A quick reminder to everyone that the Collectors Hangout Transformers special is taking place 1 week from today on Thursday the 4th of April at 8pm GMT / 9pm BST / 12pm PST / 2pm CST / 3pm EST.  The episode of the show which is currently being promoted on the Google+ Hangout schedule page, will see me once again talk about Transformers, this time with more of a focus on the Japanese Lucky Draws as well as taking your questions live on air.

You can find all the details -> https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cj9359iit256m7lucjb89dspfd8

IGN recently sat down with Transformers Prime producer Jeff Kline and performed the following interview

IGN TV: You left off at the end of Season 2 on quite a cliffhanger. Obviously, Optimus is in pretty dire straits…


Jeff Kline: He is! And hopefully we’ve established over the course of our series that we’re not afraid to get rid of a character, if that’s going to serve our overall storytelling better. Which isn’t to say he won’t be coming back in some way. I’m just saying you can’t be sure, which is what we’re always trying to suggest with our storytelling.


IGN: How much closure should we expect as the series wraps up?


Kline: We found out early enough that we were going to be wrapping it up at the end of [episode] 65 that we had time to actually close some of the stories we wanted to close. So we tried really hard to give a satisfying conclusion to this version of the Transformers saga. The fans will tell us if we’ve succeeded or not, but we went into it really trying to satisfy those who’ve been with us for these three years.


IGN: Can you talk about the introduction of the Predacons?


Kline: Well, actually, we had started working on Season 3 and writing Season 3 before we got permission from brand to use the beasts. And then that kind of came through and we did a little rejiggering, but not a lot. It actually ended up being a fantastic thing for us, because we’re always talking about, ‘How do we keep shifting allegiances? How do we keep the sides out of balance?’ Especially having the Autobots be at a disadvantage, in comparison to the Decepticons - and bringing in the Predacons really let us do that. It really let us upset the apple cart in a way that I think we benefited from and hopefully we take it to a place that surprises and satisfies.


IGN: I heard there might be some references to the 1980s animated Transformers movie this season?


Kline: I think, quite honestly, we do little homages to everything in the Transformers universe. There are little nods to G1, there are little nods to other series. There’s definitely nods to the movies. We’re all fans, so we try to drop some Easter Eggs in there periodically. Obviously the movies and we live pretty separately. We mostly make sure that we’re not contradicting each other and not duplicating each other, but we’ve been given some pretty free reign, which I appreciative. Conversely, I know very little about what the next movie is going to be, but I’m sure it’s going to be great.


IGN: We’ve gotten hints at another iteration of a Transformers animated series coming in the next year or so. Will you be involved with that?


Kline: Yeah, at the moment it seems like both Hasbro and The Hub would like this group that did Prime to be involved in the next iteration, which I, of course, appreciate and we would love to do. We’re kind of in the earliest stages of development and character work and conceptual stuff, but if all goes according to plan, yes, there will be a new iteration of Transformers and the Prime group will be the group driving it.


IGN: is there a character you’re particularly excited for the fans to see this season?


Kline: I think I’m going to get in trouble if I don’t say the Predacons! I’m pretty sure that is the answer. And the reality is Predaking especially is pretty kick ass – from a design perspective, from a character perspective and from where we take him in an arc, he’s a pretty great addition.

TFW2005 recently had the opportunity to speak to Mairghread Scott, one of the writers for Transformers Prime and co-writer of IDW Publishing's Rage Of The Dinobots mini-series and their upcoming Beast Hunters comic.

There is a short snippet below, but to read the full article visit TFW2005.com

1. Hi Mairghread! First off, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us here at TFW2005.com. Can you tell our members a little bit about yourself and how you landed the gig of working with the Transformers?

Sure, I’m a freelance animation writer and my day job is working for production on Transformers Prime the TV Show. It’s where I got my first script and it has been my home base ever since. As far as the comic is concerned, Mike Johnson invited me to join him on Rage of the Dinobots. He’s a fantastic writer who worked with us on Prime before and knew how badly I wanted to get into comics. Since he had the comic book chops and I was already immersed in the Aligned continuity we were a natural pairing to work on Rage. After that… well we made no secret about wanting to continue the stories we were telling and, thankfully, our editors at IDW and the good folks at Hasbro agreed to let us keep going.

2. What do you do when you're not writing stories about giant robots punching eachother? Are there elements of your real life that you draw influence upon for your stories?

Mostly I read comics and cross-stitch, but I am always trying to do new crazy things that I think might be useful later on (much to the chagrin of my husband, who insists I’m going to get myself killed). I’ve done everything from flying trapeze to pole dancing, kung fu to parkour and it’s all helped with my work. Writing the Ser-ket/Grimlock fight in issue 3 of Rage involved a lot of thinking back to my armored sword fighting lessons with the SCA (they’re medieval reenactors). I wanted Ser-ket to be a two-weapon fighter, but in real life they rarely beat sword and shield fighters like Grimlock, so I tweaked her weapons to be a sword and electric scourge instead of two swords. It made it a lot more believable that she would get Grimlock to drop his guard and giving her that goal in battle made the fight a lot more interesting than just having them randomly hack at each other.

3. You're the first woman to write a Transformers comic. How does that make you feel and what do you think you bring differently to the table of other comic book writers?

