T-25 Reviews

[Cullen]

T-25 kept me thorughly entertained on my train journey back from AA. Well done to everyone who contributed. I found it mildly ironic that it made me nostalgic for Beast Wars and RiD, given they were the series I got into because of my nostalgia for G1. The only critism I'd have of the mag (other than the odd typo) was that some of the articles weren't credited so it was difficult to know who's opinion I was getting.

Matt's strip and James Robert's story were highlights for me. The Thicky Grimlock's Quiz was most amusing particularly Swoop, master of disguise. It was great to read something by James again and liked how Megatron came across. Also I loved how he explained in a throw away paragraph why Omega Supreme wasn't around in Target: 2006.

[Andy Turnbull]

Most of the uncredited pieces were by me. Save Hot Rod blog which was Karl with some minor edits from me.

I didn't want to keep putting my name all over the shop.

Glad you enjoyed it. I have my copy aside but need a wee bit distance before I can get down to reading it.

Once again hats off to everyone involved.

Plans are underfoot for a slightly different project in 2010...

Andy

[Hero]

Looking forward to seeing the whole thing assembled.

Whatever the next collaborate project is I'll be glad to join in.

[Gav]

I'm looking forward to giving it a good read. Hopefully next time I can manage my time a little better. I know I said that last time too.

[chrisl]

Do those who didn't go to AA but still contributed get a copy?

[Gav]

I certainly hope so!

[Deleted]

I've only read the first chapter in the fanzine at the moment but intend to read the whole thing in due course. When I read the first chapter mind you, it did make me a little nostalgic and has got me wanting to pick up the early run of the Marvel comics again.

An excellent fanzine and well done to everyone involved.

[Hero]

Contributors are getting a copy.

I lit up when Cullen mentioned Beast Wars .

===KEN

[Rich]

Only had a scan through so far, but it looks really good. Being honest, I wondered whether the desire to cover so many parts of the mythos might lead to it being a bit forced, but, based on this first look through, it seems to have been pulled off with aplomb. I'll try to post with more detailed thoughts as soon as I can.

[grahamthomson]

I've only had a cursory glance so far, but looks ace already! Love the cover.

And I am so glad we managed to get it down to the convention in time. It was a close one.

[Mark_Stevenson]

The James Roberts' text story really is vintage TMUK fiction, superbly written and weaving something seamless from various hanging threads of Transformers lore. It's an essential read.

The whole magazine is awesome though, it's going to take a fair while to digest it all!

Mx

[Deleted]

I started reading this today and so far I've only read about three pieces from the beginning of the fanzine including Martin's write-up of the Masterforce cartoon which is an interesting read.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

IT'S HERE!!!

Now, will I read it all before I read the Muppets comics that stowed away with it in the custom-illustrated envelope? Probably not.

Come on, everyone who attended Auto-Assembly has more than a 3-week head start on me. Are you really going to let me shame you by doing the first in-depth review of this fanzine? You have... until the weekend to get in first!

Triple karma to Andy for triple-strength postal goodness.

Martin

[Andy Turnbull]

The woman at the post office counter was impressed with the array of illustrations on the envelopes that were sent.

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

I'll be interested in what you think of the two issues of the Muppets as well. Sadly I couldn't get issues three and four - although there is a trade. Which is a good thing as Issue 3 is all about The Great Gonzo.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Mine arrived yesterday - many thanks. I'm looking at both my articles and thinking I wish I'd written 50-100 words more to fill the space !

[bertie]

How do the non-AA attendees receive a copy?

'bertie'.

[Andy Turnbull]

I have a copy set aside mate, just pm or email me your address.

Andy

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Sept 8, 2009 17:26:17 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

I'll be interested in what you think of the two issues of the Muppets as well. Sadly I couldn't get issues three and four - although there is a trade. Which is a good thing as Issue 3 is all about The Great Gonzo.

Like the Comic Muppet Book that I owned some years back, they're probably as good as you can get with the Muppets in this medium. However, as so much of the essence of the Muppets is music and song and funny voices, they don't transfer well. At best it's like watching a musical with the sound turned down and subtitles. The bits that worked best were the (very few) bits of humour that _only_ work in the comic medium - namely, the news announcer being cut short by the turning of the page, and Fozzie's hats changing from one panel to the next while he stays still. But the rest - particularly the full-length songs - were screaming out for a different medium. But the jokes were funny nonetheless.

Sorry, off-topic, folks, but I'm too lazy to start a separate thread. Epic T-25 review to follow Saturday or Sunday.

