Yes, we’ve done it again and set a new attendance record for a European Transformers convention and Auto Assembly 2009 hasn’t even taken place yet!! At the time of writing this, we now have 425 pre-registrants which has beaten the previous record that we set in 2008 of 423 attendees. With 17 days to go before the convention and people still booking daily, and on-the-door attendees as well, this number will continue to rise further. We want to thank all of you for helping us to break this record and hopefully we will reach the magic 500!

Hasbro take note, this is another justification that Transformers are popular outside North America and we want you to start treating us right.

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We’re happy to announce the FINAL batch of single day tickets for Auto Assembly 2009 is now on sale!

If you can only attend either the Saturday OR the Sunday, this really is your LAST CHANCE to guarantee yourself a ticket.

For full details and prices, head to our transformers forum.

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Hi everyone,

As the date for Auto Assembly 2009 draws nearer, we are still adding to our extensive list of activities throughout the weekend and we are now pleased to announce that we are now being joined by our FIFTEENTH guest for the convention…

Joining us for the SUNDAY ONLY is comic artist Jon Davis-Hunt. Jon has recently joined the team working on Titan Magazine’s Transformers comic as their new regular artist for their UK-originated strip, although he has produced cover artwork for them previously. He has also worked for IDW on the adaptation of Revenge Of The Fallen and was one of the artists for 2000 AD. Prior to switching to the comic industry, Jon previously worked in the video games industry.

Jon will be taking to the stage along with some of our other comic guests on Sunday (our comic panels will be split throughout the weekend) and he will be joining the rest of our comic guests in our guest area to sign autographs and meet fans.

Jon is joining what is the biggest ever line-up of guests seen at a European Transformers event which currently includes our two guests of honour Gregg Berger (G1 Grimlock), Ian James Corlett (Cheetor), and our comic guests – Andrew Wildman (Saturday only), Simon Williams, Staz Johnson, Nick Roche, Liam Shalloo, Lew Stringer (Saturday only), Jason Cardy, Kat Nicholson, Lee Bradley, Lee Sullivan, Mike Collins, and Kris Carter. As we have three guests who will only be able to attend for a single day, the ONLY way you will get to meet all of our guests this year is to attend for the FULL weekend!

We have a very limited number of single tickets available for the Sunday, but plenty of weekend tickets available. More single day passes for Saturday may be released soon but with the convention being less than four weeks away, you need to hurry to pre-register for what will be the biggest ever Transformers convention that Europe has ever seen!

For full details on Auto Assembly 2009 and to book your tickets, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk

Simon Plumbe
Auto Assembly 2009

Auto Assembly 2009 is a non-profit making convention for fans of Transformers and is being held on 15th – 16th August 2009 at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England.

web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards.com
email: autoassembly@aol.com
tel: +44 (0)7860 948296

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Win A Personalised Voice Recording From Optimus Prime With Auto Assembly!

If you don’t already know, Auto Assembly is in talks to bring Neil Kaplan, the voice of Optimus Prime in Robots In Disguise back to the UK for it’s convention this year taking place over the weekend of 15th – 16th August 2009. Neil recently made his return to Transformers to voice characters in Activision’s game based on Revenge Of The Fallen, and we are hoping that he will be able to make his welcome return to Auto Assembly as well, following his appearance in 2005 as our guest of honour…

Neil’s appearance at Auto Assembly is confirmed subject to the convention receiving sufficient pre-registrations or sales of the non-attendee package to cover Neil’s costs. While this figure has not yet been reached, we are confident that – with the support of Transformers fans everywhere – Auto Assembly 2009 can become the first European Transformers convention to play host to THREE voice actors, seeing Neil join Gregg Berger and Ian James Corlett.

As part of Neil’s provisional appearance, he will be performing on stage in our script session on the Saturday evening alongside Gregg and Ian in a script written by Transformers legend Simon Furman, as well as taking part in a Q&A Panel at some point during the weekend and being on hand to sign autographs all weekend. For those of you unable to attend and who take up the non-attendee package, Neil’s autograph will be in your package should he attend.

