Transformers Timelines (fiction)

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You're semi-evil. You're quasi-evil. You're the margarine of evil. You're the Diet Coke of evil: just one calorie, not evil enough.

Transformers Timelines is the banner under which much of Fun Publications' Transformers fiction was published from 2005 to 2016. The stories were told across a wide variety of media and continuities - some pre-existing, others created from scratch. Roughly half of the content was published in the club's magazine (not technically under the Timelines banner) and half was published as online prose stories and BotCon-exclusive comics.

Unlike the lengthy stories with complex ties to existing fiction published by the previous convention organizers, 3H Productions, Fun Publications promised more standalone stories starting with a short comic accompanying the BotCon 2005 boxed set.

While the BotCon issues were traditionally self-contained, most of the club's stories ended up being just as convoluted and referential as 3H's work ever was. The release order and chronology of all these sources is uniquely complicated, with many plot threads and characters across a multitude of universes being suddenly dropped only to get picked up again years later. When Fun Publications learned they'd be losing their fan club and convention license in 2016, they stepped up their fictional output, and were successfully able to resolve the majority of their storylines by midnight on December 31 that year.

Combined cover of the five limited collected editions of the TFCC magazine.

BotCon issues

The only stories released under the Timelines banner to receive any kind of numbering system were the hard-copy-published comic book issues. Ironically, these self-contained issues generally benefited least from such a system, usually having no continuity from one to the next. When Fun Publications started selling mass-retail editions of their comics via Diamond Publishing, with alternate covers and additional profiles for convention-exclusive toys, they started their numbering system over from #1.

Text stories

Thirty-eight illustrated online prose stories were published by the club. They varied in length, mostly in the region of ten to thirty pages - though the longest consisted of a whopping 179 pages. Like the BotCon issues, these stories usually starred characters with exclusive toys being sold by the club.

Magazine

A bi-monthly magazine titled the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club was published throughout the club's tenure, with each issue containing at least six comic pages, adding up to a complete 36-odd page story over the course of each year. These were supplemented by full-page profiles for characters appearing in the comic, usually two per issue, in the style of Dreamwave Productions' Transformers: More than Meets the Eye series. Some issues also included a one-page tie-in prologue or comic for upcoming online prose stories. Other recurring features of the magazine included interviews, previews of upcoming toys, and fan art.

The first two years' worth of comics were produced for the club by IDW Publishing, and as such received a trade paperback release once complete. Beginning in 2007, the magazine comics were taken in-house under the "Fun Pub Comics" brand, first introduced the previous year on BotCon 2006's Timelines vol. 2 #1

Other stories

The rest of the content produced by the club came in the form of script readings, online mini-comics, pack-in bio cards (one for each Timelines figure), YouTube videos, and Facebook pages. Most BotCons featured a panel in which the voice actors present would perform a brand-new story (except the two readings at BotCon 2011, which were adaptations of other stories), often tying into the rest of the club's main continuities (albeit with a more comedic tone). "The Return of Blurr" was later adapted as an illustrated storybook. The mini-comics were occasionally printed as back-up features in the magazine or in the BotCon issues which they tied into ("Legacy" was only released as a pack-in one-page comic art print; "Epilogue Two" was released in the Diamond Edition of the GIJoeCon 2016 comic). Aside from the Beast Wars prologue "Theft of the Golden Disk", the videos were generally comedic fourth-wall-breaking advertisements for the convention. Finally, the Facebook pages often directly interacted with readers and responded to events in other ongoing fiction.

Continuities

Beast Wars

BotCon 2005's comic, "Descent into Evil", and its follow-up script reading "Intimidation Game" were set between "Generation 1" and the Beast Era. BotCon 2006's comic, "Dawn of Future's Past", and its immediate prequel (BotCon 2007's exclusive short animated film, "Theft of the Golden Disk", based on a fan-animation), collectively formed an immediate prequel to the Beast Wars cartoon - with the 2007 prose story "The Razor's Edge" (advertising the club's exclusive Airazor figure) intended to tie these two pairs of convention-exclusive stories back together.

