The big four US Transformers sites are all at BotCon (that The Allspark, Seibertron, TFormers and TFWorld2005), and have all updated their sites with the latest news from the event. TFWorld2005 is suffering from too many connections, and therefore users are receiving Database errors.

You can keep up-to-date with the latest from BotCon, as well as from around the world, in our exclusive Transformers In The News page.

Transformers Universe (Classics) (From TFWorld)

The images have begun to flow in from BotCon! Up in displays are some upcoming Universe Classics figures which feature:

• Repaint of Classics Starscream named Acid Storm.
• Repaint of Cybertron Evac named Blades.
• Repaint of Cybertron Defense Scattorshot named Drop Shot.
• Rpaint of Cybertron Quickmix named Heavy Load.
• Repaint five pack of Legends figures from the Classics line. Appears to feature Hot Spot, Silverbolt, Razorclaw, Hun-Grrr, and Scattershot

Transfomers Animated / Hasbro Display information (From TFWorld)

• First-hand images of Animated Jazz, Soundwave, and Snarl
• First mention and look at the Animated Activators Patrol Bumblebee repaint
• Card-back images including shots of bios for upcoming Animated characters (including the mysterious Oil Slick)
• More pictures of the new Universe figures and repaints
• First look at the upcoming KMart exclusive Mini-Con 12-pack
• First look at the upcoming Target exclusive Aerial Rivals Legends 5-Pack
• Transformers Animated's first Recoloured Toy will be a Patrol Bumblebee (White repaint with Yellow parts).

IDW Panel (From TFormers)

REVELATIONS

• The Revelations Spotlights in June will tie up everything relatively well. That is the batch of Spotlights with Cyclonus and some others we've seen.
• The IDW slide presentation reveals that all 4 of the Revelations Spotlight covers connect.
• Simon Furman says they are kind of tampering with peoples conceptions of characters in the IDW comics, specifically referencing Arcee.
• Galvatron is an "undead" Transformer in the IDW universe and a lot of these will be showing up in Spotlight: Cyclonus
• Arcee is so focused, nothing else matters and we will see how much nothing else matters in Revelations.

EVOLUTIONS

• There will be no more Evolutions series after Hearts of Steel.
• The Club Comics will not be released in a TBP.

BEAST WARS

• They are discussing plans for more Beast Wars comics.

TRANSFORMERS UK

• Transformers UK comic will continue to tell a story, "Twilight's Last Gleaming," depicting a different ending of the movie where the Decepticons win and the Autobots are fighting a last stand.

FUTURE PROJECTS

• A Dinobots project from Furman is coming to IDW. The project will have Scoponok, Sunstreaker, and Sun Hunter. Spotlight: Grimlock sets the story for this unannounced project.
• Star Saber in the IDW comics? Furman says don't rule it out! Star Saber is in the Ark 2, there will be 4 pages with him and Victory Saber. [AWESUM! - ed.]
• A Doubledealer spotlight is currently in the planning stages.

TRANSFORMERS: ANIMATED

• A 5-issue mini-series for Transformers: Animated series written by Marty Isenberg is coming starting in August. While the series will be all new stories and not just re-telling the cartoon, it is in continuity with TV. The first issue will be a retelling of the movie pilot with lots of different points of view and stuff you didn't see on screen. The 4 issues after that will be new stories.
• Dario Brizuela, who has worked on Johnny DC label comics, is doing the art for the Animated comic series.

COMMENTS

• Furman says there are no plans for Punch, Counterpunch. He continues that other than the Headmasters, no other Masters will appear, other than the Doubledealer Spotlight currently in the works.
• Any more stories with Cybertron's past? Furman says not to rule it out but the main thrust is to propel forward.
• IDW says they will continue to do limited series instead of ongoing ones so people don't feel they have missed stories if they skip an issue. They also try and keep each series fairly self-contained.
• IDW has been discussing doing poster versions of favorite scenes and such from the comics.
• A second hardcover book will be coming.

Cartoon Network Panel (From TFormers)

UPCOMING

• A lot more Decepticon action is coming in the series.
• Season 2 features more Decepticons.
• The cast is always expanding, so we will continue to see new additions like Jazz.
• Other possible characters we might see are Swindle, Ratbat, and Galvaton.
• They are excited about flushing out Cybertron as well as back stories of the characters in upcoming episodes.
• The leader class Ultra Magnus toy is amazing, according to the art director . He looks just like the animation model and more tricked out then in the show.
• Ratings for first season in the key demo 6-11 year olds have been good.
• Nanosec will return. Bumblebee did not kill him.
• Someone is NOT a girl. We will find out more about it as the series goes on.

