­­­Thanks to images published on Amazon the world has its' first look at some of the Transformers Prime characters, via an IDW Comic.  The designs are sure to get tongues wagging, with the micture of Animated and Transformers Movie confirmed.

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­­The characters include

• Bumblebee
• Cliffjumper
• Arcee
• Starscream
• Megatron
• Ratchet
• Bulkhead
• Optimus Prime
• Cybertron

Though not directly related to Hasbro or Transformers I thought I would bring the following advert to everyone's attention.  It was published within this months Toy News Magazines which is an industry trade and is from Bandai and directed at UK sellers importing their items.

Bandai Notice
We have discovered that a number of companies are trading in Bandai products such as Power Rangers and Ben 10 toys that have been unlawfully imported into the UK from outside the EEA (mainly from the US).

Over the last few months, we have taken successful action against a number of retailers and importers.  In each case, we have prevented them from trading in such products and have recovered a significant amount of compensation.

We would remind all readers that you are not permitted to import into or sell in the UK any Bandai products that have not been placed on the EEA market by us or with our consent (including Bandai products originating from the US)m as such acts will constitute trade mark infringement. Further, these acts may amount to a criminal offence.

Should we discover that any other companies are trading in such products, we will not hesitate to take further legal action.

If you have any questions about this notice or the issues raised, please contact Amy Allbon, Operations Manager at Bandai UK.

Now if this continues to be successful, especially at bringing Bandai in more revenue, its possible (if unlikely) that Hasbro UK may start to do the same with their items.  If they do, we will let you all know.

The second set of Downloadable Content is due for the game Transformers: War for Cybetron over the next two days  (7th September in North America, 8th September in the UK).

Update:

This pack includes five new maps for multiplayer, as well as two new characters for Escalation mode - Dead End and Zeta Prime.

Yahoo Japan Auction seller nihaohuwen has posted a listing for a loose set of the Transformers Power Core Combiner Dinobots

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To commemorate the release of the Transformers Animated Optimus Prime Gold Version, Sega have announced that they will be releasing two special cards for their Transformers Animated card game.  The cards will be of the Old Optimus Prime and are both numbered A-021 with one of the cards being a chase card, i,e itself limited.  The cards feature Optimus Prime in both vehicle and robot modes.  You can view the card below.  The vehicle mode will be the chase card

Bought to you in association with TransformersAnimated.com

Another Gold Transformers Animated Optimus Prime­ has been listed on eBay.  This is the 2nd auction in as many days from TheCrowGirl and has a Buy It Now price of $448 more than yesterdays auction which sold for $398.  This is the 14th figure that we know of.

The toys were suppose to have been limited to ­1000 yet they are packed in cases of 12.  This means 84 cases would make 1008 toy.  Therefore there will certainly not be 1000 of these toys, and its perfectly plausible that 100 cases may have been made making the toy limited to 1200 pieces.

The original campaign was run by TakaraTomy in association with Sega and Mountain Rose with 1000 names being draw at random to receive the figures with the campaign running between the 18th August and 30th September 2010.

Next month two Transformers Animated Jigsaw puzzles will be released in Japan priced at 1575yen (roughly ­£12).­  The jigsaws will be of the Autobot and Decepticon cast.  They can be pre-ordered now from the amiami website here and here.

Thanks to Mr Neurie for letting us know the Transformers Hunt for the Decepticons Ironhide, Wingblade, Battle Axe Bumblebee are out in Entertainer.

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Thanks to Omega Stoopreme for letting us know that Tesco has Wave 1 for Hunt for the Decepticons.

TESCO have just got wave 1 of the Hunt For The Decepticons Deluxe figures for £12.97. The one near me in Southend-on-Sea had Deluxe Ironhide, Battle Blade BB, Sea Attack Ravage and Jetblade. I picked up BB, All new mold, very nice best BB deluxe so far in my opinion.

The Auto Assembly team have posted two new official videos on YouTube with two of the guests of honour from Auto Assembly 2010 Scott McNeil and Derrick J Wyatt.  You can view the videos below and don't forget that you can book now for Auto Assembly 2010.

The Hub has been updated showing off a new image of Transformers Prime Ratchet (robot mode) and Transformers Prime Decepticon Drone (car mod­e).

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Thanks to Seibertron.com for the original report on the update.

Thanks to Seibertron.com for reporting this rather shocking news but it turns out that a gunman called James Lee has taken the Discovery Channels headquarters hostage.  Its been reported that he has taken hostages it armed and has an explosive device.  Discovery are of course part of the joint-venture with Hasbro Inc on the new TV channel called The Hub that will be taking over from Discovery Kids next month within the United States.  You can read more on this story at the following news sites

CNN: Officials: Suspect holding hostages at Discovery Channel
SyFy: Gunman takes one hostage in US
Washington Post: Suspect was barred from Discovery Bldg.
Entertainment Weekly: Armed man holding a hostage at Discovery Channel's headquarters
Crepinc.com: Gunman's list of demands
Google News: Discovery in Google News