Decepticon Base Diarama (10x) From Transformers customizer frenzy_rumble is a gallery of images of his latest custom which is a diarama of G1 Decepticons. The base is a modified version of iGear Ark playset and I believe the figures are custom paint jobs of various G1, Masterpiece toys and others.
Starscream and the Seekers Cover "Bad" A few months ago there was a music video to Michael Jackson's Thriller mostly featuring Autobots and now here is one covering Bad with all the Decepticon jets.
ROTF Accurate Custom Jolt Hit the link for a gallery of images of a custom job that create a more movie accurate version of Jolt from Revenge of the Fallen complete with battle damage and arm tips that were used to provide Optimus with the "jolt" he need to merge if Jetfire's parts. Thanks to Bryan for the link.
NASA Announces Winner of Transformers Video Contest A month or so ago, NASA held a contest for elementary school students to create videos about "their favorite technology." The contest was collaboration between Hasbro, Paramount and NASA "to help students understand how NASA technology 'transforms' into things used daily." The winners receive the NASA Optimus Prime trophy during the awards ceremony on April 12th with Peter Cullen (voice of Prime) at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Congrats to the winners. (via Seibertron)Read More »
Transtopia Masterclass - Soundwave From Seibertron, a look at another Transformer custom. This one is a combo piece of Reveal the Shield Perceptor with Generations Soundwave (like the guns) and a fantastic paintjob. The figure already sold on eBay for $281.87 but be sure to hit the link to view the gallery.
Transformers: Beast Wars Re-release Shout! Factory has tweeted plans to re-release Transformers: Beast Wars on DVD with new extras material. They also have indicated that the Generation One set will also get re-issued and they are looking at giving the Japanese cartoons a possible stateside release. I still have the Rhino editions of both cartoons and probably need to upgrade but the cost of those sets at the time was not cheap. Takara continued the Generation One cartoons for another 3 or so season after it had ended stateside.Read More »
An amusing picture from Toy Fair 2011 as it turns out that even Optimus Prime isn't above the law. As the image from Oh No They Didn't shows, the truck and trailer used in the filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon was ticketed by NYPD during the Fair while it was illegally parked outside for posterity. Thanks to Brian for the link.
It has been a while since the last linkfest and the links have piled up. This edition brings a nice detailed look at the recently released Masterpiece Optimus Prime and more pics of upcoming Reveal the Shield/Classic toys, a G1 graphic, and some videos. The highlights of that is a Generation One Autobots dancing to Thriller and the entire Generation One cast, CGI style, fighting it while Stan Bush sings his latest single.
Masterpiece Rodimus Prime Gallery Hit the link for a large gallery that shows off the latest Masterpiece toy. The figure was just released this week in Japan and will likely start arriving in people's hands in the next week or so if pre-ordered. This figure is starting to shape up to be one of the best yet.
NASA's Optimus Prime Contest NASA has opened public voting on a video contest aimed at elementary students designed to get them interested in science by encouraging people to vote on the videos they created. NASA is using their recent relationship with the Transformers: Dark of the Moon production to promote the contest with the chosen winner will win an "NASA Optimus Prime" trophy. Voting ends on Feb. 6th. Thanks to Richard for the link.Read More »
Time for another linkfest with info on the lastest from the Alternity toy line, Masterpiece toy line, a real life Pentagon sponsored Transformer, and some humor with soon to be retired news legend Larry King.
Official Alternity Thundercracker Image The third Seeker in the Alternity line gets some official pictures. Based on the Starscream mold, this one has a metallic blue color scheme that looks pretty good. Not sure if "Seeker" applies though when the alt mode is a Okamora Orochi. The figure will be released in the fall as a Japan exclusive and probably in the $50 range.
Real Life "Transformer" Pentagon scientists have created a tiny robot, about the size and shape of a piece of paper, which can "transform" itself into various shapes such as a boat, toy, or paper glider. The "transformer" is from collaboration with Darpa, Harvard and MIT. The demo version at link above) shows off the robot as it converts through four distinct shapes. The applications include ability for a soldier or whoever "carry a can...filled with the shape shifting particles of varying size" that can be programmed to form a particular tool, used on clothing to keep someone cool during the day, warm at night or even change the aerodynamics of a plane's wings in flight.Read More »
For your entertainment, Heidi Montag's Audition Tape for Transformers 3 that has her saying “This is for you, Michael Bay!” before shooting at various still targets. I admire the attempt, can't hurt to try but this is her audition? Considering the names that were floated around for weeks, I don't think Michael Bay's concern was ability to fire a gun. Apparently she tweeted the tape, not knowing that Michael Bay once said, "I will never have a twitter account." The effort is likely wasted as Bay seems to have cast model Rosie Huntington-Whitely. Already the audition has a parody (which ironically is a better audition).
Time for another installment of Transformers related stuff from the last week.
