Auto Assembly News Archive
August 2003 - April 2004
Welcome to part two of Auto Assembly News Archive. This covers all the news we have reported from August 2003 until April 2004 covering the run-up to Auto Assembly 2004.
| 30th April 2004 | SIXTH Guest Confirmed!! With just over a week to go, we can now confirm that a sixth guest has been added to the line-up for AA2004. We are now going to be joined by Maximum Entertainment who are releasing RiD on DVD later this year so you'll be able to put all your questions to them and make your suggestions known! |
| 22nd April 2004 | Atari Comes To Auto Assembly!
Atari are going to be involved in the Auto Assembly weekend promoting their new Transformers game for the Playstation 2. PS2s will be on hand all weekend for you to play the game, we will be giving free demo discs away, and Atari are donating copies of the game and a Playstation 2 as competition prizes!! Auction Update We've added loads of new and limited edition items to the auction as well as details on how you can take part if you have gone for the non-attendee pack option! Booking Deadline Looms... With just 16 days to go, we've added a page to the AA2004 section with all the final deadlines for bookings - postally, online and in person so if you haven't booked yet, this will give you an idea of when you need to book by! |
| 11th April 2004 | Sunday Programme Extended!
We've been looking at the structure for AA2004 and we're now able to extend the programme of events on Sunday for AA2004 until 7:00 pm for those of you who aren't in a rush to get home! We are going to be showing extra videos after the closing ceremony and raffle draw while the dealers and other rooms are closing and the other parts of the main hall are being packed up so you can catch up on the latest episodes of Energon! |
| 9th April 2004 | Voice Of Optimus Rolls In...
You've heard the speech from Wally Wingert on the website, recreating his role as Sideburn and Mirage from RiD and now Neil Kaplan, the voice of Optimus Prime in RiD has recorded some exclusive speech for us as well and this can be found in the AA2004 section of the site! There are three new sound clips in total. Two just featuring Neil, and the third featuring Wally as well - we hope you like them! |
| 30th March 2004 | Leonard Nimoy Autograph In
Auction! Leonard Nimoy, the voice of Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie and the legendary Spock in Star Trek (as if we really needed to tell you who he is!) has very kindly donated a signed photo for our charity auction this year! Auto Assembly 2005 Announced! We're going back to the one day format and it will be in April 2005. We don't know much else yet, but we may be talking to another voice actor, although this could mean ticket prices being around the £15 mark. |
| 23rd March 2004 | Discount deadline looms! You've now got just over seven days to get your booking forms in to us to qualify for a pre-booking discount. We will be extending the offer for those of you who attended AA2003 and if you haven't had a booking form yet, let us know and we'll send one to you with details on claiming your discount. Site Updates We know we haven't updated this page much recently, but we've been updating the AA2004 pages almost every day with news about the convention. So much has been happening lately that it's been difficult keeping up. For the latest developments, and a chance to keep up with things as they happen, keep an eye on the AA2004 section, or visit the discussion forum - you'll usually find one of us on hand at all times. Uncle Davver Lands In The UK! "Uncle Davver's Really Scary Movie Show" is the title of the latest TV pilot being produced by Wally Wingert's TV production company and we are proud to be showing this as part of the Saturday night package of entertainment. This has not been seen anywhere yet apart from one screening in the US at the premiere party and to network executives so Auto Assembly 2004 will be it's international debut! AA2004 Freebies You may remember we mentioned before about Metrodome producing some new exclusive postcards for us to give away at this year's convention to all attendees. Well, we're talking to them at the moment about the quantity etc., but it looks very likely that there will now be FOUR designs and you will ONLY be able to get these if you come to Auto Assembly 2004! Auto Assembly 2005? We're thinking about this already! We're probably considering going back to the one-day format (this year was special being the 20th Anniversary year), but apart from that, we're not sure of any details yet. Hopefully, we'd like to have a date set and have booking forms available by AA2004 though with perhaps the first guest or two confirmed! |
| 2nd March 2004 | Booking Forms Updated We've uploaded new versions of the booking form today, removing the redundant cut-off dates for discounts and adding details of Wally including a photo! |
