transformers-fan-continuities

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Do you have any tips for naming a fan continuity? I have one that I've been thinking about for a while, but titles have just never been my strong suit

I'd suggest starting by looking at canon continuity/cartoon/franchise names, there's an awful lot of them that go beyond just the cartoons you could probably name off the top of your head (this also helps with logo design, if you're into that). We've got everything from just a description of medium (Animated), to ridiculous anime titles (Supergod Masterforce), to single generic relevant words (Prime, Energon), to single generic irrelevant words (Zone), to descriptions of the plot or premise (Rescue Bots, Combiner Wars). Each name has a different vibe and it's up to you what kind of title you think fits best. Is it meant to be quick and snappy, full of gravitas, some kind of song lyric fanfiction title, economically descriptive, or something else? If you have some kind of anthology or vignette series in a larger continuity, you could even go for split story-plus-canon titles (Aligned and its various shows), or just make up one of those multiverse dimension names (Tyran, Primax, etc) and use that!

Is there a concept, gimmick, or theme particularly prevalent in your canon? Is there a quote, ideal, defining moment, or notable symbol or metaphor that has a lot of narrative or worldbuilding focus? Is there something about Transformers you just like and want to strongly associate with your continuity?

Maybe also consider browsing the masterlist here, I know there's more floating around that haven't been added to the list but it's a pretty good selection anyway, and you can see some of the choices people made and how their titles are relevant to their work. I'm not hot at titles either to be honest, but let me dissect some of my own choices for you (some of these I haven't even posted about so bear with me):

SNAP: acronym of the Japanese title, translated from "The New Primes of Cybertron". It's a magical girl anime, so I wanted an actual anime-esque title. It's vaguely descriptive of premise or plot and the acronym itself is very fun and easy to remember, used far more than the actual title.

Remixed: the continuity is based on shuffling around characters to fill each other's roles, aka remixing them with one another til you have something familiar but brand new. It's an obvious but very fitting title.

Masterforce NEO: a canon taking some aspects of Supergod Masterforce and reimagining them, not as a rewrite but as something new. As that's the main premise and inspiration, I'm not even trying to come up with something unique, rather relying on the distinction of adapting an already existing canon name into my own thing

other misc titles I've come up with have been similar: Acceleration for a canon based on racing, Return of the Primes for one about rediscovering ancient history, etc

Long story short, look at what you already have, and from that material draw out something cool, important, memorable, or just something you like. Run it by your friends, stick the word Transformers in front of it, play around with synonyms or acronyms or spelling, what have you. Don't take it so seriously that you scare yourself off of working on it!

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have another one!

this time we got Naturaformers added to the masterlist! you can check it out on Instagram here

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here we go again!

come check out Transformers: Cybertron War Anthology by @heddnotmunky and on AO3! links are in the masterlist!

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new cont!

we got The Ones Similar to Past's with an askblog over at @cybertron-new-people-askblog! go shoot them some asks!

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we got another one folks!

Man this list is getting long phew. Welcoming Generation 3 to the masterlist, over at @tigerhawkstfcorner!

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How did you draft SNAP? I've just gotten to the drafting stage of my comic with my brother but idk if theres some certain way to do it.

it’s taken a bit for me to organize my thoughts on this but I have an answer now, and you might not like it: there IS no some certain way to do it! I’ve been working with comics (and poking into the professional field, too O.O) for a few years now, so I do have some general advice for you-

read comics. really. can’t make a comic if you don’t know what a comic is, and since comics are a very specific medium of sequential visual storytelling, all the elements that make it a comic aren’t easily learned through other mediums. page layout, art style communicating tone, character design, story beats, etc. Scott McCloud has some wonderful books on comics, the Hellboy series is genuinely masterful, and honestly you could reread IDW and call it research. i go back and study my favorite webcomics to try and absorb their excellence: TPOH by @modmad is stunning, @avasdemon is gorgeous, and there’s endless more to browse over at @webcomiclibrary

know your story. this is covered by a Whole Heckin Lot of different places, resources, and writers, so I’ll encourage you to go look at comprehensive help if you need plot assistance. keep in mind that everyone drafts differently! you might need everything plotted out, or you could fly by the seat of your pants. physical writing, digital notetaking, verbal processing, all of it is fine as long as it works for you

