Some of you may have missed the launch of Version 9 of Transformers At The Moon, some 3 years after work first started on the new layout, code and features.  You can't help but notice the changes, the three column (holy-grail) layout that is now used, a return to the drop-down horizontal menu and introduction of "focus areas".  These focus areas are helped to show you the vast content that you can find within the Transformers At The Moon database, and website.  The area that i'll focus on at the moment is Resources.

The Transformers At The Moon resource section contains over 12 years of information that we have collated over the lifetime of the website.  This information includes images of various Transformers merchandise, from rubbers to store displays, through to concept art and production pieces.

If you click the Resource Section you will find a list of different things to read and look at.

1. Transformers Toy Galleries - over 2,200 different Transformers featured. Our 99% complete G1 (including Japanese) collection will contain toys that you cannot see anywhere else.  Of cause there are also Lucky Draw Transformers toys, that we are known for, and also Hardcopies from different lines, production samples, testshots and prototypes.
2. USPTO Database - the only place you can see all the Transformers related Patients and Trademarks, in one place.  ther are 447 trademarks and over 6500 status updates
3. Hasbro Instructions - Scans of the Hasbro Transformers toy Instructions - there are 962 scans in this area, making it one of most complete Transformers Instruction scan archive you will find).  This mirrors ever Hasbro instruction that is published, and retains those which they remove.
4. Artwork - Various differnet official Transformers artwork, from the Benchpress concepts in 2000, through Dreamwave and beyond
5. Cartoons - episode  guides and galleries of the Transformers series.  Primarily focusing on Transformers Prime and Transformers Animated, we have access to every Western Transformers episode, and 80% of the Japanese episodes (soon to be 100%).  This area will continue to grow throughout the years
6. Comics and Books - We'll admit, we've been out of touch with Transformers comics for a long time = but our Comic and Book area covers Marvel and Dreamwave issues (IDW is yet to be added) and the books cover UK, US and Japanese prints
7. Instruction Scans - Scans of some of our Transformers Instructions.  At some stage will will combine this with the Hasbro instruction scans
8. Interviews - interviews with artists, writers, film producers, computer games companies, convention organisers .. we've covered them asll
9. Live Action Movie - a small area on the Live Action Transformers Movies
10. Magazine Scans - after our Toy Galleries and USPTO Database, the Magazine Scans area is the third lastest, and most impressive, area of Transformers at the Moon.  We spent several thousands of pounds in buying back issues of TV Magazine, TV Boy, Hyper Hobby and other Japanese collectors and TV Magazines covering the last 20 years in order to give you 100% correct information on some of the little known, or unknown Japanese campaign exclusive toys.  This area is a MUST for anyone interested in rare figures.
11. Merchandise - the weird and wonderful Transformers merchandise - most of which is from G1 and most of that we own
12. Profile Cards - an area that we hope to add to (when we get time) contains scans of Japanese Transformers Profiles cards
13. Prototypes and Concepts - Another BIG area for Transformers at the Moon, in terms of content that isn't often covered.  Here you will find
    
    1. Series Bibles (concept and character art from the Transformers TV show) - the largest collection on the web
    2. Concept art work
    3. Concept and finshed box art
    4. Hardcopies
    5. Prototypes
    6. Testshots
14. Toy Collections - group shots of people's toy  collections.  If you want to get yours added then get in contact with us
15. Toy Sheet Scans - complete scans of our Transformers toy sheets .. we own over 2500 Transformers, 99% of G1, so with that we have most of the old toy sheets for you to view
16. Website Mirror - old mirrors of some of the Japanese and Chinese websites
17. UK Store Locator - Currently offline, this told UK vistors the nearest stores selling Transformers

ImpossibleToys have revealed a single CG teaser image for their Quinesson toys, Allicon (the aligator from Transformers The Movie).  As of yet there is no word as to whether it will transform or whether it will follow the style set by their previous releases in this line (the Quntessons and Nightbird)

Lets kick off 2012 with in-hand images of the Transformers Alternity Goldbug toy from Takara-Tomy, thanks to Autobase Aichi and Snakas.  The figure is a recoloured version of Transformers Alternity Bumblebee and Cliffjumper using metallic gold paint and with a dark blue head based on the G1 Throttlebot character / toy.

