A video on Youtube shows some video footage from the Bethlehem set of Transformers 2, with shooting take place at night. In the video clip, you can see some Black hawk helicopters in the night and the Chinese set lights.
Transformers-themed pub could be Britain’s Best Home Bar
A Transformers-themed pub is in the running to be crowned Britain’s Best Home Bar, in a competition being run by Liberty Games. The winning bar, chosen… [more]
TFNation 2019 Transformers Convention Review
This last weekend saw yet another Transformers convention take over the Metropole Hilton, in Birmingham. These weekends have become a staple of my summer… [more]
Annual Transformers Forum Meet Tour
Every year, since 2011, the nerds from TheTF.Net forum (now a Facebook group, because running a forum proved too much like hard work) have met for a weekend… [more]
Our 2019 Forum Meet took place this weekend, in Cardiff
This weekend saw our annual forum meet being held in the Welsh capital of Cardiff. Each year we meet in a different town or city in the UK, alternating… [more]
Video Footage from Transforce in 2001
Almost 18 years ago (crikey, has it been that long?) we wrote a review of our visit to Transforce in August 2001. It was a seriously hot day, but a great… [more]
Matthew Marsden Signs up to Transformers 2
MTV are reporting that Matthew Marsden, who has appeared in Rambo, Black Hawk Down and Resident Evil: Extinction recently, has been cast in Transformers 2.
The 35 year old British actor is to play a British Special Forces character called Graham. This, of course, brings up more questions, like if Michael Bay is planning on shooting in the UK, or doing an Austin Powers 2 and pretending sunny California is just like the UK.
Either way, all we know is that he is joining with Captain William Lennox and Robert Epps to battle the Decepticon forces.
New Transformers: Animated episode in the UK today
You may not believe it, but despite starting 3 months after Canada and the USA, the UK will be airing new Transformers: Animated episodes this week, before their North American cousins.
Starting today, NickToons will be airing episode 25 Autobot Boot Camp at 6:30pm. It does seem that, like the first season, the 2 part finale will be delayed as repeats of season 2 will start again on Friday.
Tuesday 3rd June – 25 Autoboot Camp
Wednesday 4th June – 26 Black Friday
Thursday 5th June – 27 Sari, No One’s Home
Will obviously try and confirm these on a day-by-day basis.
Pictures of Tyrese On Set
transformerslive.blogspot.com have received pictures of Tyrese Gibson at the Bethlehem Steel site, in costume, ready to reprise his role of Sergeant Epps. The site also reports that the other key actors are there was well, but no photos have been taken of them. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see the rest of the cast on set too.
Blues Clothing Sign Transformers: Animated Clothing Deal
Blues Clothing, a UK based company, has signed a deal with Hasbro to produce Transformers: Animated clothing until 2010.Suzanne George, the Blues Clothing licensing director said the following in reaction to the acquiring the license:
“Transformers was the No. 1 boys brand action figure in 2007 and we are confident that the Transformers Animated license will be a success for Blues Clothing in 2008. We are very excited to be working with Hasbro for the next two years and look forward to producing compelling garments for our retailers.”
No details have been provided on when or what will come out, but expect something this summer and some big things for Christmas.
Transformers 2: 10 against 10
Transformers 2 writer Roberto Orci has posted on the Don Murphy’s message board that there is the possibility of there being ten robots on both the Autobots and Decepticons sides. He also mentions that some of the Transformers won’t be at the forefront and will only play a supporting role.
Hopefully, with all the characters, we can expect to see some discussion between these groups of bots, and with not all of them being key to the story, some good characterisation can be made.
Transformers: Animated toys out in USA
Many of the USA based sites are reporting that the first few waves of the Transformers: Animated toys have been released. These include deluxe Bumblebee, Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime, Prowl, Lockdown, Ratchet and Blackarachnia, voyagers Cybertron Mode Megatron, Bulkhead, Starscream, Grimlock, and Lugnut and the Optimus vs. Megatron Battle Begins 2-pack.
In summary, the items released were deluxes waves 1 and 2, voyagers wave 1 and 2 and Optimus/Megatron 2-pack.
Transformers wins Best Film at MTV Movie Awards
Good news for the Transformers staff starting filming today on Transformers 2, as the first film has won Best Film at the MTV Movie Awards. The ceremony at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, took place just after a fire tore through a movie theme park nearby.
Megan Fox described Transformers 2 using a lot of expletives with Michael Bay also in attendance.
Maximum Dinobots Series Length
In a post about visiting 2D festival, Simon Furman has confirmed that Nick Roche is working on Maximum Dinobots with himself, but also that the series will be 5 issues long.
