Bios: Topspin

"By your will, Alpha Trion"

Something happened to Topspin a long time ago; something he only remembers as pain, and terror, and a landscape of twisted, shifting metal lit by the strobe light chaos of laser fire through rolling smoke. It is the last time Topspin remembers feeling anything.

Eons later he found himself drifting, alone, though the vast darkness. Lost for years, he slowly ran out of energy, and his systems shut down one by one. Eventually, his inert body plunged through a wormhole and ended up on one of the transit pads in Axiom Nexus.

Handed off by processing authorities to Alpha Trion, he awoke to find himself staring into the face of another natural leader. Never before had he met a being with such overwhelming force of personality, or such deep conviction. Here was the leader that would guide him to what he sought.

Alpha Trion saw instantly what Topspin was; after all, he'd been waiting for someone like him since arriving in Axiom Nexus. He saw in Topspin the fruition of all his grand goals, and immediately set his plans into motion. He promised Topspin all he could want and more. Telling the plain truth for perhaps the first time in decades, he told Topspin that the reward he sought for so long waited just beyond the veil of the bleed, on Alpha Trion's home world.

Speciality: The ability to manipulate Transformers sparks
Weapons: Energon plasma weapon: Twin Blasters
Unique Quality: Has the unique ability to move a spark from body to body and can even split a spark into two or more pieces without destroying it.

Two all Bot Patties, Special Plot, Let us See

 

It was the early 2000's and Transformers had been slowly growing from this kids thing with a small adult fan following into a pop culture phenominon. This was years before the live action movies propelled things into the strotosphere and you had Bumblebee on bottles of Mtn Dew. However thanks to places like Hot topic selling shirts with Autobot symbols on them and the then new Dreamwave Transformers comic flying off the shelves, things were growing.

Armada was a much bigger hit than anyone expected, leading to stores demanding more toys faster than they could be produced. Not to mention, the adult fan community was growing now with the internet getting into more homes and connecting people in ways it wasn't before. Repainted toy molds are a common thing in every toy line. However, for the most part, only a handful of Transformers would get a repaint up to this moment. Suddenly Hasbro needed to get more product out.

Toys take longer to develop than you'd think. There's a lot of hands in the pot all working on the same project. Transformers is a toy line with a longer developmental timeline due to the engineering involved. The fastest way to get stores new stuff out ASAP is to reuse existing resources and that's what they did. Practically every toy in Armada was repainted into a new version of the toy. At BotCon 2002, the exclusives bore the new label 'Expanded Universe" similar to Star Wars. Before then, they'd have the current lines logo. The ongoing story line would take place off screen of the current fiction usually with non-show toys serving as characters. 

Expanded Universe toys were still starring in the ongoing convention story line. Honestly it seemed like a good way to brand the convention toys and let those who used them fictionally to place them wherever. Halfway through Armada, something called Transformers Universe happened. It all but replaced the former BotCon, now called OTFCC's storytelling. Now all of their exclusives bore that title instead of Expanded Universe.

Transformers Universe ultimately was a brand new toy line made completely from repainted existing toy molds that sold right next to Armada (later Energon and Cybertron). At the time, Transformers didn't have the standard amount of shelf space most of us are used to. There was an entire 6-8ft section in most stores full of product. It was cool, and maybe a little overwhelming. You might hear the occasional older fandom member say "it used to be about 20 toys a year". It really was, and now there was a ton out seemingly nowhere. Add in things like G1 reissues, odd merchandise that kept popping up, or the cool things going on in Japan like when Robot Masters came out. There was just a ton of stuff!

Lots of stores had exclusive Transformers, mostly under the banner of Transformers Universe. There was a mix of Beast Wars/Machines, Robots in Disguise, Armada, and even older G2 and Machine Wars molds! Want a toy in exciting new colors, here ya go! Miss out on a toy before, well, here's another chance! It was great, and according to the Hasbro Transformers team, they were working on getting Brave molds into the line. Neat! Fictionally, all the Transformers throughout the greater Transformers Multiverse were all brought together inside Unicron. They'd fight to the death while Unicron would feed off the death and anger. OTFCC was directly selling comics to further the story... and that's where this story takes a nose dive.

There's some of you who read the name OTFCC and said 'what?'. Some of us collectively exhale. I've talked about it before, but let's explain it as simple as we can. Prior to Fun Publications BotCon was ran by 3H. 3H was the convention founding Hartman brothers and their friend Glen Hallit. They split up shortly after BotCon 2002. The brothers took the BotCon name with them and Glen continued to run the convention and now fan club named simply 'Official Transformers Collectors Convention/Club' or OTFCC for short. IUp to this point Hasbro supported BotCon, but by 2002, they had secured a license.

