BC12 panel - Club Magazine/Comic

[griffin]

The first news-related panel this year doesn't reveal much, and wouldn't interest too many of us even if they did.

(some unimportant images have been skipped, and will be in my full report later)



Panelists - Trent, Greg, Derrick Wyatt, Benson, Jesse, Pete.



They started off by detailing the general outline of the Magazine's sections.
They mentioned about having Hasbro providing them with advance toy product images... which almost had me laugh out loud. What, with only 2, 3 issues in the last couple years featuring any unreleased toys.


This year's comic story - Flash Forward.
Centering around Generation 2 meeting up with Headmasters on Nebulos while searching for something.
(for those following the story, it was noted that Sideswipe above was coloured wrong)

It is within the Wings of Honour timeline, as the third "Wings" story, and Flash Forward will lead straight into the BotCon 2013 comic (as the issues progress, we will get an idea of the theme and characters for the next BotCon). That story will be set in present day, so will be 30 years after the events of the Gen1 cartoon.

As a catchup on the timeline of their stories...


When that is done (BC13's comic), the next two years of Magazine comic will be a 2-year story arc, set on different "Earths". More on that in the FunPub panel.

Apparently, this is all in the same Universe as the new Regeneration One comic... because Funpub were expanding on the existing Gen1 universe before Simon Furman restarted his Gen1 comic series, but now FunPub has to be careful not to do anything that contradicts something in Furman's story. (kinda like what Furman had to do with the UK comic - creating new stories to fit within the framework of the US stories without doing anything too drastic that could contradict them)
As such, deaths or injuries in the BotCon comic had to be of specific characters.

They wanted to include the Neo Knights in the BotCon comic, but couldn't, due to Marvel owning them.

For characters like Jhiaxus, that has a toy that differs to its original comic/cartoon appearance, Pete prefers that the FunPub comics use their toy versions, to prevent pestering by fans to have a toy done.

The cover of the Diamond edition, out later in the year:


From the Q&A...
- Cliffjumper (G1/Classics) is unlikely to ever return to his universe. A bit like Quantum Leap I guess.
- Bugbite and Gobots are still around. Things will only be used if they can, but see their bios or prose stories for explanations for some.
- Hasbro's new "Aligned" Universe (which involves the 13 Primes) doesn't apply to FunPub's comics because it was pre-existing, so a retcon wouldn't work (re- Vector Prime).
It is still possible for future Animated stuff, but nothing is "planned" (they did hint at something being mentioned in tomorrow's panel, so check back if interested in Animated).

And to wrap up the panel, a teaser from the FunPub panel (tomorrow) - RiD Scourge (using the RtS Optimus mould... possibly as one of the exclusives for next year).

[fatbot]

Thanks for all the updates Griffin.

The Rid Scourge will be interesting, hopefully it'll look sweet and be easy to get

[Hursticon]

The Rid Scourge will be interesting, hopefully it'll look sweet and be easy to get

It's an interesting development, as I think many were expecting this figure see a Retail Release.
Being an exclusive will likely anger a few people, not me though; the only real 'Nemesis' to Prime is Motormaster!

[Verno]

Fingers-crossed for some bigger news to come soon!

[Hursticon]

Fingers-crossed for some bigger news to come soon!

I'm with you man, even if it's just the slightest nod I think many will be appreciative.

[Paulbot]

Apparently, this is all in the same Universe as the new Regeneration One comic... because Funpub were expanding on the existing Gen1 universe before Simon Furman restarted his Gen1 comic series, but now FunPub has to be careful not to do anything that contradicts something in Furman's story.

This doesn't really make sense

Are you referring to the next story after this "Wings of Honour stuff" described in the timeline slide? The Wings of Honour stories, and the TF cartoon that's part of that universe, are all incompatible with the Marvel comic's story.

Unless Regeneration One is going to be a universe-mashup thing like Furman's Ultimate Guide [and will ssumes both the comic and cartoon happened and just squint your eyes and pretend it all makes sense. Stop asking questions.] which would be disappointing.

Hopefully you mean they said that "the next two years of Magazine comic will be a 2-year story arc" which will be in-universe with Regeneration One.

[Quickstrike]

I wonder if Scourge will be the free figure next year. Probably not, there's enough demand for him that the Club could easily sell him as an exclusive.

I seem to be talking to myself.

[griffin]

This doesn't really make sense

Are you referring to the next story after this "Wings of Honour stuff" described in the timeline slide? The Wings of Honour stories, and the TF cartoon that's part of that universe, are all incompatible with the Marvel comic's story.

Unless Regeneration One is going to be a universe-mashup thing like Furman's Ultimate Guide [and will ssumes both the comic and cartoon happened and just squint your eyes and pretend it all makes sense. Stop asking questions.] which would be disappointing.

Hopefully you mean they said that "the next two years of Magazine comic will be a 2-year story arc" which will be in-universe with Regeneration One.

It was difficult to understand what they meant at first, but I think that what they were trying to say was - FunPub stories that are set in the official Gen1 Universe we grew up with, could end up conflicting with things Furman does in Regeneration One, because that is also using the pre-existing Gen1 Universe.
Furman isn't likely to acknowledge anything done by FunPub (especially all that multi-verse stuff), but FunPub are likely to keep an eye on what Furman does and structure their future stories accordingly.

[Paulbot]

But if their comics revolve around the G1 cartoon universe and Furman's revolve around the G1 comic there should be no conflict at all as they separate parallel universes. Unless they plan to merge universes in Regeneration or the FunPub comics (the latter more likely).