Korean website The-Arker.com has been updated with images of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Fast Action Battlers Megatron and Jolt.  The images of the Megatron toy confirm his vehicle mode as a Cybertronian tank.

Thanks to Seibretron.com for the spot.

s250 has posted an image on his blog revealing the alt mode for the Transformers Animated Season 3 character Strika.  The image has been mirrored below.

A few more interesting Transformers auctions have appeared on ebay including several Transformers testshots, listed as Transformers prototypes, and Transformers Hardcopies.

The auctions are for a hardcopy Transformers Movie Scorponok figure, a testshot of the Japaneses G1 Killbision toy, and an auction for a testshot of G1 Fortress Maximus along with a testshot of Sixshot and an all black Ramjet (previously seen on ebay).

Thanks to Ray at Robotkingdom for letting us know that they have updated the information and images at their store with some new content for the following items

Animated Exclusive Pack - Jetfire & Jetstorm - here

Animated Leader Shadow Blade Megatron - here

Some more auctions have appeared on eBay for some Transformers Revenge of the Fallen scout figures.  The auctions are for  Rollbar, Scrapper, DeadEnd and Knockout

eToysHunter is currently selling a few knock-off silver chrome Transformers Henkei Convoy toys on ebay.  The toys are now being sold pretty cheap, and if like us, you like the figure in the all silver colour scheme, although understand it's non-official status, then you may be interested in the auction.

Don't worry, we won't be bidding against you, we've already got one on the way.

Thanks to Yizhi from TF08.net for providing the latest images of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Jetfire and Transformers Universe Wheelie.

click on the images for a larger picture of the Transformers toys.

TFW2005 have conducted an interview with Transformers Animated designer Derrick Wyatt.

The interview includes information on several Transformers Animated season 3 characters such as Rodimus Prime, Shockwave, Waspinator and Blurr, as well as including a few design images of Kickback and a bald, western, Issac Sumdac.

We're pleased to bring you the October 2008 UK retail charts as well as the 2008 Year-To-Date figures, though the trend for Transformers continues that of recent months, with no entries in the monthly chart, but the line does manage to hold onto places in the YTD chart through the continued success of the number 1 selling action figure for 2007, the Transformers Movie Legends.  In fact, if it wasn't for the dominance of Bandai's Ben 10, the Movie Legends would probably have held onto their "best selling action figure" crown this year as well.

October 2008 - £ Sales
1. Kidizoom Camera - Vtech
2. In the Night Garden Talking Plush - Hasbro Inc
3. Ben 10 figures 10cm Assortment - Bandai
4. BG Bounce N Spin Zebra - Fisher Price core Mattel
5. Ben 10 15CM Action Figures - Bandai
6. In The Night Garden Huggle Snuggle IgglePigg - Hasbro
7. V Smile TV Learning System - VTech
8. Fur Real Biscuit My Lovin Pup - Tiger Electronics / Hasbro
9. Music and Motion Choo Choo - Fisher-Price core Mattel
10. Ben 10 Deluxe Omnitrix - Bandai

October 2008 - Unit Sales

1. Hot Wheels Basic Car Assortment - Mattel
2. Ben 10 figures 10cm assortment - Bandai
3. Cars Vehicle Assortment - Mattel
4. Ben 10 15cm assortment - Bandai
5. In The Night Garden Mini Plush - Hasbro
6. HSM Singalong Mircophone - Vivid Imaginations
7. In The Night Garden Talking Plush - Hasbro
8. Bionicle Mistika - Lego
9. Star Wars - Lego
10. Zeebeez - Re Creation

UK Year To Date - £ Sales
1. Ben 10 Figures 10cm - Bandai
2. Cars Vehicle Assortment - Mattel
3. In The Night Garden Talking Plush - Hasbro
4. Ben 10 15cm Assortment - Bandai
5. Ben 10 Omnitrix FX Watch - Bandai
6. In The Night Garden Mini Plush Assortment - Hasbro
7. Hot Wheel Car Assortment - Mattel
8. Power Rangers 12.5cm Figures - Bandai
9. Transformers Movie Legends - Hasbro
10. Dr Who Five Inch Figures - Character Options

