***Transformers FAQ v4.2, Q&A II (2/4)***

[Steve R. Stonebraker]

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

Version 4.2

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

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

== 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, 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. 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 is a public domain program called "Cool Edit" which has a flanging
feature that can be used to make robot voices. It is available by ftp
at "ftp.ep.se/cool/cool151.zip" and "oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/win3/sound/
cool151.zip".

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, I've been told that
in "Fight or Flee" Soundwave ended up speaking with Shrapnel's
characteristic repetition of his last word. Confirmation of this would
be appreciated.

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).

The Science Fiction Channel sometimes shows G1 TF cartoons on weekday
mornings as part of their "Animation Station" block. Occasionally they
will "cycle out" the TF show and play "The New Adventures of Gigantor",
but TF always cycles back in before long. When showing TF, they rotate
through many (but not all) of the really good and really bad eps.
Unfortunately, because the allowed advertising time during children's
shows has increased since TF was originally made, SciFi has made small
edits to the episodes they show, sometimes making transitions bad and
eliminating some good scenes. "Call of the Primitives", "Rebirth", and
"Carnage in C-Minor" are all included in their lineup.

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

Sarai Feria (10313...@compuserve.com) has all the US episodes with
commercials edited out, although some eps are G2 or SciFi versions.
Random (sgu...@bgnet.bgsu.edu) has a complete, first-run set of G1
cartoons from their original airing.

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.eg.bucknell.
edu/~bloomfld/vs_chamber" to celebrate its coolness.

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.
Excluding "Call of the Primitives", TRoOP is IMHO some of the best
American TF animation around, although the story is a little silly.

Jeff Bogumil (nc50...@nccvax.wvnet.edu) mentioned to me that he seemed
to remember a news broadcast stating that a letter writing campaign in
the UK was what brought about Prime's cartoon resurrection. If anyone
else has any input on that topic, please let me know.

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 att'ers 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. :) She
posts the list once a month, and will also send it by email request. In
addition, it's available on her web page at the location "http://www.
owlnet.rice.edu/~crispy/textfiles/voices.txt"

Currently, the voice list has been reduced to only TF-related credits,
but Cris has all the info on other parts played by TF voice actors that
was in the FAQ previously, as well as all the info which was emailed to
me since v2.2. If you have more voice info that is not on the list,
tell her, not me. :)

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 my 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 $8-10. 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. It was Wildman who, IMHO at least, changed TF
from a comic with pictures to a comic with art. 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. Wildman had a lot of nice little touches to his art, such
as battle damage on the characters which stayed with them from issue to
issue (Scorponok's broken antenna comes to mind).

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 Si 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. GIJoe" 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.

Doug Vanderhoek has placed a Quicktime movie of the American trailer on
the web (http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mihoshi/tf_trail.htm), and hopes
to put up the Japanese trailer up as well (although due to disk space
limits he will have to place the segments of the trailers on a rotation
schedule).

I have been told that copies of TF:Hero can be ordered from Anime
Kaiser, a large-ish anime club, but I have not yet confirmed this. If
you're interested, the club's president is Brian Jelinek. He lives at
3918 Bunnel Dr., Jacksonville FA 32246-6487, and his phone number is
(904) 646-9792.

During early 1996 the newsgroup went through another round of debate on
movie edits when Adam McCormick (adam.mc...@sheridanc.on.ca) 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 maintainings 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. The movie is currently on a "moratorium",
which is a sort of video-industry limbo where movies go and hope to be
printed again, although no one really knows if they ever will.

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.

To make the search simple, however, order from another TransFan or from
Super Collector. Although several TransFans will probably sell copies,
I know of two offhand. Nick Morency (then...@acy.digex.net) will copy
the movie on demand (for a modest fee), and Scott A. Wells (swells@
utdallas.edu) will make copies of the laserdisc (XII 14, below) for
barely over the cost of a blank tape and postage.

If you prefer to deal with an established company rather than a person,
call 1-800-99-SCI-FI. This is the number for Super Collector, a small
company which makes high-quality dubs of the movie for $19.95. They
used to have a copy of the Japanese laserdisc (XII 14, below) which they
used for this purpose, but it seems that recently they have switched to
copying the FHE videotape release. They also sell the soundtrack on CD,
but for the same price as the movie, so you're better off buying that
from CD Connection (see XII 15). One warning: as these are dubs, they
are not in any way "official" copies of the film. Super Collector's
tapes used to come on a plain tape in a plain box, but they now decorate
the box with art from the official release.