| 1st March 2004 | VOICE ACTOR CONFIRMED!! Yes, we've got a voice actor joining us for Auto Assembly 2004. Subject to work commitments, we are going to be joined by multi-talented Wally Wingert, the voice behind Side Burn and Mirage from Transformers: Robots In Disguise as well as providing the voice work on this website including the new piece of speech we have added today! Wally will be with us for the full weekend and we are sure that he'll be a fantastic and highly entertaining guest. Auto Assembly is Wally's first convention appearance outside of the USA!! To learn more about Wally and his work, click on his name above to visit Wally's website. |
| 15th February 2004 | Transformers Unlimted This is our own continuity for Transformers which will be the driving force behind the Auto Assembly 2004 comic, as well as all of the fiction on this site. We have set up a dedicated section on the site which will tell you everything you need to know and there is a discussion area on the forum. Auto Assembly 2003 Exclusive Postcards We have some sets of these available courtesy of Metrodome and we'll be giving these away over the next month or so through various competitions. Keep an eye out on the forum and this site for your chance to with them. The sets contain two G1 postcards illustrated by Lee Sullivan - Optimus and Megatron - and these are limited to a production run of just 250 each! |
| 11th February 2004 | AA2004 Exclusives! We've just confirmed that Metrodome are planning on having some postcards produced as an Auto Assembly 2004 exclusive and these will be available to all attendees FREE as part of your attendance pack. There will be two designs, but we don't have anything more concrete at the moment. Those of you who joined us in 2003 will remember the AA2003 Exclusive postcards that Metrodome gave away then, so now you can add to your collection! |
| 9th February 2004 | Auto Assembly 2004 Art Cards
We've just announced our first piece of AA2004 merchandise. It's a set of 12 art cards featuring the art from the AA2004 tickets. There's more information on these, as well as ordering details elsewhere. However these are only available to AA2004 attendees! |
| 1st February 2004 | 10% Discount Closes The 10% discount offer closed last night with a great success. We have now reached the total number of attendees who joined us for Auto Assembly 2001, and we are well on course to make 2004 a record-breaking year. Registration Packs We're putting the finishing touches to these at the moment, and we're hoping to ship these next week. It will contain your tickets, Progress Report 1 and any forms and information sheets you may have requested. We will also include an additional booking form for you to pass on to any friends who might be interested in joining us. |
| 29th January 2004 | Sponsor Announced As well as jointly running Auto Assembly, Simon Plumbe also does some trading in 8-bit computer games, specifically for the Commodore 64. Simon is going to be one of the event's official sponsors, with his sponsorship money going directly to the AA2004 guest budget. Cybertronian Times 5 SOLD OUT! Yes, we're run out of copies of Issue 5 of The Cybertronian Times. However, you can still get a copy in an electronic form, and for more information on this see the new Auto Assembly Shop... Auto Assembly Shop Yes, we've set up a mini shop on the site to help us with ticket sales and fundraising. Here you'll be able to buy our newly announced non-attendee package for AA2004, book your main event tickets electronically, and also download a PDF version of CT5 for just £1.25 with all the proceeds going to AA2004's guest budget. |
| 23rd January 2004 | Hard to believe that it's been a month
since we last updated this page. We've had quite a few developments since
then... Transformers Artists And Auto Assembly We have just had some fantastic news regarding both Issue 6 of The Cybertronian Times and the Auto Assembly comic. We don't know which is which at the moment, but one will feature brand new cover art from Andrew Wildman and the other having artwork from Lee Sullivan!! Sponsors We're talking to a few more companies and we are hoping to announce another sponsor or two in the next week or so. Dealers Dealers tables are still doing well, and we're well on course to have more dealer tables than AA2003 with old dealers returning and several new faces... Bookings Finally, in terms of bookings we are now ahead of where Auto Assembly 2003 was at this stage, so we think it's highly likely that we will have even more fans attending this time. We're already welcoming a number of fans to their first ever Auto Assembly, with people travelling from all over the UK. |
| 26th December 2003 | Transform-A-Snacks, Anyone?
