The latest edition of the UK toy trade magazine "Toy News" features Transformers Revenge of the Fallen on the cover (See below).  In an interview with the Hasbro UK marketing director its quoted that Hasbro UK expect sales of Transformers to be up 25% in 2009 on the back of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen when compared to sales in 2007 despite the economic downturn.

We'll have more on the contents when we finish reading through our copy the magazine.

You've probably seen the term AFA graded when looking into buying Transformers online, or even just browsing through the various Transformers forums and websites on the internet.  Some of you may not know what AFA actually stands for (Action Figure Authority) and others may already own some AFA graded Transformers (or other toys).  A few of you may be collectors of these highly priced, usually vintage, and extremely well kept toys.

Well if you're an AFA novice or an avid AFA figure collector then you may be interested to knwo that AFATransformers.com has now officially be launched.

AFA Transformers is a website completely dedicate to these highly collectable items.  Created with the slogan "Condition Counts", AFA Transformers comprises of a huge database of official AFA information obtained directly from the Action Figure Authoriry, and presented to you directly - with no need to create an account or sign up.

So what can you find on AFA Transformers? 

1. Well for one you can find a complete listing of AFA Graded Transformers (1250 to date) which the authority has on record.
2. AFA Graded information - you can easily search for a toy and retreive all the information on the figure - from it's highest graded version, to how many of those toys have been graded
3. Price Guide - probably one of the most important areas, and ambishious projects of the site.  This price guide is linked into eBay for AFA related Transformers auctions.  As soon as an auction ends it's final price is update to the site, ensuring you have the most up-to-date and accurate information to hand.
4. Handy auction links - links direct to ebay to give you a quick-link to the hottest AFA Transformers items for sale.
   

The site's look is designed with speed in mind.  It doesn't look pretty but enables you to easily access the information you are after as quickly as possible.  The graphical layout of the site will be improved over time, but we feel the key to our websites are in the contents not the design.

AFA Transformers was quiet a project for us, and seemed to be a natural progression after Lucky Draw Transformers.  The information on the site is  focused in a way that collectors of these prized pieces finally have somewhere to go to easily keep track of the trends of sales, and find information on items.  If you're thinking about getting items AFA Graded then it's a great place to go to find if the items have been graded before.  The site also contains information on the Action Figure Authourity although is no way connected to them.

The disucssion area for AFA Transformers is currently not open, but we'll be looking to finalise that later this month.  Bookmark the site now.

Thanks to Hobbystock Japan who have posted a report (in-language) and details from the Tokyo International TOY Forum 2009 event held January 14th and 15th in Tokyo, Japan. In attendance was Tomy Takara with a wide variety of Transformers products for preview.

• The Chrono Label watches were shown - appearing to be fully diacast.
• Transformers Masterpiece Grimlock was on display
• Disney Label Micky Mouse Convoy was on display also
• Bruticus (Transformers Encore Combaticons) were on display.  We're already edging our bets on an eHobby Battle Gaia set later this year.
• Ramhorn, Steeljaw and Ratbat were shown
• Various Transformers Henkei were on dislpay
• C-14 Ratchet - March - 2310 yen
  C-15 Inferno - March - 3675 yen
  C-16 Dinobot - March - 2310 yen
  C-17 Hot Rod - March - 2310 yen
  C-18 Mini-robot Attack - March - 2310
  C-19 Mini-robot Spy teams - March - 2310 yen
  C-20 Red Alert - March 2310 yen
  C-21 Smokescreen - March - 2310 yen 
  

IGN has interviewed Roberto Orci one of the screen writers for Transformers Revenge of The Fallen. In this interview he confirms two rumours about the characters and hints at new visuals of the movie.

The information is posted further down the page, so look away if you don't want to find out.

Orci: So I said Ravage... maybe?

IGN: Pretty much, yeah.

Orci: [As if giving a big reveal] Ravage!

IGN: [Laughs] Damn, I should have told you that you said Ravage for sure!

Orci: Hmm… I'll give you an exclusive here. There is a Pretender. I'm going to get killed for saying that.

Part three of our January "Build-up to BotCon" features a hand painted sample of the unreleased BotCon Wreckers Rotorbolt figure.

Rotorbolt was a repaint of the Beast Machines Vehicon Obsidian toy, but was never intended to be issued as a convention exclusive. This was handpainted by a former lead deco artist from Hasbro and is the exact toy pictured on the BotCon Web site at http://www.botcon.com/archive/story/characters/catalog.html.

