With just over two weeks to go to until Auto Assembly 2008 – Europe’s biggest Transformers event, we’ve got a lot of major developments taking place so rather than putting everything into one big story we’ve had to split everything into two big updates.
The last one focused on our major goodie bag developments but this time it’s a little more general…
* Postcards *
In a change to our original plans, we are now going to be giving away THREE exclusive postcards this year instead of two and these will be featuring exclusive artwork from Simon Williams and Lee Sullivan. The third postcard was going to be illustrated by Mike Collins but sadly, because of work commitments, Mike was unable to do this for us so Kat Nicholson has stepped in to produce the artwork for our third card which will feature TF Animated Jazz! All three designs will also be adapted and produced as keyrings that will be on sale on the day!!
* The Cybertronian Times Issue 9 *
We are putting the final touches to the convention magazine, The Cybertronian Times, but there is still time to contribute YOUR articles and artwork! We are looking for articles, mini-reviews of the movie or any movie related merchandise or any artwork. Send them to our usual email address for inclusion by no later than Saturday 19th July 2008.
* Volunteering *
We still need more volunteers to come forward for the convention. We need one or two more to help with setting up, primarily giving our dealers a hand with their tables, but mainly now we are looking at getting support now on the day itself with our programme of activities and helping everything run as smoothly as possible. You wil have all had a volunteering form in your confirmation packs so if you want to get invovled, fill it in and send it back to us as soon as possible or download the form from the website and email it back to us!
We can’t pay anyone for helping out but we DO have a little “thankyou” lined up for everyone who does help out but you MUST register in advance as a volunteer as we need to set up a vounteer rota and need to know who will be doing what and when.
* Auction Update *
With the change to the postcards, we are now obviously changing the artwork that is available. We won’t be having postcard artwork from Mike Collins, but instead Mike has sent a couple of pages of artwork from one of the Doctor Who stories that he illustrated that had a cameo appearance from a gladitorial robot that bore a passing resemblance to everyone’s favourite Autobot…!! We will also be getting the original artwork to the TF Animated Jazz postcard from Kat Nicholson so if you’re looking for some great artwork the auction will have plenty on offer! On top of that we will also have some signed photos from Sandy Fox and Lex Lang (T-AI and Towline from RiD)!
* Pre-Registration Deadline Looms! *
There is STILL time to pre-register if you haven’t already done so but you’ll have to hurry! We are now aiming to ship confirmation packs out within 48 hours of receiving your bookings so as long as you pre-register by 23rd July from outside the UK or by around 8:00 pm on 27th July in the UK then we will be able to get your confirmation packs to you in time for the convention and you’ll be entered into all of our pre-registrant prize draws!
* Want To Be On Telly? *
Okay, not quite, but once again Auto Assembly is being filmed to be included on a DVD!! We’re not saying anything else right now but don’t be surprised to find a camera pointing in your direction at some point during the convention! Saying that, there are also going to be people from the BBC there taking photos for the BBC website and you never know, there may even be radio presenters as well…
* Auto Assembly 2009! *
We’re already looking at plans for Auto Assembly 2009 and in your packs on the day you’ll find a questionnaire asking you some basic questions to help us shape our plans for our convention to celebrate 25 years of Transformers, the launch of the second live action movie and OUR 20th anniversary as a science fiction fan organisation!! We want to do something special and we’re looking at the idea of doing a weekend-long event with not one, but TWO voice actors AND a party on the Saturday night but we need YOUR feedback so please fill in the forms on the day!
* Fast-Track Entry *
We have mentioned this idea before about allowing those of you who who have pre-registered and arrive in Birmingham on Friday the chance to check-in early so you’ll be able to enter the convention straight away as soon as the doors open on Saturday without having to queue or check in. We’re just waiting for confirmation from the venue on when we’ll have access on Friday night so we’ll be able to let you all know this for definite about when we can do this on Monday!
* Toy Collection *
Just a reminder about the toy collection that we are running for Help A Local Child. Each year, Help A Local Child – as part of their work – holds a Christmas Tree appeal, collecting toys each year that are then distributed to needy children or those who are living in deprivation or who may be in hospital etc. who may be in a position that they wouldn’t normally be receiving Christmas presents. We would ask that if you have any unwanted BRAND NEW toys that you want to donate, please bring them along and leave them at the registration desk. They MUST have the CE safety mark on them but apart from that they can be anything – action figures, board games, jigsaws, boys or girls toys and don’t have to be limited to Transformers but they MUST be NEW. Last time we collected SIX BOXES full of toys that we handed over to the appeal and we’d like to thank everyone for their generous donations. Let’s see if we can’t make it more this time!!
