PrimeTimeToyz is no longer affiliated with TFUKcon

A Personal Note from Moff - 30/05/26

The first TFUKcon took place in May 2022, when Luke and Greg had a vision for a social gathering of the TFUK family. I attended that first event simply as a fan. Sitting having a beer with Simon Furman talking Transformers is still one of my absolute favourite memories. It was the first time so many of us had been able to get together after COVID, and we celebrated. We drunk the bar dry.

In 2023, very close to the event, I was asked if I could step in and host. I remember being incredibly nervous, my anxiety was through the roof. I think it went ok, but that peek behind the curtain was enough to hook me in, and I joined the organising committee.

Early in 2024 the events venue of the first two years announced it was closing its doors, and it was nearly the end of the convention. Others will tell you, but it was through sheer stubbornness that I pushed the event forward. We found a new home, we threw Transformers a 40th birthday party, complete with cake, and remarkably, from the brink of cancellation, we sold out. The feedback for our 2024 event was it was starting to feel more like a convention than a social gathering of the first two years.

Moving forward I wanted to lean into becoming a "real" convention. For 2025 Sam & Russell joined the committee, and from that point forward TFUKcon genuinely stepped up. The connections they both brought to the convention were incredible. We welcomed our first overseas guest with amazing animation credentials, we added Friday night entertainment including a UK exclusive first look at the latest Blokees. We also now had a better understanding of the halls capacity and were able to increase our attendee limit and incredibly for the second year running, we sold out.

2026 was something else entirely. Transformers the Show delivered an extraordinary Friday evening to more people than attended either of the first two events. Saturday night saw a concert from the brilliant Brad and Ian. We had our own exclusive free comic, thanks to the incredible Nathan of Britformers fame, we brought more guests than ever before, and sold out for a third consecutive year, five weeks early and with a 20% increase on capacity! We had a waiting list, in fact people were pleading for spare tickets the night before. The demand was extraordinary!

I am incredibly proud of what TFUKcon became under my leadership, but truth be told it outgrew what was intended to be. Personally, I took my role incredibly seriously, I knew what it could be and my passion for putting on the best show possible spurred me on. Those who worked with me in my 15 year career in people management will tell you I would never ask someone to do something I wasn't willing to do myself but what that really led to with TFUKcon was me taking on so many aspects of the event, in retrospect too much. From planning the schedule, designing the hall layout, securing, organising & interviewing the guests,  to handling trader applications, developing each years theme/artwork with Lucan, right down to building the website, managing tickets sales & emails, organising attendee freebies, sourcing attendee wristbands and even developing comical names for the food menu! I led from the front, I wanted to give the attendees the best event possible and took that mission very seriously, taking overall responsibility for every aspect of the event but it took its toll.

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TFUKcon 2026 was, by far, the biggest and best convention we had ever put on at the Cobden. Sadly there was also a realisation we had outgrown our home of three years and the time had come to think bigger. As conversations turned to what came next, it became clear that the vision and the structure around it were pulling in different directions. I was not alone in feeling that way but ultimately I have made a decision that was right for me.

Therefore, I am announcing that I have parted ways with TFUKcon. This is my decision, made with a full heart and genuine gratitude for every single moment of the last four years.

From someone who had dark days where leaving the house felt impossible, where anxiety meant I attended five Auto Assemblies without speaking to a single person, to someone who has hosted TFUKcon for the last four and organised the last three, I still am not sure I would have believed this was possible in my twenties and thirties. But here I am.