Welcome to day 9 of our 17 day commemoration of the website's launch. Today we shall take a look back at the year 2007.
This year was a little in limbo as fans geared themselves up for the Transformers Live Action Movie. Transformers Cybertron continued and the fan favourite Transformers Classics line was introduced.
Click the headline to read this article in full.
Around the World
- Bulgaria and Romania join the EU
- Slovenia adopts the Euro
- The United States Congress vote Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House
- Apple announce the first I-Phone on January 9th
- JK Rowling finishs the 7th, and last, Harry Potter Book
- Smoking is banned in public places in the UK
- The Big Bang Theory premiers in the US
Transformers News
- Movie toys appear on eBay before being officially announced, leaking out some of the movies surprises
- The Transformers Teaser trailer becomes the most downloaded trailer on Yahoo
- On the 22nd January Tara Strong announces she will voice Sari in the new Transformers Cartoon
- By February 2007 doubts had been cast on whether TransForce 2007 was going to take place and Auto Assembly announce that they will not be holding a convention that year due to "non-convention related issues". This marked the first time since 1998 that the UK would not have a Transformers convention, and all in the same year the Transformers Movie would be released.
- Also in February some members of US Transformers fan sites were able to attend a 20 minute preview of the Transformers movie. Tom Kenny is also confirmed as the voice of Starscream in the next Transformers series
- Walker Edminston, the voice of G1 Inferno, passes away in February.
- In March the e-Hobby Shop is updated with listings for BT-17 Black Convoy which they will sell at one item per person as the figure was a limited edition Winter Wonderfest exclusive. We are lucky enough to have contacts at Part One Limited who manage to get us a figure even though new rules say they cannot be sold to non-Japanese residents. It is at this time that Part One Ltd cease trading with non-Japanese parties, so our 7 year relationship with them ends.
- On March 11th we post the first full image gallery of the toy online.
- Mighty Gain (TFW2005 Member) shows off a Gold G1 HotRod toy which he is told is a G1 commemorative item. The packaging and instructions of the toy point it towards being a factory test shot / "lunch time special" using the Encore version of the toy.
- We get our Japanese G1 Unicron toy display in March
- Hasbro publish a report stating they expect a 15% rise in profits through the Transformers Movie tie-ins whist Tomy sell 14% of their shares to the Texas Pacific Group
- On 24th March, Hugo Weaving is confirmed as the voice of Megatron
- On the 30th March we attend an exclusive screening of some footage from the new Transformers Movie
- We work with various UK Transformers licence holders to promote and give away their items including Winning Moves (Top Trumps), Thumbs Up UK, Titan Magazine and we also break the news of a new Transformers Scalextric set.
- We give away a free copy of Titan Magazine's Transformers comic 2 months before it goes on sale.
- On April 15th the new Transformers Animated logo is spotted by Colin Warhurts, a UK fan.
- BotCon announce they will have an exclusive screening of the Transformers Movie before it hits the cinema
- On the 15th June we run a competition, in conjunction with Paramount Pictures UK, to give away tickets to a special FDA screening of the Transformers Movie for Friday 22nd June (before the BotCon showing)! Due to the overwhelming response that we receive Paramount offer us an increase on the tickets from 8 pairs to 50 (allowing 100 fans access to the film).
- Three days later we run another competition with Paramount Pictures, this time for an exclusive online conference which is to take place in Second Life.
- In June Michael Bay announces that he has received death threats from some fans (all before the movie is shown)
- On the 21st of June we attend the Premier of the Transformers Movie, along with selected media representatives, which is followed by Steve's attendance on Second Life for the International Junket whilst I attended the Press Junket in London and interviews Lorenzo di Bonventura. That evening the FDA screening took place in London which I (Dave) attended but unfortunately Steve was turned away as Paramount had given away too many tickets (and he was travelling up from the Second Life interview).
- On the 23rd we published the sound recording of my interview with Lorenzo di Bonventura.
- BotCon then takes place at the end of June and we attend their Transformers Movie screening (meaning that Dave has seen the film three times before it is actually released).
- We pay to see the movie in a local cinema on the 22nd of July and are then once again invited to a VIP Screening of the film in London on the 25th of July, with various B grade celebrities.
- By the 6th of July Transformers has broken international box office records.
- Our G1 Silver Starscream "staff item / Lunchtime Special" becomes the 1,400th Gallery on our site
- On the 15th of July GoldOptimusPrime.com is updated with images, giving the best look at the ultimate Lucky Draw Transformers toy
- The Transformers Encore line is announced as the name for the new G1 reissues in Japan.
- Online retailer Robot kingdom closes down (though they re-open against once personal issues have been resolved).
- By the 24th July Hasbro had sold over 3 million Transformers Movie related toys and the movie has made over 453 million dollars and over 500 million by the end of July
- We start our Facebook group on the 8th August 2007
- On the 19th August 2007 we launch TransformersAnimated.com
- The GI-Joe Movie is confirmed for 2009 on the 24th of August 2007
- In September Transformers 2 is given a release of summer 2009
- Also in September we pass the 1,850 mark on our Transformers toy galleries and the 1,900 mark is reached on 24th October 2007
- Maz, TF1, released images of an unreleased G2 Ramjet mock-up
- On the 11th of October we publish galleries for G2 Groove and the Megatron/Starscream two pack along with Gold Lio Convoy and we also publish the first pictures of Gold Big Convoy
- As the site turns 8 we note that we have still been able to bring exclusive news before many sites in the west, and sometimes the east too.
- On the 26th December 2007 Transformers Animated starts on US Television
- We end the year with 1,871 toy galleries online.
Conventions
- BotCon 2007
- Cybcon 2007
- TFCon 2007
- Transformations 2007 a new Dutch Convention with over 200 attendees
- Chinese Transformers Expo 2007
- Chara-Hobby 2007
- NTFA Minicon 2007
- Transfanket 2007