THUMBNAIL for goodness sake thumbnail before you dedicate to a page. in fact, make practice versions of everything important. mess with character designs until you’re Absolutely Sure you will be alright with drawing them a bajillion times over and over. but specifically, thumbnails are tiny, rough page layouts. tiny so that you don’t get into any details and you can see how easily the page reads even when small, and rough so you aren’t committing and can keep fiddling. even with pages you’ve had in your head forever, a quick simple thumbnail can help smooth the transition from head to page

there’s other, post-drafting things to consider, like formatting and file size and update schedule and getting it out there, but that’s a whole seminar and I’d like to keep this relatively simple

for me, drafting SNAP was an adventure in taking the puzzle pieces my brain seemed to automatically generate (thank you, MADD) and fitting them together in something resembling order. almost all of the plot and twists presented themselves to me with very little work! arranging them however was a hassle. my episode-by-episode breakdown is uh. a mess. because my drafting process is a stream of consciousness solid block of text. here:

01- Welcome to the Academy! An Upgrade to PrimesOrion oh no im late trope, monologue about situation, bumps into megs at front gate as creators are saying goodbye, drags orion inside as excuse to ditch them, cut to trine being weirdos at landing pad, screamers making plans to be awesome but whomp whos that chick its windblade and she can fly in root mode, grr immediate one sided rivalry [... this goes on for awhile]

no punctuation, no capitalization, just wordvomit. not every episode has such specific notes, some just say a general plot hook and some character reactions! this first episode however was daydreamed out until I had a pretty solid series of events

I’m early in thumbnailing right now. wish I was further along, actually I wish I simply had SNAP finished so I could read it myself *sob* BUT. it’s chugging along. my thumbnailing setup is a simple grid I scribble over with new layers for every six pages:

last one is blank because I’m in the habit of arranging pages by side-by-side pairs for printing, since that’s been the usual consideration for the comics I worked on before. you can see how messy these are! and they’re by no means final, either, I think I’m going to have to cut down on some pages once I finish thumbnailing this episode. one thing I have kept in mind for SNAP specifically is anime tropes that I can rip off, hence that fifth page being mostly taken up by Orion running to school with toast in his mouth lol

anyway this got long and I am hardly an expert, still workin on my own comic, but I hope this helps! anyone with more resources, tips and tricks, or advice feel free to chime in too, I’m hardly the entirety of comic knowledge

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more for the masterlist!

there’s the very slick 90s AU with super cool designs, and an intriguing Star Trek crossover continuity called TF: Next Generation, posted over at @transmorphobots!

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@onewingedsparrow I hope you have fun designing some OCs! I love seeing ppls tf OCs they’re always so fun and cool!

 I’m no expert, but I do love character design so I hope you don’t mind if I over share just a little bit about my design process ahaha

TLDR: I like to think about personality, choose what shapes I want to use to convey said personality, and then mold the alt mode design to that rather than starting with the alt mode.

A small essay on tf and general design thoughts is under the cut though if you want examples and entirely too much detail

Keep reading

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                     Seibatoron No Atarashi Puraimu

               サイバトロンの新しいプライム

         The New Primes of Cybertron

Orion Pax is excited to attend the brand new Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology. Megatron, not so much. But both of them stumble across Primal Relics of great power, and both find themselves leading their own team of magical superheroes, fighting oppression and each other. Will either see the greater threat seeking dominion over Cybertron?

TF:SNAP is a fan continuity of Transformers as a magical girl anime, complete with transformation sequences, flirtatious rivals, homework and hero work, and a gaggle of kids who just want to help people at the end of the day. This continuity has brand new character designs and worldbuilding, and a totally original story. Stay tuned to see how it unfolds!

For information about me and this project, read my about page!

For character designs and navigation, go through my taglist!  (for moblie)

For ficlets and story snippets, scroll through the AO3 collection!

