TRANSFORMERS FANFIC READING CUB #4: "Stunticons: Black Sunshine" (1994)

[Joseph Bardsley]

Another solid vintage read from HJAK, here is his "Stunticons" one-shot from June 1994; posted here 25 years ago this month, surprisingly enough.

Jameel did a number of great stories about subgroups (the Insecticons, and Terrorcons, in particular), and this is no exception. I admire his ability to capture the heart of characters in a way that brings them truly to life for readers of all backgrounds.

Enjoy! (Next up, Lizard's 'Seacons'!)

JB

=======

From ha...@andrew.cmu.edu Mon Jun 20 12:26:27 PDT 1994
Article: 6163 of alt.toys.transformers
Path: mmddvan!vanbc.wimsey.com!deep.rsoft.bc.ca!agate!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!convex!news.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!toads.pgh.pa.us!news.sei.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ha09+
From: Harith Jameel Alkhafiz <ha...@andrew.cmu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: FANFIC: Stunticons #1
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 12:25:43 -0400
Organization: Doctoral student, Physics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 313
Message-ID: <wi1QA7e00...@andrew.cmu.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: po4.andrew.cmu.edu

Stunticons: Black Sunshine #1

Cover: The Stunticons are rolling down a crowded highway, smashing through
cars. Wrecked cars are everywhere. Above them, a spectral Menasor rips a
semi in two.



"God, what's the holdup?" John asked as he slammed his hand into the
steering wheel of his Ferrari. It seemed like he'd been sitting in the same
spot forever. For some reason or other, the interstate was backed up again.
This time was different, though. He wasn't in a hurry for a business meeting
or somesuch. His wife had gone into labor, and she was in the hospital. In
Seattle. One hundred miles away. One hundred miles of bumper-to-bumper
traffic, he thought. He turned on the radio and was pleased to hear David
Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes". Now that was music. He didn't remember any
rumbling in it, though. He could swear that he could hear a truck speeding
behind him, but that was impossible. Traffic was backed up for miles in
either direction. Since the flow of traffic was at a virtual standstill, he
chanced a look out of the rear window to see was was going on. His eyes
widened in shock as he saw the largest semi he'd ever seen smashing through
cars without slowing down in the least. The hulking black, gray, and purple
machine was crushing cars as though they were paper! John's last, panicked
act was to try to open the door and dive out of his doomed car...

"Yeah!" Motormaster roared as he smashed through the inferior, human
cars and trucks along the Washington highway. "Get out of the way, or get
crushed!"
"For once, Megatron came up with a halfway decent plan," Drag Strip
commented. The yellow Formula-1 tore down the highway, smashing through cars
in collisions that should have totalled him, yet he continued on without a
scratch.
"I'm gonna play it!" Wildrider yelled as he swerved all over the
highway, even jumping the barrier separating the two sides of the road. The
dark gray sportscar with red-tinted windows had recently had a cd player
installed, and there was one particular cd of which he never tired. "I'm
gonna play it!"
"So play it, already," Dead End grumbled. A dark red sportscar, Dead
End was the only Stunticon who made any effort to avoid collisions. "It's not
like we could stop you. It's not like it matters."
"Hey, Breakdown!" Wildrider cackled. "I'm gonna play it!"
"What!?" Breakdown asked quickly as he smashed through a car whose
engine had failed as Breakdown neared. "Yeah, yeah, that's fine, I guess,"
the white and blue sportscar replied. It'll distract the others from looking
at me, he continued silently.
"Yeah, play it!" Drag Strip shouted. "Track number three, man!"
"Yeah!" Wildrider exclaimed as he activated his stereo system. White
Zombie blasted forth from him at over 100 deciBels. Wildrider and Drag Strip
roared the lyrics along with Rob Zombie, lead vocalist of White Zombie and the
only human the Wildrider respected.
"No accounting for taste," Dead End grumbled as he narrowly avoided a
collision. All of the Stunticons had guidance systems capable of precision
steering. Some of them just chose not to use them.
"There's a truck up ahead!" Breakdown shouted over the music. "A big
one!"
"Mine!" Motormaster roared as he accelerated, plowing through cars as
though they were nothing. He shouted in unholy glee as he rear-ended the
hapless Earth truck. He continued to accelerate, smashing through the truck
and destroying it completely. "Nobody's got what I got!" Motormaster
declared. "Nobody!"
"Ooh, a roadblock!" Wildrider declared, whipped into an even wilder
frenzy than usual. "I love those!" Wildrider jumped, using a car as a ramp
(flattening it in the process), landed on Motormaster's trailer, sped off of
the front of the trailer, and landed in the middle of the police's hastily
erected roadblock. "All right, get some!" he exclaimed as he slammed his
brakes and cut hard to the left, spinning until he faced the scattered police
again. Tires squealing, he sped through the broken roadblock again, smashing
two of the police cars just as Motormaster smashed through.
"Oh, yeah!" Drag Strip cried. "No one can touch me!"
"Remind me to kill Frenzy when I see him," Dead End muttered, cursing
the day that the diminutive Decepticon had introduced Wildrider to the
concepts of 'music' and 'speed metal'.
"No way, Dead End!" Wildrider shouted. "No one touches _my_ little
buddy!"
"Here it comes!" Drag Strip exclaimed, anticipating a part of the song.
"Damn straight!" Wildrider screamed. Had he been in robot mode, he
would have been headbanging.
"Slide into I said a "44"! Cool heart can a hypno-ti-yi-yize!"
Wildrider and Drag Strip shouted in unison with the lyrics. "Dream into
infinity! I turned the love to li-yi-yies!"
"Where's the humans' army?" Motormaster asked. "It's been a while
since I got to smash a tank!"
"Right about here should do nicely," Breakdown mused as he ejected a
flashing item from his trunk. The shining Autobot symbol fell to the highway
amidst the wake of debris and death.
"Enough of the kiddie stuff!" Drag Strip exclaimed. "Wildrider, let's
show these human how to rock!"
"Yeah!" Wildrider exclaimed as large, double-barreled cannons rose
from Drag Strip's back end.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Drag Strip shouted as twin balls of plasma fired
from his cannon, detonating on the highway ahead with a tremendous explosion
that sent cars and chunks of pavement flying.
"Burn 'em! Burn 'em in the butt!" Wildrider shouted while laughing
insanely. Dead End grumbled something about the corrupting influence of human
entertainment.
"I see something tasty!" a voice said from Motormaster's cab.
"Nobody's stopping you!" Motormaster bellowed. A purple and black
cassette popped out of Motormaster's window and transformed into a large bat.
Ratbat then flew to the side of the road, where he sank his fangs into
jet-black Dodge Stealth.
Some good's finally come of those Stunticons, Ratbat thought as he
drank deeply of the car's fuel and watched the Stunticons speeding off into
the distance.