Well, that’s it for now, but we’ve got more announcements up our sleeves soon so keep your eyes peeled on the net! Auto Assembly 2008 is going to be a great event and we can’t wait to see you all there on 2nd August!
As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this weekly update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
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Auto Assembly 2008 Update – 17 July 2008
Auto Assembly 2008 Goodie Bay Update
Good news Auto Assembly 2008 pre-registrants, you now have a chance to win some more stuff for your goodie bag.
Hi everyone!
With just over two weeks to go to until Auto Assembly 2008 – Europe’s biggest Transformers event, we’ve got a lot of major developments taking place so rather than putting everything into one big story we’ve had to split everything into two big updates. You may have already seen our general one, but this one is rather special…
As you know, we always produce a goodie bag full of free gifts for all our attendees. This year it has seemed a little sparse with just our usual Transform-A-Snacks, packs of G1 stickers, G1 Ladybird books for some of you and three of our convention exclusive postcards as well as a few other limited items that we’re checking on. However, that has just changed with some amazing new items we’ve just been able to confirm!
We’ve just had some incredible goodies lined up from several companies that will be with us shortly with a twist and in the last couple of days alone we secured over 00 worth of gifts to give away! However, the quantities of these are limited so we are not going to have enough for everyone. This left us with a bit of a dilemma. We could either allocate them based on the order in which people had booked, give them out to people as they came in through the door, or a different system which we have decided to adopt…
Goodie Bag Draw!!
When you arrive on the day, you will each get your Registration Pack. In there will be a welcome letter, a programme for the day, a quiz entry form, flyers from a few sponsors, your badge that you will need to wear all day and – if you are lucky enough – winning tickets for the special goodie bag items so check your packs carefully! If you have won one of these prizes, just bring the tickets to the Registration Desk, hand them over to one of our staff and we’ll give you the prize.
They are being allocated completely at random so some of you may not win anything, some of you may get one item and some of you may get everything up for grabs so it’s quite possible that some of you may go home with a goodie bag worth over ! So what are the new items? Read on…
* Hulk DVD *
Liberation Entertainment is releasing a series of DVDs featuring old Marvel animated shows including the 80s classic Spiderman and His Amazing Friends (starring Dan Gilvezan as Spiderman!). They have sent us copies of one of their DVDs from this 1996 Hulk series which features the voices of Lou Ferrigno and Mark Hamill and has cover artwork from Simon Williams and we have a staggering 200 COPIES of these to give away worth £9.99 each!!
* Activision Goodie Bag *
Another stunning package! This is a package of goodies that Activision have put together for us containing a selection of goodies and contains a Transformer movie poster, a pen and pad plus a copy of their video game based on the movie so it is going to be worth anything up to £50 depending on the format of the game they send along!! These are going to be VERY limited as we are only going be getting somewhere between 20 and 25 of these!
* Titan Transformers Comic *
Another great gift! We are getting 50 COPIES of Issue 13 of Titan’s new UK Transformers comic to give away to some of you lucky attendees which is the super-sized issue featured the Transformers Animated bonus content! This comic is worth £2.99!
One thing we do want to stress is that if you want to be in with a chance to get your hands on ANY of these goodies then you MUST book for Auto Assembly 2008 in advance as we are restricting the prize draws to pre-registrants ONLY. We think it’s a pretty good reason for booking up though… not forgetting that you’ll all STILL be entered into the MAIN pre-registrant prize draw as well!!
Well, that’s it for now, but we’ve got more announcements up our sleeves soon so keep your eyes peeled on the net! Auto Assembly 2008 is going to be a great event and we can’t wait to see you all there on 2nd August!
As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this weekly update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
Auto Assembly 2008 Urgent Bookings Update
We’ve received an important update for Auto Assembly 2008. If you’ve booked your tickets and think you should have received your confirmation pack by now, read the following announcement:
Auto Assembly 2008 – Europe’s largest Transformers convention being held in the Clarendon Suites, Birmingham – is now just over three weeks away on 2nd August 2008, and there’s a massive buzz amongst all of you who have pre-booked looking forward to coming along. However, we have had a couple of you contact us in the last week with a few concerns which is why we wanted to make an urgent announcement…
It’s been brought to our attention that some of you haven’t received your confirmation packs yet. At the time of writing this, we’ve sent out packs for most of the bookings that we have received, up to the bookings received by the 1st of July 2008. We are going to be sending out the next batch this weekend which will bring us up to date with the exception of one or two where we are waiting for some further details from people who haven’t completed their forms properly.
