User talk:Sabrblade/BotCon 2025 report - Revision history

Sabrblade: /* The comics */ updating URLs

2025-11-07T02:45:44Z

The comics: updating URLs

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:45, 7 November 2025
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	As for the two comics themselves, both of them are short three-page little stories that are very light in tone and meant to be very non-serious, cheeky little stories that are not at all supposed to be taken that seriously. However, I know several of us wiki users on here are still going to take them more seriously than their authors did simply because they involve such things as universal streams and (in the Cliffjumper comic's case) dimension-hopping and history-altering time-travel shenanigans. But let us try to keep in mind that these are just supposed to be fun and cheeky romps, not world-shattering epics. And to try saving everyone here from as many headaches as possible, I personally spoke to both Jesse and Pete at length about some of the nerdier aspects of these stories, thoroughly picking their brains in order to get as clear an understanding as possible about all the geeky multiversal stuff in these stories, since I recall all too well the ''many'' debates regarding universal streams that were had back in the Fun Pub years.		As for the two comics themselves, both of them are short three-page little stories that are very light in tone and meant to be very non-serious, cheeky little stories that are not at all supposed to be taken that seriously. However, I know several of us wiki users on here are still going to take them more seriously than their authors did simply because they involve such things as universal streams and (in the Cliffjumper comic's case) dimension-hopping and history-altering time-travel shenanigans. But let us try to keep in mind that these are just supposed to be fun and cheeky romps, not world-shattering epics. And to try saving everyone here from as many headaches as possible, I personally spoke to both Jesse and Pete at length about some of the nerdier aspects of these stories, thoroughly picking their brains in order to get as clear an understanding as possible about all the geeky multiversal stuff in these stories, since I recall all too well the ''many'' debates regarding universal streams that were had back in the Fun Pub years.

	'''[https://~~dcn~~.imgchest.com/p/9ryd6xrvd7k Here]''' are photographs taken of all three pages of both comics, the on-package backstory text for both, and the action cards. Please read them before proceeding to the following sections.		'''[https://www.imgchest.com/p/9ryd6xrvd7k Here]''' are photographs taken of all three pages of both comics, the on-package backstory text for both, and the action cards. Please read them before proceeding to the following sections.

	Also released at the convention was a '''[https://~~dcn~~.imgchest.com/p/dl7pdvpzk7o 5-page advertisement]''' for the Cliffjumper toy and comic that was published in the convention's program guide, but after talking with some of the organizers, this ad is NOT something we have to cover since it was merely made as a fun little advert and did '''''not''''' go through Hasbro like the toys and comics did.		Also released at the convention was a '''[https://www.imgchest.com/p/dl7pdvpzk7o 5-page advertisement]''' for the Cliffjumper toy and comic that was published in the convention's program guide, but after talking with some of the organizers, this ad is NOT something we have to cover since it was merely made as a fun little advert and did '''''not''''' go through Hasbro like the toys and comics did.

	Creator commentary for each of them is provided below.		Creator commentary for each of them is provided below.

Cylasbreakdown: /* Comments section */

2025-07-09T07:44:51Z

Comments section

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:44, 9 July 2025
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	Seems it's already heading this way but I do think she should have her own article, in the same vein of the ROTB Wheeljack split: While she does take up the name and even usurps G1 Cliffjumper, she was conceived as a separate character from him. As for the disamb name, I think "(Yolopark)" or "(BotCon)" are fine? I don't know what traditionally gets used for such situations (if there have been any before). "(Ladybug)" may be a stretch since it's not a name she's officially associated with now. Or a goofy option would be to name the page "''The'' Cliffjumper" since that's what she's trying to be. —[[User:BluJayWarrior\|BluJayWarrior]] ([[User talk:BluJayWarrior\|talk]]) 17:55, 18 June 2025 (EDT)		Seems it's already heading this way but I do think she should have her own article, in the same vein of the ROTB Wheeljack split: While she does take up the name and even usurps G1 Cliffjumper, she was conceived as a separate character from him. As for the disamb name, I think "(Yolopark)" or "(BotCon)" are fine? I don't know what traditionally gets used for such situations (if there have been any before). "(Ladybug)" may be a stretch since it's not a name she's officially associated with now. Or a goofy option would be to name the page "''The'' Cliffjumper" since that's what she's trying to be. —[[User:BluJayWarrior\|BluJayWarrior]] ([[User talk:BluJayWarrior\|talk]]) 17:55, 18 June 2025 (EDT)