Transformers: Cyber Missions Trailer TG Studios released a trailer that shows off their online version of the 13 episode CGI series for Hasbro. This isn't related to TF: Prime (to our knowledge) but more or less a continuation of the Transformers movie-verse to help promote the NEST Global Alliance toy line. The episodes look very much like Beast Wars Season One with overall lack of environment details but to be fair to TG Studios, the more details means the more work in design and rendering which means the higher the costs to Hasbro. You get a budget; you usually have to stick with it. If interested in watching the episodes, you can find them at Transformers.com under the "Play" section. Thanks to Kaly and Katie for the links.
Transformers: Prime Trademarked Click the link for details but basically this seems to all but confirm that the next cartoon and toy line from Hasbro will be named TF: Prime. I suspect that Hasbro will officially announce the name and line at Botcon this summer.
Airachinid Joins Transformers: Prime Speaking of the new cartoon, S250 (who leaks lots of toy images), tweeted "just heard some rumor about Giant character of coming transformers series...something like giant arachnida and dinosaur" The name "Airachinid" may just be a mistranslation. Almost sounds like Blackarachnia may once again return to TF lore.
Digitalscape Working TF: Prime Yep, another piece of TF: Prime news. The company is a Japanese consulting company that is seeking 40 people to help create graphics for the cartoon. Since the company specializes in digital, not animated creations, this might be the first real proof that the next cartoon will not in the anime style from the last decade or so.
Optimus Prime, Balloon Animal Someone with a lot of love or way too much time created the G1 Optimus Prime from balloons over the course of 28 hours. The final result stands seven feet tall with points of articulation and his weapon. Seems silly but it is pretty impressive once you get a look at the video. (via Gizmodo)
Megatron, Balloon Animal Yep, same idea, same creator, but this time the G1 version out of balloon animals. Final result is six feet tall, made up of 300 balloons. Megs was entered into a balloon contest, sadly he lost to a rabbit.
Battle Ops Bumblebee in Packaging Look at this new version of Bumblebee that is slightly larger than the general leadership class but smaller than his ultimate version. Overall appears to be a very solid toy that will cost around $60 when released later this year.
Don Figueroa's Transformers Artwork The link above is a nice tight look at the gallery of images that great Transformers artist has posted or just check out his complete gallery of posted images at deviant art by clicking here. Figueroa has been a TF artist for nearly a decade going all the back to when the comics were being published by Dreamwave and along with Pat Lee is responsible for much of the look and designs we see for the G1 toys and comics today.
Starscream Ghost Version in Packaging and Video Click the link for a look at the Masterpiece Ghost Starscream that is pretty slick looking, if pricy (around $140). Below are videos found by Siebertron.com that show off a 360 degree look of the toy which is scheduled to come out in July.
Animated "Lego" Transformers Another gallery that shows off the lego-ish Animated Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, complete with a lego head.
Rifftrax of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Part 1 | Part 2 Purely for your amusement, a kind of Mystery Science 3000 breakdown of ROTF by the Rifftrax crew. Some lines of note: Demolishor getting on his wheels: "DAMN IT, I had gone straight! I was helping to build a friggin children's hospital! But NO, a Decepticon can't reform! Screw you guys, I'm just gonna run amuck!" or Demolishor getting on his wheels: "DAMN IT, I had gone straight! I was helping to build a friggin children's hospital! But NO, a Decepticon can't reform! Screw you guys, I'm just gonna run amuck!" Thanks to Christopher for the link and info.
In the United States tomorrow, our yearly version of the World Cup is held with Super Bowl XLIV which pits the Indianapolis Colts against the New Orleans Saints.
As the images and video below show, Optimus Prime clearly has a favorite team. Personally I don't particularly care who wins, I just hope the movie trailers that usually premiere during the game are good. Thanks to Jonnyroobs for the links.
Transformers related stuff has made a few real life appearances this week that are of note. One is a sweet case mod for the XBox 360, Prime helps explain The Tonight Show fiasco, and Prime also shows up as a dish washer.
XBox 360 AllSpark Mod As the image shows, the XBox has been transformed into the AllSpark Cube. The mode sports a DVD tray with Decepticon logo, storage compartment, and lighting effects. Click the link above for more images.
Optimus Prime, Clothes Dryer A Taiwanese father spent $1,600 for scrap metal and lot of work to create a 14-foot model of the movie version of Prime for his son. Video below, image at link above.
Animated Optimus Prime Helps Explain The Tonight Show Fight The Transformers: Animated version of Optimus Prime assisted Pee Wee Herman with explaining the war that has been going on with NBC and Jay Leno over the show. Prime plays Conan's (Mr. Giraffe) lawyer. Video below or use link above (third video down).
