Jim Sorenson has updated his blog with a new entry titled The Ark Addendum - Atlantis, Arise! Part 1.  The entry covers the part one of Atlantis, Arise! an episode from the Generation One series where the Sub-Atlantican race teamed up with the Decepticons.

Jim also comments on some recent work hs is doing for his next book, the 2nd G.I. Joe Field Manual which is out in a few months and available now at Amazon

The official Transformers Facebook page has posted a preview of IDW's Spotlight: Megatron comic by Nick Roche who talks the reader through the pages both as the writer and the artist.

PAGE 1: This story starts off just after Megatron has received a new body during the TRANSFORMERS ONGOING series from a couple of years ago. Why set the tale in this time frame? And did you have to research all the old designs again?

NICK ROCHE (writer): Well, I just write the thing. It doesn’t bother me what the designs for the characters are like. I just sit back, lash any old nonsense out, and watch the accolades come cascading in.

As for the timeframe, IDW and Hasbro were looking for a Megatron SPOTLIGHT to feature the same body that the character currently sports in the TRANSFORMERS: ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ongoing series. Of course, he’s a little dinged-up over on that title, and has foregone more of his personal grooming routines. But it’s essentially the same character design. Now, almost every nano-second of that iteration of Ol’ Megs has been accounted for – from him coming online in TRANSFORMER ONGOING #13, to his climactic farewell in the “CHAOS” series. I had to pull a trick that Simon Furman has made his own, and find an empty story-corner to craft an idea; tell an off-panel tale, as it were. And it allowed me to address what must have been huge disappointment and frustration on Megatron’s part upon discovering the undignified and embarrassing mess Starscream had made as leader of the Decepticons.

NICK ROCHE (artist): The script was pretty loosely written, so I had to second-guess the writer’s intent a lot of the time. He’d just send a hand-scrawled note on greaseproof paper that said, “’bot 1 punches ’bot 2.” I had to do a lot of work to put any shape on the so-called story.

Piecing together the “script” did involve me having to do some research and capture the look that the ONGOING-Era Decepticons had on their Vacation Asteroid. But every comic – and every TRANSFORMERS comic especially – involves a lot of back-checking and cross-referencing on pre-existing designs. Because I had drawn Megatron and a few of the other cast members in these designs before, it wasn’t a complete slog, and didn’t slow me down too much.

PAGES 2 and 3: Did you find it difficult to write Megatron’s character at this point in time, bearing in mind everything he went through in All Hail Megatron and just after that?

NICK ROCHE (writer): Not prohibitively difficult, but it was an enjoyable challenge marrying up the Megatrons of two different writers (Shane McCarthy & Mike Costa) and have him pointing where the current writer (John Barber) has him positioned. It was interesting to read back over both eras of Megatron and reconcile the words and deeds of one with the other. I think I managed to not contradict anyone as I pulled my Megatron into place.

Barring weaving other versions of the character into this one version though, I tried to think about how Megatron would feel at having all that is sacred to him – his Decepticons; The “physical manifestation of his ideology” – absolutely driven into the ground. His star system-trouncing warriors are reduced to a whimpering mess, so let’s discover what affect this would have on him. If the Decepticons are defeated, he feels it, because to him, the Cause and The ’Bot are one and the same.

NICK ROCHE (artist): Is there a question for me? No? Oh, it’s all about the writer, yeah? That guy…

Well, let me tell you about stuff anyway. I drew these pages. Was it easy? Nothing is, working with that guy. He didn’t even specify which ones some of them were. “The Blue Cassette and a Broken Clone” was pretty much all the direction I got for this spread.

This was where some of the referring back to earlier issues paid off. Like, I tried to keep the wounds that Razorclaw suffered in his skirmish with Starscream back in ONGOING #13 consistent with the wear-and-tear shown here. And then I added little nods to the cannibalization that was rife during this period too. You can see that Sunstorm (on the left of the image) is sitting down, because someone else is probably using his lower legs…

PAGE 4- What would you say set this issue apart on terns of the challenge as apposed to the other issues that you have written and drawn yourself?

NICK ROCHE (writer): Oddly, this page represents the real departure from previous solo excursions, in that there is some Editorially-mandated content. The through-line between this current batch of Spotlights is a connection to Metroplex and the Space Bridge technology he possesses. We know that this new body Megatron inhabits has the ability to traverse vast interstellar distances. Where did his restoration crew gain that technology from? Well, now we know. And as a dutiful Megatron nerd, I couldn’t bypass the opportunity to refer to the character’s oft-cited ability to access a Black Hole in deep space. What potential side effects could those powers unleash with this new Space Bridge ability? It’s all touched on slightly here. In dinner terms, this page is the Science Starter, the rest of the issue is Red Raw Main Course. Things…get messy. Bring a bib.