Martin

[Gav]

Sorry, off-topic, folks, but I'm too lazy to start a separate thread. Epic T-25 review to follow Saturday or Sunday.

Martin

Gulp!

[grahamthomson]

I didn't get an envelope...

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Well, in a sense I think T-25 could possibly be the best TF fanzine ever produced. On the other hand, no-one should take it as a model for their TF fanzine, and another like it isn't warranted in my opinion until the 50th anniversary.

Its greatest strength as a package is that it gives a feel for the way the brand has progressed over the last 25 years without giving undue bias to any one particular era. It stays fresh throughout by virtue of the diversity of authors, and that no-one has to talk about an aspect of the franchise that they are not enthusiastic about. At the same time, it doesn't let any one opinion dominate the magazine, and it's hard to accuse the editorial team of pushing any one particular viewpoint - not even the one that says everything in Transformers is equally brilliant. (Most of the views expressed by contributors, including mine, refute this, though on differing grounds.)

I think everyone would agree that not everything in Transformers is equally brilliant, and not everything in the magazine is equally brilliant. As with Transformers as a whole, we will differ in some of our opinions on which were the magazine's highlights, and as with Transformers as a whole there will be some bits which nearly everyone will agree are top notch.

The most obvious candidate for an item which I suspect everyone here will put in their top five is my favourite of all, namely the story, 'Target: 1986' by James Roberts. Some of the reasons I put it at number one will be recognised by everyone - namely, the standard of the writing and the story itself, with its good characterisation and mystery slowly being revealed. Other reasons for me putting at number one may not be so universally shared - my preference for stories over anything else, my preference for the Marvel comic continuity and in particular the TMUK interpretation of the timeline, my preference for intellectual thought process stories over emotion- or action-driven ones, and so on. And I rate it more highly than most James Roberts stories because it has less epic shock violence and more condensed plot than most, but that's also a matter of taste.

My other favourite items are perhaps going to be in fewer people's top fives, because they are more about personal biases. The first two items, one on the original Marvel mini-series and the other on Bob Budiansky's contribution (including an interview - and I'm not interested in celebrity TF interviews unless they are with writers), I love because they are in line with my views.

Then, unpredictably, I put the toy article 'Gee One (Point Five)' in my top five because it made me laugh more than anything else in the magazine, particularly the section 'My eyes, my poor useless eyes'.

And the final item in my top five is another unpredictable one, namely Karl's '(B)East Wars Fight!' article on the Japanese Beast Wars series, simply because I found it interesting as it told me stuff I never knew. I haven't seen any of the Japanese BW series, and Karl's article hasn't made me any more likely to seek them out, but I was interested to learn how they tied in with the US CG Beast Wars series. It makes me all the more conscious of the fact that up until the end of Beast Machines, all the major Transformers stories were written as part of a storyline begun in 1984, and things really changed 15 years into the 25, when this all came to an end and the tradition of hard continuity re-boots began. Except for the live-action movies, which I let off because they are pioneering a fresh medium, I have had no inclination to give time to any hard re-boot, however well executed. Cartoon and comic writers should use their imaginations and tell new stories building on previous creativity, not recycle the work of others with variations. But that's my bias again.

So, I have listed my top five items. I won't name the item that gave me the least pleasure, but I will give the reason for it, which is more a criticism of myself than anything else. One of the items in T-25 had a total of eight apostrophes in it. They were _all_ wrong. It was as if they had been put in deliberately just to torture me, and it is me who is to blame for the fact that I let it completely cloud my feelings towards what is no doubt otherwise a very well-made piece. Arrrrrggghhh.

As for the back cover, it is like the magazine is a whole. It has something for/from everyone, and may be the best TF fanzine back cover yet, but without its novelty value it would be far less admirable than it is, and should probably not be attempted again until the 50th anniversary. This back cover is only good as long as 99% of comics have their ensemble scenes drawn by a single artist. And as long as most fanzines have a consistent theme and house style throughout, the occasional landmark work with all sorts of contributions will remain something special and to be treasured.

Martin

[Gav]

I cannot wait to get this through. Squeal. I assume it was my efforts with the incorrect punctuation - as I am a choob.

Squeal. Etc.

[Andy Turnbull]

Sept 12, 2009 7:30:01 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Well, in a sense I think T-25 could possibly be the best TF fanzine ever produced. On the other hand, no-one should take it as a model for their TF fanzine, and another like it isn't warranted in my opinion until the 50th anniversary.

