soundtrack has several good songs on it, including the two Stan Bush
tunes "The Touch" and "Dare". The (excellent) score is by Vince DiCola.

Canadian releases of the soundtrack have a slightly different label.
Spectre General is actually a Canadian band called KickAxe. Apparently
they had some sort of legal problems in the US and assumed the name
Spectre General for work done in the States. The soundtrack label in
Canada lists the band's true name rather than their American alias.

16. What else is there to know about Stan Bush and Vince DiCola?

Stan Bush came out with several other albums, most recently being the
1992 effort called "Every Beat of My Heart". He can be contacted
through his friend John Vel Squez at "fz...@aol.com" or "fz...@west.net."

Vince DiCola has scored several other movies, including "Rocky 4" (Sly
vs. Russia). He has also released at least one album of his own, a
collection of piano tunes. Thanks to Christopher Rodkey, I have some
biographical info on him to spread around the net as well...

Vince DiCola grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and went to Lancaster
Catholic High School. He has returned to central Pennsylvania several
times to hold concerts at his old school and work with other schools in
the area. According to an article in the _Lancaster Sunday News_ from a
little while back, DiCola is still living off of the royalties to the
movies he has done. He now resides somewhere in California.

Both Stan and Vince were involved with BotCon '97, and each performed
during a live concert at the event. Those who attended generally give the
concert a *big* thumbs up, to say the least. The BotCon '97 limited-
edition CD "Til All Are One" contains new music from Stan Bush(including a
song written for the convention) and the previously unreleased TF:TM
score, by Vince DiCola. The two-CD set is no longer available from 3H
Enterprises (it sold out as of 2/27/98), and it's not likely that many
TransFans will part with theirs easily. However, from what information
has been released about BotCon '98, there is a *new* CD exclusive in the
making for this year's con.

[Steve-o Stonebraker]

Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ
Part Four: Questions and Answers IV

Version 5.0

== Part Four Contents ==================

XIII. TFs outside the United States
1. Where else have TFs appeared?
2. What were the Japan-only toys like?
3. What other toys were never released in the US?
4. What were the Japanese TF cartoons like?
5. Wow! How can I get copies of the anime?
6. What's Transformers: Hero?
7. What's different between the American and British comics?
XIV. Miscellaneous Questions
1. What were those Cybertronian units of time?
2. Unicron vs. the Death Star: who would win?
3. How do you write out the transforming sound?
4. Which TFs died in the movie/comic/tv show?
5. What movie was it that had those TF cartoons in it?
XV. Closing Comments and Information
Fanzines and clubs
A note on translations
Behavior pointers: for people new to the net, or new to ATT
for established ATT regulars
XVI. Silly Random Questions
XVII. Revision History and Plans for the Future
XVIII. About the Author
XIX. Terms and Abbreviations
XX. Legalese and Special Thanks

== XIII. TFs Outside the United States

1. Where else have TFs appeared?

Transformer toys were available throughout much of the world during the
80's. The areas in which there was a specifically marketed TF line
(rather than importing toys from elsewhere) were the US, Japan, Europe,
and Brazil. I have basically no information on the Brazilian line,
except for a rumor that it only existed for one year. Anyone know about
this? :)

In Europe, there were a few 'extra' subgroups that were released during
the G1 period, and after the American G1 ended, Europe continued to get
new TFs for a few years. Many of the G2 Transformers were actually
released in Europe several years before coming out in the US as G2.

Japan has, by far, the largest portion of exclusive TFs. After the end
of the American G1, Japan continued to make new animated TV shows, and
the toys to go with them. The groups of Japanese TFs that Americans
would be most unfamiliar with are those from the Victory and Return of
Convoy lines. Victory was the third Japan-only TF cartoon, and Return
of Convoy was accompanied by a comic-ish section called Battlestars that
ran for about a year in the Japanese "TV Magazine". Most of these
characters will be completely new to Americans, and most of the
characters from previous Japanese cartoons will be familiar.

2. What were the Japan-only toys like?

You'll probably get more complete information on this subject by reading
Robert Jung's toy list (see III, 2.), but I will attempt to make a brief
summary of the non-US release toy groups. Be sure to read XIII, 4, the
section about TF Anime, or a lot of this won't make much sense to you. :)

While G1 TFs were still being made in the US, the Japanese line followed
their Masterforce cartoon and contained different versions of several US
HeadMasters. They had different colors and personalities than the ones
Americans are used to. In Japan, PowerMasters were referred to as
GodMasters. There were also recolored versions of Fort Max and
Scorponok named Grand Maximus and Black Zarak.

