TRANSFORMERS IN THE NETHERLANDS
A complete overview of Transformers cartoons and comics in Holland from 1985 to now.Also information on the fanclub and the Dutch Transformers conventions.



Also check out my Dutch catalog and toy ad scans. Info on the Dutch fanclub is listed too.

The original cartoon wasn't really broadcast here in the Netherlands on national television, until somewhere in 1987 or 1988. However, before that, it was broadcasted on the English Sky channel, which not everyone could receive. Every Saturday morning was a new episode at the end of the Fun Factory block , a show that began in the morning at around 7:00 and ended at 12:00. It started with cartoons for the little kids and worked it's way up to shows like Inspector Gadget , Care bears , Jayce and the wheeled warriors and even Masters of the universe.
At 11:00 a real live episode was shown , always something (boring) like Skippy (Thanks to Tomi for remembering this title). At 11:30 Transformers began. It first was presented by Mr.P and then by Andy and a crocodile (Crocker) and a seal (Snoot), (Thanks to Soulman for the info) (Look for a picture below). What I always thought of a fun thing were the commercials inbetween , I remember taping the Optimus Prime commercial (now seen on the UK Dvd) and just watching it over and over and eventually ruining or old Beta recorder. On Sunday the complete Saturday program was re-run (and I just watched it again). They also showed lots of Transformers drawings made by fans and the show had a lot of Holland based fans.


DJ Kat (without Linda De Mol)

Transformers were very popular and were shown all year long. After the first two seasons a period of re-runs began and then the third season was shown. At some point the show was shown at 17:00 on Saturday afternoon, starting with Megatron's masterplan. I can't remember when Fun factory eventually stopped. I also can't remember if they showed the complete season 3 , because I taped "The ultimate weapon" from an evening broadcast. The Dj Kat show also showed some reruns for a while. Here is a picture of Dj Kat The Dj kat show was shown every morning and early afternoon and was presented by the kat with a "k" and Dutch girl Linda de Mol. There program was about an hour and they showed many drawings (from kids from "Holland") and cartoons like Robotix , Bigfoot and the muscle machines and Jem. When Sky channel stopped showing Transformers around 1987, with the afternoon broadcast of "Rebirth", the Dutch channel Veronica began a re-run of the third season, this time with subtitles. They even showed the Movie unexpectatly on a Wednesday afternoon.

FUN FACTORY AND DJ KAT THEME SONGS

Someone send me a couple of tracks (I've lost your name, please mail me for credit). These two both come from audio tapes. I've pasted all the main and end titles into these two tracks. I'm not sure if these are the original versions of the themes , they're a bit different than I remember and the sound quality is so so. Still very cool though...

DOWNLOAD THE THEME FROM SKY CHANNEL'S FUN FACTORY

DOWNLOAD THE THEME FROM SKY CHANNEL'S DJ KAT SHOW

THE ORIGINAL FUN FACTORY ON YOUTUBE

A FUN FACTORY FRAGMENT ON YOUTUBE

A SPECIAL WEBSITE ON THE FUN FACTORY!









There were some Dutch translated episodes too; the first 4 of the first season , Fight or flee. No one likes them since they use the same voices as the Smurfs and the bots speak with accents from Amsterdam. Check out this page for some scans of the Dutch language VHS tapes that came out in 1990.

Back then I liked to draw small comics myself and always wondered why there wasn't a real comic book available. So imagine my surprise when I saw Transformers #3 in the bookstore at the end of 1986. This issue collected the American issues 5 and 6 and had 4 character profiles. I was a little bit disapointed with the fact that the story only evolved around Buster and Shockwave, but I still read the thing over and over . At that time a lot of cartoon series got their American comic versions translated, like M.A.S.K. ,Masters of the universe and series like Care Bears and Muppet babies.

The first two issues came out a year earlier in 1985 (Reprinting the mini series) , after a year of silence the series continued every two months. They got published by Junior Press, who printed all Marvel and Dc comics in Dutch. Transformers became real popular and by issue 9 they had a 64-page special, reprinting the Movie mini series. At that moment the Dutch comic was way behind with translations to the American version and they decided to skip a couple of issues. Since in the Movie Optimus Prime dies, why bother letting him die again in the US #24? So, issues 19 to 25 got skipped. Issue 13 was another summer special, this time even 96 pages and translated issues 32 to 37, skipping 33 and 34 (The fill in UK stories). This way when the Headmasters got introduced in the comic, they were also laying in the shops. At the same time as #13, a 96 special printing the Headmasters limited series came out. This wasn't for sale in bookstore, only in toyshops. I got mine in a surprise Hasbro mailing, together with a lot of leaflets. Hasbro was pretty active back then. They had lots of contests and there were lots of oppertunities to send in your robot points (from the back of the boxes). You could get a huge carbon Transformers base, a Cobra commander and Autobot cars cheaply for example. Even much later in 1989 there was an offer to buy puzzles with them and they kept sending G.I.Joe catalogs in the mail until 1992.