UK Year To Date - Unit Sales
1. Hot Wheels Car Assortment - Mattel
2. Cars Vehicle Assortment - Mattel
3. Ben 10 Figures 10cm - Bandai
4. Match Attax Cards - Topps
5. Transformers Movie Legends - Hasbro
6. Power Rangers 12.5cm Figures - Bandai
7. In The Night Garden Mini Plush Assortment - Hasbro
8. Ben 10 15cm Assortment - Bandai
9. WWE Ruthless Aggression - Jakks Pacific / Vivid
10. Dr Who five inch figures - Character Options

We received our copy of Transformers Animated issue 3 today from Titan Magazines.  The comic contains two stories as usual an introduces another new character, Crossroads.   Crossroads is a human super villain character, whom the Autobots send Prowl, Bulkhead and Afterburn after him.

The story uses an interesting "focus" technique in some of the frames, which works well, and the colouring of Jason Cardy is top notch (as always).  The drawings, by TFA artist John McCrea follow the previous issues, and there is still something odd about the way Afterburn is drawn.  The style is unique to the UK Transformers Animated comic, giving it it's own style.

Issue 3 of the UK Transformers Animated Comic is released UK wide tomorrow.

Derrick Wyatt has answered two of the questions raised to him in comments on his blog.  DieMaus asked "a) We've now seen Animated Hot Shot and Red Alert, two characters who were reportedly in the original outline for the show, but were subsequently replaced by Bumblebee and Ratchet, respectively. Do the current Hot Shot and Red Alert bear much similarity to those original concepts? Are they a taste of "what might have been"? Or did those original character ideas never get past the planning phase?

b) Who actually decides which characters DO make it onto the show? You suggested, for example, that Hot Shot wasn't your call, Marty Isenberg mentioned that Hasbro nixed the idea of Sixshot, and as noted, we know that Bumblebee's inclusion was their initiative as well; on the other hand, I can't imagine that the likes of Highbrow were anything other than your idea. How does this all get decided, and whose call is it at the end of the day?"

To which Derrick replied

"Hey,those are some good questions.

a) Hotshot is more of a tribute to his UT self (or selves). Red Alert is actually a bit of what might have been. Her design is based in part on TFA development art that my friend Eric Canete had done. That's why she's female.

b) There are some upcoming interviews that go deeper in to this process than I will here. The current TFCC magazine has an interview with Eric and me where we discuss it. Anyway, we on the animation side try to work together with the 'Bros to come up with a roster of characters that both teams are happy with. Bumblebee's inclusion in the show was actually a result of Matt Youngberg and me pleading for him in the first meeting we had with the higher-ups."

 An anonomous poster then asked the question "Well, I kinda like Red Alert being female, it mixes things up a little. I personally would have liked to have been at one of those meetings, just to hear some of the characters Hasbro wanted in that you guys didn't, or vice-versa. Is it generally harder to get characters who weren't popular in terms of toy sales(or were only in that franchise's toyline) in the show? Or is Hasbro pretty cool about letting some relatively unknown/unpopular characters get their chance in the spot light?"

Which prompted Derrick to reply "On the whole they've been great. I don't think there were any characters we really wanted to do that they vetoed. The only things that ever got nixed were characters that it would be too impractical to do from either an animation or a toy point of view, or characters that just didn't fit the stories we were telling."

Jim Sorenson has updated his blog with another design sheet that did not make it into the The Ark Addendum.  This time it is for a background model of the Quantum Compound.

"In honor of Iván's nifty Day of the Machines movie poster, I bring you The Ark Addendum: Day of the Machines. It features some of the background models from that episode. The Quantum Compound, home to Quantum Laboratories, is where TORQ III resides. It's defenses proved woefully inadequate against Megatron. Once Megatron overwrote TORQ III 's personality with his own, he was able to use it to take command of machines remotely. Given the Decepticon's omnipresent need for energon, he took control of many oil tankers and directed them to a Cybertronian oil base."