Activision have published an annoucement covering Transformers Prime The Game, a new video game based on the CGI Transformers Series.  The official website for the WII and 3DS game can be found at www.transformersprimethegame.com

Activision and Hasbro Team Up to Create TRANSFORMERS PRIME(TM) Video Game Based on the Hit Television Series

New Action Brawler Game Planned to Launch this Year Exclusively on Nintendo Platforms

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), is bringing the ultimate TRANSFORMERS video game experience to kids of all ages with the TRANSFORMERS PRIME video game.  Based on the hit animated television show produced by Hasbro Studios and currently airing on The Hub television network in the U.S., the game lets fans play as their favorite AUTOBOT characters and embark on an action-packed adventure to save the earth from the evil MEGATRON and his new secret weapon.  Players step into the roles of OPTIMUS PRIME, BUMBLEBEE, ARCEE, AUTOBOT RATCHET, BULKHEAD and more as they explore unique vistas all around the world with brawler-style combat and diverse driving sequences.  Along the way, gamers cultivate friendships with Jack, Miko and Raf - the human characters from the show - as Team Prime sets out to protect mankind and eliminate the DECEPTICONS once and for all.

"Hasbro Studios has done a phenomenal job with the TRANSFORMERS PRIME television show," said David Oxford, Executive Vice President at Activision Publishing.  "We are collaborating closely with the series creators to capture all the adventure, humor and friendships from the show to create an authentic action experience for TRANSFORMERS fans of all ages to enjoy."

"Hasbro is thrilled to be working with Activision again on an exciting new TRANSFORMERS video game," said Mark Blecher, Senior Vice President of Digital Media and Marketing at Hasbro.  "The TRANSFORMERS PRIME animated series has resonated strongly with kids and fans and we're looking forward to delivering this new way to experience the adventure."

TRANSFORMERS PRIME will hit stores later this year and is being developed exclusively for Nintendo's Wii(TM) system and the Nintendo 3DS(TM) hand-held system by Now Production (NowPro), and for the Nintendo DS(TM) hand-held system by Altron Corporation.  The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB. 

For more information and exclusive updates, fans can visit http://www.TransformersPrimeTheGame.com.

About Hasbro

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings based on the Company's world class brand portfolio.  From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, video games and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its customers through the strategic leveraging of well-known and beloved brands such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAYSKOOL, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY.  The Hub, Hasbro's multi-platform joint venture with Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) launched on October 10, 2010. The online home of The Hub is http://www.hubworld.com. The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. 

Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com. © 2012 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About Activision Publishing, Inc.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, http://www.activision.com. 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing's expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Activision Publishing generally uses words such as "outlook," "will," "could," "would," "might," "remains," "to be," "plans," "believes," "may," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "estimate," future," "plan," "positioned," "potential," "project," "remain," "scheduled," "set to," "subject to," "upcoming" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing's actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Activision Publishing's titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Activision Publishing's ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms, declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Activision Publishing's products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware (including peripherals) and related software, industry competition including from used games and other forms of entertainment, litigation risks and associated costs, rapid changes in technology, industry standards, business models including online and used games, and consumer preferences, including interest in specific genres such as music, first-person action and massively multiplayer online games, protection of proprietary rights, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, licensees, licensors, vendors, and third-party developers, including the ability to attract, retain and develop key personnel and developers that can create high quality "hit" titles, counterparty risks relating to customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates and tax rates, and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities and potential challenges associated with geographic expansion, and the other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

HASBRO and its logo, TRANSFORMERS and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2012 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.  Game © 2012 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.

SOURCE  Activision Publishing, Inc.

Activision Publishing, Inc.

CONTACT: Kelvin Liu, Senior Publicist of Activision, Inc., +1-310-255-2213, kelvin.liu@activision.com

Web Site: http://www.activision.com

Dealers who will be trading at Botcon have received an email stating that Hasbro and Fun Publications reserve the right to confiscate any and all unlicensed materials.  You'll find a copy of the announcement below.

