1. SIDESWIPE

According to NTFA.net, Hasbro Nordic have announced that Transformers Animated will air on MTV in Finland, though they have not announced the a debut date as yet.

More on this as it becomes available.

In an interview with Sci-Fi.com, Megan Fox has spoken about her role in the second live action Transformers Movie, Transformers: Revenge of the fallen and how the movie is crazier than the first "by like a hundred [fold]".

When asked about injuries, Megan replied "I'm doing good, I've had like four injuries so far. So I'm accumulating the injuries and just going on with it. It's fun. It's what it is. It's a Michael Bay movie."

Some of the injuries came from a scene with Bumblebee which Mega describes as a different Bumblebee. "There's a different Bumblebee, the yellow one that you see in the movie, that we drive, I don't drive it, but it drives at like 120 miles an hour, and we're in it with no seat belts or harnesses or anything. It's, if we die, we die, all in the name of Transformers (laughs)."

Miss Fox explains that the story of Mikaela and Sam Witwicky picks up two years after the events of the first movie. "It's sort of like a jump, It's two years from when you last saw us, obviously, because it's matching with when the movie comes out. We're college age, and our relationship ... we just get together in the last one. And so you miss all of that new relationship. There's no love scenes, no big hookup in the end. That's all, sort of, in the past. Because we've been together for years now. So we're just together, hanging out, doing what we got to do to ... That's all I can say!".

In a spoiler, she spoke of how her character, Mikaela, has remained in Los Angeles while Sam has gone off to college in the east. "We're shooting in L.A. for the next few weeks.[Previously ] we were in Philadelphia and New Jersey on the East Coast. We're only now in our fifth week of filming, so we're here for a few weeks. ... I'm not in college. Shia's character's in college. I'm back home."

Though the final official figures have not yet been published The British Retail Consortium's most recent retail figures have shown that June's retail sales values fell 0.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared with June 2007. That means that sales have now been lower than a year ago in three of the past four months making it the worst summer since 2005. Last month's fall has been blamed on changeable weather after May's warm sun. The increasing demands on household budgets and weakness of the housing market, shoppers are becoming increasingly price-conscious and reluctant to spend on big-ticket items. This coupled with the increase in toy prizes in the 2nd half of the year mean that the trend is likely to continue.

Stephen Robertson, Director General of the BRC explained to us that "The negative result confirms fears May's modest like-for-like growth was a start-of-summer blip. While total retail sales frew in June, that was by less than half last month's figure. Retailers are doing all they can to reassure customers, offering some of the strongest discounts and promotions in decades and keeping a lid on inflation"

He continued, "Retailers are doing all they can to reassure customers, offering some of the strongest discounts and promotions in decades and keeping a lid on inflation."

In a thread over on the IDW message board regarding All Hail Megatron issue 1, Chris Ryall posted a little comment regarding the upcoming Transformers Animated comic

"There's also the TF Animated Series we're doing. We got advances of issue 1 today, and man, it came out great. That book's gonna be a lot of fun."

Remember that you can view the latest topics that Chris posts in by using the In The News page at Transformers At The Moon

"During a break on the set of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — described to us as a "remote air force base" at an "undisclosed location" — horror franchise reviver and blockbuster director extraordinaire Michael Bay hopped on the phone to give us the scoop on the Transformers sequel, his other projects in the works, and his reaction to that Dark Knight script circling the Internet with his name on it...

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What can you tell us about Transformers 2? Or, better yet, what will you tell us?

MICHAEL BAY: When we were writing the script, I said to the writers, "I hate sequels that try to make it to the third movie. Pretend like we’re never having a third movie, so let’s go for broke on the second one. I hate those cliffhangers! Let’s just make this movie stand on its own." I really feel this movie is not a forced sequel. I think the script is really good, and I think it’s got a lot of new stuff in it. There are a lot of rumors out there, but we’ve released a lot of fake stuff. We’ve done a really good job of keeping things secret.

Can you give us a hint of something that is true then?
[Laughs] No.

C'mon, anything?
There are some great, new robots that are really inventive."

