Hasbro, in association with Mediaset have issued the following joint press release regarding the Italian distribution of Transformers Prime, G.I Joe Renegades and other "made for The Hub" programming.

Hasbro Studios and Mediaset, Italy’s Leading Media Group, Reach Deal Covering Animated Series Based on Popular Brands

Mediaset also Designated as Hasbro Exclusive Licensing Agent for Series-Related Merchandise in Italian Market

Hasbro Studios, the Los Angeles-based production and distribution division of Hasbro, Inc.HAS - News), has concluded an overall programming agreement with Mediaset, Italy’s leading media group, to broadcast (NASDAQ:Transformers Prime, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, G.I. Joe Renegades,The Adventures of Chuck and FriendsandPound Puppieson its multiple channels, it was announced today.

A significant component of the deal, which launches in the fourth quarter of 2011, will have Mediaset also serving as Hasbro’s exclusive licensing agent for merchandise in the Italian market related to the five flagship programs successfully reinvented, re-imagined and reignited for television. Additionally, the licensing deal will cover Hasbro’s popular Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Littlest Pet Shop brands.

Licensing Mediaset has been successfully operating for more than ten years in the Italian market with the most successful and prestigious TV brands.

“Mediaset is Italy’s leading media group and the perfect strategic partner for us in this key territory,” Hasbro Studios President Stephen Davis said. “We look forward to a long and productive relationship.”

About Mediaset Group: The Mediaset Group is Italy’s leading television broadcaster and one of Europe’s biggest media companies. The Group's main company, Mediaset Spa, is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since July 1996. Mediaset also owns a 50.1% controlling stake in the Telecinco Group, which is listed on the Madrid stock exchange. Along with Goldman Sachs and Cyrte Fund, the Mediaset Group has a controlling stake in Endemol, the Dutch production company and world format leader. Since 2004 Mediaset Group has begun broadcasting its programmes in a digital format. Through this signal broadcasting system, the Group can offer highly useful services to its viewers and it make possible to exploit 'premium' content through an innovative pay TV system.

About Hasbro Studios: Hasbro Studios is the Los Angeles-based production division of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS - News). The studio develops and produces shows based on Hasbro’s world class brands, including TRANSFORMERS, MY LITTLE PONY and GI JOE; delivers new branded content; and produces programs from top third-party content creators. Many of these shows will run on The Hub, a television network for children and their families that was re-branded from Discovery Kids on October 10, 2010, as well as on multiple channels in international markets. The Hub is a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA - News).

Jim Sorenson has posted part 6 of his Ron Friedman auction - Hasbro Briefing Binder series of blog updates with the following update:

"As promised, the last part of the Hasbro Briefing Binder.  These pages were loose and in the front of the binder. 

DELUXE VEHICLES (No information as yet)
Tank
Helicopter
Jeep

BATTERY OPERATED VEHICLES
4 Wheel Drive
Remote Control Jeep

The Helicopter and Jeep became Roadbuster and Whirl, from the SPECIAL ARMORED BATALLION DORVACK line.  Presumably, then, that would make the tank the VT-61 LC Bonaparte Tulcas. It's a pretty funky looking vehicle, so it's not hard to imagine why they left it off.

As for the 4 Wheel Drive and the Remote Control Jeep, your guess is as good as mine.  Do we know more about the company behind this? I feel like I've heard this before.  Perhaps there's some extra information in here that can give us more insight into the Transformers toys that weren't. Surely they were developed by some other company and (nearly) licensed. 

Anyway, that concludes the Hasbro Briefing Binder.  I'll do my best to bring you more next week.  Until then, adieu.

"

As has become some what of a tradition here at Transformers At The Moon, January tends to bring Lucky Draw toys to this site and today the tradition continued as our latest Lucky Draw figure Transformers Animated Megatron Gold Version arrived from his long journey overseas.  This is the worlds first extensive look at this gold Megatron figure and follows on from our exclusive look at Transformers Animated Bumblebee Silver Version

You can also find the gallery on LuckyDrawTransformers.comthe worlds only site dedicated to the Japanese prize campaign figures known as Lucky Draws.

Whilst checking out the Megatron toy gallery, why not take a look at our galleries of the figures also shown within that gallery, Transformers Animated Bumblebee Silver Version and Transformers Animated Optimus Prime Gold Version

The Hub have uploaded some new videos to their website from Transformers Prime including some behind the scenes videos with both the Autobot and Decepticons voice actors which are well worth a watch.  Pleaser note: The videos are not available in all countries.

You can view the videos here.

Fagerbakke is voicing an animated Chevy Impala stock car equipped with machine guns in the third Transformers movie, “Dark of the Moon,” which will be released July 1.

Simon Plumbe, head of Auto Assembly has tweeted the following announcement on the Auto Assembly Twitter page.

"Big Auto Assembly 2011 news coming soon along with our first announcement about Auto Assembly 2012...!"

As part of his updates to the Disciples of Boltax, Jim Sorenson has added a new entry for The Ark Addendum, Carly and Chip.  Though previously included in The Ark books Jim, via Kjeevahh on behalf of Lexmc, has now been given a new, more complete character sheet of both these characters.

"I've previously included models for Chip, though the models that I won as a part of the Frieman material were different and, I believe, more finalized than what was published in The Ark.  This is one of those pages that I deeply wish I could go back and insert into The Ark, but alas I suspect that that train has sailed" Jim himself blogs in reference to the new material­ which you can find here.

The Hub have issued the following press release regarding Transformers Prime series starting on Feb 11th 2011.

The Hub, a television network for kids and their families, will premiere its original half-hour, full CGI animated series “Transformers Prime” in its regular weekly time period with a new episode Friday, February 11 (4:30 p.m. ET).

