Hi everyone, as you may or may not not, my brother and I have been slowly revamping our Visionaries website in preparation for a big relaunch. The project has been heavily delayed due to work commitments but it is starting to come together now as we start to put together the articles and reviews to go with the images and information we've been amazing over the last 14 years.

Yesterday we decided to pushed live the images which accompany a review that we published on the 1st Feb 2015 which covers the Season 2 character Kabor. This is the first gallery to contain images of some of our resin 2-up hardcopies of the Season 2 characters weapons.

We'll be adding the other characters over time along with more in-depth articles covering the brand from its inception through to the modern era. We've already published our article on "Visionaries: Reborn" along with the toy ads but there is a lot more to come which will include plenty of things you have not seen before. But that is for another day.

When looking at the images in the gallery you will notice that Kabor was originally going to be called "Cliffdweller" and that rather than coming with an axe, as he is shown in the Toy Fair photographs, it was originally planned for him to come with a gun. The change over to the axe was late in production as now only was the gun sculpted, the 2-up is included in the gallery, but the Neal Adams artwork was converted into the final box art. We have included a copy of that artwork as well though we hope to re-scan it again at some point in the future.

We are still investigating when and why the change was introduced. The axe does suit the character better in our opinion, and the gun does look a little odd, but we hope to be able to confirm the reasons.

I thought I would share it here as I know some members also like the Visionaries brand so I thought you may be interested in seeing more about the "lost" series.

You can find the review and image gallery at Darkling Lords Kabor Toy Review

With the closing of his G2 Stunticon eBay auction, eBay seller z75Sales has posted some more listings for rare items. The items currently available include:

1. Testshot Beast Wars Waspinator
2. Testshot Beast Wars Tarantulus
3. Boxed Megatron / Starscream ATB - We own this figure so be sure to check out our own galleries for additional images.
4. Testshot Beast Wars Dinobot
5. Lazercycle Soundwave
6. Gobot HighBeam Packaging Mockup
7. Cyberjet Air Raid Production Sample

You can view the auction, along with the images of the items, by clicking on the links above.

Having briefly been hinted at fans the original concept of Megabolt Megatron has now been publicly revealed for the first time over on the Robot Points blog.  Robot Points blog is run by, arguably and most likely, the worlds leading collector of Transformers hardcopies, prototypes and un-released items, and is an update on a website he use to run many years ago.  If you are a fan of unreleased and pre-production items, especially from the Generation One era then it is worth bookmarking the blog and having a look around the various articles which are already there as you will see some amazing things.

For those wondering a little about the Megabolt Megatron concept it is a hardcopy figure (resin and finished in grey) which is much closer to the original animation model than the final figure that was released.  Just click the lead and check it out.

Hopefully over the coming months and years more articles will be share on this blog by the own much like The Space-Bridge is now finally able to do on Facebook, as between them they have so many rare, "unseen" (by most fans), amazing pieces of Transformers history it is genuinely an honour to see what they share next.  Both have live extremely busy lives over the last couple of decades so don't expect daily or weekly updates, but when those updates do come, they will be amazing ... trust us.

To celebrate hitting 500 likes, Paul has updated The Space-Bridge's new Facebook page with a look at the history of Octane.  The images include some concept artwork from the TakaraTomy archives, as well as another image from their archive of an early figure which has significant design differences to the final product and finally a couple of images of the released toy along side one of the prototypes Paul has or the originally planned "chrome fist" version.  Check them out by clicking the link above

After years of trying to find the best way to share some of his archive, and decades collecting, Paul Hitchens AKA The Space-Bridge has finally started uploading images to his newly created Facebook page.  If you are a fan of prototypes, unreleased figures, concept art, early artwork then I urge you to check out his images as it includes many things you will never have seen before. 

Fun Publications have updated there DeviantART account with a series of images and bios for some unreleased, and in most cas­es un-produced, figures.  The toys include a Transformers Cybertron Red Alert repainted, with a new head, as First Aid, a Beast Machines Noble/Savage made up as Fangry and the head sculpt for Nexus Prime.  The images also additional concept artwork along with pages from the comics.

You can find three of the images below.