			Isn’t the purpose of the Apocrypha tag for these edge cases? I’d say the script reading is in the same vein as [[Alignment]] or the [[Trial of Megatron, Part 1\|Trial of Megatron]]. [[User:Cylasbreakdown\|Cylasbreakdown]] ([[User talk:Cylasbreakdown\|talk]]) 03:44, 9 July 2025 (EDT)

Sabrblade: /* The comics */

2025-07-07T17:47:41Z

The comics

Show changes

Sabrblade: /* The name change */

2025-07-07T17:21:27Z

The name change

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:21, 7 July 2025
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	Now, BotCon has been around since 1994, and up until 2002, it technically wasn't an "official" event. The exclusive toys and fiction of those years were official, and Hasbro did have an onsite presence at those years' BotCons, but the events themselves weren't actually licensed conventions during those years. It wasn't until 2002 that they had actually "put a ring on it" and made BotCon an "officially official" event, with Hasbro finally and formally giving BotCon an official event license for the convention. This continued into the OTFCC years in 2003 and 2004, and when Fun Publications took over from 2005–2016, it was formally "BotCon: The Official Transformers Collectors Convention". But now, in this "post-official" era of BotCon, we here at TFWiki.Net now refer to BotCon as an "unofficial" convention, to distinguish it from the likes of Hasbro PulseCon and Cybertron Con, which currently ''are'' considered "official" convention events. I even got to talk with both Hany and Derek all about this, and explained to them at length how there have been discussions about the terminology we use here on the wiki to refer to conventions not directly endorsed or hosted by Hasbro. Thus, once Ladybug's wiki page was first created on here, the word "unofficial" was used to refer to the mention of BotCon 2025 as an "unofficial" BotCon on Ladybug's page.		Now, BotCon has been around since 1994, and up until 2002, it technically wasn't an "official" event. The exclusive toys and fiction of those years were official, and Hasbro did have an onsite presence at those years' BotCons, but the events themselves weren't actually licensed conventions during those years. It wasn't until 2002 that they had actually "put a ring on it" and made BotCon an "officially official" event, with Hasbro finally and formally giving BotCon an official event license for the convention. This continued into the OTFCC years in 2003 and 2004, and when Fun Publications took over from 2005–2016, it was formally "BotCon: The Official Transformers Collectors Convention". But now, in this "post-official" era of BotCon, we here at TFWiki.Net now refer to BotCon as an "unofficial" convention, to distinguish it from the likes of Hasbro PulseCon and Cybertron Con, which currently ''are'' considered "official" convention events. I even got to talk with both Hany and Derek all about this, and explained to them at length how there have been discussions about the terminology we use here on the wiki to refer to conventions not directly endorsed or hosted by Hasbro. Thus, once Ladybug's wiki page was first created on here, the word "unofficial" was used to refer to the mention of BotCon 2025 as an "unofficial" BotCon on Ladybug's page.

	However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day ~~any~~ age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.		However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day and age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.

	Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released have all been based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.		Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released have all been based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.
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	That's right. '''''WE''''' brought this about. '''''WE''''' made it happen. This is the biggest "egg on our face" case of TFWiki-induced circular reporting since dimension-hopper Sideways. This was all '''''OUR''''' doing. All because of our business-as-usual use of the word "Unofficial". The sheer unexpected irony that this great big kerfuffle is all. On. '''''US'''''... That is hilarious.		That's right. '''''WE''''' brought this about. '''''WE''''' made it happen. This is the biggest "egg on our face" case of TFWiki-induced circular reporting since dimension-hopper Sideways. This was all '''''OUR''''' doing. All because of our business-as-usual use of the word "Unofficial". The sheer unexpected irony that this great big kerfuffle is all. On. '''''US'''''... That is hilarious.

