Just back from the UK Toy fair via a length detour at the MCN Motorbike show that was also taking place in the eXcel centre in London.  We had hope to talk to Hasbro regarding the future of Transformers in the UK as well as both Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and G.I-Joe Rise Of Cobra, however we are unable to do so as the private area containing the Transformers and G.I-Joe toys and footage was closed at the demand of Hasbro US!

After a little investigation we found out that the reason for the closure was that there was a leak on Friday from the private area.  Hasbro US found out and swiftly told Hasbro UK to close the area and stop and further access.  This meant that Hasbro UK had to turn away retailers (their own customers) denying them the chance to see two of the main 2009 action figure lines that they would be stocking this year.  Some retailers were told that the reaosn for the closure was due to "someone getting in with a camera".  We heard later that that Hasbro US were investigating the leak using the CCTV footage from the private area as well as the names on the NDA's that were signed by all visitors.

 TFW2005 are reporting that the following Transformers Revenge of the Fallen figures are now listed in the US Toys R Us computers.

228250 TRANSFORMERS 2 ARTICULATE BASIC FUN INC.
387005 TF2 LEGENDS HASBRO TOY GROUP
387032 TF2 ROBOT WEAPONS HASBRO TOY GROUP
387218 TF2 LEADER AST HASBRO TOY GROUP
387773 TF2 SCOUT AST HASBRO TOY GROUP
391134 TF2 FAST ACTION BTTLR HASBRO TOY GROUP
391177 TF2 GRAVITY BOTS AST HASBRO TOY GROUP
391258 TF2 BUMBLEBEE HELMET HASBRO TOY GROUP
391517 TF2 OPTIMUS PRIME HELMET HASBRO TOY GROUP
391576 TF2 ROBOT HEROES AST HASBRO TOY GROUP
392769 TF2 ROBOT REPLICAS AST HASBRO TOY GROUP
393137 TF2 MEGA POWER BOTS HASBRO TOY GROUP
393350 TF2 ULTIMATE BUMBLE BEE HASBRO TOY GROUP
393374 TF2 ROBOT HEROES SCENE HASBRO TOY GROUP
393490 TF2 VOYAGER DELUXE HASBRO TOY GROUP
406719 TFORMER 2 POWER BOTS HASBRO TOY GROUP
406778 TF2 VOYAGER HASBRO TOY GROUP
407521 TF2 DELUXE FIGURES HASBRO TOY GROUP

Peaugh and GenZhao have posted a YouTube video review of a toy that was believed to be a planned Wonderfest Exclusive, the Black Henkei Convoy.  The toy was not released and any of last years events , and though could make it into this years, or even the Generation Book 2009, so far it is an unreleased figure.  You can watch the review below.

Credit to TFW2005 for the news

Thanks go to Phantomfish for reporting on our message board that he spotted two new eBay auctions for upcoming Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Legends figures.  The auctions he spotted were for Bumblebee and Springer.  A quick ebay search by us also found two other auctions for Jetfire and Optimus Prime

EmpireOnline have posted the first official images of the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen preview figures Soundwave and Bumblebee.  You can view the original article here, and the mirrored images below.

The UK Toy Fair (or British Toy Fair) starts today and runs through the weekend with today being press day.  Hasbro have a large stall at the event where they will be display some of the figures from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as well as G.I-Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  The event is strictly trade only with last years clamp down on "press passes" just as strong this year to keep internet journalist away.

Do not fear though, as Transformers At The Moon will be in attendance at the event at some point over the next five days, so we will bring you a full report (embargos allowing) with the full details as soon as we can.

In releated news the Bastion Press Centre report that "The volume of UK toy sales grew by seven per cent in 2008 according to retail tracking group NPD*. The group has also estimated the UK toy market is worth £2.9bn1. The value of the industry fell by two per cent on the previous year, compared to an overall drop in UK retail sales of 3.3 per cent**. The figures were unveiled at Toy Fair this morning by BTHA (British Toy & Hobby Association) chairman Roger Dyson. Toy Fair is the industry’s annual trade event currently taking place at ExCeL in London and is open to the trade until Saturday."