For a masterpost of SNAP worldbuilding, look at this list!  (for mobile)

For supporting me through Ko-fi, you can donate here!

For more excellent fan continuities, check out the fan cont masterlist!

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Spotlight: Autobots Roll Out!

Not me forgetting for ages and ages to finish and post this! </3 Anyway, here’s the previous one, but today we’ve got Autobots Roll Out! over at @transformers-autobotsrollout !

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What’s it about, what’s it called, what’s it like?

Autobots Roll Out! is arguably a black comedy/action Transformers series. We open with Optimus and his friends trying to get to another planet, only to be thwarted by the evil Decepticons who blow up their ship! Or, at least, that’s what Hot Rod’s nightmares consist of. There’s a mystery element to the predicament Optimus and his friends have found themselves in; everyone is convinced they’re dead with the exception of Hot Rod, who’s faith and optimism haven’t wavered a day in the cycles they’ve been gone. But trouble’s afoot in more ways than one, and both teams are going to have to confront everything they thought they knew to solve it.

Q) What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

Well, you can’t have a Transformers series without Optimus Prime! He’s joined by Jazz, Bumblebee, and Perceptor! With Optimus’ social awkwardness, Perceptor’s lackadaisical glee, Jazz’s spirtuality, and Bumblebee’s teenage sass, you can imagine how they get along stuck on this distant mudball. Back on Cybertron, Hot Rod, Arcee, and Springer are an unbeatable triad… and hey, sometimes Blurr hangs around to make sure they don’t get themselves killed.

I was admittedly a little sick of Megatron ALWAYS being the main force of the Decepticons, so instead of him taking the spotlight, we get the motley crew of Blitzwing, Astraea, Motormaster, and Flamewar to harass the trio back on Cybertron. These creeps are a delight but not the biggest threat, though. That would have to go to the mysterious and beautiful Flipsides, who’s probably my favorite villain in the whole series. She’s got a LOT of baggage to go with that pretty face of hers, and I can’t wait for y’all to meet her. There are some other threats on the horizon, but let’s keep those under wraps until their moment in the spotlight.

On Earth, we have to deal with Sixshot, a modified superhunter who's been sent after Optimus to ensure the only way he'll be coming back is in a coffin. His young ward Chop Shop has a very fascinating relationship with the humans, too.  It's almost like he wants to become one of them... and peculiarly, Starscream's found his way onto Earth as well. Hmmmm.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

[looks directly into the camera] War is bad and only benefits those who sell the weapons. Also, I wanted an excuse for my favorite characters to interact with each other, so there ya go.

Q) How long have you been working on it?

Back in August 2019, I dabbled in the idea of an original continuity. It was gonna be called Young Optimus Prime, and it was MASSIVELY different from any of this. It had been years since I’d consumed any Transformers content and I was going fully off TFwiki descriptions of random characters and secondhand info from my friends.

Batshit would be an understatement.

Blurr was a girl. Starscream was Megatron’s son that he brainwashed from Thundercracker into being an emotionless killing machine. Bumblebee was a baby robot that would grow up to be a Seeker. Arcee was going to be a stereotypical mean girl that bullied Elita One and tried to steal Optimus from her. Outback was a main character. There was an entire lake of Quintesson blood that turned people evil if you drank it. The true main villain was gonna be goddamn Tyrest. This story concept fizzled out quicker than a sparkler and frankly I don’t know if I regret it enough to keep it totally buried.

On October 12, 2020 Autobots Roll Out! started out the same way, with some utterly insane story elements that I made for the sake of being cool rather than linking together coherently. Plotlines such as an anarchist brigade led by Ultra Magnus, Beastformers being irradiated mutants that were the victims of a nuclear war, a direct depiction of police states, and most shocking of all – Starscream getting a redemption arc – are things that I knew I’d have to drop once I’d gotten the story on the road.

Q) Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

Would you like to see Flipsides’ nightmares?

All noise vanished from the room. Every other bot had become faceless masses of twitching neon polygons, at least the ones that had been by her side. She couldn’t even tell what had happened to the rest, as the room had become an endless black void asides Megatron and the slab he was on. Beams of colored light shooting out from behind her squawked and chirped as they smacked into the once-living bots and slammed into invisible barriers.