Its greatest strength as a package is that it gives a feel for the way the brand has progressed over the last 25 years without giving undue bias to any one particular era. It stays fresh throughout by virtue of the diversity of authors, and that no-one has to talk about an aspect of the franchise that they are not enthusiastic about. At the same time, it doesn't let any one opinion dominate the magazine, and it's hard to accuse the editorial team of pushing any one particular viewpoint - not even the one that says everything in Transformers is equally brilliant. (Most of the views expressed by contributors, including mine, refute this, though on differing grounds.)

I think everyone would agree that not everything in Transformers is equally brilliant, and not everything in the magazine is equally brilliant. As with Transformers as a whole, we will differ in some of our opinions on which were the magazine's highlights, and as with Transformers as a whole there will be some bits which nearly everyone will agree are top notch.

The most obvious candidate for an item which I suspect everyone here will put in their top five is my favourite of all, namely the story, 'Target: 1986' by James Roberts. Some of the reasons I put it at number one will be recognised by everyone - namely, the standard of the writing and the story itself, with its good characterisation and mystery slowly being revealed. Other reasons for me putting at number one may not be so universally shared - my preference for stories over anything else, my preference for the Marvel comic continuity and in particular the TMUK interpretation of the timeline, my preference for intellectual thought process stories over emotion- or action-driven ones, and so on. And I rate it more highly than most James Roberts stories because it has less epic shock violence and more condensed plot than most, but that's also a matter of taste.

My other favourite items are perhaps going to be in fewer people's top fives, because they are more about personal biases. The first two items, one on the original Marvel mini-series and the other on Bob Budiansky's contribution (including an interview - and I'm not interested in celebrity TF interviews unless they are with writers), I love because they are in line with my views.

Then, unpredictably, I put the toy article 'Gee One (Point Five)' in my top five because it made me laugh more than anything else in the magazine, particularly the section 'My eyes, my poor useless eyes'.

And the final item in my top five is another unpredictable one, namely Karl's '(B)East Wars Fight!' article on the Japanese Beast Wars series, simply because I found it interesting as it told me stuff I never knew. I haven't seen any of the Japanese BW series, and Karl's article hasn't made me any more likely to seek them out, but I was interested to learn how they tied in with the US CG Beast Wars series. It makes me all the more conscious of the fact that up until the end of Beast Machines, all the major Transformers stories were written as part of a storyline begun in 1984, and things really changed 15 years into the 25, when this all came to an end and the tradition of hard continuity re-boots began. Except for the live-action movies, which I let off because they are pioneering a fresh medium, I have had no inclination to give time to any hard re-boot, however well executed. Cartoon and comic writers should use their imaginations and tell new stories building on previous creativity, not recycle the work of others with variations. But that's my bias again.

So, I have listed my top five items. I won't name the item that gave me the least pleasure, but I will give the reason for it, which is more a criticism of myself than anything else. One of the items in T-25 had a total of eight apostrophes in it. They were _all_ wrong. It was as if they had been put in deliberately just to torture me, and it is me who is to blame for the fact that I let it completely cloud my feelings towards what is no doubt otherwise a very well-made piece. Arrrrrggghhh.

As for the back cover, it is like the magazine is a whole. It has something for/from everyone, and may be the best TF fanzine back cover yet, but without its novelty value it would be far less admirable than it is, and should probably not be attempted again until the 50th anniversary. This back cover is only good as long as 99% of comics have their ensemble scenes drawn by a single artist. And as long as most fanzines have a consistent theme and house style throughout, the occasional landmark work with all sorts of contributions will remain something special and to be treasured.

Martin

Thanks Martin.

To be honest it was a lot of work assembling that style of magazine and not one I'd be willing to do again for a while anyway. I'm glad you think it's something special. It was fun to get as many people on board to work for it.

Glad some of my contributions made it to the Top 5. The 1984 article was quite fun to do thanks to pitching it against Karl.

Nick needs to write more (Davidson, that Roche fella has his hands busy with The Wreckers) as he has one of the most unique styles of prose I have read. Anyone who has any doubt about this, next time you meet Nick ask him to tell you about his travels on Glasgow's public transport - for my money the best anecdotes you will ever hear.

I haven't read James R's story yet as a reader. I did my copy editing bit a while ago, but haven't taken the time to sit down and read it for pleasure. But I know it will be kick ass.

Andy

[jameso]

The other day I got 9 out of 10 in Highwire and Carlos' Great British Quiz. Go me!

[Andy Turnbull]

Well done!

Andy