We're pleased to announce that Auto Assembly 2004 is once again going to be sponsored by Red Mill Snack Foods who produce Transform-A-Snacks. As before, they are going to be sending us a generous supply of crisps for us to give away in load of great flavours so make sure you pick up a bag when you arrive! Auto Assembly: The Comic We are also in talks with a number of people to produce a full-colour fan comic for the event. This will be available to buy on the day, although it will be likely to be on a pre-order basis. It will contain stories from all eras of Transformers. The exact size and price is still to be confirmed. |
| 15th December 2003 | Auction Update We'vegot yet another great item for the auction, thanks to actor David Sobolov (the voice of Depth Charge in Beast Wars). For more details on this, see the Auto Assembly 2004 section. Dealers Dealers tables for 2004 are starting to go at an impressive rate, with 15 tables taken already. Several dealers are returning from AA2003, and we have some new dealers lined up as well! |
| 4th December 2003 | New Auction Items Announced
We can now announce another great auction item. This time, we have a script to the three-part Beast Wars story, "The Agenda" signed by the writer and Story Editor Bob Forward. That's not all though, as Bob kindly spared some time to be interviewed for the site, and you can find this in the Articles section. Auto Assembly Exclusives...? We are working on some ideas to have exclusive items at Auto Assembly, and we have several companies interested. Hopefully, we will be announcing the first of these within the next 7-10 days! |
| 26th November 2003 | Charity Auction Announced We can now announce the latest element of our charity fundraising programme at Auto Assembly 2004 with a charity auction. We have a number of signed photos from various Transformers cast members, and other rare items! Transformers Actors Appear Online!! We are also working wth the actors who are donating items for the auction, and we are pleased to announce the first of these collaborations, with an exclusive sound clip recorded for us by Wally Wingert (SideBurn in "Robots In Disguise"). We are hoping to add more speech to the site soon from other voice actors... |
| 23rd November 2003 | AA2004 Pre-bookings Progress
We have been receiving a number of bookings for AA2004 already, and we're already up to 10% of the TOTAL we had attending in 2003 so it looks as if AA2004 will be our biggest event yet! |
| 10th November 2003 | Auto Assembly Tops Opinion Polls
We've been conducting a number of surveys on several Transformers discussion forums online to see which UK conventions fans were planning on attending next year, and the results so far make for interesting reading! At the moment, Auto Assembly 2004 comes in first with 81% of the votes. Following closely is OTFCC Europe with 74% with Transforce 2004 trailing with just 61% of those surveyed saying that they would attend. Auto Assembly 2003's Snack Attack! There is now a feature and photos on Auto Assembly on the website of Red Mill Snack Foods who sponsored the event this year. You can find the story in their news section on their site at www.snacks.co.uk |
| 3rd November 2003 | AA2004 Pre-Booking
Competition We're running a new competition for everyone booking for AA2004. For each booking we receive that meets a target number, we'll be giving away a Beast Wars or G1 toy. For more details on this, see the AA2004 section. |
| 25th October 2003 | Auto Assembly 2004 EXCLUSIVE
Guests! We can now announce that Metrodome will be making an EXCLUSIVE appearance at Auto Assembly next year so if you want to get the latest on their plans for TF DVD releases, or if you want to be filmed to appear on a future DVD release, AA2004 is the only place it will happen! |
| 14th October 2003 | Guest Fundraising You will have noticed some adverts on the Auto Assembly website. We receive a small amount of money from these when people make purchases, sign up for free services, for competitions etc. What we are planning on doing is using the money from this to help us cover our guest costs for Auto Assembly 2004. We've got a more detailed explanation on all of this, along with specific details on some of the advertisers over at the Auto Assembly Forum - it's free to join if you haven't already done so. |
| 1st October 2003 | Guest Number FOUR!! Yes, we've got another confirmed guest!! Jane Lawson and Joanna Moher from Metrodome will be joining us again to talk about their plans for future Transformers DVD releases. From what we hear, they will be bringing a cameraman with them as well to film the event...! |
| 30th September 2003 | First Bookings In! We've only had the bookings for Auto Assembly 2004 open for a few days, but we've already had our first 5 bookings (not including guests and our event team!), so we think we'll comfortably reach the numbers we had at Auto Assembly 2003. Please try to book early if you can - the more bookings we get, the more we can offer at AA2004. |
| 26th September 2003 | Guest Number Three Announced!