More than Meets the Eye-style profiles for Optimus Primal and Megatron were released in the Diamond Edition of "Dawn of Future's Past" along with short bios for Cheetor and the Maximal Command Security Force. The individual MCSF members 9K, Overshoot, Switchblade, High Beam, Shatterpoint and Getout received similar bios in issues #13 and #14 while Stopgap was given one on the Club website.^[1] More than Meets the Eye-style profiles were also published online for Cryotek and his minions from "Theft of the Golden Disk" Backslash, Dirge and Buzzbomb.^[2]

In 2007, to offer some final closure to 3H Productions' stories, the last part of the cancelled The Wreckers comic was released, with the four-page "The Wreckers: Finale Part 1" appearing in issue #16 and the prose story "Wreckers: Finale Part II" being released online. This story contained mild references to both "Dawn of Future's Past" and "Theft of the Golden Disk". Similarly, Cryotek's profile referenced both Deathsaurus from "Descent into Evil" and, vaguely, Cryotek's activities in 3H's stories. Collectively, these connections suggested all of these new Beast Wars-related stories to be part of the existing 3H Beast Wars continuity, and versions of these events were later incorporated into the backstory for the Wings Universe.^[3]

Cybertron

The first two years/arcs of the club magazine comic were "Balancing Act" and "Revelations", which tied into the Cybertron cartoon and wrapped up loose ends from 3H's Universe and Dreamwave Productions' Energon storylines. 2007's "The Dark Heart of Sandokan" (advertising Timelines Astrotrain) and 2008's "Force of Habit" prose stories were also set in this continuity.^[4] Setting a trend that continued throughout Fun Publications' tenure, these stories mainly featured toys with very limited roles in previous fiction.

The magazine soon started including profiles for the characters appearing in the comic, which further filled the gaps between storylines. Skyfall, Vector Prime, Ramjet, Nemesis Prime, Sentinel Maximus, Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Optimus Primal, Soundwave, Downshift, Unicron, the Mini-Con Council of Sages, Landquake and the Street Action Mini-Con Team all received full-size profiles by issue #12. A bio for Quickslinger was included in issue #6. Short profiles for the Giant Planet Mini-Con Team (Deepdive, Longarm and Overcast), Rapid Run's partners and their combined form, Heavy Load, Stripmine and Drill Bit were published in issues #13, #14 and #15.

A large amount of short profiles for various other Mini-Cons were released in the members-only section of the club website: these included a load of Mini-Cons from the Transformers PlayStation 2 video game (Aftershock, Jumpstart, Buildup, Flashbang, Hawkeye, Highgear, Kickback, Smackdown, Claymore, Overwatch, Covert, Highjump and Lookout) and their combined Matrix Cannon form, a bunch of Japan-exclusive Mini-Cons (the Extreme Competition, Noble Force, Steel Reinforcement, Aerial Extermination, and Apocalypse Brigade^[5] teams, along with Drop-Test, Heavy Barrel, Road Rebel, and the Dead End General/Drones), the four Classics Mini-Cons re-released with a Walmart exclusive Cybertron Primus (Strongarm, Offshoot, Knockdown and Nightscream), Astrotrain's Mini-Cons (Starcatcher and the Sabotage Team), the unreleased Attacktix Mini-Con Bunker-Buster, and Flashbox (a generic seen in an episode of the Armada cartoon). Similar profiles for Wings Universe Cop-Tur, Energon Snowblind and Classics Liftor were later published in issues #31, #32 and #33 respectively.

Many years later, the club's Armada Skywarp figure came with "Armada Volume 5", a mini-comic in the style of those packed with figures in the original Armada toyline.

Classics

The third year/arc of the club storyline, "Crossing Over", was the first in a series of Classics stories set after the end of the Marvel US The Transformers comics (but ignoring the UK continuity, Generation 2 and Regeneration One). BotCon 2007's comic "Games of Deception" brought more characters to Earth and included a prologue to the prose story, "The New World", which focused on the Classics Mini-Cons on Cybertron.^[6] A "Spring Special" Classics comic ("Cheap Shots") was released in 2008 with Timelines Nightbeat, starring him, Siren, Slag and Sludge.^[7] The last prose story of 2009, "At Fight's End", seemed to be an attempt at closure for the universe and included an in-fiction appearance of the Timelines Seacons.