To accompany TF:Victory, there were several groups of Japan-only toys.
The main groups here were BrainMasters, MultiForce, BreastForce (keep
your mind out of the gutter; these toys have chest components which
transform into weapons and animals), and DinoForce. These are all
gestalt teams. At this time, the US was knee-deep in Pretenders and
Micro and Action Masters, many of which were never released in Japan.

Afterwards, probably alongside TF:Zone, droves of Micro Masters were
released, almost all as Cybertrons. Included among the Micros were
several Micro gestalts which were never seen elsewhere (many of the
micro gestalt names start with 'six', since they were made of six
pieces; hence, SixTrain, SixBuilder...).

Lastly, Battlestars: The Return of Convoy had a few toys released with
it. The major name and leader from that group was Star Convoy, who hooked
up with Grandus and Sky Garry to form a pretty impressive battle convoy.

Some specific Japanese TFs you might see people talking about are: the
Trainbots (a Cybertron gestalt), the Destron BreastForce, and Overlord
(a Destron double GodMaster from the Masterforce series).

3. What other toys were never released in the US?

In Europe, after the demise of the American G1 line, new types of
ActionMasters were released, including AM Elites, which went against the
AM grain and actually transformed. Many of the classic TFs were also
re-released at this time. Later on, two missile-launching groups called
TurboMasters and Predators came out, followed by some recolored Japanese
TFs. Once G2 came out, Europe continued to get all the American toys
plus a few of their own exclusives.

4. What were the Japanese TF cartoons like?

Most of my information on this subject comes from "Track Attack" (Pema
Galang, at "pema.t.galang-1.@tc.umn.edu"), who was kind enough to send
me nice long emails about it. :) Extreme thanks go to her for her help
in this area. Also, please read the info on translations in section XV.

There were actually several Japanese TF cartoons. The first series
consisted simply of dubbed versions of the American cartoons, called
"Transformers: Super Robot Life Form". In Japan, the Autobots are
called Cybertrons and the Deceps are called Destrons. Contrary to what
has been said in this FAQ and elsewhere in the past, the factions were
NOT from different planets. In fact, in order to prevent confusion over
this matter, they call the TFs' home planet Seibertron, so it doesn't
sound as if the bots were from it, and the cons from a planet "Destron".

Between the last pre-movie eps and TF:TM (called "Matrix Forever") there
is a video called "Scramble City". For copyright reasons, this was
actually broadcast in Japan before the US series was, but plotwise it
goes here, before the movie. It was basically one long battle,
featuring several of the gestalt teams, as well as a few other
characters. Scramble City exists in two forms: first a cartoon format,
and second a stop-motion version using the actual toys with mostly the
same plot. The stop motion clips were later hacked up to make TF
commercials for the toys. The cartoon version starts with a recap of
MTMTE and then, using both new and old footage, goes through the battle.
It ends with a cliffhanger of sorts, but was never followed up upon.
The post-movie episodes came afterwards under the title TF:2010, ending
with TRoOP. "Rebirth" was ignored.

Following TRoOP came "HeadMasters", which included a few of the movie
characters, but focused mainly on the Head and TargetMaster TFs and
their origins. Several big TFs die in this series (including Op and
Ultra Magnus), and Seibertron is destroyed. As the story goes, the
HeadMasters and TargetMasters left Seibertron long ago to find a new
world because of the war. They settled on a place called MasterStar,
where they developed the *Master technologies.

The next series was called "Masterforce" and centered mainly on the
"Junior HeadMasters" and PowerMasters (known as GodMasters in Japan).
This series also included the Seacons, Pretenders, and a giant Destron
GodMaster named Overlord who most American TF fans will have never heard
of. The main characters were the Junior HeadMasters -- Cybertron
HeadMasters with children for heads. They were Go-Shooter, Cab, and
Minerva (Siren, Hosehead, and Nightbeat to Americans). The Destrons
also had a Junior HeadMaster group. PowerMaster Optimus Prime was also
in this series, but he was called Super Ginrai, and had an extra second
trailer called Godbomber (which was not included in the American toy)
that transformed into a second exoskeleton and gave him wings.

