Generation One

After Hasbro’s announcement last week that they had bought back many of the Sunbow produced episodes from TV Loonland, TVShowsonDVD have sort clarification from Hasbro on what they have bought for $7million.

In a statement, Hasbro now have the worldwide rights to everything and have only just started planning what to do with them, but a 2009 release is most likely.

Hasbro has reacquired the worldwide distribution rights to everything, including the rights to release the shows on DVD in the U.S. and Canada. The reacquisition is a result of two transactions. The first transaction is with TV-Loonland, and the second is with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, who had held a distribution license from TV-Loonland for the North American home video/DVD rights. TV-Loonland held the rights as a result of contracts that were executed a long time ago. Rhino was a sublicense of Sony BMG.

TVshowsonDVD.com have also received word that Transformers will be coming on Blu-ray on 2nd September in North America. We hope to get more confirmation on this soon.

After selling of serveral of their cartoons to Hasbro earlier this week, including Transformers G1, TV Loonland have now sold off Metrodome Group plc, the company who have released all 98 episodes, Transformers The Movie, Headmaster, Super-God Masterforce, Victory and Zone in the UK.

With this news, a new company is likely going to aquire the rights to these shows in the future, which means we can expect a whole new set of releases in the UK some time in the future.

TV Loonland, the rights holder to many of Hasbro’s cartoons from the 1980s, has released a press statement informing that they have sold back all rights to Hasbro for $7 million.

In 2000, TV Loonland bought Sunbow Productions from Sony BMG, and with it, all rights for their cartoons, specifically all 98 G1 episodes, Transformers The Movie, 115 Headmaster, Masterforce and Victory episodes and 52 G2 episodes.

With this news, expect some new DVD releases in the future.

Just 2 comics from IDW Publishing this week, the first being Transformers Movie Sequel: The Reign of Starscream #1, the first in a 5 issue series picking up the events of the Transformers movie. As the title suggests, the series focuses on Starscream and helps fill in some of the plot holes from the film.

The second release is Transformers Best of the UK: Dinobots TPB, which collects together more Marvel UK stories from the 80s.

Josh Burcham has provided the completely coloured version of the Transformers: All Hail Megatron #2. The cover (as well as the whole issue) is drawn by Guido Guidi, and features Soundwave with rumble/frenxy reflected in his visor.

The complete cover can be found on Josh Burcham’s DeviantArt page.

Colourist Kris Carter has just finished the colouring for Transformers Spotlight: Cyclonus, and for all those not at BotCon 2008, has posted page 2 from the issue.

His next project, the colouring for Transformers Spotlight: Hardhead, is currently in progress. He has posted 2 colur pages from the issue, which features a previous Spotlight character, Nightbeat.

Chris Ryall has posted some new preview art for an upcoming IDW release, this time for Transformers Spotlight: Wheelie.

The 15th Spotlight issue is out in June, and to convince you to read about the most annoying G1 character ever, a two preview and bonus page has been put up on Chris’s blog.

Shane McCarthy, writer of the upcoming All Hail Megatron series, has posted the inked cover for issue #2. Earlier this week, the pencil sketch of this cover was posted, drawn by Guido Guidi.

Transformers: All Hail Megatron issue #2 is due for relesase in August.

Chris Ryall has posted some new art on his blog for Transformers Spotlight: Hardhead and Spotlight: Doubledealer. The pencil sketches, by Nick Roche and Dan Khanna, show some good detail on what’s to come in the Revelations saga.