To tie-in with his return to Auto Assembly, Neil has graciously offered to provide a personalised voice recording for one lucky convention attendee should he attend this year. This can be anything at all that you want, and you can use it as a mobile phone ring tone, on your website etc. – as long as it is for non-commercial use. To stand a chance of winning this fantastic prize, all you need to do is pre-register for the convention as a WEEKEND attendee or purchase a non-attendee package and you will be entered into the draw which will take place on the weekend.

To purchase your tickets or non-attendee package and have a chance of winning, visit the Auto Asembly website NOW! If you have already registered then you will be automatically entered into the draw! If you have only booked a single day ticket and would like to upgrade to a full weekend pass, watch this space for details soon on how you can do this… Don’t miss out on your chance to be a part of what is going to be a great weekend celebrating 25 years of the Transformers!!

For full details on Auto Assembly 2009 and to book your tickets, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk

Simon Plumbe
Auto Assembly 2009

Auto Assembly 2009 is a non-profit making convention for fans of Transformers and is being held on 15th – 16th August 2009 at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England.

web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards.com
email: autoassembly@aol.com
tel: +44 (0)7860 948296

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Auto Assembly 2009 Non-Attendee Pack Available!

Auto Assembly 2009 is set to break all attendance records once again for a European Transformers convention and we are delighted to say that we are going to be joined by fans from not only all over the UK but from all over Europe and from as far afield as America, Singapore and Japan making Auto Assembly 2009 a truly global event.

However, we appreciate that there are many of you who would love to be able to attend the convention but can’t attend either because of distance of who are unable to get time off work so once again we are offering a non-attendee package which will allow you to get involved in the convention and get your hands on all of this year’s convention goodies and a whole lot more besides…

These non-attendee packages are £60 for anyone living in the UK and £70 for the rest of the world and are fully inclusive of shipping costs. While these are more expensive than passes for the convention, we think they offer exceptional value for money. Why? Well, each non-attendee pack will get you:-

* A Personalised convention pass with your own ticket number
* The FULL Auto Assembly goodie bag containing up to 12 gifts (with more under negotiation)! (the earlier your ticket number, the more gifts will be in your bag. Visit the website to see the full details of what’s on offer this year!)
* Entry into all of the Auto Assembly 2009 Pre-registrant prize draws
* The Cybertronian Times Issue 10, signed by ALL our convention guests
* All Hail Megatron Issue 13 convention exclusive variant cover comic
* Auto Assembly 2009 convention exclusive mug
* Auto Assembly 2009 Grimlock keyring
* Full set of Auto Assembly convention exclusive postcards from 2004-2008
* Proxy bidding rights for the Auto Assembly charity auction
* A personalised sketch from a random Auto Assembly 2009 comic artist guest
* The option to use your non-attendee pass at ANY TIME and become a full weekend attendee during the convention by simply turning up at the convention and showing your pass and collecting all of your items on the day for just an additional

And that’s not all! The first 20 people to buy the non-attendee package will also receive a copy of Apocalypse Comics’ retailer exclusive edition of All Hail Megatron #1 or All Hail Megatron #12! This is quite possibly the best non-attendee package we have EVER put together and is an ideal way for you to get involved with the convention if you can’t make it this year and potentially your ONLY chance to get this year’s convention exclusive comic!

Once you have paid your £60 (or £70 if you live outside the UK) there is nothing more to pay. The only additional charges are for additional postage charges that may be incurred should any competition prizes be won that we may need to ship, or relevant amounts for any auction items that you may win.

To purchase your non-attendee package, visit the Auto Asembly website NOW! If you are able to join us, full weekend tickets are available and are £45 for adults and £35 for children/students/senior citizens with under 5s being FREE. Family tickets (2 adults and 2 children) are just £145 saving £15. Limited numbers of single day passes are also available starting from £18. Don’t miss out on your chance to be a part of what is going to be a great weekend celebrating 25 years of the Transformers!!

For full details on Auto Assembly 2009 and to book your tickets, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk

Simon Plumbe
Auto Assembly 2009

Auto Assembly 2009 is a non-profit making convention for fans of Transformers and is being held on 15th – 16th August 2009 at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England.

web: Auto Assembly
forum: Auto Assembly – Home
email: autoassembly@aol.com
tel: +44 (0)7860 948296

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You find the cover has improved colour contrast compared to when it was last seen, the Apocalypse Comics website (who helped get the cover done), and Grimlock saying something that only Grimlock would say. The cover is limited to 1000 copies with a maximum of 2 sold to each attendee at Auto Assembly 2009 in August.