Credit to MichaelBay.com for the news

Zobovor of alt.toys.transformers has reported finding some Transformers listings in the Wal-Mart computers system and this is what he found

SNARL VS SHARKT
CHEETOR VS TANK
PERCEPTOR VS HA
TIGATRON VS INF
RICOCHET VS PRE
SUPER OP VS RID
PROWL VS LASERB
OPTMS VS JETSTR
VCTRY SABER VS

The names were truncated due to the limited size allowed by the Wal-Mart system.

Credit to Seibertron.com for the news

Titan Magazines have issued the following press release regarding issue 14 of the UK exclusive Transformers comic

If you thought issue 13’s action packed culmination of stories couldn’t be topped, then be prepared for a whole new onslaught of robot mayhem in issue 14, on sale this Thursday! Issue 14 is all about new beginnings as we kick off not one, not two, but THREE brand new, six-issue long stories!

‘Aftermarth’ sees the Autobots re-grouping after winning the battle, but it soon becomes apparent that the war is still raging and they seem to have a new enemy to contend with.

‘Megatron Origins’ offers you the chance to travel way back into the mists of Decepticon lore to discover Megatron’s previous incarnation and shed light on how he became the lovable rogue we know today.

And finally, we’re going all prehistoric with the first part of Beast Wars! Turn back time 70,000 years, an ancient race of TRANSFORMERS has landed on earth and imitated the monstrous beasts they encounter – the heroic Maximals and evil Predicons are born. And BEAST WARS begin!

Phew! Plus, we profile Grimlock, bring you all the latest Top Gear and Star Scream is let loose on the letter bag again. What more do you want? Great competitions? We’ve got those too!

Don’t forget to forward this to all your TRANSFORMER fan friends and check out TRANSFORMER Comic, on sale Thursday 17 July!

Simon Furman has updated his blog with some information on the IDW Hardhead spotlight.

Incoming from IDW this week (Wednesday 16th in the US, 17th in the UK) is Transformers Spotlight: Hardhead, the second part of the awesome Revelation cycle. Way back in Spotlight: Nightbeat, the titular Autobot investigator journeyed to a planet called Gorlam Prime, and straight into the jaws of a trap set by the denizens of the Dead Universe (Nemesis Prime et al). Nightbeat emerged with his memories wiped and a ticking time-bomb (not literally) in his head. Now, he’s back on Gorlam Prime—along with Hardhead, the Autobots’ blunt, taciturn, no-nonsense “problem-solver”—looking for answers. What they find is a vast, far reaching conspiracy, a universe-sculpting plan many meta-cycles in the making about to kick in big time, oh and Micromasters… lots of ‘em! Why’s Hardhead along for the ride? Well, let’s just say that he’s Nightbeat’s insurance policy. Those of you after a happy ending may want to look away now!! Plus, more on the sudden resurgence of Thunderwing, the return of the Wreckers, more on Arcee’s quest and much more on the Dead Universe Transformers and the secrets of the Expansion. Bad as things have been for the Autobots of late, they’re about to get exponentially worse! Let the carnage begin! Spotlight: Hardhead is written by me with art from Nick Roche (which absolutely has to be seen to be believed, it’s that good!). For news and updates on all IDW’s Transformers titles, check out their website here, and for a four-page preview of Hardhead, courtesy of Newsarama, go here. EJ Su’s cover art (part of an interlocking set) can be seen by clicking on the thumbnail below.

Roberto Orci, co-writer of Michael Bay's upcoming sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, has spoken to SCI FI Wire regarding the project tell them that "the movie will feature more of the giant robots and more of a science fiction storyline."

"The humor will be similar, but the structure of the movie is a little bit more like many sequels, which is, the stakes are a little higher and the tone is a bit more sci-fi," Orci said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 14. "It's got a little more of a sci-fi element. ... The bad guys are little more coherent in terms of what their plan is and what they're attempting to do. So it feels more like more of a sci-fi battle."

For those hoping to see more Transformers screen time Roberto's comment on that has a slightly negative ring to it using the phrase kinda of more.  Here's a quote."The first movie was predicated on the structure of a mystery, at which point, at the midpoint, the Transformers are revealed. This movie is structured differently in that you now know there are Transformers in the world, and therefore you can get right to them. As a result, there's kind of more Transformers throughout the movie".