	This is why Jesse reached out to Jim earlier this year asking us about changing the word "unofficial" on both Ladybug's page and the Unofficial Conventions page, because Hasbro took enough issue with that word that they forced the character's name to be changed to "Cliffjumper". In our defense, we had no way of knowing what all was going on behind the scenes at the time, and couldn't have known that our use of that word would have such major repercussions on this situation. But what's done is done, so now we have a new female Cliffjumper who used to ''not'' be Cliffjumper but now she is (in both the real world and the fictional world). And as for why they simply didn't go with the name "Stinger" instead of "Ladybug" back before this whole mess happened, Jesse did suggest it early on in the conceptual phase, but Pete really doesn't like Stinger or his name all that well, and they really wanted to create something completely new, an all-new character with her own unique name never before used in ''Transformers'', in the vein of the original characters created by BotCon back during the ''Beast Wars'' years before they started making toys of established characters.		''This'' is why Jesse reached out to Jim earlier this year asking us about changing the word "unofficial" on both Ladybug's page and the Unofficial Conventions page, because Hasbro took enough issue with that word that they forced the character's name to be changed to "Cliffjumper". In our defense, we had no way of knowing what all was going on behind the scenes at the time, and couldn't have known that our use of that word would have such major repercussions on this situation. But what's done is done, so now we have a new female Cliffjumper who used to ''not'' be Cliffjumper but now she is (in both the real world and the fictional world). And as for why they simply didn't go with the name "Stinger" instead of "Ladybug" back before this whole mess happened, Jesse did suggest it early on in the conceptual phase, but Pete really doesn't like Stinger or his name all that well, and they really wanted to create something completely new, an all-new character with her own unique name never before used in ''Transformers'', in the vein of the original characters created by BotCon back during the ''Beast Wars'' years before they started making toys of established characters.

	Full disclosure, this is no real shade thrown at us or the wiki. They consider TFWiki.Net to be an excellent site and "the greatest resource of all fandoms." It's just funny how our use of the word "unofficial" created an issue that ultimately kickstarted the creation of new official BotCon fiction, sooner than later. In hindsight, they honestly are grateful and amusingly appreciate that the wiki's use of the word "unofficial" inadvertently created a bunch of new opportunities for BotCon. There are no regrets. They are ''thrilled'' that Ladybug was nixed to make way for Cliffjumper because of how it's opened up some other opportunities and ideas that they can now do with some other stuff. Though, Hany does wish we would use a different word instead.		Full disclosure, this is no real shade thrown at us or the wiki. They consider TFWiki.Net to be an excellent site and "the greatest resource of all fandoms." It's just funny how our use of the word "unofficial" created an issue that ultimately kickstarted the creation of new official BotCon fiction, sooner than later. In hindsight, they honestly are grateful and amusingly appreciate that the wiki's use of the word "unofficial" inadvertently created a bunch of new opportunities for BotCon. There are no regrets. They are ''thrilled'' that Ladybug was nixed to make way for Cliffjumper because of how it's opened up some other opportunities and ideas that they can now do with some other stuff. Though, Hany does wish we would use a different word instead.

