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Website ComicsInfinity.com have updated their pre-order page with the first two issues of the Transformers Animated Trade Paperbacks. This First Volume contains the entire first episode (70-minute special), while the Second Volume contains 2 later episodes. Both Volumes are of the "Cinemanga" style.
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Toys R Us UK have updated their website with 117 new Transformers product listings, the details of which you can find below.
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Toys R Us UK have updated their website with 4 new Transformers product listings, the details of which you can find below.
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Thanks to Maz, of TF-1.com, for posting in our Transformers Forum regarding his latest article over at TF-1 which features the previous unseen yellow and turquoise Generation Two Sideswipe.
Here's a little snippet from the article.
"At the time of the discovery of the G2 Desert-Camo Ramjet mock-up, yet another spectacular unreleased Generation 2 mock-up surfaced. This yellow-to-turquoise G2 Sideswipe never saw release in any country and like the Ramjet, is completely hand-painted over an existing production toy. This specimen came with no accessories but is unbroken, undamaged and completely transformable. As I just mentioned, it is painted over a production toy, and that production toy appears to be a black G2 Sideswipe."
You can read the article in full, at tf-1.com
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TFW2005 have put up a short interview with Hasbro Inc designer Eric Siebenaler. Eric is one of the main people in charge of the upcoming Transformers Animated line.
You can read the interview here.
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We have updated our Transformers Conventions Photograph area with two new galleries of recent Japanese conventions. The conventions are the 2007 Transfanket and the 17th Tokyo Toy Festival 2007, both of which took place towards the end of October. The Tokyo Toy Festival gallery includes a high resolution photograph of the Japanese exclusive Transformers Movie DVD Spychanger Optimus Prime (see below).
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The Reuters news agency have published the following Press Release regarding the increase in quarterly profits over at Viacom, attributing much of the success to sales of Transformers.
Viacom profit up on cable,"Transformers"
Viacom Inc said on Friday its
quarterly profit rose 80 percent, boosted by the sale of its
music publishing unit, strong cable advertising and blockbuster
turnout for the alien robots movie "Transformers."
The results beat Wall Street forecasts, and Viacom's Class B shares ended three percent higher at $41.58 in a generally flat market.
The company, home to the MTV Networks cable television channels and the Paramount film studios, also said it expects U.S. advertising sales to increase further in the current quarter and its digital entertainment outlets to post continued growth.
"'Transformers' gave the movie studio the lift, and the cable networks continued to improve in revenue growth," said Gabelli & Co analyst Christopher Marangi.
Viacom's third-quarter profit rose to $641.6 million, or 96 cents per share, from $356.8 million, or 50 cents per share, a year ago. The company recorded a $192 million gain for selling its Famous Music publishing unit in July.
Excluding the sale and other items, earnings per share for the 2007 quarter was 65 cents, above the average analysts' view of 60 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue rose 24 percent to $3.27 billion. Analysts had forecast revenue of $3 billion.
The company also said it was on track to post low double-digit annual growth in diluted earnings per share from continuing operations.
Viacom founder and Chairman Sumner Redstone said he was "more than pleased" with the results and gave a strong endorsement to Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, who took the helm after company veteran Tom Freston was ousted.
The 84-year-old media mogul is embroiled in a public battle with his daughter Shari, once seen as his likely successor.
"One of the smartest moves that I and the board have ever made was to ask Philippe Dauman to assume the role of CEO," Redstone said. "The rewards of that decision are becoming more and more apparent."
A STRIKE FOR STEWART?
The company has prepared for a possible strike by Hollywood screenwriters after their labor contract with production studios expired, but expects little or no impact on Viacom's business, Dauman said.
But two of Viacom's most popular comedy shows -- "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" -- could be hurt by a walkout as they rely on fresh writing about current events, he said.
Viacom's media networks business posted a 9 percent rise in revenue to $2 billion in the third quarter. Filmed entertainment revenue 57 percent to $1.3 billion.
Worldwide advertising rose 7 percent to $1.18 billion. Domestic ad sales grew 5 percent and the company expects comparable growth in the fourth quarter.
Viacom, which is also home to the Nickelodeon and Comedy Central cable channels, has sought to extend its entertainment brands more broadly across the Internet.
Viacom did not give details on results for its digital media businesses, but it has said in the past it would likely exceed a goal of $500 million in digital revenue for 2007.
Dauman said it would be increasingly difficult to break out digital results as the company sells more of that advertising in combined deals with its television programming.
"As far as digital advertising goes, we are experiencing nice growth in our efforts, particularly as we add sites, add functionality," Dauman told a conference call with analysts.
Analysts said the company should continue to post growth despite concerns over the impact of a deteriorating housing market on the U.S. economy.
"One of the variables is the overall ad environment, but they should fare relatively well given the dual revenue stream and the international (business)," said Marangi.
Reuters
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In a report over at Variety, Transformers 2 is one of the films mentioned as under threat from the possible writers union strikes which are expected to take place in Hollywood next year. When talking about Dreamworks, Variety report that "Not on the pre-strike list is "Transformers 2," a sequel that is still being written. Labor talks will determine whether the visual effects-heavy film makes its projected June 26, 2009, release date."
