June/July fan club news letter

[Dominic]

I hung out with a friend of mine who has a subscription to this published atrocity...and curiosity got the better of me.

Hey, do not judge me. This is the infamous "Nightracer" issue.

There is a feature advertorial talking about this year's BotCon and how great it was if you were there, and by implication how unfortunate you are to have missed it. There is nothing new here that anybody with an internet connection does not already know.

As ever, the meat of the newsletter is the comic. This issue's story picks up after the 2010 comic's G2 story. A handful of characters travel to Nebulous for some reason or another. (Hi-Q has been kidnapped or some such.) The art is on the low side of passable, but would be enough to coast through if the writing were better. Of course, with Wittenrich and Sinclair as the writers, that is simply not going to happen. The last page introduces the Go-Bots (aka "pre-SpyChangers"), including NightRacer.

Nightracer's appearance has angered a small, and increasingly isolated, group of fans from the ATT days. NightRacer of course is the character that Raksha "donated" to BotCon in 1995 (when she was the organizer). Raksha has been quoted by DvD as saying that she did not use her best character for BotCon '95 for fear of having that character ruined. (I would think she would have wanted to bring her A-game and get one of her better characters made official, but whatever....) Nightracer does not do much. But, I anticipate that might change next issue. The other Spychangers seem to include guys who died in the movie. (The WoH timeline that this story is set in rougly assumes that the events of the original movie happend.)

Jhiaxus is completley bastardized. Sinclair and Wittenrich are using Jhiaxus because he was a good character from comics 20+ years ago and he got an obscure toy ~10 years ago. But, they are completely missing all of the things that made Jhiaxus a worthwhile character to begin with. (I suppose this can work on a meta-level. But, that is giving the Fan Club far too much credit.) Truth be told, I prefer IDW's Jhiaxus, even with the blatant 40K rip-off elements.

All things considered, the comics makes Furman's "Re-Generation 1" look good by comparison, and reads more like a "buy the toy" style story than the old pack in comics.

G2 Windbreaker gets a profile that avoids fart jokes, but actually manages to read more like fanfic. Apparently, Windbreaker is a relative of Windcharger (counted as dead in WoH). And, there are several more TFA profiles. (I was not a fan of TFA, and Fun Publications just continues to make me happier about that.)

David Willis has a completely unfunny "Recordicon" strip.


Dom
-next issue is due out soon!

[Onslaught Six]

Who's pissed about it? The only people still on ATT are instead too busy trying to wade through someone impersonating literally everyone who still posts on the group...incessantly. (Check out the group sometime.)

[BWprowl]

Trufax: For the early, introductory years of my Transfandom, I never looked at clear pictures of the guy, just glanced past him, and always just assumed Windbreaker was a repainted, renamed Windcharger in G2. So this retconned alleged relation amuses me somewhat.

I like that I can now officially cite as my least favorite Transformers writer, Transformers website-organizer, webcomic artist, as well as human being in general. I would go to Botcon or Comic-Con to fuck with him...somehow.

[Shockwave]

Y'know, in the couple years I had the membership, I don't think I've ever read through an entire issue of the fan club comic. I mostly just read the articles, tried to read the comic and... just couldn't ever get through them.

[Onslaught Six]

And they're only 22 pages! That's fucking sad.

[Tigermegatron]

I was a TFCC club member to two maybe 3 years. I originally joined because I wanted that Cancelled universe seacons gift set. Needless to say I gave away that seacons gift set to a younger relative as a christmas gift.

While I was a TFCC club member. it was a very un-pleasant experience in the extreme sense of the words. when I was a member the freebie toys were horrible they were focusing on that energon 5-in-1 combiner & dion.

the new letter/comic was pure awful. It was written on extremly light paper that felt like tissue paper. each news letter/comic consisted of 12 pages counting the front & back covers. the first 6 pages felt like they were purposely wasting pages on purpose printing garbage like those badly made up bio/tech specs that were in the Shattered glass universe. the last 6 pages were filled with a comic that had a story that felt like a kid in grammar school wrote. the art wasn't that great it was mediocre at best.

Their was nothing worthwhile as far as getting advanced news in the magazine/comic. nothing beats the internet. The thing that really upset me about the mailed out 6 issues magazine/comic. was that the favorites,volunteers,paid staff got the new issue & posted they got it all over the internet a full 6 weeks before I got my issues. apparently 20+fans got early shipments to make them feel elite/special. another thing TFCC used the cheapest bulk rate post office mail system that took a month+to get the magazine delivered from the west coast to the east coast where I lived.

TFCC use to claim club members were getting a freebie toy each year. but it was a play on words. members were actually paying $40 for the freebie toy via yearly membership dues.

the yearly membership dues did not get you much. members got 6 comics/news letters mailed to their house each year. a freebie toy. accesss to a elite discussion board.

the TFCC membership dues disccussion board was only full of under 15 active members which were all trolls,flame baiters,mean spirted TF fans. most of them were pro-botcon scalpers. this one troll kept saying the TFCC membership comics/news letters were worth their weight in gold & he calculated they were worth over $100 each.

I didn't care for the ruthless/business/scalping pratices that went on with The TFCC/Fub owners & members. So I didn't renew my members.

