Thanks to T4e for reporting that Toys R Us stores are now stocking Transformers Movie Stealth Bumblebee and Salvage. His sighting was in the Cardiff Toys R Us store.

I've just picked up out copy of the issue, so here's a little summary of what you'll find in the UK Transformers Issue 12.

Cover item - Transformers Pinball
Story 1: - Transformers : Twilight's Last Gleaming - Part 4
Written by Simon Furman
Art by Paul Ridgon
Inks by Andy Lanning
Colours by Jason Cardy
Letters by Jimmy Bentancourt / Comicraft
Summary: Nicely drawn, very nicely coloured and Optimus Prime final awakes.
Story 2: Transformers Movie Prequal - Part 12
Written by Simon Furman and Chris Ryall
Art by Don Figueroa
Colours by Josh Burcham
Colour Assistant: Mark Baistow
Letters by Robbie Robbins
Editor: Dan Taylor
Summary: The story still ticks through and still hasn't ended yet
Competition 1: Non Transformers related Nerf prizes
Poster: Double sided again this month. Cover art on one side, Transformers Animated Megatron / Starcream on the other.
Transformers Animated feature: Brief information on Megatron and Starscream, with an advert for Nicktoons and Transformers Animated.com - listed at the official Transformers Animated website)
Story 3: Transformers Beast Wars - The Gathering- Part 12
Written by Simon Furman
Art by Don Figueroa
Colours by Josh Burcham
Letters by Tim B Long
Editors: Chris Ryall and Dan Taylor
Summary: Includes an awesome two page double spread battle seen, which looks like it's been exploded from a smaller print (which of cause it was) but looks great and very colourful.
How to Draw: Features Blackout for 4 pages
Competition 2: Prizes include Transformers Risk, Transformers Movie / Classics toys and Transformers Titaniums.
Artobots: I still love the name of this section, simple but cool. 2 pages of artwork
Star Screams:6 letters, lots of pictures of kids and their collections as well as naming winners of all the competitions from issue 2 to issue 8. Website of the month is Polykarbon.com (Seibertron is still the only Transformers news site to be featured).

Issue 13 is out on June 19th, features a free Transformers disc blaster (try to contain your excitement folks)and is a Giant Bumper Sized Issue with Free Transformers Animated pull out section.

1. THE FALLEN

eBay seller Pren01 has an auction for an unpainted Transformers Collectors Club Nightbeat figure (base colours of blue and yellow) for sale at the moment. It will be interesting to see if eBay grant Master Collectors their eBay mod powers in order to remove the item (which is doubtful) as they had with the BotCon sets.

You can see the auction here via a non click-through link.

A quick reminder to everyone that the UKs only dedicated Transformers Convention this year, Auto Assembly, takes place on Saturday the 2nd August 2008 at The Clarendon Suites, Hagley Road, Birmingham. Though the guest of honour is still to be announced, many of the other guests have already been confirmed. They are:

• Simon Furman
• Staz Johnson
• Geoff Senior
• Liam Shalloo
• Lew Stringer
• Andrew Wildman
• Simon Williams

We'll be at the event, most likely with a display, but you can pre-register today by visiting the AA website. Entry is £16 for adults, £8 for children (5 and over), student and OAPs. Children under 5 are free.

TFWorld2005's Sol Fury has spotted an advert on Nicktoons for Transformers Animated season 2. The second series will start Monday, May 26th, at 4:30 pm, with all the episodes airing daily. This will mean that the UK will catch up and go ahead of Canada by 6th June, with the final episodes due around June 12th.  Transformers Animated will actually air twice that day, once at 8am and then again at 4:30pm, though there is official word on which episode(s) will air in the morning.

You can view all of the official listings for Transformers Animated in America, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia on the Transformers Animated showtimes page on TransformersAnimated.com

Simon Furman dropped us a quick email to let us know that he'll be squeezing in an appearance at the London MCM Expo, at the Excel Center, this Saturday (24th May) . Simon will be brining along various bits to sign and sell, along with various other comic writers and artists.

Squeezing its way into a packed few months of signings, conventions and personal appearances (post Bristol Comic Expo and pre-Derry con) is the London MCM expo (at the Exel Centre, Royal Victoria Dock). Ill be there this Saturday (May 24th), along with a clutch of other comics writers and artists, and Ill be bringing with me a whole heap of Transformers stuff to sign and sell, including scripts, books and comics.

TakaraTomy has updated their Transformers website with the following items.

Binaltech

No new content, other than an image of Bluestreak

Movie Figures
Battlemode Optimus Prime & Battlemode Bumblebee - released this month.

Henkei Exclusives
Skywarp - show accurate
Thundercracker - show accurate
Clear Convoy

The Clear Convoy is set to be a Convention Exclusive toy, available at the International Tokyo Toy Show on June 21st & 22nd with a few toys kept back for Part One Ltd's e-Hobby Shop.

Thundercracker and Skywarp will be available through Toy Hobby Market & Ganbo-Store.com. Both sites will begin accepting pre-orders May 22nd but neither site has been updated yet.

e-Hobby Shop Exclusives

The site now contains an imahe of Transformers Encore Guardian Robot (Omega Supreme re-colour).

Note: The Thuncercracker toy looks quiet differnet to the BotCon figure, more cartoon accurate and less metalic paint.

Dario Brizuela has posted an article on his blog containing three images from the first issue of IDW's Transformers Animated comic that will be released in August. You can view the images below.

Derrick J. Wyatt, the Art Director/Lead Character Designer for Transformers Animated, has updated his blog, A Delightgul Tedium, with an article entitled The Evolution of Lockdown. The article discusses how Lockdown was originally going to be a "lumbering Frankenstein monster type, made up of stolen parts looted from other Cybertronians.". Derrick has also posted some interesting comments.

"Ultimately those proportions just didn't fit the personallity of the character. As for the Sari stuff, that's just an internets rumor! People come up with the weirdest ideas..."

"I got the little vestigial arms in on another character. I really loved that idea too. I totally agree about more ugliness. I'm going to try to up that quotient."

"No, he's not based on Death's Head at all. The original design is more 2000 AD inspired, while the final one is sort of reminiscent of skull like head and an undertaker's tux. Death's Head is more Darth Vader (with horns) looking to me. I don't want to say anything about the return of the little arms yet, but you'll know when you see them!"

The Hobby Stock website was updated recently with lots of images from the Shizoka Hobby Fair. Included are more images of the up coming four Transformers Binaltech releases, including Arcee, as well as the new version of the toy Roadbuster was taken from.

1. New Roadbuster
2. Binaltech Arcee robot mode
3. Binaltech Arcee car mode
4. Binaltech Bluestreak robot mode
5. Binaltech Bluestreak car mode
6. Binaltech Agent Meister robot mode
7. Binaltech Agent Meister car mode
8. Binaltech Convoy robot mode
9. Binaltech Convoy car mode

Transformers Animated has been updated with two new videos from Transformers Animated episode 22, Rise of the Constructicons.

The first video is titled Rise of the Constructicons, where you will see the creation of Mixmaster and Scrapper.

The second video is titled Constructicons Fight, where the two Constructicons pick a fight with Optimus and the Autobots.