Flipsides paid no mind to the chaos as she stepped forward, but the slab and he both seemed to get farther away. She tried to run and catch up to him, only to fall with an inelegant splash as what had once been the floor was now a reflective black pool of fluid. She resurfaced in an instant, trying to regain her bearings as she swam to Megatron’s side, the table somehow floating atop the still surface. He laid on the slab, spark exposed and optics dull grey, as if they’d never been alighted. Another version of herself was at his other side, one hand clutching his and the other holding his shoulder.

“Megatron?” she asked, pulling herself up. “Megatron, please.”

The other her raised her head and stared. The black fluid that covered the floor was seeping from her blank, featureless face.

Q) Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

Oddly enough, this entire thing feels like a giant Kingdom Hearts fanfic at times. There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance about how you can’t lose yourself to despair and how the power of friendship is way past cool… in an anime way.

To be more serious, though, I took a lot of inspiration from Transformers Animated, Generation 2, Beast Wars, and Tranformers Cybertron. In hindsight, I wish I added more from Robots In Disguise 2001, but I’ve never been that big a fan of sentai shows, and RID 2001 was basically a Transformers sentai show despite how much I like it.

Q) Show off something you’re really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

I love the character designs I’ve done for this series. I feel like I’ve improved so much with my artwork working on this series. Here’s my top five favorite designs in no particular order.

Q) What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

Man, I can’t really choose. I just get tickled seeing everyone’s interpretations and reimaginings of this series that I think there’s something special about every single one. Sorry if that’s a cop out!

Q) No worries, with such a menagerie of good content it’s tough to pick!

And that’s that! Thanks Orb for giving us a neat glimpse into ARO! Sorry for leaving this for so long oof. I gotta check my list for who’s up next for a spotlight, but stay tuned!

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Updated and reinstated the Humanformers Masterlist & FAQ since I’ve been getting plenty of the same questions, and this will make it easier for the both of us! You’ll find the full list of ages, heights, ethnicities, religions, etc here. 

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did i hear there was a general discord for original/fanmade continuities?

😳🤦‍♂️ not this ask making me realize i completely forgot this blog ooooof

yes! the only thing i ask is you submit your own with these guidelines! this isn't meant to be a hurdle or barrier or anything to keep anyone out, just kind of trying to make sure the discord stays primarily for original cont stuff instead of devolving into another general transformers server while also expanding the masterlist for readers. your submission doesn't need to be anything more than a placeholder name and a link to a single image/fic/post about it, and you can change the details or flip everything around however you'd like! (honestly if you don't feel like you're ready/don't want it recorded here, you can even tell me to keep yours off the masterlist, i'm hardly going to put you on blast)

send in a submission/message me and lmk if you want a link to the discord that way!

now, brb there's a spotlight that's been waiting in my drafts for ages that i need to finish...

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Would crossover based continuities count? Like for example a continuity that mixes and mashes concepts, and characters from both Transformers and Steven Universe?

hmm. I’m going to say yes I’d add that to the masterlist, on the principle that it’s still an original Transformers continuity, and also there’s a long and storied history of crossover continuities in this franchise

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Spotlight: Autobot Academy

Tried writing this once already but tungle just straight up ate it, so let’s try again! The spotlight before this one is here. Now we have Autobot Academy, with links you can find in the masterlist, written and illustrated by several folks including the brilliant @stonecrusherdrawsthearts​!

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What's it about, what's it called, what's it like?

[Stone]  Autobot Academy is about the misadventures of the students of Autobot Academy. It’s admittedly a bit barebones to say it like that, so I’m gonna do semidramatic here. ahem

In a society much like your own but different in many fantastical ways, individuals gifted with strange abilities beyond the ken of technological advancement and scientific understanding have become increasingly common. Special “Hero Guild” facilities have been set up so that the cities of the vast galactic nation they call home are protected from both the minor threats and the dangerous calamities that threaten the lives of their citizens… but not life as you know it. Intelligent robots capable of thinking, feeling, and manipulating phenomenal powers inhabit the worlds of the Cybertronian Commonwealth, and the heroes that save these people are known by many names. Protectobot, Aerialbot, Maximal, Axellerator… but the most common and well known title is Autobot.