To add coal to the fire. TFCC/Funpub offered a stay at home botcon gift set worth of toys. but stay at home club members had to pay the same full price that members who went to botcon paid. members who went to botcon paid $330 but this covered their 5+days attendee fees,their autograph fees,they got a freebie attending toy that scalped on ebay for over $75. they $330 paid for their botcon awards dinner that included free food,free beverages/alchol & a free presentation show by hasbro.

Their was a running joke made by the TFCC/FUN Pub staff & members. that Stay at home members who wanted the botcon gift set of toys had to pay $330 full price,to help pay for the convention fees they weren't attending. stay at home members were not allowed to pre-orders those add-on/souvenir botcon toys in those dual plastic bags.

TFCC/Fun pub like to emphasise on making it's paid members feel special by ripping them off with overly priced toys & making them feel like they have elite fandom status.

TFCC is the worse thing to happen to botcon. i'm sure the two hartman brothers cry at night thinking about what TFCC did to their convention.

I suspect the main reason Hasbro doesn't reveal that much newer TF toys/media reveals at botcon. is becaus they dis-approve of TFCC'S RUN BOTCON Convention.

[Dominic]

Who's pissed about it?

I heard references to some of the old guard, such as they are still in the fandom, being annoyed.

Trufax: For the early, introductory years of my Transfandom, I never looked at clear pictures of the guy, just glanced past him, and always just assumed Windbreaker was a repainted, renamed Windcharger in G2. So this retconned alleged relation amuses me somewhat.

In Japan, they were the same guy. But, damn, it just reads like shitty fanfic here.

my least favorite Transformers writer, Transformers website-organizer, webcomic artist, as well as human being in general.

Wow. Why the sudden downgrade? He was no more offensive in this case, (publishing an unfunny and self-indulegent strip) than he has been in the past. Hell, one of the issues that I read over Lewis' last night had an even less funny strip featuring SG Howlback, Garboil and Ratbat that not only ignored established bits about the characters (or maybe showed Willis' lack of understanding for what Howlback and Garboil actually are) but also indulged Willis' "Batman needs to be stupid and funny lololololololol" fetish.

Honestly, I find Yee and Sinclair's writing to be worse, if only by virtue of volume. But, on a personal level, I have a great deal of respect for Yee who is a genuinely good guy. I think that Yee truly wants to write a good comic, but has learned all of the wrong lessons about writing over the years by reading mostly bad comics and watching bad movies. Willis is a self-indulgent and under-talented turd.

Y'know, in the couple years I had the membership, I don't think I've ever read through an entire issue of the fan club comic. I mostly just read the articles, tried to read the comic and... just couldn't ever get through them.

Every issue that I read last night had the same format. Feature advertorial (which as TigMeg points out is mostly outdated by the time it shows up in mailboxes), comics content, character profiles, short subject strips that ranged from possable to terrible.

I read the comics over Lewis', but they belonged to Zab. He said that he brought them because he wanted to see me lose my mind. And, he was rewarded. I yelled myself hoarse and actually had trouble breathing while flipping my lid about Jim Sorenson being a self-indulgent fucktard. Sorenson is arguably more offensive than Furman.

And they're only 22 pages! That's fucking sad.

And, the pages are graphics heavy. They just happen to be exceptionally bad pages. (And, this magazine is billed as an incentive to join the club....)

the new letter/comic was pure awful. It was written on extremly light paper that felt like tissue paper. each news letter/comic consisted of 12 pages counting the front & back covers. the first 6 pages felt like they were purposely wasting pages on purpose printing garbage like those badly made up bio/tech specs that were in the Shattered glass universe. the last 6 pages were filled with a comic that had a story that felt like a kid in grammar school wrote. the art wasn't that great it was mediocre at best.

Thankfully, I have a couple of friends who are members. So, I can have them order exclusives for me while I do not have to deal with that magazine. Oh, my lord, it is terrible.

To be fair though, the paper stock is not as bad as you make it out to be. It is no worse than any other newspaper or magazine.

the yearly membership dues did not get you much. members got 6 comics/news letters mailed to their house each year. a freebie toy. accesss to a elite discussion board.

The toys are the main incentive to join the club. The freebie toys cost as much or more to buy elsewhere as the cost of membership. (And, in some cases, the figures are actually pretty good.) And, membership means that the cost of other club exclusives are slightly less punishing. If I did not have friends who were members, I would likely join. (I do know of one somewhat recognizable fan who refuses to join the club, and buys his figures on eBay, just to avoid giving Savage money directly. He has the money to take a principled, if somewhat nutty, stand on this matter.)

TFCC is the worse thing to happen to botcon. i'm sure the two hartman brothers cry at night thinking about what TFCC did to their convention.

I have heard credible rumours of this through mutual friends I have with the Hartmans.

suspect the main reason Hasbro doesn't reveal that much newer TF toys/media reveals at botcon. is becaus they dis-approve of TFCC'S RUN BOTCON Convention.

It is more a question of BotCon not being a credible enough convention for Hasbro to announce product at when they can do the same thing at a more credible industry show in Chicago, San Diego or New York.

Dom
-at least they cannot fuck up post-G1 "Classics" any more.