So Botcon is taking place this weekend over in the United States whilst the Toyko Toy Show is taking placed in Japan at the same time, so here is a round-up of the news so far:

BOTCON

The additional figures for this years set turned out to be General Optimus Prime, Sergeant Hound, Diaclone Skidz (Burnout), Diaclone Hoist (Lift Ticket), The Waruders 4-Pack with the Custom Class figure being Galva-Leo Convoy a recolour of the Collectors Club exclusive figure based on the original "Lucky Draw" figure of the same name.

Transformers Titan Wars - This will be the toyline following on from the Combiner Wars theme and sees the return of the Headmasters to the main Transformers line.  Wireframe outlines were shown, drawn by Emiliano Santalucia (going by his Facebook reaction), which include Blaster (now a Headmaster), Astrotrain (a triple changer headmaster) and Fortress Maximus (a re-tool of Metroplex wtih both Cerebros and Spike much like the original toy / character).  More is expect to be announced on this over the weekend.

TOKYO TOY SHOW

Meanwhile in the other big news was being announced. 

Masterpiece Ironhide was confirmed and shown. The figure, as you would expect from the Masterpiece line, is very muhc designed on the animated series and will come with a whole host of weapons and accessories.  You can expect a Ratchet repaint and, most likely, a black "Diaclone" version later (in our opinion).

Masterpiece Optimus Primal / Gorilla Convoy - Masterpiece is going Beast Wars! To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars, 2016 is going to see the Masterpiece line cover that incarnation of Transformers start off with the Maximal leader Optimus Primal. A mock-up was shown in beast form which you can view below.

Also shown at the event were Unite Warriors Devastator, this is the Japanese release of the Combiner Wars Devastator set with Scrapper, Long Haul, Hook and Mixmaster all being remoulded to include elbow articulation unlike the Western release.  The toy will also be released with two heads meaning that you'll be able to re-create the standard US and SDCC looks

pic.twitter.com/Wt79rP0Ukc

— たか (@Hawk753afd) June 20, 2015

For further images from the show, please see:

TFW2005.com, Seibertron.com

Harris Ars has posted a set of comparison images of the various Generations Roadbusters redecos onto his Facebook page which includes the expected Botcon 2015 Attendee Exclusive "G2 General Optimus Prime".  In the photographs, which can be seen below, are also the Hasbro Generations Roadbuster, TakaraTomy Legends LG-04 Roadbuster, and E-Hobby Cloud Roadbuster.

Thanks to an auction on Taobao a Botcon troop builder set of repaints of the Transformers Generations Waspinator figure appear to be on the way.  The recolours include Buzzsaw and Halloween Horrocon Waspinator as well as two others.  You can view a copy of the image below.

Hasbro have announced that their Transformers panels for the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con will be:

1. Transformers Generations Panel - Thursday July 9 @ 11:00am in Room 25ABC
2. Transformers: Robots in Disguise Panel - Thursday July 9 @ 3:00pm in Room 5AB

Fun Publications have updated Botcon.com with the official brochure for the 2015 Transformers convention. The Primus package is will cost $409 for club members and $509 for non club-members. For those wanting to purchase the Golden Ticket that will cost an additional $400 with the Frank Welker VIP package costing another $200 again on top. So that's $1009 (1109 non-members) if you want to get the boxset, the attendees exclusive figure, access to the Frank Welker panel, early access and the meet and greet with Susan Blu, John Moschitta and Derrick Wyatt.

You can also find preview images of the Boxset figures

• Decepticon Leader Megatron
• Oilmaster
• Packrat
• Battletrap
• Shattered Glass Autobot Stepper

1. Primus Package - $509 ($409 for club members)
2. Protoform Package - $295 ($195 for club members)
3. Mini-Con - $195 ($120 for club members)
4. Iacon Package (non-attendees) - $509 ($409 for club members, excludes attendee figure)
5. Golden ticket Upgrade +$400 (Primus Package  only limited to 110)
6. Frank Welker VIP +$200 (Primus Package Only)

Fun Publication have posted their 5th video reveal of the Botcon 2015 boxset onto YouTube.  You can watch the video below if you do not want to be spoilt

Have you watched it yet? No well okay the 5th member of Cybetron's Most Wanted was "The Bounty Hunter" who is OilMaster a recolour of the Generations Swerve figure with a difference ... he's now a PRETENDER!!! Yes you read that right, Fun Publication, along with Boss Fight Studios, have produced a new Pretender shell based on a Double Pretender and is an ape shell. The shell opens to reveal the Swerve and mini-con figure.

Roll Out Roll Call 2015 Tickets On Sale Now!

Tickets For Roll Out Roll, the Transformers, G.I-Joe and MOTU show are now available over at www.rolloutrollcall.com

You can book Your Early Bird Weekend Pass to Roll Out Roll Call, which takes place on the 3rd & 4th of October 2015 at Jurys Inn Southampton, right now and can recieve a 25% discount saving!!