Profiles for Classics characters continued to be published in issues #13-#18: Grimlock, Mirage, Astrotrain, Skywarp, Rodimus, Ramjet, Breakaway, Cliffjumper, Megatron, Optimus Prime and Starscream. The Diamond Edition of "Games of Deception" included profiles for Springer and Bug Bite. All twelve Classics Mini-Cons got short profiles in issues #16, #17 and #18.^[8] Profiles for Slag and the Headmasters Lug, Minerva, Muzzle and Quig were published in issue #22 as a "Cheap Shots" tie-in.

TransTech

The fourth year/arc of the magazine introduced Axiom Nexus, the world of TransTech, taking the concept of interdimensional travel up to eleven, with characters from countless continuities interacting on-panel. Many characters used their designs from the cancelled Transtech series, which would have been a sequel to Beast Machines, but the setting and story were wholly original, a first for Fun Publications. To give the impression of a vibrant metropolis, all five stories released during this time (the "Transcendent" comic arc, "Gone Too Far", BotCon 2008's "Bee in the City" script reading, "Withered Hope" and "I, Lowtech") took place roughly concurrently, with minor plot threads tying them together.^[9] The magazine's back-up humour strip Around Cybertron also tied into various events in those stories. An additional story titled "Crankshafts", was also pitched, and would have had fewer direct ties to the events of the other TransTech stories of this era, but was never published.^[10]

Six TransTech characters (Cheetor, Shockwave, Prowl, Starscream, Optimus Prime and Megatron) were given profiles in issues #22-24 of the magazine as part of "The World of... TRANSTECH," a feature which sported a unique design and layout but was textually almost indistinguishable from the regular More than Meets the Eye-style profiles. Two lowtechs, Blackarachnia and Topspin, got normal profiles in issue #25. Beta Maxx, who initially went unnamed when he was released at BotCon 2007, was given a full profile online.

Shattered Glass

BotCon 2008 introduced Fun Publication's most iconic setting: the Shattered Glass mirror universe. As an April Fools' Day prank, what were supposedly the first three pages of that year's convention comic, "Shattered Expectations", were "leaked" online. Upon seeing the overwhelmingly positive reaction to this, Fun Publications got the pages' writers to punch up the script for the actual comic (simply "Shattered Glass"), which was originally much more serious in tone. From there, the story split in two simultaneously published branches. The writers of "Shattered Expectations" continued their campier approach across a series of prose stories: "Dungeons & Dinobots", "Do Over", the preview comic "The Desert Heat!", "Eye in the Sky", "Blitzwing Bop", and 2011's "Transhuman". Taking place after the prose stories, the magazine's 2009 comic arc, "Reunification", maintained the tone of the BotCon comic and continued the interdimensional plot threads from previous arcs, with Around Cybertron also making the jump to the new universe.^[11]

More than Meets the Eye-style profiles for Shattered Glass characters were published in issues #25 to #30, though for the first time the amount of space given to each character varied. Abominus, Aquarius, Computron, Cyclonus, Dirge, Galvatron, Heatwave, Hound, Ratbat, Ravage, Sky Lynx, Steeljaw, the Technobots, the Terrorcons, Whisper, and Nexus Prime all got profiles during this time. Rodimus and Starscream were each given a profile in the Diamond Edition of "Shattered Glass". In 2011, a contest was held on Twitter to decide Scourge's bio, and the winning submission was expanded into a full-sized online profile. Jesse Wittenrich created six profiles to complement his Around Cybertron strips - Andromeda, Countdown, Esmeral, Mirage, Monstructor and the Wireless Automated Sales Person - but these were never printed.^[12][13]

Wings Universe

Having concluded stories set in most major continuities of the time, the club turned to the distant past of the original "Generation 1" cartoon, before "War Dawn", recounting one of Kup's earliest missions in BotCon 2009's "Wings of Honor". Pete Sinclair made sure to explain that these so-called Wings Universe stories would deviate from the cartoon in several ways, some cosmetic and some not, and more so as they progressed. 2010's comic arc, "The Coming Storm", was set ten years later, with the prose stories "Flames of Yesterday" and "A Team Effort" taking place between parts #2-#3 and #4-#5 respectively. A prose story starring Lyzack was planned to lead into 2011's comic arc, "Battle Lines", but wasn't finished in time. Around Cybertron continued for another ten strips set in this universe.

