GameStop and Amazon have revealed their pre-order bonuses for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. GameStop will be offering a G1 Retro Pack featuring G1 Optimus Prime for single and multiplayer mode, along with G1 Megatron Pistol Gun and Shockwave Blast Cannon for use in single player. Amazon will be offering access to G2 Bruticus in single player. See details below:

There are a couple of additional screen shots of GameStop's G1 Retro Optimus Prime courtesy of EGMNow.com,

Amazon

Pre-order Bonus Offer
Pre-order Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and get access to Bruticus (G2) to use in Single Player mode. A code to access the content will be emailed to you within two days of your order shipment. This offer will be extended to all pre-orders. Offer valid when shipped and sold by Amazon.com, while supplies last. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time. Please read the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live terms of use.

GameStop

Bonus Item
Transformers G1 Retro Pack
Pre-order Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and receive the Transformers G1 Retro Pack!

Transformers G1 Retro Pack:
G1 Retro Optimus Prime: Play as the leader of the Autobots in his classic original robot and vehicle forms. Available in both Single and Multiplayer Modes.
G1 Retro Megatron Gun: Single Player Mode
G1 Retro Shockwave Cannon: Single Player Mode

Online Customers: Code will be emailed within 2 business days after your order ships.
Store / In-Store Pickup Customers: Code will be printed on your receipt at time of pickup.

High Moon have released an image of Transformers Fall of Cybertron Kickback,  to go with Hardshell (Bombshell) shown earlier.

Jim Sorenson is back this week with another edition of The Ark Addendum.  If you pop on over to his blog, Disciples of Boltax, you will find a new article titled Madman's Paradise part 2: Mara-Al-Utha in which Jim covers the character models for the Madmans Paradise episode of Season 3 of the original cartoon, so go take a look

Thanks to TFW2005 and Deviant Art we get early looks at Transformers Regeneration Issue 81 incentive and 82 covers.

The Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Facebook page has been updated with robot and dinosaur mode images of Transformers Fall of Cybertron Sludge

YouTuber, djinnmage, has posted the preview video for Transformers Prime episode 35, Grill, onto the video sharing website.  You can watch the video using the embedded link below.

Hasbro have issued the following press release regarding a multi-year deal they have signed with Netflix

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hasbro Studios, the Los Angeles-based television production and distribution division of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), today announced a multi-year deal with Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX). Ten highly popular franchises, including new and catalog seasons of famed Hasbro content, will be available to instantly watch on Netflix.


“This deal allows us to offer even more great kids’ programming to our members, both adults and kids alike, including new seasons of My Little Pony, Transformers Prime, and Pound Puppies after the season finale airs on The Hub.”
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Transformers Prime, My Little Pony, Pound Puppies, G.I. Joe: Renegades and The Adventures of Chuck & Friends are now available to instantly watch on Netflix. JEM & The Holograms, Transformers: Generation 1, G.I. Joe: Real American Heroes, Transformers: Beast Wars and Transformers: Rescue Bots will follow later in 2012.

The Hasbro content will be available on Netflix and included in the Netflix “Just For Kids” section. Netflix “Just For Kids” is a collection of TV shows and movies that is specifically selected for children 12 and under, making it easier and more fun for kids and families to browse and instantly watch a large selection of kid-friendly TV shows and movies within Netflix.

"We are very excited to be working with Hasbro Studios," said Cindy Holland, Vice President of Content Acquisition at Netflix. "This deal allows us to offer even more great kids’ programming to our members, both adults and kids alike, including new seasons of My Little Pony, Transformers Prime, and Pound Puppies after the season finale airs on The Hub."

“We are pleased that consumers will now be able to watch our award-winning programming on Netflix, the leading internet subscription service,” Hasbro Studios President Stephen Davis said. “We are making our content easy to access, anytime, anywhere and on all platforms where audiences are consuming content and this is a big step forward with our all screen strategy.”