Announcement of the premiere date was made following the network’s recent record-setting performance of its mini-series event, a five-part presentation of original episodes of “Transformers Prime,” November 29-December 3. The highly anticipated programming event earned the network its best-ever audience deliveries among Persons 2+ and in Households. Also, for the five-day (Monday-Friday, 6–7 p.m. ET) time period average, “Transformers Prime” was the top co-viewed program among all kids cable networks with 43% of Kids 2-11 watching with Adults 18-49.*

Prior to the series’ February 11 premiere, The Hub will present an encore presentation of the “Transformers Prime” five-part mini-series, beginning Friday, January 14 (4 p.m. ET) with back-to-back presentations of the first two half-hour episodes of the mini-series. On successive Fridays in the same time period, The Hub will present two additional episodes of the mini-series, leading to the February series premiere.

The new animated series will feature archrivals the Autobots and Decepticons as they once again face-off in their epic rivalry for control of Earth. The all-new mini-series will feature iconic characters of the franchise, including Autobots Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and the ominous Decepticon Megatron, as well as introducing new human characters to the action series.

The Hub, which rebranded from the former Discovery Kids on 10-10-10, is a joint venture of Discovery Communications and Hasbro, Inc., and is available to 61 million U.S. cable and satellite households.

“Transformers Prime” is produced for The Hub by Hasbro Studios. Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jeff Kline are executive producers. Kurtzman and Orci served as co-writers and producers on the hit feature film Star Trek, and are currently co-writers and producers for the feature film Cowboys and Aliens from Dreamworks/Universal, set for release in summer 2011. Kline is also executive producer of The Hub animated series “G.I. Joe Renegades.”

*(Source: Nielsen Media Research; program based dayparts; most current; 11/29/10-12/3/10, co-viewing in NPower, L+7)

The Hub is a multi-platform joint venture between Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA - News) and Hasbro, Inc., (NASDAQ:HAS - News) with a goal of entertaining, enlightening, empowering and educating children and their families. The cable and satellite television network features original programming as well as content from Discovery's library of award-winning children's educational programming; from Hasbro's rich portfolio of entertainment and educational properties built during the past 90 years; and from leading third-party producers worldwide. The Hub lineup includes animated and live-action series, specials and game shows, and the network extends its content through a robust and engaging online presence at www.hubworld.com. The Hub rebranded from Discovery Kids on October 10, 2010, and reaches approximately 61 million U.S. households. The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved.

TFW2005.com member kjeevahh has posted some scans of another one of the Ron Friedman auctions.  This time the auction was was the early synopsis for Transformers: The Movie which includes character outlines and a description of the 25 scenes that Ron originally invisioned.

The contents are quite different from the final movie and are slightly different to the draft script that Jim Sorenson published a few weeks ago.

Toys R Us UK worker Omega Prime has posted a list of new Transformers entries within the UK computer system over on TFW2005.com and here they are:

TF Masterpiece Rodimus - 309311
TF3 Activators Asst - 345423
TF3 Battle Mask - 309230
TF3 Cyberverse Commander Asst - 345318
TF3 Cyberverse Legion Asst - 345296
TF3 Cyberverse Ark Set - 346543
TF3 Energon Shock Sword - 309117
TF3 GoBots Asst - 345466
TF3 Mechtech Voyager Asst - 345741
TF3 Mechtech Deluxe Asst - 345709
TF3 Megaverse Evolution 4 Pack - 309265
TF3 Optimus Prime Blaster - 346012
TF3 Revving Robots - 309095
TF3 Robo Fighters Asst - 345601
TF3 Robo Power Bash Bots - 308749
TF3 Scanning Ironhide & Sideswipe

In a follow-up post he then announced that Rodimus was listed as a global exclusive meaning that the toy will also be sold within the US exclusively in Toys R Us stores

Jose Lopez, the art director behind Transformers Prime, has updated his blog with an entry containing the renders for the main cast of Transformers PrimeOptimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Arcee, Bulkhead, Cliffjumper, Jack, Raf, Miko, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and the Eradicon Trooper.

You can find the images on Jose Lopez Blog as well as mirrored on Transformers-Prime.com

In a follow-up to the news story we bought you on Christmas Eve which included the first images of the Transformers Dark of the Moon toy packaging, ACToys.net have posted two new images of the Chinese packaging for Dark of the Moon M­egatron.  The packaging appears to be a sample as there is plenty of space left on the back and it is missing the writing from the previous images.

­

Back in September TakaraTomy ran a competition where 40 lucky people could win a silver chromed Transformers Animated Bumblebee figure,  well it pleases my to announced that we own one of those figures and can now bring you the first full and detailed look at this limited edition Lucky Draw.  You can find the image gallery on LuckyDrawTransformers.com as well as on Transformers At The Moon.

Our normal digital SLR is currently on its way to New York, so the images were taken with my video camera but don't worry, its an HD camera so the quality is still pretty good.

Included are comparisons to the Optimus Prime Gold Version as well as the normal Bumblebee.

Enjoy!

Transformations 2011 has been cancelled, announces organiser Paul Cannon on the official website.  Transformations 2011 was going to be a London based Transformers Convention taking place in April 2011, the first since Paul's previous Transformers convention Transforce stopped running a few years ago.  According to the website, the event was cancelled simply due to a lack of registrations.

This means that the UK is back to being a single dedicated Transformers Convention with Auto Assembly.  There are other events that take place during the year which include Transformers, but there is no other dedicated event.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to attend Transforces in the past, I can tell you that, with the exception of the last TransForce, each event saw the convention grow with an atmosphere similar to the last two Auto Assembly's.