Heerotoysmaker has an auction for a Transformers Movie Evac testshot, in what are probably final colours, the toy is the Autobot retool (face) of Transformers Movie Blackout.

The toy was first shown at BotCon 2007 during the Hasbro tour, and later on their display.

You can find lots of images of the toy in our Hasbro Tour image gallery

The Associated Press have released the following article covering the sucess of the Transformers Movie and it's effect on Hasbro's profit and loss figures.

Like one of its Transformers, Hasbro Inc. has spent the last few years trying to change from a toy company to a business that creates the ideas behind movies, shows and games.

Investors hope to see a payoff from that strategy.

Last month, investors got an early taste of success when the company reported a 62 percent increase in net income. Analysts say those results bode well for the holiday shopping season, which accounted for nearly half of Hasbro's profits in 2006.

Part of what's driving expectations is the two-decade-old Transformers toy line. "Transformers" the movie was released in the United States on July 3, just after the quarter began, and has helped make Transformers products among the most sought-after toys for the coming holiday season.

The movie was the first step in what Hasbro hopes to be a long and fruitful relationship with Hollywood: Hasbro supplies the characters and story lines from its toys - household names such as G.I. Joe and Monopoly. Hollywood turns the ideas into big-budget movies or successful TV shows. Then Hasbro reaps the benefits. A Transformers animated TV show is coming in the spring, and Hasbro is also planning a "Transformers" sequel, a G.I. Joe movie and at least one TV game show.

Hasbro, the world's second-largest toy maker behind Mattel Inc., has made movie-related toys for years, but it did not own some of the most popular brands, such as Spider-Man, and had to pay royalties. A few years ago it struggled with an overreliance on fads, including Furby, and movie-related toys and was forced to cut hundreds of jobs as it lost $144 million.

These days, the company's strategy is to look at the time-tested brands it already owns - Trivial Pursuit, Battleship, Littlest Pet Shop and Mr. Potato Head, for example - and turn those into new products such as movies, TV shows, games or online experiences, said Brian Goldner, Hasbro's chief operating officer.

"Our goal is to create that immersive experience that allows consumers to enjoy our brand anywhere - in any format they want - when they want," Goldner said.

Hasbro has had several good quarters, and investors responded by driving Hasbro's share price up 56 percent in the last two years. Still, in a note to investors last month, Gerrick L. Johnson of BMO Capital Markets Corp. cautioned that the entire toy industry could see fallout from a slowing economy and concerns about toy safety. Although Hasbro has not been involved in the most high-profile toy recalls this year for lead paint, Johnson wrote that sluggish sales could cause retailers to put off buying any more toys in the quarter.

In a separate note, he said he expected Transformers sales could drop off next year because of the lack of a new movie in 2008.

The "Transformers" movie has made about $700 million worldwide since it was released in summer and about $316 million domestically. Hasbro does not share significantly in the box office - something Goldner said it agreed to forgo because it did not invest in the movie's production cost. But it shares in the success in other ways.

It made money by licensing about 230 Transformers products, including cell phone games, video games, even a jacket that transforms to a backpack and a pillow and sells for about $500.

Goldner would not comment specifically on sales of Transformers toys ahead of the earnings report. Jim Silver, editor-in-chief of the trade magazine Toy Wishes, said retailers tell him Transformers sell out as soon as they're put on the shelf.

"These toys, the way they transform and the things that they do, they're really fun," Silver said. "It's the hottest thing in the boys' category."

A new Transformers animated series is scheduled for TV this spring, the movie DVD hit stores last month, and Hasbro is again working with DreamWorks-Paramount on a sequel, tentatively scheduled to be released in June 2009, Goldner said.

Also in development for a tentative 2009 release is a G.I. Joe movie, based on the 1980s comic books and animated series and pitting the G.I. Joe team against the evil forces of Cobra, Goldner said. Stephen Sommers of "The Mummy" movies signed up to direct, along with Stuart Beattie, who wrote the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

As with the "Transformers" movies, Hasbro would not share significantly in the box office, Goldner said. The company said it would make new toys based on the G.I. Joe movie, but it would not give details.

Silver said he was excited to see how Hasbro updates the toy line.

"I'm sure G.I. Joe's going to have a lot of cool accessories," he said.