Though you have no idea how giddy a writer can get when they realize, “Wow! I’m writing a conversation between MEGATRON and SHOCKWAVE!” Workdays don’t come any better than that.

NICK ROCHE (artist): “Make the One-Eyed One argue with the Bucket-Head One.” That’s literally all he wrote.

It was hugely enjoyable to realize that I was drawing two of the heaviest-hitters (maybe THE heaviest?) in the Decepticon army having a typically terse one-to-one. It was massive fun to draw a similar scene between Shockwave and Overlord in LAST STAND OF THE WRECKERS, but as popular as Overlord is now, he didn’t have the same weight of responsibility to draw then. Whereas this scene – which has a sulky, skulky Soundwave too, for flip’s sake! – made me regress to seven-year-old status. (I usually operate at full-on nine-year-old.)

PAGE 5- Megatron sets his sights on Starscream for the first time since he’s seen just what Starscream did as leader in his stead. This is one of Transformers classic relationships. Had you always in your mind wanted to do these scenes, and did you always know how you wanted them to be?

NICK ROCHE (writer): I didn’t think I had a burning desire to explore this relationship, but that’s sometimes the best way to be. A part of me worries I’ll choke or wobble (or both at once – a “chobble”) when the day comes to write some dialogue for Optimus Prime. But because of when this story was set, and because of the events that lead us here, this confrontation was unavoidable. I had no choice but to just write it, and I think that can often be for the best. Out of all the iterations of TRANSFORMERS lore over the decades, this relationship between Megatron and Starscream is by far the most constant and enduring. Prime has different lieutenants or right-hand-guys in different shows, but Starscream is eternally cursed to be the thorn in Megatron’s side.

For me, the question at the heart of this relationship is as fundamental as “Why DOESN’T Batman just kill the Joker?” Why does Megatron keep Starscream around? What possible thought-process could allow a liability like him to linger and lurk, constantly undermining and unraveling your progress? It became apparent very quickly that this was what the story had to be about. And I think I’ve managed, in the pages that follow, to explore – and even explain to some degree – what this relationship is really all about.

NICK ROCHE (artist): My thinking here (because ONE of us had to do a bit of that) was that upon discovering Megatron’s resurrection in ONGOING #14, Starscream fronted it out a little with the returning boss, and then retreated to his rinky-dink throne room, where he’d squandered three years piffling about with the Autobot Matrix. So, I wanted to show a Starscream that’s beaten before Megatron even makes a start. The heft of his own fear of Megatron has literally crushed him, and where better to reflect on his potentially final moments than at the foot of the seat of his power. Interesting though that he doesn’t flea; he stays to face the music. The rest of this issue gets down to the nitty-gritty of the odd and dark relationship that these two share. I think. I dunno, I just draw the pictures.

Yesterday TFCC tweeted that they would release the first image of Botcon 2013 Hoist in vehicle mode, you may have noticed us report this across various social network channels, well they did and the images, along with the original robot mode form, can be seen below.  You can compare them to the original toy by checking out our image gallery of Machine Wars Hoist.

Auto Assembly have announced their first Bot Shot Tournament will take place at this years Auto Assembly event.

"We wanted to do something a little different this year, so as part of our range of games and competitions that will be running throughout the weekend in our re-vamped Games Room, we will be running a Bot Shots Tournament at the convention all weekend! It is open to all attendees and we will be offering prizes at the end of the convention for the top three competitors!" says committee head Simon "Simes" Plumbe.

You can find out the rules and details of how the tournament will work by reading the Auto Assembly 2013 Bot Shot Tournament Details.

YouTuber eBEFOREi has posted a video review of Transformers Prime Arms Micron Wildrider onto the video sharing website.  You can view the review using the plug-in below.

Masterpiece Optimus Prime is hitting Toys R Us UK stores this week.  If you pop along to your local store and the figure is not already on the shelf you should be able to pre-order the toy for £99 which works out as $155.  He's taken his time in arriving but the figure is expected to sell well.

Happy hunting

tfg2 has posted an image showing that the Terrorcons are making a comback within Transformers Prime Beast Hunters as their will be a Legion Class Abominus combiner figure. The figures will be released within the US as a Target Exclusive and so are lilkey to see a Tesco's Direct release here within the UK

As you can see the names of some of the G1 characters have had to change due to trademark issues, however the figures are a nice homage to the original characters.

Incase anyone was still doubting it, live-action Transformers director Michael Bay has once again confirmed to Forbes that Transformers 4 will not be a reboot.