~mmatere of Deviant Art has posted three images on his Deviant Art account of the full box art used on the packaging for Transformers Animated Roadbuster Ultra Magnus, Shadow Blade Megatron and Wreck-Gar figures.  You can view the images by using the links below

Roadbuster Ultra Magnus
Shadow Blade Megatron
Wreck-Gar

Credit to Seibertron.com for the find.

Hi,
 
Now that things are starting to move along, we thought it was time to bring you the first of our regular updates on what is happening with Auto Assembly 2009...

BOOKINGS

Since we opened bookings less than a month ago, it would seem that we are already on target for setting a new European attendance record once again! We have already beaten the attendance figures that we set for Auto Assembly 2000 and Auto Assembly 2001 and what that has meant is that - sadly - for those of you who have not already registered, the free DVDs that are part of the goodie bag have already been allocated. We do have plenty of other items that will be in the goodie bag for ALL attendees though so don't worry if you haven't already booked as no-one will go away from the convention empty handed!

For those of you who are reluctant to book your tickets online using PayPal, we now have the Postal Booking Forms on the website for downloading so you can print these off and send them to us with your payment. The early registration discounts still apply if you book this way, as do the family discounts.

DEALER TABLES

If you want to attend Auto Assembly 2009 as a dealer, we have also opened up bookings for dealers tables this year so get in touch if you are interested. We have sorted out the room layout and as well as reserving space for all of our regular dealers who will be returning, we do have space available for new dealers but tables are limited so hurry if you want to get involved!

GUESTS

We already have a fantastic guest line-up for Auto Assembly 2009 with no less than ELEVEN guests confirmed so far with more in the pipeline. Right now we are being joined by our first guest of honour, Ian James Corlett (the voice of Cheetor from Beast Wars) and supporting him is our usual array of comic guests - Andrew Wildman, Simon Williams, Jason Cardy, Kat Nicholson, Staz Johnson, Liam Shalloo, Lee Sullivan, Mike Collins, Lee Bradley and John McCrea. We are currently in talks with a second voice actor and additional comic guests.

What we can now confirm is some of the extra involvement of some of our guests during the weekend... As we have already announced, we will be having a live voice actor script reading on the Saturday evening. Taking to the stage will be Ian Corlett, Simon Williams taking on the role of the narrator, and our second voice actor in a brand new script penned by Simon Furman!

Many of our comic guests will be doing sketches for fans during the convention, usually for a small charge, and we can already confirm that Andrew Wildman and Simon Williams will again be doing these for any fans who want an original piece of artwork! Simon will also be bringing artwork and prints for sale.

Still with the weekend activities and we would like to announce that IDW and Titan comic colourist Liam Shalloo will be taking charge of one of the comic colourist workshops taking place during the weekend and as with ALL of the activities and workshops at Auto Assembly, there is no additional charge once you have paid your registration fee!!

As always, guests are appearing subject to work and personal commitments.

AUTO ASSEMBLY SHOP

Just added to the website is the new Auto Assembly Shop. You can now buy back issues of our convention magazine, The Cybertronian Times, the Auto Assembly pin badges that were produced for Auto Assembly 2005 and Auto Assembly 2006, and the full range of keyrings produced for Auto Assembly 2008. We will ship these worldwide and all proceeds will go towards Auto Assembly 2009's guest budget and providing additional activities and events during the weekend. We have been offered additional guests for the convention but the only way we can get these is through extra funding so if you are coming to Auto Assembly and you want to see them, then every penny from these sales helps!

THE CYBERTRONIAN TIMES ISSUE 10

After a brief delay, we have opened pre-orders for this year's convention magazine through the bookings page on the website. For those of you who have already pre-registered, you can still pre-order the magazine by going to the bookings page and placing your order and we will match it to your booking so it will be ready for collection on arrival. We will have a limited number of additional copies available for sale over the weekend but we do recommend ordering in advance as most of the earlier issues have sold out completely!

CAR / ROOM SHARE

A lot of you may be travelling to Auto Assembly 2009 on your own or are planning on coming to the convention on your own this year and are finding the cost daunting in these difficult financial times. To make things easier, we have established two new areas on the Official Auto Assembly forum where you can find other Transformers fans who may be willing to car share or room share to help you cut your costs.