Here are the vitals on the tape: The movie is a production of Marvel /
Sunbow, and was distributed by DEG. The original video release was done
by FHE. There was another release of the movie in 1991 which was
recorded in SLP (6-hour) mode, probably to save on material costs (less
tape would be needed in slow mode). This version was released by Live
Home Video and Avid Home Entertainment.

14. Where can I get the movie on laserdisc?

According to Tim Browne, the movie LD is again available in the US,
although it may be hard to find. Try catalogue number MCA026561011.
Until recently, however, the answer was "only as an import from Japan,
catalogue number HCL-7001".

The LD is 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.

Also, for those interested, Robert Powers (repo...@artsci.wustl.edu)
has compiled a list of all background music played in the American
cartoon. He does *not* have recordings of the music. For information
about the TF Music List contact him or visit "http://www.artsci.wustl.
edu/~repowers/.tf-text.html".

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 "fzone@west.
net". Also, Tigeriffic (ti...@telepath.com) is putting together a Stan
Bush homepage (http://www.telepath.com/tiger/stan/stanbush.html) and
welcomes communication about Mr. Bush.

Vince DiCola has scored several other movies, including "Rocky 4" (Sly
vs. Russia) and the disco hit "Saturday Night Fever" which shot John
Travolta to stardom. 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.

== 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, 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 from that group was Star 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.

Sarai Feria (10313...@compuserve.com) has several dubbed
Headmasters eps available.
Jaremy Pyle (pyle...@nova.gmi.edu) has the complete Victory series in
Japanese.
Jean Vanlente (pla...@mailbox.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. Kev Briggs (kr...@leicester.ac.uk) has written and posted
a few summaries of some of the UK TF future epics for the benefit of US
fans. If you are interested in this contact him. Another alternative
is provided by the head of The Survivors, Liane Elliot. She has written
up a guide to the UK comics with a list of all issues, and summaries of
many storylines. This file is available on her WWW page (www.eskimo.
com/~tetra/tf.html). Lastly, on Martin McVay's web page, "www.warwick.
ac.uk/~mavai/tf.html", there is a UK comic timeline. It's more complete
and correct, but less thorough than Liane's list about what it mentions.

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.

If you are a troll, this is an excellent way to throw the group into an
uproar. :)

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 (te...@eskimo.com), listing TF deaths in several different
continuities, complete with the circumstances of each death, and can be
found on her homepage at "http://www.eskimo.com/~tetra/tf.html".

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.

I won't go into the whole "Brawn isn't really dead!" argument. :)

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

Fanzines and Fan Clubs:

At BotCon '96 I was exposed to a number of TF fanzines which I had been
previously unaware of. Although I knew that there were some out there,
I was surprised to see how many, and for the first time considered
subscribing to a few myself. Liane Elliot (te...@eskimo.com) has a
complete list of TF media which is available on her web page, "www.
eskimo.com/~tetra". Her list does not say anything about the media's
contents, however, so I will make a brief comment about each of the
currently in-print items on her list (this info from Liane herself).
For the addresses, etc., of the 'zines here, please read her list!

AutoUpdate, TransMasters newsletter, excellent source for *all* fans
ConQuest, fanzine, focuses on the 'con view of the war
Children of Cybertron, comic using G2 comic as a basis w/ original chars
CyberCon, newsletter, mostly focusing on tfs toys and information
Maelstrom, comic, Rodimus and Goldbug have been kidnapped by aliens
Matrix Master, comic, NC-17 rating, both serious and funny
Mechamorphs, comic, very good but confusing storyline
Overlord II, fanzine, stories, art, profiles, ads, other TF info
Roll Out, fanzine, stories, artwork, etc.
Teletran, fanzine, well done with stories, artwork, info
Transformations, club newsletter, info, funny stuff, etc.
TransScrypt/B.O.P., fanzine, stories
Transspoof, fanzine/comic, from guy that writes Deformers fanfics
Transverse, fanfic newsletter
Transforum, club newsletter, TF info
TransMaster Newsletter, club newsletter, TF info
Continued G2, comic, continues after G2, new creative team each issue
TransMasters Universe, fanzine, club member created profiles
Informer G2, club newsletter, tfs info.
Transformers Earthforce, club fanfic?