"Finally rid of that little twerp!" Motormaster shouted. "Now, back
to the demolishing!"
"Someone's coming up behind us, if anyone cares," Dead End reported
sullenly.
"Hey, it's one of those cars, like in the ZZ Top videos!" Wildrider
exclaimed. "I've always wanted to smash one of those!" Tires squealing,
Wildrider threw himself into reverse and cut hard to the right. Once he was
facing back the way he had come, he threw himself into forward gear and
accelerated toward the red car that was stupid enough to be following them.
Wildrider bore down upon his target. The red car maneuvered around
Wildrider's attack with contemptuous ease.
"You call that fast?" a voice from the car called. "The only thing
that kind of speed is going to get you is a dust sandwich!"
"Hey, Drag Strip!" Wildrider called via radio as he spun to pursue the
red car. "This one thinks that it's fast!"
"Oh, really?" Drag Strip replied as he spun to face this latest
challenge. "I guess I'll have to come back there and show him how wrong he
is!" No longer forced to hold back so that he could stay behind Motormaster,
Drag Strip's speed shot up well over 200 mph. In a matter of minutes, he
reached the red car and spun to pace his foe.
"You think that you're fast?" Drag Strip asked, voice dripping with
contempt.
"Yeah, I do."
"Well, I'm the fastest thing on the road! Me, Drag Strip!"
"Really? Well, just give me a second to get out of second gear, and
I'll show just how wrong you are," the newcomer laughed.
"'Second-'? No way!" Drag Strip protested. Nothing could be faster
than him, especially not some Earth car! However, his boastful thought was
proven wrong as, with a sudden burst of speed, the red car with the gold
flames shot ahead of the speeding Stunticon.
"See you later!"
"No!" Drag Strip shouted, firing his plasma cannons. No one was
faster than him!
"Ow!" the red car exclaimed as the plasma cannons exploded near its
right side.
Ow? Drag Strip thought. That's no car! "Autobot!" he radioed to his
fellow Stunticons. "Autobot coming your way! Fast!"
"I have him on radar," Dead End noted. "Drag Strip's right, for once.
That Autobot's moving at over 400 mph."
"Four hundred?" Motormaster asked. "On the ground?"
"We don't have much time, Motormaster," Dead End said. Moron, he
added mentally.
"Breakdown, take him out!" Motormaster commanded.
"Oh, all right," Breakdown replied, spinning and speeding toward his
target. "I have an ID on him," Breakdown radioed after a few moments. "It's
Volt, one of the newer Autobots."
"Take him down, Breakdown!" Motormaster ordered. "Take him down!"
"I'll let him know what it feels like to be me," Breakdown chuckled as
he shot by Volt. The unique vibrations produced by Breakdown's engine
adversely affected Volt, who was forced to slow to less than 300 mph by
multiple systems failures. Smirking internally, Breakdown spun and began to
follow Volt, though the Stunticon's top speed was nowhere near even a
malfunctioning Volt.
"We've got him on the run!" Drag Strip shouted as he passed Breakdown.
"He won't be running for long," Breakdown mused as a double-barrelled
concussion cannon rose from his trunk. After taking careful aim, Breakdown
fired, producing the same effect as his engine's vibrations, but much more
controlled. Breakdown laughed as he scored a direct hit.

