The Fantastical Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ Part One: Questions and Answers I written by Steve Stonebraker srstoneb@cc.owu.edu bc872@freenet.carleton.ca http://192.68.223.4:8000/~srstoneb/ Version 4.2 Updated: 1/24/97 == Introduction ======================= This is the FAQ file for the alt.toys.transformers newsgroup. A FAQ is a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Different FAQ's are used for different purposes -- some aren't even organized by 'questions', but are straight information. This FAQ has a few main goals: A) to provide quick answers to various questions which come up frequently on the newsgroup. This makes things easier for the person asking the question, as well as less annoying to people reading the newsgroup. B) to serve as a useful reference for all TransFans. There are questions in this FAQ which have not been frequently asked on the newsgroup, and probably some which have never been asked, but they are questions that may be on people's minds regardless, or questions which, although you might not have thought of them, you are glad to know the answer to. C) to simply be entertaining to read. If there is something discussed in the FAQ which you have a question about, or have some new ideas to contribute, by all means do post a message about it or send email to me. This is merely a reference guide, and is not supposed to give the impression of having the last word on any issue. The FAQ represents, for the most part, the collected opinions of the people who post to att. Consequently, even though the FAQ is not God, if you disagree with or disobey it, the people whose opinions it reflects might not be happy with you. Additional posts on some topics are likely to be met with cries of "Read the FAQ!", and in some cases much worse. :) Also, if there is something which you would like to see included in the FAQ which I have passed over, send me email about it and best bet is that your suggestion will be in the next version. Revisions of this FAQ are irregular, meaning that I normally revise when I have enough new info to make it worth the effort and have the time to make the changes. Lastly, if I have included your email or web address, and it is incorrect or changes, _please_ be sure to alert me to this so I don't continue to list an out of date address. == Changes From Previous Version ====== - 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 == FAQ Availability =================== Parts One and Two of the Transformers FAQ are posted every other monday to alt.toys.transformers, and parts Three and Four are posted every monday. In time the FAQ will hopefully be seen on alt.answers and / or news.answers. I have a distribution list for the FAQ, but I only send to the list when I finish a new version. Everyone is welcome to join the list, and need only send me an email about it to be included. The newest version will also always be available through the means listed below. The FAQ is included in more places than shown here, but to prevent this section from getting unnecessarily long I have limited this list to our remaining ftp site and two WWW pages (mine and Iggy's). I hope this isn't taken as an insult by WWW maintainers who I have not mentioned. :) http://192.68.223.4:8000/~srstoneb/tf/ http://www.canit.se/~optimus/tf.html ftp://saturn.acs.oakland.edu/pub/transformers Email: srstoneb@cc.owu.edu OR bc872@freenet.carleton.ca == FAQ Structure ======================== The TF FAQ is presented in four segments. Parts One and Two make up the main body of the FAQ and are of nearly equal length. Part Three is the Quick TF Info Quick, and Part Four is the Complete TF Info Index. These were previously known as the Info Locater and Resource Guide. The Complete Index contains a pointer to every file, web site, and reference in the FAQ, organized in an easy-to-navigate fashion. The Quick Index includes only those items which are most often requested and is thus significantly shorter. == Contents =========================== I. General questions relating to the newsgroups 1. Why don't you guys go and get a life? 2. What are appropriate topics for posts in att and attm? 3. What's the range of ages for people in this group? 4. Is it okay to post binaries to this group? 5. Where do I go to buy, sell, or trade TF toys? 6. Are there any guidelines for marketplace posts? 7. I can't read att.marketplace. What should I do? 8. I want Jetfire! Someone sell him to me! Whaaahhh! 9. I have some TFs but I don't know their names... can anyone help me? II. Things ATT'ers might mention 1. What is FIRRIB / FIBRIR ? 2. What's a TF MUSH? 3. What's the TF Purity Test? 4. What's the TransFan code some people are using? 5. What should I not ask about on a.t.t.? III. Getting info and stuff 1. Are there any TF WWW or ftp sites? 2. Where can I get a list of all the TFs that were made? 3. Where can I get a list of all the TF tech specs? 4. Where can I get a list of all the TF fan fiction? 5. Where can I get a list of all the TF cartoon episodes? 6. Where can I get a list of TF quotes? 7. How about a TF encyclopedia or something? IV. General TF questions 1. When did the TFs first come out? 2. Are there any TF conventions? 3. Are there any TF clubs? 4. What's happening with the current TF line? V. TF related products 1. Are there any TF video games? 2. Is there a TF role-playing game? 3. What were those TF trading cards like? 4. What TF books are available? VI. Continuity issues 1. Why doesn't anything agree with anything else? 2. What's the basic origin from the comics? 3. What's the basic origin from the TV show? 4. So where did Unicron come from in the cartoon? 5. Which origin for the Constructicons is right? VII. General TF story questions 1. Does Cybertron have an atmosphere? 2. How big is Cybertron? 3. What's up with the female TFs? 4. But WHY do they have them at all? 5. How do TFs reproduce? 6. How did the Great War start? 7. Why do they transform? Why not just be big robots? 8. Where does Prime's trailer go when he transforms? 9. Are they immortal? 10. Is there a full Transformers history anywhere? VIII. Beast Wars 1. Why Beast Wars? 2. Why did they change Prime and Megs? 3. Are the toys actually any good? 4. What's the TV show like? 5. Is it true that the show's writers read the newsgroup? 6. What's the setting for Beast Wars? 7. Why are there two versions of Primal and Megatron? 8. Is there going to be a BW comic book? 9. What about a BW video game? 10. What BW stuff can I get for my computer? IX. Toys 1. What were the TFs based on? 2. What's the deal with red/yellow Bumblebee/Cliffjumper? 3. Why is Jetfire just like a Robotech Veritech fighter? 4. Was there a Skyfire toy? 5. I've got these weird tiny TFs. What are they? 6. What are those switches on the back of the Jumpstarters' heads for? 7. How many combiners did they make? 8. How many tapes did they make? 9. Did they ever make a Unicron toy? 10. Why have all the TF toys since [pick a time] sucked? 11. What's with Go-Bot Transformers? 12. What are the G2 Powermasters? X. Cartoon 1. What's the deal with Rumble and Frenzy? Which is which? 2. Can Autobots fly or not? 3. Why'd they call Jetfire "Skyfire" and draw him different? 4. How'd they do Soundwave's voice? 5. Where can I find episodes of the show on tape? 6. What was "Five Faces of Darkness" about? 7. People have mentioned "Call of the Primitives". What was that episode about? 8. What happened in "Dark Awakening" and "The Return of Optimus Prime"? 9. What was "Rebirth"? 10. Is there a list of the voice actors from the show? XI. Comics 1. Who published it, and when was it in production? 2. Who wrote the comic? 3. Who drew it? 4. The whole story arc with Unicron was different in the comic, so where did Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge come from in it? And where was Rodimus Prime? 5. What about issue 43, "The Big Broadcast of 2006"? 6. Wasn't Spiderman in one issue? Does that mean the TFs are in the normal Marvel Universe with the X-Men? 7. What about G.I. Joe? 8. I never got to read the G2 comics... what happened in them? 9. Where can I buy old TF comics? XII. TF:The Movie 1. What happened in it? 2. Why weren't more characters featured? 3. Where was Snarl? 4. Why did the Insecticons keep showing up and dying? 5. Why would Astrotrain need to "jettison some weight" in space? 6. Who became Cyclonus, and why were there two of him? 7. Why'd they kill everyone? 8. Who did the voices? 9. What was the universal greeting they used? 10. Didn't they swear in it? 11. What changes were made between the theatrical and video releases? 12. Is there an uncut copy of the movie, which even has material that was never seen in theaters? 13. Where can I get the movie on tape? 14. Where can I get the movie on laserdisc? 15. Where can I get the movie soundtrack? 16. What else is there to know about Stan Bush and Vince DiCola? XIII. TFs outside the United States 1. Where else have TFs appeared? 2. What were the Japan-only toys like? 3. What other toys were never released in the US? 4. What were the Japanese TF cartoons like? 5. Wow! How can I get copies of the anime? 6. What's Transformers: Hero? 7. What's different between the American and British comics? XIV. Miscellaneous Questions 1. What were those Cybertronian units of time? 2. Unicron vs. the Death Star: who would win? 3. How do you write out the transforming sound? 4. Which TFs died in the movie/comic/tv show? 5. What movie was it that had those TF cartoons in it? XV. Closing Comments and Information Fanzines and clubs A note on translations Behavior pointers:for people new to the net, or new to att for established att regulars XVI. Silly Random Questions XVII. Revision History and Plans for the Future XVIII. About the Author XIX. Terms and Abbreviations XX. Legalese and Special Thanks == I. General Questions Relating to the Newsgroups 1. Why don't you guys go and get a life? Contrary to appearances, many, and indeed most, of the regular posters to alt.toys.transformers DO lead healthy and (somewhat) full lives. It is true that we are holding on to our childhoods, but that's something that most people would consider to be a good thing. :) When it comes down to it, the main reason that most of us read and post to alt.toys.transformers is that we simply think transforming robots are a pretty cool idea. There's nothing wrong with adults liking toys. :P Most TransFans also find a great deal of enjoyment in the background story and mythos associated with TFs. There are so many interesting and well-developed characters in the Transformer universe that many people find it impossible not to get caught up in the legend. Many a.t.t readers also read related newsgroups (such as rec.games. mecha, and rec.arts.anime), and you may also want to check out a few of those groups if you have not already done so. 2. What are appropriate topics for posts in att and attm? Basically, anything related to Transformers in any way is appropriate on ATT _except_ for sales, trades, and auctions. ATTM, ideally, should contain nothing but sales, trades, and auctions. Sometimes marketplace posts will prompt discussions -- if this occurs, please alter the subject line of the thread to reflect that it is now a discussion (something like [TALK] will do). Discussions are not forbidden in attm, but they do really belong in att. If a marketplace discussion goes on beyond a few posts (and does not relate directly to a sale), please move it to att by crossposting. This keeps both newsgroups neat and tidy, and tidiness was the point behind creating attm in the first place. Most of the ambiguous topics are okay in either group, although there is still a best place to post. Examples that are preferred on ATT are requests for toy identification (since it's not a sale yet, even if you intend to sell later) and announcements of new toys hitting store shelves (ie: "Columbus area Wal-Mart gets BW Inferno!"). Warnings about dubious sellers and requests for seller references are more relevant on attm, where you are more likely to reach people who have dealt, or might deal, with the individual in question. Posting one of these half-and- half topics should not cause trouble, though, if you put it in the "wrong" place. 3. Are there any guidelines for ATT posts? They are about the same as on any "typical" newsgroup. Follow basic nettiquette and you will be okay. Read "How to win friends and influence a.t.t.", posted regularly by Jameel al Khafiz (spectre@dhp. com) for pointers on this sort of thing. Don't spread rumors unless you *clearly* state that they are only rumors, and if possible, tell where you heard the rumor. Make sure the article subject is appropriate and informative. If you are posting a followup in a thread, *please* change the subject of the thread if the topic has changed. For example: "Cybertron tastes like chicken? (was: Unicron's motivation)". To go further into article subjects: it is even more helpful to include a "category" of sorts at the beginning of the subject line. Something like [TALK], [KITBASH], [INFO], or [NEWS]. The most important thing is to keep the subject both brief and useful. If you are asking a question, make sure you indicate this. We have had far too many posts that say "new BW ep!" when what they meant was "new BW ep?". This is confusing and frustrating to readers of the group. 