The Energon Pub

Earlier today, fellow Seibertronian Giga Zarak contacted us to inform us that our old site articles section was missing. Truth be told, I think it's been M.I.A. for at least a few years now. Fortunately, I had the old articles in a database table still so I imported them into our news section for all of you to enjoy. Some of these articles are press releases, old newspaper articles from the 80s, or articles that I wrote for Seibertron.com's predecessor "Trans-Forum" (which was a Transformers fanzine I ran from 1996 to 1999).

Comments will be unavailable for these topics at this time. If someone can help by creating forum topics for them in the appropriate forums and by sending a list of the titles and URLs for these articles, I'll hook up these old articles with the new forum topics.

In the meantime, here's some fun reading from Seibertron.com to bring back some memories this fine spring weekend.

Transformers
Date: November 18th, 1984
Source: Unknown
Author: Sharon Young

Santa's orders launch invasion of robots
Date: November 25th, 1984
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
Author: Judy Hille

Milton Bradley purchase, hot toys put Pawtucket firm near industry's top
Date: December 23rd, 1984
Source: Providence Journal
Author: Hamilton Allen

Hottest toy sells out before it's delivered
Date: December 24th, 1984
Source: Unknown
Author: Jane A. Smith

Hasbro Can't Toy with Optimus Prime
Date: March 28th, 1987
Source: Unknown
Author: Lane Crockett

Poor Sales May Deal Toy Robots Fatal Blow
Date: December 16th, 1990
Source: Associated Press
Author: Karen Schwartz

Beast Wars Series Premieres With Winning Ratings In U.S.
Date: May 27th, 1996
Source: Mainframe

Hop in your Deceptive Automobile to BotCon '96!
Date: June 6th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

The Beast Within!
Date: June 6th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

And From Headquarters (July 1996) ...
Date: July 5th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Botcon '96 Takes Over The Windy City
Date: July 5th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Only Time Will Tell
Date: July 5th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Dave's World
Date: July 5th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

New Beasts begin shipping in November!
Date: August 24th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

A Prime Mistake
Date: August 24th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Arcee, Starscream Hot Rod and others to arrive in Toy Stores!
Date: October 1st, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

The Beast Wars UNFOLD!
Date: October 1st, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Arcee Mania!
Date: October 1st, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Japanese Variations
Date: October 1st, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Starscream?!?
Date: December 9th, 1996
Source: Trans-Forum

Transformers Entertainment News
Date: April 7th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

Two new garage kits to be released in 1997
Date: April 7th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

Machine Wars are HOT!!!
Date: April 7th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

Beast Wars Season 2 Is In Works
Date: April 7th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

Men-In-Black's TransCon2
Date: May 5th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

The Convention Battles: Botcon '97 vs TransCon2
Date: June 13th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

The Real Heroes Of The Story
Date: June 13th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

Technology aids in production of Trans-Forum
Date: July 1st, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

The Transformers Homepages
Date: July 1st, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

Life Expectancy: the Future and Mortality
Date: July 7th, 1997
Source: Trans-Forum

Beast Wars Creative Team to change after Season 3
Date: October 21st, 1998
Source: Trans-Forum

Transformers Comic Scheduled to be published summer 1999?!?
Date: January 11th, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

Transformers: Year 16
Date: January 11th, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

Transmetal 2: Second Arrival
Date: March 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

Beast Hunters Transformers
Date: March 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

The Next Phase: NEO
Date: March 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

Trans-Forum International's "SEIBERTRON"
Date: March 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

What are the Animorphs?
Date: May 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

The Heroes of Cybertron: Fifteenth Anniversary Toys
Date: May 10th, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

The BEAST WARS are over!!!
Date: July 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

A special Beast Wars edition of TRANS-FORUM
Date: July 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

The Beast Wars Comic Books
Date: July 1st, 1999
Source: Trans-Forum

Hasbro Announces Licensing Agreement With Dreamwave
Date: December 13th, 2001
Source: Hasbro

Interview with Dreamwave Productions (Part 1)
Date: December 18th, 2001
Source: Seibertron.com

Interview with Dreamwave Productions (Part 2)
Date: January 4th, 2002
Source: Seibertron.com

Comparisons of Pat Lee's artwork
Date: January 6th, 2002
Source: Seibertron.com

Hasbro Arrives at 2002 Toy Fair with Some of the Hottest Toys
Date: February 2nd, 2002

Transformers Armada rant by JHall
Date: February 8th, 2002

Return of 'Transformers' the latest craze
Date: April 29th, 2002

Exclusive Interview with Don Figueroa!!!
Date: September 20th, 2002

Hasbro Arrives at 2003 Toy Fair with Some of the Hottest Toys
Date: February 10th, 2003

Hasbro Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2002 Results
Date: February 13th, 2003

GO-GO-GO-BOTS! (Hasbro Press Release)
Date: February 16th, 2003

Transformers Armada By Hasbro Is A Big Success With Kids
Date: February 16th, 2003

Interview with Devil's Due
Date: April 7th, 2003

Hasbro's All-Star Brands Showcased at Licensing 2003 International
Date: June 9th, 2003