Steadily slowing, Volt managed to catch up to Motormaster.
"You're going down, Decepticon!" Volt declared as he transformed and
grabbed the back of Motormaster's trailer. Despite the fact that half of his
systems were malfuntioning, Volt managed to produce his thermal energy saber.
He brought the dull red blade down on Motormaster with all the strength he
could muster.
"That the best you can do, Autobot?" Motormaster asked.
"Uh-oh," Volt said when he noticed that the spot he had struck was
untouched. "That's not good."
"I'll show you how it's done!" Motormaster bellowed as he barrelled
toward a rather large semi. Volt looked up in time to see Motormaster smash
through his target.
"Damn!" he cried as the impact knocked him off of Motormaster and onto
the highway. Volt skidded for many hundreds of feet before he could manage to
transform, narrowly avoiding twin plasma spheres that exploded mere meters
from him.
"That looked like it hurt!" Wildrider exclaimed as he began to catch up
to Volt.
"You won't be laughing for long!" Volt muttered as, with a sudden
burst of speed he zoomed around the next bend.
"We have him, now!" Motormaster shouted to the other four Stunticons
as they regrouped.
Hmm, Dead End thought. The road is strangely clear of traffic. Could
this be a trap? Oh, who cares? We're all going to die anyway. Might as well
be now.
"Autobot ambush!" Breakdown exclaimed as they rounded the bend and saw
the group of Autobots that Volt had joined.
Looks like I was right, Dead End thought as the Autobots began to fire.
"Stunticons, transform!" Motormaster commanded. Instantly, the
Stunticons transformed to robot mode and began firing.
"This is for sending spies out after me, Autobots!" Breakdown cried
out as he hit an Autobot with his concussion pistol, causing his target to
collapse into a malfunctioning heap.
"Why do you even bother worrying about spies?" Dead End asked as his
compressed air gun blasted his targets back off of their feet. "We're all
going to die anyway."
"Admit it, this is the life!" Wildrider cackled as he sprayed the
Autobots with his rapid-fire laser pistol.
"Life," Dead End sighed. "Don't talk to me about life."
"How about if I talk about that shot I just made?" Drag Strip
suggested as his gravito gun pinned an Autobot to the ground with increased
gravity. "Or this shot?" Drag Strip's next shot set up two opposing
gravitational fields that tore the limbs from his target.
"Shut up and fight!" Motormaster bellowed, his atom smasher cannon
firing a massive particle beam that shredded pavement and Autobots alike.
"Don't be jealous," Drag Stip mumbled as he continued to fire.
"Stupid, domineering AAAGGGHHH!" Drag Stip flew back hundreds of feet as an
explosive shell impacted on his chest and exploded.
"Blam! Zorch! Pow!" Warpath shouted as he blasted Motormaster.
Motormaster growled incoherently as he returned fire.
"We're outnumbered and outgunned!" Breakdown cried as he made his way
toward Motormaster. "We have to retreat!"
"Never!" Wildrider exclaimed.
"Look, we wrecked the human's highway. We're cars. The Autobots are
cars. Even humans can figure this one out! We're done! We can go!"
"Shut up and fire!" Motormaster commanded.
"No!" Dead End exclaimed as he was hit by Autobot fire. "My finish!
You'll pay for that!" Dead End redoubled his efforts noticably. Motormaster
took a moment to glance over his troops. Though they were holding their own,
they were taking damage, and Breakdown's bad fuel pump was apparently acting
up again. Motormaster grumbled as he considered what to do.
"Stunticons, merge to form Menasor!" he commanded. Motormaster began
the complex transformation as the other Stunticons formed upon him, each
shifting form before they joined forms with Motormaster. Each Stunticon
carried within him a component of a huge force field generator. As they
merged, the components joined, reinforcing the strength of the merged being
beyond the sum of its parts. Motormaster struggled with all his willpower as
his personallity was sucked down into the abyss that was Menasor. He could
dimly hear the cries of the others as they were swept away, but he had to
resist. He had to.

"Autobots!" Menasor growled. In a flash, a huge silver sword appeared
in the hand of the gigantic monster that was the fusion of the five
Stunticons. "Must...destroy...Autobots!"
"Zow! Look at the size of that thing! Boom!" Warpath exclaimed as
the Autobots' fire reflected harmlessly from Menasor.
"No kidding!" Volt nodded. "Well, this isn't gonna be much help," he
said, looking at his now tiny-looking heatsaber.
"Die!" Menasor screamed as he fired his cyclone cannon at the
Autobots. A massive vortex of air shot forth from the barrel of the gun and
scattered many of the Autobots. Some of the Autobots were scattered in
multiple directions. "All...Autobots...must...faaAAAARRRGGGHHH!" Menasor
clutched at his head and fell to his knees in agony.

*Stop...it...Drag Stip!* Menasor struggled to command over the din of
Menasor's collective mind.
*Better...faster...can...control!* Drag Strip replied.
*Futile...hopeless...why...bother?* Dead End commented.
*Silence!* Menasor commanded.

Menasor roared in pain as he lashed out at the pavement, opening huge
cracks that widened with every blow.
"What's he doing?" one of the Autobots asked the Autobot standing next
to him.
"Kill!" Menasor exclaimed suddenly, blasting Autobots apart with his
gun. Menasor lumbered toward the Autobots, slashing out with his sword.
After a few more minutes, Menasor grabbed at his head again and screamed a
scream of pain and rage.

*Useless!*
*Separate!*
*New...leader!*
*Stop!*
*Better!*
*Kill...you...all!*
*Futile!*
*Silence!*
*Watching!*
*Win!*
*No...matter!*
*Listening!*
*STOP!*

With a supreme act of will, Motormaster disengaged the merger. The
five separate Stunticons fell to the ground.
"Stunticons, retreat!" Menasor commanded. The Stunticons transformed
to their vehicle modes and tore off down the road in the direction from which
they had come.
"Oh, I hate that," Dead End grumbled.
"Shut up and drive!" Motormaster shouted.
"Well, at least we accomplished our mission," Breakdown said. "The
humans saw a bunch of driverless cars wrecking their highway." Breakdown
paused to dodge Wildrider, who was literally driving circles around the
others. "I'd say that's pretty good." Motormaster swerved momentarily,
smashing into Breakdown's side.
"Shut up!" Motormaster spat.
"All right, all right!" Breakdown replied.
"Hey, I'm gonna play it!"
"Oh, no," Dead End groaned.