4. What's the range of ages for people in this group? In July '96 Joseph Neo did a statistical analisys of the TransFan ages on att. His results fell into a typical bell curve with a mean of 20, ranging from 11 to 34. Generally, it's the people who were the right age to appreciate Transformers when they were really popular, from around 1984 to 89 or 90. However, there are outliers on both sides, and the range will continue to grow (mostly on the younger end) because of Beast Wars's popularity. This question is *almost* on the "don't ask" list, but unless we continue to get people asking about it with a fair regularity, even though it's in the FAQ, I'll leave it off. 5. Is it okay to post binaries on this group? Well, it's not really forbidden, but doing so is frowned upon. A "binary" is a post consisting of many many lines of garbage characters which, when properly decoded, becomes a file of some sort: usually a picture or sound, but sometimes other things as well. There are specific areas which were created for binary posts (the alt.binaries.* hierarchy, go figure) in order to keep them out of normal newsgroups. This is to save computing resources for sites which don't wish to carry cumbersome binaries. Many people who use commercial internet providers have to pay, one way or another, for the Usenet posts they read, even if it's as simple as having to download message packets for reading offline. Binary posts are _very_ long and take a lot of phone time, which can mean bigger long distance bills. The main concern, though, is that if a newsgroup gets a lot of binary posts, some net service providers might stop offering the group altogether due to all the disk space a group full of binaries uses up. Because of their size a lot of people don't have access to the alt. binaries.* groups themselves, since providers don't want to use all that space to store them. For these reasons, if you have a file you'd like to post, it is better to just upload it to an FTP site or send it to a WWW page maintainer and post a message stating that you have done so. However, if you prefer to post a file to Usenet, you can find an appropriate group under the binaries hierarchy (alt.binaries.pictures. cartoons, for example) to put it in and post a short note to att informing us that we can find it there. 6. Where do I go to buy, sell, or trade TF toys? Preferably, all Transformers sales and trades should occur in att's branch group, alt.toys.transformers.marketplace. After a large, somewhat messy debate over the possibility of a marketplace the newgroup message was sent and attm came into being in late December, 1996. [If your site does not carry attm, read question 7.] For instructions regarding attm posting decorum, please read the next question as well. An important point about auctions: if you are making bids, _please_ be sure you send your bid over email to the person holding the auction. Do _NOT_ post bids to the newsgroup. It annoys other readers and probably won't get your bid recognized by the auctioneer either. If you are looking to buy, whether you want a specific toy or are just in a general buying mood, the easiest thing to do is look through the current auctions and For Sale posts. If no one is selling what you're looking for there are a few options: Toy shows, and of course BotCon, are good places to look for old TFs. Many of the Transformers you'll find at toy shows and conventions will be in their box, possibly unopened, and also highly priced. They're good places to find toys, though, and you can even get TFs that were never released in the US at conventions. (Not familiar with any of the non-US toys? Check out section XII.) A frequent goldmine for TransFans are flea markets, and sometimes even garage sales. Often at flea markets there will be tables piled with random toys, and with a little searching you can find Transformers. Their condition will vary of course, but you'll be able to buy them cheap. Even if you're lucky enough to come across some foreign TFs (which has happened -- once a lucky TransFan found three pieces LioCeasar at a flea market) the dealer will likely have no idea what they're worth. The important thing to remember at a flea market is to never let on how much you want something, even a complete Fortress Maximus. :) Act cool and slightly disinterested to get the best price. A method which has proven successful for me personally is to buy Transformer collections from friends who no longer want them. I purchased a few sackfuls of TFs from a friend of my roommate and nearly doubled the size of my collection for under $100. Ask around. See if your friends or their friends have Transformers sitting in a box somewhere. If they aren't particularly attached to them, they'll be happy enough to get _any_ money for them and you can make a deal which will work out for the best for both of you. 7. Are there any guidelines for marketplace posts? TF sales on the net are traditionally done in an auction format, but you may certainly sell at a set price if you prefer. Make sure the subject heading of your post is appropriate: auctions should have the word "auction" in them, for sale and want to buy posts should say FS and WTB, respectively. FT and WTT mean "for trade" and "want to trade". The type of post should be placed at the beginning of the subject line, either in brackets (eg. [AUCTION]) or followed by a colon (eg. WTB:). To conduct an auction, make a list of what TFs you want to sell, give some clue as to their condition, whether they are originals or G2, etc., etc.: anything that your buyers might want to know. You can always find a current auction message and sort of follow its format if you're totally clueless. In an effort to make the auctions and sales held a little more consistent, Burt Ward (beavis@cris.com) has written up some guidelines for determining the conditions of TFs. This way people can know more specifically what they're getting without worrying what the seller's definition of "fair condition" is. This guide is highly recommended. To get a copy, email Burt or check out his WWW page: www.cris.com/ ~beavis/tf/tf.html Remember, don't post auction bids! Email them to the auctioneer! 8. I can't read att.marketplace. What should I do? As a young newsgroup, attm has low circulation and is possibly not yet on your news server, even if you can get att. If this is the case, the best thing you can do is write to your news or system administrator and request that it be added locally. Unless your admin are irresponsible they will most likely do this for you after only one request, especially if you inform them that attm will only take up disk space that they had already devoted to att in the past. However, you may need to nag occaisionally to get some admins off their butts. In the meantime, marketplace-type posts are not "forbidden" on att. If you cannot reach attm and would like to buy or sell something, it is okay to post to att. Be sure to make a disclaimer, however, that you don't have attm, to prevent att readers from telling you to move your business there, and clearly mark the subject line so that people who are not interested needn't read the post. Remember, even if you can't get attm, a sales post in att is still off-topic, so be polite about it. Depending on how your newsreader works, you might even be able to post to newsgroups that you cannot read. If you are able, please do post to attm even if you can't read it. It's alright to crosspost to both, so you can see your post somewhere (even though you don't really *need* to see it), but as above be sure to explain why you are posting it on att. Alternatively, you can read and post to attm by visiting DejaNews at "www.dejanews.com". DN is a newsgroup archive site that allows free reading and posting via the world wide web. Simply explore their site to figure out how it all works. 9. I want Jetfire! Someone sell him to me! Whaaahhh! A) This belongs in ATTM, not ATT 2) It hardly belongs in ATTM, either Although WTB posts were a bit of a nuisance in ATT, with the creation of ATTM there is now a specific forum where you can say what you're looking for. However, Jetfire in particular is not always the easiest toy to find, as many people who have tried can testify. Everyone wants Jetfire. If everyone who wanted Jetfire posted messages saying so, we'd more than double traffic overnight. If you want a genuine, real-thing Jetfire, keep an eye on the auctions and make bids. Don't ask for one. If you'd be content with a lookalike, read on: There is a company on the net called Macross Exchange which sells newer, albeit cheaper, Valkyrie toys. These Valkyries are not an exact match for Jetfire (they have a different head, and no Super Valkyrie armor), and are made with less metal and the plastic is of slightly lower quality than in the original Jetfire, but are still good toys. Other than the change in material and head, they are identical to the original Bandai Valkyrie toys, being made from the same mold. These are often referred to as Korean knockoff Valkyries because, simply, they're made in Korea and aren't actually licensed Macross toys. But regardless, they are pretty nice and are available in four colors: red/white (sorta like Jetfire), green, red, and blue. They sell for $30 US. If you are interested, send email to "hinari@ix.netcom.com" or check out the Macross Exchange WWW page, "http://fantoma.usfca.edu/~khyron/robotech". There is also another company called Puzzle Zoo which sells the knockoffs, but for only $25 + shipping (I don't know if the $30 MacX price includes shipping or not). They accept credit cards, and their address is 1413 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica CA, 90401, or phone 1-800-627-8523. As I said, WTB posts are not useless. They frequently bear fruit, especially when the item in question is a little more obscure. There are some items which people aren't often looking for that you might find by posting about them. Basically the only reason hearing "I want Jetfire" is so irritating is that we hear it so often. In any case, WTB posts are not unwelcome, especially now that they can be put in attm, but be warned that Jetfire is something you will probably, but not definitely, not find this way. 10. I've got some TFs but I don't know their names... can anyone help me? Certainly. Many of the regular att posters (and I'm sure a lot of the lurkers) can identify your TFs without even having to look them up. Simply make a post with the subject "ID this/these TF" or something similar, and you should get emails or follow-up posts about it before too long. Even if the toys aren't _real_ TFs, be they ripoffs like Shackwave, or just a similar toy like GoBots or MASK, or whatever, go ahead and ask; just make sure you say that they aren't (or might not be) Transformers so people know what to think about. == II. Things ATT'ers Might Mention === 1. What is FIRRIB / FIBRIR? FIRRIB is an acronym for "Frenzy Is Red Rumble Is Blue". It's a topic that has historically caused quite a stir on a.t.t. Please do not mention this topic. It's more trouble than it's worth, and no good will come of its discussion. FIRRIB/FIBRIR is a matter of dispute because of inconsistent coloring between the toys and the cartoon show. If you go by the toys, Rumble is red and black, while Frenzy is two shades of blue. On the TV show, however, Rumble was purplish and blue, and Frenzy, who was almost never featured, was red and black. To make things even more confusing, sometimes they were both shown as blue, or both as red. The comic book, near the beginning, often had inconsistent coloring as well, and in fact both Frenzy and Rumble sometimes looked sort of blackish. Also, the G2 Go-Bot version of Frenzy is actually purple, perhaps in an effort to solve the red/blue controversy... ;) What it really comes down to is whether you consider the show or the toys to be canon. For most people this depends on which they saw first. One thing you will learn about TFs, though, is that there really is no canon. 