Yizhi has updated TF08.net with images of Transformers Alternity Convoy (grey version) in car mode as well as an all green Decepticon Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Wreckage repaint.

The owner of Kapow Toys Red Leader has posted some information over at TFW2005 regarding some UK Transformers Animated released that will be hitting the shelves in the next few months.  The figures are Roadbuster Ultra Magnus, Shadow Blade Megatron along side the Season 3 character Safeguard (Jetfire and Jetstorm).  Red Leader should have a firmer release date today and will be placing their pre-order shortly.  This confirmed what we reported on the weekend regarding Shadow Blade Megatron being in the new Argos catalogue

Sadly the UK Transformers brand manager from 2007-2008 is no longer employed by Hasbro so we are trying to get in touch with her replacement to try to find out more.

The Transformers Live Action Movie Blog has been updated with several rumours regarding the sequal to the hit Transformers Movie, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

The rumours cover some of the possible footage to be shown at the Superbowl (in the trailer) and other rumours regarding characters.

Yizhi has publicly posted more images of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Superion as well as a box image of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Soundwave (Deluxe class) on TF08.net.

Following up our exclusive gallery of the unreleased hand-painted sample of the BotCon Wreckers Alpha Trion toy, you will now find part 2 of our "Build-up to BotCon" feature.  This time we focus on DevCon, a character featured in the BotCon / OTFCC Wreckers, who didn't see a toy released for the convention.  3H did have a hand painted sample made up, although they say that the figure was never intended for a Convention release .. which begs the question "why have the sample made?"

You can see this one of a kind hand painted sample, featuring it's nice metallic red paint, exclusively at Transformers At The Moon.  The toy is featured with a grey/green testshot of Beast Machines Mirage - who was the original owner of the mold.

Peaugh has uploaded two new, HD, video's of the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Optimus Prime and Jetfire legends toys.  The videos showcase both Robot, Vehicle and combined form.

The combined form reminds us of the combinatin of Megatron and Tidal Wave from Transformers Armada.

Prime:YouTube - Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Optimus Prime (legend)

Jetfire:YouTube - Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Jetfire (Legends)

Thanks to Richard for emailing us a "sneak peak" at the Spring / Summer 2009 Argos catalogue which will be released on the 17th January 2009.  You can view the cover as well as the page containing the Transformers listings by clicking on the thumbnails below.

The toys listed are:

1. 25th Anniversary Deluxe - £12.69 - Cat Number 369/7795.  Choice of 8.  G1 Classics Starscream is shown
2. Transformers Universe Legends 5 Pack - £14.69 - Cat Number 387/7931 - Choice of two packs
3. 25th Anniversary Voyager - £19.59 - Cat Number 369/8048 - Choice of 4.  Inferno is shown.
4. 25th Anniversary Ultra - £24.49 - Cat Number 081/5099 (Argos Extra Only) - Choice of 2, Silverbolt is shown
5. Transformers Animated Activators - £6.49 - Cat Number 387/6530 - Choice of 10. Grimlock and Patrol Bumblebee are shown
6. Transformers Animated Bumper Battles - £9.79 - Cat Number 387/7405 - Night watch Optimus Prime is shown.
7. Transformers Animated Deluxe - £12.69 - Cat Number 369/7647 - Blurr is shown
8. Transformers Animated Leader Megatron - £29.39 - Cat Number 369/7692- Says styles may vary meaning it could include Shadow Blade Megatron.
9. There is also a note that the Transformers Animated DS game is available on page 1750.

With the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen toys due for release before the Autumn / Winter Argos catalogue is released (start of August), either they will not be stocking the line, or most likely the figures will replace the 25th Anniversary ones nearer the time.

To other webmaster we'd appreciate it if you link to this original article rather than taking the information and hosting the images as there is no need to mirror the images as there are no bandwidth issues with our server.

Thanks to Snakas and MillionHero for providing information on the Transformers Generations 2009 book, the third incarnation of this Japanese Transformers collectors book.

The new edition of the book, updated from the Transformers Generations Deluxe book, will contain more Transformers toys and images, including newer figures, will be available in three parts and offers a limited toy.

Previously the Secret Starscream and Gold Primus (God Primus and many sites incorrectly call the toy) were the prizes for the campaigns run in the previous two books.

The Transformers Generations Deluxe book is pretty hard to find now, and features artwork and concepts for many unreleased Generation One toys.

Volume one is due in February, volume 2 in April (at the Super-Festival) and the third and final volume is due in June.