This is the story of the next generation of heroes growing up and facing the challenges that life throws at them to become the greatest heroes in the cosmos… assuming their antics don’t get them killed.

Q) Ooooooo. What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

[Stone] I don’t know how, but somehow I came to appreciate Lightbright quite a bit, to the point where the now-starting Season 3 focuses… quite a bit on her. Characterwise. I also really like how I ended up writing Arcee in this universe, that sentient ball of sass that may or may not spew acid on occasion.

[Dev] While the obvious leads are those like Hot Shot, Lightbright, Artillery and such, there are a lot of fun characters, some of which I’m not yet able to talk about. Even one-shot villains and characters. That being said, some of my favourite cast members include Tap-Out, Beta and Hot Shot.

[Sap] People who know me know I’m a big fan of Nautica in general, I’m committed to putting Flareup in everything TF related I ever make, and I’m admittedly head over heels for Artillery. For a surprise favorite, for what was originally a swap in cause I forgot Nightbeat was already used, I really love how Muzzle has turned out.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

[Stone] Personally speaking for me, it’s always been something to do so I don’t stress out about the complexities of life. So, uh, pen it under fluffy fun for me.

[Dev] Honestly, the main reason I do it is I enjoy it, and it gives me the chance to tell stories ranging from the serious to the whacky. That and getting to work with a great crew. So yeah, fluffy here

[Sap] I just like doing stuff with my friends. Also pushing my obscure faves for SummerSlam and doing something with my surplus amounts of ideas.

Q) How long have you been working on it?

[Stone] Well, for me personally it all started in late 2017. Back then I was in a bit of a creative slump. My first continuity had become a revenant of what it was, people who I considered friends were raising concerns, and I felt like I didn’t have much to do then. But then a friend of mine popped by and asked, “Hey, you wanna work on something together?”

“Whatcha have in mind?”

“A new fan continuity that’s kinda a spin on that old concept we tried a year back, but we mix it up with BNHA to add a zing!”

“...Eh, don’t have anything else in mind, why not?”

And it kinda spiralled from there… after my original collaborator decided to tackle other projects, I took on help by some friends, Devaron9 and Saperion.

[Dev] I’d started out simply colouring pages for Stone’ previous project, and started to do so when Autobot Academy first started in 2017. I then got the chance to write with the first issue focused on Steeljaw, and from there got to write many, many stories.

[Sap] Legitimately can’t remember. I probably proofread or colored something before, then somehow skipped straight to writing multiple issues about Nautica? The others probably remember better.

Q) Wow, that’s a long time, you’re dedicated! Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

[Stone] OKAY! For preexisting material, I’m going to show you the first ever picture of Autobot Academy Hot Shot. Are you ready? I don’t think you are~

Yeah, he uh… went through a phase. A very armada-esk phase.

Lightbright was designed by Megatronski, with a slightly less sleek profile and more IDW-ish head

Megatronski also designed the biggest figures on either side of the dichotomy:

As for future works... we've got quite a few in the pipeline, but for now these shadows of what might be will probably have to do...

Q) OOOOOO they look so cool!! Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

[Dev] Inspiration comes from so many places. Sometimes it’s comics like DC, sometimes it’s TV shows. Hell, even a really good bit of music can give me an idea for a scene.

[Stone] Since Dev gave you the basic answer, I think I’ll give one a bit more elaborate. The initial inspiration for the comic when it was proposed to me all those years ago was “My Hero Academia through a Transformers filter,” to put it in basic terms. While a fine idea on its own, I decided to add some stuff to that from various other media influences, including other “magic school” anime (There is a shocking amount of that) and even one or two “normal school” anime. Throw in some IDW for the backstory of the big good and the main bad guy and it was a little presentable in terms of worldbuilding. Then I decided to have a Role-Play game that happened alongside the comic to see just what would happen as a result. Players in that arena took influences from Transformers Victory, Homestuck, various animes, and so much more. And then people started writing fan stories influenced by other forms of media, and I took influence from those fan stories and it kinda… kept going, even after the RP fizzled out.