Sabrblade: /* The name change */

2025-06-23T03:52:15Z

The name change

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:52, 23 June 2025
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	Once they had the name Ladybug picked out, it was approved, everything was approved, by Hasbro. Which was no small feat, considering that it was a new female character with a very cute-sounding name in a toy brand that has historically been aimed primarily at young boys. To give an example of how tricky it can be to get Hasbro's approval on things like this, back during ''Robots in Disguise'' in 2015, Fun Publications had wanted to make a new toy of Fangry as a redeco of the Warrior class Steeljaw toy. But the Hasbro marketing team at the time wouldn't allow it because the toy would have been primarily colored pinkish-purple, since Fangry is a pinkish-purple character. At the time, Hasbro had made the marketing decision of "We don't do pinkish-purple toys for boys." There were certain colors that they just didn't market to boys or to girls. It's a market research thing. They've proven things for mainstream toys that do not sell well for certain demographics. Of course, a lot of girls also collect ''Transformers'' toys and most of this is very old-school thinking, but this thinking was still in effect back during 2015, so Fun Pub couldn't make Fangry just because he was pinkish-purple. Anyway, after they had Ladybug all approved, a painted test shot of her Yolopark toy was unveiled online for all to see. And very shortly after this initial unveiling, TFWiki went ahead and made a new character page for her.		Once they had the name Ladybug picked out, it was approved, everything was approved, by Hasbro. Which was no small feat, considering that it was a new female character with a very cute-sounding name in a toy brand that has historically been aimed primarily at young boys. To give an example of how tricky it can be to get Hasbro's approval on things like this, back during ''Robots in Disguise'' in 2015, Fun Publications had wanted to make a new toy of Fangry as a redeco of the Warrior class Steeljaw toy. But the Hasbro marketing team at the time wouldn't allow it because the toy would have been primarily colored pinkish-purple, since Fangry is a pinkish-purple character. At the time, Hasbro had made the marketing decision of "We don't do pinkish-purple toys for boys." There were certain colors that they just didn't market to boys or to girls. It's a market research thing. They've proven things for mainstream toys that do not sell well for certain demographics. Of course, a lot of girls also collect ''Transformers'' toys and most of this is very old-school thinking, but this thinking was still in effect back during 2015, so Fun Pub couldn't make Fangry just because he was pinkish-purple. Anyway, after they had Ladybug all approved, a painted test shot of her Yolopark toy was unveiled online for all to see. And very shortly after this initial unveiling, TFWiki went ahead and made a new character page for her.

	Now, BotCon has been around since 1994, and up until 2002, it technically wasn't an "official" event. The exclusive toys and fiction of those years were official, and Hasbro did have an onsite presence at those years' BotCons, but the events themselves weren't actually licensed conventions during those years. It wasn't until 2002 that they had actually "put of a ring on it" and made BotCon an "officially official" event, with Hasbro finally and formally giving BotCon an official event license for the convention. This continued into the OTFCC years in 2003 and 2004, and when Fun Publications took over from 2005–2016, it was formally "BotCon: The Official Transformers Collectors Convention". But now, in this "post-official" era of BotCon, we here at TFWiki.Net now refer to BotCon as an "unofficial" convention, to distinguish it from the likes of Hasbro PulseCon and Cybertron Con, which currently ''are'' considered "official" convention events. I even got to talk with both Hany and Derek all about this, and explained to ~~him~~ at length how there have been discussions about the terminology we use here on the wiki to refer to conventions not directly endorsed or hosted by Hasbro. Thus, once Ladybug's wiki page was first created on here, the word "unofficial" was used to refer to the mention of BotCon 2025 as an "unofficial" BotCon on Ladybug's page.		Now, BotCon has been around since 1994, and up until 2002, it technically wasn't an "official" event. The exclusive toys and fiction of those years were official, and Hasbro did have an onsite presence at those years' BotCons, but the events themselves weren't actually licensed conventions during those years. It wasn't until 2002 that they had actually "put a ring on it" and made BotCon an "officially official" event, with Hasbro finally and formally giving BotCon an official event license for the convention. This continued into the OTFCC years in 2003 and 2004, and when Fun Publications took over from 2005–2016, it was formally "BotCon: The Official Transformers Collectors Convention". But now, in this "post-official" era of BotCon, we here at TFWiki.Net now refer to BotCon as an "unofficial" convention, to distinguish it from the likes of Hasbro PulseCon and Cybertron Con, which currently ''are'' considered "official" convention events. I even got to talk with both Hany and Derek all about this, and explained to them at length how there have been discussions about the terminology we use here on the wiki to refer to conventions not directly endorsed or hosted by Hasbro. Thus, once Ladybug's wiki page was first created on here, the word "unofficial" was used to refer to the mention of BotCon 2025 as an "unofficial" BotCon on Ladybug's page.

	However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day any age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words ~~that~~ they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.		However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day any age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.

	Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released ~~are~~ all based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.		Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released have all been based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.