BotCon 2010's "Generation 2: Redux" comic jumped forward in time to 2010,^[14] and 2012's comic arc "A Flash Forward" picked up from there, leading into BotCon 2013's "Termination" and its immediate sequel "A Common Foe", which told a "G1"-cartoon version of the Machine Wars and advertised the third series of the Transformers Figure Subscription Service. A single-panel "Interlude..." was given in the customization class handbook for that convention. As a prelude to BotCon 2014, a Facebook page was created for "Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur", with his journal entries leading into the convention comic "Hoist the Flag".^[15] This celebration of BotCon's 20th anniversary took another time-skip to post-Beast Machines, incorporating some version of 3H's stories into the Wings Universe. A pack-in comic released with the "BotCon Legacy Collection", simply titled "Legacy", further strengthened these ties.

Profiles were published at a steady rate of two per issue throughout those three years (issues #31 to #48). The characters to receive profiles were Runabout, Jetstorm, Magnum, Over-Run, Onslaught, Moonracer, Deathsaurus, Metalhawk, Sentinel Major, Ricochet, Ironfist, Bruticus, Landshark, Starscream, Outback, Ironhide, Side Burn, Prowl, Thunderclash, Lyzack, Gyronian Sentry, Sprocket, Hauler, Devastator, Ultra Magnus, Runamuck, Sizzle, Jhiaxus, Windbreaker, Flamefeather, Hubcap, Nightracer, Blaze, Soundwave, Sideswipe and Frenzy. The Diamond Edition of "Wings of Honor" contained profiles for Kup, Banzai-Tron, Flak, Leozack and Dion; "Generation 2: Redux" included profiles for Clench, Rapido, Slicer and Scorch; "Termination" included profiles for Strika, Obsidian, Megaplex, Thundercracker and Mirage; "A Common Foe" included profiles for Krok, Serpent O.R., Carzap and Tarantulas; and "Hoist the Flag" included profiles for Alpha Trizer, Apelinq and Flare-Up. Thundercracker was to receive a Wings Universe bio card for his Action Master form, but when that figure was released as Shattered Glass Thundercracker instead the bio was shelved and later published in non-canonical form in issue #42. A series of features titled "The Transformers Menagerie" were released in issues #49 to #54 and provided information on the Primitives.^[16] As a tie-in to "Hoist the Flag", profiles were published in issue #56 for Squirm and Olin Zarak and in #58 for the Dread Pirate Crew and Flamewar.

Animated and Aligned

A two-page online comic, "Moving Violations", was the first Timelines story to be entirely set in the Animated universe. It doubled as both an advertisement for Cheetor's exclusive toy and as a prologue to BotCon 2011's comic, "The Stunti-Con Job". Both stories were set after "Endgame, Part II". A live script reading of "The Stunti-Con Job" was performed at the convention, along with a script reading of the Prime episode "Shadowzone". Both performances included extra scenes not present in the original versions. BotCon 2013's script reading, "Unreliable Narratives", had Prime Kup tell Hot Shot a tale (taking place between War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron). The 2014 script reading "Prevenge", starring Rescue Bots Blades, plucked characters from a wide range of continuities for a Universe-style battle royale. BotCon 2015's script reading, "The Return of Blurr", proved to be the last Animated story, and was later re-released at BotCon 2016 as an illustrated storybook.

Supplementary material for Animated came in the form of The AllSpark Almanac Addendum, printed in the Diamond Edition of "The Stunti-Con Job" and issues #43, #44 and #45 of the magazine. A series of Tech Specs were published: ten in issue #24, two each in issues #25 to #30, and six (plus four reprints) years later in issue #71. All twenty-eight of these plus twenty-four extras were also released as a BotCon 2011 exclusive lithograph. A single More than Meets the Eye-style profile for the Animated Headmaster Jrs. (Nightbeat, Siren and Hosehead) was published in issue #71.

