It's free Comic Book day! And just a reminder that Orbital Comics in London are having a signing to celebrate the release of Transformers Regeneration One #80.5.

Writer Simon Furman, penciler Andrew Wildman, inker Stephen Baskerville, colourist John-Paul Bove and cover colourist Jason Cardy will be in store today (Saturday 5th May 2012) from 12-2pm, where you can pick up a copy of The Transformers Regeneration One #80.5, get it signed and have a chat with the team behind the book!

Store details can be found here.

During IDW's BotCon 2012 panel it was revealed that fan favorite and Hall of Fame contender Sky-Byte would be joining the cast of Transformers: Robots in Disguise Ongoing starting in issue #5. Artist Ardrew Griffith has revealed the character's redesign for the series via Full Metal Hero.

During the IDW Botcon panel the next book from Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster was announced as Legacy: The Box Art of the Transformers.  As the name suggests, the book will the box art that was used with the toys, bringing together material from Japan, the US and, with luck, Europe.

Here's Jim to tell you more

"Legacy: The Box Art of The Transformers is going to be something special.  I've been working on it for a while now, and I'm really amazingly pleased with how well it is going.  We've been working with Hasbro, Part One (the parent company of eHobby), and numerous private collectors to pull together the definitive coffee table book of Transformers packaging art.

A lot of things, like the date and the page count, are still up in the air.  However, here's what has already been decided on:

1: The scope will be G1 and G2.  No Beast Wars or beyond.  We'll be covering every year in the US, as well as the entire Japanese set of releases.  It's possible that we might get Europe in too, if we can find the material.  That remains to be seen.
2: The extras will be substantial.  We're talking essays and interviews with the original artists, modern repaints of vintage artwork (think eHobby exclusives), unused box art, production sketches for box art and more.
3: In terms of scale, we've got more then 300 images in hand, and more than 150 additional pieces pledged.  I'd like to get those numbers up, so if you are a collector of the originals, drop me a line!"

You can read more of Jim's thoughts on his blog: http://boltax.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/transformers-legacy.html

Here are the Transformers Collectors Club subscription figures

Amazon has published a listing for an IDW Trade Paperback, launching on 11th September 2012, called featuring the G.I Joe and Transformers crossover comics. Volume 1 is set to cover the original Transformers/GI Joe Cross Over.

The worlds of G.I. JOE and The Transformers combine in this first volume of crossovers. Contains the 4-issue G.I. JOE and The Transformers limited series, plus issues #139-142 of Marvel's G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero. Megatron and Cobra versus the JOEs and the Autobots - who will come out on top?

Newsarama posted some preview pages for the upcoming IDW Transformers: Regeneration One issue #80.5 over on their website yesterday.  The series, which continues the Marvel Generation One universe, is due to be released on the Free Comic Book Day later in the year.  You can view the images below.

Amazon.com has listed a new pre-order for Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1. The trade is priced at $19.99 and scheduled to release on July 31st. Unfortunately the cover art has not been revealed yet.

Volume 1 of IDW's other Transformers ongoing title Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye is also available for pre-order and scheduled to release on June 26th.

Jim Sorenson has updated the Diciples of Boltax with a news story covering Bill Forsters new tatoo, based on the cover of The Ark II. What makes the story more special is that Bill's session was fimed for the TC show LA Ink and the image was officially approved by Hasbro.

Jim says the following

For those of you who don't remember, Bill posted here about his experiences getting the cover of The Ark II tattooed on his chest... on cable TV.  This was actually pretty difficult to set up.  You see, in order for LA Ink to be allowed to show a picture of a Transformer on their show, they had to have legal permission from Hasbro to do so.  We approached our editors at IDW to see if they could help make it happen.  The editors put us in touch with the Hasbro legal team, who were absolutely stellar and made it happen.

Remember that both Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster will be appearing at Roll Out Roll Call 2012 next month.

IDW Publishing have sent over 12 exclusive piece of promo art leading up today's big launch of their new Transformers ongoing title, Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, to various Transformers and comic websites.  The promotion is to remind people that Transformers More Than Meets The Eye Issue 1 is released today.

Some of the sites with the images include Full Metal Hero, TFWorld 2005, The Allspark, Seibertron, TFormers, IGN, Newsarama and Comic Book Resources.

We haven't got any exclusive IDW Comic art to show you, but what we do have is the Beast Wars II DVD Set - so we'll be bringing you lots of Beast Wars II Cartoon galleries soon.

PreviewsWorld has updated with a preview of IDW's Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime. This special is­sue, the 125th Transformers comic published by IDW, is written by  James Roberts and John Barber, with art by Nick Roche.  This new team will be looking after the comics from January.

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Jim Sorenson updated his blog on Tuesday with a new Ark Addendum entitled Ratbat's Transform.  As you can probably guess from the title, the article focuses on the transformation sequence for the Generation One Decepticon cassette Ratbat.

Here's an update from Jim, "this week I finish up my cassette transformations.  I give you... Ratbat!  It's a simple transformation.  He basically unfolds, much like the toy.  The big difference is that his weapons pop out of his back, instead of being attached manually.  And one final reminder: we've got a book signing for The AllSpark Almanac Addendum this Saturday at Emerald Knights Comics & Games in Burbank.  1:00 PM on December 10th.4116 W. Burbank Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505"

A brand new, and very special. Transformers book is released tomorrow called "Bumblebee & Me" exclusively from amazon.com.  The book, which is available in both paperback and Kindle formats, is written by the voice of Generation One Bumblebee, Dan Dilvezans and chronicle his time working on the show. "It's filled with stories, remembrances, anecdotes, profiles of my fellow cast mates and previously unpublished photographs, and it should satisfy even the most discerning Transfan" says Dan about the book.

Make sure to check it out on Amazon.

Chris Ryall has posted preview art via Twitte from the upcoming Transformers Regeneration 80.5.

The artwork is drawn by Andrew Wildman (guest at Roll Out Roll Call 2012) and coloured by - and also teases at the debut of one Ultra Magnus, who was previously only used in the UK comics.