I even took influence from the works of my original co-author’s nostalgic but sadly short-lived continuity “Transformers Hurricane” in the overall storyline of Transmutate, namely her coming from a dark future ruled by Great Convoy who happened to be a dictator, though steady absorption of more media influences caused that storyline to develop into a bigger and more complicated thing until we wrapped up that plotline in Season 2’s big finale.

[Sap] In the camp of stuff I’m like, “in charge of”, there’s inspiration from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Borderlands, bit of Spider-Man, tiny bit of Megamind. But then there’s one storyline I’m really looking forward to that I can’t, like, pin an inspiration on. It kinda just came from the soul.

Q) Show off something you're really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

[Dev] I would say something I’m really proud of is the Umbra Convoy reveal at the end of the Knowing Me, Knowing You. So much build up to that dramatic scene where he takes off the helmet. I felt incredibly proud because of it.

[Stone] I’d say the most proud I’ve been of this continuity is how the second season wrapped up. The seeds for what would become Siege of Acadeimos were planted right from the beginning by my original collaborator, but they grew like crazy, interweaving their roots into many of the storylines for the first two seasons until we finally got to the end of Season 2. There, they mixed with the bad future plotline that informed much of Season 2 and created a major event that took at least 200 pages to cover, including people dying, people getting their deaths retconned by time travel shenanigans, and those same shenanigans having a tyrannical dictator arise to threaten our heroes. The fact that we as writers were able to pull this off as well as we did… Well, I’d say it’s probably the biggest bit of awesome we’ve done so far… course, something in the next few seasons might dethrone that, who knows unless you read on.

[Sap] or a like, sappy(heh) answer, I think the thing about AA I’m most proud of is the inclusivity. My bi transgirl ass is so lucky to have two amazingly supportive friends who are kickass allies, to the point that even when I’m not actively making stuff gay, these two are deciding “ya know this character is gonna be a girl in this continuity” or “these background characters are gay cause why not”.

As for a point of personal pride, loved seeing everyone demand Nautica’s dad’s head on a pike.

Q) Excellent! What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

[Stone] I like Necromaster’s Brave New World for its tight focus on characters and also its willingness to throw said characters into mortal peril for the sake of a good story. I find myself binging it at least biannually, and also loved his first transformers comic, A New Translation.

Transformers: Mobius Run (over at @transformersmr-hq​) is a fun little thing that is somehow both tight and slipshod in its construction. Like, it has very well thought out chronology and character dynamics, but it also made the substitute cardboard tube fusion cannon, like, an actual thing, and I can’t say I’m that flippant, so I gotta respect that.

And finally (for me at least) one more continuity that shined well when it did but ultimately succumbed to the predilections of time - Megatronski’s Transformers Connect series. That work, as short as it was, can make you care about the Decepticons better then anyone else, by making them feel like people. Sure, one of them may’ve been a yandere, another may’ve been flippant as hell, and a few might’ve been tearing at their own circuits trying to keep it together, but Connect, for all the time it lasted, made you care about these people, even if a good portion of them are objectively terrible.

Feel free to look into them if you want, but with Season 3's first issue being posted at my usual premiere outlet and with it soon arriving on Archive of Our Own, right now’s a good time to binge AutoAca if you feel like it.

Q) I’m absolutely agreeing on your recommendation of BNW and Mobius Run, they’re fantastic! I’ll have to look up Connect 👀

Thank you all! You do magnificent work on this comic, I really enjoy Autobot Academy and all its fun, I really look forward to what’s coming!

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more for ya!

We got Our World by @rubyleonis up on the masterlist with a nice anthology of snapshots, and we got Battlefield Terratron by @oldboyjensenhinglemeier with some sheer hilarity and absurdity! Go check them out folks!