The name of the next series is "Victory". The Cybertrons are led by a
BrainMaster (kind of like a PowerMaster) named Star Sabre. The other
BrainMasters are named Blacker, Laster, and Braver, and combine into
RoadCaesar. The Destrons have a team called BreastForce, composed of a
new type of binary bonded TFs with chest components that can transform
into weapons or animals. The leader of these is Deathsaurus, a double
BreastForce'er (the term "BreastMaster" was never actually used,
although if you use it people will still understand). The other six
members of BreastForce (LeoZack, Gaihawk, Hellbat, Killbison, Jargua,
and Drillhorn) can combine to form LioCaesar. The Destrons also have
DinoForce: its members have Dinosaur counterparts and combine to form
DinoKing (they're known as the Monster Pretenders / Monstructor in the
US). On the other side of the battlefield, the Cybertrons' Multiforce
has six members, and any two can combine to form a different robot.
Altogether they merge to form LandCross. Also in Victory, the
Masterforce TFs appear occasionally, and OP is reincarnated as a golden
robot named Victory Leo that transforms into a lion. He can combine
with Star Sabre to form Victory Sabre.

The last Japanese TF animation is called "Zone". It was intended to be
the first episode of a series, but this was never carried out and Zone
ended up as a one-shot OVA (original video animation, an animated
feature released directly to video). Mainly concerned with MicroMasters
(all of whom were portrayed as Cybertrons, even the ones we know as
'cons) and Destron gestalts (all of whom are carrying swords and wearing
capes(?)), this show also includes some of the Victory cast. The story
sort of centers on a matrix-like thingy that the Destrons are after.
It's main villain is named Violenjiger, who looks a bit like a three-
faced Quint. In some footage cut from Zone, these faces even seperate,
transform into insectoids, and merge into a gestalt. Woo woo!

Following this is a series of color spreads in "TV Magazine" titled
"BattleStars: The Return of Convoy". This story features Optimus Prime
and Megatron coming back from the dead one more time (Convoy is the
Japanese name for OP). These spreads were eight pages long and ran for
12 months. They were not manga as-such (Japanese comics are called
manga, and are drawn in a style very similar to anime). As far as story
goes, the MicroMaster bases SkyGarry and Grandus locate Prime's body and
reconstruct him as Star Convoy, with the ability to combine with them in
the form of a giant base or a large three part vehicle. The villain is
a giant space creature named Dark Nova. Although he acts a little like
Unicron did, and previous info I had received prompted me to say he was
a new form of Uni, Dark Nova IS NOT Unicron, and actually looks nothing
like him anyway. Dark Nova apparently has relocated Galvatron, who has
been missing since HeadMasters, and turned him into Super Megatron.
Star Convoy, SkyGarry, and Grandus (the BattleStars) are too much for
Super Megatron, but he is rebuilt into Ultra Megatron, who is also
beaten. Then Dark Nova actually combines himself with Megs and becomes
known as Star Giant. He attacks, but is defeated again.

All the Japanese series were done in traditional Anime style, which
means they're very cool and exciting to watch. There are no officially
released copies of these cartoons in the US, although there are a lot of
people that have copies of them.

All the Japanese cartoons were dubbed into English in Hong Kong (and at
least some of them were put into Cantonese as well). When the project
began 15 episodes of Headmasters were excellently dubbed and slated to
air in the US. Unfortunately, all 15 were destroyed in a large fire. A
second attempt was made to dub them and carried through all Japanese
eps, but the end product was nowhere near as good, and never saw US
broadcast, although they were shown over much of Asia.

Although the quality of the dubbing is rather poor -- the dialogue
translation leaves much to be desired and the voices chosen are
sometimes pretty bad -- for me at least, that only served to make them
more amusing. Not everyone is so easily entertained as me, though. :)
Singapore shares its video format with the UK, but that format, PAL, is
incompatible with American VHS. This means that dubbed copies are more
common with British fans (and Singaporeans, like good ol' Pema). A more
sophisticated translation project for TF:Victory is being undertaken by
Jaremy Pyle (pyle...@nova.gmi.edu). He is not doing the translations
himself, but has a friend who does it in his spare time. Feel free to
contact Jaremy about this project if you are interested.

5. Wow! How can I get copies of the anime?

This is where I list the people from the newsgroup who have told me that
they are willing to sell Japanese eps to other fans. :) The inclusion
of a name in this list should not be construed as a personal endorsement
from me. I can vouch for some of the names, but not all, so I'll stay
objective.

Aaron Russel has Japanese Headmasters episodes for sale, dubbed directly
from the original laserdisc set (*nice* quality). Information is
available on his WWW page: http://home1.gte.net/aaronrus/index3.htm

Jaremy Pyle (pyle...@nova.gmi.edu) has the complete Victory series in
Japanese.

Jean Vanlente (pla...@neosoft.com) has about 30 assorted
dubbed episodes from the three series.