	With this misunderstanding in mind, Hasbro was like, "Well, we can't put out an unofficial toy. We can't do unofficial toys." And the folks at BotCon tried to explain the misunderstanding to Hasbro and convince them to let them keep the character as Ladybug. But this was one of those cases where this Hasbro person had something like 80 other projects going on in their mind, so they weren't fully listening and were like, "Oh, no no no, it's fine. It said 'unofficial'. Let's just go move on with another name." So, much to their dismay, they suggested a few other potential names (one of which was "Volks") before Hasbro decided, "Well, we just want to keep it simple. We don't want to confuse anything. Let's go with 'Cliffjumper'."		With this misunderstanding in mind, Hasbro was like, "Well, we can't put out an unofficial toy. We can't do unofficial toys." And the folks at BotCon tried to explain the misunderstanding to Hasbro and convince them to let them keep the character as Ladybug. But this was one of those cases where this Hasbro person had something like 80 other projects going on in their mind, so they weren't fully listening and were like, "Oh, no no no, it's fine. It said 'unofficial'. Let's just go move on with another name." So, much to their dismay, they suggested a few other potential names (one of which was "Volks") before Hasbro decided, "Well, we just want to keep it simple. We don't want to confuse anything. Let's go with 'Cliffjumper'."

Sabrblade at 03:39, 23 June 2025

2025-06-23T03:39:23Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:39, 23 June 2025
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	When first unveiled, the Cliffjumper toy was originally presented as a brand-new female Decepticon character named "Ladybug", and was all set to be released as such. However, a situation arose behind the scenes that forced the "Ladybug" name to be changed to "Cliffjumper", complete with the toy's Decepticon allegiance changed to an Autobot one. No explanation was given prior to the convention, but many fans were unhappy with the change and speculations ran rampant for why this happened. Surprisingly, it had absolutely nothing to do with trademark issues.		When first unveiled, the Cliffjumper toy was originally presented as a brand-new female Decepticon character named "Ladybug", and was all set to be released as such. However, a situation arose behind the scenes that forced the "Ladybug" name to be changed to "Cliffjumper", complete with the toy's Decepticon allegiance changed to an Autobot one. No explanation was given prior to the convention, but many fans were unhappy with the change and speculations ran rampant for why this happened. Surprisingly, it had absolutely nothing to do with trademark issues.

	Three panels discussing this ~~both~~ name change and the two pack-in comics were held at BotCon 2025. The first was held at 8:00pm on Friday, June 13, hosted by the writer of the Cliffjumper comic, Pete Sinclair. The second was held at 3:30pm on Saturday, June 14, hosted by the writer of the Soundblaster & Glyph comic, Jesse Wittenrich (now "Jesse Wittnoto", having changed his name since he got married, but still uses "Jesse Wittenrich" as his credited name). The third panel was the final panel of the weekend, held at 1:00pm on Sunday, June 15, hosted by lead organizer/showrunner and Agabyss head Hany Agaby, as well as active Agabyss member Derek Bigesby (this was not a panel dedicated to the comics like the other two were, the Ladybug situation was merely brought up again during the Q&A session and explained even further by Hany).		Three panels discussing both this name change and the two pack-in comics were held at BotCon 2025. The first was held at 8:00pm on Friday, June 13, hosted by the writer of the Cliffjumper comic, Pete Sinclair. The second was held at 3:30pm on Saturday, June 14, hosted by the writer of the Soundblaster & Glyph comic, Jesse Wittenrich (now "Jesse Wittnoto", having changed his name since he got married, but still uses "Jesse Wittenrich" as his credited name). The third panel was the final panel of the weekend, held at 1:00pm on Sunday, June 15, hosted by lead organizer/showrunner and Agabyss head Hany Agaby, as well as active Agabyss member Derek Bigesby (this was not a panel dedicated to the comics like the other two were, the Ladybug situation was merely brought up again during the Q&A session and explained even further by Hany).

	I, Sabrblade, was in attendance of BotCon this year and was determined to investigate as much as I could about the situation with the Ladybug-to-Cliffjumper change and the true officialness of the new BotCon fiction released this year. After an exhaustingly long weekend of taking diligent notes and documentation at the above panels, as well as speaking at length with all four individuals mentioned above (Hany, Derek, Jesse, and Pete), I have compiled together everything regarding this situation that I learned ~~about~~ during my stay at BotCon 2025 all into this comprehensive report written for posterity, in order to create as complete a picture as possible for TFWiki.Net.		I, Sabrblade, was in attendance of BotCon this year and was determined to investigate as much as I could about the situation with the Ladybug-to-Cliffjumper change and the true officialness of the new BotCon fiction released this year. After an exhaustingly long weekend of taking diligent notes and documentation at the above panels, as well as speaking at length with all four individuals mentioned above (Hany, Derek, Jesse, and Pete), I have compiled together everything regarding this situation that I learned during my stay at BotCon 2025 all into this comprehensive report written for posterity, in order to create as complete a picture as possible for TFWiki.Net.

