It all began in 1986 with a small group of Transformer enthusiasts. Then the club exploded into the international scene after Issue 79 of the original Marvel comic series was released (the last issue to have a letters column), when Liane "Tetra Reris" Elliot had a letter about the club published along with a picture of Megatron saying, "Some days you just can't win!" The club's membership swelled rapidly, perhaps too fast after that issue, to a total of 300 club members globally. The TransMasters were the only place to find new material for Transformers fans for several years between Generation 1 and Generation 2. During this period Liane published the Trans Action club newsletter.
When G2 arrived there was a kind of exodus of interest and Liane became frustrated with the club. She would end up dropping out and forming the Survivors, which has also fell recently. A couple of other clubs attempted to start up in this period, but nothing ever came of them.
Tony "Autoforse" Buchanan took the lead and began to produce AutoUpdate, the main newsletter until he no longer could do it in 1999. In 1991 Hasbro recognized the TransMasters by giving us a Non Profit agreement to use the Transformers as long as we place "Transformers are a registered trademark of Hasbro. Copyright 2006 Hasbro" on everything we produced. (You should note that I have recently added "Takara Tomy" to this line due to their merger and to protect international rights.) This fact makes us the only non-licensee with such an agreement with Hasbro.
At one point dues were created (an item at the time that I was clearly against, but that's beside the point) of $10 per year to help pay for the club newsletter (TransAction then was changed to The Cybertronian which ran only 3 issues), address lists and other correspondence to help promote the club. The Treasurer at the time ran off with our dues and could not be found again. Although, no fault of the club in general, this single act may have well led to a great exodus of many remaining members.
With the death of AutoUpdate, the sudden growth of the Internet as a medium to share fanzines, artwork, comic, news and opinions at almost no cost, the club has had a steady decline since. It is my belief that we did not do a good enough job of adapting and asking the question that needed to be asked. What do Transformers fans want from a club? Please feel free to send your answers to me since the club is an ever evolving and adapting entity serving you the Transfans.