Will that change the way you do anything on Transformers 4?
We’re going to start off smaller. There’s a brand new cast. To freshen the franchise we’ve redesigned everything from top to bottom. The history of the first three movies is still there, we start four years later and there’s a reason why we’re meeting a new cast.
Mark is really excited about it and it’s a great redesign. I said that 3 [which grossed $1.1 billion] was going to be my last one. Paramount was letting me do Pain & Gain and the Transformers ride was opening at Universal and it was bittersweet to think of passing it off. I wanted to set it up on a really sure footing and to bring someone else in on that, it would have been overwhelming.

So is 4 a reboot?
No, that’s wrong. We keep the Transformers the way they were, it’s just four years later. There’s a reason the Transformers are redesigned. We’re trying to broaden the franchise and give it more places to go.

Mr. Bay also confirms what the winner of Doritos Superbowl Commercial Contest will do at the set of TF4:

What will the winner actually get to do on the Transformers 4 set?
Replace me as director. No, we’ll see who the person is and depending on what he is interested in being, a producer or a director, we’ll try to tailor the job. It’s all hard work with you’re working on a movie.

Visit Forbes for the full article.

Protomanx has posted some more images of the grey prototype of BTS Novalord (not-Overlord) onto his Twitter page with the promise that there is "More to come later today on TFW, and later this week......... ROBOT MODE!".  The new images include pictures of all three vehicle modes (tank, jet and aircraft carrier) along with a size comparison to the original Generation One toy. From the images, this figure is going to be huge in robot form though it will probably have a very high price tag.

You can view all of the images after the jump.

Pete Sinclair of the Transformers Collectors Club has dropped by The Allspark to talk about the possibility of recolouring the just-announced Botcon 2013 Machine Wars Hoist figure into Hubcap as well as a G2 inspired Electro.  Pete posted "Friday tidbit for the Allsparkers... We are NOT doing Hubcap AND Electro at BotCon. Nobody gets more than one repaint at the show. IF we offer a repaint of Hoist it will clearly be THAT character."

You can find his original post, as well as the comments from the Allspark forum members here.

TFSource have poted an image on their Facebook page which shows the first four members of FansProject's lastest third party gestault offering, the Not-Stunticons set consisting of CA-09 Car Crash, CA-10 T-Bone, CA-11 Down Force and CA-12 Last Chance.  Not sign of the not-Motormaster as yet, you can pre-order these figures from the online stockists of your choosing today.

Hasbro's Facebook page was updated yesterday with an image of the first Botcon 2013 Machine Wars figure in the guise of Hoist who is a recolour of Transformers Generations Sgt Kup with a new head sculpt.

We have updated the Transformers 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 FOC Starscream A1425 Instructions
2. Transformers Prime Bulkhead 38695 Instructions

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

A video have been posted on the Chinese Video Sharing site YouKu.com of the Mecha Ideas Wrecking Crew Geminus and Apex better known as not-TopSpin and not-TwinTwist.  You can view the video using the plug-in below.

Australian Transformers fansite Ozformers are reporting that Hasbro may be releaseing Masterpiece Soundwave within Australia, via Toys R Us, as well as a new Masterpiece figure in the form of Acidstorm, a green recolour of Starscream. The news came about when Ozformers member Ultra Mackness contacted Hasbro Australia's customer support asking about a possible Australian release of Masterpiece Soundwave and was told that Soundwave would be released in Toys R Us in July 2013.

Having received this replied another member, Griffin, then proceeded to contact TRU to ask if other Masterpiece figures were listed within their system. They replied to him stating that they had a listing for a Masterpiece Acidstorm. If true, then this figures will also be released within the US with a very small chance that we may see them in other territories in 2014.  Below is a copy of the original communications.

Ultra Mackness:Okay so to help me make a decision about whether I give Takara my cash for MP Soundwave, I decided to email Hasbro about whether there will be a Hasbro release of MPSW or not and just got this reply:
"Hi Michael, I am sorry for the delay in responding. I have checked with a colleague who specializes in Transformers. He has confirmed that the Masterpiece Soundwave line will be sold in Australia through Toys-R-Us, but not until July 2013. They are expected to sell in Toys-R-Us from July to September. Kind regards, Hasbro Consumer Services"

Griffin wrote on the Ozformers board: "As mentioned in the Hasbro MP Soundwave topic (which is now confirmed to be coming out in mid-2013), I asked ToysRUs if any more Masterpiece toys are in their system, hoping it was Sideswipe.... but no, a different Masterpiece toy by Hasbro is coming to ToysRUs at the same time as Soundwave..... Acid Storm. A green Starscream redeco, to add to the Masterpiece seeker squadron. Priced at AU$100, it is $20 more than Thundercracker... so could have a similar price increase in America. Considering how many Masterpiece toys are coming out of Japan at the moment, I was not expecting Hasbro to release one that Japan hasn't done (yet).  Acid Storm was a classic-verse toy/character that didn't get released in Japan either, so maybe this MP toy is a Hasbro exclusive as well."