	Strap yourselves in for a whirlwind adventure involving such topics as universal streams, circular reporting, Pete's creative input, multiversal shenanigans, and so much more. This is sure to be a wild ride!		Strap yourselves in for a whirlwind adventure involving such topics as universal streams, circular reporting, Pete's creative input, multiversal shenanigans, and so much more. This is sure to be a wild ride!

Sabrblade: /* A Cliffjumper(s) Tale */

2025-06-21T03:36:00Z

A Cliffjumper(s) Tale

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:36, 21 June 2025
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	*The entire second page has a layout error with either every single dialogue bubble and caption box being printed higher up the page than they were intended to be, or all of the panel art being printed about a centimeter lower down the page than it was supposed to be. This resulted in such things as there being a large empty whitespace at the top of the page that serves no real purpose, the universal stream caption boxes all being printed in the panels above the ones they were intended to be printed in, and some of the dialogue bubbles obscuring some parts of the artwork that were supposed to be visible (like Lady Cliffjumper's face in Panel 2). A corrected version of the page was shown in a presentation at the 8:00pm panel on Friday, and the hope is to get the comic reprinted with the correction at some later point.		*The entire second page has a layout error with either every single dialogue bubble and caption box being printed higher up the page than they were intended to be, or all of the panel art being printed about a centimeter lower down the page than it was supposed to be. This resulted in such things as there being a large empty whitespace at the top of the page that serves no real purpose, the universal stream caption boxes all being printed in the panels above the ones they were intended to be printed in, and some of the dialogue bubbles obscuring some parts of the artwork that were supposed to be visible (like Lady Cliffjumper's face in Panel 2). A corrected version of the page was shown in a presentation at the 8:00pm panel on Friday, and the hope is to get the comic reprinted with the correction at some later point.
	*When scanning the mutliverse for other Cliffjumpers, Lady Cliffjumper finding 99.98% of all other Cliffjumpers having died in those other universes is another meta joke about how Cliffjumper kept getting killed off in a lot of 2010s fiction.		*When scanning the mutliverse for other Cliffjumpers, Lady Cliffjumper finding 99.98% of all other Cliffjumpers having died in those other universes is another meta joke about how Cliffjumper kept getting killed off in a lot of 2010s fiction.
	*The censored "What the #%!&???" is a ''Deadpool'' reference.		*The censored "What the #%!&???" is <s>a ''Deadpool'' reference.</s> a reference to the Chris Evans scene from ''Free Guy''. (the wrong Ryan Reynolds movie was mentioned at the panel)
	*The time between Lady Cliffjumper scanning the multiverse and her decision to save all the other Cliffjumpers instead of killing them is meant to be either 10-15 days or 10-15 hours.		*The time between Lady Cliffjumper scanning the multiverse and her decision to save all the other Cliffjumpers instead of killing them is meant to be either 10-15 days or 10-15 hours.
	*Uniend 911.05 Alpha is the ''Transformers: Prime'' cartoon, first mentioned in The Complete AllSpark Almanac. Now, by saving ''Prime'' Cliffjumper from his death in the first episode, this would naturally change of the course of history for that cartoon, creating a new splinter timeline stream in the process per how the streams were used in things like the Ask Vector Prime Facebook. When discussing with Pete the time-travel logic of this story, he was mainly inspired by the time travel mechanics seen in ''The Butterfly Effect'', ''Back to the Future'', and the Marvel UK G1 comic story "Time Wars", which all instead used self-correcting timelines that overrode and rewrote the histories of the original timelines. But, this is just his authorial intent, so we don't have to interpret it this way and are free to instead think of this as a new splinter reality being created while the original ''TF: Prime'' cartoon remains unaffected. Remember, Pete didn't think that deeply about this since it's just supposed to be a cheeky little non-serious story.		*Uniend 911.05 Alpha is the ''Transformers: Prime'' cartoon, first mentioned in The Complete AllSpark Almanac. Now, by saving ''Prime'' Cliffjumper from his death in the first episode, this would naturally change of the course of history for that cartoon, creating a new splinter timeline stream in the process per how the streams were used in things like the Ask Vector Prime Facebook. When discussing with Pete the time-travel logic of this story, he was mainly inspired by the time travel mechanics seen in ''The Butterfly Effect'', ''Back to the Future'', and the Marvel UK G1 comic story "Time Wars", which all instead used self-correcting timelines that overrode and rewrote the histories of the original timelines. But, this is just his authorial intent, so we don't have to interpret it this way and are free to instead think of this as a new splinter reality being created while the original ''TF: Prime'' cartoon remains unaffected. Remember, Pete didn't think that deeply about this since it's just supposed to be a cheeky little non-serious story.

