After several days of rumblings through the fan community regarding an increase of fraud tied with credit cards used to make a purchase at the Transformers Collectors Club, Fun Publications has released a statement offering assurances that your information is safe on their end. Several members of the community have posted on various Transformers fan site forums stating that their credit card information was compromised after using the specific credit card to renew membership or purchase merchandise from Transformers Collectors Club or BotCon website or store. Continue reading...

UPDATE: Hasbro put out a release, in-line with our predictions! See full article. Just in case you have not heard, Toy Fair 2012 begins this weekend, and to continue our annual tradition, we will be on-hand to cover Hasbro's Media Day on Saturday afternoon. The guys at Radio Free Cybertron will be broadcasting LIVE and following the news as it comes out of Toy Fair, so you can follow our liveblog and their live broadcast as well! After the jump, we will breakdown what we expect to see at Toy Fair this weekend.

With this bio establishing itself in Transformers: The Movie events, let's just assume that by "encouraged to spend extended leave," it really means Magnus sent a box of Ratchet's wreckage to Junk and said "Hey, see if you guys can fix this." Counting Wreck-Gar and Scrapheap from my main work over at figurereviews.com, this is my third pass with this mold, and it's pleasantly surprising just how distinct each one has been owing simply to deco changes and unique heads each time around. CONTINUE TO FULL REVIEW

If it wasn't enough that you shelled out a load of cash for the TFC Toys Hercules Gestalt figure to get the ultimate edition of a figure that Hasbro could never make from a third party. Now you might find yourself dipping into your wallet again for the Dr Wu DW-P04 Roaring Head Replacement. The new upgrade head replaces the less dramatic one with a screaming (roaring) face that was obviously inspired by the classic comic art of robots going into battle. Check out the images after the jump for more details.

The Asahikawa Winter Festival, known for its snow sculptures, takes place every year and shows off many skills in the realm of giant snowmen. This year, there are some snow robots in the mix, with a giant Optimus Prime sculpture, in the shape of the iconic character's trailer with his head on the top. Also available for viewing, although a little smaller, is the Transformers live-action Bumblebee in bust form. The festival is currently taking place and will run until February 16th, so if you are in the area, be sure to stop by. View all the images after the jump.

Hasbro, Inc. held their earnings call this morning where they announced that their full-year revenues were up 7% to a record of $4.29 billion, compared to $4 billion in 2010. For the full year, the boys category jumped 35%, led by Transformers and Beyblade. The Entertainment and Licensing segment revenues for the full-year were up 19% to $162.2 million, up from $136.5 million in 2010, from Transformers Dark of the Moon and reflects the sale of television programming globally, Hasbro reports. Continue reading...

Game Informer #227, making its way to Game Stop newsstands and digital inboxes everywhere, breaks the news that Hasbro, Inc. will be releasing figures from the Combaticons team, as featured in the Transformers Fall of Cybertron game! In an article about the video game scheduled for a Fall 2012 release, the magazine showcases the Brawl and Swindle figures in both vehicle and robot modes, as well as a look at the combined mode, Bruticus! Continue reading...

Transformers Bot Shots are a cool new way to play with Transformers. The miniature vehicles transform instantly into their robot alter egos on impact. Changing Optimus Prime from robot to vehicle takes just three easy steps, and the pieces click into place. As a truck, when Optimus runs into an obstacle, he will pop back into robot mode. Check out the video preview of the figure after the jump.

UPDATE: We have added a hi-res image of the Shockwave HISS Tank. Buried deep in the announcement of their upcoming GI Joe Retaliation toyline, Hasbro Inc reveals that they will be offering Shockwave HISS Tank as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive. Continuing the practice from last year when the company offered the extremely popular GI Joe Transformers Starscream Sky Striker and Cobra Commander, the company is offering the GI Joe Pursuit of Cobra HISS Tank with Shockwave's trademark purple color, complete with a large Decepticon insignia emblazoned on either side of the tank as well as the nose. Continue reading...

The FansProject spinoff company MakeToys have released their next third party figures Bulldozer and Excavator from the Giant team, the yellow version of the Generation 1 Devastator. These images, available from ACToys provide good looks of another version of Devastator, just in time for the decision to come whether or not you should pick up the recently-completed Hercules from TFC Toys, or invest your money in these guys. Take a look at the Bulldozer and Excavator in- and out-of-package in the gallery and compare it to the Hercules set. Check out some highlights in our gallery and check out the Source link for all of the images.