2. What's a TF MUSH? A MUSH is an online game which many people can play at once. The letters stand for Multi-User Shared Hallucination. MUSHes are very similar to MUDs, in that people connect to it and control characters which interact with other players and the environment. However, while the focus on MUDs is generally on fighting, MUSHes tend to be much more plot-oriented and focus on role-playing. There are several Transformer MUSHes which, unfortunately, sometimes launch and go down with little warning. It was sometimes hard for me to keep up, but recently Gary Williams (graywolf@pcpros.net) created a TF MUSH list on the web, giving me an excuse to shirk the responsibility of staying up to date. :) Visit "http://xformers.cow.net/~graywolf/ mushlist.htm" to see it. The list includes TF MUSHes past and present, with addresses, descriptions of themes, and other important info. As on other MUSHes, the heart of the TF MUSHes is role-playing and plot: not fighting. If you are looking for hack and slash, try a MUD. The experience of playing on a TF MUSH is a lot like being inside an episode of the cartoon. There are planned events called "tinyplots" (TP's), but for the most part the players are the ones who initiate events. The admin of the various MUSHes wish to point out that they are not in competition with each other. On the contrary, many of the admin play several MUSHes, and some even have admin duties on more than one. Although the terminology for character types varies from site to site, on each MUSH you may choose either an existing TF character or create one of your own. The pre-existing characters are understandably limited and in high demand. Before choosing an existing character, make sure that you are choosing one which you will be able to role-play well. For example, don't choose to play Prowl and then act like a war-crazed maniac. When creating new characters you may choose your own name, appearance, modes, abilities, and tech specs. However, there are limits placed on original characters' power; this is so there aren't twenty people running around with all 10's ruining the game for everyone else. Generally, the MUSHes assume that the characters featured in the cartoon, toys, comic, etc., were the "cream of the crop", and that most other TFs were not as powerful. There are other limits placed on original characters, but to learn more about those you should ask someone on the MUSH itself or email one of the Wizards. Players are generally permitted to have one pre-existing character and two or three originals. Also, keep in mind that since the MUSHes have different settings, valid character choices on one MUSH might not work on another. It's best to visit a MUSH before getting a character so that you can get a feel for the place. Telnet to the MUSH of your choice, and at the login screen, type "login guest guest", or "connect guest guest", or whatever it says to type. You will then be placed into a welcome room, which will probably have a few people in it talking Out Of Character (OOC, as opposed to In Character, IC). Type "help" to get some of the basic commands, and then ask someone in the room to help you out. If you decide to get a character and start playing on the MUSHes you might want to get a copy of the MUSH Manual so that you can get accustomed to the commands, and that way not be totally lost when you first get on to play. Every MUSH you visit will have custumized their software slightly differently, but the manual will still be of great use. You can get the manual by anonymous ftp at the site "caisr2.caisr. cwru.edu" in the directory /pub/mush. The file is called MUSHMAN or something obvious of that nature. Again, visit "http://xformers.cow.net/~graywolf/mushlist.htm" for the list of TF MUSHes. 3. What's the TF Purity Test? After reading through several "You know you're obsessed with TFs when..." posts, Diana Calder (az529@freenet.carleton.ca) put together a fan purity test in the style of the Animaniacs newsgroup's purity test which was in the style of the normal purity test. Basically, it's a long list of questions, some of which are quite silly, and you count your number of "yes" answers to get your score. You can pick it up off of Iggy Drougge's web page, or if you can't get a hold of it that way, Diana will email it to you. The TF Fan Purity Test goes through revisions, just like many other internet documents. Some of the highest scores on the current and previous versions have been achieved by Kendrick, Jameel, the Nixtr, and Kevin Byrnes. I've scored respectably on them, but I think being the FAQ Keeper should earn me large numbers of bonus points. ;P If you have a particularly impressive score, let me know and I might list you in later versions of the FAQ. 4. What's the TransFan code some people are using? Originally created for us by Lizard (lizard@dnai.com), TransFan code goes along the lines of Geek Code, which you may or may not be familiar with. This isn't a way to encrypt messages, but a string of letters and other characters to put in your .sig (or elsewhere) which summarize your TransFan status. For example, the letter G is followed by a series of pluses (or minuses for losers), the number of which express your "General love of TFs". There are other letters for MUSHing, fanfic, toy collection size, etc.. Jameel has created a TransFan code web page at this URL: http://www.dhp.com/~spectre/Tformers/tfcode.html 5. What should I not ask about on a.t.t.? There are a few main topics (Threads That Would Not Die, TTWND) that are good to avoid. These are questions, statements, etc., that have been discussed so thoroughly, or are so incredibly pointless, that even one post about them is a waste of bandwidth. Please respect other people's wishes and do not bring these up unless you are _confident_ that you have a completely new and fascinating idea to contribute. If you feel that this FAQ is not informative enough on any "forbidden" topic, please email me (srstoneb@cc.owu.edu) and explain what is lacking. I will improve that part of the FAQ to spare ATT from watching a TTWND remerge. 1) Unicron vs. ________. See XIV, 2. 2) FIRRIB / FIBRIR. See II, 1. 3) Scenes cut from the movie. See X, 10-12. 4) How to spell Elita-1 / Alita-1. See VII, 3. == III. Getting Info and Stuff ======== 1. Are there any TF WWW or ftp sites? Yes! There are _tons_ of Transformers sites on the net. Our "main" TF ftp site, at the top of the list below, is run by Jim Hoxsey (jjhoxsey@ saturn.acs.oakland.edu). The other two are smaller sites that happen to be running. saturn.acs.oakland.edu /pub/transformers ftp.netcom.com /pub/rj/rjung/Transformers mixmaster.mit.edu /pub The number of TF WWW sites is large and still growing. It's difficult, if not impossible, for me to keep up with every new TF site that appears. I find a fair number of them on my own but I haven't gone looking just to make my list longer. However, I would like to include as many TF WWW pages as possible, if not all of them. If you are aware of a missing or incorrect URL in my list, please email me and I'll take care of it in the next revision of the FAQ. Phil "SkyJammer" Zeman has created a Transformers WebRing. You are likely to see its logo on many of the pages on my list. The mainpage for the ring is "www.geocities.com/Area51/1070/tfring.html". Due to space concerns, I have moved the WWW page list to Part 4, the Complete TF Info Index. However, all pages now have a one line description. Woo woo! Capital letters in the listed URL's imply a case-sensitive host; if you try to connect without the caps, you will probably get an error. 2. Where can I get a list of all the TFs that were made? There is an extremely comprehensive toy list undergoing constant evolution by Robert Jung (R.A. Jung, not the R.K. Jung who wrote the ARJ archiving format). He can be contacted at "rjung@netcom.com". This lists all toys from the US, Europe, and Japan, along with years they were released and short descriptions. Andrew Frankel (afrankel@mail1.sas.upenn.edu) has managed to piece together a checklist of sorts of the Japanese serial numbers of all the TFs (that is, the C-XXX and D-XXX ID's from the Japanese toy boxes). This list is on his WWW page, "http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~afrankel". You might also want to look at M Sipher's (msipher@aol.com) "That Big Transformers Variations List", which enumerates the many toy variations which have been released. (Only *toy* variations, not packaging vars.) 3. Where can I get a list of all the TF tech specs? David "Hex" Tashjian is the keeper of the "Official Unofficial Transformers Tech Spec Listing". This file is updated regularly, and is also posted to the newsgroup occasionally. For a copy of this, you can check the newsgroup, but it's probably easier to look for it on a web page or email Hex and ask for a copy. You can pick it up off Iggy Drougge's page, or for an easier-to-read HTML version, go to "http:// pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~cjs69930/stats.html". Hex has several email addresses, but the preferred one is "tashjidg@ucunix.san.uc.edu". An alternative to Hex's is "The Definitive Tech Spec Reference" by Nick Morency (thenixtr@acy.digex.net). When Nick first announced that he was making a tech spec list, it caused some controversy on ATT as Hex had been the established tech spec authority for some time. Basically, it was a breach of netiquette to post a claim that his new tech spec list was much better than the other list available, but it's now been a few years and the whole matter is nearly forgotten. His list is available on his WWW page, "http://www.acy.digex.net/~thenixtr/nick0003.html". Also, Lewis Brooks (brooks_l@bentley.edu) wrote a tech spec viewing program called Tech Spec 2000. It's available at "http://users.aol.com/ autobot999/tf/tf.htm". Gabriel Quan (Gabriel_Quan@eyenet.eybe.edu.on. ca) has finished a Tech Spec database which allows reading as well as searches, such as Autobots with STR > 8, or all TFs with plasma guns. The database structure is complete, but still has many blank records. 4. Where can I get a list of all the TF fan fiction? Currently, Suzanne M. Ferree is responsible for maintaining the fanfic list. This list is posted bi-weekly to the newsgroup, usually on the 5th and 20th of the month, but you can also get it from her WWW page (http://www.cyberspace.org/~suz/beta.html) or by sending her email. The list is rather large, as a lot of TF fanfic has been written. Suzanne asks (and this is important!) that when you post fanfic, if you want it to get on her list, that you include the word "fanfic" in your post subject. Like, "[FANFIC]Unicron vs. the Death Star". That makes it easier for her, and for other readers as well. If you are interested in reading any of the fanfic (a lot of it is very good), nearly everything on the list is available somewhere on the net. Suzanne's email addresses are: winter/spring: "sferree@s-cwis.unomaha.edu" summer: "suz@grex.cyberspace.org" There are two "missing" fanfics, so if anyone out there has a copy of them, *please* send a copy to Suzanne. One of them is the original "Dr. Grimlock, M.D." by Stanley Lui (not the one with the line "Transform and roll up"). It was a parody of "Doogie Howser, M.D." He has lost his only copy. The other one is called "Starsong", and Suzanne has no idea who wrote it. All she remembers is reading a reply to it on the group where someone told the author that they should have put "fanfic" in their subject line. 5. Where can I get a list of all the TF cartoon episodes? Marek Kozubal (progrmer@max.tiac.net) has a fairly complete list on his WWW page (http://staff.feldberg.brandeis.edu/~progrmer/transformers/ transformers.html). This list has all titles, and additional info for some. He's working on getting plot summaries for them. Aaron Marsh (abm4111@vaxb.isc.rit.edu) has an episode list which is in order (at least as in order as any ep list will ever be), with summaries for most. He posts it to the group, will also send it to people over email, and has it on his homepage at http://www.cs.rit.edu/~abm4111. For more thorough reviews, you can read Kendrick's (kendrick@io.com) "Transformers Weekday" reports. TF Weekday posts are generally several screens long, with commentary on story, animation, and character development. They're generally pretty entertaining as well. :) Having reviewed all US episodes, Kendrick has now begun work on his collection of Japanese TF cartoons. Depending on how crazy he is, he might also review the Beast Wars series. He has placed all the TF Weekdays on his web page, http://www.io.com/~kendrick. 6. Where can I get a list of TF quotes? Naomi Novik (The Lady of Shalott, at "shalott@brown.edu") compiled a list of favorite TF quotes a while ago, but didn't have the time to keep it up to date. More recently Robert Powers (repowers@artsci.wustl.edu) took the initiative and reorganized the list himself. Robert says he would be happy to be known as the Quote Guy, but doesn't have regular net.access, and might not be able to post it regularly. However he has a web page where you can get the list: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/ ~repowers/.tf-text.html 7. How about a TF encyclopedia or something? Such a project is currently being undertaken by Stanley Lui (sslui@ calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca). Stan has basic information on nearly all of the articles now, but is still looking for details on most topics. Major articles in the encyclopedia are on specific characters, events, and places from all TF fiction continuities. Although it focuses on the American comic and cartoons, there are articles based on the UK Comic and Japanese cartoons as well. For each item listed there will eventually be a general info section, and then a history for each continuity. For example, the article on Optimus Prime will start with "Op is the leader of the Autobots, blah blah blah" and then have subsections with his life story from each continuity. There will also eventually be hypertext links within articles so that, for example, when the section on the Matrix mentions Alpha Trion, there will be a direct link to the article on Alpha so the reader can get more information on him. The TF Ency is provided mainly as a reference tool for people who need background information for FanFic writing, and for other TF fans who are just trying to remember the name of a place or what a certain gun did. Anyone who is willing to write articles for the TF Ency should contact Stanley to see what articles are currently unfinished, or connect to the page directly to see what needs to be done. All contributions to the TF Ency will be properly recognized and acknowledged. The TF Encyclopedia is located at: http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/sslui/tf-ency/ On a similar note, here are a few other general Transformers reference materials: Aaron Marsh (abm4111@vaxb.isc.rit.edu) has a painstakingly compiled list of *every* TF appearance in the American comics and Sarai Feria (103136. 