Next: Constructicons

----
____
/ /\
/ / \
/ / /
/ / / H. Jameel al Khafiz, Physicist-At-Large
/ / \
/___/ \ Kid Kirby, LNH
\ \ /\ \
\___\/ \ \ Venom@TransformersMUSH, Sade@LegionMUSH
\ \ \
\___\ \ Mystery Quote of the Hour: "Great. No beer, and all his
/ / / friends are guys."
/___/ /
\ \ /
\___\/

[meg...@gmail.com]

Oh, wow. Thanks for the blast from the past!

H. Jameel al Khafiz

[Joseph Bardsley]

So great to see you again on ATT, Jameel! :)

As you'll have seen, I am a huge fan of your stories, and love the idea of sharing old TF fiction with ATT writ large. Your writing made an impact on me, as a fan - and, I suspect, many others - and I'm grateful.

(if you aren't OK with your stories being shared again on ATT, please let me know, and I will, of course, stop. Nothing but appreciation for your work is intended).

Joseph
Joe.ba...@gmail.com

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

I might be late, but I loved this story and the underground pop culture references of the time, back when very few were well versed in Hitchhiker's Guide.

[brianj...@gmail.com]

This is awesome! ATT (or maybe some of the early webpages) were my first exposure to fan fiction. I guess in hindsight it made sense, as I had always in my head written short "episodes" to fill in the gaps or fix mistakes of the cartoon. Even today, I still remember piecing together a whole episode of the Autobots digging out a part of the Ark and finding a whole section of the ship that they didn't have access to. (Almost similar to SOS Dinobots) We see some components of the 1985 and the 1984 cast recognizes them as their friends. Prime orders that they be repaired immediately. Before this can start, somehow the Autobots are distracted. Maybe they are captured, maybe on the brink of defeat. Anyway, somebody automates the Ark to repair the 1985ers. Maybe the Ark is still damaged and doesn't recognize the difference, maybe in an emotional outburst the person talking to the Ark says something like "fix ALL of them, NOW!" We see a few Autobots start to be repaired but then the camera pans over to a piece of dark grey metal. We zoom in closer to see that it has a Decepticon symbol! - cut to commercial!

Anyway, when I started reading fanfic some of it I enjoyed quite a bit and some of it was too left of center to me. I was G1 cartoon through and through, so if it followed something close to that format I liked it. If it dealt with fan creation Transformers or too specific tech specs references it was hard to fit into my "universe".

Black Sunshine I remember as one of the first I read. I thought it was okay, but it was weird to have such specific references to their personalized weapons and weaknesses. In the cartoon, these were usually omitted or glanced over. And weapons were usually just laser blasts. I also, at the time, was less interested in diving deep into characters as I was to just have "more episodes" or the cartoon.

Over the years that has changed quite a bit and my palette has increased as I can appreciate more and more facets of Transformers as a whole. So every once in a while I thought about reading Black Sunshine (I also remember loving the name at the time) and how it was interesting to see Drag Strip's weapon and Breakdown's fuel pump in action. I am certainly happy to be able to read it again 25 years later!

Now, I also remember snippets of another one that at the time I didn't like but I wonder how I would feel about it now. It was a story where Thundercracker had left the Decepticons and joined the Autobots. It was an uneasy alliance for some, and it actually culminated in the Autobots betraying him. I think it was Hound that made a hologram showing Thundercracker doing something bad and another Autobot (Sunstreaker? Sideswipe? Trailbreaker?) saw it and attacked the real Thundercracker. There was a part where Thundercracker looked at Hound with disbelief and Hound has a guilty reaction which I thought was really neat. I don't remember much else but I do remember that there was swearing in it. The swearing was actually the part that I didn't like the most, again as it didn't really fit in my universe. I would LOVE to read this again if anyone has any idea what I'm talking about!

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 1:41:32 PM UTC-6, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> It was a story where Thundercracker had left the Decepticons and joined the
> Autobots. It was an uneasy alliance for some, and it actually culminated in
> the Autobots betraying him.

Oh, man. I totally remember that one. It kind of made me upset. The Autobots treated him so unfairly. They were such jerks in that story!

I might have to try to track that one down again. I don't remember who wrote it. Somebody who is a more avid fan fiction reader than me would probably know.


Zob (gonna have to try my Google-Fu)

[Joseph Bardsley]

Indeed I do!

The story in question is "Coming Clean", written in 1993 by a fan with the ATT moniker of "Jiminy Cristmas". It is, indeed, the epic odyssey of Thundercracker as he navigates a shift in allegiance. It's a great story; one that's held up remarkably well over nearly 30 years. As Zob has recently noted, fanfic from this era demonstrates a certain kind of unique pedigree; it's from a time where the only people, mostly, online had access via their university campuses. so the quality of writing was generally quite high.

Another note about this story - it's one of the most slavishly adherent to "toy" bios that I've ever seen, before or since.

I have a Word copy I am happy to email folks (it's too long to post here). Let me know!

JB

[Sky Raider]

On Friday, June 12, 2020 at 12:03:50 AM UTC-4, Joseph Bardsley wrote:

> Another note about this story - it's one of the most slavishly adherent to "toy" bios that I've ever seen, before or since.

Yes, I remember that aspect of Coming Clean very well, which makes it very hard to slot into the cartoon universe but it did what it set out to do well enough. (Well the constant swearing also kind of raised a few eyebrows for me even then.)

I still remember the part with Rampage headbanging along to Motley Crue (straight from his tech spec about being entranced by music videos) along with a cranky Megatron breaking Soundwave's shoulder or something for no apparent reason, which if I didn't know better I could swear was probably written specifically to troll Raksha. :P

[Joseph Bardsley]

Ha! Perhaps, though it's also (sadly) in line with Megatron's toy bio....

Let me know if you want me to email you a copy of the story your way. Happy to do so!

