Continuing on with their Facebook Q and A sessions, the Hub is asking for fans to submit questions to the one and only, Peter Cullen. The voice of Optimus Prime from Generation 1, the Live action movies and Prime will select five questions and answer them! The answers will be posted next week.

To submit your questions, visit the Hub's Facebook here.

The official Transformers Facebook page has been updated with an interview with Brian Taylor, the composer for Transformers Prime

Transformers Prime Tuesday Q&A: Composer Brian Tyler

Each week, we’ve been taking questions for the cast and crew of the hit animated series “Transformers Prime” from fans of the official Transformers Facebook page. Check out this week’s Fan Q&A with the composer for Transformers Prime, Brian Tyler!


Katie Seiwert asks: Were you influenced by any of the past Transformer score and/or soundtrack music? If yes, which one(s)?

BRIAN TYLER: I listened to the scores of the films and thought they were really cool and fit those films really well. When brainstorming with the producers of Transformers Prime we talked about doing a very epic orchestral score that harkened to movies like Star Wars, which had scores that were very tune-centric but had a lot of movement in the orchestration. It is a different approach but both have their place.


Belinda Nieminen asks: Hello! How did you end up to compose music for Transformers Prime? What made you interested of this project? Who is your favourite character of Transformers (Autobot and Decepticon)? What inspired you when you were making music for Transformers Prime?

BRIAN TYLER: I have been a Transformers fan since I was a wee lad. But more specifically Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci (producers and writers of the first live-action Transformers movies) came to me after I had scored their film "Eagle Eye" and said that they were doing an animated version and if I would be interested in composing the music. The show's producers also gave a unified front in their mission to make this as cinematic as possible. And that is when we thought that we should record live orchestral score for it, something which is rarely done these days for television.

Favorite characters? That is tough. Ratchet, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bulkhead.


Ben Harrison asks: What were the hardest scene to compose for?

BRIAN TYLER: The battle during the finale of "Darkness Rising" was crazy because it cut back and forth between different huge action battles in space and the kids breaking into a secret base on Earth. It was a challenge but I was really happy with the result. The orchestra made me look good. Haha!


Will Clark asks: I have noticed that the music for Transformers Prime has more of a cinematic feel to it as opposed to other TF series. Was that a decision on your part or the part of the producers? What was the influence for the music direction?

BRIAN TYLER: We were in agreement that this score should be completely cinematic. My approach was exactly the same as if I were scoring a feature film. Big themes, live orchestra, and melodic development. The influence for the music direction was classic sci-fi. Star Wars, Alien, Aliens, Close Encounters, Back to the Future, Blade Runner, etc.


Jared Kraft asks: What are some of the notable differences between scoring a film and scoring a television series? In your experience, which of these avenues allows more creative freedom for the composer?

BRIAN TYLER: Well in this case, the only different is timing. Television is fast, but we focus on overall music for the characters and then the music is molded for the episodes. Since this music is live, there are limitations on time which actually allows creative freedom.


Chelsea Dostert asks: I am a big fan of your musical scores, especially the score on Transformers Prime. Do you have a certain process or routine before you write a score or one that inspires you to write a score?

BRIAN TYLER: Thanks! I do have a process when I work on a score. I just pace around thinking of themes, sit down at a piano, and then start writing some kind of melody that hopefully captures the spirit of the project. Then it goes through a giant process of expanding, altering, improving, orchestrating, conducting the orchestra, and mixing. And when it finally comes together I can exhale!


Brian Tyler's bio: Brian Tyler is a composer of over 50 films and was recently nominated for "Film Composer of the Year" by the International Film Music Critics Association, as well as two Emmy Awards, and has won 5 ASCAP Awards and 5 BMI Awards. He composed and conducted the scores for "Eagle Eye" for producer Steven Spielberg, the box office hits "Fast Five" and "Fast and Furious," "The Expendables" and "Rambo" directed by Sylvester Stallone, "Law Abiding Citizen" starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, the Keanu Reeves thriller "Constantine," and the epic science fiction film "Battle: Los Angeles." Tyler also scored the fastest grossing entertainment release in history, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" which grossed $775 million in its first 5 days. He also recently arranged and conducted the new film logo music for Universal Pictures and composed a theme for the 100 year anniversary of the studio. Tyler began scoring features shortly after he received his bachelor's degree from UCLA and his master's degree from Harvard University. Tyler's score for Bill Paxton's "Frailty" won him a World Soundtrack Award in 2002 as well as The World Soundtrack Award as Best New Film Composer of the Year. Shortly after he composed the score for "The Hunted" for Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin. Tyler is a multi-instrumentalist, playing drums, piano, guitar, orchestral
and world percussion, bass, cello, charango and bouzouki, amongst others. Tyler was recently inducted into the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Transformers 4 has been officially confirmed

Paramount Pictures has now issued a press release officially announcing Michael Bay's involvement:

Paramount Pictures announced today that director Michael Bay has signed a two-picture deal with the studio, which will commence this spring with the filming of Pain and Gain, and will be followed by the next installment in the hit Transformers franchise.

