Auto Assembly 2015 Guest Update: JP Bove, James Roberts, Nick Roche Confirmed

Hi everyone,

It’s with a great deal of sadness and after a lot of deliberation over the last couple of months, that we have to bring you the news that this year’s convention, Auto Assembly 2015, is going to be our last. Auto Assembly has been running for a long time – 15 years in fact – and has grown immensely since its humble beginnings at the Ibis Hotel in Birmingham when just 31 fans attended the first event run on 22nd October 2000 by myself and Sven Harvey.

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Here at Auto Assembly We’re all committed to making Auto Assembly 2015 something really spectacular and even though We may be bringing the event to a close, we’re certainly planning on going out with a bang!

We will be bringing you updates and information on what will be happening to Auto Assembly over the coming weeks and posting an FAQ here on the website to answer all of the questions that we know all of you are bound to have about what is happening but rest assured that this year’s convention won’t be the last you’ll see of the name Auto Assembly!

Insurgent wrote:Va'al appears to have cut out a substantial part of the official announcement.

Basically, they state this has happened due to health issues and simply not being able to have the time to organise everything anymore with everything else happening in their lives.


I believe AA has simply become too successful. It's been fun, and mad props to the guys and gals who run it. This year shall simply have to be the grandest one of them all.

Once again we are being joined by comic supremo Andrew Wildman. Andrew needs no introduction to Transformers fans, having provided artwork for Transformers comics for almost every publisher to have released Transformers comic books over the last 30 year starting with the original Marvel UK run right up until his most recent work on Regeneration One. His work away from Transformers has been incredibly diverse and he will be with us all weekend to chat to fans, take to the stage for a panel alongside some of our other guests, have some of his original art for sale and to sketch for many of you (for a small charge).

We’re excited to be welcoming Andrew back and we’ll be bringing you more news of our next guests shortly…

Va'al wrote:For what you get and the type of guests? I'd say yes.
But you do need to be a fan of the comics and cartoon series (so far IDW, TF: Prime and Marvel are represented), pure G1 fans will not necessarily get as much out of it as I think others more into the newer iterations of the franchise will.

The amount of toys on sale, from bargains to new boxed stuff, is really quite impressive. But of course, that's extra money on top of your ticket.

Having said that, G1 is not at all excluded - and all fans are welcome, accepted and usually end up having a blast of a time, both inside the convention area and the bar/lounge.

Bread and butter; crackers and cheese; Kirk and Spock… all classic combinations and tradition dictates that Auto Assembly has always played host to one of Transformers most well-known classic combination as well. Ever since their debut at the convention in 2003, they have been a familiar sight at the event and firm fan favourites and we announced one half of this legendary duo a few days ago as making a return to the convention. And with Andrew Wildman confirmed for Auto Assembly 2015 already it was only a matter of time before we had to confirm that his long-standing partner in crime, Simon Furman, is returning once again!

Simon Furman needs no introduction to Transformers fans having penned stories for almost every Transformers publisher imaginable – Marvel UK, Marvel US, Dreamwave, IDW, Panini, Titan as well as editing the Marvel UK comic for a brief spell. Since making his debut in 2003, Simon has appeared at every Auto Assembly event apart from one and even attended Auto Assembly Europe in 2011 making him Auto Assembly’s most prolific guest ever!

After making his debut with us back in 2013, we felt that his return to the convention was long overdue so we’re pleased to announce that popular comic artist Andrew Griffith will be joining us once again at Auto Assembly 2015! For those of you not familiar with his work (shame on you) Andrew has an extensive list of Transformers credits list to his name having worked for IDW Publications on a wide range of their titles including Robots in Disguise, Last Stand Of The Wreckers and the movie adaptations for Revenge Of The Fallen and Dark Of The Moon.

Andrew will be with us all weekend, sketching in our guests area and as with many of our artists joining us will have prints and original artwork with him for sale as well. Keep an eye out on the website as well as we will be bringing you details of how you can pre-book your exclusive sketches from Andrew to beat the queues over the convention weekend and guarantee your personalised artwork from him!