Well, you definitely feel like there are more eyes on you, but I’ve got a really great writing partner in Mike Johnson and that’s reassuring. The only thing I think I do deliberately as a female writer that might be different is to include women in my stories in a very ‘normal’ way. Female comic book readers (i.e. me when I read comics) are looking for female characters to be there, be well written and not be treated like a big deal. In a lot of ways Transformers is the perfect brand for that. Female Transformers characters don’t dress provocatively, they aren’t just love interests and no one questions if they’re fit to lead/defeat because of their gender. Ser-ket lost because she was a villain. Arcee is on Team Prime because earned her spot. End of story. The more I can do to build on that for all comic fans, the better.

4. What can you tell us about the upcoming Beast Hunters comic from IDW Publishing?

The new comic features the same great Dinobots we had in Rage, but we’ve jumped forward in time and the Dinobots’ mission to protect those still left on Cybertron has turned them into accidental leaders for the largest Autobot settlement still on the planet. The only problem is that being great commando fighters and being great civic leaders are two very different things. We’re hoping to expand the Prime universe and explore that tension as the Dinobots protect their followers from threats both external and internal. Grimlock’s always claimed that he could do a better job than Optimus and Mike and I are determined to test that theory.

On the Thursday 4th April at 8pm GMT / 12pm PST / 2pm CST / 3pm EST, we shall be taking part in another special episode of Collectors Hangout via "Google Hangouts on Air". The broadcast will be available live via Google Hangouts so please drop by and join in as I will be taking your questions this time around as well as talking more about the Lucky Draw figures+.

The episode will then be available on YouTube as a standard video.

You can find out more by visiting the Collectors Hangout page over on Google+ - https://plus.google.com/events/cj9359iit256m7lucjb89dspfd8?cfem=1

We have updated the Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Connect 4 Cut the Rope A2083 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

Below you will find three scans from the latest issue of Figure King (Figure Oh) Magazine which recently came out within Japan. The scans include a look at the following figures

• Transformers Generations Voyager Soundwave and Soundblaster.
• The new Masterpiece Black Convoy, who is actually a Destron this time, as well as the Frenzy and Buzzsaw 2-pack.
• Transformers Alternity Super-GT Megatron.
• New images of Japanese Be-Cool line (Bot Shot's in the West).
• Another look at the upcoming Encore Fortress Maximus who is shown along side some of the Be-cool figures.

We have updated the Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Transformers Bot Shots Blitz Bot A1637 Instructions
2. Transformers Bot Shots Jump Shot A1634 Instructions
3. Transformers P Beast Hunters Optimus Prime A1979 Instructions
4. Transformers P Beast Hunters Shockwave A1982 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

We have updated the Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Transformers FOC Starscream A1425 Instructions
2. Transformers Prime Bulkhead 38695 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

Robotkingdom have updated their Facebook page with some newimages of the upcoming Planet X Project Genesis figure.  This toys is also known as Not-War For Cybertron Omega Supreme is a heafty figure weighing in at over 8 lbs. To attempt to demonstrate the quality of the design, one of the images features Project Genesis holding the "Year of the Snake" Omega Surpeme toy over his head.  This figure is due for release before the end of the month.

Toy World have scanned in three pages of Transformers products from the latest issue of the Japanese hobby magazine, Figure King. This months issue features many of the toys which have been revealed over the last few weeks including"Darkest Megatron", the jet "Vehicon general" from the Transformers Prime Arms Micron line as well as wave 3 of Fall of Cybertron, Transformers Masterpiece figures Rumble and Frenzy as well as another look at the Alternity figures and Fortress Maximus. You can view images below.

Last night we uploaded a follow-up video to our Transformers Toy Collection Display Room Video Tour called "Transformers At The Moon: Non-Transformers Toy Display Room Video Tour".  This 14 minute video will guide you through the non-Transformers toys / action figures we have collected over the years which include toylines like G.I.Joe, Action Force, The Visionaries, Final Fantasy, Revoltech, Microman, Ring Raiders, Go-Bots, Dinoriders, TMNT, Masters of the Universe and so much more.

The video is available in various resolutions upto 1080p for those of you with an HD compatible device and can be vieweds on YouTube at http://youtu.be/0iyP9rbAsc4 or by using the plugin below.

We have updated the Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Transformers FOC Air Raid A1428 Instructions
2. Transformers FOC Kickback A1424 Instructions
3. Transformers FOC Sideswipe A1426 Instructions
4. Transformers FOC Ultra Magnus A1427 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

We have updated the Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Transformers Rescue Bots Bumblebee Rescue Repair Station A2111 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

We have updated the Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Transformers Prime Energon Driller with Knock Out 38002 Instructions
2. Transformers Prime Weaponizers Optimus En, Fr, Sp, Pt 38285 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

We have updated the Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. Transformers Bot Shots Flip Shot 37663 Instructions
2. Transformers Bot Shots Spin Shot Series A1636 Instructions
3. Transformers Fall of Cybertron Autobot Blaster SteelJaw A1603 Instructions
4. Transformers Fall of Cybertron Grimlock A1602 Instructions
5. Transformers Marvel Avengers Captain A0224 Instructions
6. Transformers Marvel Avengers Thor A0225 Instructions
7. Transformers Prime Bumblebee Battle Suit En, Fr, Sp, Pt 38903 Instructions
8. Transformers Prime Soundwave A1972 Instructions
9. Transformers Rescue Bots Boulder The Construction-Bot 33653 Instructions
10. Transformers Rescue Bots Heatwave 33059 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.