Hong Kong fashion magazine Milk have announced that to celebrate their 10th anniversary they are teaming up with Hasbro to release two exclusive Transformers Dark of the Moon Optimus Prime repaints.  The toys will be a black deluxe figure as well as an hand-painted "premium" release, basically they will be painting no additional details.  No details on how to obtain the toys have been released at this time.

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Credit to weibo.com/tktf for the news and image.­

Japanese YouTuber tokusatsurevoltech has posted a 7 minute video of the Revoltech Transfo­rmers Movie Optimus Prime toy.  You can watch the video below.

I thought I would bring you a quick round-up on some of our recent website updates that you may have missed relating to Instruction Sheets and USPTO Trademark status'.

First up, we have recently added 11 new instruction sheets to the website. You can find links to the instruction sheets below.

1. Transformers DOTM Sideswipe 29707 Instructions
2. Transformers Chopsaw 28579 Instructions
3. Marvel Super Hero ABC and 123 Spanish Instructions
4. Transforemrs DOTM Track Battle Roadbuster 36341 Instructions
5. Transformers Activators Megatron 98470 Instructions
6. Transformers DOTM Comettor 32095 Instructions
7. Transformers DOTM Comettor 32095 Instructions
8. Transformers DOTM Crankcase 28744 Instructions
9. Transformers DOTM Decepticon Hatchet 29684 Instructions
10. Transformers DOTM Ironhide 32138 Instructions
11. Transformers DOTM Lunarfire Optimus Prime 35808 Instructions

On t he trademark side, Hasbro have not filed for a new application since the 14th April, but some of their applications have been updated recently.

1. THRUST - The USPTO are currently processing the 8 year extension for this mark
2. SCAVENGER - As of August 10th, 2011 this mark was renewed under the 10 year renewal (meaning it has been 10 years since it was registered)
   
3. ELITA-1 - As of the 5th August 2011, this mark was suspended.  Hasbro have been notified of this in writing and will need to appeal against the decision if they wish to register it again.
   
4. TRANSFORMERS PRIME - This mark was extended on the 3rd August 2011
5. SPEED STARS - August 3rd, 2011
6. TRANSFORMERS ONE - August 3rd, 2011
7. MECHTECH - August 1st, 2011

IDW Transformers comic book artist Alex Milne has updated his DeviantART site with the the concept drawing for Springarm, who features in issues 22 and 23 of the ongoing Transformers comic.  You can view a mirrored copy of the image below.

Jim Sorenson has updated his blog, Disciples of Boltax, with the transformation sequence for the trainbot Yukikaze.  Previously Jim has posted the transformation sequences for four other members of the Trainbots, Shouki, Getsui, Seizan and Suiken but he is missing the sequence for Kaen and the gestault form Raiden. We will check through our own character / model sheets to see if we have the missing pages but in the meantime here is Jim's thoughts on the character.

BTW, Yukikaze translates roughly to "Snow Breeze."  It's a fairly common name in Anime and Manga, especially for cold-based characters.  The name itself would be reused in Beast Wars II as the space ship (non-sentient) for the Maximals.

Our thanks go out to Rohan Mohindra, Bluestreak56, for submitting the following news

"I was just doing some BW research on Depth Charge and came across a good old G1 fav Devcon. To no surprise he was voiced by John Stephenson (very similar to Windcharger's tones) and I was saddened to learn from wikipedia that he passed away just 10 days ago. John voiced many G1 characters including: Alpha Trion Bosch Devcon Hector Ramirez Huffer Kup Professor Haley Thundercracker Windcharger Of all the voice actors who participated in all four seasons of the G1 cartoon, John Stephenson was the only one who did not lend his voice to The Transformers: The Movie. I particularly enjoyed his Windcharger, Kup, Thundercracker and Devcon voices.. Thanks John"

I thought I would take a moment to explain about the lack of updates to the website.  For the last month I have been extremely busy with my job which has had a massive impact on the time I spend maintaining my websites.  This was then followed by Auto Assembly, for which I was on the committee, and led to the lack of updates to the website since Thursday.  Since being back from AA, which has only been a day, I've been busy putting things back that I had to get out or move around in order to take to the event.  Do not worry though, I will be getting back to the site and updating both the news and resource sections very shortly.  I do apologise for the lack of updates this year which has primarily been caused by the change in responsibilities at my work, but I will strive to find more of a balance and so you should start to see the results very soon.

Thanks

Steve AKA Quartz

First of all I would like to say thank you to everyone who attended Auto Assembly in one capacity or another.  Everyone worked their butts off from the committee, the volunteers, the dealers and their helpers to try to make the show as smooth as possible despite the problems that were faced.  The guests were once again warm and welcoming and once again went out of their way to entertain everyone.  Finally everyone who attended the convention needs to be thanked.  There were a lot of first-timers this year and the general consensus was overwhelmingly positive.

During Auto Assembly it was announced that David Kaye is voicing a role in Transformers Prime, but it was also hinted, during his promo video, that David Sobolov, voice of Beast Wars Depth Charge, may also have a role in the current Transformers show.

We have updated theTransformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Transformers DOTM Sideswipe 29707 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

Are you in the UK? Are you attending Auto Assembly 2011?  That's right, Auto Assembly 2011 kicks officially kicks off today in Birmingham and if you haven't already purchased your ticket(s) to the event do not worry, you can buy them on the door tomorrow.

With over a dozen guests ranging from voice actors to cartoon episode writers, comics writers and comic artist there will be someone there for you.  The event will also have plenty of dealers so you can pick up some Transformers figures form which ever line(s) interest you and hang out with fellow fans of the Transformers line.

If you do attend, don't forget to drop by the toy display where Transformers At The Moon will be running a display this year based around the Japanese Beast Wars figures.

We've waited for over 10 years for this news, but finally Beast Wars II will be getting a release on DVD.

Rakuten has posted an interesting new listing, Transformers Beast Wars II DVD Boxset containing all 43 episodes and is scheduled to release on October 20th for 29,400 yen.

If you want to see the characters from Beast Wars II then head to Auto Assembly, starting tomorrow, as the toy display theme for this year in Japanese Beast Wars!