About Netflix

With more than 23 million streaming members in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Netflix, Inc. [NASDAQ: NFLX] is the world's leading internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV programs. For about US$7.99 a month, Netflix members can instantly watch unlimited movies and TV programs streamed over the internet to PCs, Macs and TVs. Among the large and expanding base of devices streaming from Netflix are the Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 consoles; an array of Blu-ray disc players, internet-connected TVs, home theatre systems, digital video recorders and internet video players; Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, as well as Apple TV and Google TV. In all, more than 700 devices that stream from Netflix are available. For additional information, visit http://www.netflix.com. Follow Netflix on Facebook and Twitter.

About Hasbro Studios

Hasbro Studios is the Los Angeles-based television production division of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS). The studio develops and produces shows based on Hasbro’s world class brands, including TRANSFORMERS, MY LITTLE PONY, LITTLEST PET SHOP and SCRABBLE. Many of these shows air on The Hub, a television network for kids and their families. Studio programming can also be seen in more than 160 countries globally. The Hub is a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK).

HAS-S




Contacts


Hasbro, Inc.
News Media
Julie Duffy, 401-727-5931
or
Investors
Debbie Hancock, 401-727-5456
or
Netflix Inc.
Nada Antoun, 408-348-1239

The Transformers Prime which is to air on the 28th April has been announced as "Flying Mind".  The short summary of the episode is:"The Decepticon Warship threatens humanity and Raf, Jack and Miko are the only ones who can stop it.".

This means that April's line up of episodes stands as:

7th April - Nemesis Prime
14th April - Grill
21st April - Armada
28th April - Flying Mind

We're back to playing catch up again with out Beast Wars II cartoon gallery update (due to no internet at the new house) so here'd a quick look at the two of the four galleries I put live on Friday, but didnt' get any time to tell you about.

Beast Wars II Episode 18 - The Black Lio Convoy

The Destrons stumble across an old artefact which can duplicate any object that it scans in the ruins of an ancient city on Planet Gaia.  Galvatron decides to use the device to clone his arm, creating a Black and Grey duplicate of BB - only to find that the clones are uncontrollable, believing themselves to the the original.  This gives the Destron Lord of Destructin an idea .. he'll trick the Cybertron's into using the device on themselves, to that their duplicates can take out Lio Convoy and his troops.

As expected it's poor old Tasmania Kid who finds the device and takes it back to base.  After first clonning a Manga that Scuba is reading the device is used on Lio Convoy creating a dark duplicte, Black Lio Convoy.

Having only seen a few pictures from this episode previously what then suprised me was that the other Cybertron's were also cloned into Black Versions .... the suprise of this to me is that toys were not made of these.  A Black Big Horn (Grey), Apache, Scuba and Tasmania Kid are also produced.   Only Scuba is not cloned, allowing him to defeat the evil clones.  This episode if also very similar to an A-Team episode when some imposters pretend to be the Heroes for Hire, with Murdock not being "copied".

Beast Wars II Epiosde 19 - The Space Pirate Seacons

This episode sees the Space Pirate Seacons, lead by Halfshell, arrive on Planet Gaia looking for Anglomois energy.

Stay tuned for the other two a little later today

Today's Beast Wars II episode continues with the Jointron focus, this time asking the question of who the leader of their group in the episode 17 - Who is is the Leader?

The Destron's plan to bring instability to the Cybertron Jointron's by creating in-fighting between the group over who the leader is.

Simon Furman has posted the following on his blog looking for some missing artwork

I need your help. At some point between last year’s Roll Out, Roll Call and this year’s, two pieces of original Transformers comic art I supplied for display ‘went missing’. The items in question are the final page of Transformers UK #78 (Target: 2006 prologue), by Jeff Anderson, and page 2 (the title page) of 1985 Annual story, ‘And There Shall Come A Leader’, by John Stokes.

(Click the link for images) but bear in mind the missing pages are the black & white line originals on artboard (at larger than printed scale).

These pages were kindly given me by the artists in question, and are quite simply irreplaceable. So, could I ask all transfans to be vigilant. If you see or have seen these items for sale, or know who has them, please contact me via the Wildfur website (& the contact email thereon).

All information will be treated in strict confidence and I’m offering a reward of rare/signed Transformers goodies to anyone with information leading directly to their recovery.