2031@compuserve.com) has done the same for the American cartoons. They are organized by character, and list every issue / episode in which each character appeared. Charles Wallace Jr. (chipink@aol.com) is trying to compile a sort of ultimate TF guide, a physical, paper-bound book which will have pictures and info on every TF toy ever produced. If you are willing to help him with this (things like sending pictures of your toys, whatever) let him know you'd like to be of assistance, and ask him what he needs. Warpticon (cmprice@ualr.edu) is doing something similar for the WWW called the Transformers Book of Knowledge (TFBOK). Currently the TFBOK is little more than an alphabetical list of all TF toys, but will eventually assimilate several informational documents like the tech spec and variations lists, and contain detailed descriptions and information on every toy. His web page is at www.student.toplinks.com/hp/wrpticon. == IV. General TF Questions =========== 1. When did the TFs first come out? The very first appearance of the Transformers was an animated TV commercial for the Marvel comic book. This first aired in the summer of 1984. The first issue of the comic itself was dated as September 1984. However, at the time of this writing Marvel is dating their comics about 2 months ahead of when they hit the shelves, so it's likely that issue one was actually released in July '84. The first batch of toys were released in fall '84, and the original three episodes of the show aired at about the same time. The cartoon then went weekly (on sunday mornings in most places) a little before Christmas of 1984, and then daily in fall 1985. 2. Are there any TF conventions? Since 1994 there has been an annual BotCon (the name is derived from the words AutoBOT and DeceptiCON, placing the obligatory "con" at the end of the name) held every summer. The first BotCon was run by Jon and Karl Hartman in Ft. Wayne IN. The Hartmans own the copyright to the name "BotCon", and have final approval over who will run it each year. In 1995, att's Raksha organized the second BotCon in Dayton OH, and BotCon '96 was run by Men-In-Black Collectibles in Chicago. BotCon '97 will be run by the Hartmans in Rochester, NY on July 18-20. Through the three years of its life, BotCon has swung through three different themes. And, each year's focus was a direct result of the con's organizer(s). The Hartman's are die-hard TF collectors, and thus their convention was mainly focused on the collectible toy aspect of TFs. Raksha is one of att's most vocal TransFans; her convention was meant to celebrate Transformers fandom in all its forms. Men-In-Black is a company that sells collectibles, including TF toys. Their convention was largely a place to buy and sell toys. As you might guess, most TransFans pick Raksha's 1995 effort as the best of the three so far. BotCon traditions include dealer tables for toys, comics, fanzines and art, showings of US and Japanese cartoons and the movie, panel discussions about things like TF fanfic, toy repair lessons, art and trivia contests, and a limited-edition TF figure available only to people at the convention. In other words, BotCon is great. :) BotCon '97 promises to be the best yet. Take a gander at just *some* of the offereings: a slew of voice actors (including Peter Cullen!), several bigwig representatives from Kenner, theatrical showings of TF:TM, an exclusive toy and CD, and Stan Bush in concert! For info about BotCon '97, you can contact Jon Hartman through email at "jhartman@noblecan.org" and go to his homepage, "http://www.noblecan. org/~jhartman". And again, this is July 18-20 in Rochester, NY. A second TF convention for 1997, unaffiliated with BotCon or the Hartmans, is being organized by Men-In-Black. They are calling it TransCon2, and holding it in Chicago over July 4th weekend. Planned TransCon attractions are also quite alluring: two special edition toys (including a die-cast metal Arcee ActionMaster), a guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy, and a concert with Weird Al Yancovic! Woo hoo! For more information contact Denis Barger, "barger@emuvax.emich.edu", visit the MIB homepage "http://www.htonline.com/Men_in_Black", or call them at 313-483-TOYS (8697). MIB promises to have nametags for all this year! 3. Are there any TF clubs? There are two major TF clubs that are still active today. One of the clubs is TransMasters, which is run by Tony Buchanan. For information on this club you can contact the officer nearest you. Tony Buchanan Tony Klepack Andy Dornan 1215 S Andrews Rd 9637 76th Ave. 9 Cuckoo Lane Yorktown IN 47396 Edmonton Alberta Stubbington Fareham, Hants USA TGC OK4 Canada PO14 3PJ England TransMasters UK has a WWW page at the following URL: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~mavai/tf.html Another club called The Survivors is a branch club of TransMasters. For information contact: Liane Elliot 6202 34th St. NW Gig Harbor WA 98335-7205. tetra@eskimo.com The Survivors' homepage is at "http://www.eskimo.com/~tetra/tf.html". In addition, there are many continuing TF fanzines and fan-made comic books besides the ones published directly by these clubs. For a little more info on them, please read section XV. 4. What's happening with the current TF line? As should be rather easy to see, the main force of TF toys is now the "Beast Wars" line. The two warring factions are the Maximals (good guys) and the Predacons (bad guys). Both sides transform from robots into realistic, fleshed out animal forms. An excellent computer animated BW television show is aired two times a week, a video game is in development, and there is a *possible* comic book. According to the BC '96 Kenner representative, BW is the country's 3rd top selling toyline, with only Power Rangers and Star Wars ahead of it. Plans for BW's future include 30-45 new toys for 1997, of which only 4 will be recolors of other toys, and which will include several *female* characters. The new figures will have even more posability than the first year's BWs. Please see section VIII for detailed Beast Wars information. Kenner has also recently released more traditional, vehicular mode Transformers in a line called "Machine Wars". MW is exclusive to KayBee toy stores. The line includes old characters in new forms, not necessarily the same as their old ones. Kenner has assured fans that every old TF that gets redone will always have a recognizable face and a largely unchanged personality. Many of the early MW toys are recolors / remakes of previously European-only toys, but if previous info from HasKen remains true, later MWs will have extraordinary posability and there is a chance of a MW TV show, separate from BW. For those interested in contacting Hasbro or Kenner, their phone number is 1-800-255-5516, and their email address is "hasbro@romnet.com". == V. TF related products ============= 1. Are there any TF video games? Oh, yes. There are a few official games, and a lot of fanmade ones. Although there have not been any official Transformers video games made for a long time, a BW game for the Sony PlayStation (and probably the Nintendo 64) is now in the works. It will use the TV show's character models, which means that aside from having to lower the detail level quite a bit, the game characters will look and move exactly like on TV. Some time ago there was a TF game made for the Japanese FamiCom (their equivalent of our original Nintendo Entertainment System). The player controlled Ultra Magnus and had to take out droves of Decepticon jets and tanks in a Metroid-ish platform game manner. To go further back than that: There were 2 different games released for the Commodore 64. The original, merely called "The Transformers", was a basic platform game. When I played it for the first time I found it to be extremely difficult. The graphics were neat, but it was too easy to die by flying into walls, and I was clueless as to the point of the game... According to various sources, however, your mission is to find 4 energon cubes which are scattered throughout the level and bring them back to your home base. When you get the energon cubes back to your base, they turn into parts of an Autobot symbol, and the object is to complete that symbol. There are several different Autobots available to control, and they all have cool transformation animations. Also, all the Autobots fly... (See X 2.) The second game was called "The Battle for Cybertron" and, like some of the TF books (V, 4) had an ambiguous setting, as both Hot Rod _and_ Rodimus Prime were available to control. Your mission in this game was to prevent the Decepticons from taking over various places on Earth, and to stop them from building their ultimate weapon. There was a map screen with about 15 different places on it, and you could send about 8 different Autobots to any of them, depending on where the Decepticons were attacking (they tended to go to the same locations every time the game was played, though, and some areas were never used at all). Once your Autobot was there, the game switched to a first-person view, and you had to move a crosshair to shoot at the nearly endless Decep jets that flew onto the screen. You could be hit by their missiles, and if you got hit too much your screen would "crack up" and you'd have to bring another bot in. There was also a nearly impossible part where you had to stop a tyrannosaurs rex from stepping on the space shuttle. For people interested in playing the above Commodore 64 games, one of them and C64 emulators for most platforms to play it with are available by ftp. The emulator is at "frodo.hiof.no" in /pub/c64/emulator, and the game at "arnold.hiof.no" in /games/t. The other game is available on Iggy Drougge's WWW page under the name "Transformers.lha" in his tfpics directory, as well as a link to the emulator site in his readme.html file. The hiof sites seem to be a little moody, so if you have trouble connecting, just try again some other time. One warning, though: "The Battle for Cybertron" doesn't seem to work correctly through the emulator. If anyone has a solution for this or has gotten it to work, please contact me! Also, Andrew Southam has completed some Transformers themed .WAD files for Doom and Doom 2. He has a sound patch for both games (mainly digitized movie sounds) and a graphics patch that changes some of the enemies, and the player graphic in multiplayer games. He's working on making these more complete. The patches are available on the web at "http://www.bee.net/Optimus". Another TF Doom WAD option comes from "pdilloway@aol.com". He has several WADs including one for Beast Wars. You can get these on his web page, "http://users.aol.com/pdilloway/home.html". Lastly, PaliXade (Gabriel_Quan@eyenet.eybe.edu.on.ca) and a group of other TransFans are working on projects including a TF Dark Forces level, a Bumblebee platform game, a street fighter, and a Jeopardy-type trivia game. These projects are in various stages of completion. He is looking for people willing to help out with programming and sprite- drawing chores. Anyone interested in helping, or in playing, should contact him. He has completed a Pac-Man game starring Kremzeek. 