In our final year, team Auto Assembly is delighted to welcome back one of our favourite Matrix-bearers, the irreplaceable Jim Sorenson!

Jim has penned some of our fandom’s most beloved including the much lauded “Transformers Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging” and the fan favourite “Transformers Animated: The Complete Allspark Almanac”. Most recently he has been working for the Official Transformers Collector’s Club on the “Beast Wars: Uprising” series.

Be sure to have your copies to hand if you want to get them signed by this almighty author at the final AA – it’ll be one for the history books! (see what we did there… author… books… yeah we’ll keep working on the gags).

If you haven’t already registered for the convention, you can book now for Auto Assembly 2015 which is taking place over the weekend of 21st – 23rd August 2015 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, Birmingham, England at our Ticket Bookings Page.

Auto Assembly Commission requests
Hello,

As you may have heard, I’ll be a guest artist at Auto Assembly in Birmingham, UK August. (Sadly, the very last one!)

As with most shows, I’ll be taking a certain amount of sketch requests ahead of time. (I would prefer receiving payment ahead of time through paypal if possible.)

Prices:

B&W
£20 Head sketch on 22.86cm x 30.48cm
£50 Bust on 27.94cm x 35.56cm
£80 Full Body on 27.94cm x 35.56cm (£120 for combiners)
£30-80 Sketch cover, depending on what you want on it.


Color
£10 extra per piece

If you want to order a sketch ahead of time, please email me at glovestudios@gmail.com with the following:
- Your name, or what you preferred to go by.
- Size
- Head/Bust/Full Body, etc…
- Character
- Days you will be at the show so I know when it needs done by if I get backed up.

Originals

Also, I have a good amount of original pages from various Transformers comics. If you are interested in any covers or pages, let me know and I’ll see if I have it available for sale.

We are immeasurably pleased to announce that Transformers comic Artist Alex Milne will be joining us for our final Auto Assembly celebration in August 2015!

Most loved for his work alongside writer (and fellow AA Guest) James Roberts on the fan-favourite comic series; Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, Alex recently set the fandom ablaze by revealing five new female Transformer designs in the form of Firestar, Javelin, Proxima, Velocity and Roadmaster.

If you want to hear what went into their creation, order a sketch, or just say hi to Alex, be sure to grab your ticket for Auto Assembly 2015 – Europe’s Largest Transformers Convention – whilst they are still available! You can book for the convention, which is taking place over the weekend of 21st – 23rd August 2015 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, Birmingham, England over at our Auto Assembly 2015 Ticket Bookings page.

Legendary Transformers comic writer, Simon Furman, has something rather special in store for fans attending Auto Assembly 2015 as he is bringing an extra special panel to the convention that will be taking place in one of our Alternative Programme rooms over the weekend.

The special panel, Transformers: the Fall of Dreamwave… the Rise of IDW will see Simon Furman introducing a very special visual tour through the last days of Dreamwave and the early days of the IDW-verse, featuring rare and unseen art from unpublished issues and behind-the-scenes design work by a host of talented artists, including Alex Milne, Don Figueroa, EJ Su, Joe Ng and more. Provisionally scheduled to take place early on the Sunday afternoon (although this may be subject to change) seating is limited to around 50 people for this rather special panel.

Please note that photography or filming is not permitted during this panel.

Mkall wrote:The Dreamwave portion will be very interesting to hear a summary on.

Va'al wrote:

Mkall wrote:The Dreamwave portion will be very interesting to hear a summary on.

Very much so. There was some interesting stuff mentioned by James Raiz in our interview with him all that time ago, but I will do my best to keep an ear (and probably fingers/Twitter) ready for the panel.

Thadicon wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Mkall wrote:The Dreamwave portion will be very interesting to hear a summary on.