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The ­­Allspark.com board member RCX was looking over the special features on Shout! Factory's release of the Season 1 set of Beast Wars when he came across a rather interesting find, mock-up boxes containing placeholder for the Beast Wars characters.  Here is a list of the final characters and the names they originally had on the boxes

Rhinox -> Ironhide
Megatron -> Galvatron
Polar Claw -> Red Alert
Rattrap -> Mirage
Scorponok -> Bonecrusher
Insecticon -> Scourge
Iguanus -> Smokescreen
Buzzsaw -> Bumblebee
Armordillo -> Demolisher
Razorbeast -> Scavenger

Following up from our report yesterday about the early release of Transformers: Vault our copy of the book arrived today and it was well worth picking up.  Though far from a "complete" the book covers the whole history of the line including some great looks at early prototypes, unreleased figures, concept artwork and much more.

We'll create a gallery and review of the book over the coming days, but I encourage you to pick up a copy whilst you can.

I thought I would bring you a round-up of the Spring / Summer Special updates here at Transformers At The Moon.  In case you have not heard the bothers behind Transformers At The Moon are trying to make a concerted effort to get to updating the content side of the website on a regular basis.  Sadly over the last two years changes in our "real life" situations, especially within our professional lives, have meant that the website had to be put on the back burner. Well we are tired of this and have been collecting and producing lots of new content for you all to consume for the last year but only now are we at a point where we are ready to release it.

Some of the planned updates included more interviews with the cast and crew of Transformers Prime, however those plans were stopped by the heavy hand of Hasbro US late last year and whilst we were trying to come to an arrangement with them to allow us to proceed, sadly communication was broken by Hasbro and so they will never see the light of day.  Another interview we had arranged late last year was with former Transformers and G.I-Joe writer Ron Friedman. This was just before his auctions went on sale, but sadly due to his busy schedule, the interview kept being postponed and has since fallen off the radar.

But those are enough negatives and we launched the start of the Spring / Summer special with some image galleries of paint-samples of the European Transformers Flame and Lightspeed.  So below you will find a list of all of the updates so far.

• Transformers toy image gallery of paint-sample Brainmaster Flame
• Image gallery of the paint-master for Brainmaster Lightspeed.
• European Generation One Classics (Gold Box classics) Sandstorm Prototype (this is actually an FEP, or Final Engineering Pilot).
• Massive Transformers Instruction Sheet archive update featuring instructions of upcoming Transformers Dark of the Moon toys (many of which were not available on Hasbro's own website at the time)
• TV Magazine December 1987 issue - 32 pages scanned
• TV Magazine October 1988 issue - 28 pages scanned
• TV Magazine December 1988 issue - 31 pages scanned
• TV Magazine July 1989 issue - 28 pages scanned
• TV Magazine September 1989 issue - 26 pages scanned
• TV Magazine December 1989 issue - 25 pages scanned
• TV Magazine December 1996 issue - 12 pages
  
• TV Magazine February 1997 issue -  11 pages
  
• TV Magazine March 1997 issue - 13 pages
  
• TV Magazine April 1997 issue - 15 pages
  
• TV Magazine May 1997 issue - 29 pages
  
• TV Magazine June 1997 issue - 25 pages
  
• TV Magazine September 1997 issue - 26 pages
  
• TV Magazine October 1997 issue - 21 pages
  
• TV Magazne November 1997 issue - 18 pages
• TV Magazine February 1998 - 29 images
• TV Magazine March 1998 - 40 images
• TV Magazine April 1998 - 26 images
• TV Magazine May 1998 - 29 images
• TV Magazine June 1998 - 39 images

­Former MB and Hasbro employee Andy Couzens has placed some more pre-production Transformers items for sale on eBay.  His current auctions are for a pre-production Freeway and an Action Master Soundwave EP.

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The Freeway is an EP for the European Classics release of the figure which was remoulded to have the indent removed where the rub-sign use to be.  On the final release of the figure, which you can view within our toy gallery section of the website, you will notice that an Autobot sticker was put in place of the early rub-sign.

Both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.jp have­ posted more information on the upcoming book  Transformers Vault: The Complete Transformers Universe.