2. Is there a TF role-playing game? In a manner of speaking, yes. There are extensions to existing rpg's that make Transformers workable characters. Dave Van Domelen has written a robot-oriented role-playing system called RoboMACs which can be easily applied to Transformers. His email address is "dvandom@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu". To order a printed copy of the rules for $11 plus shipping, email your request to "plaid@io.com". The game itself is more concerned with role-playing than rolling dice, and the mechanics of play are simple. Character creation is trait-based instead of stat-based and can accommodate anything from normal humans to planet-sized mecha using a sliding scale. The game uses ten-sided dice, with 2d10 used for task resolution. While best-suited for humanoid robot combat, it can easily be extended to other themes such as paranormal humans and cyborgs. There is currently no magic system, but a later supplement may fix that. To be added to a reflector-style mailing list set up to discuss and playtest RoboMACs, email to "plaid@io.com". The rules and sample campaign are posted to the list periodically, along with various updates. Mark Chase (mchase@cdc.net) has written a Mekton Z+ supplement to cover the Transformers which provides a conversion section telling you how to change tech specs directly to Mekton stats. This game is more stat- based than RoboMACs. Information about this can be obtained from Mark's web page, "http://www.cdc.net/~mchase/mearth.html". There is also a fan-created TF collectable card game (similar to Magic: The Gathering) which was designed by Richard Garner and JuQuan Williams (Nightrun and DeceptiQuan). Details on this game are available at either of their WWW pages, "http://www.geocities.com/Area51/7375" or "http://www-personal.umich.edu/~juquanw/TFcards.html". 3. What were those TF trading cards like? At the time of the TF's big popularity, Milton Bradley released a set of Transformers Action Cards. There were 8 cards and a sticker in each pack. Overall there were 192 cards and 24 stickers. Some cards featured the tech specs and profiles of TFs on the text side and the picture from that toy's box on the other, and the other cards had stills from the 1st season of TF cartoons with text describing the action. There were also two checklists, cards 96 and 192. There were slight variations on many of the cards. Most of these variations were differently colored backgrounds on the profile cards, although there were also some flipped and miscolored cartoon cards. There are several people on att attempting to complete their sets. Two that I know of are Sujay Madyastha and Steve Nahra, at "sujaym@seas. upenn.edu" and "rsnahra@vax1.acs.jmu.edu", respectively. Raksha (jkink@ magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) is also willing to trade away her doubles and is interested in finding more color variations that she might not have. She doesn't have a lot of extras, but you might want to contact her as well. Posting a message on the group to the effect that you'd like to sell, trade, or buy cards will probably get you a response or two. 4. What TF books are available? There are a great deal of Transformers books out there; far more than I was previously aware. In fact, this section (in only two revisions) grew so uncontrollably that I felt the need to remove the book information to a separate listing. Briefly, however, I will list the main groups of books that I know of: "Find Your Fate Jr", a choose-your-own-adventure series, 9 titles "Young Corgi", a choose-your-own-adventure series, 6 titles coloring and activity books by Marvel Books coloring and activity books by Budget Books and Grand Dreams G2 coloring and activity books by Honey Bear Books sticker books, Figurine Panini "Big Looker" TF storybooks from Marvel, 6 titles other Marvel storybooks, 6 titles "Ladybird" storybooks, 11 titles "Kid Stuff" tape / book packages There are a few other stand-alone items which I have not listed. If you want to see the book information file, visit my TF page (http://192.68. 223.4:8000/~srstoneb/tf/) or send me email (srstoneb@cc.owu.edu). == VI. Continuity Issues ============== 1. Why doesn't anything agree with anything else? As many readers will be aware, there are serious story discrepancies between the TF cartoon and comic book, and sometimes even between the cartoon and itself (and more rarely, the comic and itself). Many fans enjoy finding ways to explain the discrepancies within the cartoon to make everything still fit together, and for the most part they are successful. The important thing to remember when comparing the comic book and cartoon series is that they have NOTHING to do with each other, except for having mostly the same characters and a theme of transforming robots from Cybertron. The two clearly take place along alternate timelines, and IMHO, any attempt to reconcile the two separate stories is futile. Not only do totally different events occur in both, but the origin of Transformer life is completely different as well. 2. What's the basic origin from the comics? Way way back at the beginning of time, there was a god of chaos called Unicron. He had an insatiable hunger, and a hatred of all of existence. As there was no power in the universe to oppose him, he managed to consume everything that was, except for one tiny microscopic dot. This dot exploded (a la Big Bang) into the universe we know today. Unicron was enraged and immediately began to eat again, but this time another god named Primus fought him. Their powers were of equal measure, so they fought for ages, with neither gaining the upper hand, but as they fought they wreaked havoc on the universe around them. Primus saw this, and in a desperate attempt to trick Unicron, he plunged himself into a metallic asteroid. Thinking that Primus was indeed up to something, Unicron also dove into a metallic asteroid so that Primus would not have an advantage. However, Unicron soon discovered that he was trapped in his asteroid, as Primus was also trapped within his. As the millennia passed, Primus realized that he could alter the shape of his prison, and so began to form his asteroid into a planet, and the planet into a race of beings which he hoped would one day be able to stand against Unicron, should he ever escape from his asteroid. These beings were the Transformers. The Creation Matrix which allows Transformers to make more of their kind contains a bit of the essence of Primus' spirit. Primus and Unicron possessed a mental link, so Primus knew that Unicron had also learned to shape his prison. While Primus had created an army to fight for him, Unicron had turned his entire asteroid into a new body, a giant replica of his old form. He could change his shape from this to one which more resembled the original asteroid as well. So that Unicron would be unable to find him and his children until enough time had passed that they would be able to fight against Unicron, Primus fell into a deep sleep, basically severing the mental link. Thus the Transformers were created on their planet Cybertron, with almost no memory of their origin other than myth. 3. What's the basic origin from the TV show? Millennia ago, the Quintessons were the heads of a huge galactic corporation (Magrathea, anyone?). They built the planet of Cybertron as a huge factory in which to build robotic slaves. There were two basic models: household and entertainment robots, and warrior / gladiator robots. Whenever one of their slaves began to show signs of true intelligence, the Quintessons had it immediately smelted down to be used as raw materials for the next line of robots. Eventually, however, more and more of the robots began to gain sentience, and they started a revolt against the Quintessons which ended in the Quints fleeing Cybertron for their lives, and the Transformers taking the planet over. It was sometime after this that the first hostilities arose between Autobot and Deception. 4. So where did Unicron come from in the cartoon? Unicron's origin was not discussed in the TF Movie, although that was when he first appeared. His origin was not revealed until the post- movie ep, "Call of the Primitives". In the cartoon storyline, Unicron was built by an alien named Primacron. He built Unicron to destroy worlds and leave the universe as a blank slate for his use. Unfortunately, Unicron revolted against his control and started to eat various planets for his own amusement. In the TV show, there was no special bond between Unicron and the Matrix of Leadership as there was between the comic Unicron and the Creation Matrix. The Matrix of Leadership just happened to be the most powerful object in the universe, the only thing which could stop him, and he knew it. That is why he wanted it destroyed. 5. Which origin for the Constructicons is right? This is the ultimate example of the cartoon's tendency toward continuity flubs. Through the course of the American cartoon, the Constructicons are featured in three contradictory origin plots. Their first appearance was in "Heavy Metal Wars". In this episode, Megatron says something to the effect of "they were worth the effort it took to build them here in these caves". This implies that they were built on Earth by the Decepticons. In "The Secret of Omega Supreme" Omega relates a story to Optimus Prime concerning his old life on Cybertron as a Guardian Robot. He had at one point been friends with the Constructicons, but when Megatron released a device called the Robo-Smasher, it caught them and made them become evil. They then destroyed the city which Omega was sworn to protect, and he became their sworn enemy. This implies that they were on Cybertron long ago, and Megatron turned them into Decepticons. While Rodimus Prime journeys through the Matrix in "Five Faces of Darkness", one of the flashbacks he sees is the moment of Megatron's "birth". He is seen being put together by the Constructicons. This implies that they were on Cybertron long, LONG ago, and built Megatron themselves. There have been attempts to reconcile this huge mess, but they were not very convincing. == VII. General TF Story Questions ==== 1. Does Cybertron have an atmosphere? Undoubtedly. It is obvious that there is an atmosphere there after Spike travels to Cybertron and breathes without a space suit, but some people maintain that it did not have an atmosphere until the TV episode "The Ultimate Doom". In that episode (actually a three-part story) Megatron drew Cybertron into orbit around the Earth. They claim that at that time it picked up some of Earth's atmosphere. However, there is more evidence to show that it has always had its own air. Although it might have been some mixture of gasses unbreathable by humans before TUD, there is little doubt that an atmosphere of some sort existed: Firstly, there is apparently sound on Cybertron, and you can't have sound without a medium. Secondly, even in the first episode of the show, the Decepticon "triangle" jets were clearly shaped aerodynamically, which implies an atmosphere. Thirdly, according to the TV origin of the TFs, Cybertron was originally a factory planet run by the Quintessons, who are (more or less) organic. Therefore, Cybertron must have had an atmosphere or the Quints would not have been able to survive there. Fourth (fourthly?), oxygen is needed for any combustion which might have taken place on any planet. Although it could be argued that the Autobots ran on energon until coming to Earth (when they had to resort to using our primitive fossil fuels), jet engines for the 'con seekers and rockets for spaceships would need oxygen to operate. 2. How big is Cybertron? Again, this is a matter of continuity choice: Issue #1 of the TF comic stated that Cybertron is "Saturn-sized". Of course, a Saturn-sized planet made of metal rather than hydrogen would have an incredible gravitational pull, and would in fact be *many* orders of magnitude past the limits for becoming a black hole. Thankfully, the TF mythos already provides us with an explanation for why it is not: Cybertron is not solid. Its interior is a honeycomb of corridors and chambers. And this makes sense -- most asteroids, in our solar system at least, are much smaller than the Earth. Unless Primus was doing the ol' subspace jig, he couldn't avoid making Cybertron largely porous when expanding its radius to Jovian standards. In the cartoon continuity, Cyberton's size is never clearly dictated, although "The Ultimate Doom" provides a good basis for estimate. Judging from the visuals in TUD, a story-arc in which Cybertron is placed into Earth orbit, the consensus is that Cybertron is about the size of our moon. Cartoon Cybertron also contains a good amount of empty space, although probably not as much as Comic Cybertron. 