Hasbro's San Diego Comicon Transformers Press Release
Date: July 17th, 2003

Were Megatron and Galvatron 2 separate characters in Japan?
Date: September 14th, 2003

A Prime Problem
Date: September 15th, 2003

The Mystery of Ultra Magnus
Date: September 22nd, 2003

The Transformers and Religion
Date: September 29th, 2003
Author: Dr Spengler

Figuring out Don Figueroa
Date: January 18th, 2004

Dropbox Helps Celebrate Transformers 20th Anniversary with Atari
Date: April 2nd, 2004

Atari and Universal Motown Records Group Announce Joint Marketing Relationship
Date: April 12th, 2004

Atari Begins the "Ultimate Conflict" with Worldwide Release of 'TRANSFORMERS' Video Game
Date: May 12th, 2004

Hasbro Properties Group Brings Global Toy and Game Brands to Licensing 2004 International
Date: June 7th, 2004

"Tanuki": Animal Tracker, Raccoon Dog
Date: June 29th, 2004
Source: The Japan Times
Author: Rowan Hooper

Legendary TRANSFORMERS Property from Hasbro Will Come to Life with Live Action Film from DreamWorks and Paramount; Steven Spielberg to Executive Produce
Date: July 23rd, 2004

Hasbro Celebrates 20 Years of the TRANSFORMERS Brand at the Official TRANSFORMERS Collectors' Convention in Chicago
Date: July 26th, 2004

The end of Dreamwave - A crushing blow to the fan community ...
Date: January 4th, 2005

Hasbro Transformers CYBERTRON Press Release
Date: February 18th, 2005

First article has a busted link Ryan.

But thank you for them, absoloutely love reading the articles from the 80's. As a kid I didn't pay much attention and being in rural Australia back then we didn't get much stuff like that at all.

Burn wrote:First article has a busted link Ryan.

Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.

Burn wrote:But thank you for them, absoloutely love reading the articles from the 80's. As a kid I didn't pay much attention and being in rural Australia back then we didn't get much stuff like that at all.

Glad I could help. I feel like the young me from 1995 is helping the older me in 2010 by making all of those copies of Microfiche film from our school's library prior to graduating. Thanks young me!

wow....in that picture i see those "watch transformers". man i sooo remember those. there were so many knock off versions too. lol

Ha, sweet! Thanks for putting these up, Seibs. I guess I didn't realize that TFs were the "IT" Christmas toy of 1984. I didn't get into them until the next year.

On a unrelated note, I was thinking "I wonder how many people here even know what microfiche is?!" My mom was a librarian for years, so I remember microfiche well! Ahhh, old technology...

Energon Is My Drug wrote:On a unrelated note, I was thinking "I wonder how many people here even know what microfiche even is!" My mom was a librarian for years, so I remember microfiche well! Ahhh, old technology...

Very true. And as they say, "Knowing is half the battle!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfiche

These articles are great reads! I love the rich history that Transformers has, (probably because I lived through it myself), so yeah, these articles are so much fun to read!

I've just read a line in one of them (Santa's orders launch invasion of robots) mentioning that...

"Kids are gravitating to the Transformers," said Mark Osman, assistant manager at Toys By Roy in Fiesta Mall.

WOW! What a different time it was when a comment like that could be uttered! We take for granted just how popular TF is nowadays, once upon a time, it was something kids were "gravitating towards!".

And to contrast that (and almost bookend G1), an article about Poor Sales May Deal Toy Robots Fatal Blow...

"The whole transformation theme -- it was an exciting one for kids, and I think done well it continues to be."

As true then, as it is today, I bet "Hasbro company spokesman Wayne Charness" didn't realise the seemingly immortal phrase he was uttering then, given what a powerhouse TF still is!

Great stuff! Thanks Ryan!

Great find, reading some of those articles with 10 to 20 years of hindsight on them can be quite funny, especially the Machine Wars related articles.

you guys are lucky the blast for my past are those transformers armada commercials

when i was a kid i wanted them to end cause i wanted to watch some TV and i didnt know what transformers were (but i bought 3 beast machines)BUT THEN they show the awesome transformation for megatron from the show that made me want to buy the toys

(and believe you me when i saw megatron he looked AMAZING now. . .not so much)

Burn wrote:First article has a busted link Ryan.

But thank you for them, absoloutely love reading the articles from the 80's. As a kid I didn't pay much attention and being in rural Australia back then we didn't get much stuff like that at all.

Same here in Brazil mate.

ryan -- will you get rid of that godawful truck on the front banner?!?!?!!?! It's scaring women, kids, and small animals!!!!!!!!!

vectorA3 wrote:ryan -- will you get rid of that godawful truck on the front banner?!?!?!!?! It's scaring women, kids, and small animals!!!!!!!!!

No! Keep it! It's so bad it's good!

vectorA3 wrote:ryan -- will you get rid of that godawful truck on the front banner?!?!?!!?! It's scaring women, kids, and small animals!!!!!!!!!

Ask and ye shall receive! It needed to be updated anyways so I updated it to the 2 upcoming galleries that should be posted later today.

good:




bad:



ugly: that G2 truck!!