Loving these fanfic chats,

JB

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

"Too long" coming from the guy that posted 7 part stories for previous fanfic reading club
.... this has to be long indeed.

[Sky Raider]

On Friday, June 12, 2020 at 9:35:48 PM UTC-4, Joseph Bardsley wrote:

> Ha! Perhaps, though it's also (sadly) in line with Megatron's toy bio....
>
> Let me know if you want me to email you a copy of the story your way. Happy to do so!
>
> Loving these fanfic chats,
>
> JB

Yeah sure! I'd get a kick out of reading that. Haven't seen it in close to 20 years probably (where does the time go?).

You can send it to ak1...@scarletmail.rutgers.edu. Thanks!

[Joseph Bardsley]

Sent! Hope you enjoy the (re)read. :)

JB

[Sky Raider]

Received! Thank you sir. Maybe I'll do a review of it when (if) I ever have the time.

[Joseph Bardsley]

Awesome! I have many, many thoughts on this story, so I'd welcome the chance to chat about it further with folks. :)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 3:34:46 AM UTC-5, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 9:44:23 AM UTC-7, Sky Raider wrote:
> > On Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 3:32:27 AM UTC-4, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> > > On Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 7:17:13 AM UTC-7, Sky Raider wrote:
> > > > On Friday, June 12, 2020 at 9:35:48 PM UTC-4, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Ha! Perhaps, though it's also (sadly) in line with Megatron's toy bio....
> > > > >
> > > > > Let me know if you want me to email you a copy of the story your way. Happy to do so!
> > > > >
> > > > > Loving these fanfic chats,
> > > > >
> > > > > JB
> > > >
> > > > Yeah sure! I'd get a kick out of reading that. Haven't seen it in close to 20 years probably (where does the time go?).
> > >

> > > Sent! Hope you enjoy the (re)read. :)
> > >
> > > JB
> >
> > Received! Thank you sir. Maybe I'll do a review of it when (if) I ever have the time.
>
> Awesome! I have many, many thoughts on this story, so I'd welcome the chance to chat about it further with folks. :)

It might take awhile ut I feel like I should read this too

[Joseph Bardsley]

Happy to share it, if you'd like - just let me know your email. :)

JB

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Usenet normally includes it without my knowledge, but apparently it stopped now
Ob1k...@att.net

[Joseph Bardsley]

Sent! Enjoy. :)

JB

[Brian Nelson]

I can't believe you knew what I was talking about! Yes, could you please send a copy? brianj...@gmail.com
BTW, that's a really interesting point about online access and universities, something I just never really thought about before but makes a lot of sense and takes me back to the late 90s!

BJN

[Joseph Bardsley]

Hey Brian - thanks for taking the time to respond! Check your inbox. :)

JB

[Brian Nelson]

HUGE thank you to Joseph Bardsley!! This was a blast from the past that I honestly never thought I would have the opportunity to re-visit. The human brain is so wonky. What was so important about this that I wanted to read it again? I mean, I read it once - that should have been good enough right? Instead of taking a chance on any of the new fiction or fan-fiction that has come out in the last 30 years I wanted to reconcile with a tiny sliver of an old memory instead. Not only that - but what I described above is exactly everything I remembered from it. Like, if you had put a gun to my head, in 4 million years I wouldn't have been able to remember one single more detail. And yet, as I read it again, there were not only sections that I *still* had absolutely no recollection of, but then some that I was like, "oh yeah, I do remember that". It's kind of wild.

I definitely enjoyed it. Sort of quasi-set in the cartoon universe with some techspec aspects thrown in. Definitely out of my comfort zone at the time, but now I appreciate the way it fleshes out some characters and the universe as a whole. I wasn't as much into the pure murderous side of the Decepticons, but I did really appreciate a different side to the Autobots. In the cartoon, the Autobots were (mostly) pure heroes. Happy go lucky nary a problem could go wrong for more than about 21 minutes guys who got to save the day every 22 or 23 minutes. Probably not the most accurate depiction of robots who have been at war for millions of years and are now stuck on an alien world. I know it's not a 1:1 relationship, but look at our heroes. First responders, military, etc - work for 8 hour a day for a small paycheck - mired in red tape, bosses they don't have confidence in - all to get home and try and put food on the table and raise a family - it's TOUGH!! The Search for Alpha Trion and a few other small bits give us peaks into the Autobots having some type of life outside of the war, but Coming Clean really puts some emphasis on it.

BJN

[Codigo Postal]

Joseph, any interest in bringing back an occasional fanfic for a reading club? I've been diving into the works of Robert Jung and Merytneith, among others, and it surprises and saddens me that the depth of thought and passion that went into these, and many other works by fan authors, far exceeds anything we've gotten in the official media in the decades since. If I were Hasbro, I'd edit and reissue the cream of the crop in official digital anthologies, if only to give the lie to the notion that TFs are only for children/man-children.

[Joseph Bardsley]

@Brian, if you're reading this, many thanks for your very kind message! Not sure how I missed this when you originally posted it - I check ATT every day or second day - but thank you. Coming Clean is one of my very favorite stories, too, with so many visceral moments that - for me, at least - remain burned into my brain - and I am glad it landed for you. Like you, perhaps, I first encountered these stories at a formative age, which makes the memories seem all the more fresh.

@Codigo, I would totally be down for this. TF fanfic, along with fanzines and MUSHing, is probably my favorite way to experience the fandom these days (even if this means I feel like a relic a lot of the time - albeit in good company), and I have a pretty sizeable archive of stories from back in the day (early 90s - early 00s).

