TFNation have announced their 2nd voice actor guest will be Richard Newman! The actor is best known for voicing Rhinox in Beast Wars as well as Tankor in Beast Machines but he also voiced Vector Prime in Transformers Cybertron.

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Operation: Beast Wars

We are honoured to announce TFNation 2016 will see the first ever UK Transformers convention appearance of Richard Newman, who will be helping us to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Beast Wars and the 10th Anniversary of Transformers: Cybertron!

To Transformers fans, Richard is best known as Rhinox – the flower-sniffing, “Chainguns of Doom”-toting, Predacon-smacking Maximal from the Beast Wars era; a role he would later revisit in the twisted form of Tankor during the Beast Machines series.
Richard’s Transformers credentials do not end there, as he was also responsible for voicing Transformers: Cybertron’s time and space guardian, Vector Prime.

Outside of Transformers, Richard has amassed a huge resume of impressive acting work both behind the mic and on screen. Some of his many roles include; Grandfather in Pingu, Governor-General Phaeton in Exosquad; Iron Klaw from G.I. Joe Extreme; Tōtōsai from InuYasha; Cranky Doodle Donkey from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; Rattlor, The Faceless One, Lord Dactys and many others from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002); Toadborg from Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars and the unforgettable M. Bison from Street Fighter: The Animated Series (YES! YES!). In 2011 his performance as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice led to a Jessie Award nomination for “Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Large Theatre”.

Richard will be signing autographs and taking part in panels during our inaugural convention, which will run from Friday 19th and Sunday 21st August 2016.

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TFNation
Where All Are One
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TakaraTomy designer Hisashi Yuki has Tweeted a New Years photo featuring the Beast Wars Metals X-9 Metals Jaguar figure with a message which hints that TakaraTomy will be running commemorative Beast Wars events as well as releasing commemorative toys in 2016.  With Masterpiece Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal) already on the way this could be a hint at additional figures as well as new or redecoed Generations figures also being released.

The Transformers Collectors Club have updated both their Facebook and Twitter accounts with images of their upcoming FSS 4.0 figures the Combiner Wars Mayhem Attack Squad. The figures are not of the final products but are close to them. You can view the mirrored images below.

Roll Out Roll Call have announced their first guest for their 2016 show as Morgan Lofting! You can read the release below.

Announcing our first guest for Roll Out Roll Call, The UK Transformers, G.I. Joe & Action Force Show 2016, the amazing Morgan Lofting, the actress who breathed life into the voice of the legendary Baroness from G.I. Joe, as well as Firestorm and Moonracer from Transformers amongst many others. For your chance to meet Morgan, join us July 8th-10th at The Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel, London, Heathrow. — at Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow Hotel.

It's seeming like it's Transformers Convention week this week as the latest show announcement has been released.  Today it's all positive news as Roll Out Roll Call have conifirmed their 2016 will show.  The event is moving once again (originally in Fordinbridge, and for the last three years in Southampton) the show has uprouted again in order to find a location wihch can cope with the demand.  From July 8th to July 10th the event shall take place close to London's Heathrow Airport at the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel.  The full press release follows.

Roll Out Roll Call, the UK Transformers, G.I. Joe and Action Force show announced today that next year's event will be moving to a brand new location, The Radisson Blu Edwardian at London Heathrow, July 8 through to July 10.
Join fans from around the world for the largest event yet at the 4 star hotel which is within easy access of the M25, M4, M4, M40 and M1, London itself and Heathrow airport.

A limited number of hotel reservations will be available shortly at the following substantial discounts for Roll Out Roll Call attendees:
£68.00 single occupancy (reduced from £180.00)
£78.00 double occupancy (reduced from £200.00)
£88.00 triple occupancy (reduced from £220.00)
£5.00 per 24 hour parking (reduced from £15.00)
Early reservation booking is encouraged to avoid disappointment.

In the coming weeks, fans and collectors will be able to register for Roll Out Roll Call 2016 through www.rolloutrollcall.com. Fans and collectors who register for Roll Out Roll Call as one of the limited Energon Ticket holders will receive General Weekend Admission and an exclusive official TRANSFORMERS item that is not available for general sale and the option to guarantee purchase other additional exclusive items (To Be Announced).

Those who register as an International Hero Ticket holder will receive General Weekend Admission and an exclusive G.I. Joe item.

General Weekend Admission includes admission to the Friday evening private sales room experience, Saturday and Sunday admission, access to all panels and seminars throughout the weekend and two signings per guest.

Bookings for the Energon Ticket, International Hero Ticket, General Weekend Admission and Single Day Admission will be available shortly viawww.rolloutrollcall.com

For all the information regarding the Roll Out Roll Call show activities, hotel updates and the exclusive figure offerings, remember to stay tuned to Roll Out Roll Call, the UK Transformers, G.I. Joe and Action Force show, sign up for the newsletter via the website or follow Roll Out Roll Call via Facebook and Twitter.

Karyuudo fansubs have published their translation of the manga that accompanies TakaraTomy's Grand Galvatron. You can read the translation over on their Blogspot page.

The convention rumours continue it seems as a report over on The Allspark points that the rumour that Fub Pub will be loosing its Transformers Convention license just doens't seem to want to go away.  We find that unlikely considering howPete Sinclair mentioned that the Botcon 2018 theme was coming along well whilst at RORC 2016.