3. What's up with the female TFs? In the episode "The Search for Alpha Trion", a band of female Autobots was featured on Cybertron. In that episode, Prime and several other Autobots went to Cybertron to save the females from Shockwave, who had captured the female leader, Elita-1. Elita was an obvious love interest for Optimus Prime. The other female Autobots also seemed to be paired up with their respective "guys". Also in this episode, Elita is almost killed, but Alpha Trion informs Prime that he alone possesses the correct energy interface to save her, and so Prime "interfaces" with Elita and transfers energy though a cable which oddly goes from the area of his lower torso to the area of hers. ;) When Alpha informs Prime that only his power module will properly interface with hers, Prime is shocked, stating that "only my creator could know that". The other episode that had Elita-1 was called "War Dawn", in which the Aerialbots go back in time to the golden age of Cybertron and meet a robot named Orion Pax. At the end of the episode, Alpha Trion turns Pax into Optimus Prime, and turns Pax's girlfriend-bot into Elita-1. There was also an episode entitled "Enter the Nightbird" in which a human scientist invented a ninja-like robot with clear female curves to it, named Nightbird. This robot had no personality, although it was rather dangerous. Megatron captured and took control of Nightbird, but in the end she was recaptured by the Autobots and deactivated. In TF:The Movie, and in the post-movie eps, there was another female Autobot named Arcee. She was pink, had a tiny waist, and transformed into a futuristic convertible. In the movie, she seemed to be interested (mutually) in Hot Rod, but in all the post-movie eps, she and Springer were an obvious item. There was also a female in "Forever is a Long Time Coming" named Beta, a mint-green colored copy of Arcee in "Fight of Flee", and a companion-bot for Wreck-Gar in "The Big Broadcast of 2006". Arcee was featured in the UK comics, although she was built specifically for the purpose of improving relations between TFs and humans and did not represent the existence of either male or female TFs on Cybertron. In addition, the Japanese HeadMaster Minerva was characterized as a female both in the Masterforce cartoon _and_ in her toy incarnation (this toy was released with a sex change under the name of Nightbeat in the US). Also, one of the two engines for the GodMaster Overlord was female, and possibly a Japanese MicroMaster as well. The first female TF toy released in the United States was Nightracer, the BotCon '95 exclusive toy. Nightracer's tech spec card was written by the Con's organizer, Raksha. With the coming of Beast Wars, however, we now have "official" female TFs -- the first was Blackarachnia. Incidentally, there is disagreement over how to spell the name Elita-1. Some people prefer "Alita-1". As with the other pointless debates on a.t.t., both sides have their evidence. I would like it to be noted that I have favored the "E" spelling, simply because I like to have the word "elite" in her name. If you really want to know more about this, send email to two of the group leaders: Kendrick (kendrick@io.com) on the E side, and Nick Morency (thenixtr@acy.digex.net) on the "A" side. They both have their dissertations on this topic saved, and will send them to anyone who asks. 4. But WHY do they have them at all? Personally, I think it's a little bit silly to force genders upon robots. I do like the female TFs as characters, and I admit that to be socially responsible, it is important for Hasbro / Marvel / Sunbow to introduce females. Technically, however, I still think it's silly. :) All of the non-obviously-female TFs were quite clearly modeled after males, and I feel that this makes a certain amount of sense. Since the TFs are all fighting a war, it follows that they would be built big and strong. When we look at them we see big, wide frames, and broad shoulders: characteristics which we identify as "male". To me, TFs don't really have gender at all. We simply identify them as male because to us they look more like males than females. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with TFs having traditionally "female" personality traits like compassion, mercy, forgiveness, certain parental instincts, etc.. These are wonderful traits that would be useful to have in any society. 5. How do TFs reproduce? There has been a lot of discussion on this question. There are several different answers provided by "official" sources, and there is also a lot of speculation by fans. In the original comic book series, Transformers could only reproduce by building new TF bodies and infusing them with life via the Creation Matrix. In the Generation 2 comics, an alternative method of "budding" was introduced which is explained in detail in XI, 8. In the cartoon, on the other hand, it sometimes seemed enough to simply build new robots. The Dinobots, Technobots, and Trypticon are examples of this. When Starscream built the Combaticons in "Starscream's Brigade", he actually only built bodies and downloaded the personalities of Cybertronian criminals which were on file somewhere into those bodies. However, when the Aerialbots were created they had to be given life by Vector Sigma, a supercomputer at the heart of cybertron. A more complete list of TF reproduction methods has been compiled by "Playground Psychotic" (tenorguitr@psnw.com). Send him email if you are interested. 6. How did the Great War start? This depends on which story you are following. In the comics, the war began simply and realistically because some of the Transformers were power hungry and hostile. They formed a group called the Decepticons, and began to make strikes against Cybertron's cities in order to take it over. Transformers who opposed this formed another band called the Autobots and fought against the Decepticons. This idea is explored in more detail in a UK annual text story called "State Games". In the cartoon, the war began soon after the Quintessons were driven from the planet. The warrior robots were in general more hostile, and wanted to control the planet. They began to call themselves Decepticons. The household robots, who called themselves Autobots, tried to resist this takeover. 7. Why do they transform? Why not just be big robots? Following the comic book timeline, Primus incorporated the ability to transform in his children to mimic the shape-changing method which Unicron used. On the TV show there are a few slightly conflicting answers given. In MTMTE Spike asked Trailbreaker about transformation and gets the following answer: "Disguise! Besides, it sure beats walking." Another answer, put forth during FFoD, is that transforming was a technological innovation which the Autobots "discovered" as a secret weapon to use against the Decepticons, who had superior firepower. It's that "robots in disguise" thing. This advantage was quickly turned against them, however, when the Decepticons also began to use this technology. Of course, in this same episode when the very first Autobots were shown, even before they knew how to transform they had wheels on their shoulders... :) 8. Where does Prime's trailer go when he transforms? Although it wasn't ever explained in the TV show, the generally accepted (or invented, rather) theory among TransFans is that each Transformer has their own "compartment" in subspace. The TF can teleport anything to or from subspace at will for storage purposes. Each Transformer is "frequency locked" to a certain pocket of subspace, so there isn't any possibility of a transformer stealing weapons that were placed into subspace by another transformer. Subspace storage is the "official" explanation used on the TF MUSHes. Subspace can also be applied to size changes which accompany the mode changes of several Transformers, such as Soundwave and Megatron. The mass which they lose when shrinking can be stored in subspace, and drawn out again upon transformation. Although Megatron can clearly choose between a normal and giant size when in gun mode, we never see Soundwave as a 12 foot tall tape deck, or either of them as a one foot robot. Options of size in various modes therefore seem predetermined, probably at their time of creation (or in some TF's cases, the time of their redesign at the hands of the Ark). Also, a Transformer has never been shown walking around in any in-between size, so it would seem that the mass transfer with subspace is all or nothing. The subspace theory seems to be consistent with the cartoon, and is even supported by a scene in "Demon's Swamp", when Kickback's gun suddenly materializes in his hand in plain sight for no apparent reason, as well as one of the post-movie commercial bumpers in which Blurr transforms and his weapon appears in his hand. In the UK comic story "Dinobot Hunt", Jazz opens a hidden compartment in his hip from which he removes a small version of his gun that grows to its full size for use. In this case, although the gun is stored in the real world, there is still a size change to contend with, and the subspace theory can explain it. Of course, sometimes in the UK comic Prime's trailer didn't go away. It was often treated as a separate unit which had its own things to do while Prime was busy walking around and acting noble. 9. Are they immortal? Barring injuries or being killed in battle, there is no reason to believe that, with proper maintenance, a Transformer could not live indefinitely. So, in short, they pretty much are. To confuse matters a bit, there was an issue of the UK comic which showed a Rodimus Prime from the future who appeared aged; he was frail, bearded, and generally geezer-like. According to later issues, however, Rodimus appeared this way due to the polluting effects of Unicron's essence within the matrix, and not because of being old. 10. Is there a full Transformers history anywhere? There is a Transformers Chronology file which was written by Jeremy Pace, and is available at the WWW at the address below. This chronology follows the TV show's Quint theory, so you may or may not like it. :) http://www4.ncsu.edu/eos/users/j/jhpace1/WWW/Files/ Transformer_Chronology == VIII. Beast Wars =================== 1. Why Beast Wars? When HasKen realized that the G2 line was going nowhere, and that they'd handled it poorly, the new TF team at Kenner decided that they wanted to get as far away from G2 as possible, and go in an entirely new direction to try to get people interested. Thus the Beast Wars line was born. Unlike G1 and G2, all the BW toys are being designed by Americans at Kenner's HQ in Ohio. All of the G1 toys were old Japanese designs, and even with G2, Takara was probably responsible for the planning of the new molds. BW, and purportedly part of MW, are being designed by Kenner with posability and playability as their top concern. (For more on Machine Wars, see IV, 4.) Takara is still producing the TFs, but no longer designs them. Most att'ers have found that after getting past the initial shock, they can appreciate Beast Wars as a good line. At BotCon '96 the Kenner representatives disclosed that BW is the number three toy line in America, being beaten only by MMPR and Star Wars. Stores in many areas have trouble keeping BW figures on the shelves. Pretty impressive for a line with almost no advertising and a TV show with a terrible timeslot. In response to the mindless BW-bashing that occured when the line was first released Dave Van Domelan (dvandom@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) established the Beast Wars Anti-Defamation League (BWADL). BWADL members take it upon themselves to defend BW from unjustified slander and petty insults. For membership information drop Dave a line or visit his homepage, "www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom". The most vocal BW advocate, however, is Ben Yee (yeebe@is2.nyu.edu). He has been a supporter of BW from the very start. Ben has been in contact with several of the people behind the BW television program for some time now, giving them input and ideas, and was even acknowledged by the writers in the episode "Dark Designs": at one point Waspinator was ranting after being struck on the head and called himself Wonko the Sane (a character from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker books, but more importantly, Ben's posting alias) and then waved at the camera. Ben wrote the BW FAQ, an essay entitled "In Defense of Beast Wars", and maintains one of the most complete BW web pages. Of course, not everyone has warmed up to BW. Some att'ers say that, although they can appreciate BWs as nice toys, they can't accept them as TFs because they just don't "feel" like TFs to them. There are also vocal critics of BW who consider it an insult to the TF mythos and fandom. Whatever your initial opinion may be, allow yourself to give BW a chance. Buy a toy or two, watch the show, and then decide to support it or not. :) For more BW information, visit Ben Yee's BW homepage, "http://acweb.com/ ben/beast.htm". There you can find the BW FAQ and "In Defense of Beast Wars", as well as other BW info and several BW links. 2. Why did they change Prime and Megs? They didn't. Optimus Primal is not Optimus Prime, and BW Megatron is not Megatron. This has been explicitly stated by Kenner, and is rather obvious from their characterization. As with the G2 line, when the names "Optimus Prime" and "Megatron" were used over and over again, Kenner's marketing department has attached the names to BW toys to draw attention and make the figures sell better. Plotwise, the idea is that Optimus Primal and BW Megatron have changed their names to such as a way of honoring OP and Megs, heroes from their past. Furthermore, Primal and BW Megs are not neccesarily even the leaders of their factions. All we know is that they are ship captians, and not neccessarily very experienced ones. From the voiceover in "The Probe" it seems likely that Optimus Primal is definitely NOT the leader of all Maximals. 