The article also includes a mention of the summer 2009 release of the live action G.I-Joe movie. "Paramount, pleased with revisions done by scribe Stuart Beattie, has officially set a Feb. 13 start date for G.I Joe an event-sized film that went from a pre-strike question mark to an anchor of the studio's summer 2009 release schedule. Paramount is in talks with up-and-comer Sam Worthington to star, and the studio was down to working out any scheduling overlap with Fox, which has Worthington starring in the James Cameron-directed Avatar".
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Thanks to Chazrt for posting the following video from Transformers Animated on YouTube.
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Several DVD sites are reporting the news that CDRInfo broke on the 29th October that
Slysoft Inc's AnyDVD has broken the copy protection on HD-DVD. The articles make specific reference to the Transformers HD-DVD movie, which they report has been ripped and distributed as torrents by several parties.
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Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter are running the following press release regarding the sales of the Transformers Movie DVD in the US.
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Robots rule -- again.
Showing remarkable staying power, the "Transformers" DVD led the national sales and rental charts for a second consecutive week Wednesday.
"Transformers" beat back a strong challenge on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart from "Meet the Robinsons," which debuted at No. 2 during the week ended October 28.
Two other new releases finished third and fourth, respectively: "Mr. Brooks" and "Hostel: Part II." "The Jungle Book" remained at No. 5.
HBO's "The Sopranos: Season 6: Part 2," the final installment in the mob drama's hugely successful initial DVD run, bowed at No. 8 on the sales chart.
On Home Media Magazine's rental chart, "Transformers" posted a revenue drop of just 14% from the previous week to remain at No. 1 with $8.6 million. "Mr. Brooks" bowed at No. 2 with rental earnings of $7.4 million, while "Meet the Robinsons" came in at No. 3 with $6.5 million.
A trio of new releases topped the Blu-ray Disc sales chart for the week, led by "Robinsons" at No. 1, followed by "Brooks" and "Hostel." On the HD DVD sales chart, "Transformers" remained at No. 1 for the second consecutive week, while NBC's "Heroes: Season 1" was No. 2 after two months in the market.
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During a press conference to highlight the release of their new RD-A301 HD-DVD player in Japan, Toshiba revealed an exclusive Voyager-class Starscream recolured toy, called Starscream Vardia Red Model. The figure sports red and gold paint decos and can be obtained with purchase of the player (retailing at 100,000 Yen).
Expect to see the figure for sale on Auction sites, Yahoo Japan, Ebay, Taobao, a short time after (and possibly before) the release of the HD-DVD machine.
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Simon Furman has updated his blog with the following information.
As we teeter on the precipice between October and November, IDW squeezes out yet another Transformers comic release in a month already bursting at the seams.
Issue #2 of the Beast Wars Sourcebook (character profiles series) hits stores this week (31st Oct in the US, 1st Nov in the UK), taking you through from Elephorca to Noctorro.
Now here’s a tester for those of you who figure you can detect a Furmanism at thirty paces: can you identify (or guess) which of the character profiles were written by me (rather than Ben Yee)? If memory serves, there are nine of them in total in issue #2. Now, if we (myself and Ben Yee) have done our jobs well, it shouldn’t be easy to spot who did who, as they were done in a style, to a format, and I kind of did an editorial pass to make sure the whole thing was as seamless as possible (text-wise). But maybe you can work it out.
Feel free to post your thoughts/conclusions on this thread and in a few days I’ll reveal who was on the money and who missed the mark. I’ll give you one for free, though, as it’s a bit of a no-brainer: eight letters, begins with ‘G’ ends with ‘K’.
Click on
the thumbnail below for a better butchers at the cover for Beast Wars
Sourcebook #2 and don’t forget to check out the IDW site for more preview pages and news of upcoming Transformers releases.
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Sad news for those planning to attend the NTFA Mini-Con in Sweden, as NTFA.net have now announced that they are no longer allowed to show the full Transformers Animated episode 1 at the event. It seems that though they received backing from Hasbro Nordic, Hasbro US have ultimately overruled the decisions, though they will still be showing extracts from the episode, most probably the same footage that was shown during SDCC 2007. Here's a copy of their news report
"We regret that we will have to back out on the exclusive showing of the first episode of Transformers: Animated
at the Arlöv Mini-Con this weekend. Both we and Hasbro Nordic thought
we had permission to show the full episode, but it seems there was
either some miscommunication or just a case of conflicting opinions at
Hasbro USA. First one party told us yes, but later another party said
no.
We want to emphasize that Hasbro Nordic's manager wanted to
make the exclusive showing possible, and thanks to his efforts we can
still show a partial preview of the episode, just not the full episode. So you will still get a taste of Transformers: Animated at Mini-Con!"
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Fan to Fan have some images of the G1 coloured Music Label convoy toy. These may well be the same as the photoshopped images which ages3andup reported to TFWorld2005
You can see their image by going here (remote linked below)
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Space Shot
Transformers Animated
Choose Your Fate
SDCC 07 - Preview
OTFCC 2003 (USA)
US Sheet 1
Transformers Animated