"Invasion"

BotCon 2012 returned to the Classics and Shattered Glass universes with its "Invasion" crossover. A six-page "Invasion Prologue" comic was released online during the build-up to the convention and reprinted in the Diamond Edition of the convention comic, while the convention's script reading "Bee in the City 2: Electric Bugaloo" saw the Megatron of BotCon 2008's script capitalise on events of the crossover. A two-page "Invasion: Epilogue" later followed online and in issue #48 of the magazine,^[17] leading into 2013's comic arc "Beast Wars Shattered Glass", which focused on two temporally-displaced teams of Classics refugees on the prehistoric Earth of the Shattered Glass universe. The seven-page TransTech comic "Timeless" spun out of this arc, advertising the second series of subscription figures.

The three-page online comic "Collections" starred Packrat,^[18] leading into his appearance in the BotCon 2015 comic "Cybertron's Most Wanted" and following up on threads from "Timeless". Several Facebook pages sprang up during this time, building on the success of Tornado's journal: Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News Reporter, Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist and Axiom Nexus News Editor all ran in parallel and were soon joined by Ask Vector Prime, Spacewarp's Log and Renegade Rhetoric. Three back-up features in the magazine, Transformers I.Q., Hot Shot's Bot Thoughts and Bot on the Street, were generally set in the TransTech universe but often touched on events from other continuities. TransTech Rhinox featured in "The Beast Wars Road Map", a flowchart published in issue #70 explaining the chronology of the various Beast Era stories until then, along with the Rhinox, Rattrap and Airazor from the Japanese Transformers Legends comic (another of Hayato Sakamoto's stories, the Kre-O Transformers webcomic, received a tie-in with 2015's "The Brick List: Earth's Most Wanted").

In the aftermath of "Invasion", Classics Earth was brought into the Shattered Glass universe. The Recordicons backup strip, starring Shattered Glass Ravage and the other Mini-Cassettes, had been running in the magazine since issue #34 alongside the Wings Universe stories, and the 2012 strips played around with the post-"Invasion" status quo. This premise was further explored in "Solar Requiem", a comic collaboration between Fun Publications and e-HOBBY packed in with the Shattered Glass Soundwave and Blaster set, and in the 2016 four-part Spatiotemporal Challengers series of prose stories ("Sunrise", "High Noon", "Journey's Eve" and "Last Sunset"), which starred the GoBots from "Withered Hope".^[19] Recordicons ran until issue #63, before being replaced by SD SG for issues #65 to #71. The "Beast Wars: Shattered Glass" survivors returned to the present day just in time for 2015's comic arc "Another Light", which served to wrap up most of the major plot threads left dangling since the club's very inception.

Profiles for a variety of characters were published during this time. Optimus Prime ("Hero Prime") and Depth Charge got profiles in issue #49, and Rhinox got one in issue #54. A Tech Spec for the INSIRT was published on Facebook. The Diamond Edition of "Cybertron's Most Wanted" included profiles for General Optimus Prime, Battletrap and Zaptrap with Beet-Chit. Classics Grimlock, Dirge, Scylla, Autojetter, Ultra Mammoth, Megatron, Magnaboss, Autolauncher and God Neptune got profiles from issues #50 to #54; Prowl later received his own profile in #62 and Grimlock later received a third in #63. Shattered Glass Soundwave finally got a profile in issue #65, and artwork for Nova Prime and Galvatron was published in #66's feature.

Beast Wars: Uprising and "Dawn of the Predacus"

The universe first glimpsed in the bios for Blackarachnia and Depth Charge was finally given a dedicated story in "Alone Together", 2014's comic arc (starring Rampage and Trans-Mutate in their Timelines forms). Then, from 2015 to 2016, twelve prose stories written by Jim Sorenson and David Bishop were released: "Broken Windshields", "Head Games", "Burning Bridges", "Micro-Aggressions", "Intersectionality", "Trigger Warnings", "Identity Politics", "Not All Megatrons", "Cultural Appropriation", "Safe Spaces", "Derailment" and "The Inexorable March". Unlike the vast majority of Fun Publications' stories, which often dealt heavily in interdimensional shenanigans, this new continuity was much more isolated and grounded (despite the best attempts of "A Change to the Agenda", a screen-capture comic published in issue #70). A small set of profiles for Rampage, Trans-Mutate, Jawbreaker, Bigmos, Medusa, Lord Imperious Delirious and Lio Convoy were released in issues #55, #57, #59 and #61.