"Promoter and its designees, including Hasbro, Inc., each reserves the right to ban or deny display of any item for any reason. Promoter and its designees, including Hasbro, Inc., each reserves the right to confiscate any items that violates these rules and regulations. Exhibitor agrees to permit such confiscation without incident and agrees that all confiscated items shall become the property of Promoter or its designee and may be turned over to the appropriate authorities. Exhibitor herby [sic] waives and all claims against the Promotor [sic] or Hasbro, Inc. with respect to any removal of person or confiscation of items."

Credit to FullMetalHero for the news.

Update:

Pete has posted a response on behalf of Botcon over on TFW2005.com

I am afraid that details will not be provided. There are SO many 3rd party items, no one is going to provide a list of what is acceptable "unlicensed" toys.

Planet Iacon - Singapore Transformers Fans Unite!! (S.T.F.U!!) has updated it's facebook page with robot mode versions of Trailerforce, the 3rd party Transformers Classics God Ginrai Figure.  I wonder if they will do God Bomber as well.

Thanks to Planet Iacon here's a first look at what appears to be Botcon 2012 Shattered Glass Generation 2 Optimus Prime. It's not confirmed whether this is the attendee 'freebie' or part of one of the add-on sets sold at the convention itself. This is a redeco of Reveal the Shield Optimus Prime using the same colour scheme as the existing Shattered Glass Optimus Prime from 2008's Botcon boxed set.

Some fans will see this as a nice node to the original set, others as a cop-out and futher indication that Fun Publications are running out of ideas for this years set.

This takes the list to.

BoxSet

• Gigatron (Overlord)
• Metal Hawk
• Soundwave - Shattered Glass
• Ultra Magnus - Shattered Glass
• Turbo Tracks - Shattered Glass
• Tredshot - Shattered Glass

Loose

• G2 Optimus Prime - Shattered Glass
• Octopunch - Shattered Glass
• ?
• ?
• ?
• ?

Custom Competition

• ?

Amazon Japan has listed a preorder page for Masterpiece MP11S Sunstorm. Sunstorm is confirmed by this listing to be an Amazon Japan exclusive, set for a August 25 2012 release date with a cost of 13,650 yen (around £100)

Simon Furman has posted the following on his blog looking for some missing artwork

I need your help. At some point between last year’s Roll Out, Roll Call and this year’s, two pieces of original Transformers comic art I supplied for display ‘went missing’. The items in question are the final page of Transformers UK #78 (Target: 2006 prologue), by Jeff Anderson, and page 2 (the title page) of 1985 Annual story, ‘And There Shall Come A Leader’, by John Stokes.

(Click the link for images) but bear in mind the missing pages are the black & white line originals on artboard (at larger than printed scale).

These pages were kindly given me by the artists in question, and are quite simply irreplaceable. So, could I ask all transfans to be vigilant. If you see or have seen these items for sale, or know who has them, please contact me via the Wildfur website (& the contact email thereon).

All information will be treated in strict confidence and I’m offering a reward of rare/signed Transformers goodies to anyone with information leading directly to their recovery.

Thank you.

The Asia market has a big website called TF.91.com and it is jam packed with all kind of cool images and videos. The games aesthetics have long since been revealed to be similar to Transformers Prime.

Seibetron.com member GetRightRobot has posted the following.

Ever wondered how BumbleBee would fare against TF Prime Bruticus? Click here to watch the video and find out! here are TONS of options for customizing your character. Starting with a base chassis and choosing the actual vehicle is just the first steps. One of 5 classes of weapons can be then be chosen along with dozens of desgins and colors. I have mocked up a small portion of the options in the customization. I hope the Western market sees this level of game development

BotCon have tweeted that both Simon Furman and Chris Latta will be inducted into the Transformers Hall of Fame

Simon Furman is best known for writing various Transformers comics, starting with Marvel UK, he went on to Marvel US  looking after both comics.  Then with the revival of Transformers Comics with Dreamwave Simon once again started to write Transformers comics, as well as working with Titan Books to republish some of the original Marvel UK stories.  He even wrote a few stories for Titan Magazine's UK Transformers comic as well as joining IDW (meaning he has been the only writer to write for every publisher of Transformers comics).

Chris Latta is most famour for voicing Starscream in the original Transformers cartoon, as well as Cobra Commander in GI-Joe.  Chris proved to be a fan favorite, featuring in the top 3 most popular voice actors for Transformers fans, along with Frank Welker and Peter Cullan.