That brings us onto those of you who haven’t had your confirmation packs yet…
It seems that there are some of you who have booked a while ago who haven’t received anything yet. This is only affecting people who have used our online booking system and – as far as we know – has only affected a few people so far. What appears to have happened is that PayPal hasn’t forwarded the booking confirmations to us so while bookings have gone through properly, the details haven’t been sent to us so your bookings are effectively in limbo.
If you think that this has happened to you and you have booked before the middle of June, please contact us IMMEDIATELY by email letting us know the details of how many places you have booked, the names and the exact date of when you paid by PayPal and we’ll trace your booking for you.
If you haven’t booked, there’s still time to pre-register and if you’re not too sure you’ll be able to come along on the day although don’t forget, pre-registrants get early admission and entry into the free prize draw!
* * *
Because of the importance of the booking update, please feel free to post this update on any Transformers website or forum that you visit, along with any other Auto Assembly 2008 update that we have issued over the last couple of months.
We’ll be back with another update in the next few days so keep an eye out on all the major TF websites and forums and we’re looking forward to seeing many of you in a couple of weeks’ time!
As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
Ticket Deadlines for Auto Assembly 2008
With only 24 days to go until Auto Assembly 2008, time is running out to book your tickets for Europe’s largest Transformers convention. Here are the latest details on the last dates you can book your tickets:
Hi all,
With under four weeks to go, it’s time for an update for those of you planning on attending Auto Assembly 2008 from outside of the UK…
It’s a natural habit of Transformers fans all over the globe to leave booking places for conventions until the last minute and it happens with Auto Assembly EVERY year with over 25% of our attendees booking in the last TWO WEEKS! However, we want to remind all of you that – because we send out confirmation packs to all of you who pre-book that you MUST bring with you on the day to ensure that you gain admission to the convention you need to allow enough time for these packs to get to you!
We do anticipate that we will have plenty of spaces available on the day although we have been told that there will be more coverage from the BBC on their local radio in the run up to the convention so we are still recommending pre-booking. Not to mention the fact that we are going to be operating a “fast track” check-in that will allow those of you arriving on Friday to pick up your packs a day early and get in as soon as the doors open on Saturday… but we’ll tell you more about that another time!
UK Attendees
For those of you pre-registering from within the UK, we would ask that you ensure that your bookings reach us by Sunday 27th July 2008 at the ABSOLUTE latest. This will give us enough time to process your bookings and get your packs sent out to you by first class post on 28th or 29th July at the latest.
International Attendees
To give us the best chance of ensuring that your packs reach you in time for the convention, we would ask that you get your pre-bookings into us by Sunday 20th July 2008. Confirmation packs will be sent out to you by airmail by 21st or 22nd July at the latest which should allow enough time for them to reach you.
We will not be held responsible for confirmation packs not delivered for bookings received after these dates although we will endeavour to process all bookings in time for the convention.
New Goodie Bag Item!
Yes, we have another item confirmed for the goodie bag! This year we are pleased to confirm that we will be giving away not one, not two, but THREE exclusive Auto Assembly postcards! They will be featuring artwork from Simon Williams, Mike Collins and Lee Sullivan!
The original artwork from all three will be available in the charity auction and all three will also be appearing on our convention exclusive keyrings which will be on sale on the Registration Desk for just £1.50 each!
Well, that’s it for this mini-update, but we should have a few more announcements soon so keep an eye out on all the major TF websites and forums and we hope to see a lot of you all on 2nd August!
As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
Auto Assembly 2008 Non-Attendee Pack Available!
With just over a month until Auto Assembly 2008, it’s time to make a decision on whether you are attending or not. For those of you who can’t make it to Birmingham on 2nd August, some non-attendee packages have been announced.
A number of you who are unable to join us for Auto Assembly 2008 have asked if you can – as we have done in previous years – purchase a non-attendee pack from us. We have been looking into a few options and we are now able to offer this to each of you in several options which are available to buy NOW through the Auto Assembly website!
There are three packs – Basic, Standard and Deluxe each offering different benefits and bundles and are at different prices which should cover all of the options available to each of you who are interested.
