MoDXtoys.com have posted some scans of the February 2012 edition of the Japanese hobby magazine Hyper Hobby.  The issue, mirrored below, contains the ofllowing:

• Campaign Arms Microns: Blowpipe, Aimless, & Autobot Peaceman
• Takara Transformers Prime "First Edition" Voyagers: Optimus Prime and Bulkhead
• Takara Transformers Prime "First Edition" Deluxes: Cliffjumper, Arcee, Bumblebee, Vehicon, Starscream, and Megatron
• Kero Kero Ace Exclusive: EZ Collection Staracream
• United: UN-23 Rodimus Prime, UN-24 Warpath, UN-25 G2 Megatron, UN-26 Thunderwing, UN-27 Windcharger/Wipeout
• DSM Exclusive: Deluxe Neoscanning Bumblebee

The official Transformers Facebook page has posted up a Question and Answer session with the voice of Transformers Prime Starscream (and Rescue Bots Heatwave) Steve Blum.

Steve Blum gives an insigth into how he approached the role of Starscream in Transformers Prime, along with talkign about his voice actor idols and how doing Starscream measures up against some of his other roles.

TFW2005.com board members SydneyY and Masabon have posted a translation of an interview with TakaraTomy team producer Noriaki Maeda which was recently published within Figure King magazine.

The interview consists of five questions:

1. Firstly, looking back upon this year's Transformers series, what are your thoughts?
2. What were the popular items in 2011, or the product sold unexpectedly well?
3. What were the reactions to the MechTech weapon giveaways and MechTech campaigns?
4. Why did you resume "United" series at this point?

The intervie­w explain why Arcee was released in a blue colour scheme as part of Darkside Moon in Japan, which was basically as a teaser for her appearance in Transformers: Prime to prepare the Japanese audience in advance.  Being a motorcycle Transformer, she proved popular with Japanese children which was a bit of a surprise to the TakaraTomy staff

The February 2012 issue of Hyper Hobby Magazine is now on sale in Japan.  You can view a copy of the cover below but the issue covers the same content as Figure King as well as KeroKero Ace with the content being the Transformers Prime: First Edition figures, the Arms Micron and Kero Scream.

The magazine is available now in Japanese stores as well as on Amazon.jp and US and European import stores

As the year draws to a close I thought I would continue a theme we started for this year back in April of adding a backlog of Japanese Hobby magazine image galleries.  As such you can now find 14 more galleries for your viewing pleasure.

The image galleries are of:

1. Figure King 142
2. Figure King 143
3. Figure King 160
4. Figure King 161
5. Figure King 162
6. Figure King 163
7. Figure King 165
8. Figure King 166
9. Figure King 167
   
10. Hyper Hobby December 2009
11. Hyper Hobby Jan 2010
12. Hyper Hobby November 2011
    
13. TV Boy (Terebi Kun) Feb 2010
14. TV Boy November 2011

Maz, who runs TF-1.com, has just published a new article on the Ceji Joustra Diaclone line.  The article, which is over 10,000 words and contains over 100 images, is the result of his 14 worth of research.

Rather than try to describe this article to you, I thought it would be best to let Maz himself elaborate on the piece.

"For the last month or so I've been putting together the biggest, most comprehensive and ambitious article I have ever written, numbering over 10,000 words and containing over 110 photos. It is the fruit of nearly 14 years of collecting and the incredible contributions of many generous, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and unique collectors throughout the world.

This one feels like my life's work, but I cannot take sole responsibility for it by any stretch as the credits will show just how much input others have had in shaping what I hope will be for the forseeable future, the definitive article on the conception, history, evolution and fate of the Ceji Joustra Diaclone toy line from Europe.

Ceji Joustra Diaclone Overview

• Diaclone roots and inception
• Joustra Diaclone comic cover scans
• Pictures of all Joustra Diaclone toys found to date including never before seen world first Wave 2 pictures!
• Magazine and print adverts for Joustra Diaclones
• Dealer Catalogue scans from 1984 and 1985
• Theories on unanswered questions and mysteries around the toy line since day 1
• Eventual fate of the Joustra Diaclone line and what happened to the toys
• Paul Vromen's incredible sidebar artwork for this article

As if that wasn't enough, it is absolutely a wonderful pleasure to introduce a brand new website dedicated entirely to the Ceji Joustra Diaclone toy line created by RpChristophe, a French collector, researcher, enthusiast and someone I consider a great friend:

JOUSTRA DIACLONE

• Full scans of all Joustra Diaclone comics found to date
• Exploded packaging images for all Joustra Diaclone toys found to date
• Bio of the Joustra Diaclone wave 1 artists Paul & Gaetan Brizzi
• Available in French and English

• New packaged and loose images

• Info and pics updated to reflect discoveries made by Mijo at 20thcenturytoycollector.com

• New photos of packaged and loose Mexican Prowl
• Updated copyright stamping variant information
• Paul Vromen's Prowl artwork added to sidebar

• New variant of Mexican Smokescreen "Smokestreak" found

Massive thanks to all involved, especially Christophe, Mijo, JB, Paul and all article contributors. It's been an unforgettable joy to work with you all, and get to know you all.

e-Hobby have posted a new article in the e-Hobby Magazine Transformers Museum section about the e-HOBBY Exclusive City Commander Galvatron II figure.  The article, which is available in English as well as Japanese, thanks to long time Transformers fan and e-Hobby employee Hydra discusses the figure as well as his secret 5th phrase.

The figure is one of the few e-Hobby toys we do not currently own, we did but we sold him on right away before we could photograph him, but you can still use this site to compare the toy to the original Galvatron, a testshot of the G1 toy (with different crown) and the anime coloured version.

View the full Q&A here.

­TakaraTomy have published a video on their YouTube channel with a video featuring their designers Hironori Kobayashi, Hisashi Yuki and Hisao Nishimoto discussing the Transformers figures Striker Optimus Prime, Leader Sentinel Prime as well as the Cyberverse series. The video can be viewed below and contains subtitles in English for non-Japanese speaker.

Our Summer Special of updates continues here at Transformers At The Moon, even though we are now well into the Autumn / Fall, with the latest addition of Character Models from our collection.  This evening's updates continues our recent theme of commemorating the DVD release of Beast Wars II by publishing the character models from the show and, as such, we are proud to bring you the following new galleries.

Beast Wars II Backgrounds - This gallery contains 62 scans of backgrounds from the show.  Some of the sheets you will notice have been coloured, by hand, this was not done by ourselves.

BB - We have published 5 scans of character models for BB, one of which is an early concept art.

Big Horn - We have published 19 sheets of character models of the Cybertron known as Big Horn.

Bigmoss - You can now find an image gallery containing the 5 character models for the Insectron Bigmoss.

Dirge - You can find 7 character models of the Destron Dirge from the Beast Wars II show.

Dirge-gun-  During the Beast Wars II series Dirge gets upgraded into Dirge-gun and so you can also find 5 character models of that character

Diver was one of the original members of Leo Convoy's Cybertron's and now 11 character models of the little green frog are available for you to view.

Drillnuts - Drillnuts is another member of the Insectrons and was a toy that we purchased whilst at Auto Assembly 2011, so we actually owned his character model before we owned the toy.

TFW2005.com have posted a translation of the interview with Kabaya staff members Mr. Koutaro Hayashi and Mr. Masakazu Kunimitsu which was published in the Transformers Generation Book 2011 Volume 2.

• On the creation of the first game
• On game narrative
• On managing Transformers lore
• On scripting a game
• On creative limits
• On designing characters
• On the War for Cybertron toys
• On Dinobots