We have updated our Transformers Conventions Photograph area with two new galleries of recent Japanese conventions. The conventions are the 2007 Transfanket and the 17th Tokyo Toy Festival 2007, both of which took place towards the end of October. The Tokyo Toy Festival gallery includes a high resolution photograph of the Japanese exclusive Transformers Movie DVD Spychanger Optimus Prime (see below).

Viacom profit up on cable,"Transformers"
Viacom Inc said on Friday its quarterly profit rose 80 percent, boosted by the sale of its music publishing unit, strong cable advertising and blockbuster turnout for the alien robots movie "Transformers."

The results beat Wall Street forecasts, and Viacom's Class B shares ended three percent higher at $41.58 in a generally flat market.

The company, home to the MTV Networks cable television channels and the Paramount film studios, also said it expects U.S. advertising sales to increase further in the current quarter and its digital entertainment outlets to post continued growth.

"'Transformers' gave the movie studio the lift, and the cable networks continued to improve in revenue growth," said Gabelli & Co analyst Christopher Marangi.

Viacom's third-quarter profit rose to $641.6 million, or 96 cents per share, from $356.8 million, or 50 cents per share, a year ago. The company recorded a $192 million gain for selling its Famous Music publishing unit in July.

Excluding the sale and other items, earnings per share for the 2007 quarter was 65 cents, above the average analysts' view of 60 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 24 percent to $3.27 billion. Analysts had forecast revenue of $3 billion.

The company also said it was on track to post low double-digit annual growth in diluted earnings per share from continuing operations.

Viacom founder and Chairman Sumner Redstone said he was "more than pleased" with the results and gave a strong endorsement to Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, who took the helm after company veteran Tom Freston was ousted.

The 84-year-old media mogul is embroiled in a public battle with his daughter Shari, once seen as his likely successor.

"One of the smartest moves that I and the board have ever made was to ask Philippe Dauman to assume the role of CEO," Redstone said. "The rewards of that decision are becoming more and more apparent."

A STRIKE FOR STEWART?

The company has prepared for a possible strike by Hollywood screenwriters after their labor contract with production studios expired, but expects little or no impact on Viacom's business, Dauman said.

But two of Viacom's most popular comedy shows -- "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" -- could be hurt by a walkout as they rely on fresh writing about current events, he said.

Viacom's media networks business posted a 9 percent rise in revenue to $2 billion in the third quarter. Filmed entertainment revenue 57 percent to $1.3 billion.

Worldwide advertising rose 7 percent to $1.18 billion. Domestic ad sales grew 5 percent and the company expects comparable growth in the fourth quarter.

Viacom, which is also home to the Nickelodeon and Comedy Central cable channels, has sought to extend its entertainment brands more broadly across the Internet.

Viacom did not give details on results for its digital media businesses, but it has said in the past it would likely exceed a goal of $500 million in digital revenue for 2007.

Dauman said it would be increasingly difficult to break out digital results as the company sells more of that advertising in combined deals with its television programming.

"As far as digital advertising goes, we are experiencing nice growth in our efforts, particularly as we add sites, add functionality," Dauman told a conference call with analysts.

Analysts said the company should continue to post growth despite concerns over the impact of a deteriorating housing market on the U.S. economy.

"One of the variables is the overall ad environment, but they should fare relatively well given the dual revenue stream and the international (business)," said Marangi.

Reuters

In a report over at Variety, Transformers 2 is one of the films mentioned as under threat from the possible writers union strikes which are expected to take place in Hollywood next year. When talking about Dreamworks, Variety report that "Not on the pre-strike list is "Transformers 2," a sequel that is still being written. Labor talks will determine whether the visual effects-heavy film makes its projected June 26, 2009, release date."

The article also includes a mention of the summer 2009 release of the live action G.I-Joe movie. "Paramount, pleased with revisions done by scribe Stuart Beattie, has officially set a Feb. 13 start date for G.I Joe an event-sized film that went from a pre-strike question mark to an anchor of the studio's summer 2009 release schedule. Paramount is in talks with up-and-comer Sam Worthington to star, and the studio was down to working out any scheduling overlap with Fox, which has Worthington starring in the James Cameron-directed Avatar".

Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter are running the following press release regarding the sales of the Transformers Movie DVD in the US.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Robots rule -- again.

Showing remarkable staying power, the "Transformers" DVD led the national sales and rental charts for a second consecutive week Wednesday.

"Transformers" beat back a strong challenge on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart from "Meet the Robinsons," which debuted at No. 2 during the week ended October 28.

Two other new releases finished third and fourth, respectively: "Mr. Brooks" and "Hostel: Part II." "The Jungle Book" remained at No. 5.

HBO's "The Sopranos: Season 6: Part 2," the final installment in the mob drama's hugely successful initial DVD run, bowed at No. 8 on the sales chart.

On Home Media Magazine's rental chart, "Transformers" posted a revenue drop of just 14% from the previous week to remain at No. 1 with $8.6 million. "Mr. Brooks" bowed at No. 2 with rental earnings of $7.4 million, while "Meet the Robinsons" came in at No. 3 with $6.5 million.

A trio of new releases topped the Blu-ray Disc sales chart for the week, led by "Robinsons" at No. 1, followed by "Brooks" and "Hostel." On the HD DVD sales chart, "Transformers" remained at No. 1 for the second consecutive week, while NBC's "Heroes: Season 1" was No. 2 after two months in the market.

During a press conference to highlight the release of their new RD-A301 HD-DVD player in Japan, Toshiba revealed an exclusive Voyager-class Starscream recolured toy, called Starscream Vardia Red Model. The figure sports red and gold paint decos and can be obtained with purchase of the player (retailing at 100,000 Yen).

Expect to see the figure for sale on Auction sites, Yahoo Japan, Ebay, Taobao, a short time after (and possibly before) the release of the HD-DVD machine.

Hasbro have published the following release over at Transformers.com

See some of your first glimpses of new Real Gear Robots for 2008. Wave 1 includes Highline 1070 (cell phone), Hacker X-3 (personal game system), Foton T-34 (digital camera). Be on the lookout this January where toys are sold!

Highline 1070
HIGHLINE 1070 knows where you're at. Any creature he establishes a connection with, either physically, or through his communications system is saved in his extensive target list. Those that get labeled as DECEPTICONS, he tracks continually, waiting for them to be in a perfect spot for an ambush. Then, he lays traps designed specifically for each enemy, and moves in to finish them off.

etoyshunter, renowned Transformers testshot seller, has a testshot (in probably final colours), of the Transformers Movie Allspark Powered Landmine toy for sale on ebay at the moment.

Follow this link to see the auction.

The first website updates in the 8th year of Transformers At The Moon sees four new Transformers toy galleries, as well we one updated and an update to a Transformers Merchandise gallery. Here are the details of the new Transformers toy galleries:

1. Transformers Movie - Thundercracker
2. Transformers Movie - FAB Disc Blaster Decepticon Frenzy
3. Transformers Super Link - Hot Shot
4. Transformers Super Link - Inferno
   

The updated toy gallery belongs to :

1. Transformers Beast Wars Neo - Heinlad

The updates to the Transformers Miscellaneous Merchandise area, in the sub-category of Transformers Games is :

1. Transformers Tyco Slot Car Racing set - full galleries of the Autobot (Blue) and Decepticon (Red) slot cars.

You've probably seen some pictures of this boxset before, as well as potentially seeing the TFormers gallery of Battle Damage Optimus Prime, but you may not have seen this images before.

This is of the Transformers Movie 3-pack set of Starscream, Battle Damage Optimus Prime and Battle Damage Arcee.

Appologies for not resizig the images.

The Front

the back

Close up

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime Robot Mode

Arcee

Starscream

Groupshot

Thanks to Yahoo Auctions Hong Kong

When asked whether the Transformers Movie "Search for Starscream" series was still in the pipeline, after the announcement of the second Transformers Movie, Chris Ryall replied with the following comment.

"[snip]There are multiple Spotlight issues in the works, this series, some other series set in the past, and one big thing coming. For starters. 2008's gonna be a lot of fun."

Many thanks to Franco Villa of the Trans Europe Express group for letting us know that Autorobot Italy member that the Transformers Movie Ultimate Bumblebee is now out in Italy.

You can find the original sighting, made by Fireflight, here.