The Botcon website was updated yesterday with the brochure for Botcon 2008. Amoungst the pages of the document is the background story to this years set.

"This year’s chronicle shatters everything you thought you knew about Transformers! Here is a universe you never expected... On a world known as Cybertron, a ruthless and cruel tyrant prepares his army for an all out attack. Their destination: a planet, rich in resources, known as Earth! Only a small band of rebels stands between this evil warlord and his plans for universal conquest. If these brave soldiers are unable to stop the attack, then there will be nothing to prevent this shattered universe from falling victim to the maniacal Optimus Prime and his evil
legion of... Autobots? This is truly a malformed universe where the Decepticons are heroic and the Autobots are evil! Coming this spring, the battle lines will be drawn and a new champion will emerge. A young and noble Decepticon will stand up and fight for freedom, the freedom, which is the right of all Transformers! Advising him will be his trusted lieutenant Starscream, and his fellow virtuous Decepticons. They will fight to the very last to stop the spread of Optimus Prime’s tyranny! Don’t miss this outstanding collection of Transformers figures as it is a one-of-a-kind “must have” for every Transformers Fan’s collection"

The latest email from Mastercollector included some information on the due dates for the registration forms for BotCon 2008

The Transformers Collectors Club website has been updated with information and the cover of issue 19 of the Collectors Club magazine. The cover of the magazine shows the first images of Transformers Universe Onslaught, no news on whether this is the first of the Combiners planned for Transformers Universe (Classics).

See the full size image here

Issue 19 of Transformers Collectors' Club Magazine will leave you speechless as we debut not one, not two, but all FIVE of the upcoming Wave 1 Transformers Universe Classics! We decided that we just can't wait until January 25th to show at least one of these awesome figures, so enjoy our New Year's gift to you as we unveil the cover to our best issue yet!

We are kicking 2008 off with a bang, so if you have been waiting to renew your membership, or to join for the first time, now is the time! We have all kinds of exclusive first looks and content lined up for both the Magazine and Members site, awesome new Club exclusives, the 4th free Club figure "Topspin" and so much more. Don't miss out on what is going to be a great year! Click here to Join Now.

The dates and location for BotCon 2008 have been announced over at BotCon.com and they are

BotCon 2008, April 24th - 27th 2008, Duke Energy Center Cincinnati, Ohio

Simon Furman
Staz Johnson (Auto Assembly debut)
Geoff Senior
Liam Shalloo (Auto Assembly debut)
Lew Stringer (Auto Assembly debut)
Andrew Wildman
Simon Williams

Earlier today, 24th November 2007, in Japan the Dengeki 15th Anniversary (電撃15年祭) event took place and thanks once again to Yokubarion we are able to bring you images from the event. 376 images to be exact. The images include the Transformers display from Takara Tomy, featuring the Transformers Movie toys, Sky Lynx and the four Japanese exclusives (including the red Vardia Starscream). The images also include other items from TakaraTomy as well as Bandai, Kotobukiya, Konami, Medicoss Entertainment, Max Factory amongst others.

You can find the photographs in the Dengeki 15th Anniversary gallery which is part of our Transformers and Collectors Convention Photo area.

Over at the Transformers Collector Club Message Board they have confirmed that the Universe Seacons will be a future exclusive, that the next club exclusive will not be Elita-1 but will be based on an existing character but with a new head-sculpt and finally, that the 2008 story arch for the comic will be based around the TransTech designs, and will include work from Ken Lashley of Draxhall Jump.

Simes posted the following announcement on our message board.

Things are moving along at a blinding pace already for Auto Assembly 2008! No sooner have we announced the convention, that we're now able to announce our first guest!

We are pleased to announce that once again we will be joined by comic artist Simon Williams who will be making his fourth appearance at Auto Assembly. Simon has recently started working for IDW on some of their Transformers titles and doing some work for SFX magazine and is hoping once again to work on one of our exclusive postcards.

Also joining us will be Lew Stringer. Lew's work will be known to fans of the original UK comics published by Marvel when Lew wrote and illustrated the "Combat Colin" backup strip that appeared in the comic. Lew will be making his first and long-awaited appearance at Auto Assembly in 2008!

As always, all of our guests will be appearing subject to work and personal commitments.

Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008

web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

Yes, it's finally here! We are pleased to announce that Auto Assembly 2008 has been confirmed for Saturday 2nd August 2008 and will once again be taking place at the Clarendon Suites right here in Birmingham, England. After taking a much needed year off, we're back and hoping to bring you the biggest and best Auto Assembly convention EVER with loads of activities, and what could well be our biggest guest line-up to-date...

This time we're running the event to raise funds for Help A Local Child (formerly known as Cash For Kids) - a local children's charity founded by BRMB radio station - through a charity auction and raffle and any excess funds left over from the convention.

Help a Local Child was launched in 1994 with a commitment to helping the children and young people of the West Midlands, who experience the negative effects of poverty, abuse, neglect, homelessness, violence, crime, illness and disability. There are many children in and around the Birmingham area who are carers for their own parents or who are indirect victims of domestic violence or suffer daily pain due to illness. In this world of glamour and gain, these are the children that BRMB want to help. Their focus is local fundraising, with all money raised being awarded locally and really benefiting our community. With the help and support of their listeners, local celebrities, corporate partners, volunteers, and their employees, the fundraising year on year will help more and more children in the area, enabling them to achieve dreams and ambitions they would never have thought possible.

Back to this year's convention and we're going to be having the usual mix of activities - plenty of dealers, video screenings, a bar or two(!), toy and art displays, competitions and guest talks. We're hoping to have our usual mix of UK comic guests including all of our "regulars", another voice actor (who we will announce as soon as possible) but this time we want to have the biggest guest line-up ever at a British Transformers convention!

In 2005 Auto Assembly was the biggest ever held in Europe with 409 fans attending and last year we had 400 attendees and we are confident that we're going to smash the European record next year. Every year we have a fantastic amount of interest for the convention with fans booking up from across Europe and as far afield as Australia and America!

We'll be producing another issue of our fanzine, The Cybertronian Times, producing another one of our infamous "goodie bags" with plenty of great free gifts including two more convention exclusive postcards, and much more!

Anyway, we hope to see many of you there next year and feel free to get in touch if you want to know more! There will be full information about next year's convention going on the website over the coming days and weeks and bookings will be open in the next week or so!

Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008

web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

Great news for UK Transfans, as the date for Auto Assembly 2008 should be announced in the next day or two, according to organiser Simon Plumbe. The event will take place around July / August next year at the Clarendon Suites, where Auto Assembly 2005 and Auto Assembly 2006 took place.

Expect more word as its announced.

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).

Collectormania starts today, running over the weekend, at Milton Keynes shopping centre. The event is free to get into, though you need to pay if you wish to get an item signed my any of the various stars in attendance.

The show is also featuring the 1978 Camaro Bumblebee car (which was on display at the London Film and Comic-Con recently).