Nick Roche (who’s gearing up to draw the upcoming 5-issue Maximum Dinobots series)
The original number of issues between Revelations and All Hail Megatron was to be 8, so this means that there are only 3 issues left to fill in after Maximum Dinobots. Where these issues are 3 Spotlights, a self-contained arc, or a prequel to All Hail Megatron is unknown.
1st June – Auto Assembly 2008 Update
Simon Plumbe has provided the first of the now weekly updates for Auto Assembly 2008, with complete details of all goings on so far.
With only 62 days to go until Auto Assembly 2008, we thought it would be worth starting the first of our pre-convention weekly updates bringing you some of the latest major happenings in the final run up to Europe’s biggest Transformers event in 2008…!
Quite a few things have happened in the last 7 days and we’ve been fairly busy so we’ll try to cram as much in here as we can…
* Guests *
Our guest line-up for AA2008 is probably one of our biggest and best ever and we currently have TEN confirmed guests so far! Our guest of honour is Dan Gilvezan – the voice of Bumblebee from G1. Supporting Dan is a plethora of comic guests including legendary writer Simon Furman, artists Andrew Wildman, Simon Williams, Geoff Senior, Staz Johnson, Lew Stringer, and colourists Jason Cardy, Liam Shalloo and Kat Nicholson.
That’s not all though, we are STILL talking to more possible guests although it’s partly down to YOU whether we get more! Remember, the more people who pre-book, the greater our budget is for the convention!
* Competitions *
We’ve got a load of competitions taking place at the convention and in the run up to the day itself – art, fiction, model and kitbash competitions, a kids colouring competition and a quiz on the day itself. We’ve now got full details of all of these and information on how to enter up on the website as well as a downloadable entry form! There will be plenty of toys up for grabs so why not give it a shot!
* Charity Auction *
We started to give you all some details on this year’s charity auction earlier in the week but it’s already looking great. As well as a load of signed items from a lot of Transformers voice actors, we’ve now confirmed at least three pieces of BRAND NEW artwork from some top Transformers comic artists that have been specially commissioned for Auto Assembly 2008! Obviously, we’re open to anything that anyone wants to donate to this or our charity raffle so please get in touch!
* Goodie Bag *
The infamous goodie bag is shaping up reasonably well at the moment. We’ve got four items confirmed right now with more in negotiations. Every attendee will get two more Auto Assembly exclusive postcards, one featuring Bumblebee illustrated by Simon Williams. The other will be drawn by another top TF artist but we’re not saying who yet! Also, all attendees will receive a pack of Cards Inc G1 stickers and we have plenty of other gifts but these are going to be limited so if you want some of the other items, you’ll need to register quickly. For example, we have assorted copies of the ladybird G1 storybooks, but these were limited for the first 80 or so attendees so they’ve all been allocated already. We do have a lot more items to sort so keep an eye on the website.
As you can see, it pays to pre-book early!
* Booking Confirmations *
We know that many of you have been asking – both directly and through various forums – about booking confirmations and when you’re going to be receiving them. Well, now that we’ve been able to secure our guest of honour, we’re now working on getting them sorted!
We’re working like crazy on getting the information pack finalised, talking to hotels to chase up discounts on accommodation so we can sent out the most accurate information packs possible and these should start going out in the next 7 days to the first batch of attendees who have booked.
Obviously, as soon as we have hotel discounts sorted, details of these will also go straight on the website and we’re hoping to have the first of these done by the middle of the week at the latest.
* Pre-Registrations *
One thing we can’t stress enough for those of you who haven’t already done it is the benefits of pre-registering for Auto Assembly 2008. Not only does it get things out of the way and means that it’s one less worry for you on the day, but all pre-registrants get earlier entry than those paying on the door so you can get at all those bargains sooner!
Not only that but pre-registering helps US as convention organisers. At Auto Assembly, we have a break-even point financially. Not only do we have to pay to hire the venue and cover our guest costs, but printing, postage and numerous other expenses. However, once we have covered all of those, anything left over can be reinvested to make AA2008 a better convention either going towards bonus guests or extra gifts in the goodie bag.
For example, we are producing two exclusive postcards this year but once we have covered all of our costs, all it needs is an extra 15 adult attendees to give us the extra funds to produce a THIRD card for everyone but we can’t do that if people leave booking until the last minute or pay on the door and it’s the same when it comes to finding extra funds towards bonus UK comic guests!
Put simply, if you want a bigger and better Auto Assembly 2008, it’s in YOUR hands…!
* Volunteering *
Finally, as always, we’re looking for volunteers to help out with the convention on the day and in the run up to the event and in helping us to promote it. For more information, see the volunteering page on the website and download a form!
Well, that’s it for now, but we should have a few more announcements over the next few days so keep an eye out on all the major TF websites and forums and look out for our next update next weekend and we hope to see a lot of you all on 2nd August!
As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this weekly update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.comtel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406
