It's been a few months but Transformers Animated.com has been updated with a new poll.  This time it asks the simple question "Which Transformers Season 3 Autobot are you most looking forward to seeing?".  The options are all from Rodimus Prime's crew:-

1. Rodimus Prime
2. Ironhide
3. Red Alert
4. Hot Shot
5. Brawn

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 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.

We have updated the Transformers Toy Galleries area of the website with galleries for the unreleased Transformers Universe Smokescreen and Jolt figures. Universe Smokescreen is a recolour of the Transformers Armada Hotshot figure using the Generation One Smokescreen colour scheme.

You can discuss the toy over on our message board Saké Comments.

Following on from this morning's update, you will now find another 12 Transformers toy image galleries featuring Transformers from the Galaxy Force and Cybertron series. Here's a full run-down of the new Transformers toys featured.

1. Transformers Cybertron - Jetfire
2. Transformers Cybertron - Landmine
3. Transformers Cybertron - Mudflap
4. Transformers Cybertron - Quickmix
5. Transformers Cybertron - Stripmine
6. Transformers Cybertron - Hot Shot
7. Transformers Cybertron - Red Scrapmetal
8. Transformers Cybertron - Soundwave with Laserbeak
9. Transformers Cybertron - Swerve
10. Transformers Cybertron - Swindle
11. Transformers Galaxy Force - Starscream
12. Transformers Galaxy Force - Thundercracker

We're continuing our theme of updating and adding new Transformers Armada toy galleries today bringing you 9 new toy galleries and 7 updated ones, totaling 441 new images. The new additions are

1. Transformers Armada Blurr
2. Transformers Armada Incinerator
3. Transformers Armada Rollbar
4. Transformers Armada Skywarp
5. Transformers Armada Thunderclash
6. Transformers Armada Thundercracker
7. Transformers Armada Zapmaster
8. Transformers Armada Standard Optimus Prime
9. Transformers Armada Over-run

The updated galleries are of :-

1. Transformers Armada Hot Shot
2. Transformers Armada Jolt
3. Transformers Armada Red Alert
4. Transformers Armada Longarm
5. Transformers Armada Scavenger
6. Transformers Aramda Smokescreen
7. Transformers Armada Liftor