I wasn't sure how many folks here were actively reading the old works I was posting - I never want to be a bother - but, if there is interest, more than glad to revive the tradition. (If nothing else, you and I can chat via email!).

The unique confluence of a near-total lack of official media + waning public interest + many of the very first online TransFans being able to share their ideas from major universities made ~1992 - 99 a really fruitful year for quality writing, and I feel like shining a continued light on these stories is the right thing to do in terms of helping them find new readers, no matter what has ultimately become of their authors.

Agreed that Rob Jung was a very fine fanfic writer - as is our own Zob, and Gustavo Wombat (if you're reading this, Gustavo, I hope you're OK).

Dave Van Domelen also comes to mind in a big way, as do vanished personalities like Raksha, Robert E. Powers, Belinda Kelly, Bobbi Carothers, Lizard (an amazing series of TF/Star Trek crossovers I really love), Stanley Lui, and Kendrick.

All of this to say - happy to revive this! Let me know your thoughts. :)

JB
joe.ba...@gmail.com

[Codigo Postal]

Agreed! The fandom definitely has a different feel to it these days; today, it's a multi-billion dollar juggernaut that attracts A-list sponsors, licensees, and Oscar-winning superstars. Back then, to most people, TF was an extinct children's toyline with a half-remembered catchphrase and theme song. It was those cool older college kids, pioneers of the internet, who brought their erudition and their passion to legitimizing and elevating the brand. Without them, I doubt TF would be where it is today; certainly it was their passion that brought me into the fandom.

That's not to dismiss the fandom today, of course. There are folks doing amazing things with CGI, stop-motion, artwork, and more, and certainly their passion is no less. But the 90's for TF was another time and place altogether, and I think so much of the creative work from that era deserves to be seen by a wider and newer audience of fans.

> Agreed that Rob Jung was a very fine fanfic writer - as is our own Zob, and Gustavo Wombat (if you're reading this, Gustavo, I hope you're OK).

Zob's fanfics are indisputably part of that classic fan canon, and his work on restoring the soundtrack should earn him more recognition in the fandom, IMHO. Seconded on Gustavo's whereabouts and good health!

>
> Dave Van Domelen also comes to mind in a big way, as do vanished personalities like Raksha, Robert E. Powers, Belinda Kelly, Bobbi Carothers, Lizard (an amazing series of TF/Star Trek crossovers I really love), Stanley Lui, and Kendrick.

Dave Van Domelen's Tales of the Intermezzo still resonate today. Chilling to think about a coldly totalitarian Maximal government clamping down on the rights and freedoms of the remaining Bots and Cons (my favorites are a tossup between the fate of a grounded Sky Lynx finding his expression through dance, and Treadshot teaming up with the remaining Cons on a penal colony to reclaim their identities and fate).

Always enjoyed Raksha's "Chance in a Million" about the origins of Megatron. Seconded on Robert E. Powers; I still scan his old site from time to time. Bobbi Carothers brought relationships into the TF world in a believable way with her Spring Cycle (I also enjoyed her take on Only Human, mirroring Zob's take).

I regret not knowing much about Star Trek, and so never getting much out of Lizard's otherwise great stories. Of course, Stan Lui of the Encyclopedia and Kendrick of the Weekday reviews (archived here https://camphortree.net/tf/weekday/). Also, Merytneith, Sky Shadow, and Transmasters UK.

Nightwind's Transfan Asylum was also a great site, and a couple of her essays recently got me thinking:

Me and Starscream:
https://transformersfanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=470&chapter=1

Decepticons And The Women Who Love Them:
https://transformersfanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=195

Certainly food for thought in both essays. I think it hits differently now, in 2023, for better or for worse.

>
> All of this to say - happy to revive this! Let me know your thoughts. :)

Great idea! I'll follow your lead and would be interested as well in everyone else's thoughts, especially Zob and Dave Van Domelen as the old guard.

[Joseph Bardsley]

OK - it's a plan. Let me see what I've got kicking around on the old hard drive this weekend. Will post something shortly!

Also, agreed about Nightwind, btw, as well as the thoughtful brevity of Kendrick's TF:Weekday reviews. I love them.

Meant to ask you, Codigo - are you on Facebook at all? TransMasters has had something of a resurgence on that platform, and is now an active group. You'd be most welcome to participate!

JB

[Codigo Postal]

Thanks JB! Not on FB or any kind of social media - but may have to check it out! Do you know if they've made their archives and old issues accessible? I'm having a deuce of a time trying to track down the old PDFs they used to have on their website.

[Joseph Bardsley]

Let me check with my friend (and fellow Canuck) Tony Klepack, who is the group admin and de facto club leader. Will report back this week! A bunch of old-timers are active there, so I am hopeful that this will be a simple thing to look into.

More from me soon -

JB

[Joseph Bardsley]

Just an update on this: I've been out for a lot of this week with a stomach bug, but am back online now. Will keep you posted, Codigo! Appreciate your patience.

JB

[Codigo Postal]

Hope you're feeling better JB! Plenty of fluids and bedrest!

[Joseph Bardsley]

Finally back among the land of the living. Gosh, that took a lot out of me. Apologies for the delay!

So, I have two ideas for the Reading Club's next offering:

1) Steve-O Stonebreaker's vintage "The Transformers FAQ", circa 1996. Yes, this document has been superseded in countless ways since then, but the document is a delightfully entertaining (and, well-written) capture of a vanished era that reminds me that, at one point, it really was possible to "know everyone" in this fandom.

2) Lizard's "The Horror From Beneath The Sea". It features the Seacons, it's deliberately shaped as a Lovecraftian homage: what's not to like? One of my favorite and most memorable works of his.