6. What's Transformers: Hero?

TF:Hero is a video that was released in 1988 in Japan. It includes an
overview of the first 5 seasons of Japanese TF cartoons (two years of
Super Robot Life Form, one year of 2010, and two of Headmasters) as well
as little snippets from Sramble City and Masterforce. There are clips
from the cartoons with narration explaining the action, and even
"commercial breaks" filled with ads for TF toys. The video also
contains the Japanese movie trailer, with footage never officially seen
in the US that wasn't included in the actual movie. (Read the various
questions about cut movie footage in section XII.)

7. What's different between the American and British comics?

The British TF comic followed a different (and much more interesting)
continuity than its American counterpart. The UK book was weekly rather
than monthly, and lasted for another year or so after the American book
was canceled, making it up to issue 332. Each issue contained about
half a US comic's worth of TF story, and a usually non-TF backup strip.
It reprinted all the US stories, but when not doing so the Brits were
treated to original stories written by Simon Furman. As a direct
consequence of their writer, the UK stories were full of action,
intrigue, mythos, and extensive character development. They also
featured artwork from greats like Geoff Senior with filled color, rather
than the then-traditional dot coloring that Marvel US used.

The UK TF Annuals were hardback books with both comic and text stories,
and other features as well. The first Annual was also released in a
paperback version in 1986. The UK "Collected Comics" reprinted the best
stories from earlier issues. There were 19 of these plus a number of
reprint specials which were like CC, but were not numbered and most were
missing the stage-setting intro page that CC had. CC 1 and 2 were a
reprint of US 1-4.

The British continuity took most of the movie as cannon and from that
grew several future and time travel epics. Anyone familiar with
Furman's run on the US TF book will realize the great potential for this
type of story when flowing from Furman's pen.

Getting a hold of UK TF comics is pretty difficult, as most TF fans are
American, and the UK comics are so good that no one really wants to give
them up. If you're interested in getting some, post a message to ATTM
and you may get replies from people willing to sell, although the cost
could be high. The head of The Survivors, Liane Elliot
(ele...@masterpiece.com), has written up a guide to the UK comics
with a list of all issues, and summaries of many storylines.

A list of British TF comics can be found with the American comic list,
in XI, 1.

== XIV. Miscellaneous Questions =======

1. What were those Cybertronian units of time?

Issues 17 and 18 of the comic book focused on events on Cybertron,
mainly with Blaster's efforts to free a neutral scientist named Spanner
from Decepticon captivity. In number 17, two units of Cybertronian time
were introduced, and occasionally popped up in dialogue in later issues.
Also, in issue 60 Thunderwing mentions another unit of time. The
conversions are as follows:

1 Breem = 8.3 Earth minutes
1 Vorn = 83 Earth years
1 Orn = 1 Cybertronian lunar day = ??? in Earth time

More recently, the BW TFs have been using some Cybertron time units.
The *approximate* conversions as supplied by Larry DiTillio are:

Cycle = minute
Megacycle = hour
Klik = second
Nano-klik = 10th of a second

2. Unicron vs. the Death Star: who would win?

Hitler.

Seriously, though, this is a perfect example of a question that has been
beaten into the ground. Someone asked this sometime during the '94
school year and the discussion went on and on as more new people jumped
in expressing their opinions, which were, invariably, opinions that
others had already expressed. It degraded into the kind of discussion
you might see in a religious debate area where one person says "no,
don't you see? it's this way!" and the next person says "no, you're
wrong! it's THIS way!" and then someone else agrees with the first
person, and then the second, etc., etc..

The problem is that this is a fairly common first question for people to
post because they think (rightfully so) that it's an interesting
question to muse over for a little bit. Unfortunately, we've been put
through this all about four times now and it's worn awfully thin. IOW,
most of the ATT regulars will be extremely annoyed with you if you post
this question, or even something similar (Unicron vs. Galactus, Unicron
vs. the Zentradi war fleet, Unicron vs. M.Bison).

To actually answer the question... The side that favored Unicron gave
rationale such as his superior speed and mobility, the ability to
transform, and the toughness of his hide (if an exploding moon didn't
scratch him, what good will the Planet Destroyer beam from the DS do?).
They also noted that since the Matrix was the only thing that could
destroy him, the DS sort of loses by definition. The Death Star side
said that the DS actually had superior mobility because of its
hyperdrive, and that the Planet Destroyer could basically blow up
anything in the universe, even planets with tough metal hides. The size
question came up over and over again, comparing Uni's size in the comic
to Cybertron in the comic, Uni in the movie to Cybertron in the cartoon,
Uni's head to Uni's body to Cybertron in "The Ultimate Doom", and every
other comparison that can possibly be imagined, in the hopes of figuring
out which one was bigger. In the end there was no consensus, just a
bunch of people yelling at each other.