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Spotlight: Toku

Sorry this took so long folks! Last interview was over here, and this time we have TF: Toku, an awesome tokusatsu version of Transformers (that in fact sparked the first idea for my own continuity) hosted over at @tftoku and run by @drawma-king and @agatharights!

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What's it about, what's it called, what's it like?

[D] Toku is a collaborative fan continuity between myself, AgathaRights and MoonTruffles spanning across three different “generations”, as it were. Despite Toku being the best known name for the AU as a whole, it’s actually the second of three “chapters”.

It’s a version of the Transformers story affected by the...well, Tokusatsu genre and all that entails. Toku specially involves a trine of young heroes in a setting where Megatron and his vast empire is on the verge of conquering all of Cybertron and stamping out any sign of the Autobots and their way of life. They stumble upon an ancient relic that allows them to access the spirit of the 13th Prime, the late Optimus, bestowing his visage and various power-ups to each of the children so that they can seek justice against the Decepticons and instill hope in their people.

[A] Kind of a Tokuketsu-Sailor Moon-He-Man take on Transformers, if you will. I love it when you get people who turn into superheroes. It’s always good.

Q) Unique! What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

[D] Well with three different chapters to work with, there are also three different “main casts” to take center stage! The “pre-war” era follows Megatron and his rise to power, Toku itself has Orion, Ariel and Dion sharing the role of “Optimus” to stand against Megatron’s empire and Mahou follows Windblade, Moonracer, Jetfire and Jetstorm against the DJD.

As for personal favorites, I’m quite fond of our take on Jazz in the “middle” storyline. It had come at a time where I was reflecting on Jazz’s role and how odd I felt it was that such a charismatic “Day One” character who, among other things such as being Optimus Prime’s best friend, had been left in the dust for the most part in official media. The version we brought into this ends up being something of an older brother figure who may be more knowledgeable about the whole relic/Optimus situation than he lets on. In fact, our heroes and the audience may find Jazz is worthy of a relic all his own��

[A] I really do love our core trio- Orion, Ariel, and Dion make for such a great team and being able to play them all off each other is a delight. I'm a predictable sort, though, so the breakout stars for me are Megatron and Starscream. What can I say? I'm a sucker for villains, especially ones with huge grandiose schemes and weird transformations and interesting backstories.

Minimus Ambus and Ultra Magnus, the creators of Dion, are also top contenders but I'm biased. I just adore the characters utterly. We stan these dads.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

[A] For me, it just started as an exercise in creativity and a good way to indulge my friends, but it's really become something greater with Drawma's love for tokuketsu to back it.

[D] On my end, other than being an excuse to have fun with a Tokusatsu premise (which is a bit more of an obsession for me at this point) and hopefully encouraging other people to check out that genre through exposure, it’s just been fun to do a collaborative project of this scale. It’s one thing to share ideas and concepts among friends, it’s another to actively work together and make something as interesting as Toku has become.

Q) The idea was so good it ran away with both of you! How long have you been working on it?

[D] The AU got its start around this time two years ago, actually! Late July of 2019, funny enough. Agatha originally conceived of it as a series of very targeted AU premises in a personal friend group and Toku just happened to be the one that both of us gravitated towards to the point where it got fleshed out into what it is today!

[A] It was pretty funny, honestly. My husband had suggested a while back the idea of an Orion/Ariel who magical girl'd into Optimus Prime, and it felt like a very natural progression to use that for a tokuketsu based AU! Getting to use it to torment Drawma, I never thought it'd get so extensive.

Q) Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

[D] Ya know, I’m pretty sure that either of us showing a behind the scenes preview of our process or some of the many ideas that have yet to be displayed on the blog would be a lot of screencaps of...well, late night ideas/crazed screaming at one another about new concepts we’re especially passionate about.

[A] Lots and lots and lots of screaming about whatever new concept has popped into our brains. Lots of it. That and incredibly messy doodles that are impossible to parse, on my end.

[D] Though I suppose I CAN give the readers a sneak peek at Orion’s first super form...and what a doozy it is.