The BotCon 2016 comic was originally pitched as a Beast Wars: Uprising story, but once IDW Publishing was brought on-board plans changed to ostensibly focus on their own Beast Wars continuity, resulting in "Dawn of the Predacus" and its associated script reading "The Hot Rod".

Of Masters and Mayhem

The last new continuity to be created by the club saw the relocation of the humans and Classics Pretenders from the Shattered Glass universe in the aftermath of "Another Light" and served to advertise the fourth and fifth series of the Transformers Figure Subscription Service. It also saw the return of Ramjet - last seen in "Revelations" - who received a new figure from the club. Five prose stories ("The Truth We Make", "Life Finds a Way", "The Toxic Transformer", "Deadly Aim" and "Lively Pursuit") supplemented the main "Of Masters and Mayhem" comic arc.

Partially following on from the Shattered Glass scenes in the comic arc, "Coalescence" - the long-awaited sequel to "Transhuman" - was finally written and released, with its epilogue offering some closure for Depth Charge. A single-page "Epilogue" published in issue #72 revealed the fates of some Classics characters left unaccounted for in the aftermath of "Invasion", while the two-page "Epilogue Two" published in the Diamond Edition of GIJoeCon 2016's comic "Project Downfall" (of all places) wrapped up the TransTech story.

Five profiles for Ramjet, Lifeline, Impactor, Gnash and Thrashclaw were published in issues #67, #68 and #70. On its last day, the club's Twitter released four profiles repurposing the BotCon 2015 Waruders as other characters: Bug Bite, King Waruder, Skywasp and Shattered Glass Waspinator.

Back-up strips

In its earliest years, the magazine included a variety of newspaper-style strips, none with a strict continuity: Another Con, Lil' Jerry, Robot Parade, Mini Mayhem! and Lil Formers.

YouTube videos

The club's official YouTube channel uploaded its first video to promote BotCon 2008, with both parts of "Theft of the Golden Disk" being released on the channel after the convention. A teaser for 2008's membership figure, Topspin, was released which consisted of about seventy seconds of text and three seconds of stop-motion animation. From 2009 to 2013, the club teamed up with media professionals Randall Ng and DR.SMOOV to produce several short promotional videos. The first of these was an Elite Guard recruitment video, starring young Kup and advertising BotCon 2009. The second had Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream making plans to go to the convention. Advertising BotCon 2010, the club released a parody of the original Generation 2 cartoon opening sequence along with another video starring Megatron, the exclusive-toys-obsessed Starscream, Breakdown, Optimus, and Punch/Counterpunch. They also released a parody of an Old Spice commercial advertising club membership. Gregg Berger voiced G1 Grimlock in a video asking fans to vote for him in the 2011 Transformers Hall of Fame. Another animated video was released to advertise BotCon 2011, in which Starscream finally found someone to share his passion for exclusive toys with, and another for BotCon 2012. The last animated video, advertising BotCon 2013, had Blaster and Soundwave battle in a... dance-off. For their promotional video for BotCon 2016, Fun Publications worked instead with voice actor David Kaye.

Legacy

Despite the relative obscurity of most Timelines stories, many of Fun Publications' concepts have cropped up again in more mainstream Transformers media.

The Shattered Glass continuity in particular has proved quite impactful. Following references by the Transformers Legends mobile game and a couple of mass-retail figures, in 2021 it received a toyline of its own, with an accompanying comic book from IDW Publishing. Bizarrely, its prominence in Japanese Transformers fandom led the creators of the anime SSSS.Gridman to base much of the show's cast on Shattered Glass characters.

Ask Vector Prime ultimately had a large influence on some high-profile stories, most notably in the portrayal of Maccadam in Cyberverse.

You left a piece out! This article is a stub and is missing information. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it. What's needed: explanation of exactly which concepts made their way into mainstream media.

References