FUTURE

• The show's creators like like the name the fans came up for Lugnut's punch, "The Punch of Kill Everything," so much, they might work it into the show.
• Things are looking good for Season 3, but nothing confirmed.
• The art designer has been working with Hasbro on toys that are slated to show up in season 3 and are also looking forward to season 4.
• Oil slick is a toy-only character but he is part of the lore and may show up down the road in the cartoon.
• Full DVD sets are possible or maybe 3-episode DVD's. Nothing is confirmed as of yet other than the pilot, though.
• They are hoping if they go to season 3 and 4, they want to work Rodimus in. The thought is there are other units with robots of Prime rank out there.
• There are no plans for additional Dinobots at this point.
• Arcee might show up again in the future, but not in season 2.
• They cannot confirm nor deny Omega Supreme making an appearance in the series.
• While they have talked about combiner teams, there are no plans as of yet.
• No Unicron appearances in the series.
• Frenzy might make an appearance again.
• BIG plans for Soundwave for season 3.
• While they have talked about the possibly of Optimus Primal coming around again, there are no plans to seem him again. If they did bring in Primal, he would be a new character and not a continuation from Beast Wars.

COMMENTS

• All 3 panelists have been huge TF fans since they were kids. Derrik though, was in college when Generation 1 came out. His first experience was Beast Machines, where he was a story editor.
• Bumper Robinson plays the voice of Blitzwing, who also happens to voice Bumblebee.
• Wreck Gar came first and then they tried to get Eric Idol; however, he was busy so they got Weird Al to voice him.
• Derrik worked on "Legion of Superheros" and "Teen Titans" and that is kind of how he draws. This is the main reasoning behind why the art style across all three of these shows are similar.
• Fred Willard will be voicing a unnamed character.
• The show is animated in widescreen HD files, but since Cartoon Network isn't a HD network and most of the US isn't used to watching stuff in widescreen, it's shown the way it is. The panelists noted that at some point, they would love to release it in its original format.
• When asked whether or not the voice actors do a ad libs, the panelists said that the end of episode 29 has a lot of ad lib in it.
• The panelists made a joke about a special musical episode with Sky-Byte (Robots In Disguise) making a appearance.
• If they were to put Waspinator in the series, they would try and get Scott McNeil to voice the part
• When asked whose decision it was to make Sentinel Prime the biggest dick in the TF Universe, the reply was that it was the head writer's decision. Originally, they thought about making it Rodimus but they didn't want to make an established character tarnished.
• When asked if there were anything off-limits, standards and practices had the team edit a scene in the Constructicon episode where the character said, "what the fork is that?"
• Sometimes rights issues come up for names. Hasbro has been great to work with though.
• Why is Soundwave a van? Because he looks the most like a cassette player.

Voice Actors Panel (From TFormers)

• Tom Kinney says hi to everyone, he wished he could be here.
• Asked if any plans to bring BW Megatron. David Kaye says he doesn't think so.
• As can do up to 3 character for show. If they do more they have to be paid more.
• They do group sessions for the Animated show instead of sitting a booth alone. It is more fun to do it that way and working off the energy of other people.
• David Kaye said it was really cool to work with Lance Henriksen.
• Bumper joked he wanted to voice all the characters and Tara joked she wanted to be Optimus Prime.
• Tara said she did want to voice Blackarachnia. When asked did they know who they wanted to voice when they went into the auditions.
• It took david about 4-5 episodes to get comfortable voicing Prime.
• VA do their voices ordering at a fast food restaurant.
• Bumper was in Mr.T's be somebody school. Bumper would have liked to voiced Jazz.
• David does bit where he argues with himself as Optimus and Megatron being on the freeway.

The second bit of news is in from BotCon, thanks to Seiberton, TFWorld2005 and TFormers

TFormers have images of the Club exclusives display, including the upcoming Seacons and Nightbeats figures, along with posters and more posters of the Convention figures

Shattered Glass Litho images are available at TFormers, and agian here.

TFWorld2005 has images of the convention figures.

And Seibertron has their Bios, as well as a set of the toys for sale on eBay.

Snakas has posted a report on the contents of this months Dengeki Hobby Magazine. Here is a basic summary.

Transformers Movie Battle Damaged Optimus Prime was shown. The information on the figure was the same as this months Figure King, but the photograph was larger.

The Transformers Binaltech BT-19 and BT-20 figures were featured in an article.

On the Henkei front, the Japanese Hot Rodimus figure was shown as were the western releases of Jetfire and Ramjet. Snakas notes that Figure King has much more information on the figures.

Encore Omega Supreme and the Mini-bot set were featured with the same information as Figure King.