Sabrblade: /* Cliffjumper herself */

2025-06-19T15:14:28Z

Cliffjumper herself

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:14, 19 June 2025
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	The script reading, meanwhile, has a scene where Goldbug affectionately refers to her as "Cliffjumper, my favorite ladybug," a nickname that she finds irksome and wants Goldbug to stop calling her that. The script reading also has an obvious callback to her backstory in the comic that jokingly acknowledges her having been a Decepticon from another universe, phrased to begin with the words "It's not like you're a..." And she deliberately abstains from confirming (or denying) that statement, all in a firmly tongue-in-cheek fashion typical to these convention script readings. And the rest of the story didn't press the issue any further.		The script reading, meanwhile, has a scene where Goldbug affectionately refers to her as "Cliffjumper, my favorite ladybug," a nickname that she finds irksome and wants Goldbug to stop calling her that. The script reading also has an obvious callback to her backstory in the comic that jokingly acknowledges her having been a Decepticon from another universe, phrased to begin with the words "It's not like you're a..." And she deliberately abstains from confirming (or denying) that statement, all in a firmly tongue-in-cheek fashion typical to these convention script readings. And the rest of the story didn't press the issue any further.

	(And we certainly can't use "Lady Cliffjumper" as that nickname is purely an invention of my own making, created strictly for this report.)		(And we certainly can't use "Lady Cliffjumper" as that nickname is purely an invention of my own making, created strictly for this report.) '''EDIT:''' Turns out the name "Lady Cliffjumper" actually DOES appear [https://twitter.com/JesseWittenrich/status/1935695471118565862 on the back of the toy's box written in Cybertronian text]! I completely overlooked that when I came up with that nickname for her!

	The way I see it, we have a few options to explore:		The way I see it, we have a few options to explore:

Sabrblade: /* The name change */

2025-06-19T00:10:30Z

The name change

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:10, 19 June 2025
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	However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day any age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words that they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.		However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day any age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words that they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.

	Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released are all based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see ~~its~~ use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.		Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released are all based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.

	With this misunderstanding in mind, Hasbro was like, "Well, we can't put out an unofficial toy. We can't do unofficial toys." And the folks at BotCon tried to explain the misunderstanding to Hasbro and convince them to let them keep the character as Ladybug. But this was one of those cases where this Hasbro person had something like 80 other projects going on in their mind, so they weren't fully listening and were like, "Oh, no no no, it's fine. It said 'unofficial'. Let's just go move on with another name." So, much to their dismay, they suggested a few other potential names (one of which was "Volks") before Hasbro decided, "Well, we just want to keep it simple. We don't want to confuse anything. Let's go with 'Cliffjumper'."		With this misunderstanding in mind, Hasbro was like, "Well, we can't put out an unofficial toy. We can't do unofficial toys." And the folks at BotCon tried to explain the misunderstanding to Hasbro and convince them to let them keep the character as Ladybug. But this was one of those cases where this Hasbro person had something like 80 other projects going on in their mind, so they weren't fully listening and were like, "Oh, no no no, it's fine. It said 'unofficial'. Let's just go move on with another name." So, much to their dismay, they suggested a few other potential names (one of which was "Volks") before Hasbro decided, "Well, we just want to keep it simple. We don't want to confuse anything. Let's go with 'Cliffjumper'."