German Transformers website New Transformers Archive has posted some new Transformers Prime figures and playsets.  The toys, which can be seen below the jump, include:-

1. Voyager Optimus Prime - The figure comes with light up effects as highlighted in the image
2. Megatron
3. Deluxe Bumblebee (just art work)
4. Legends Eradicon (Vehicon)
5. Legends Ratchet
6. Legends Cliffjumper
7. Legends Arcee
8. Legends Bumblebee
9. Cyberverse Wheeljack set (the set includes Wheeljacks ship along with mini-figure in a continuation of the Transformers Dark of the Moon Cyberverse figures.

The Transformers Prime Legends class figures come with clear clip-on weapons.  They also report that an Optimus Prime mask will also be released.  The German release date for these figures is February 2012.

Source: www.ntf-archive.de

Welcome to Transformers At The Moon - Version 9!  Yes, I have finally completed the work I started 26 months ago which was re-writing the entire Transformers At The Moon platform from the ground up.  The only thing that is the same is the server.  I've re-engined the database, redeveloped all of the libaries, the website is entirely bespoke, re-jigged the look-and-feel of the website and have introduced a new message board.

My professional career lead to the significant delay turning what was originally a 6 month project into something that has taken over 2 years.  For that I am sorry, but these things happen.

One of the first changes you will notice is that we have moved back to using a drop-down menu for navigation.  This is to help group the content we have created since the site first launched back in late 1999 so that you all will be able to, hopefully, find the content much easier.  It also helps highlight all of the content we have to offer from News Services, through toy galleries, trademark databases, instruction sheets, concept art, character models to videos (an area that we will be expanding with a back catelogue of convention videos we have taken over the last 10 years), events and our much over looked community.

You will also find that we have introduced a "tab" system into the "introduction area" of every page.  For instance, on the home page you will notice three tabs under the welcome section.  Clicking on the tab will display the content on that tab.  These tabs come into their own within the News and Resource and Toy image gallery sections of the website.  Within those areas of the website, you will find that these tabs contain alternative ways to search for content.  Most commonly you will find a tab that lists each of the categories as well as a tag cloud and a tag index.  The tag index works just like the index of any reference book you may have read.  Simple choose the letter and all of the words starting with that letter will be displayed.  You can then click on the work to filter the section by that word.  Give it a go, the tag indexes are cached locally ensuring they performance improvements once you've clicked on a letter.

You will also find that every news article, gallery or resource article now contains the ability for logged in users to post comments as well as rate the toy / article / news story.  Those of you on Social Media sites will find shortcut icons allowing you to easily share pages and galleries with your friends.

As part of the change we have also upgrade our exclusive and popular In The News section, now called "Other Sites News" which now contains even more sources of news that have been freshly categorised and sorted into alphabetical order.

Another major overhaul is the way that the image galleries and "other sites news" stories are displayed.  Image now use a lightbox-esque feature rather than opening in a new tab or overriding the main site.  Once the image appears you can quickly browse through the rest of the images within the gallery be using the navigational arrows or using the cursor keys on your keyboard.  The images are automatically scaled but you can switch to the full size view by clicking zoom or by pressing the down key.  Pressing "up" will then re-scale the image.

There is another handy keyboard shortcut you can use whilst looking at our image galleries and that is to press the ctrl key on your keyboard and then type in the page number of the image you wish to view.  For example is you want to jump to page 2 simple press ctrl and then press 2. The page will automatically jump to page 2.  If you want page 14, just press ctrl then type in 14.  Simple!  You can test if be clicking on the images within the additional image section of this news article below.