A "correction article" was published on the downsizing of Transformers in Japan which also covered the revival of the Binaltech line. Snakas publishes a quote from the article which talks about quality over quantity, and how the line (Transformers) is now becoming more popular again.

Finally there is an article discussing the relationship / connection between Zoids and Transformers. The article talks about how in trying to get everything ready for the Transformers Movie in 2007, the developement of Zoids was put on the backfoot.

Hasbro have posted on their Transformers page with a brief update from Cincinnati. The news post gives a little more information about the Transformers Animated toyline as well as some more images.

Pictured are Supreme Optimus Prime, Leader Megatron, Deluxe Soundwave, Voyager Grimlock, Battle Begins 2-pk, Optimus Prime Shift Tech Game, Power Bots Bumblebee (Similar to Cyber Stompers), Activators Lockdown, Optimus Battle Blaster, and Bumper Battlers Jazz (similar to Cyber Slammers).

They also say they plan G1 homages in the toyline's future.

Seibertron has been given the following warning from Fun Publications.

Hey guys this is just a heads up warning. There have been a few instances of Botcon Sets missing a Cyberkey and missile pack, that should be located under the foam on the bottom of the box. The staff of Botcon is ready to give you a replacement if this has happened, so go ahead and make sure to double check. You should have 3 Cyberkey and missile packs total.

So if you're getting the toys, you'd better check them. This isn't the first time there have been problems with the BotCon toys and their accessories.

You will find three new image galleries in the Transformers In The Media section of Transformers At The Moon which include images from our Beast Wars II book which show the Gold Convoy and Red Convoy Lucky Draw Transformers toys. We've shown these images before, on LuckyDrawTransformers.com, but they were lost during it's migration to the current look.

• Beast Wars II Book - Lucky Draws from Beast Wars and Beast Wars II
• Hyper Hobby Magazine Issue 43 - Scans showing the Clear Sixshot draw
• Transformers Movie Newspaper articles

The Yahoo Japan auction for the Lucky Draw Custom Colour Robotmaster Generation One Convoy has now ended in Japan. The auction closed at 191,000 yen, around $1900 and went to what appears to be a proxy bidding service. Sadly, for us, we did not win the auction, as the figure would have made a wonderful part of our Lucky Draw collection. It will be interesting to see who actually won the item, and whether further images of this rare piece are made public.

e-Hobby have placed a listing for their latest exclusive a recolour of the Encore Omega Supreme but into the Guardian Robot colour schemes.

You can view the listing and images on the e-Hobby website.

Ozformers member Griffin has posted the first images of the full contents Botcon 2008 box set including all the techspec cards over on the Ozformers message board.

Click the link to jump directly to the post with the images

Fan to Fan have a new scan of the upcoming Transformers Binaltech Arcee toy, from one of the Japanese magazines (they've not said the source) showing a photoshopped image of the toy with different colours then the original image.

The toy's colour scheme may change again, from these early concepts, so we'll let you know more new when we have it.

You will now find a new gallery of Transformers Henkei Astrotrain, which was recently recently in Japan, and is a recoloured version of the Transformers Classics Astrotrain toy.

The figure is one of over 2,000 Transformers toys featured in our Transformers toy image gallery. The images come thanks to Talk Transformers.

TFW2005 member Sidecutter has texted in that the figure being used for todays Botcon 2008 Customising Class figure is none other than the Transformers Collectors Club Exclusive figure Nightbeat! In the class, the participants will be transforming the figure into an Evil Autobot in keeping with this years main BotCon set.

Simon Furman has updated his blog with information on Transformers UK Comic issue 11.

Also out this week, but only in the UK, on Thursday 24th, is issue #11 of Titan’s Transformers comic/magazine, featuring (in amongst more comic strip, features and competitions) the third part of the apocalyptic Twilight’s Last Gleaming. If you remember, TLG takes an alternate look at post live-action movie events, exploring a near-future in the which Decepticons are the victors and Autobots are an endangered species. Starscream continues his machinations this episode, throwing a spanner in the Autobots’ carefully laid plans to further his own diabolical agenda.

Forced into desperate action the moon-based Autobots head for Earth and their respective dates with destiny. And Bumblebee takes on Megatron (no prizes for guessing how that one turns out) and Mikaela takes on Frenzy (not as one-sided as you might think) and Ironhide and Ratchet come up against… well, that’d be telling!

FatGuy has updated his blog with several pictures of the just released Transformers Movie TransScanning Bumblebee. The figure is the second in the TS line, after Optimus Prime, and can be displayed in base robot form, protoform form and final Earth form.

Stay with us here at Transformers At The Moon, as we will soon be publishing our own gallery of TransScanning Optimus Prime whom we picked up from Japan where we were there at the start of the month