When asked about Arcee Orci replied "[she] was in an early draft of the first movie, and she may make an appearance, we'll see".  When asked about Soundwave he replied "Yes, Soundwave's in it".

The article ends with the following quote:

"If you liked the first one, you'll like this one," he said. "But if you were a genuine fan of what Transformers was and felt a little bit left behind by the first one, I think this one's going to be more for you." 

Larry Carroll has written an article for both MTV / VH1 entitled "Transformers 2 Co-Star Matthew Marsden Leaks Info On Sequel's Bot Batles" with the subheading "The British actor describes the multi-national task force defending the world from Decepticons".

The article starts with Mr Marsden speaking about is personal history with Transformers.

"It was one of the comic books I used to get,...[snip] ..I was an avid comic book reader as a kid; I used to get literally one every day. I'd get Spider-Man,' 'X-Men,' mainly all the Marvel comics, and Saturday was 'Transformers' day. ... I was a real big fan of 'Transformers,' and I went opening day to see the first [Michael Bay movie]. I loved it. I thought Shia was amazing. He's a very talented actor, and I think they did all the Transformers justice.  [snip] Like everyone else,I want to see more.".

He then goes on to speak a little about his character Graham.

"I'm part of a multi-national force.  What's going on right now is I'm a British Special Forces officer that's attached to Lennox's team. Well, there's two of us initially. And we're battling the bad guys.".  Revealing that his character's action scenes "hit it straight from the very beginning," Marsden said that Graham is a very intense character based on real British Special Forces officers. "I just try to be real," he said. "My character is not an amusing character. He's a soldier, so all the stuff that I did is very much rooted in reality and what I know from the experiences of my friends [who are in the military]. So, it's just very real and nothing über-spectacular. We went to Pennsylvania and shot at the Bethlehem Steel Plant, which was really amazing," he recalled, discussing a moment when the soldiers battle a Decepticon. "We had this scene where it's, like, 'That's where he is!' and you have to shoot at him. 'He's going that way!' It's quite a far distance away, so we had to use a laser pointer [to stand in for the robot]. It's all fun; I love that stuff. There are bad guys there and we have to go and get them," he said of the scene. "That's basically it.".

Marsden explains how his character is introducted in the film "Tyrese and I work together; we're part of a team, so it's certainly implied that we've been working together for some time since the last one," he said. "U.S. Special Ops guys go off in the army and work with the British army, and it's interchangeable, and we all work from similar playbooks. ... We're a multi-national force that will go wherever it takes."

When asked if he shot any scenes with either Shia LaBEouf or Megan Fox, Matthew replied  "No, no I haven't [met them] because I'm part of Lennox's team. So, we go off and we do our thing separately. We're the military unit — they're doing their other things."going on to explain that the film's plot segments into separate story lines, much like the opening of the original movie.  Though he does hold out hope that he has not received all of his script pages yet and that they will eventually come together. "They're working with the Autobots, [so] they're definitely going to know some of the strengths and weaknesses of different robots," he said. "So, if they're working together with an alien life-form, which they didn't initially, then obviously they're going to know more. In the first one, they were actually finding out what they were because they didn't know. ... Now they're aware of what they are, and we're part of the task force specifically to go and deal with them. ... I just know that I've got a big chunk to come, and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of action in it."

Matthew explains that with the death of Megatron, Starscream returns to Cybertron and then comes back to Earth with reinforcements confirming that "They're going to be bringing more Transformers in," Marsden revealed. "And there's definitely [some] in the scene that we do, different Transformers, so fans should be very excited.".

The article ends with Matthew explaining that his characters role was beefed-up in the film after he met with Michael Bay and the two fo them hit it off.  "I just went in and met with Michael, read the lines.  We got to talking about other things, and Michael and I just hit it off. Michael's a big fan of the military, and I'm a big fan of the military, we both support the troops. ... He apparently has ramped the character up for me. I know I don't die; that's as much as I know so far, so that can't be bad, can it?"