BASIC – £25
This pack includes all of the items from the goodie bag (depending on when you book, you will get more items where appropriate), entry into the pre-registrant prize draw, a copy of The Cybertronian Times Issue 9 (and we will endeavour to get this signed by as many of our ten guests as possible for you), plus one each of the three keyrings that we are producing for Auto Assembly 2008.
In addition, you will be able to bid by proxy on any items in the auction by emailing us details of what item you are interested and your maximum bid. Obviously, if you are the winning bidder, there will be an additional charge after the convention for any items you win plus postage. This amount will need to be paid for within 30 days of the end of the convention.
All of this will be posted to you first class after the convention. Overseas packs will incur an additional cost for postage which will depend on the goodie bag contents although we don’t expect this to be more than £5.
STANDARD – £30
The standard package will include all of the above PLUS the opportunity to attend the convention should your circumstances change, as well as including an Auto Assembly lanyard for your name pass. Again, overseas packs will incur an additional cost for postage which will depend on the goodie bag contents.
DELUXE – £30 plus additional costs TBC
The ultimate package! This is the same as the standard package but also gives you EVERY Auto Assembly 2008 exclusive that we are able to obtain on your behalf that may be produced by anyone else attending. This will include the fanzines produced by Transmasters UK, anything from Wildfur if they do any Auto Assembly editions of their comics, and anything else.
Please note that there will be additional charges for ALL of these items and postage and we can not guarantee what these costs will be. This amount will need to be paid for within 30 days of the end of the convention. We will not be able to offer these on a selective basis, it will be everything or none so if you don’t want all of the bonus items, simply select the BASIC or STANDARD packages.
* * *
Please note that with all of the above packs, winners of any of the prize draws or competitions will be responsible for postage costs for their prizes.
If you haven’t already booked and you’re able to come along and join us for another rip-roaring convention, head on over to the website now to book your tickets. If you can’t make it, pop over to the site and get your non-attendee packs to get involved! We’re looking forward to seeing you all in five weeks time!
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comTel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
AA2008 Update – 23rd June 2008
As 2nd August closes in, more and more information about Auto Assembly 2008 is coming out, and the less time you have to book your tickets for Europe’s largest Transformers convention this year.
Here is this weeks update:
With just under six weeks to to go until Auto Assembly 2008, it’s time for another pre-convention update on the latest developments with Europe’s biggest Transformers event in 2008! We’ve got a few bits of news to bring you as well as some important reminders for all of you…
* Booking Confirmations *
We’ve roughly sent out the first two hundred of these give or take a couple where there are one or two isses that we need to resolve before they are sent out. The remainder will be sent out by this weekend so they will all be done apart from any bookings that arrive with us from this Thursday onwards.
* Pre-Registration Reminder *
I know we do keep saying this, but we can’t stress enough the importance of pre-booking for Auto Assembly 2008. It DOES make our job a lot easier in terms of planning the convention and does help us with our budget planning to help bring you a better convention. One thing we have noticed looking on a lot of forums over the last month or so is the number of fans who have been talking about attending the convention this year and who have said that they will be there but who have NOT currently registered! With early admission and the chance of extra free gifts and entry into our pre-registrant prize draw isn’t that worth it for that alone?!
There are a few things I would like to say in terms of our pre-registration targets however. We do have our break-even point that we ovbiously want to reach from pre-bookings but we do have a couple of other targets that we want to reach with YOUR help. Our first main goal is to beat the all-time European record from pre-registrations alone so we would love to have 410 pre-bookings.
However, the dream figure for us would be to reach 450 pre-bookings by at least 10 days before the convention. If we can manage this it *should* enable us to produce a THIRD postcard to give away to all attendees, potentially secure an ELEVENTH guest AND there is a surprise we are hoping to work on for the convention that may need extra money to fund it. So if you haven’t booked up and you are planning to or were thinking of paying on the day, you know what to do. If you’ve already booked, get your friends to come along as well!!
* Pre-Registration Prize Draw *
Tying in with this, as we have mentioned before, we are running a prize draw for all pre-registrants. To enter, all you need to do is pre-book and the winner will be announced during the opening ceremony and the winner will receive a bundle of goodies including a G1 graphic novel, a Transformers Titanium figure, a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) to Auto Assembly 2009 and more besides!