Thank you.

To make up for the delayed publishing of episode 6 of Beast Wars II, I have decided to also publish the 7th episode from the show that was called The Insect Corp Arrive.   The original episode synopsis was "Within a forest on Gaea lies the Insectrons. But who's side are they on?" and the episode feature the debuts of the Big Moss and Tonbot.  Manterror also briefly appears in the episode which sees Big Moss and Tonbot get tricked by Starscream into believing that they are the famous Cybertrons and that Lio Convoy is actually a Destron.  Starscream and BB attack Thrust and Dirge several times in the episode referring to them as the "manzai-combi" which is a reference to the traditional style of stand-up comedy in Japan.  During the episode Tonbot, who is mainly a humourous character, speaks English a few times.  He's some preview images:

Click on any of the images to jump to the image gallery

It's much later in the day that we planned but our Beast Wars II cartoon image gallery continues with the 6th episode from the show that was titled Mystery of the Ancient Ruins.   The original episode synopsis was "A strange ruin holds many mysteries for the Maximals" and featured the debut of the character Mantis, a recolour of the Beast Wars Manterror figure.  Here are some preview thumbnails.  The episode also revealed the connection between Apache and Lio Convoy including the first time they met when Lio Convoy save Apache's life on the battle field.

DVD Talk have a review of the Transformers Prime Series Blu-Ray disks

Video & Audio Quality
Presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, this 1080p transfer of Transformers Prime: Season One is excellent but not perfect. To be fair, a few small problems are inherently due to the source material, including mild aliasing and jagged edges. Mild compression artifacts can also been spotted along the way, which seems like more of an authoring issue than anything else. Either way, what's here is largely impressive, as the image is typically razor sharp with vivid, striking colors and strong black levels. So while there's room for improvement, I'd imagine that most fans of Prime will be pleased.

The audio is a touch more consistent, as each episode arrives with your choice of DTS-HD 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 mixes. The former creates an enveloping and dynamic soundstage from start to finish, often filled with plenty of surround activity once the action heats up. A bit more low end would've helped to sell some of the action, as well as some added "punch" for the gunfire. Dialogue is crisp and the score is also well-represented with no obvious sync issues. Overall, fans won't find much to complain about here, as this ambitious audio presentation is leaps and bounds above most animated TV shows.

Bonus Features
Unlike the show itself, almost all of these bonus features seem to be aimed directly at older fans. The bulk of these are 14 Audio Commentaries that largely focus on episodes from Discs 1 and 4; more often than not, they do an excellent job of covering all the bases. Featured participants include several producers, a number of representatives from Hasbro, animation and art directors, composer Brian Tyler, several directors and writers, a handful of voice actors (including Peter Cullen and Ernie Hudson) and...Bumblebee, just to name a few. These are generally fun and informative audio commentaries... which is good news, because the remaining bonus features don't dig quite as deep.

Disc 4 houses the remaining extras, which lead off with a promotional Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (11:03). It's short and not especially enlightening, though I enjoyed seeing a handful of voice actors do their thing. Also here is a slightly more in-depth Toy Featurette that focuses on Prime's characters and how they selected the roster (16:30), as well as a ridiculously short Teaser for Season 2 (0:20). Like the episodes, these bonus features are presented in 1080p and do not include optional subtitles.

Also included in this "Limited Edition" package is a softcover Graphic Novel that serves as a Prime prequel of sorts. It's a nice little bonus and quite substantial at 96 pages, but I'm assuming that later releases of this boxed set will omit the book (although I'm guessing it'll still be available separately).

Roll Out Roll Call 2012 guest Jim Sorenson has recently updated his blog The Diciples of Boltax with the transforamtion sequence of Lander from Transformers Masterforce.

Welcome back, true believers!  Another edition of The Ark Addendum, extra model sheets not in The Complete Ark, my 416 page tome of Transformers character models.

This week's offering is another transformation sequence from Masterforce.  I give you: Lander!  I find the last picture in the sequence especially nice, what with the clouds and the mountains.  For a pretty simple toy, he they sure make his Transform seem dynamic.