Q) NICE! Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

[D] Aside from the more obvious applications of a very G1 inspired setting (namely picking bits and characters from the Sunbow cartoon and the IDW1 continuity), there is obviously inspiration from anime and...well, Tokusatsu. To give you an idea of which series Toku takes the most influence from, however, I will point out that it’s working title was just “Optimus Rider” for awhile. Kamen Rider is probably my favorite franchise so the “Toku” section of this AU is very much “Transformers through a Kamen Rider filter”. 

[A] EVERYTHING! I'm one of those people who's constantly pulling apart media and real life for choice bits of inspiration, so on top of all the TF media, I also take a lot of inspiration for Toku from anime and manga, from other cartoons, from YA tropes...you name it! One of the major 'twists' of the stories was even inspired by a song from the Anastasia soundtrack.

Q) Show off something you're really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

[D] Honestly? What I’m most proud of is the collaborative effort I’ve mentioned before! It’s one of my favorite things about the circle of friends I’ve found myself in to get to this point and, seemingly, this fandom in general. Working with Agatha and Moon to flesh out this universe that all of us are just so passionate about has been a very rewarding experience and I’d definitely encourage others reading this to try to make collaborative AUs of their own with friends. I know I’d certainly like to make more of them, personally. Though I guess on an individual level, I was/am very proud of how “Optimus’” design came out and hope to expand on the basic design with later and greater forms.

[A] I’ve been obsessed with the not-so-secret reveal of Orion’s heritage ever since it popped into my head and I’m still super proud of it. Presumably because it finally answers the age-old question of “why do Starscream and Optimus always have the same color scheme?” It’s also managed to hit a bunch of people right in the feelings, which is something I’m always proud of. My goal is to inflict maximum emotional damage when I make an AU.

Q) I really love those parts of Toku too, ngl. What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

[D] Well, I would personally like to see @necromastersdomainstuff​ interviewed for Brave New World, since he’s a long time friend and someone who’s been doing VAST comics from different fan continuities of his own invention for years, even being able to collaborate with him on BNW and contribute a few characters or ideas. His dedication to his unique AUs is something I respect and would love to see highlighted.

I would ALSO like to take a moment and suggest the lovely @moontruffles​ for her excellent solo AU by the name of @transformersreversal​ or for Mahou, since she is one of the driving forces behind the “Future of Toku”, as it were. Last but not least, my collaborator and co-creator, @agatharights​. She has SO many incredible AUs that are just so much fun to explore and discuss, especially in the usual goofy ways ideas for them tend to come up behind the scenes among friends and it would be awesome to see any one of them get a highlight.

[A] All I do is make AUs endlessly. I'm an ideas guy. I never actually finish anything with them, though, and eventually revisit and sometimes recycle them into newer AUs as I tinker around. RIP to everyone who's ever hoped for me to finish a project.

I would like to second both MoonTruffles' TF: Reversal AU, which is such a stinkin brilliant take on the whole core concept of Transformers. Same with Brave New World by Necromaster- I love BNW to the point where I've got a .cbl of the whole first half so I can reread it offline. I've done a lot of fanart for it and Necro has shown infinite patience in putting up with me taking his characters and doing goofy fanart with them.

Q) I can third the recommendations for BNW and Reversal, they’re both wonderful!

Thank you both, I really love Toku and all the fantastic stuff you’re making with it! Next up is a long running, expansive comic from an artist who’s so insanely talented that he makes back views of his characters, so keep your eyes peeled!

[transformers-fan-continuities]

Transformers Original Continuity Ask Meme: Anniversary Edition

🎨. When did you start creating your original continuity?

🧩. What motivated you to create your original continuity?

🎭. Do you have any factions outside of Autobots and Decepticons?

👩. Do you have any humans in your original continuity? If so, what are your thoughts on them?

🍂. (Character name) How different are they from their canon counterpart?

🌍. What is your favourite original worldbuilding fact?

🎥. Do you have any favourite moments that happens in your original continuity?

🔨. From which canon continuity have you taken inspiration the most and why?

���. Who is your favourite character to portray? Why?

🖍. Who is the hardest character to portray? Why?

🖼. Do you have any holoform designs for your characters?

🕘. Share one random spoiler for your story