* Fast-Track Entry *
This is just something we are considering right now and we’ll confirm it closer to the day itself, but for anyone arriving on the Friday night we may give fans the opportunity to collect their registration packs assuming we can get our registration desk set up in time. You won’t be able to spend time in the hall with the dealers, just collect your packs, but this will mean that once the doors open on Saturday morning you’ll be able to walk right in at 10:30 am!
This is just an idea right now but we’ll let you all know if this is going to happen. Again, this will be for PRE-REGISTRANTS ONLY!! Keep reading these updates for more news on whether we do this fast-track entry system!
* Charity Raffle Update *
Thanks to a very generous donation from Nostalgia & Comics in Birmingham, we now have a massive selection of almost 20 prizes in the charity raffle covering the movie and G1 including t-shirts, comics, books, toys, figures and more!
Tickets will be just 20p with all proceeds going to our nominated charity Help A Local Child. If every attendee spends just £2 on tickets that will help us raise almost £1,000 for charity just from the raffle alone so please be generous!
* Toy Collection *
We’re running another toy collection again for Help A Local Child so if you have any unwanted BRAND NEW toys that you want to donate, please bring them along and leave them at the registration desk. They MUST have the CE safety mark on them but apart from that they can be anything – action figures, board games, jigsaws, boys or girls toys and don’t have to be limited to Transformers but they MUST be NEW. Last time we collected SIX BOXES full of toys and we’d like to thank everyone for their generous donations.
* Guest Update *
A quick update on one of our guests, Kat Nicholson. Contrary to what we have said before, while Kat made her Transformers debut colouring the Beast Wars Megatron postcard for Auto Assembly: Target 2006 she has since worked professionally on Transformers working on IDW’s Beast Wars Source Books and has now done work for Titan’s Transformers comic and will also be working on their forthcoming Transformers Animated comic… although they seem to like referring to her as Kat Robinson!
* Volunteering *
We still need more volunteers to come forward for the convention. While we have had plenty of offers, not many of you have sent in your volunteering forms which we need to be able to allocate everyone to their duties during the day so please get these in to us as soon as possible!
Well, that’s it for now, but we should have a few more announcements over the next few days so keep an eye out on all the major TF websites and forums and look out for our next update next weekend and we hope to see a lot of you all on 2nd August!
As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this weekly update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
Auto Assembly 2008 Prize Draw Details
The first details of the Auto Assembly 2008 prize draw have been revealed. To be part of the draw, and your chance to wind some Transformers goodies, you have to pre-register for the convention. Also, by signing up and paying now, you will help make the convention better, with there being a more likely chance of more guests attending.
Full details can be found below:
Hi everyone,
Pre-registrations are coming along really well for Auto Assembly 2008 and we’re well on course to beat not only our all-time attendance record but the European attendance record as well, but there’s still plenty of time to get your bookings in if you haven’t already and there are plenty of reasons for you to pre-register!
Early Admission
Not only will pre-registrants get earlier access to the convention compared with on-the-door attendees, therefore giving you a better chance of grabbing the early bargains from all our dealers, but with our now infamous goodie bag, there are some items that are limited in terms of how many we have. Some have already run out but with others that we are trying to negotiate, these may be limited so the earlier you book, the better chance you have of getting more free gifts on your arrival!
A Better Convention
Next, as you know, Auto Assembly 2008 is a non-profit making event so every penny we get from registration fees goes back into the convention towards venue hire, guest expenses, equipment hire, stationery, printing, postage and producing items for the goodie bag such as our postcards. Now, the more people who pre-register, the quicker we can pay all our costs and then the more money we have left over the more we can invest to give YOU a better convention!
For example, if we break even well in advance, then not only will we have two exclusive postcards but we may be able to afford to produce a third postcard free for everyone, or book an extra UK comic guest or add extra items to the programme for the day. Who knows, but we can’t do it without the money being there!
Prize Draw
Finally, EVERYONE who pre-registers will be entered into a FREE prize draw to win a selection of Transformers goodies! We’re talking to some sponsors at the moment to see what items we can get but we already have some items prizes up already! We won’t say what right now but keep an eye on the website for news on what they will be but remember, this is for pre-registrants ONLY and the winner/runner up will be announced on the day!!
What’s Happening On The Day
It’s going to be our biggest Auto Assembly yet with no less than TEN guests including all our usual comic guests and headlined by G1 voice actor Dan Gilvezan (Bumblebee). There will be a comic guest Q&A panel, a talk/Q&A session from Dan later in the day, guest signings, a charity auction and raffle, videos, a quiz, toy and art displays (including a display of rare “lucky draw” toys), plenty of dealers and much more besides!