Sabrblade at 23:46, 18 June 2025

2025-06-18T23:46:04Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:46, 18 June 2025
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	Now, BotCon has been around since 1994, and up until 2002, it technically wasn't an "official" event. The exclusive toys and fiction of those years were official, and Hasbro did have an onsite presence at those years' BotCons, but the events themselves weren't actually licensed conventions during those years. It wasn't until 2002 that they had actually "put of a ring on it" and made BotCon an "officially official" event, with Hasbro finally and formally giving BotCon an official event license for the convention. This continued into the OTFCC years in 2003 and 2004, and when Fun Publications took over from 2005–2016, it was formally "BotCon: The Official Transformers Collectors Convention". But now, in this "post-official" era of BotCon, we here at TFWiki.Net now refer to BotCon as an "unofficial" convention, to distinguish it from the likes of Hasbro PulseCon and Cybertron Con, which currently ''are'' considered "official" convention events. I even got to talk with both Hany and Derek all about this, and explained to him at length how there have been discussions about the terminology we use here on the wiki to refer to conventions not directly endorsed or hosted by Hasbro. Thus, once Ladybug's wiki page was first created on here, the word "unofficial" was used to refer to the mention of BotCon 2025 as an "unofficial" BotCon on Ladybug's page.		Now, BotCon has been around since 1994, and up until 2002, it technically wasn't an "official" event. The exclusive toys and fiction of those years were official, and Hasbro did have an onsite presence at those years' BotCons, but the events themselves weren't actually licensed conventions during those years. It wasn't until 2002 that they had actually "put of a ring on it" and made BotCon an "officially official" event, with Hasbro finally and formally giving BotCon an official event license for the convention. This continued into the OTFCC years in 2003 and 2004, and when Fun Publications took over from 2005–2016, it was formally "BotCon: The Official Transformers Collectors Convention". But now, in this "post-official" era of BotCon, we here at TFWiki.Net now refer to BotCon as an "unofficial" convention, to distinguish it from the likes of Hasbro PulseCon and Cybertron Con, which currently ''are'' considered "official" convention events. I even got to talk with both Hany and Derek all about this, and explained to him at length how there have been discussions about the terminology we use here on the wiki to refer to conventions not directly endorsed or hosted by Hasbro. Thus, once Ladybug's wiki page was first created on here, the word "unofficial" was used to refer to the mention of BotCon 2025 as an "unofficial" BotCon on Ladybug's page.

	However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day any age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words that they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.		However, as we shall soon learn, people in this day any age have to be careful about the words that they use, and companies have to be more careful about the words that they see in use. Since the word "unofficial" was on the TFWiki page for Ladybug, regardless of the fact that it was being used in a specific context that referred only to BotCon 2025 itself and not at all to Ladybug herself, someone from Hasbro (apparently from their legal department) saw the word "unofficial" on Ladybug's page and either misunderstood or just flat out ignored the specific context of how it was being used. They saw the word and wrongfully made a connection between "unofficial" and Ladybug herself, leading them to believe that Ladybug herself was unofficial. Like a preexisting fanmade concept instead of something completely new that BotCon had more recently come up with all on their own.

	Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released are all based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see its use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.		Further unhelpful to this was the fact that there was no existing red Decepticon Bumblebee toy named "Ladybug" that this Yolopark figure was based on. Since all of the other kits Yolopark has released are all based on preexisting ''Transformers'' toy characters, Hasbro assumed that this Ladybug figure would follow suit, failing to realize that this was supposed to be a brand new character making her world debut. Thus, Hasbro was like, "We technically don't have a Ladybug figure, so let's scale that back." Likewise, on Ladybug's wiki page was the character artwork by the artist who was hired to create said artwork for the toy's packaging. The artwork had been uploaded to be the page's mainpic, but which was done well in advance of the convention, ''before'' the artwork would first see its use in an official capacity. The person from Hasbro saw that artwork and, having seen the word "unofficial" on the page, mistook it for fanart, further leading them to believe that this female Decepticon red Bumblebee named "Ladybug" that BotCon was wanting to make a toy of was some fan-created OC that originated from the online fandom, instead of an entirely new character conceptualized by BotCon.