TFcon 2010 have announced that Transformers Animated lead art director / lead designer Derrick J Wyatt will be attending the convention in Canada which takes place between the July 17th and 18th July in Toronto.  Derrick will be joining David Kaye and Mark Ryan at the event.

For those Transformers fans not in Canada or who are unable to make the convention and wish to meet Derrick do not forget that Mr Wyatt will be in the UK for Auto Assembly 2010 between August 13th and August 15th which gives everyone not only in the UK and Europe, but around the world another chance to meet and greet the great man himself along with Garry Chalk, Scott McNeil, Simon Furman, Nich Roche and many many others.

Derrick Wyatt has now answered 933 questions over on formspring.me which covers the Transformers Animated series, the universe in general and just about anything.

Derrick will be over in the UK in August as one of the guest of honour for Auto Assembly 2010. and event at which you will be able to meet the man himself, ask him your own questions and generally thank him for his work on Transformers Animated.

The second Auto Assembly guest of honour has been announced and its connected to this very website .... well you'll have to watch the official announcement video below (or scroll past it)


That's right folks we, the twins behind Transformers At The Moon, Transformers Animated.com and Lucky Draw Transformers are proud to confirm what Kalel Prime announced in the official AA video above, that we will be paying for the Transformers Animated character designer and art director Derrick J Wyatt to come over to the UK for Auto Assembly 2010. This is a great honour for us to be able to get Derrick over to the UK as we are huge fans of the Transformers Animated series, and its also our way to say a big big "thank you" to everyone that has visited www.transformertoys.co.uk over the last decade years, as well as those who have visited TransformersAnimated.com over the best part of the last three years.  We are proud to be a part of a global fan community that welcomes everyone no matter your background, race, religion, political affiliation or nationality using a common interest as a bridge across all difference.

We'd also like to thank Derrick for his interest in attending the event and we very much look forward to speaking to him at the event about all thing Transformers Animated related and also look forward to seeing you all there.

Jim Sorenson has stopped by The Allspark with some exciting news for fellow Transformers Animated fans.  Here is what The Allspark reports "It seems that himself, Bill Forster, Derrick Wyatt and Marty Isenberg are all on board for a second volume of the Allspark Almanac book, should the first book sell well enough. Additionally, Marty Isenberg is also eager to write a "Season 4" for Animated that could be released in comic book form.

So what do you need to do to help get these made? Here's what Jim Sorenson has to say:
The best strategy is to buy one for yourself, advocate to people who might be interested, and above all make some noise. Let IDW and Hasbro know that you like the book by posting on their forum or publishing an amazon review - preferably both. Bill and I (and Marty and Derrick) are super-keen to do the follow-up volume and finish out season 3. I know Marty is itching to do a virtual season 4 in comic book form too. Right now, TPTB will be looking at this volume as a bellwether."

If you are a fan of Transformers Animated and can get to Burbank California on Saturday the 22nd August then you'll be very pleased to hear that a Allspark Almanac signing will be taking place between 2 and 3pm at the Emeral Knights, 4116 W Burbank Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505.  You can ring then on (818) 588-3631.  The authors of the book Jim Sorenson and Bill Foster will be on hand along with Derrick Wyatt himself.

You can check out the official flyer here.

Unicron.com has had a chance to sit down with Transformers Animated lead charcter designed Derrick Wyatt to perform an interview with him.  In the interview he talks about Season 3, some of the new characters as well as teases of a Fortress Maximus appearance.

Derrick Wyatt has updated his blog with a spoiler image from the upcoming Season 3 of Transformers Animated.  The character models were drawn by Irineo Maramba, Art Lee, Brianne Drew-Hard, James Lim, and Derrick himself .

Derrick Wyatt has answered two of the questions raised to him in comments on his blog.  DieMaus asked "a) We've now seen Animated Hot Shot and Red Alert, two characters who were reportedly in the original outline for the show, but were subsequently replaced by Bumblebee and Ratchet, respectively. Do the current Hot Shot and Red Alert bear much similarity to those original concepts? Are they a taste of "what might have been"? Or did those original character ideas never get past the planning phase?

b) Who actually decides which characters DO make it onto the show? You suggested, for example, that Hot Shot wasn't your call, Marty Isenberg mentioned that Hasbro nixed the idea of Sixshot, and as noted, we know that Bumblebee's inclusion was their initiative as well; on the other hand, I can't imagine that the likes of Highbrow were anything other than your idea. How does this all get decided, and whose call is it at the end of the day?"

To which Derrick replied

"Hey,those are some good questions.

a) Hotshot is more of a tribute to his UT self (or selves). Red Alert is actually a bit of what might have been. Her design is based in part on TFA development art that my friend Eric Canete had done. That's why she's female.

b) There are some upcoming interviews that go deeper in to this process than I will here. The current TFCC magazine has an interview with Eric and me where we discuss it. Anyway, we on the animation side try to work together with the 'Bros to come up with a roster of characters that both teams are happy with. Bumblebee's inclusion in the show was actually a result of Matt Youngberg and me pleading for him in the first meeting we had with the higher-ups."

 An anonomous poster then asked the question "Well, I kinda like Red Alert being female, it mixes things up a little. I personally would have liked to have been at one of those meetings, just to hear some of the characters Hasbro wanted in that you guys didn't, or vice-versa. Is it generally harder to get characters who weren't popular in terms of toy sales(or were only in that franchise's toyline) in the show? Or is Hasbro pretty cool about letting some relatively unknown/unpopular characters get their chance in the spot light?"

Which prompted Derrick to reply "On the whole they've been great. I don't think there were any characters we really wanted to do that they vetoed. The only things that ever got nixed were characters that it would be too impractical to do from either an animation or a toy point of view, or characters that just didn't fit the stories we were telling."

Derrick Wyatt has posted several new comments on his blog regarding Transformers Animated Season 3 including details on who designed which characters and the news some the third season will contain even more guest voice actors.  Here are Derricks comments

"Yep, there he is. Hotshot was designed by Irineo Maramba, loosely based on some head sketches I did, with some help from Eric Siebenaler.
I can't say Hotshot was a character from my personal wish list, but I think he's made certain people pretty happy."

"Let's see, of the Rodimus and Strika teams Irineo did Hotshot, Brawn, Cyclonus and Oil Slick, and I did the rest."

"Yep, we have more guest actors, and one former guest is practically a regular this season."

Derrick Wyatt has sent TF Wiki writer Walky an official image of Transformers Animated Season 3 character Hot Shot.  This is the second image of Hotshot to be published, the first being in the Transformers Collectors Club Magazine but is the first image availalbe to the entire world.  You can view the image here.