IDW Publishing has let loose that the company will release Transformers ReGeneration One #80.5 on Free Comic Book Day on May 5, 2012, which will help to bridge the gap between the Generation 1 Marvel comic book series #80 from 1991 and the IDW Publishing version #81, set for release later this year. Speaking to Comic Book Resources, Simon Furman, the writer of the original and the issues today, said that while he usually prefers to make up new storylines, he is happy to return to this old universe. Continue reading...

The folks over at TVShowsOnDVD have updated their site with more news about Shout! Factory re-releasing the 15 Disc Matrix of Leadership Edition: Collector’s Set: Today Shout! has announced that they will collect the 15 DVDs from the season sets into a new package titled "The Transformers - The Complete Original Series", an "unlimited" general retail release which will become available starting May 24th. It will include all on-disc content from those four separate packages (including the bonus material, but it will NOT have the extras which were exclusive to the Matrix of Leadership set; sorry).

Thanks to Shout! Factory who's sent out the cover art for the Transformers Generations 1 DVD cover to Season 3 and 4. Looks more art work by Andrew Griffith. Looks like artwork by Andrew Griffith. This one's got Rodimus holding up the Matrix to ward off the Decepticon warriors Scourge, Cyclonus and Galvatron as Unicron's head looms in the distance. Pretty spiffy. This set will be out April 20, 2010 for an MSRP of $29.95. Check out the cover and more details after the jump.

Many thanks to Andrew Griffith who has been working on some of the covers for the Generation 1 DVDs that have been re-released by Shout Factory. Andrew has posted a hi-res version of artwork for G1 Season 2 Volume 2 box art on his Deviant Art page. Get a first look at the artwork featuring Soundwave and Ravage facing Blaster with a little help from some friends.

Gallery updated with new images Thanks to {Zero} over at the Allspark, who located some of the new Bot Shots toys that he found at his local Asda. According to {Zero}, they only seemed to have the four or five of these figures including Bumblebee, Starscream, Prime, Barricade and Megatron. The game is said to be like paper, scissors, stone. Each robot has a three sided rotating symbol in their chest with fist, blaster and sword where one is chosen and then transformed into vehicle mode. The players then ram them into each other to transform into bot mode. Check out the images and more details after the jump.

Inter-Media and Entertainment Takara Tomy Join Forces to Launch Social Games. In a press released out today, the two companies will work together to release social games, card games and social a world-wide themed title game called "Transformers for GREE." It appears the two companies are producing new games for online fans to interact with their mobile and smart phones including the iPhone and Android platforms as well as streaming content like G1 cartoons coming this and next month. Check out the full details translated from the original in-language press release.

Transformers Game have updated their facebook page with another one of their clever games. Naturally, they would do a follow up to the Decepticons with an Autobots game. They have posted created the same kind of game made of very basic (minimal) shapes and colors. Your job is to identify the Autobot character that each one corresponds to. Can you name all the minimalist Autobots?

The Asahikawa Winter Festival, known for its snow sculptures, takes place every year and shows off many skills in the realm of giant snowmen. This year, there are some snow robots in the mix, with a giant Optimus Prime sculpture, in the shape of the iconic character's trailer with his head on the top. Also available for viewing, although a little smaller, is the Transformers live-action Bumblebee in bust form. The festival is currently taking place and will run until February 16th, so if you are in the area, be sure to stop by. View all the images after the jump.

Belated Merry Christmas and on-time Chinese New Year present may have arrived for many Generation 2 Transformers fans as auctions for what may be legitimate Sandstorm and "Black Death" Starscream seeker figures have surfaced at Chinese auction site TaoBao. The auctions claim that these are legitimate Hasbro figures. The auctions were originally reported by Monzo at AllSpark. In the early 1990s, Hasbro originally planned to release these figures, but they were ultimately cancelled. Continue reading...

Overall I am quite happy with Encore Devastator, but there are notable flaws with this set and I can understand how it might bother some people. I'd still recommend this set, but not for above RRP. If you're thinking about getting this set, get it now. Don't wait till later and pay some inflated aftermarket price for it, because it won't be worth it. If you can get it for below RRP then even better.