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:

Although for the most part 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:

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. Flaming on att is
minimal, and usually tame (to illustrate this point, the most common
type we see is the almost flippant "Form Flame", customized for att by
Dan Campbell). 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.

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:

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 us 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 a clueless 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.

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

"Just how many times is my name in the FAQ?"
--Kendrick's first words to me when we met at BotCon '96

Not including this question, or repeated instances of the name in one area,
KKC (or his email address) is mentioned 8 times in this version of the FAQ.

"How many times is the word 'TOAST' used in the FAQ?"
--M Sipher

Not including this question, or repeated instances of the word in one area,
TOAST is mentioned 0 times in this version of the FAQ.

== XVII. Revision History and Plans for the Future

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.

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

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

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.

== 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
a.t.t., att - alt.toys.transformers
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
G2 - Generation 2, or Transformers: Generation 2
gestalt - a robot made up of a combination of several smaller robots
kitbash - to modify a toy by painting, rebuilding, adding to it, etc.
TF(s) - Transformer(s)
TRU - Toys 'R Us
TFTM - Transformers: The Movie
HasKen - the Hasbro / Kenner conglomerate which now makes TFs
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion.
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.
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
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 ====

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.

Many sincere thanks go to (in alphabetical order):

Aaron Marsh (abm...@vaxb.isc.rit.edu)
Acroyear (acro...@bgbbs.com)
Adam Calderon (hi...@lmtonline.com)
Adam Casey (ada...@ipass.net)
Adam McCormick (adam.mc...@sheridanc.on.ca)
Adam Patyk (paty...@pilot.msu.edu)
Alf (a...@loom.com.au)
Andrew Frankel (afra...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu)
Andrew Sorohan (andrew....@jcu.edu.au)
Andrew Southam (opt...@bee.net)
Stacy Ranta (ark...@wa.net)
Ben Thomas (bith...@eos.ncsu.edu)
Ben Yee (ye...@is2.nyu.edu)
Bob Forward (beas...@aol.com)
Burt Ward (bea...@cris.com)
Chip (chi...@aol.com)
Chris Burris (bur...@lib.wfunet.wfu.edu)
Chris Meadows (chm...@nic.smsu.edu)
Christopher Rodkey (rod...@acad1.stvincent.edu)
C.J. Stankiewicz (cjs6...@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu)
Clay Wooffinden (wo...@uniserve.com)
Craig Reid (crt...@cet.com)
Cris Haaser (cri...@owlnet.rice.edu)
Dairenn Lombard (pi...@hondo.cyberverse.com)
Daniel Chlebowczyk (fus...@bssc.edu.au)
Daniel P. Foerst (dde...@iglou.iglou.com)
Daniel Weber (djw...@mit.edu)
Darren "Dirge" Murphy (dj...@uow.edu.au)
Dave Van Domelen (dva...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
David Filip (grim...@u.washington.edu)
David Kok (jer...@alphalink.com.au)
David Mackay (david....@almac.co.uk)
Dawn M. Reeder (ast...@cris.com)
Dennis Barger (bar...@emuvax.emich.edu)
Diana Calder (dca...@mnsi.net)
Doug Dlin (ap...@hotmail.com)
Doug Muth (dm...@oasis.ot.com)
Doug Vander Hoek (dvh_...@iastate.edu)
Drogn (merr...@sover.net)