Very much so. There was some interesting stuff mentioned by James Raiz in our interview with him all that time ago, but I will do my best to keep an ear (and probably fingers/Twitter) ready for the panel.

Is that interview here on Seibertron somewhere Va'al?

I think everyone likes a little information about Dreamwave every so often whether its abut the comics themselves or about he-who-shall-not-be-named.

Va'al wrote:

Thadicon wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Mkall wrote:The Dreamwave portion will be very interesting to hear a summary on.

Very much so. There was some interesting stuff mentioned by James Raiz in our interview with him all that time ago, but I will do my best to keep an ear (and probably fingers/Twitter) ready for the panel.

Is that interview here on Seibertron somewhere Va'al?

I think everyone likes a little information about Dreamwave every so often whether its abut the comics themselves or about he-who-shall-not-be-named.

It is! I thought I had linked it in the post: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... aiz/28139/

While Auto Assembly is taking it’s final bow, we realise the Transformers brand moves ever onward, with new stories, characters and creative artists. It’s fitting therefore, that our latest guest announcement is for one of the brightest new stars in TF art. We are delighted to announce the appearance of the amazing Miss Kei Zama.

Miss Zama will be familiar to many of you through her fan art collaborations, and stunning commission work, under the moniker of GOLBY2, and this has lead to her official work for IDW’s Transformers, providing the RI covers for MTMTE, TF and Windblade in September. We are confident she will only go forward, from there!

While here, Kei will be selling her sketchbook, prints and be taking commissions. Due to the following she has through the fandom, it is worth getting your request in early. To request a commission, go to Kei’s Twitter and Tumblr pages, where a price list will shortly be published, or you can email her at golbyrainbow@gmail.com

Kei is making her first journey over here, from Japan, for Auto Assembly and admits she is still picking up English. However, she cannot wait to join us and, in between her stunning work, her admitted love for Judge Dredd, ABC Warriors and all things 2000AD and her excitement for Wreckers, we think she will feel right at home.

Kei’s Deviantart: http://golby2.deviantart.com/
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/Golby_mkII

If you haven’t already registered for the convention, you can book now for Auto Assembly 2015 which is taking place over the weekend of 21st – 23rd August 2015 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, Birmingham, England.

It’s not very often that voice actors make a return appearance at Auto Assembly. Not because we don’t want to see many of our guests come back but with a limited budget for voice actors for the convention we tend to focus on bringing actors to Auto Assembly who haven’t visited the event before so it’s rare that actors make return appearances and if they do it’s not usually for a few years. However, something rather unusual has happened for Auto Assembly 2015 and some may say that it’s something rather fishy…

In 2014 we were joined by Peter Spellos, the voice of Skybyte from Robots In Disguise. Peter made an incredible impact on all of the fans who were in attendance to the extent that immediately after the event we were asked by hundreds of people to bring him back to this year’s convention – the enthusiasm to see his return was unprecedented and something we hadn’t seen before in Auto Assembly’s 15-year history. Unfortunately as we had already booked our two guests of honour for this year’s event we weren’t able to do this but it was clear that there was an incredible amount of affection for Peter and the fans wanted to see him back. But this affection and desire to see his return ran a lot deeper than anyone could have ever imagined…

This desire to see Peter’s return has now become a reality as we are now proud to confirm that – thanks to a massive collaborative effort – Peter Spellos IS making a return to Auto Assembly 2015 as our third guest of honour at the last ever Auto Assembly convention! Peter’s appearance has been made possible because of the determination of the Transformers fan community pulling together and showing how much they wanted to see Peter return to the event and I can’t thank the community enough for making this possible.

Peter’s flight has been provided by the Auto Assembly team themselves in a collective effort and I can’t thank all of them enough for their efforts and generosity here. Peter’s additional travel costs and other expenses relating to the convention are being covered thanks to the incredible fundraiser that had been organised on Facebook by Jamie Harris on The Sharkiest Of Sharks page and I have got to give my heartfelt thanks to all of the amazing fans who have contributed to this. Jamie is also very kindly sponsoring the Skybyte postcard (featuring artwork from Ed Pirrie) that all of you will be receiving at the convention.