So if you haven’t already booked, head on over to the website now to book your tickets and we hope to see many of you there in August!
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comTel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
Auto Assembly featured on BBC website
In a good bit of publicity, the BBC have written, under the BBC Birmingham banner, an article on the UK Transformers convention, Auto Assembly. It is also Today’s Main Feature on the BBC England site.
Featured in the article is an interview with one half of the organisers, Sven Harvey, who discusses how the convention started, his own collection and why you should attend Auto Assembly 2008.
We recommend old and new fans make an effort to attend Auto Assembly 2008 on 2nd August. With 10 confirmed guests, competitions, a charity auction and much more, it looks like being the best convention yet. Be sure to book early, as this years convention looks like being the largest even in Europe, and there may not be tickets on the door.
Thanks to Wreck and Rule for the news.
1st June – Auto Assembly 2008 Update
Simon Plumbe has provided the first of the now weekly updates for Auto Assembly 2008, with complete details of all goings on so far.
With only 62 days to go until Auto Assembly 2008, we thought it would be worth starting the first of our pre-convention weekly updates bringing you some of the latest major happenings in the final run up to Europe’s biggest Transformers event in 2008…!
Quite a few things have happened in the last 7 days and we’ve been fairly busy so we’ll try to cram as much in here as we can…
* Guests *
Our guest line-up for AA2008 is probably one of our biggest and best ever and we currently have TEN confirmed guests so far! Our guest of honour is Dan Gilvezan – the voice of Bumblebee from G1. Supporting Dan is a plethora of comic guests including legendary writer Simon Furman, artists Andrew Wildman, Simon Williams, Geoff Senior, Staz Johnson, Lew Stringer, and colourists Jason Cardy, Liam Shalloo and Kat Nicholson.
That’s not all though, we are STILL talking to more possible guests although it’s partly down to YOU whether we get more! Remember, the more people who pre-book, the greater our budget is for the convention!
* Competitions *
We’ve got a load of competitions taking place at the convention and in the run up to the day itself – art, fiction, model and kitbash competitions, a kids colouring competition and a quiz on the day itself. We’ve now got full details of all of these and information on how to enter up on the website as well as a downloadable entry form! There will be plenty of toys up for grabs so why not give it a shot!
* Charity Auction *
We started to give you all some details on this year’s charity auction earlier in the week but it’s already looking great. As well as a load of signed items from a lot of Transformers voice actors, we’ve now confirmed at least three pieces of BRAND NEW artwork from some top Transformers comic artists that have been specially commissioned for Auto Assembly 2008! Obviously, we’re open to anything that anyone wants to donate to this or our charity raffle so please get in touch!
* Goodie Bag *
The infamous goodie bag is shaping up reasonably well at the moment. We’ve got four items confirmed right now with more in negotiations. Every attendee will get two more Auto Assembly exclusive postcards, one featuring Bumblebee illustrated by Simon Williams. The other will be drawn by another top TF artist but we’re not saying who yet! Also, all attendees will receive a pack of Cards Inc G1 stickers and we have plenty of other gifts but these are going to be limited so if you want some of the other items, you’ll need to register quickly. For example, we have assorted copies of the ladybird G1 storybooks, but these were limited for the first 80 or so attendees so they’ve all been allocated already. We do have a lot more items to sort so keep an eye on the website.
As you can see, it pays to pre-book early!
* Booking Confirmations *
We know that many of you have been asking – both directly and through various forums – about booking confirmations and when you’re going to be receiving them. Well, now that we’ve been able to secure our guest of honour, we’re now working on getting them sorted!
We’re working like crazy on getting the information pack finalised, talking to hotels to chase up discounts on accommodation so we can sent out the most accurate information packs possible and these should start going out in the next 7 days to the first batch of attendees who have booked.
Obviously, as soon as we have hotel discounts sorted, details of these will also go straight on the website and we’re hoping to have the first of these done by the middle of the week at the latest.
* Pre-Registrations *
One thing we can’t stress enough for those of you who haven’t already done it is the benefits of pre-registering for Auto Assembly 2008. Not only does it get things out of the way and means that it’s one less worry for you on the day, but all pre-registrants get earlier entry than those paying on the door so you can get at all those bargains sooner!
