RIP Andrew Sorohan

[SofaMan]

[CW: Death]

Andrew Sorohan (aka Jhiaxus), a long-standing member of the Australian and global Transformers fandom community, has passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.

Andrew was known for the Obscure Transformers Website, as well as his many artistic contributions to the community.

I cannot say I knew Andrew, but I very much enjoyed his contributions over many years, and it is always a source of great sadness to lose a member of our community, especially so young.

A memorial website has been posted for anyone who would like to leave a message for Andrew's family.

[Cat]

He was a nice guy, but I hadn't spoken to him for years. My condolences to his family and friends.

[Firestorm]

I didn't really know him that well. But he seemed like a nice guy.
And I always liked seeing the things he would post on twitter. His artwork was really impressive and his ideas very creative.
He even drew a couple of my OCs at a few points when he was taking requests. and I'll cherish those.
It's crazy to think he's gone just like that.
My thoughts are with his family and friends in this difficult time.

[GoktimusPrime]

Andrew Sorohan; 23/8/1979 - 16/2/2023


Andrew was literally a human Transformers encyclopaedia. I had never met anyone with such an extensive and comprehensive knowledge of Transformers, and I've yet to meet anyone who can match him. He was living database for Transformers information. I've been called a "Transformers encyclopaedia" by other people, but never something I've ever called myself... and I've always said that Andrew's level of knowledge always put mine to shame. His work on the Obscure Transformers Website was nothing short of astounding, which set a whole new standard as to what an Obscure Transformer is. He stopped maintaining that site after tfwiki came along, becoming a contributor to that wiki. The tfwiki page on GPS was written by him, with every broken toy photographed there coming from his own collection. Andrew was also a prolific fan artist and writer. For the 2003 OzFormers exhibit at Sydney SupaNova, he was one of the three artists who worked on the exclusive comic book "On Devil's Ground" (doing the artwork for the third arc), and he was also the story editor. Andrew would also be the writer and editor for the Sabretron 2004 convention exclusive comic book, as well as writing the bios for the exclusive custom toys for that con, the Autobot Chainmasters. He also created all of the Chainmasters' names except for Spectre. I believe Andrew was the first (and only?) Australian fan artist who successfully made the transition to producing artwork at an official capacity for Hasbro, drawing several pieces of art for character bios.

Andrew was one of the original members of OTCA, known as AusTrans back then, who joined up in 1996. I first encountered Andrew after I joined AusTrans in 1997, initially via email. I met Andrew in person for the first time in mid-1998, when he came down from Townsville to Sydney and stayed with me for about a week. We had a TF Marvel Comics read marathon, and even got down on the floor and played with our toys; as in proper play with the voices and sounds etc., not just fiddling and chatting. The second season of Beast Wars hadn't aired in Australia yet, but I already had it all on VHS taped off American TV; so we watched the entire season together. I also had the Japanese G1 episodes on VHS taped off laserdiscs, which we also watched despite having no English subtitles.

I met Andrew again in 2003 for the OzFormers exhibit at Sydney SupaNova. During the con, we saw a bunch of teenagers looking at the Beast Wars toy exhibit and getting excited with happy memories about Beast Wars. Andrew turned to me and said, "You know we're getting old when people are talking about Beast Wars with nostalgia!" I would meet Andrew again in 2018 at a post Sydney SupaNova dinner meet at Ribs and Rumps. Sadly this would also be the last time that I would meet him in person.

Andrew was a gentleman, an artist and a scholar. Taken from us far too soon.

[Paulbot]

This was terrible news to see on the weekend. I don't think I ever met him in person but he was a local name around the online fandom for as long as I've been here. I was looking at some of the older AusTrans newsletters yesterday and there's many names I don't recognise or see around the online fandom anymore.

I hadn't really noticed he'd stopped posting here a few years back, people come and go all the time, but I had started following his twitter in the last year or two. That was full of amazing toy concepts and art and demonstration of those obscure facts and knowledge Goktimus mentioned (and other rants and opinions and other usual Twtiter things)

Recommend having a browse through it here while it's still up https://twitter.com/asorohanart

Or some highlights

Every Optimus Prime variant as a retool of Earthrise Optimus

The Micromaster Wrestlers