3. Are the toys actually any good? Good lord, yes! The BW toys are actually better than most G1 Transformers. Their posability exceeds that of even the late Generation 2 toys like the Cyberjets and Laser Rod OP. They have neat robot modes, detailed beast modes, cool shooting weapons, and no loose parts. Although some BW robot modes suffer from "animal on my back" syndrome, most of them have relatively nice transforms, and the designs are often innovative. Besides, "car on my back" was just as common for the G1 TFs, and most of them were practically statues; an average of maybe 2-4 swivel points compared to BW's _minimum_ of 8, with at least 4 being those super ball-and-socket joints. :) BW toys are divided into four groups based on their size and price. The smallest figures (Rattrap, Terrorsaur, the small leaders) are called Regulars. The next size up, which includes characters like Cheetor, Dinobot, and Tarantulus, is the Deluxe line. Both regulars and deluxes are packaged on cards. The next group, the Megas, currently has three members: Skorponok, Polar Claw, and Inferno. Mega Beasts are packaged in boxes, as are the fourth and largest set, Ultras. The only Ultras (as of this writing) are ape Optimus Primal and t-rex Megatron. 4. What's the TV show like? In the US, Beast Wars airs two days a week (monday and tuesday) on the syndicated program called "Power Block". The other shows on Power Block are ReBoot and Vor*Tech. GI Joe Extreme had occupied the friday spot initially, went MIA, and is now back again. Apparently, they felt the need to show all the new GIJE eps that had been commissioned at least once. *sigh* BW might again become 3-days-a-week, though, so be on the lookout. Power Block airs in most areas on affiliates of Fox, WB, or UPN, but isn't neccesarily limited to those networks. The normal timeslot for Power Block is early morning. In Canada, the program airs on YTV and is called "Beasties" due to a legal difficulty with the word "war" appearing in a children's program / toy name. BW is a fully-rendered, CGI program produced by Alliance Telecommuni- cations. Alliance also makes ReBoot, but that shouldn't fool those who don't like ReBoot: the animation in BW, IMHO, is significantly better. The show's biggest problem is the lack of shadows for the characters. Sometimes shadows show up for a few seconds, but usually there are none. Adding shadows to the characters requires a lot of extra processing time which Alliance usually can't spare. The tracking between between characters' feet and the ground is frequently inconsistant, making them seem to glide along. Shadows would probably make the problem less noticable, but the problem is slowly going away as Alliance gets the hang of making them walk. Watch for lots of nice touches in the program, like soft whirring sounds when the characters move around in robot mode, and robot "blinking" where their illuminated eyes fade out and back in again. The program has moderately complex and interesting plots (quite impressive for a show aimed at 8 to 12 year old boys), inter-ep continuity, and killer fight scenes. The carnage dished out will surprise you. :) The production of a second season is still uncertain. The remaining new episodes for season one are scheduled to air in the US as follows, but the schedule is subject to change: Dark Voyage Jan 27 Possession Feb 3 The Low Road Feb 10 Law of the Jungle Feb 17 Before the Storm Feb 18 Other Voices, Pt.1 Mar 3 Other Voices, Pt.2 Mar 10 5. Is it true that the show's writers read the newsgroup? Yes. At least, two of them do. Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio read att at least occaisionally, and sometimes even post. They have both been extremely cooperative with fans. Between the two of them is the writing credit for nearly all of the first season episodes. Both of them welcome correspondance from fans, but please, do keep it nice. For example, don't send mail complaining about BW as a disgrace to the TF name. Also, keep in mind that as *writers*, they have no control over things like when the program is shown in your area, how frequently new episodes or repeats are broadcast, or if the camera movements in a fight are too jerky. Also, for legal reasons, DO NOT SEND STORY IDEAS to either of them. The addrsses Bob and Larry have given are secondary ones which they don't neccessarily check all the time. For understandable reasons, they are keeping their primary email addresses private. It may take a while to get a response from them, so don't think they're blowing you off if you don't hear back quickly. Mr. DiTillio has been making posts to the ng to answer questions, as well as responding by email. If you have a question, make a post with the subject "LARRYBW", and if he sees it, he will read it. Bob Forward: beastbob1@aol.com Larry DiTillio: ditillio@aol.com Transformers Productions 1045 Howe Street, Suite 710 Vancouver, Canada, B.C. V6Z2A9 6. What's the setting for Beast Wars? Kenner has been intentionally ambiguous about this to make the TV show more interesting, but I can reveal what has already transpired. BW is set some 300 years in the future after the end of the G1 cartoon. In the first episode, the characters state that they were on their way to Earth, but ended up passing through a warp in space-time, meaning that they have no idea where, or when, they now are. In several episodes continental outlines have been visible, and by all indications the planet appears to be a future Earth. However, the presence of a second moon, a complete absence of human life, and enormous quantities of energon make this conclusion about their location suspect. The TV setting is indeed inconsistant with the toys' tech specs, several of which mention humans as if the Beast Wars were going on around us in the present. 7. Why are there two versions of Primal and Megatron? Kenner's original intention was to make both Primal and Megatron triple changers. It was realized later, however, that this would be too complicated at that point in the line's development, and they also wanted to have toys of the leaders to release with the first wave of BW figures. It was decided to put out small bat and lizard toys of Primal and Megs along with the other BW Regulars, but to use the more interesting ape and t-rex designs for the show, with larger toys to be released later. These larger toys are now available. To prevent confusion between forms TransFans sometimes use the following nicknames: Batimus Primal, Megarex, Apetimus Primal. 8. Is there going to be a BW comic book? This is a great mystery. At BotCon '96, Anthony Gaud, the representative from Kenner, said that they were negotiating with Dark Horse Comics about a BW title, and that DHC was very interested in obtaining the rights to it. Until recently it had been assumed that word of a BW comic book would eventually surface, but instead, we were informed by the head honcho of Dark Horse's net.relations that there was no such negotiation going on, and that they hadn't even been approached by Kenner in the first place. He went on to say that unless the company's president was making the deal in secret, without telling anyone else at the company, that there was no deal. For now it appears that all we can do it sit back and hope something starts happening. Don't contact Dark Horse asking about this -- they've already given the newsgroup their answer. 9. What about a BW video game? Sure. How about "a cross between Doom and Street Fighter" for the PlayStation and N64? This is how Anthony Gaud described the game-in- progress at BotCon '96. The game will use the same models as the TV show, which means that the characters will look just like they do on TV, aside from a scaling down of detail and reduction from being fully rendered to polygons. According to M Sipher (msipher@aol.com), who works in the game industry, BW is being developed by a British firm. In the meantime, try the new BW MUSH at "gamenet.worldnetoh.com 2000". 10. What BW stuff can I get for my computer? A Beast Wars desktop theme for Windows95 was created by Thundershot (thundrshot@aol.com) which you can get from the URL "http://www. publishnet.nl/~raiser". Like other Win95 themes, this requires MS Plus. Patrick Dilloway (pdilloway@aol.com) has created a BW Doom WAD that you can get from his web page, "http://users.aol.com/pdilloway/home.html". There are *many* sounds, pictures, and even short movies available on the net as well. Explore the BW web pages and you'll come across them. == IX. Toys =========================== 1. What were the TFs based on? All of the original Transformers were re-released and often recolored versions of older Japanese toys. This is the reason behind the double copyright date on most early TF toys; they were originally copyrighted when first released in Japan, and then again in the US when Hasbro released them. Most of the toys came from one of two lines produced by Takara: Microman and Diaclone. The Minibots and the cassettes were part of the New Microman line, which had the distinction of needing few or no accessories (no missile launchers to lose, no guns to misplace). NM was a sequel to the original Microman line which was imported to the US under the name "Micronauts". The Gun-Robo line which Megatron is from was a subset of NM. Each Microman mold came in a wide array of colors, which partially explains the proliferation of red Bumblebees and yellow Cliffjumpers. On most of the minicars you can easily locate a "M" in the plastic which represented the brand name in Japan. The Diaclone series contained toys which we now recognize as the Autobot cars and Decepticon jets. The Diaclone story was one of humans piloting mecha to fight against evil alien invaders. The toys came with little human figures with magnetic feet which were interchangeable among all the Diaclone toys. This is the reason behind the mysterious "seats" found on so many TFs (including the Insecticons and Dinobots). Optimus Prime was also a Diaclone toy. The generic Diaclone semi truck was called Convoy, and several different trailers were available, including the box container (for OP) and the car-carrier (Ultra Magnus). Some of the other toys came from companies other than Takara. For example, the Deluxe Insecticons were originally Bandai designs. Also made by Bandai was the Jetfire toy, originally a Macross design, and Roadbuster and Whirl which were from a Japanese mecha show called "Armored Trooper Dorvack". With a few exceptions (such as Jetfire), all of the toy robots purchased by Hasbro for their Transformers line were without a well-established background story, cartoon, or comic book. (Diaclone, for example, did have a story to it, but there was no real 'mythos' associated with them.) Working together with some of the people at Takara, Hasbro and Marvel developed a backstory for the Transformers involving two factions of warring robots. John Romita, of Spiderman fame, headed a team of artists who took the toys designs and altered them drastically for portrayal on television. He is responsible for the more human-looking Ironhide and Ratchet that we've become accustomed to, as well as putting actual faces on all the robots rather than visors and faceplates. 2. What's the deal with red/yellow Bumblebee/Cliffjumper? They were both originally from the Microman toyline. In that line, the toys all came in a range of colors, including the ones we know as Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. When Hasbro bought the rights to the toys, they bought some backstock which included both colors. About 1 in every 20 Bumblebee toys sold during the first year was red (and, presumably, the same goes for the yellow CJ). They are, as one would expect, more valuable than the "correct" versions. At BotCon '96, the dealers were trying to sell red BBees for anywhere between $20 and $120. I have both the red and yellow Bumblebees, and call the red one Hornet, saying he's Bumblebee's long-lost brother. :) Aside from Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, there was another similar minibot named "Hubcap" who was released at the same time as the other minibot recolors (eg. Outback, Swerve, Tailgate,...). He was, or at least was supposed to be, yellow. There was another, fourth, TF in this "family" which was sometimes mistakenly packaged as both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper in both colors. Without any real name, this toy is usually referred to as Bumblejumper, or just Bumper. Bumper is much more "boxy" looking than the other three. This is just one example of the many variations on TF toys. Another well-known variation is the metal feet / plastic feet Hot Rod. (I have both of them, too. Hee hee.) For a list of all variations, try out M Sipher's (msipher@aol.com) "That Big Transformers Variations List". 