3. How do you write out the transforming sound?

When this question came up, our resident technobabble god, Kendrick, had
his own special take on it:

"The Transform sound begins as an 8 hz pulse repeated five times for .7
seconds each repeat whose pitch can be represented by the absolute value
of a declining sine wave, with each zero-to-zero arc of the wave
representing one of five cycles of the repetition. The actual value of
the sine wave can be modified by factor N which is multiplied into the X
value but divided into the Y value, which means that although the actual
pitch is largely indefinite, in analog terms when the transform pitch is
higher the length of each pulse is shorter, and conversely when the
pitch is lower the length of each pulse is longer."

More traditional attempts were as follows:

Rob Jung: "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh"
Kirt Israel: "CHHH-CHH-Chh-chhu-chu"
Iggy Drougge: "chreechroochroochroo"
Nick Morency: "Oh oh ah ah ee!"

4. Which TFs died in the movie/comic/tv show?

A fairly comprehensive "Transformers Book of the Dead" was written by
Liane Elliot, listing TF deaths in several different
continuities, complete with the circumstances of each death, and can be
found on Iggy Drougge's homepage at:
http://www.canit.se/~optimus/tf/dead.txt

However, for you impatient types, here's a brief list of the movie
deaths in approximate order, sans causes. Keep in mind that the
Insecticons might have just been clones, and some people don't consider
the 'cons reformed by Unicron to be "dead": Brawn, Prowl, Ratchet, Ironhide,
Wheeljack, Windcharger, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bombshell,
Shrapnel, Kickback, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Starscream.

5. What movie was it that had those TF cartoons in it?

"The Professional" is a movie about a hit man that takes in a little
girl whose family has been killed by mobsters. At several times
throughout the movie, the girl is shown watching TV, and she is always
watching Transformers cartoons. The first clip is from MTMTE Part 3.
Megatron says "Now it's my turn!", followed by Starscream pleading:
"Megatron! Megatron! Please don't shoot!". The second clip, from "War
of the Dinobots" has Prime say "Don't you recognize me?" and Grimlock
reply "Me Grimlock know you!" The third and final scene is also from
MTMTE 3. Hound says "But I mean a big one!" and Prowl asks "What did
you have in mind?"

== XV. Closing Comments and Information

A note on FAQular Grammar:

As the ATT FAQ was initially written by Steve Stonebraker and only revised
and edited by Tengu, there are a few sections here or there that leave some
ambiguity as to who is saying what. Basically, the majority of the text in
the document can be attributed to Steve, while some of it was penned by
Tengu. If there are any questions regarding this issue specifically, and
they tear at your mind and soul to such an extent that you just can't deal,
feel free to drop me a line. (Hee hee... "me" ;)

A note on translations:

When changing names from Japanese to English there are two major
problems. The first is that some English letters sound the same in
Japanese, such as 'l' and 'r', and 'u' and 'a'. This can lead to
translations of names like "Thunderclucker". To remedy this it is
necessary to look at the word you've ended up with, and decide if it
makes sense. Thunderclucker, unfortunately, makes nearly as much sense
as Thundercracker. But in most cases, the choice is obvious. As an
example which Doug Dlin (ap...@hotmail.com) brought to my attention, the
name "Raster" is better translated as "Laster", because the name then
suggests a character of great endurance.

Second, there has to be a choice made between exact transliteration of
spelling versus pronunciation. For example, the word "caesar" is in a
few names of Masterforce and Victory characters. Caesar is the true
translation of the word, but in Japanese the word can be pronounced as
in English, or as "kaiser". (Kaiser is a german word for "king" which
came from the latin name Caesar. Its meaning in Japan is not "king",
but represents power or strength.) People generally spell the names
whichever way they prefer, because both are "correct".

I have decided to try to favor spelling over pronunciation, simply
because I'm writing them and that is the way the names are "written".
The fact that they can be said differently isn't my problem, but one of
our language (like the words through, though, and tough, all of which
give a different sound to the "ough"). The least confusing thing would
be for me to mention both every time, but that seems like a waste of
space to me, and that is why I've chosen one. Anyone who notices me
being inconsistent on this matter should mention it to me.

Lastly, concerning planet names... In Japanese, the suffix "-sei" means
literally "-star" but is also used to indicate a planet's name. For
example, in TF:Victory the Cybertron's live on "V-sei", which means
"Planet V". Hence, "Masutaa-sei" actually means "Planet Master".
However, since "MasterStar" sounds cool, isn't technically incorrect,
and is a bit of an established word in the TransFan community, I have
opted to call it that.

