“TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon” Stars Josh Duhamel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Director Michael Bay Serve as the Grand Marshals of the Daytona 500 NASCAR Stock Cars Featured as Characters in “TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon” – First Official Appearance Anywhere (click for high and super high res)

­­­

AYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The stars of “TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon”– Josh Duhamel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and director Michael Bay – will serve as the Grand Marshals for 53rd running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011, airing at 12 p.m. ET on FOX. As Grand Marshals, the TRANSFORMERS cast will deliver the four most famous words in motorsports – “Gentlemen, start your engines.”

In addition, the modified NASCAR stock cars featured in the movie will make their first public appearance by leading the 43-car field during the pace laps of “The Great American Race,” the kick-off event to the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

The Daytona 500 will not be Bay or TRANSFORMERS’ first introduction to the NASCAR world. In 2009, Bay piloted the official pace car at a NASCAR Sprint Cup race to promote the DVD release of “TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen.” NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman also took part, racing with branded images of opposing AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS on their cars and uniforms. Bay credits his vision to include NASCAR stock cars in the new TRANSFORMERS film to this experience.

“We’re honored to have the stars and director from this blockbuster film franchise “TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon” serve as Grand Marshals of ‘The Great American Race,’” Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood III said. “As an added bonus for our fans, three cars from the movie will be on location during Speedweeks and we all look forward to watching them lead the field for the 53rd running of the Daytona 500 on the newly paved racing surface.”

In the days leading up to the Daytona 500, race fans can view the TRANSFORMERS NASCAR stock cars at the Chevy Display located in the Midway outside Turn 4.

Tickets for Speedweeks 2011 events, including the 53rd annual Daytona 500, are available online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP.

Fans can stay connected with Daytona International Speedway on Twitter (www.twitter.com/disupdates) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/DaytonaInternationalSpeedway)

­ HASBRO, TRANSFORMERS and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. © 2011 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

Fun Publications have revealed via the Botcon Twitter page that the Botcon 2011 Wildrider figure will use the Lockdown mold but with a new head sculpt designed by Derrick Wyatt.

"Thurs Stunticon reveal. Wildrider. Mold. LOCKDOWN. Amazing NEW head design by @DerrickJWyatt. That plus color scheme makes him look tot dif." they tweeted.

Roll on Thursday, that's all I can say

The Botcon twitter account was updated a lot yesterday evening with some comments on a 20 minute preview screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon where they describe the 3D as amazing and the visuals as "like nothing we've seen before".

However in specific Botcon news they also the following comment "Want Some Stunticon news? ok. Will reveal mold choice in morning!".  So later today there should be the announcement of which mold, with a new head, will be used for Wildrider.  We at Transformers At The Moon are speculating that it will be Lockdown or Wildrider with the offroad truck being a play of the "Wild" part of the his name,

Derrick J Wyatt, father of Transformers Animated, has posted two images on TwitPic showing his vision of what an Transformers Animated Predaking and Transformers Animated Bruticus would look like.  You can view the original posts here and here as well as mirrored below.

I have added over 400 stills from Transformers Prime Episode 6 to a new image gallery entitled Masters and Students which you can find within the Cartoon area of the website.  All images are high-resolution.  My review of the episode will be added at a later date.

I'm having some troubles with my transformers-prime.com domain but that should be resolved within the next 24 hours after which you will also be able to find the image gallery on that site

During the US Toy Fair 2011 is has been announced that one of this years Comic-Con 2011 exclusives will be a G.I. Joe / Transformers crossover set featuring a Skystriker jet painted in Starscream's colours and packaged with Cobra Commander who will come with a mini Megatron gun.  No images of these set are available at the present time but you can be sure some will be leaked or released officially over the coming weeks.

The Transformers panels themselves, as expected, did not contain anything new as everything had either already been leaked or was shown and talked about after the UK Toy Fair

Well I called it.  BotCon 2011 DragStrip has been revealed as a recolour of Transformers Animated Arcee.  There were questions over which character would use the Arcee mold, though in my mind the name "Drag" Strip gave it away.

Entertainment Earth has posted official images of the Dinobot Minicons, recolours of Knockdown, Terrorsaur, Swoop and Snarl.

The new figures will be Grimlock, Swoop and Snarl (as Hasbro won't use the name Slag), and hopefully they will name the tiger Catilla, on whom the colour scheme seems to be based.  Another throught is that this will be Grimlock, Swoop, Slag (Triceratops) and Snarl (Cat)

“Thanks to all the fan sites that put up the DS vs WR poll... By a comfortable margin, DRAG STRIP will be your Thursday reveal!“
-BotCon 2011-

 That was the news from BotCon confirming that BotCon 2011 Drag Strip will be shown off later today, around midnight UK Time.