We're well underway to make AA2004 the biggest event we have ever held with the confirmation of our third guest. We are now able to announce that TF artist Lee Sullivan will also be joining us. As always, Lee will be with us subject to work commitments. |
| 24th September 2003 | AA2004 Date Confirmed The event will be a two-day convention taking place over the weekend of 8th - 9th May 2004. Tickets will be just £15 for adults with reductions for single day places, advance bookings, children etc. A booking form will be available online soon. First Guests Announced We've been busy again, and we can announce the first two guests at Auto Assembly 2004 in the shape of Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman. As with all our guests, they will be appearing subject to work commitments. At the moment, we are not sure if they will be with us for the full weekend or just a single day. |
| 17th September 2003 | Venue Confirmed! We will be holding Auto Assembly 2004 once again at the Britannia Hotel, New Street, Birmingham. We have quite a few things lined up here though, and we think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Date Coming Soon We are hoping to announce the date in the next 48 hours and we are just waiting for a confirmation phone call from the hotel. What we can say is that Auto Assembly 2004 will be a TWO-DAY event taking place on either 1st - 2nd May or 8th - 9th May 2004. Voice Actor At Auto Assembly 2004? Yes, you read it right. We are talking to a number of Transformers voice actors with regards to Auto Assembly 2004 and one is already VERY keen to attend. We are in constant contact with this person, along with other actors, although the appearance is subject to pre-booking numbers. We have set our basic break-even point, but we expect that we will need approximately 250 pre-bookings to ensure that we can get an actor so if you want to see that happen, book NOW!! One thing we will say is that the main actor we are talking to at the moment rarely does TF events outside their home city, let alone overseas, and Auto Assembly will be the ONLY event in the UK that they will attend!! Charities Confirmed We will be raising money for two charities in 2004 - the NSPCC and Cancer Research. If you have any ideas for charity activities we can run, please let us know. Forum Explosion The Auto Assembly forum is doing incredibly well at the moment, and it has had over 2,500 posts in it's first month online. Remember, if you're an active member of this free forum then you qualify for a 10% discount on Auto Assembly 2004. To visit the forum, click here. |
| 4th September 2003 | AA2004 Date Imminent We are getting very close to announcing the date, venue and price for Auto Assembly 2004. We are hoping to be able to announce this within the next 7-10 days, and we should be making booking forms available to download from this website shortly after. There will be discounts for advance bookings, and we will be able to offer more during the event the more of you who pre-register! |
| 22nd August 2003 | Charity Programme Announced
There will be an element of charity fundraising taking place at Auto Assembly 2004. We can't go into too much detail at the moment, but we can say that you will be pleasantly surprised. We're looking for suggestions for our nominated charity, so please post your ideas on the Auto Assembly forum. Auto Assembly 2004 - Discounts While we haven't set the price and date yet, we can confirm that we will be offering several discount packages. As well as the standard reductions for children, students and OAPs, we will have two other offers. First, there is a 10% discount for all active Auto Assembly forum members, and there will also be further reductions of up to 10% if you book early enough! Advertisers Wanted We're going to be taking advertising on the site now, and you'll find a link with details on the main page - advertising starts at just £1 per month and we think it's great value for money. We're doing this to help fund the site, and to give us extra income towards Auto Assembly 2004. If you could spare a few moments to support the advertisers here, it will help us offer a bigger and better event. There will be some of our own advertisers that will offer us payments on a "per click" basis or for people who sign up for free services, so the more you interact with our advertisers, the more we can offer at AA2004! |
| 20th August 2003 | Official Auto Assembly Forum
Launched Last night we launched the official Auto Assembly discussion forum. Until then, we were using part of the Infinite Frontiers forum, but we now have a dedicated one for this site. On the forum you'll find all manner of discussions relating to our events, Transformers in general, plus other stuff. It's free to join so why not get involved. It will be a little slow to start off, but it will be the best online source for official AutoAssembly 2004 news and information, and will give you all a chance to make suggestions for next year and talk about AA2003. |
| 14th August 2003 | Website Facelift Now that we've got AA 2003 our of the way, we've had a little time to sit down and give the site a facelift. It's nothing major, but we think the new look is easier to navigate and easier on the eye! Auto Assembly 2004! Yes, we're working on it! The provisional date is April 2004, again in Birmingham, and we're just working on some of the details. See the AA 2004 section on this site for all the latest news. |
| 3rd August 2003 | Time To Sleep! Well, Auto Assembly 2003 is finally over and we're trying to unwind. Attendance was fantastic and far beyond our early expectations, and we're already considering another. We'll be bringing you full coverage here shortly... |