Not only that but pre-registering helps US as convention organisers. At Auto Assembly, we have a break-even point financially. Not only do we have to pay to hire the venue and cover our guest costs, but printing, postage and numerous other expenses. However, once we have covered all of those, anything left over can be reinvested to make AA2008 a better convention either going towards bonus guests or extra gifts in the goodie bag.
For example, we are producing two exclusive postcards this year but once we have covered all of our costs, all it needs is an extra 15 adult attendees to give us the extra funds to produce a THIRD card for everyone but we can’t do that if people leave booking until the last minute or pay on the door and it’s the same when it comes to finding extra funds towards bonus UK comic guests!
Put simply, if you want a bigger and better Auto Assembly 2008, it’s in YOUR hands…!
* Volunteering *
Finally, as always, we’re looking for volunteers to help out with the convention on the day and in the run up to the event and in helping us to promote it. For more information, see the volunteering page on the website and download a form!
Well, that’s it for now, but we should have a few more announcements over the next few days so keep an eye out on all the major TF websites and forums and look out for our next update next weekend and we hope to see a lot of you all on 2nd August!
As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this weekly update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
Auto Assembly 2008 Charity Auction
Auto Assembly will again be holding their charity auction at this years convention, and already have lots of interesting stuff to bid on, but they would like some more. So, if you have any interesting Transformers merchandise that you are willing to donate, send it in.
Full details can be found below:
Hi everyone,
As usual, Auto Assembly 2008 is holding one of it’s now traditional charity auctions to raise money for it’s nominated charity, Help A Local Child, and this year we’re hoping that it will be our best yet!
Help a Local Child was launched in 1994 with a commitment to helping the children and young people of the West Midlands, who experience the negative effects of poverty, abuse, neglect, homelessness, violence, crime, illness and disability. There are many children in and around the Birmingham area who are carers for their own parents or who are indirect victims of domestic violence or suffer daily pain due to illness. In this world of glamour and gain, these are the children that BRMB want to help. Their focus is local fundraising, with all money raised being awarded locally and really benefiting our community. With the help and support of their listeners, local celebrities, corporate partners, volunteers, and their employees, the fundraising year on year will help more and more children in the area, enabling them to achieve dreams and ambitions they would never have thought possible.
Last time we managed to raise just over ?,000 (almost $2,000) for our nominated charity from our auction and raffle thanks to many generous donations and support from those attending and we are hoping to beat this figure from Auto Assembly 2008 and we are already off to a flying start with donated and pledged items including the following:-
Auto Assembly 2004 RiD Sideburn/Mirage postcard – signed by Wally Wingert
Auto Assembly 2005 RiD Optimus Prime postcard – signed by Neil Kaplan
Auto Assembly 2006 Beast Wars Megatron postcard – signed by David Kaye
Signed photo of Neil Ross (G1 – Slag, Springer, Hook, Bonecrusher…)
Auto Assembly 2008 postcard original artwork – Simon Williams
Auto Assembly 2008 original artwork – Mike Collins
Auto Assembly 2008 original artwork – artist TBC
Signed photo – Wankus (RiD – Prowl)
Signed “something” – David Sobolov (Beast Wars – Depth Charge)We are waiting for a lot more items as well so it’s shaping up to be a great auction this time around but we want more and this time we’re asking for YOUR help! If any of you have any items that you would like to donate we’d love to hear from you!
The sort of things we are looking for are items that are a little bit different, rare, more collectible or unique, so we’re not looking for more modern items really. The convention itself is going to have more of a focus on G1 although we are still going to be open to donations of almost anything. If you can send items to us in advance that would be great but if not, if you can let us know in advance (and ideally send us a photo or two) and then make sure we have them on the night before the convention then that will be fine!
The best things we are looking for would be signed items, original comic artwork, convention exclusive toys, old mint boxed G1 toys, toy prototypes, limited edition comics, toys and similar items that are hard to find – that sort of thing. If in doubt, get in touch!
If any of you can help, it would be greatly appreciated and we’re sure it would help us to smash our previous fundraising efforts. If you could help, our postal address for all donations is:-
Auto Assembly 2008 Charity Auction
PO Box 8966
Great Barr
Birmingham
B43 5ST
EnglandAs well as the auction, we will be holding a raffle so if you have any regular items you may wish to donate as prizes for this, please feel free to send anything or bring these along on the Friday evening and again, funds raised from this will go to Help A Local Child.
Many thanks and we look forward to seeing you all on 2nd August!
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
