Being almost 15 years since this community was first started, I wanted to share why I started it (for those who don't already know), and in return, hope to see why each of you joined up, to make this one of the longest running toy-collector internet communities in the world.
Okay, so way back in mid 1995, I found the internet, and started interacting with Transformers fans. I was really excited to find that they weren't all in the Northern Hemisphere. I was no longer 'alone' in my 10 year old hobby.
Fellow board-member dirge was one of the first Australians I started to befriend, and slowly over the next 12 months, one by one, I had a list of about 15 Australian Fans who were online at that time. I proposed to each person that we should start up a local 'club' or mailing list, so that we didn't feel so isolated or distant from the American/UK dominated fandom (which was all in the one location at that time - alt.toys.transformers).
And since Beast Wars was just about to hit Australia, I also wanted to set up some sort of system for us Australians to find out what was being released here and alert the others.
Pretty much everyone who was still actively online at that time, was keen on the idea of a local community of fans, and since emails were getting a bit clumsy, I suggested a monthly newsletter. $2 per issue I think, which didn't cover the costs... but I had fun putting it together and enjoyed having others get excited about getting it. Mostly because it was local, and that it was a publication that was exclusively about Transformers.
Starting off with 16 members (if I recall) around September 1996, for our first issue of the newsletter posted out in October... we were given permission to be a Transformers club by Hasbro AUS within a couple months of that. Our name was changed from Austrans to Ozformers, so that we weren't confused with the Transport company of the same name, or 'Aus Trannies'.
Since then, over the almost 15 years, we've had at least two thousand people join up, with about 600 'current' members (active in the last 6 months) from several countries - Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, China/HK, Philipines, Japan. And even some long distant fans have wanted to join us as well over the years.
So what brings you to Ozformers?