Finally, as a convention, we have managed to secure accommodation for Peter in the Hilton to make sure that he will be able to be with us all weekend, enjoying whiskey and ice cream with all of you and as with last year he’ll be taking to the stage for a Q&A Panel, joining Sumalee Montano and James Horan for our script reading and signing autographs throughout the weekend.

I can’t thank everyone enough for making this happen and for helping to bring everyone’s favourite shark back home to all of us here at Auto Assembly next month. It’s going to be a blast!

Attending Auto Assembly but never before been to Roll Out Roll Call, The UK Transformers, G.I. Joe & Action Force Show???

As a little taster on what is available at Roll Out Roll Call we have organised a range of BotCon (Official) show exclusives to be available at Auto Assembly. Roll Out Roll Call would like to thank the Transformers Collectors' Club (Official) in helping make this available to Auto Assembly attendees.

Va'al wrote:Three major events, the official US-based BotCon, and the two UK one Auto Assembly and Roll Out Roll Call, have partnered up to bring fans this side of the ocean the BotCon exclusives from this year's convention! Yes indeed, if you're into your G2, Diaclone, Waruder and Kre-O sets, you have a chance of purchasing these directly at Auto Assembly at the end of August - all thanks to the organisers over at Roll Out Roll Call. Check out their message and images below, and stroll through the Seibertron.com galleries here to check out the figures.

Attending Auto Assembly but never before been to Roll Out Roll Call, The UK Transformers, G.I. Joe & Action Force Show???

As a little taster on what is available at Roll Out Roll Call we have organised a range of BotCon (Official) show exclusives to be available at Auto Assembly. Roll Out Roll Call would like to thank the Transformers Collectors' Club (Official) in helping make this available to Auto Assembly attendees.

Flashwave wrote:With everyone calling this "Extra Stock", I wonder if the Club didn't ust plan this? Woulda been nice if they'd said something, although that does undersell themselves. I can't see them having this much bonus product by mistake.

Really, it's a good business plan, if Botcon plays Distributor to other venues. It also allows for Hasbro to stab the beast that Third Party Exclusives have created amongst regional shows without stretching Hasbro's resposibilities directly. What venue us gonna turn down offical molds over a Third Party, really? It's bad form businesswise. Yeah, youcan make the "For the Fans buying this" argument, but it's shooting themselves in the foot, professionally. Way to go, Pete & Co.

I wonder why though, if there was a European intention, why they didn't o the European Black Tracks, unless Hasbro said No to the Mould.

Flashwave wrote:I EXPECT PODCAST DISCUSSION

megatronus wrote:

Flashwave wrote:With everyone calling this "Extra Stock", I wonder if the Club didn't ust plan this? Woulda been nice if they'd said something, although that does undersell themselves. I can't see them having this much bonus product by mistake.

Really, it's a good business plan, if Botcon plays Distributor to other venues. It also allows for Hasbro to stab the beast that Third Party Exclusives have created amongst regional shows without stretching Hasbro's resposibilities directly. What venue us gonna turn down offical molds over a Third Party, really? It's bad form businesswise. Yeah, youcan make the "For the Fans buying this" argument, but it's shooting themselves in the foot, professionally. Way to go, Pete & Co.

I wonder why though, if there was a European intention, why they didn't o the European Black Tracks, unless Hasbro said No to the Mould.

involved.
While the Club may have planned to partner with the UK conventions, this remains unclear. What is know is this was the first year the attendee exclusives did not sell out at the show. People reported seeing pallets of unsold product leaving the Botcon hotel, and I highly doubt that surplus was intentional.

Flashwave wrote:I EXPECT PODCAST DISCUSSION

You can always ask the Twincast, here.