OTFCC didn't go as planned. Delays and other issues cause the show to fail and shortly after the 2004 convention the license was taken away from Glen. A little later Fun Publications was the new holder with the Hartmans back on board. Those 3H comics had sporadic releases and the story line ultimately went unfinished due to 3H closing down shop. The toys, however, went strong for a few years before dwindling down in 2005 before living out a few years as a discount store line. As a discount store line, the toys were generally lower cost figures repacked from prior lines such as Energon or Cybertron in a generic Transformers Universe packaging. The name itself got another life years later. What we now call Generations, went through a few names changes initially and was called Universe for a while. 

And just like that, it was forgotten. The Multiverse comes up time and time again and gets used differently in various fictional outlets. The word multiverse gets thrown around a lot lately, that's what inspired me to write this. Some people have outright forgotten about the original Universe or maybe never learned about it depending on their fan experience. Often you'll hear G2 colors either mocked or loved, but the often weird purple's and wine colors used in Universe go by unmentioned. That's a shame, it was fun. I thought so at least, I mean, I just wrote a lot of words talking about it. 

If I were cool

I'll never be involved with any official Transformers fan entity. I'd like to be, I think I could be. I'd like to think I'd do a good job figuring out things like exclusives and fun activities for a convention and stuff. I may be wrong, but I may be right. It's a fun day dream to one day come up with something cool like a fan club exclusive toy. Sure, it looks like they heyday of that sort of thing has passed us by and when it was a thing there was plenty of the same dudes always in those spots. I know, what's to say I'd actually come up with gold ideas. Maybe all my ideas are crap. I'll never know, but I'd like to think I'd be good at it.

I mean, I've been doing this Transformers thing for a long time.

And I still really like it.

Off Camera

One thing that 3H used to do with their fiction, and Fun Publication did initially was base their fiction on non-show characters and generally had their adventures either off to the side of what was going on or little side stories with their exclusives just inserted into what would be a normal episode of the show. Fun Publications eventually got away from it for their own reasons, which probably was due more to the nature of the current product changing often or focus of the series being different (a Generations figure obviously wouldn't pair well with the Animated crew, for example).

Though I generally preferred the side stories better as it was a great way to give these other toys a chance to have adventures (admittedly, there's not much off screen characters anymore on shelves) and really expand on the greater setting. With Transformers seemingly settling into a more cohesive direction (mainline/movie instead of mainline for kids/mainline for adults/movie) I can hope that if there is any fiction from a future (if ever) new fan club or convention, it can be more side stories or extra adventures in the current at time setting. The upcoming Cyberverse cartoon seems perfect to have little adventures set in.

It's pretty much just a generalized Transformers setting, that'd be perfect.

Another if i ran the club post

I'd totally make a Big Bad Beetleborg set of Insecticons if I ran the fan club. If something like this happens, somebodies been reading Zone Base.

If I made official exclusives, it would be Grand

I've said here before some ideas of how I'd run an official Transformers fan club. I never will, but I've often imagined several things I would like to do. With the upcoming Primemasters figures being homages to Pretenders with their decoy shells and similar to TitanMasters with their inner robot Prime mode being basically a Titanmaster head with the face swapped out for a mystic looking plate. So in theory, a Titanmaster would fit inside a decoy shell. If I were somewhat involved in the new fanclub, I'd pitch an exclusive that would be a homage to Grand Maximus.

I'd take a decoy shell that was close enough to Gran Max's Pretender shell (as seen above in that wonderful art), deco it in the colors to really drive home that it's him. His inner robot would be a reuse of the Emissary Titanmaster from Fortress Maximus in appropriate colors. In theory it would either come in a set or by itself as some sort of membership incentive or even a low priced exclusive. Maybe include a neato comic. Now if we were talking a bigger budget exclusive, well I suppose there's the rest of that Fortress Maximus mold that could be used too.

I thought this up in 10 minutes while taking a break from my work just now. I literally do this all the time.

Look what came in the mail today!

No, not one of those 5$ Taco Bell meals

Thanks to Kilby picking me up one at Hascon last weekend, my Titans Return Arcee set came in today. Inside the shipping box was a rolled up poster that I haven't looked at yet, a new RFC staff badge, a Hascon branded can of Play Dough, and of course the Arcee set. Long time Transformers fans know Arcee was made a Headmaster in the Rebirth and we've all heard Don ask for one for over 20 years at BotCon. Titans Return of course being a return to the Headmaster gimmick and well... they actually made the Headmaster Arcee. Arcee is a reuse of the Blurr mold with a new head. The new head is Daniel as a Titanmaster (spelled backwards so they can trademark it) and even resembles his exo suit. Also included with the set is a diecast Titanmaster Ultra Magnus. The box is really neat and not what I expected. I saw images online and just assumed it was a box with the figures inside. If I would have read more, I would have saw it's actually a fancy unfolding contraption that displays the toys, the art, and their collector cards quite nicely when you unfold it. It's a super nice set, and I could happily live with more exclusives packaged in this manner.