3. Why is Jetfire just like a Robotech Veritech fighter? Technically, it's a Macross Valkyrie, as the Robotech show was a derivative of three separate Anime series: Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada. Hasbro felt that the Autobots were too short on air power, and their search for a cool airplane toy came up with Bandai's Valkyrie. To leave a lot of legal technicalities out, Hasbro and Harmony Gold (who released Robotech in America), as well as a few other companies (like FASA, the makers of Battletech) bought the rights to use that "shape" of robot, and Jetfire was born. There has been some debate on exactly what model of Valkyrie Jetfire is. His body and head match the VF-1S, although there was no VF-1S with Jetfire's coloring in the series. There was a special edition release of Valkyrie toys to accompany "Macross: The Movie", in which Hikaru (Rick Hunter) flew a white VF-1S with red and black trim. Although the colors are Jetfire's, their placement is reversed -- that is, black where Jetfire has red, and red where he has black. The Super Armor for movie edition Valkyries was red but their eye strips were green. Also, Fokker's "skull special" Valkyrie was a VF-1S with black and yellow paint. Change the yellow to red, and paint the nosecone, and you have Jetfire. So, although there are a few close cousins, there was never a Valkyrie that looked /just/ like Jetfire in Macross. Since he was based on a Macross toy, some Jetfires have a small Macross symbol (a circle with a double-winged thingy inside) on one wing along the red stripe. Some toys have this symbol painted on, some have it as a sticker, and some do not have it at all. 4. Was there a Skyfire toy? Despite the occasional rumors that may pop up, neither Hasbro nor Takara ever made a Skyfire figure. However, at BotCon '95 there were several origami TFs on display designed and created by Hirofumi Omichi, which included both Skyfire and Arcee, and they both transformed. These toys weren't *completely* made out of paper -- Omichi used a real Jetfire to build his Skyfire around, and Arcee used parts from several toys, including a Gundam robot. For Skyfire he even made a box, complete with artwork on the front. Also, at BC 96 a Skyfire ActionMaster was entered into the art contest, created by George Hubert Jr. 5. I've got these weird tiny TFs. What are they? Unless they're micromasters, which you could hopefully identify, you've got either Minispies or Decoys. Both were limited-time offers, and were packaged with other TFs. Minispies came first, and were about an inch long. They were the first TFs to have the black rub symbols on them, the point here being that since they were spies, you had to check which side they were really on. Later the rub symbols were put on all TFs to show that they were "real" Transformers and not rip-off ones. Transformer decoys were made later, and were nothing but small rubber statues of various TFs in their robot modes. The Autobot decoys were red, and the Decepticon ones were purple (although there were a few red 'Con decoys, which are worth about 2.5 times more than normal ones). To see Dave Van Domelan's wonderful painted decoys, visit his www page, "http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom". 6. What are those switches on the back of the Jumpstarters' heads for? This switch was actually mentioned in the Jumpstarter instruction books, but as many people never read the instructions, the switch has caused a lot of confusion for some people. For those of you who don't know about Jumpstarters, they were two Autobots with a very simplistic transformation (their legs fold up and they turn into something that's supposed to look like a tank / spaceship kind of thing). However, the cool thing about them is that they had pull-back motors inside them, and when you let them go they would roll for a few feet, and then their spring-loaded legs would suddenly flip back to their robot mode position, and the momentum of this flip would cause the TF to jump off the ground and land standing up in robot mode. The switch in question is a small triangular piece of plastic on the back of their heads (marked with an A and a B) that could be shifted slightly from side to side. The purpose of the switch is to act as a counterweight during the jumping part of their transformation. If your Jumpstarter always falls over to one side when he tries to transform, then you can move the switch over a bit and he'll suddenly grow out of his awkward adolescence and land on his feet every time. As a bonus for those of you that wonder: Yes, the pictures on the tech spec cards for the Jumpstarters were usually messed up. Topspin is the pontoon boat, and Twin Twist is the drill tank. End of story. 7. How many combiners did they make? The combiner or gestalt Transformers were among the most popular of the toys. The first combiner was Devastator. Also, Devastator and Predaking were the only ones made up of characters who were all approximately the same size (with the possible exception of Monstructor -- anyone who can confirm this for me, please do). For all the others, the main body of the gestalt (who was also always the team leader) was significantly larger than the other team members. Predaking was made up of only 5 animals, but because that team was so well designed (Predaking is IMHO the best of the combiners) they were all the same size. One of the reasons for this is that, excluding the two I've just mentioned, all of the G1 gestalt teams were part of a Japanese set called "Scramble City". The point of the Scramble City toys is that any group of robots from any teams can be put together. Every "limb" piece works equally well as an arm or a leg for any of the "body" robots. For information about the origins (according to the TV show timeline) of some of the combiner teams, contact Dairenn Lombard (piero@cyberverse. com). He has a fairly long write up of the Combaticons' origin prepared, and is interested in getting the origins of the other teams as well. Also, many readers may be totally unfamiliar with the Monster Pretenders (the American version of the 'con DinoForce from TF: Victory). If you want to see who they were, they were featured in issue 67 of the US comic (see XI, 5). There were also a large number of other combiner teams which were released in Japan but not in the US. See XIII, 2 for a little more info on them. Here is a list of the gestalts, in the approximate order that they were released (note: the word "Piranha" is misspelled in the name "Piranacon"): Devastator - 6 Constructicons - Hook, Long Haul, Bonecrusher, Scavenger, Mixmaster, Scrapper Superion - 5 Aerialbots - Silverbolt, Slingshot, Air Raid, Skydive, Fireflight - Stunticon counterpart Menasor - 5 Stunticons - Motormaster, Dragstrip, Dead End, Breakdown, Wildrider - Aerialbot counterpart Defensor - 5 Protectobots - Hot Spot, First Aid, Groove, Blades, Streetwise - Combaticon counterpart Bruticus - 5 Combaticons - Onslaught, Blast Off, Swindle, Brawl, Vortex - Protectobot counterpart Predaking - 5 Predacons - Razorclaw, Rampage, Tantrum, Divebomb, Headstrong - extremely cool Computron - 5 Technobots - Scattershot, Strafe, Lightspeed, Nosecone, Afterburner - Terrorcon counterpart Abominus - 5 Terrorcons - Hun-Gurr, Sinnertwin, Blot, Cutthroat, Rippersnapper - Technobot counterpart Piranacon - 6 Seacons - Snaptrap, Seawing, Overbite, Nautilator, Tentakil, Skalor - after making 4 limbs, Piranacon uses the last TF as his gun Monstructor - 6 Monster Pretenders - Birdbrain, Bristleback, Icepick, Scowl, Slog, Wildfly - about the height of Hot Rod and very chunky 8. How many tapes did they make? Overall, there were six Autobot tapes and ten Decep ones released in the US. A list of them follows, deceps first: Buzzsaw - gold condor, came w / Soundwave Laserbeak - red condor Ratbat - purplish bat Ravage - black panther Slugfest - green stegosaurus Overkill - grey / silver tyrannosaur Beastbox - pinkish ape, combines to form Squalkbox Squalktalk - green condor, combines to form Squalkbox Frenzy - blue robot (red in cartoon :P ) Rumble - red robot (blue in cartoon) Grandslam - red tank, combines to form Slamdance Raindance - blue plane, combines to form Slamdance Steeljaw - yellow lion Ramhorn - rust-colored rhino Eject - blue robot Rewind - black robot 9. Did they ever make a Unicron toy? Although there was never a released Unicron toy, Takara did make two prototypes for consideration. The first prototype was small, and when Hasbro USA saw it they did not like it, so Takara made a larger prototype which is a little shorter than Fortress Maximus. The big Unicron also had some sort of a recording of Orson Welles so that it could say 10 phrases in his voice. The larger Uni prototype was on display at BotCon '96. It wasn't a very good-looking toy; in fact, it was pretty ugly, and probably wouldn't have had any play value at all. The voice chip was not functioning at the convention (it may have simply needed batteries). The toy's colors are bland (although apparently this is common for prototypes, and doesn't have a lot to do with the colors of the final toy), his legs are spindly, his body is completely spherical, and his arms are poorly shaped (they become the planet's ring in robot mode -- ack). Presumably, the small prototype looks the same as the large one aside from size. IMHO, making a non-transforming robot mode Unicron would have been a better idea; then at least it could look good. 10. Why have all the TF toys since [pick a time] sucked? It isn't universally agreed upon, but most people tend to think that the TFs decreased in quality in the last few years of G1 production, and never (until recently, and the near future) came out of the slump. First of all, Hasbro switched to making them out of cheap plastic rather than good plastic and metal. Second, the *Master themes got out of control. Every new toy had to have some new gimmick; it wasn't enough to make cars that turned into robots anymore. Part of the TF charm was that they LOOKED like toy cars or toy planes or a real tape player, but also turned into robots. Later toys no longer looked like real things. They had to be futuristic cars, or cars that had people who turned into their head or their gun or their engine. The ActionMasters also took a lot of flak, but like most TFs, deserve to be defended. Yes, they are Transformers that don't transform, and yes, that is kind of stupid. But on the other hand, they actually are pretty nice action figures that added a new dimension to the TF universe. When G2 came around, most of the re-releases were made with bad plastic in ugly colors, but there were a lot of good new toys as well (particularly the Cyberjets and Laser Optimus Prime). The biggest problem with G2 was the tech spec cards; basically all of the personality write-ups and mottos were awful. TF personalities and characterization have always been a strong point of the line, and then they started making characters with mottos like "Want to race?" It was sad, so in response a lot of att'ers took to rewriting G2 tech specs to make them bearable for fanfic purposes. For those who are curious, the reason G2 Megatron is a tank rather than a Walther P-38 pistol is probably that it's no longer PC (or maybe even legal) to sell realistic looking toy guns. The same defenses can be given for Beast Wars. See IV 4 and VIII. 11. What's with Go-Bot Transformers? One of the early G2 Autobots belonging to the water-squirting group was suspiciously named "Gobots". This name is quite ironic, because during the TF's first run, their major competitors were Tonka's GoBots. After Gobots was released, one of the next major Autobot groups was announced, and they were called: Go-Bots. These TFs are the size of Matchbox cars so that you can use them on Matchbox / Hot Wheels tracks. Kendrick (kendrick@io.com) managed to clear up some of the commotion on this matter, however. Apparently Hasbro had bought out Tonka since the last time they went head-to-head with the transforming robots idea, and in a slightly unnecessary effort to prevent other companies from reviving GoBots as a competing line, Hasbro intentionally used the name in the TF line to assert their ownership of the concept, and possibly to gloat a bit on their victory. To prevent confusion on the newsgroup, Tonka GoBots are usually referred to specifically as Tonka GoBots, but also get called various derogatory names. There are a few readers of the group (myself included) that not only don't hate Tonka GoBots, but think they were okay, but we are few. Prepare to be gently chided for standing up for them; Super GoBots excluded. :) 12. What are the G2 Powermasters? In the European G2 line there was a group of four TF's called Powermasters. These had _nothing_ to do with G1 PowerMasters. They had pullback motors in them, sort of like the Throttlebots. Their packaging listed Hasbro's US headquarters, rather than the UK HQ which most foreign-only toys mentioned, so it seems that they were originally intended to be released in the US, but never quite made it. Alt.Toys.Transformers FAQ, Copyright 1997, Steve Stonebraker. (Full legal information is located at the end of Part Two.)^Z From SRSTONEB@CC.OWU.EDU Sat Jan 25 19:53:50 1997 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 (103136.2031@compuserve.com) has all the US episodes with commercials edited out, although some eps are G2 or SciFi versions. Random (sguthri@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 (nc500140@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