Earlwin Famor (75557...@compuserve.com)
Eric Harding (ome...@oz.net)
Eric Holmes (er...@aisb.ed.ac.uk)
Eric Pyle (flm...@interlynx.net)
Galvatron (jm...@columbia.edu)
Gary Williams (gray...@pcpros.net)
Greg Pallenik (gpa...@bgnet.bgsu.edu)
Hex (tash...@ucunix.san.uc.edu)
Iggy Drougge (opt...@canit.se)
Imperator Mammuthus (por...@ois.com.au)
Ivy Bohnlein (bohn...@acmelabs.uhc.asu.edu)
Jack Themack (jack.t...@juno.com)
Jameel al Khafiz (spe...@dhp.com)
James Mohr (jpm...@primenet.com)
Jan van Thiel (j...@stack.urc.tue.nl)
Jason Carl Flatowicz (0020...@bigred.unl.edu)
Jason Palmira (lpr...@aol.com)
Jason Winter (win...@uslink.net)
Jedi Knight (bloo...@bucknell.edu)
Jeff Bogumil (nc50...@nccvax.wvnet.edu)
Jeffery K Nichols (cuj...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu)
Jeremy Pace (jhp...@eos.ncsu.edu)
Jim Hoxsey (jjho...@oakland.edu)
Jon Hartman (jhar...@noblecan.org)
John Kierstead (jkier...@aol.com)
John Szymanski (szym...@ccmac.canisius.edu)
Jon A. Wolf (jnc...@ix10.ix.netcom.com)
Kendrick Kerwin Chua (kend...@io.com)
Kev Briggs (kr...@leicester.ac.uk)
Kevin Byrnes (theb...@ix.netcom.com)
Kirt Israel (kis...@diamond.tufts.edu)
Ku Klux Flintstone (umki...@cc.umanitoba.ca)
Koopman (koo...@wantree.com.au)
Larry Suchomski (t...@icx.net)
Liane Elliot (te...@eskimo.com)
Lioceasar (lce...@universe.digex.net)
Lou Calabrese (lo...@delphi.com)
Louis Brooks (broo...@bentley.edu)
Lynn Ayres (pol...@cris.com)
M Sipher (msi...@aol.com)
Marek Kozubal (prog...@staff.feldberg.brandeis.edu)
Mark-Jeffrey Munoz (mmu...@slip.net)
Martin McVay (ma...@csv.warwick.ac.uk)
Matt Arndt (ar...@lclark.edu)
Matthew French (mnf8...@marauder.millersv.edu)
Matthew Karpowich (hype...@kuentos.guam.net)
Michael Gresham (mgre...@access.digex.net)
Michael G Wagner (tfw...@prodigy.com)
Mike Sosa (ms...@ace.cs.ohiou.edu)
Mike Toole (sla...@student.umass.edu)
Mischa Gelman (megs...@pitt.edu)
Naomi Novik (sha...@brown.edu)
Napalm Rabbit (dtng...@force.stwing.upenn.edu)
Nick Morency (then...@acy.digex.net)
PaliXade (Gabrie...@eyenet.eybe.edu.on.ca)
Pema Galang (pema.t....@tc.umn.edu)
Peter Looyenga
Phil Zeman (2ei5z...@vmsa.csd.mu.edu)
Raksha (jk...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
Ratbat (u96...@student.canberra.edu.au)
Ray Miller (rom...@wvnvm.wvnet.edu)
Robert Jung (rj...@netcom.com)
Robert Powers (repo...@artsci.wustl.edu)
Rodney Lambson (rla...@gl.umbc.edu)
Roger Wilcox (rog...@cisco.com)
Sarai Feria (10313...@compuserve.com)
Scott Neukam (sco...@viaduct.custom.net)
Scott Wells (swe...@utdallas.edu)
Sean Holshu (sp...@cannet.com)
Sean Lee (sl...@students.uwf.edu)
Stanley Lui (ss...@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca)
Starzeke (star...@aol.com)
Steve Nahra (rsn...@vax1.acs.jmu.edu)
Suzanne Ferree (ev...@cleveland.freenet.edu)
Thaddeus Cultt (tcu...@localnet.com)
Tiffany (tif...@uit.net)
Tigeriffic (ti...@telepath.com)
Tim Browne (ue...@freenet.victoria.bc.ca)
Tony Tran (tr...@owlnet.rice.edu)
Troy Ledgerwood (9948...@wsunix.wsu.edu)
Victor Desjardins (vde...@magmacom.com)
Walkertron (wil...@adsnet.com)
Warpticon (cmp...@ualr.edu)
Zachary Adams (zqa...@tamu.edu)
Zameer Baberhood (Zarina.F...@tc.umn.edu)
Zobovor (zobov...@aol.com)

All the wonderful staff members of the MUSHes :)

and all the readers of att!

The Transformers, Autobots, Decepticons, and most of the other names and
things are probably all registered trademarks of either Hasbro, 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.

This FAQ, however, is my 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.

Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ, Copyright 1997, Steve Stonebraker.

--
--Steve

-- Steve Stonebraker -- http://cc.owu.edu/~srstoneb/ --
-- alt.toys.transformers FAQ Keeper --