Battle City Fever

I was just sitting at my desk working when I decided I should post a picture of Battle Gaia fighting Guard City.

If I was running the fan club, I probably would have tried so many times to make Combiner Wars versions of these two.  I'm excited for the new fan club, I really wish I was helping out with it on some form. 

Weekly Spotlight: OTFCC 2003 Sunstreaker

They can't beat the best.

The complete egotist, Sunstreaker thinks he is the most beautiful masterpiece of Cybertronian design ever built. Loves his sleek styling, slightly contemptuous of his fellow Autobot race cars (particularly his twin Sideswipe). His vanity is matched by a fiercely competitive nature and relentless drive to prove himself the best in the battlefield. In robot mode, the double barreled multi-purpose launcher mounted on his right arm fire dual laser-guided missiles. Launcher also doubles as a melee weapon which can create twin fiery sabers. Shoulder mounted electron-pulse weapons ports are capable of emitting sustained bursts of high-energy electron pulses at 300 bursts/sec.

If I ran the new club

I got this from Party City. 

The year just ended a few hours ago. With it ended the The Official Transformers Collector's Club. Without going on for too long and risking explaining it to someone who already knows, Hasbro has taken the official club and convention license from Fun Publications and everything ended at 12:00am New Year's Day.

So we already know Hasbro intends to roll Transformers and all their other properties into a mega con called Hascon. They did say there is a new fan club coming soon. Personally, I'm more interested in the fan club than the con. Of course being so, I'm really anxious waiting for developments. While waiting for developments, I've pretty much dreamed up how I'd run the new fan club if I was in charge. I'll never be and I'll never get to be more than a member. None the less, I thought of what I'd do and thought it would probably be a good idea to write it all down.

1. There would be a free membership model.

When I would pick up a TF toy and see the TFCC logo on the package, I often wondered how many kids begged their parents to let them join only to feel left out. The old club catered directly to older fans and honestly went too obscure for some members. Sometimes odd fiction or articles would require research for the more casual fan to understand. The free model would be of service to them.

In my mind the club would be web site based and once a member signed in, they would have access to what their membership package would allow.

The free membership would have Transformers news, things like character bios and art, access to a club store, and maybe a schedule of events. This would be adequate for children and more casual fans and not make them feel like they didn't belong.

2. There would be a pay model.

In addition to the basic membership, there would be a paid premium membership. This would give them access to paid benefits that would be of more interest to the more hardcore fan who'd crave more in-depth articles. Interviews with celebrities within the Transformers world. Exclusive fiction such as prose, comics, and character bios. There would be a discount on the club store and exclusive merchandise.

I would offer a membership incentive figure, but it would be a smaller toy to help keep costs down. I would try to keep membership exclusives fairly priced and not have more than a few items a year as to not overwhelm fans who would want to be a completist on club figures. I would try to have a yearly shirt available for sale as well as a printed club annual containing the various articles and fiction from the members section. Because while print isn't as dead as some would lead you to believe, it's not for everyone anymore. I'd imagine some folks would like to get the annual each year, while others wouldn't.

3. Be ran separately from the convention.

Many felt that the existing club was just peripheral to BotCon. While it certainly wouldn't hurt to be involved with the official convention in some way, it would certainly operate independently. This would keep some members from feeling left out of some aspects of the club and allow it to feel more like a fan club in it's own right.

4. Be more community focused.

Fans have get togethers. There are several conventions. There are non Transformers conventions that offer Transformers content. Fans make art. They make custom toys. They get tattoos. They do more than buy. That being said, there would be a community section on the club site where members can showcase their activities. There might even be articles about going to the conventions and stuff. Because it's a club.

Obviously being official, the club wouldn't highlight unofficial products and toys that are sold. However wouldn't make a point to outright damn them. That way they wouldn't ostracize the fans who do participate in those unofficial items and create an unnecessary division. If any fan made a point to poo poo the club for not highlighting the unofficial stuff, then they'd basically just be ignored and not engaged in redundant arguments. An official entity should behave in such ways. While on that subject, personal beliefs would also not be included in the club as much as possible. Because fans are there because they like Transformers and that's all it should be there for.


In all honesty, that's all I got. It's just me fleshing out a daydream and there's more to running an official club than just speculation. There's various legalities and all sorts of operational issues that I haven't ever outright dealt with. I may have a clue, but not all the clues. Anyone can lift a nose towards former license holders, but it takes a certain amount of self righteousness to assume based on your own opinion. So, I can just daydream.

But I suppose there's no harm in that.