Any preferences?

Hope everyone's doing well,

JB

[Codigo Postal]

They sound like great choices. I'd vote for the FAQ next month and Lizard's offering the month after!

[Joseph Bardsley]

Sounds great!

As a bit of an advance read, here's a direct link to the FAQ from 1996, on this group:

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.toys.transformers/c/C4NG-jT9c3o/m/jOPAeRi1b6UJ

I love this file for the slice of time and life it captures. Life was slower and simpler.

You had to write away for toys and media. ATT was a place where it was possible to "know everyone" if you played you cards right, and contributed meaningfully. Fan activity was still largely impulsive, beneath the radar of any "official" sources, and self-directed.

Passion projects like MUSHes and fanfic and zines flourished because there was simply nothing else.

And ... everyone was so young! (Joseph Neo surveyed the fandom this year, and found that the median age was 22 (!)).

Enjoy! Feel free to share thoughts!

JB

[Codigo Postal]

We're not still 22? We'll be eligible to join AARP in a decade? Say it ain't so!

General notes: it feels like the TFWiki, for better or for worse, is the culmination of all the efforts by Stan Lui, Steve Stonebraker, et al, to collect and compile all the extant info about TF into a single, readable document/website.

- It's interesting to see which of the terms have survived into the present day, and which are artifacts of its time.
"Transfan" (and the fan awards "Trannies") have seemingly gone by the wayside. "Con" has stuck, "decep" has disappeared. "Seekers" has become official canon. "Gestalt" has sadly lost to "Combiner."

- The very first question is so telling (1. Why don't you guys go and get a life?). There are millions more TF fans globally than ever - it's safe to say that TF is mainstream, for all ages, sexes, and races to enjoy. A far cry from the days when hanging on to your childhood memories marked you as immature to the outside world.

- The list of TF fan sites seems huge. Today, it feels like most traffic goes to either the main boards (TFW2005, Seibertron, Allspark), Reddit, Twitter, or Youtube. Personal pages have either shut down or migrated to Wordpress/Blogspot. The consolidation is either good or bad, depending on your perspective, but something has definitely been lost, and by something, I mean the eye-searing web design of the 90s.

- It's nice to see which fans mentioned are still active. David Van Domelen's site is still going strong, and my first port of call for in-depth reviews. Lewis Brooks of the tech spec viewing program still buys and reviews every single toy released at retail (https://lmb3.net/tag/transformers/), and is a great resource for anyone wanting a quick refresher with pictures on any given bot. And of course, Zobovor, who essentially keeps this place alive (it's his blog, and we're just posting on it).

- I was about to bemoan the death of fanfiction, MUSHes, and the like, but then, the fandom continues to express its creativity in a million other ways on and offline.

- I was a bit young for BotCon 97, but I remember the hype online, and the return of Stan Bush and Vince DiCola to the TF scene. So nice to see them continue their association with the fandom, including the release of the full score that year, and several convention appearances thereafter.

- The Kenner announcement about the return of vehicles must have gotten everyone's hopes up...only to see those hopes dashed with the limited Machine Wars line. Who could have foreseen the return of vehicles with RID2001 and Armada, followed by a wildly successful live-action movie series, and the WfC trilogy of slavishly updated G1 toys?

Mostly, the FAQ is a reminder of a more innocent time when TF was still niche, but the fans were truly passionate, and I firmly believe that it's the passion of the fans and the support they showed for the brand that set the stage for both the return of TFs, and the worldwide success that it enjoys today.

Thanks for sharing again Joseph! Look forward to your, and everyone else's, thoughts.

[Velvet Glove]

I am all about a fanfic reading club, but this thread is insanely long and confusing. Can we have a clean topic for next time? Or should we each post our own thoughts in a new conversation?

Anyway, I'm in agreement with Codigo that the FAQ really does preserve a slice of online life that modern internet users don't know, and that's what's so compelling about it. I didn't get into the TF fandom until 2001 / 2002, so a lot of this goes over my head, but I'm of the so called Star Wars generation who got online when we went to university--which I did in 1996--so a lot of this stuff resonates hard even if I wasn't aware of the fandom at the time.

BTW, do we really not say 'Transfan' anymore? I always think of it as 'Transfandom'.

On Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 11:11:12 AM UTC+1, Codigo Postal wrote:
> - The very first question is so telling (1. Why don't you guys go and get a life?). There are millions more TF fans globally than ever - it's safe to say that TF is mainstream, for all ages, sexes, and races to enjoy. A far cry from the days when hanging on to your childhood memories marked you as immature to the outside world.
>

The other side of this is that the internet is mainstream now. I don't know if anybody else had this experience, discovering an online world in the 90s (and probably early noughties as well), but it was a revelation for me. This medium where I could geek out with people in a text-based community, absolutely transformed how I saw myself and my interpersonal skills. Before I got into the TF fandom I used to roleplay on a MOO, and looking back at it, I suspect most of us were on the autism spectrum, or otherwise neurodivergent, but undiagnosed.

It was also a time before social media and profile pics, and in the fandoms I frequented, people had net-handles rather than use their real names. I think one of the things that surprised me about ATT and some of the other old-school TF-fandom was the amount of people who did just go by their RL names, because I was so used to the anonymity--and I liked being able to compartmentalise my life, having a different username for each fandom.

But anyway, the defensive tone of the first question throws me back to those social insecurities of my late teens and early twenties when I never wanted to admit what my hobbies were--or how OTT I went about them; I never could do anything by halves. I think these days, when everybody is online, geekery has been normalised to some extent.

