UK fans take note, Transformers Armada Prelude
to Energon is now pre-orderable from GAME.
It’d due out in November and is priced at £39.99.

Order
the game here!

Toyfellas are runing a series of discounts until Sunday, take 8% off all order
$20.00 or more or take 16% off all order $50.00 or more & take 20% off all order
$100.00 or more.

www.Toyfellas.com

Taber, at Devil’s Due, just sent us a mail to let us know that G.I. Joe Vs.Transformers
#1 is now available to pre-order off their website www.devilsdue.net.
The book is due to hit stores worldwide on Wednesday, July 2nd.

Maybang’s Collectibles have dropped us a mail to let us know that they have
the following instock now
TRANSFORMERS YELLOW TIGER SIDESWIPE
TRANSFORMERS
G1 MYCLONE SERIES 2 BOX
TRANSFORMERS
REISSUE OPTIMUS PRIME #08
TRANSFORMERS
REISSUE SIDESWIPE #07

The Optimus Prime looks superb in the book styled packaging!

Nate Mechado from New England Comics has emailed us with some news on Transformers, what else? Volume #2 of Transformers is coming out this April and NEC’s database to start ordering it should be up soon, although we can’t give you an exact date yet. Dreamwave has canceled the profile books they were going to publish and are replacing them with a new lower priced format called Transformers More Than Meets the Eye Official Guide. It will be 8 issues long and #1 will be up for ordering same time as the new TF #1.

Finally there is a poll up on NEC right now asking who fans think is the most nefarious villian in comics. Megatron is listed in the poll so you guys might want to pop over and make their voice heard. You can find it here.

ALLEGIANCE: AUTOBOT
SUB-GROUP: TECHNOBOT

FUNCTION: AERIAL GUNNER
FIRST APPEARANCE: HEADMASTERS # 3

“Shoot everywhere – since that’s where the enemies are.”

Profile: Before you walk up and say hello to Strafe, you’d better run
for cover… because this high-strung, hair-trigger Technobot is more likely
to spray you with weapons fire than shake your hand. He’s not mean or murderous…
he’s just nervous. Too much quiet makes his circuits tingle. Sudden noises can
cause him to pop a few plugs. So rather than remain calm in these situations,
Strafe has developed the annoying habit of shooting first and asking questions
later. And that’s too bad, because once he lowers his guns, Strafe becomes one
of the kindest, gentlest Autobots of all. Unfortunately, few ever get close
enough to him to find this out for themselves.

Abilities: Oddly enough, despite all his wild shooting sprees, Strafe
is an expert marksman. When he wants to, he can burn a hole through a screw
head from two miles away with the searing beam of the heat-ray rifle that he
carries in robot mode. In his vehicle mode, he can achieve a maximum ground
speed of 250 mph. He can also engage his rear retro-rocket boosters, which allow
him to fly at a maximum speed of 580 mph with a 3,000 mile range. In all his
modes, he exhibits lightning-fast reflexes. He can outmaneuver a heat-seeking
missile and make a right turn at maximum flying speed in the space of a quarter-mile.
He combines with his fellow Technobots to form the super-robot Computron.

Weaknesses: Strafe has a tendency to stall in mid-air during some of
his more daring maneuvers. The wasteful manner in which he uses his weapons
often leaves him lacking ammunition in battle situations when he truly needs
it.

ALLEGIANCE: DECEPTICON
SUB-GROUP: SEACON

FUNCTION: AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 47

“I stink, therefore I am.”

Profile: This merciless, polluting parasite is so foul that even his
fellow Seacons do their best to avoid him. A peculiarity of his circulatory
system permits small amounts of lubricant and other chemicals to bubble to his
surface through joints and welds, making Skalor the malodorous menace that he
is. As a result, he leaves a disgusting trail of grease and toxic chemicals
wherever he goes. Although often advised that this condition can be easily corrected
with a few minor adjustments, (particularly by those who have to work with him),
Skalor chooses to continue just the way he is. The smell doesn’t bother him.
He feels that if the smell bothers others, that’s their problem, not his. But
this argument obscures the real reason for Skalor’s foul scent: He just doesn’t
care about personal hygiene. And the fact that his odor occasionally keeps his
enemies at bay is a bonus that he uses to defend his slovenly lifestyle.

Abilities: In creature mode, Skalor operates equally well on land or
at sea. He can clamp his vacuum-suction mouth onto most ships and, by piercing
their hulls with his diamond-tipped teeth, suck the fuel from them. A snap of
his turbo-powered jaws can cut through any substance. His maximum swimming speed
is 35 knots. His underwater range is 4,000 miles. His heavy armor allows him
to function at any depth. In creature and robot modes he wields two crustation
rifles, which encase and immobilize anything they hit with a stream of hard,
sticky scales. One rifle shoots the scales, the other shoots a viscous adhesive
that glues the scales to their target. In weapons mode, Skalor transforms into
a twin-barrelled corrosive slime-shooter. He combines with his fellow Seacons
to form the super-robot Piranacon.

Weaknesses: As a result of his leakage problems and generally poor self-maintenance,
Skalor is prone to minor but frequent breakdowns. All are the result of low
internal fluid levels. He sometimes overheats, suffers from locked joints and
strips his own gears, for example. Occasionally he becomes immobilized at the
bottom of a deep ocean and must be fished out by his fellow Seacons.

ALLEGIANCE: DECEPTICON
SUB-GROUP: BATTLECHARGER
FUNCTION: SHOCK TROOPER

FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS # 23

“The road is my playpen; cars are my toys!”

Profile: Cackling like a mechanical madman as he streaks down the road,
Runamuck is a tumbling, twirling two-lane terror. He shows no regard for drivers
sharing the highways with him. His freewheeling, frenzied approach invariably
sends them scattering like leaves before a hurricane’s winds. Spreading fear
is his favorite pastime. But there’s another, more sensitive side to Runamuck,
although he expresses it in a most peculiar fashion: he’s fascinated with Earth’s
junkyards. He can spend hours staring at one rusting wreck after another. In
his own twisted way, Runamuck places the same value on these auto-graveyards
as humans do art museums. His fellow Battlecharger, Runabout, attributes Runamuck’s
uncharacteristic soft spot to “one quick-change too many snapping some
cerebro-circuits.” Considering Runamuck’s personality, that’s a diagnosis
hard to argue with.

Abilities: In car mode, Runamuck’s maximum speed is 180 mph and his
range is 600 miles. He transforms into his robot mode in .5 seconds. He wields
a friction rifle, which shoots a beam that has the effect of dramatically increasing
the kinetic energy of the molecules of any target it hits. Under these conditions,
even the slightest movement of the target produces a tremendous increase in
the friction between its molecules and air molecules or anything else it touches.
Flammable objects burst into flame; some metals even melt. The effect lasts
for five minutes.

Weaknesses: Runamuck’s reckless ways often result in his transforming
on ill-advised occasions. This leads to disabling injuries sometimes. He’s also
afraid of heights.