Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club (magazine)

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Revision as of 14:29, 4 March 2018 by The Wadapan (talk | contribs) (I know some profiles here weren't from the magazine but the whole situation with "throw all the profiles on the page" was messed-up from the start, and if there's no-where else to put them...)
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Combined cover of the five limited collected editions of the TFCC magazine.

As part of the official fan club, license-holder Fun Publications published a bi-monthly magazine titled the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club from 2005 to 2016. The magazine included stories, interviews, previews of upcoming toys, fan art, character bios and comics. Some issues also included a one-page tie-in prologue or comic to upcoming Timelines text stories.

Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issues:
2005 Balancing Act 2006 Revelations
#01 | #02 | #03 | #04 | #05 | #06 #07 | #08 | #09 | #10 | #11 | #12
2007 Crossing Over 2008 Transcendent
#13 | #14 | #15 | #16 | #17 | #18 #19 | #20 | #21 | #22 | #23 | #24
2009 Reunification 2010 The Coming Storm
#25 | #26 | #27 | #28 | #29 | #30 #31 | #32 | #33 | #34 | #35 | #36
2011 Battle Lines 2012 A Flash Forward
#37 | #38 | #39 | #40 | #41 | #42 #43 | #44 | #45 | #46 | #47 | #48
2013 Beast Wars Shattered Glass 2014 Alone Together
#49 | #50 | #51 | #52 | #53 | #54 #55 | #56 | #57 | #58 | #59 | #60
2015 Another Light 2016 Of Masters and Mayhem
#61 | #62 | #63 | #64 | #65 | #66 #67 | #68 | #69 | #70 | #71 | #72

Regular features

Story-arc comics

Six pages of each magazine were devoted to an ongoing comic story. These stories tended to be devoted to current toylines or exclusives and were split into six parts (or, in one case, seven), with one year of magazines being a single 36-page story. The first five years followed a band of dimension-hopping travellers. The next three were set in the Wings Universe, and the last four were relatively standalone.

The annual story arcs were as follows:

More information can be found on their individual pages.

Mini-comics

Several humour strips were published in the magazine at the beginning of its run.

Starting with issue #23, every magazine's back cover ran a variety of features which varied from issue to issue. Common features included reviews, fanart, bios, and more mini-comics including the following:

Story previews

The magazine would sometimes feature previews for upcoming Transformers Timelines text stories, either in the form of prose or comics. Some of them would not be included in the online stories - see the individual pages for more information.

Other

Character bios

Bios were published in various formats, some in the style of Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, some as short write-ups, and some as Tech Specs. Generally speaking the longer, MTMTE-style strips were devoted to characters appearing in that year's comic or the upcoming BotCon issue. Why does this matter? Well, these bios are often one of the main sources of fiction for the characters and toys they cover, filling in gaps between various appearances in other stories. This is particularly the case for many of the Mini-Cons, which would receive almost no characterisation without them.

Universe / RID / Unicron Trilogy

Fifteen profiles were published in the first two years of the magazine, covering basically all of the main characters from Balancing Act and Revelations. Quickslinger's bio wasn't a MTMTE-style one, but rather a short preview for the custom how-to feature which would appear in issue #7.

Classics

When the main story arc changed universe in 2007, so too did the profiles. Slag and the Headmasters got profiles in #22, Topspin (who isn't really from the Classicsverse, but rather a G2 one of some sort) in #25. When Beast Wars Shattered Glass and Another Light brought some Classics characters back to the fore, they started getting profiles again starting with issue #50. Grimlock has the unique distinction of being given three different profiles as part of three different storylines!

TransTech

Two profiles were each published in #22-24 of the magazine as part of "The World of... TRANSTECH," which featured a unique design and layout but was textually almost indistinguishable from the regular MTMTE profiles. A few lowtech denizens of Axiom Nexus got normal profiles later: Blackarachnica and Topspin in #25; "Hero Prime" and Depth Charge in #49; Rhinox in #54.

Shattered Glass

Starting in issue #25, bios were published for Shattered Glass characters. Three profiles were published in issues #25-28 and two each in #29-30 (from #25 and #30, only Whisper and Megatron are listed here; the others are not strictly Shattered Glass characters). This notably included the first time the physical size of the profiles deviated from the full-page norm - Sky Lynx, Computron and Abominus got most of two pages while Ravage, Steeljaw and Ratbat were left with less than half a page each. Another Light gave some more characters the chance to get profiles, but the last two were squashed together at the bottom of one page: they got names, art, faction symbols, mottos, and nothing else.

Wings Universe

Profiles for Wings Universe characters started being published with issue #31, with a steady rate of two profiles per issue. A couple of profiles for organics were released as part of Tornado's personal journal in issue #56, plus two regular profiles in issue #58, as a tie-in to "Hoist the Flag"

Beast Wars: Uprising

Although profiles for Beast Wars: Uprising characters had appeared before as part of the TransTech storylines, issue #55 saw the first dedicated profiles dedicated wholly to the universe.

Of Masters and Mayhem

Profiles for various characters appearing in the Of Masters and Mayhem storyline were published starting with issue #67.

Other

Nexus Prime is made up of a single character from each of the first five story arcs. A single profile for some Transformers Animated characters (Nightbeat, Siren and Hosehead) was given in the magazine's second-to-last issue; this would be the last profile published by the club magazine.

Diamond Edition

The BotCon exclusive Timelines issues would get mass-retail releases. These versions of the comics usually contained extra profiles and bonus material, with the exception of The Stunti-Con Job which included The AllSpark Almanac Addendum instead and Invasion which included "Invasion Prologue" instead.

Micro-Sized Profiles

Starting with issue #13, profiles for Mini-Cons were published on the "Micro-Sized" page of the magazine. The "Micro-Sized" banner was dropped for the issues featuring the Classics Mini-Cons. This feature ended with #18, but Whisper got a full MTMTE-style profile in issue #25 and three more Mini-Cons received small profiles on the back pages of issues #31-33.

Online Mini-Con Profiles

A large amount of short profiles for various other Mini-Cons were released in the members-only section of the club website:

Maximal Command Security Force

In issues #13 and #14, profiles for the MCSF from Theft of the Golden Disk were published. Stopgap's profile was the exception to this; it was instead added to the members-only section of the Club website. The last two MCSF members, Nitrostreak and Tigatron, didn't get profiles as they only appeared in Dawn of Future's Past.

Animated Tech Specs

Written by Derrick J. Wyatt, these Tech Specs were published starting with ten in issue #24 and two in each of issues #25-30. Six new Tech Specs and four reprints were published years later in issue #71.

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