The cover has art from Nick Roche with colours from Liam Shalloo.

All Hail Megatron #13 is due out next month. Look out for #12 later this week.

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The article contains an interview with Simon Plumbe and lots of details for anyone who hasn’t heard about the convention but is interested in attending. Here’s the best quote:

“If you’ve never been to a convention before but you’re passionate about Transformers and want to meet like-minded fans, meet the stars of the series, and just want to enjoy a packed weekend of Transformers-themed activities, then maybe Auto Assembly 2009 is for you!”

This years convention is a 2 day event over the weekend of the 15th and 16th August 2009 in Birmingham.

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This time Simon had even more news on the convention, including a potentially massive announcement concerning guest line-up…

So Simon, you’ve confirmed Gregg Berger and Ian James Corlett which is pretty awesome, but from our recent conversations you’ve told me that you’re now talking to a THIRD voice actor for AA 09?

A. Absolutely! I’ll be honest though and say that this is entirely down to the attendees. I have been in talks with different sponsors to try to raise money towards getting more guests for the convention, but ultimately it is going to be a case of everything extra being funded from pre-registrations. I have been talking to an actor for a while who is ready to come over and join Ian and Gregg and at a rough guess I would say that if we can get about 500 pre-registrations then we will be able to afford to get them!

Spill; who’s it gonna be?

A. I can’t say right now, but what I CAN say is that we are looking at trying to bring a former Auto Assembly guest of honour back, but it’s all dependent on YOU guys to make it happen!

*ponders* AA08 was my first convention but I’m sure some of theft.netters will be compiling a list of previous attendees as we speak!

Onto competitions; last year you had a free prize draw for all pre-registrants to win a ticket for this year’s convention. Are you planning on doing the same this year?

A. Yes, infact I’m working on THREE big prize draws this time around… well, it IS the 25th Anniversary so we may as well do things in style!! The first one will be the same as last year and every pre-registrant will be entered into a free prize draw to win a family ticket to Auto Assembly 2010 and possibly some other prizes as well! In addition to that, I’ll be running two more prize draws starting in June until pre-registrations close which I think people may love…

The first of these is what I am calling our “Milestone Draw”. Over the last few years, we have set various attendance records for Auto Assembly, and I want to acknowledge these by rewarding those attendees to help us reach those figures again. Quite simply, when a person registers and their ticket number matches each of these key numbers then they will receive a FREE ticket to Auto Assembly 2010!!

Now that’s ever so slightly awesome! Any news on ticket number 5…

A. No, you booked too early! lol Seriously though, we wanted to look at some of the really big milestones for the convention so we’ve set them at 320 (Auto Assembly 2004 which was our first weekend convention), 400 (Auto Assembly 2006), 409 (when we first broke the European record in 2005), 423 (which is the current European record that we set last year), and 500 which is the “glass ceiling” that every UK convention has been aiming for for years!! At the rate bookings are coming in, I have a feeling that someone could reach the 320 target by early June and the 400 one by later the same month!

The final one is another biggie and is where we are literally going to be giving away FREE tickets to the convention this year!! This is something brand new we are doing for Auto Assembly 2009 to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Transformers and to thank everyone for their support over the years, starting in June we will be doing a random draw each time someone registers for the convention. As we receive each booking, we will do a random draw with a 100-sided die and if we roll a 100 then that person will get the price of their ticket refunded in FULL! This will only apply to pre-registrants who book from 1st June 2009 onwards and this will run in parallel with the other two competitions so it’s possible that someone could get their ticket for this year free AND a ticket for Auto Assembly 2010 free!

Excellent! Though I’m pretty sure 5 is a landmark but whatever! J

Still on competitions, over the weekend itself what competitions can we expect to see? Anything new up your sleeve?

We’re going to have our usual mix of competitions – writing (for advance entries), artwork, kitbash, costume competition – inspired by the guys who turned up as Soundwave and Shockwave last year, a quiz or two, kids colouring competitions, and to link in with the live script reading on Saturday night with Ian Corlett and Gregg Berger, we’re opening this up for a few fans to take part as well!!