We have also including a series of Easter Eggs into the website as well, let us know if you find how to access them.

As well as the layout changes I have also improved the performance and scalability of the website by introducing more caching which should speed up your browsing.

You will also notice that the URLs for all of the pages have been cleaned up but do not worry most of the old links will still work and will simply load the new version of the content.

New Look Message Board

We are no longer using PHPBB, which will please many of you.  PHPBB is the most popular free PHP / MySQL message board on the internet.  It's also one of the worst written and bloated message boards you will find and is often targetted back exploiters.  It also has some rather annoying interface issues which I was fed up with so we are no longer using it.

The new board is very much a work-in-progress and over time will be re-skinned so that it can be fully integrated into the main website.  All of the posts have been copied over as have the user accounts however we need to re-instate the moderates as those permissions were not carried over in the change.

Mobile / Tablet Users

I realise that the new layout of the website is not suited to a lot of modern smartphones.  Do not worry, a mobile version of the website will be launched soon that will be "thumb friendly".

So take your time to explore the new look site, I'm sure you will discover you never realised we had.

Steve - AKA Quartz

­­Seibertro­n.com have published three news stories containing images from a recent Japanese garage kit show.  The first mirrors images that were originally published on TFC Toys weibo page that shows i­mages of a previously unannounced third-party Hearts of Steel: Starscream figure. Normally MasterMind Creations are the company that fans associate with Hearts of Steel products but this new figure is from D.I. Studio.  You can view a copy of some of the images at the bottom of this news story. >

The second story contained i­mages and information from the  TEKMEN weibo page which showed some news images of a Super-Deformed Convoy (Optimus Prime) figure that, despite his proportions, appears to be able to transform, albeit by taking him apart and rebuilding the vehicle mode.  The figure comes complete with a trailer, accessories and multiple hands.

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TFW2005.com board members SydneyY and Masabon have posted a translation of an interview with TakaraTomy team producer Noriaki Maeda which was recently published within Figure King magazine.

The interview consists of five questions:

1. Firstly, looking back upon this year's Transformers series, what are your thoughts?
2. What were the popular items in 2011, or the product sold unexpectedly well?
3. What were the reactions to the MechTech weapon giveaways and MechTech campaigns?
4. Why did you resume "United" series at this point?

The intervie­w explain why Arcee was released in a blue colour scheme as part of Darkside Moon in Japan, which was basically as a teaser for her appearance in Transformers: Prime to prepare the Japanese audience in advance.  Being a motorcycle Transformer, she proved popular with Japanese children which was a bit of a surprise to the TakaraTomy staff

Botcon have revealed their 2nd 2012 exclusive figure as the evil Tracks.  We predicted the figure uses the Transformers Universe Tracks mold but is recoloured red like Road Rage, the E-Hobby exclusive figure. Tracks is from the Shattered Glass universe which is why he is an evil Autobot

Do not be surprised if you find a black version is also released as an additional toy at some stage. You can view the images below.

The team behind the Perfect Effect line of third party Transformers products, have posted an update on their blog that contains a teaser image of both Lio Convoy (Beast Wars II) and Big Convoy (Beast Wars Neo).  Does this means that both of these characters will be seeing a 3rd party release?  Most probably. If that happens, then you can expect to see black recolours based on their BWII and BWNeo recoloured figures as well as potentially a Flash and Galva-Leo Convoy version.

Credit to FullMetal­Hero.com for the link.

The February 2012 issue of Hyper Hobby Magazine is now on sale in Japan.  You can view a copy of the cover below but the issue covers the same content as Figure King as well as KeroKero Ace with the content being the Transformers Prime: First Edition figures, the Arms Micron and Kero Scream.

The magazine is available now in Japanese stores as well as on Amazon.jp and US and European import stores

As the year draws to a close I thought I would continue a theme we started for this year back in April of adding a backlog of Japanese Hobby magazine image galleries.  As such you can now find 14 more galleries for your viewing pleasure.