Behavior of newbies and regulars on ATT (also see section I, 11.):

Although a good number of people on alt.toys.transformers treat each
other with respect, there have been at times criticisms made by both
regulars and by newbies about the behavior of the "other side". In an
effort to smooth things over and hopefully make the situation more
comfortable, I feel it may be helpful to offer a little advice.

In addition to this, *please* read "How to win friends and influence ATT",
a list of behavior pointers modified for ATT by Jameel al Khafiz
(spe...@dhp.com). He posts it regularly.

For people new to the net, or new to ATT (also see section I, 11.):

It's almost always a good idea to lurk on a newsgroup for a while before
starting to make posts. The time that you spend lurking could be
months, or only days. Many people simply lurk forever, and never make
any posts at all. On all newsgroups, it is important to get an idea of
what sort of things the group talks about, the manner in which they
communicate with each other, and what they consider worthwhile, before
making a potentially "rude" posting.

Do not quote large sections of text, especially if you are only going to
make one or two lines of commentary at the bottom. DO NOT WRITE IN ALL
CAPS OR MAKE BAD ENGLISH, OR SPELL BADLY, OR IGNORE PUNCTION IT MAKES
YOU'RE POST HARD TO READAND MAKES YOU LOOK STUPID. If you don't want to
bother with hitting the shift key, all little letters are much easier to
read than all big ones. That, and when you write in all caps it's
considered "shouting", which isn't very polite.

If you have something to say that you think some of us might like to
see, don't feel reluctant to make a post about it. If we don't care, we
just won't read it. On the other hand, don't waste bandwidth by making
multiple pointless posts. Just because you don't see a post you made
appear on the list right away doesn't mean that it didn't work. Don't
resend it or you'll just annoy other readers when they have to wade
through 5 copies of the same thing. Read the FAQ. :) If people don't
like what you have to say, and say so, it doesn't mean that they don't
like you. They aren't necessarily trying to be mean to you, even if it
feels like they are. It's a good idea to separate your opinion from your
ego as much as possible.

Above all, be considerate of others. Don't annoy them, don't waste
space, and don't be afraid to speak up if you have something to say.

For established ATT regulars (also see section I, 11.):

Every once in a while a relatively new ATT reader will mention the cold
welcome they received when first starting to post. When this happens,
he is often followed up by a few others saying that they experienced the
same thing. It's a sad thought that a group of people who have gathered
together to talk about something they love can exclude and intimidate
others with the same love. When somebody says something you think is
stupid, don't followup by calling them stupid. It's more likely that
they're just uninformed, and it's our duty as regulars to help them out.
Be courteous; don't belittle or mock new posters or even other regulars.

While its true that many have established friendships and, to some
extent, even cliques on ATT, it's a terrible mistake to only listen to
the people we know, or to quickly dismiss what new posters tell us.
Rather than ignoring or flaming an uninformed newbie, send them an email
to try to fill them in. Have them find a copy of the FAQ. Give them a
chance to show you that they have something to contribute.

Above all, be considerate of others. Listen to what newbies have to
say, help them out, treat them with respect, and make them feel welcome
to be a part of our community. Inexperienced participants of ATT may
indeed be "newbies," but they're still *TransFans*. :)

== XVI. Silly Random Questions ========

== XVII. Revision History and Plans for the Future

From Steve Stonebraker:

When I first got on the net, there was already a TF FAQ. It was
relatively short, and only partially informative, and had things in it that
were better left to other documents (like how to use ftp). It had been some
time since it was updated. Copies of this FAQ may still be floating around.
After someone started a message thread in late 1994 entitled "TF FAQ sucks!",
I thought it might be time for someone to actually take the initiative and
write up a new one. I didn't keep good track of revision dates at first, but
I plan to keep all the old versions from here on out. Hence, there are no
dates for the first few revisions.