For those of you who still want to go it alone but need help, we're only too happy to help you find the best travel deals, good prices on car parking or anything else that you need to get your money to stretch as far as possible!

GOODIE BAG UPDATE

We have now confirmed the seventh item for our infamous goodie bag! Courtesy of reprolabels.com all attendees will be receiving a sheet of custom insignia stickers as part of their goodie bag. We don't know exactly what will be on the sheets yet, but rest assured that they will be up to the usual high standard from Reprolabels.

These gifts are in addition to the DVDs for the first 49 pre-registrants (which have now been allocated), and packs of G1 stickers for the first 100 attendees (although we may be getting a further supply of these soon), keyrings, two postcards, and lanyards (the last four guaranteed for every attendee). We are still in talks to bring you even more free gifts as part of your goodie bag so keep your eyes peeled!

**

For those of you who still don't know, Auto Assembly 2009 is taking place at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham, England from Saturday 15th - Sunday 16th August 2009. A bonus programme of activities will take place on the evening of Friday 14th August 2009 for those fans who are attending the convention for the full weekend.

Anyway, that's it for this update but we'll be back with more news soon. We hope to see many of you in August for what we think will be the biggest and best Auto Assembly ever!
 
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly
 
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com
email: autoassembly@aol.com
tel: +44 (0)7804 951406

A rumour which started out on TFWorld2005 regarding Transformers Animated stating that Season 3 was to be the last of the popular, yet controversial, Transformers cartoon line has made it's way onto Derrick Wyatt's blog.

Derrick's reply ... "Sorry, I can't comment on this."

These types of answers usually rule out the "it's false" answers, which then tends to point towards the rumour being more likely to be true.  One possible reason, if the show is cancelled, would be the cost.  Transformers Car Robots (Robots in Disguise), Micron Legend (Armada), Super Link (Energon) and Galaxy Force (Cybertron) were original made in Japan for cost cutting reasons (amongst others).

Three series of a Transformers series would make sense, as Hasbro like to keep the toys / stories fresh each year, which would lead into a new series of toys coming later this year after Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

News has come around that te February issue of Toyfar, issue 140, will include coverage of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

Being that it is a toy magazie you'd expect the article to feature toys, though exactly what and how mnay remains to be seen.

Thanks to board member Unitedbot for posting his sighting of the Transformers Animated Jetstorm/Jetfire (Safeguard) double pack in ASDA for £20.

Updated with images

Snakas has a nice roundup of the information from this months Figure King hobby magazine that was recently released in Japan.  Below you will find our translation of the information that Snakas has published.

First up was an article on the Chrono Label line.  The prototype of the figure was once again shown, showing the toy in both robot and watch mode. The price of the toy is listed as "undecided" but with a current release date of June.  Its reported that the figure will be made with Stainless steel parts and is described as a car-robot item manufactured by Shehorp.

There were packaged photographs of the Transformers Alternity GT-R Convoy (red version) as well as more images of the Fairlady Z Megatron prototype.

The Disney Label Transformers Mickey Mouse (coloured version) was once again shown as was Masterpiece Grimlock who was photographed wearing an apron and bow tie.

For Transformers Henkei fans, Ratchet was once again shown as having a feb 2009 release day, with the first image of the Japanese release of Inferno (for Figure King) being published.  There are comparison images between the Henkei and Transformers Classics Ratchet version shown in the issue.  Transformers Henkei Hot Shot, Dinobot and the Minicon set are all announced as having a March 2009 release, with the photographs showing the US versions rather than the Japanese re-colours.

The Transformers Encore: "Cassette Masterpiece War Volume 1" set is introduced in the Magazine.  Figure King list the set as containing Lazerbeak rather than Buzzsaw who was originally reported as being in the set.

Finally their is an article entitled "25 years of the Transformers"

Thanks to Toys-World.com-hk we can now bring you some scans of the pages.

Cybergundam blog, has uploaded images from the March Issue of Dengeki Hobby magazine Included are images of Transformers Masterpiece Grimlock showing the  "waiter mode", based on the episode "Madman's Paradise".

There is also more artwork for Transformers Alternity Megatron, images of the box art for Alternity Convoy and Disney Label Mickey Mouse, and a feature theChrono Label watches.