I’ve been mentioning to Simon Furman about writing additional roles into the script that will be played by fans and once these parts have been confirmed I’ll be opening up advance auditions for these parts! All people will need to do is email me an MP3 of you playing the character or characters you want to audition for and as long as you’re booked for the whole weekend and aged 16 or over then you can enter… even if you’re one of our guests!!

Now that’s cool; Matrix better send a clip in *points at him!*

Last year you even had a little something for people who couldn’t make the convention; will you be offering another non-attendee package this year and if so, what sort of things can we expect to see in it?

A. Yeah, I’m working on another non-attendee package for this year. I’ll be honest and say that last years didn’t do too well. I guess that we didn’t really offer a great deal for the money looking back so this time I want to provide something that will be pretty spectacular and really make people want to pay and be a part of the convention even if they physically can’t be there with us. It’s not going to be a cheap package – I’m looking at a price of about for the UK and overseas inclusive of postage – but when you see what it will offer I hope that people will think that it will be worth the asking price.

First, as with last year, everyone will be allocated a ticket number as will all our regular attendees and as such they will be entitled to a full Auto Assembly goodie bag which will have more gifts depending on how early they sign up. Obviously the DVDs and G1 sticker packs have run out, but everyone will still get the Cheetor and and Grimlock postcards, the Cheetor keyring, the Top Trumps cards, the Reprolabels Auto Assembly 2009 Sticker Sheet and any other gifts that we add. In addition, you will get a personalised convention pass with an Auto Assembly 2009 lanyard.

As I mentioned earlier, everyone will get entry into the Auto Assembly 2009 pre-registrant prize draw but from here on, this is where we add all the extra stuff for the non-attendees… each non-attendee will also get a copy of the convention magazine, The Cybertronian Times Issue 10, signed by ALL our convention guests, all our other convention merchandise which will include a G1 Grimlock keyring, and an Auto Assembly 2009 mug AND a copy of the convention exclusive edition of All Hail Megatron Issue 13, which we will aim to get autographed for everyone.

But that’s not all!! The pack will also include a pair of the Auto Assembly 2005/Auto Assembly 2006 pin badges, a full set of the Auto Assembly convention exclusive postcards from 2004-2008, proxy bidding rights for Auto Assembly’s charity auction, and the big one… a personalised sketch from a random Auto Assembly 2009 comic artist!!! We think this makes for a pretty spectacular package and is incredible value for money.

On top of that, we will offer all non-attendee pass holders the opportunity to turn up at ANY TIME as a full weekend attendee package during the convention by simply turning up at the convention and showing their pass and collecting all of your items on the day for just

If that wasn’t enough, the first 20 people to sign up to the non-attendee package will also receive a copy of Apocalypse Comics’ retailer exclusive edition of All Hail Megatron #1 or All Hail Megatron #12!! All that for just is an absolute steal! The only extra cost we may add is additional postage charges should any competition prizes or auction items are won.

Thetf.net would once again like to thank Simon for his time; AA09 is going to be something else! J

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Hi everyone,

As you know, we previewed the inks to the convention exclusive comic for Auto Assembly 2009 recently when we were interviewed over at Transformers@TheMoon. Since then, many people have wanted to know what the finished cover for our convention exclusive variant cover to IDW’s All Hail Megatron Issue 13 is going to look like. Well, the wait is over…

Adding the finishing touch to Nick Roche’s pencils is the fantastic colours of Liam Shalloo to bring you this fantastic tribute to Jurassic Park and featuring Grimlock (both of whom will be attending the convention and who can sign the comic for those of you who buy it along with G1 voice actor Gregg Berger)! The comic is being produced for Auto Assembly 2009 by Apocalypse Comics and will be available during the convention weekend from their table. Sales will limited to a maximum of just TWO per attendee while stocks last as there are only 1,000 copies being printed of this book!

Auto Assembly 2009 is set to be a record-breaking convention for European Transformers fans and this is one convention you don’t want to miss!

Simon
Auto Assembly
Auto Assembly

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Artists Lee Sullivan and Mike Collins will again be making an appearance, joining in with the comic panel and signing the weird and wonderful things fans tend to bring.

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