Based on a true story, Pain and Gain follows a group of bodybuilders who engaged in a campaign of kidnapping, extortion and murder in Florida. First told in an article from the Miami New Times, Pain and Gain, will be directed by Bay and will star Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Expected to begin production in early spring, the movie's producers include Bay, Donald De Line and Ian Bryce.

Following Pain and Gain, Bay will bring audiences a new take on the Transformers franchise as he begins production on the fourth installment in the hit series of movies based on the best-selling Hasbro toyline. The third, and most recent installment of the franchise, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Is the fourth highest global grossing film of all time with 1.124 billion dollars of worldwide box office success. Directed by Bay, the movie will re-unite the filmmaking team from the hit franchise, including producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto and Ian Bryce; and executive producers Steven Spielberg, Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. Paramount Pictures will release the film on June 29th, 2014.

"Michael has been working on PAIN AND GAIN for a number of years but has patiently waited for the perfect casting to trigger a start," said Adam Goodman, President of Paramount's Film Group. "Clearly his patience has paid off as we couldn't be more excited about this combo. His passion for this project is just awesome."

Autobase Aichi has posted the new prototype image of Transformers Prime Arms Micron - Optimus Prime & Bumblebee.

This image was taken from Takara Tomy booth at 2012 Winter Wonderfest at Japan. They are part of the upcoming "Gachapon" capsule toys.

The Transformers official facebook page has revealed the official shot of Transformers Fall of Cybertron Bruticus

Hello TF@The Moon,

Toys R Us no longer list Masterpiece Rodimus on their website. It seems odd, the toy was released only six months ago, and there are still plenty on shelves. Down here in Exeter, they've always had between 4 and 6 on the shelf - if anything, I would guess they are overstocked.

Perhaps people who were waiting for a price cut or online offer should act quickly to get one while they can!

- Adam

We have updated our extensive Japanese Collectors Magazine area with eight more magazines from 2011 and 2012.

• New Type Magazine February 2012 issue
• TV Boy Magazine December 2011 issue
• TV Boy Magazine February 2012 issue
• Hyper Hobby Magazine September 2011 issue
• Hyper Hobby Magazine December 2012 issue
• Hyper Hobby Magazine January 2012 issue
• Hyper Hobby Magazine February 2012 issue
• Dengeki Hobby Magazine February 2012 issue

Rather than posting several stories we have decide to post one simple story containing all of the official Transformers images of Transformers toys which were shown off at the New York Toy Fair.  The lines include Transformers Prime and Transformers Generations (which includes figures from the highly anticipated Transformers Fall of Cybertron game).

For us, the biggest news from the Toy Fair was the annoucement of the Marvel Universe Death's Head figure schedule for release in 2013.

More news in from the Winter Wonderfestival is that a new Transformers related Revoltech toy is in the works.  This time it is Transformers Movie Bumblebee.  Click the full story for images

Images from the 2012 Winter Wonderfestival have started to come in.  Since Tomy (TakaraTomy) are not in attendance it was thought that Transformers images would be thin on the ground. 

CMS Corphave filled the gap by showing of a resin prototype Ginrai and (a possible final version) Minerva, as well as an upcoming "Minerva Special Edition" figure based on the colors of Nightbeat (and the Minerva Night Beat special release in Japan.) Also shown off on the Minerva Special poster is an extra head based on Hi-Q from the Marvel Comics Transformers run that can be attached to the Gutto Kuru Ginrai's body.

Hasbro has annouced in the last hour that 2013 will see the release of Deaths Head in the Marvel Universe toyline.

This will be the first action figure based on Deaths Head who debuted in the Transformers comics back in the 80's as has crossed through mulitple lines such as Dr Who and the Marvel comic universe.

Only a CGI render was shown during a panel which allowed no photography.

The official Transformers facebook page has released it's latest Transformers Prime update.

Toy Fair is this weekend in New York, and we’re counting down with images of 2012 Transformers toys! Check out this Transformers Prime Cyberverse Energon Driller vehicle with Knockout!

TakaraTomy has tweeted a few additional images from the Asahikawa Winter Festival. In addition to the giant Optimus Prime snow sculpture there is also a sculpture of Transformers Prime Bumblebee to greet guest. We also see a coupled of illuminated images of the Optimus Prime sculpture.

Optibotimus has uploaded his latest video review which is none other than the upcoming Headrobots Centurion upgrade kit for G1 Fortress Maximus.

Yesterday Hasbro updated their Facebook page with the latest Transformers Prime Tuesday.