On the other hand, I've never been able to recapture the freedom I felt in my first decade online. As the majority of people have moved away from text and into pictures, videos, and soundbites, it's harder to find the interactions that really stimulate me. I have a compulsion to be longwinded, in case you hadn't noticed.

> And of course, Zobovor, who essentially keeps this place alive (it's his blog, and we're just posting on it).

This made me smile, because it's too true.

Me, one week ago: "I should go check if ATT is still around. I bet Zob is still posting."

> - I was about to bemoan the death of fanfiction, MUSHes, and the like, but then, the fandom continues to express its creativity in a million other ways on and offline.

Yeah, this ties into what I said about the majority of people moving away from text based fandom. Though I know the MOO I used to play on 25 years ago is still going (I've no idea how active it is, but it's still out there!). I hadn't really thought about the fanfic stuff, I'd just vaguely assumed that like me, people had grown up and had kids and didn't have time to write a polished 15,000 word story anymore. But it does seem like the next generation isn't writing as much fic, which is a shame. I'm glad Lexicon is still online, but it feels so *historical*; I remember checking it daily for new fics, way back when. I was really tickled by the section of the FAQ which talked about compiling every fanfic in existence. I wonder how long that lasted... I don't think it would have been possible when I was writing, around 2002-2008.

> Mostly, the FAQ is a reminder of a more innocent time when TF was still niche, but the fans were truly passionate, and I firmly believe that it's the passion of the fans and the support they showed for the brand that set the stage for both the return of TFs, and the worldwide success that it enjoys today.

That and the fact that us kids of the 80s are all middle-aged now and ruling Hollywood. OK, we're not all ruling Hollywood, but there's a lot of people driving pop culture who were groomed at a tender age to think transforming robots are cool. I'm always amused by how many shows my kids watch have these geeky 80s references, just because nobody's stopping the writers throwing them in. That said, the TF fandom always blew me away for how organised it was in consolidating and promoting their experience of TFs. You call it a niche fandom, but it was much larger than the ones I'd dabbled in before then.

Velvet Glove (getting my text-fix)

[Joseph Bardsley]

Yes, this thread has gotten super cumbersome - mostly on account of it turning four years old this long weekend. :)

A bit of background: I'm also a words person, Velvet Glove, and - for me - TF fanfic has always been a real conduit into the fandom. I have vivid memories of the original FTP site, run by James Hoxsey, at Oakland, back in 1994/95, and the plethora of TF stories it contained. Most of the authors were absolutely those "early adopters" of the Internet - people whose Net access coincided with their starting university - and I really think that that fact was reflected in the quality of the writing, by and large. A lot of the TF fanfic of the early to mid-90s was really excellent, and reflected an earnest time where it really was all that we had to keep the story moving forward. Many of these stories made a real impact on me.

Over the years, I've archived a lot of these stories, and, back in 2018/19, started sharing them again here (with full credit to their original authors in all cases). I feel like, even if the author has long since moved on (or passed away, unfortunately, as has been the case in more than a few instances), the work itself stands alone, and deserves to be experienced by new readers (or enjoyed by folks who had read the stories in the past).

We've been discussing the stories themselves on a pretty casual basis, and it's been a lot of fun. Some of my absolute faves (Raksha's stories; Kendrick's "Human Urges" novella; Belinda Kelly's sprawling and extremely atmospheric "Andraxus" epic, Zob's work, Rob Jung's fantastic pieces, etc.) continue to feel vital, fresh, and relevant, and I really love the discussions that emerge.

So - that's where we've been. Happy to pick another vintage story and repost in a new thread!

Joseph (fondly remembers his years spent living the lives of Perceptor, Onslaught, and Ratbat on TLY, TF:DD, and TF:2K5, respectively...)

[Velvet Glove]

On Saturday, July 1, 2023 at 10:05:55 AM UTC+1, Joseph Bardsley wrote:

> A bit of background: I'm also a words person, Velvet Glove, and - for me - TF fanfic has always been a real conduit into the fandom. I have vivid memories of the original FTP site, run by James Hoxsey, at Oakland, back in 1994/95, and the plethora of TF stories it contained. Most of the authors were absolutely those "early adopters" of the Internet - people whose Net access coincided with their starting university - and I really think that that fact was reflected in the quality of the writing, by and large. A lot of the TF fanfic of the early to mid-90s was really excellent, and reflected an earnest time where it really was all that we had to keep the story moving forward. Many of these stories made a real impact on me.

Ooh, that's a really good point. It's so easy to forget that at one point none of us were seriously expecting more TF canon. It seems that there's always some new bit of fiction out now, whether comic, show, movie, video game...

> Over the years, I've archived a lot of these stories, and, back in 2018/19, started sharing them again here (with full credit to their original authors in all cases). I feel like, even if the author has long since moved on (or passed away, unfortunately, as has been the case in more than a few instances), the work itself stands alone, and deserves to be experienced by new readers (or enjoyed by folks who had read the stories in the past).

That's so cool. I kept an archive of my own stuff, but it never occurred to me to save other people's stories, and now most of those websites are long lost. Well done for your foresight!

> So - that's where we've been. Happy to pick another vintage story and repost in a new thread!

Yay!

> Joseph (fondly remembers his years spent living the lives of Perceptor, Onslaught, and Ratbat on TLY, TF:DD, and TF:2K5, respectively...)

Damn straight. Never TF MUSHed, but there was this one character on a MOO I played for nine years (before regretfully concluding I no longer had the time and killing her off rather than fading away)... She and her world were such a huge, fun and amazing part of my life. Every bit as fantastic an experience as doing some instagram-worthy holiday stunt.

Velvet Glove (geek to the core)