Back to the comics; After issue 14 no more specials were made and I think the sales went down a little, not only from Transformers though, much more tv series were cancelled. #19 and 20 had two short UK back up stories and from #23 the series got a subtitle; "Satelite series" , instead of being a bi-monthly comic, it became monthly, but mixed with Gi Joe, so one month Gi joe lay in the bookstore, the next month Transformers. In 1991 the series came out every 3 months, but since you could buy the American comic in normal bookstores too, I didn't mind. #32 was the last issue, printing American #75. It even got a farewell word by the staff. It was too bad the series ended, I collected it from my 7th year to my 12th and that's a long time for a kid. Here are cover scans to all the Dutch Transformers comics.

TRANSFORMERS Omnibus
There were 7 books in this series. It reprints the Dutch comics from #7 and on. Every omnibus had 3 issues in them, the covers were torn of the original comics and were glued inside these. Only the last one had an original cover, collage. The first omnibus came out in 1989, if I remember correctly, the last one in 1992.

(Thanks to Volker for the scan of Omnibus 6!)

The following are Volume 1 and 4 of the Dutch Transformers vhs tapes from 1990. As far as I know these are the only Transformers vhs tapes we ever had here. Volume 1 to 3 all had the same paper sleeve, except for a sticker with a number on it. Each tape had only translated episode. Episodes were More than meets the eye part 1 to 3 and Transport to oblivion (Thanks to anonymous for the correction!). Considering these videos cost about $10 back then, they were pretty expensive for only one badly translated episode. For the begin and end titles they used the opening for season 2.

Around that time Belgium also produced a video series, which probably lasted for 3 VHS tapes. I saw two at a fair once and they had unique art that looked a little like the very first US tapes in the eighties. I got the scan below of the first tape , which I'd never seen before from another transfriend. It has the box art from Rodimus prime on the cover and although it is part one, it has the fourth episode of the series "Transport to oblivion" , translated in Flemish (Dutch?) Click here to see a larger scan

At the beginning of the nineties Transformers was only being showed on German television. In 1992 the new commercial channel RTL4 showed a mix match of Transformers cartoons. Some of every season, including even a couple of terribly translated ones , these still were the original episodes. In 1993 this channel began with a run of Generation 2. In 1997 Veronica , now also a commercial channel, started with the Beastwars season 1. Unfortunately the series got cancelled after an episode or 8. It wasn't however when RTL4 began showing Beastwars again in 1999 or 2000 that Transformers were starting to get popular again. During this time the first Dutch Transformers fanclub started to get going. This began with some 7 people conventions and printed fanzine made by William Leiten called;

Before the Dutch Transformers mailinglist Dutchbot started way back in the summer of 2000 there was a real printed fanzine Transmasters NL , started by Joeri and continued by William. It came out every 3 to 4 months in black and white or colour, whatever you choose. It was printed on one side of the paper, so every issue was very large. Here is some info on the three issues I got and some scans. Most issues were around 24 pages and there were eight totally.

I discovered the publication at a toy convention in Utrecht in 1999. A dealer who sold M.A.S.K. toys had some leaflets on his table. Check that out here.

The first issue I got was #5 from the autumn of 1999. Here you can read the introductory. The first pages mentioned the news of the day, including the then brand new Beast machines series. On this page you can read about the Botcon exclusives that just came out and a promising Unicron figure, that never had an official release.

Then a few pages were devoted to box pictures of the Japanese Victory series. A cool thing, since not every fan had access to the internet then. A complete article on other Japanese series that came from the net was printed thereafter and then came the adds. Check here for the first page.

Somefew very cool art pages, here's a sample.

This page showed the first 7 pages of an unpublished Beastwars comic by Dark Horse. Then a Beastwars product list from Hasbro. And it ended with fan art from the Wal Mart exclusive Rattrap.

Then at the beginning of 2000 I received my first issue in colour. Here is the introductory.

The first pages were used for the news including the first look at Transformers vehicles, Carrobots. The first time the G1 style came back. More news on a second Movie, that ofcourse never came and the rumour that the original movie would have a DVD release. Then a very large summary of what happened in Beast Machines and a Beastwars 2 toylist.

After that the first thing I wrote, a 6 page links list to what I thought were interesting Transformers sites. Ofcourse this probably was done a million times before.

More collection pictures, this time in colour.

Then the beginning of a huge fanfic by Jasper that ran for a couple of issues and never got completed. It was supposed to tie all the generations and different stories into one, but this was before Carrobots, Armada and Energon made it even more confusing. Here is the opening signed by Simon Furman and the first page.


At the end of 2000 I heard an explosion at my door and the last 5 kilo issue of Transmasters NL was there. A big wrap up of articles. By that time most people had internet and were members of Dutchbot (see below) . So a printed magazine was kind of running behind the facts. Here is the introductory.

