Here is a round up of what was said during the Hasbro designer panel at Botcon 2010.

The Hasbro team on the panel were Eric Seibenhaler, Bill Rawley, Joe Kline, Lenny Kanziga, Chris Oliverie and Lenny Panzica.  With the last two being new members of the team.  Joining them from Takara-Tomy was Mr Yake.

G1 Legends Optimus Prime, Starscream, Prowl and Megatron (gun), all with rubsigns.  Megatron can be held by Starscream

Scout Class Windcharger with flip out magnet weapons

Darkmount recoloured as Skullgrin with a new ram skull head.

Deluxe class Scourge (white stealth jet)

War For Cybertron Cliffjumper

Generations.  Tunderwing (deluxe), Tracks (deluxe with three modes), Mindset (Hailstorm remould with nerw head), Jazz (with speakers), Perceptor (transforms into a truck based on TF Animated).  Perceptor recolour with new head to be Reflector.  Grappel also shown as is Inferno with a new head.  Highbrow, Lugnut (new mold based on a WWII Bomder)

Voyager Class Fallen

Powercore combiners Heavytread with Groundspike.  Skyhammer with Airlift.  5-pack Constructicons.  Dinobot set with the body being a Styracosaurus but in Slag's colour scheme.

They talked about some new story ideas  / concepts they are working on, showing original 13 AlphaTrion.  Alpha Trion is shown holding a book and quil, and basically is a scribe recording events and knowledge.

Liege Maximo is the second with a Greek Mythology based design

Vector Prime is the third.  He is described as a time/space warrior with golden armour

Prima is the fourth, the first of the Primes.  A warrior of the light, he is all white with a broadsword

Megatronus if the fifth, a blakc and red robot with a fusion cannon.  He's head is based on the Decepticon symbol.  He sets himself on fire and becomes known as The Fallen.

Battle Ops Bumblebee comes with an easter egg.  If you keep operating the sounds he plays the G1 theme.

Transformers Prime.  Eric is designing Bulkhead for the show.  There will be a new Kup coming.  They want to dso more humans and cassettes.

After Dinobot being voted in to the Hall of Fame, Hasbro would now like to re-vist Beast Wars.

No plans at the moment for War For Cybertron Trypticon or Omega Supreme.

No chance of new toys for Japanese Animated release as the tools no longer exist.

On Airachnid Aaron said to wait and see, that they copyright a lot of names but people will find out in time.

We have added four new Japaense hobby magazine galleries to the website for your viewing pleasure.  Each of the galleries contain about four pages of Transformers related items including more images of Sleep Mode Convoy, 2010 Unicron and the latest Transformers Revenge figures. The galleries are:

Figure King Issue 149

Dengeki Hobby June 2010

Dengeki Hobby July 2010

Hyper Hobby July 2010

Botcon.com have announced the initial details for their 2011 convention.  The event will take place in Pasadena, California within the United States (a popular location for Botcon) and will take place between June 2nd and June 5th.  Check out the Botcon 2011 website here.

Both tfw2005.com and seibertron.com have continued coverage from BotCon 2010 day 2

From TFW

1) Botcon 2010 Activision Panel
2) Botcon 2010 Hasbro Panel Coverage
3) Botcon 2010 Transformers Prime Panel Coverage
4) TFW2005 BotCon 2010 Coverage : Real Life Motormaster At BotCon 2010

From Seibertron

1) Notes from Hasbro's Marketing Review panel (aka Hasbro Toy panel)
2) Notes from Hasbro's Transformers: PRIME CG cartoon panel (updated during panel) Welker and Cullen reprise roles, Soundwave ...
3) BotCon 2010 Gallery - Hunt For The Decepticons Toys Revealed

Yahoo! Japan Auctions seller Air Wonder Stories is selling a Micron Legend Green Unicron figure at the moment on the Japanese auction site.  Currently the toy is priced at just over £350­ which is 14% of the normal price this figure goes for.

With a lot of Transformers fans now at Botcon, it could be the time to try to pick up this figure using one of many bidding services.

For more images of the figure why not check out our extensive gallery at LuckyDrawTransformers.com

­In a follow-up to the news we reported on Thursday regarding the contents of this months Figure King magazine (often incorrectly translated as Figure Oh), we can now bring you four images from the issue thanks to Hong Kong T­oy World.

­ ­

Thanks Mr Neurie for sending in the following update to the UK stock of Transformers War For Cybertron.

"Been trying to get War For Cybertron at retail today and found you can't find it at Game, Gamestation, HMV or at a large supermarket? Well according to the manager at the local Gamestation there's a reason and it's not that it's sold out.

Apparantly activision only sent out enough stock to cover preorders and nothing for the rest of people who waned to get the product. The only store I could find with copiesfor sale was Smyths who had 2 copies of the game for each of the systems. The manger of Gamestation also said they were not expecting any more stock either.

Good luck finding it at retail."

We received our copy of the game yesterday from Play.com and a word of warning for those who have bought it and are yet to play it, at least on the PS3, it will be a good 20-30 minutes from inserting the disc until you can actually get to the main menu due to the update that is instantly required and the 5GB install.

The various US based sites have published reports from day 1 of Botcon 2010 and so to help you quickly find them here is a list of the main players.

TFW2005

Takara Tomy Panel - Not much to talk about from this, some history of the diaclones and a few questions on the Masterpiece figures

General Images -Animated Ironhide, some movie recolours and the G1 Seacon reissues

Bob Budiansky panel - some details on alternative names for some of the G1 figures

Seibertron.com

Bob Budiansky panel

TFormers

TakaraTomy Panel

Bod Budiansky panel

General Images.

AutoRobot.IT has confirmed that the Transformers Generations toys have already been released in Italy.

Thrust, Drift and War For Cybertron Optimus Prime are the three which have ­photographed­ as proof.

Are Hasbro Inc about to be bought out and go private?  Well yes they are is you listen to reports coming out of the US.  The reports say that Hasbro are in talks with Providence Equity Partners to take the company private in a leveraged buy-out.

 The New York Times report that a buy-out fell through a few weeks ago but its quiet possible talks have restarted.  When asked to comment on the story Hasbro Inc refused to deny the report stating "There are always rumours and speculation about public companies and we just don't comment on that"

We received our copy of Transformers War For Cybertron today from Play.com (though without and unlock codes sadly).  Have you received your copy of the game yet? What do you think? 

Use this news story and message board thread to discuss your first thoughts and share your gamer IDs so you can play multi-player with fellow members / visitors

­e-Hobby have updated their website with a listing and new images of the exclusive Transformers Animated Elite Guard Prowl figure.  The toy are will be released at the Tokyo To­y Show in limited numbers with some more being sold via the e-Hobby store.

­ ­

­e-Hobby have updated their website with a listing and new images of the exclusive Dreadwind and Smokescreen figures, recolours of RotF Mindwipe and Skystalker.  The toys are will be released at the Tokyo Toy Show in limited numbers with some more being sold via the e-Hobby store.

­