The image galleries are of:

1. Figure King 142
2. Figure King 143
3. Figure King 160
4. Figure King 161
5. Figure King 162
6. Figure King 163
7. Figure King 165
8. Figure King 166
9. Figure King 167
   
10. Hyper Hobby December 2009
11. Hyper Hobby Jan 2010
12. Hyper Hobby November 2011
    
13. TV Boy (Terebi Kun) Feb 2010
14. TV Boy November 2011

The Official BotCon facebook page just posted clear images of the BotCon 2012 exclusive Gigatron "The Overlord" toy.

Botcon have updated their website with a video, hosted on YouTube, that reveals the first of their Botcon 2012 exclusive Transformers Invasion figures.   The first figure to be revealed is Gigatron, who really is Overlord but they could not get the name, a repaint of the Voyager Class Transformer Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon toy with a new head sculpt  You can watch the video below as well as finding some stills of the toy.

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Recently we reported a news story regarding allegations regarding factory conditions at a factory in China called Jet Fair that Hasbro used to produce many of their products including Transformers. Well Hasbro issued a press release on the 22nd of December regarding the factory, a copy of which you can view below.

Hasbro Inc. Statement Regarding NGO Allegations on Factory Conditions

Immediately following some unsubstantiated allegations posted by an outside group regarding working conditions at the Jet Fair factory, Hasbro, together with ICTI, deployed a team to investigate, as we take such claims very seriously. Following an unannounced, nine-hour inspection of the facility this past week, we are satisfied that Jet Fair meets with Hasbro's rigorous requirements.

While Hasbro is committed to continual improvement in all facets of corporate social responsibility, including continued ethical product manufacturing at Jet Fair and all factories that produce Hasbro products, the inflammatory allegations made by the NGO in their report were unsubstantiated by our investigation. As a matter of course, Hasbro will continue to monitor conditions at Jet Fair and all of our factories.

The Company has a strong track record and has had long-standing policies and processes in place for years to help ensure good working conditions, including health and safety, at factories making our products. We strive to conduct business throughout our supply chain in accordance with the highest ethical standards, and we utilize not only ICTI-- but also our own on-the-ground workforce-- to monitor social compliance.

For more information about Hasbro's comprehensive corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, including more detail regarding Hasbro's policies and practices related to ethical product manufacturing, please visit Hasbro.com/csr.

You can vierw the original press release at http://csr.hasbro.com/new01-news.php.

Other investigations have been made into the author of the report which bring into question his track record. As well known and respected Transformers related researcher Nevermore points out the writer of the report was already found just last week to have written a similar report about another Chinese factory where he had made some unsubstantiated claims as well. http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/22/kardashian-family-sweatshop-claims-not-true/, http://www.tmz.com/2011/12/21/kim-kardashian-factory-china-slave-labor-tmz-live/#.Tvnnppd6hIG. Whilst there may still be truth to the original report, these latest twist do back up Hasbro's stance.

Our thanks go out to Nevermore for the update on the story.­

The latest issue of the Japanese magazine aimed at boys aged between 9 and 13 called ???????, pronounced KeroKero Ace, ­was release today that comes complete with their exclusive green recolour of Transformers EX Collection Movie Starscream.  The toy, officially known as Keroscream (Frog Scream)­ features in a ­four page colour comic story by Naoto Tsushima which details the story behind the birth of the Frog Scream. Natoto Tsushima posted a preview image on his pixiv.net account which we have mirrored at the end of this story.

As well as coming with the toy and the mini-manga, the magazine also contains a "Custom Sticker Frog Scream Contest" which uses a sticket that accompanies the magazine. You can enter as many times as you like with the winners receiving autographs as well as an exclusive gold Lucky Draw Megatron.

The magazine also features the upcoming Transformers Prime, Transformers United and Transformers Arms Campaign figures.