The Allspark reports though that the Official Collectors Club, the TFCC, will be ending in December next year regardless of when you renew your membership with the same happening for the G.I.Joe Club.  The membership normally runs for 12 month but as the US fansite points out BOTH the Transformers and G.I.Joe collectors club stores report that "all memberships will terminate with the December 2016 issue of the club magazines".

What does this mean? Who knows. There is no specific mention of Botcon, JoeCon or the figure subscription services so it may just be the end of the printed magazine no doubt time will tell and rumours will continue to fly around.

You can view their post here as well the TFCC listing here.

A discussion has broken out on the Facebook page of fellow former Trans-Europe Express group website NTFA (The Nordic TransFans Association) where members of the group have begun discussing organising another Nordic Transformers conventionin association the "new" Auto Assembly team.  In the past members of NTFA have worked with Auto Assembly co-founder Simon Plumbe previously to run the only previous Auto Assembly Europe back in November 2011. 

It is early days within the discussions, from what has been posted publicly, but it appears that either the NTFA convention or Auto Assembly Europe may well be set for a Summer / Autumn 2016 return.  The organisers will be hoping to build upon the 2011 event which holds the attendance record of 55 attendees.  The last event was deemed a huge success by the organisers having increased from 23 people who attended the previous years NTFA convention as well as beating the previous Nordic Transformers convention record of 29 which was set in 2007.

We at Transformers At The Moon wish the organisers good luck with the event and should the event take place we shall certainly look at attending ourselves.  We've been hoping to attend more of the European shows over recent years and are hoping that 2016 will allow us to visit more of them.

Expect more to follow on this story over the coming weeks and months

The first official image of the upcoming Masterpiece Optimus Primal toy has been shown. The image is of a CGI render of the character who will be released next yeat to commerate the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars.

We have found some new trademarks filed with the USPTO by Hasbro Inc. The trademarks are:

1. M.A.S.K. MOBILE ARMORED STRIKE KOMMAND

The mark is purely within the Entertainment category and follows on from the recent news that Hasbro are looking at bringing M.A.S.K, G.I.Joe, Rom, Micronauts and Visionaries together within the same cinematic universe.

You can view all of the details of these and other trademarks within our exclusive Trademark Application area of the website which features trademark applications from 1984 through until the present day.

Well the cats out of the bag as Hollywood Reporter are reporting that Paramount Pitures are teaming up with  Hasbro Inc to create a Universe based on five of Hasbro's properties Transformers, G.I.Joe, Micronauts, M.A.S.K, Visionaries and ROM.

Transformers and G.I.Joe have already had live-action films with Micronauts being in the work for a long time and Visionaries being planned for revival for over 5 years (we broke down the state of Visionaries over on TheVisionaries.net a while back). A reboot of M.A.S.K has also been in the work for ten years with the original order of brand release set to be Transformers , G.I.Joe, Micronauts, M.A.S.K and Visionaries, ROM we don't know about.

According to the report Paramount Pictures are announcing a new deal with Hasbro on Tuesday that will see Paramount and Allspark Pictures, Hasbro’s film label, build an interconnected, cross-property onscreen universe, featuring characters from five of Hasbro’s other brands: G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionairies, M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) and ROM.

The site goes on to state that Allspark Pictures will produce the films with Brian Goldner (President and CEO of Hasbro), Stephen Davis (Exec VP and Chief Content Officer) and Josh Feldman (head of film development) working with Paramount Pictures to shape the universe.

You may wonder how these brands will be able to work together, well it's actually a pretty easy process. M.A.S.K, G.I.Joe and Transformers can all take place on Earth with the first two lines easily crossing over and the latter having a 30 years history of collaboration. Visionaries can easily take place on an alien planet that the Transformers could visit perhaps even playing a part in the Great Cataclysm though on a world where technology has failed they may well fit into some of the original mythology for season2. ROM again could also cross over with Transformers for an adventure in space whilst the new Micronauts film, originally with JJ Abrams on board, was planned as being a Transformers prequel anyway .

Expect more on this story in the coming days, weeks and months.

EDIT - Whilst the article does not directly suggest that Transformers will be a part of this on-screen universe, Micronauts has already been mentioned various times as being set within the TF universe and it makes joining the brands far easier to do with a race that can travel the stars

In an interview with CinePop Mark Wahlberg has confirmed that he will reprise his role as Cade Yeager in the fifth live action Transformers movie.  A director is still to be confirmed for the movie, the first in a new trilogy, though with Mark's return it is increasingly likely that Michael Bay will return to direct TF5

Seibertron are reporting a blast from the past as Kellogs Canada have teamed up with Hasbro to run a campaign on the boxes of cereal packets to give away Hasbro toys and games which includes Transformers!

These types of campaigns were extremely popular during the 1980s and so it's nice to see them return.

You can read more about the campaign and see the images over on Seibertron.com

TakaraTomy Mall have released images of their latest Transformers Unite Warriors box set Grand Galvatron.  For the set TakaraTomy are releasing many of the previously unreleased in Japan and unused alternate toolings for the combiner who features a fairly cartoon accurate Voyager "Tactician Cyclonus", a retool of Skydive as Ghost Starscream,  using unreleased G1 Seeker head, a retool of Air Raid caleld Curse Armada Thrust, a redeco of Offroad based on Transformers Prime Breakdown called Zombie War Breakdown (his Japanese name in Prime), and finally a redeco of Rook as Wandering Roller based on the IDW character and former partner of Optimus Prime!  They all combine into a form resembling Galvatron II.  Pre-orders are open now