Weekend Adult Pass £40 (Early Bird £30)
Weekend Under 16 Pass £22 (Early Bird £16.50)
Weekend Family Pass (2 Adults, 2 Under 16's) £100 (Early Bird £75)

Book now at: http://www.rolloutrollcall.com

You can now also book your discounted hotel room at Jurys Inn Southampton too!!!

Book online or call direct and use the promo code of "TOY" for special rate of £60 B&B for single occupancy per night and £70 B&B for double occupancy per night. All bookings include COMPLIMENTARY WiFi!!!

Code valid for Thursday 1st – Monday 5th October, so sharing with a friend works out at £35 each per night with full breakfast and WiFi.

You can find out lots more through our YouTube, Facebook or Twitter channels, if you have any questions, feel free to ask us:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RollOutRollCall?fref=nf
Twitter - @RolloutRollCall

For a Full Press Release please visit the press release site

The Roll Out Roll Call Team have issues a new press release stating that dates and bookings for the 2015 show will be announced shortly but hidden amoungst the press release was the announcement that the show is going to be sponsored / supported by both the Official Transformers Collectors Club and the Official G.I.Joe Collectors Club!!

You can check out the announcement here

Hi everyone,

First, we'd like to thank all of you for booking tickets for Auto Assembly 2015 - we're all excited about this year's convention and we think that once again it's going to be our best ever.

Following the opening of bookings at our convention hotel, the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel at the weekend, the demand for accommodation at the Hilton this year has been absolutely phenomenal with some rooms selling out in a matter of minutes and the overall block of rooms for the convention being close to selling out already. Our room bookings team has been working extra hard behind the scenes to try to secure additional rooms for all of you who haven't been able to get accommodation yet in the Hilton and we're incredibly proud to announce that the Hilton has given us some more rooms for our block at the discount rate for the convention weekend!

These extra rooms ARE limited so we'd advise all of you to book as quickly as possible (using the link sent to all of you a few days ago) but we have managed to secure the following:

Thursday 20th and Sunday 23rd August

We now have NEW deluxe singles and deluxe twins on sale.  This is a new allocation which we have managed to secure on top of our initial block.

Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd August

We have also secured some additional deluxe singles and deluxe twins for the main convention days - again these are additional rooms we have managed to obtain over and above our initial block.

As these are additional rooms and not part of our original allowance, these have been supplied completely at the Hilton's discretion, for which we cannot thank them enough. It does however mean that these new rooms are very limited in numbers so we encourage you to act quickly to avoid disappointment.

Don't forget, if you have any queries about your booking or the convention itself, please do not hesitate to get in touch and please do not share the hotel booking link with anyone as this is for the exclusive use of Auto Assembly attendees.

Thank you and we're looking forward to seeing you all in August!

The Auto Assembly Team

Auto Assembly 2015 - 21st - 23rd August 2015

The Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, Birmingham, England

web - www.autoassembly.org.uk

forum - http://www.autoassembly.org.uk/forum

Youtube - www.youtube.com/autoassembly

Twitter - www.twitter.com/auto_assembly

Tumblr - http://autoassembly.tumblr.com/ 

Auto Assembly is sponsored by:

AutoTrash - www.youtube.com/channel/UCIbleP8ay2VRdx2X1ffSxaA

Big Bad Toy Store - www.bbts.com 

Brikabrax UK - www.brikabrax.co.uk

TF Source - www.tfsource.com

Transbridge Omegalock - www.omegalock.co.uk

VNC Toys - www.vnctoys.com

Robot Kinggdom - www.robotkingdom.com

HobbyLink Japan - www.hlj.com

TFW2005.com member 0JazzMeister0 has posted a review and some images of the Singapore Transformers 30th Anniversary Exhibition

All in all the feedback isn't great but it's worth a read and it's good to see a country have an official event

The Roll Out Roll Call 2014 panel line-up has been announced and is the following

Saturday.

1. Deconstructing Silent Interlude with Larry Hama
2. The Power & The Honor Foundation with Emiliano SantaluciaJoe Declassified with Gary 'Gyre-Viper' Head
3. 3rd Party Transforming Toys with Ceno Kibble & Casey Sark
4. Designing Action Figures with Boss Fight Studio
5. (TFCC / GIJoe CC) Fun Publications Round-Table and Q&A

The Super Festival 66 is currently taking place in Japan, and via Taghobby, where some exclusive Japanese Transformers have been shown off

First up are the Million Publishing exclusives, Shouki and GoShooter, who are mail in exclusives for Transformers Generations 2014 Volumes 1 and 2 respectively. They are homages to characters from Headmasters and Masterforce, the Japanese Generation 1 shows, and both feature Mini-Con / Targetmaster partners.