You can now find out image gallery from the UK Action Force / GI Joe / Transformers Convention Roll Out Roll Call 2012.

We have videos to upload for you and hope to get some more images from Barry Shaw to add to the gallery.

Cybcon has an amazing reveal, Transformers Masterpiece 14 will be Lambor, better known as Sideswipe amongst western fans.

Expect Red Alert and G2 recolours to come at some stage, along with mabe a Tiger Tracks.

We'd like to apologise for the lack of coverage of Roll Out Roll Call. Out plans were to add on news live regarding the Mastermind Creations Nova Prime, Thundercracker and Skywarp figures, along with confimation that Ultra Magnus will feature in Regeneration, Bludgeon returns, the Seacons return and that "some characters will return, but not how you think of them" .. but my mobile dongle couldn't get a decent connection to the site.

Here is a very quick summary.

Mastermind Creations

• Cyclops was on show. Anyone wondering about the build quality, don't.  It's 100x better then the Night Morpher Prime toys.
• The figures for 2012 are
  • Hexitron (3 versions)
  • Screech (Hearts of Steel Starscream)
  • Warper (Hearts of Steel Skywarp)
  • Screamer  (Hearts of Steel Thundercracker)
  • Nova Prime (with trailer for small robot and combined form)

Transformers Regeneration

• Characters designed to look like you remember them, not to look exactly like they did
• Some characters have been "repaired"
• Soundwave will appear Purple in flashbacks, but Blue in "current" day
• Seacons will be in it
• Ultra Magnus will make his US debut in the "original universe"
• Bludgeon will return
• Octopunch - "some characters will return, but will have changed from how you remember them"
• Nucleon will be in it, and resolve the outstanding issues (such as Grimlock not being able to Transform).  Looking at what impact is had on characters such as Blaster etc.  (aybe he'll turn Blue into Twincast??)
• Cover for 81 features Megatron on a thrown saying "what took you?"

GI-Joe Character Book

• Features character, vehicle and some backgrond art from Season One.  Current title is "GI-Joe Field Manual Volume 1".
• More text then in the Transformers Ark Books, this contains Character Bios, information and "real life" statistics for the vehicles.
• If it sells well then they may be a volume 2 -  Jim and Bill are already compiling information on a Season 2, movie and DIC
• They'd love to do a GI-Joe Renegades book, though there is currently nothing planned

Action Force

• Dave Tree showed off unreleased Action Force toys
• Desgins and concepts of unreleased figures and vehicles were shown
• Dave confirmed he is working on a book covering the history of Action Force, and including the unreleased material

It's less than 2 and 1/2 hours until Roll Out Roll Call gets underway in Southampton in Hampshire.

There have been a few snags on setup day, and prior to the event, but everyone was in good spirits yesterday during setup.  There are around 12 dealers in attendence selling Action Force, GI Joe, Transformers, Masters of the Universe, 3rd Party goods, Thundercats, Tick and various other toylines.

Several of the domestic and international guests have already been spotted and are raring to go.

The event lasts Saturday and Sunday, starts at 10:00 today and tickets are available on the door for day passes.

Mastermind Creations will be showing off what the next 12 months will see with some exclusive reveals, the first time a UK show has a big reveal for Transformers (all be it a Third Party Company).

We'll be bringing you coverage live from the event, so stay tuned

Tomorrow is the start of Roll Out Roll Call 2012 and so we bring you a link to another exclusive item that will be available at the show.  IDW artist Robert Atkins (who will be in attendance at the show) has onced again teamed up with UK colourist Simon Gough (who'll also be at the show) to produce a limited edition Red Shadows print.  Robert posted the news on his blog and we have mirrored the final image below.

Newsarama posted some preview pages for the upcoming IDW Transformers: Regeneration One issue #80.5 over on their website yesterday.  The series, which continues the Marvel Generation One universe, is due to be released on the Free Comic Book Day later in the year.  You can view the images below.

Twitter users Brent Michael Fury (Brentosaur) has tweeted an image of the Transformers Prime First Edition Bumblebee which he found on the shelves of his local Wal*Mart within the US.  The first edition toys were reportedly not going to be available so does this mean those reports were wrong or is was there a mis-packaged case?  Time will tell.

Credit to FullMetalHero.com for the spot.