From Tengu:

Steve's work on the FAQ more than stands on its own, and I'd be a fool not to
admit that the document is entirely his child. I tried to keep the "flow" of
the document intact as I worked on the 5.0 update, and hopefully I've been
successful. There were quite a few bits of the FAQ that needed to be updated,
and still other points which had not yet been added as of the last revision.
All in all, though- version 5.0 of the ATT FAQ is a "functional" document, in
that all information included in it was checked for accuracy as of its first
posting. I'd like to thank Steve publicly for his advice on this update, and
I ask anyone with insights or possible revisions to drop me a line.

v1.0 - everything new
v2.0 - more complete MUSH info
- quote list info
- info on RoboMACs, a TF-compatible rpg system
- now have complete and correct info on Japanese TF cartoon
- added more voice actor info
- list of gestalt components and list of tapes
- discussion of comic writing/art staff
- explanation of Soundwave's voice in the cartoon
- editing, grammar correction, etc.
v2.1 - transforming sound spelling
- misc. little changes
v2.2 - email address changes for a few people
- tiny revisions to voice list and Japanese cartoon section
- two or three new WWW pages listed
v3.0 - completed 2/6/96
- explanation of the switches on Jumpstarter's heads
- additional TF Movie laserdisc info
- email address corrections, WWW page additions, etc.
- rearranged order of some sections
- added an "About the Author" section for my own ego
- "can I post binaries here?" answered
- TF:The Dream added to MUSH list
- voice list responsibility transferred to Cris Haaser
- brief list of TF deaths in the movie
- list of starring voice roles in the movie
- figured out what the heck budding is!
- got info on foreign toys
- added a list of what not to post about (!)
v3.1 - completed 2/18/96
- a few random corrections and updates
- got the last Find Your Fate title
- added more toy list and UK comic information
v4.0 - completed 8/11/96
- a good number of minor corrections and additions
- books sent to separate file
- addition of non-US section
- news from BotCon '96
- tf battlecards
- increased number of columns to reduce number of lines
- rearranged, split, and combined some questions and sections
- Skyfire toy debunked
- Unicron toy described
- finally gave BW some respect :)
- more complete WWW page list
- added the "closing comments" section
- expanded movie edits / cuts to several more specific questions
- detailed info on "who is Cyclonus?"
v4.1 - completed 9/1/96
- updated some MUSH info
- realized a Fanzine list already existed
- removed a reference to Kendrick (gasp!)
- extra Battlestars and Zone info
- BotCon '97 announcement
- more web sites, fewer typos
v4.2 - completed 1/24/97
- rearranged and expanded indexes (read "FAQ Structure")
- Beast Wars earns a full section, woo woo!
- new BotCon and TransCon info
- info about a.t.t.marketplace
- brief posting guidelines for ATT and ATTM
- mention of TransFan code
- extra info on Valkyrie / Jetfire connection
- confirmation of alternate soundtrack cover in Canada
- movie LD still available???
- discussion of Cyberton's size
- MUSH list removed in lieu of better WWW version
v5.0 - completed 3/23/98

- lots of outdated information in-dated :)
- checked\updated almost every URL, e-mail address and various 'Net sundry
- FAQ Parts Three and Four (Indexes) removed in favor of CTLP
- "Special Thanks" truncated in the interests of document size
- "ATT Strife" section added
- Information on the Brawn Argument(TM) added
- Additional info added to the BW Section (Transmetals, Fuzors, etc.)
- updated info on where to purchase the TF:TM on video
- new info regarding Stan Bush and Vince DiCola
- BotCon '98 info added
- Question about the blue Bluestreak added

== XVIII. About the Author ============

From Steve:

As mentioned at the top of this document, my name is Steve Stonebraker.
At the time of this version's completion, I am 20 years old, and halfwayy
through my junior year as an astronomy and physics major at Ohio Wesleyan
University in Delaware, Ohio. My birthday is the first of April. I have a
WWW page (cc.owu.edu/~srstoneb). Soon, I hope to have a *fully* HTML-
ized version of the FAQ there. (My tests with v3.1 were very promising.)
Aside from Transformers and physics, I also like computers, video games,
dinosaurs, Helen Hunt, comic books, and snow. I am single and looking. ;) I
listen to a wide variety of music, ranging from Vivaldi to the Lords of Acid,
but the Indigo Girls are my favorite.
The one book I would recommend to anyone on Earth is _Ishmael_ by Daniel
Quinn. Basically, it explains the mistakes that our civilization is making,
and why we are making them. Reading it will open your eyes, and could change
your life. I'm not kidding.
I can sometimes be found under the name Astos (the dark elf from the
original Final Fantasy, and an old D&D character of mine) on Foothills or
Resort, two EW-Too based Talkers at "toybox.infomagic.com 2010" and
"resort.org 2323" respectively.

About Tengu:

Tengu is the admitted puppet of Steve Stonebraker, set to the task of
updating the FAQ based on large amounts of cash and pictures he thought were
destroyed long ago.