Next up are a couple of new images of the fourth set of Transformers Cloud releases. For the fourth releases in the Transformers Cloud line, Generations Roadbuster is getting a repaint as Energon Ironhide aka Super Link Roadbuster, while Generations Sky-Byte is sporting a Skywarp redeco as Hellwarp.

Transformers Writer and Artists Bob Budiansky ,Jose Delbo and Herb Trimp have all been annouced for the October 2014 London Film and Comic Con as well as the October event.  Bob Budainsky wrote the original Transformers comics, before it was taken over by Simon Furman, whilst Jose nad Herb also worked on the comics.

If you don't want to wait though make your way to the Jury's Inn in Southampton for Roll Our Roll Call on the 11th and 12th of October for a Transformers, GI Joe and Masters of the Universe convention where guests include both toy designers and sculpters from present day and the past, writers and artists for all three shows

Roll Out Roll Call, the Transformers and G.I-Joe show, have announced more guests for the event taking place in October here within the UK.

First up comes the announcement that Gary Head from Joe Declassified will be attending the show and holding a special panel

"Attending Roll Out Roll Call, The UK Transformers, G.I. Joe & Action Force Show for the first time, we are hugely privileged to welcome Gary 'Gyre-Viper' Head on behalf of Joe Declassified. Expect to see an amazing panel, packed full of pre-production and behind the scenes information into the creation of the G.I. Joe toys. The Joe Declassified Booth is one of the highlights of GIJoeCon (Official), put together by a team of contributors dedicated to preserving the knowledge of G.I. Joe toy history."

Next up is the announcement of a new 3rd Party panel held by the UK's own Cassy Sark and Ceno Kibble.  The pair have worked wih various third party companies designing many of the more popular 3rd party figures. The pair will be holding a new panel for the show which will follow on from their TFCon and Auto Assembly panels which both went down a storm. So for the latest in 3rd Party news, make sure to attend the event.

"This years Roll Out Roll Call, The UK Transformers, G.I. Joe & Action Force Show will feature a special "3rd Party Panel" hosted by Cassy Sark and Ceno Kibble, who have worked extensively with various 3rd party companies.
Cassy Sark is the conceptual designer behind Feral Rex, Hexatron, Citizen Stack, The Air-Raptor Squadron and the upcoming Overlord analogue for Mastermind Creations.
Ceno Kibble is a creative consultant and editor / writer, having written the entire Reformatted line for MMC and several dozen toy biographies.

Roll Out Roll Call, the UK convention show dedicated to Transformers and G.I.Joe have issued a new press release which announces that the show will be stocking both Transformers and G.I-Joe Collectors Club items fresh from the US!

Transformers & G.I. Joe Collectors Club Exclusives confirmed for the show.

Thanks to the Transformers & G.I. Joe Collectors Club, the following products will be available for pre-order to WEEKEND PASS holders exclusively for the first time in the UK at Roll Out Roll Call:

1. Transformers Collectors Club
   1. Trans-Mutate
   2. Slipstream
   3. Circuit
   4. Depth Charge
2. G.I. Joe Collectors Club
   1. Big Bear
   2. Bombardier
   3. Cesspool
   4. Falcon
   5. Keel Haul

The show is set to take place over the weekend of the 11th and 12th of October 2014 at the Jurys Inn Southampton. The main guest who have been announced thus far for the show include Nick Roche, Larry Hama and Boss Fight Studios!

For those not wanting to pay for a room at the Jury's Inn then you might want to check out the Travelodge which has double rooms at £35 per night for Friday and Sunday, and £38 per night for the Saturday and is only a 10-15 minute walk from the venue.

To help further with cost and transport, Ann Murray has researched rail and flight tickets from around the country to give everyone an idea of how much it could be to travel to the event.

Rail: (all prices are based on 1 RETURN or 2 SINGLE tickets [whichever works out cheaper] and are per person)
*BIRMINGHAM* New Street or International to Southampton Central (arriving Friday, departing Monday) from £55.60 return per person.
*BIRMINGHAM* New Street or International to Southampton Central (arriving Saturday morning, departing Sunday evening) 2h 50m journey time - from £42.60 return per person.
*LIVERPOOL* Lime Street to Southampton Central (arriving Friday, departing Monday) from £82.90 return per person
*BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS* to Southampton Central (arriving Friday, departing Monday) from £20.50 per person
*TRURO* to Southampton Central (arriving Friday, departing Monday) - from £78.60 per person
*NORWICH* to Southampton Central (arriving Friday, departing Monday) from £47.60 per person
*CARDIFF* to Southampton Central (arriving Friday, departing Monday) from £30 per person
*CARLISLE* to Southampton Central (arriving Friday, departing Monday) from £98.80 per person
**The station is just a 15 minute walk from the venue**
more details on nationalrail.co.uk

Roll Out Roll Call will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Transformers as well as the 50th Anniversary of G.I-Joe.  We will be in attendance as this year is the 15th Anniversary of this very website.