Amazon.com describes the book as

"For the first time ever, Transformers Vault reveals the complete story of the Transformers, everyone's favorite robots in disguise. Loaded with never-before-seen images, this book is a guide to the epic battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, as it began with toys and television, and continued to comics, film, games, and other media. There's something here for all generations, from classic toys that have become sought-after collectibles to the amazing, high-tech visuals of the three live-action films.

Hasbro has opened its official archives, gathering more than 250 images and several featured pieces of memorabilia. Look inside for a sheet of Generation One tech specs with a secret revealer, a rare pencil sketch from comics artist Casey Coller, an unseen character profile for Hot Rod from the 1986 film, an animation cel, and much more. Exclusive photos of Japanese Transformer prototypes, archival development art, and brand-new information about the future of the Transformers make this the ultimate package for every fan."

With the Japanese version of the website posting the following description:

""The epic battle between the Autobots and Deceptions has captivated fans of all ages for more than two decades, and the robots in disguise were recently rediscovered by a new generation via the hugely successful live-action film series directed by Michael Bay. Officially licensed by Hasbro, The TRANSFORMERS Vault: The Complete TRANSFORMERS Universe covers, for the first time ever, the complete history of TRANSFORMERS, including toys, the original animated series, comics, collectibles, and merchandise, as well as animated and live-action feature films. This heavily illustrated book features never-before-seen images from the Hasbro archives, seven interactive pieces of memorabilia, and an acetate slipcase with a unique "transforming effect." Five visually driven chapters feature early animation sketches, interviews with creators, wooden sculptures for the original toys, patents, prototypes, action-figure designs that never made it to production, vintage packaging art, and set-design sketches from the Michael Bay films."

It brings me great pleasure to be able to kick off what should be an exciting Spring and Summer to visitor of Transformers At The Moon with three new Transformers Toys image galleries. Being a European based website we felt that it would only be fitting to kick off our "Summer Special" as the Transformers community builds towards the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon by adding three galleries of European exclusive figures.

First up, we have added an image gallery of Motorvator Gripper.  This image gallery contains comparison images to Brainmaster Blacker as well images showing him combined with both Braver and Laster.

The second and third galleries are of something a little special and yet also related to the Motorvator Gripper gallery.  What are they?  Well they are image galleries of a paint-sample of Motorvator Flame and an image gallery of a paint-sample of Motorvator Lightspeed!  What is a paint-sample, you may be asking yourself, well when Hasbro decide to recolour a figure with a different colour scheme, hand-paint a mock-up version using the existing figures mold.  In this case Hasbro Europe took the Japanese Brainmaster figures Braver and Laster and hand-painted them into the proposed colour schemes for their European releases.  We picked up these figures from the head of Hasbro Europe who was also responsible for presenting these toys to the heads of the individual European territories at the time.  The figures had not been transformed since that presentation until we bought them, which meant that they are very stiff.

The image galleries of these unique figures include comparisons with their Japanese counter-parts but not their final European release, as we do not own those yet.  These figures are from an import period in the history of the Transformers line, as it was a time that support for Transformers had dried up within the US, but it was the lines popularity both within Europe and Japan that kept Transformers going and would eventually lead on the release of Generation 2.

Product Description
Officially licensed by Hasbro, Transformers Vault: The Complete Transformers Universe reveals, for the first time ever, a comprehensive history of the transformers. Fans now have a hands-on guide to the epic battle between the Autobots and decepticons, including the toys, the original animated series, comics, collectibles, and merchandise, as well as animated and live-action feature films.

This heavily illustrated book features never-before-seen images from the Hasbro archives, seven interactive pieces of memorabilia, and an acetate slipcase with a unique "morphing" effect. Five visually driven chapters go behind the scenes of everyone's favorite robots in disguise, featuring early animation sketches, interviews with creators, patents, prototypes, action-figure designs that never made it to production, vintage packaging art, and development art from the films.

About the Author
Pablo Hidalgo is the author of G.I. Joe vs. Cobra: The Essential Guide. He is the managing editor for Starwars.com and lives in San Francisco. Hasbro is one of the largest and most successful makers of toys and board games in the world. Hasbro was involved in the development of all three live-action transformers ransformers films.