The news items were about the latest Carrobots releases and rumours of an upcoming Transformers comic by Top cow and the first images of the Pvc's. And the first mentioning of the USA version of Carrobots, Robots in disguise

Here is some art that was circulating around the net then. Rumours had it that this was going to be in a new Transformers comic book. That book never came, but who could have expected what did came!

Then came another thing I wrote myself. A short piece on Transformers comics in Germany. Unfortunately I did miss a couple of issues back then. Check it here , here and here. But check here for the finished piece on this site.

The plan seemed to be to produce a Dutch Transformers comic, but that never happened. Here are some samples by Paul. I wish the Dreamwave comics looked like this.

Then came...wait for it, about 40 pages (!!) of part 2 and 3 of Jasper's fanfic. I heard part 4 is almost finished by now.

The last issue ended with more info on the new Dutchbot internet mailing group. A mailinglist in Dutch language made for Transformers discussion. It started in 2001. In 2002 a second list Dutchbottf was made, since the original Dutchbot got a little off-topic too much. At this moment Dutchbottf is , more or less, the only still being used.

The link again; http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=dutchbottf
A free of charge, spam free discussion list that still gets being used actively and has about 160 members.

Conventions were being held from 1999 and onwards. The first two were relatively small , the 2004 one had the most visitors. 2005 didn't have one unfortunately, for reasons unknown. Click here for pictures of the conventions.


Around 1998 Veronica (On Telekids) showed all 52 Beastwars cartoons , and about 4 times too! The toys promotion was pretty bad though. There were first season and Transmetal toys available, but at the moment when the cartoon began, the toys were gone. Beastmachines didn't get a broadcast, the toys were available, but were very hard to find. This time all hopes were focused on Robots in Disguise on Fox Kids. At the end of 2002 for the first time a decent line of Transformers toys was available in the shops. It contained the first wave of Robots in Disguise. In November there even was a toy commercial on tv again, something that hadn't happened since the first wave of Beastwars toys. were talked about by Junior Press , but for unknown reasons it didn't get trough. (According to Junior Press it was Hasbro's fault).

In January of 2003 Robots in disguise began broadcasting on the Dutch version of Fox kids. The first cel animation Transformers here in 10 years. Opinions do vary on the quality of the stories and characters, but it's not 1985 anymore ofcourse. RID was shown at Saturday and Sunday afternoon (2 different episodes). there also was a Wednesday block hour showing three re-runs. According to Hasbro, Armada might be broadcast on another channel after the summer.

As from Saturday the 1st of february 2003, Yorin started broadcasting Beastwars right from scratch again at 11:20. This time they also started a daily broadcast. This means that at one point there were 11 episodes of Transformers a week!

IOn February the first of 2003 Armada toys started appearing in the toyshops and in July two new Generation 2 DVD's appeared.( Look for those in the DVD section on the main page ). In September another 2 DVD's were forthcoming and there were three new different VHS tapes for sale. Armada was listed with a half page in the thick Intertoys catalog (See a scan of that here) and from the first of September, Yorin started broadcasting Armada every day in the afternoon. In Dutch language unfortunately. On Saturday every weekday episode gets a rerun in a Saturday block of 2 hours! Something that not even happened in the Transformers heyday in the eighties.

At the end of the year two Armada dvd's were released, each containing 3 subtitled episodes each. Distribution of all the dvd's was a little better, a translated Armada comic was released. The cartoon series stopped around episode 20.


Imagine my surprise of walking in the bookstore in September and finding a brand new Armada comic book! This is a 6 weekly series and has one translated Dreamwave Armada comic. The book is published by Big Balloon Publishers and is 24 pages. The rest pages are filled with Yorin Tv information (NOT the channel that broadcasts Armada!). It's larger than the US book and has much thicker and better quality paper, it costs Euro 2,30 ($2,30) and looks pretty good.

Find some scans here; COVER *** BACK COVER **** PAGE ONE

Issue 2 of the Armada comic came out at the 23th of Oktober and had a wide distribution. It's 24 pages of comic and nothing more really, but the paper is very thick and good and it's translated very wel. Personally, I do think they screwed up the cover.


Click here for a larger scan of the cover and here of the backcover, showing issue 3. Issue 4 was the last one. The book was cancelled after a mere 5 issues.

In 2004 the first 8 or 10 episodes of Energon were showed on Fox in bad Dutch translation. I wonder if they only translated these few episodes, or a whole season. Although distribution of the cartoon is disastrous , distribution of the toys gets a little better.

Classics are available.

In 2007 Transformers the movie was shown here and the Transformers were all over the place again. Movie posters at train stations, tv guide front cover etc. A new convention was held in Ijsselstein, the first time Hasbro was incorporated too. Toys were available in toyshops with nice displays.

In 2008 a brand new Dutch Transformers convention will take place. TRANSFORMATIONS 2008

Finally, here is a list of links to Dutch Transformers websites. Unfortunately a lot of good websites have been put offline. Devvi's diaclone site and Trypticon's Autobot city come to mind.

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