== XIX. Terms and Abbreviations ========

This is an incomplete list of terms you may see in this FAQ, on ATT, or
elsewhere on the net.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions, or the list thereof
AFAIK - As Far As I Know
a.t.t., ATT - alt.toys.transformers
ATTF - alt.toys.transformers.fanfic
ATTM - alt.toys.transformers.marketplace
binary - a file such as an image or sound clip UU or MIME encoded to be sent
as a text file through email or usenet
bot - Autobot
BW(s) - Beast Wars, Beast Warrior(s)
BWADL - Beast Wars Anti-Defamation League
con - Decepticon
decep - Decepticon
G1 - The original, pre=G2 Transformers
G2 - Generation 2, or Transformers: Generation 2
gestalt - a robot made up of a combination of several smaller robots
IMO, IMHO - In My Opinion, In My Humble Opinion
kitbash - to modify a toy by painting, rebuilding, adding to it, etc.
TF(s) - Transformer(s)
TM - Transmetal, Targetmaster (identified by context)
TRU - Toys 'R Us
TFTM, TF:TM - Transformers: The Movie
HasKen - the Hasbro / Kenner conglomerate which now makes TFs
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion.
Max, Maxie - Maximal
Megs, Meggy - Megatron, Decepticon leader.
MTMTE - "More Than Meets The Eye", the first three-episode story
Op, OP - Optimus Prime, Autobot leader.
OTOH - On The Other Hand.
NG - Newsgroup
Pred - Predacon
Quints - Quintessons, aliens introduced in the TF movie who played a large
part in the plot of post-movie eps
regulars - ATT's frequent and more well-known posters
retcon - "retroactive continuity", when a character or story has a blank area
of its past filled in, or an old area replaced, to make the present
story make more sense
seekers - the 6 'con jets with the same design (like Starscream and Thrust)
spam - to post long, pointless messages, or to send a message to many
newsgroups where it doesn't apply, or the pointless message itself
tech specs - the little cards from TF boxes which showed the abilities and
stats of the TF
TFU - "Transformers Universe," the character-bio comic released by Marvel
TransFan - a Transformers Fan (whoa...)
TRoOP - "The Return of Optimus Prime", a 2 part post-movie story
troll - a usenet post intentionally designed to illicit a harsh response for
amusement, or the author of such a post (ex: "Transformers suck!! You
are all fags!!!")
TTWND - Thread That Would Not Die (tm), topics like "Unicron vs Death Star"
TUD - "The Ultimate Doom", a three part pre-movie cartoon story
Shackwave - the Radio Shack Shockwave ripoff, it was grey and called something
like "Astro Man"
*Masters, *M - AM=ActionMaster, HM=HeadMaster, TM=TargetMaster,
PM=PowerMaster, MM=MicroMaster
**, __, // - plain text characters used to emulate font formats by placing
them on either side of a word or phrase, the meanings are bold,
underline, and italic, respectively

== XX. Legalese and Special Thanks ====

From Steve:

Initial thanks go to the previous FAQ author, Tim Browne (aka "Max
Sterling"). Tim *is* still on the net after all, at least as of Nov-96.
Although this FAQ is my own work, parts of his FAQ (questions, answers, ideas)
have been included in this one, and without some sort of previous reference
I'm sure my job would have been a lot harder.

From Tengu:

Again, I'd like to thank Steve for trusting me with the updating of the
FAQ while he's on hiatus. He's been of enormous help to me in my work on the
FAQ, and I can only wish him a speedy return to the helm. Also, my thanks go
to those ATTers who sent me questions and comments for FAQ revisions; nearly every
suggestion you made had a direct impact on changes in v5.0. Cheers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Special Thanks of course go to all of the participants of ATT, the
individuals referenced in this document, and the individuals who maintain the
resources/sites/documents referenced in this document. :P It is the community
spirit of online TransFans that allows this document to exist; it is the
combined effort of those fans that enables it to thrive.

The Transformers, Autobots, Decepticons, Beast Wars, and most of the
other names and things are probably all registered trademarks of either Hasbro,
Kenner, Marvel, Takara, or someone. This FAQ is simply a reference for
Transformers fans and is not intended to infringe upon any legal rights to the
names or ideas referenced.

This FAQ, however, is Steve's property. Anyone may distribute it to
anyplace they like or put it anywhere they like, in print or in electronic form,
provided that I retain all credit of authorship, that the contents are not
altered (except by my permission), and that no fee is charged except to make up
cost of duplication. The FAQ is not to be used as a tool to further global
domination, and may not be distributed to robotic extraterrestrials bent on
conquering the universe.

Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ, Copyright 1998, Steve Stonebraker/Tengu.

--Steve-o