It turns out that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen provided plenty of life lessons that can carry you through life. At least according to 100 Things I Learned. For ROTF, the list is currently at 63 things, most rather amusing. Some used it to vent about the movie but most got into the spirit of pretending to take the movie's "lessons" literally. The full list is here. (via Roger Ebert, nope not a typo)
Some favorites: - Don't let your mom eat environmentally friendly brownies served by white kids in dreadlocks. - The army will automatically fire a conveniently placed rail gun if you tell them you used to work with them. - Mothers love hearing their children losing their virginity. - If a hot girl is interested in a geek, she is probably trying to kill him. - You can throw a high US government official appointed by the president, from a C17 with a parachute and get away with it. - When someone you love is in peril, screaming their name apparently helps a lot.
It has been a long time since did one of these. At the time the news was flying fast and furious but now that things have slowed down, it seems like a good time to go back and look for those links and the like that site fans sent me relating to Transformers. I started with some of the older suggestions, a few of which went all the way to the beginning of the year. As a result some of the videos and the like may seem like "old news" to some but I figure for most they may not have seen these fan made efforts. Five videos total are below.
Unsolved Mysteries: The Death of Optimus Prime - "Investigation" of the death of the iconic character in Transformers: The Movie using combination of the movie's footage, toy "re-enactments", new voice work and more, all with faithful re-creation of the Unsolved Mysteries style. Thanks to Jon for the link.
In a rather odd combination, Optimus Prime "sings" briefly (at :34 second point) of the commercial "The World Is Just Awesome" promoting the Discovery Channel while over a scene from the first movie. I try to never miss Mythbusters (which is shown just before Prime). (from TFFINO via TFormers)
Update: It turns out the reason Prime was probably part of the commercial is the recent business deal between Discovery Communications and Hasbro to launch a channel sometime next year. "The rebranded network is scheduled to premiere in late 2010. The network will feature content from Hasbro’s rich portfolio of entertainment and educational properties, and content from Discovery’s extensive library of award-winning children’s educational programming, as well as programming from third-party producers." Thanks to Katie for the link.
Michael Bay has made it clear in comments made in the special features for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and in various media interviews that he held much disdain for Terminator Salvation's McG for his use of suspiciously Transformer like robots in his film. As a sign of that, here is an image captured by IloveMcG that illustrates a dig at the film by apparently labeling one of the cannon fodder Decepticons in the desert battle with "T1000", the classic name for the original Terminator model.
Update: As pointed out in the comments I had my Terminator models confused. The T-1000 is the classic villain Terminator played by Robert Patrick in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The T-800 is the Arnold Schwarzenegger's role as the villain in Terminator 1 and hero for T2. For Terminator 3, he was the "'850 series Model 101', a 'T-850', and a 'T-101'". Long story short, T-1000 is appropriate name for a Decepticon when taking a dig at the Terminator franchise since both are bad guys.
National Lampoon has some fun with a willing Megan Fox in an interview as part of the promotional tour for Jennifer's Body. I don't know if it was planned in advance but I wish more press junket interviews were as relaxed and fun. It does indicate that Megan Fox does have a good sense of humor about herself and that her hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live next week could be hilarious (assuming the show itself is on its A game which is never a given).
A new episode of Robot Chicken once again brings another Transformers reference, this time with Optimus Prime as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. The basic story is a nerd adds his version of "cool" to the characters and goes to kick some Wicked Witch butt. (via Tformers)
For a little amusement, here is Robot Chicken's explanation for what really happened to Jazz at the end of the first Transformers movie (via TFormers).
In addition, click here for a cute gallery of Optimus Prime playing the guitar.
Last night Optimus Prime (CGI version) with Peter Cullen doing the voice appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to read "Top Ten Things That Sound Cool When Spoken By a Giant Robot." Cullen does the best he can with weak material but the CGI wasn't bad for something put together for a comedy segment. Thanks to Feris for the link.
MTV has posted an amusing video that shows Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen star Shia Labeouf singing the Touch and saying "There is a remix and its in the movie. Who would have thought that. I have been fighting that since forever. It's one of may favorite songs of all time." Did Stan Bush's efforts pay off? I will believe it when I hear it next week.
Decepticon Base Diarama (10x)
ROTF Accurate Custom Jolt
Transtopia Masterclass - Soundwave
An amusing picture from Toy Fair 2011 as it turns out that even Optimus Prime isn't above the law. As the image from Oh No They Didn't shows, the truck and trailer used in the filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon was ticketed by NYPD during the Fair while it was illegally parked outside for posterity. Thanks to Brian for the link.
It has been a while since the last linkfest and the links have piled up. This edition brings a nice detailed look at the recently released Masterpiece Optimus Prime and more pics of upcoming Reveal the Shield/Classic toys, a G1 graphic, and some videos. The highlights of that is a Generation One Autobots dancing to Thriller and the entire Generation One cast, CGI style, fighting it while Stan Bush sings his latest single.
Time for another linkfest with info on the lastest from the Alternity toy line, Masterpiece toy line, a real life Pentagon sponsored Transformer, and some humor with soon to be retired news legend Larry King.
Time for another linkfest of Transformer toys and drawings with some amusement thrown in for giggles.
In the United States tomorrow, our yearly version of the World Cup is held with Super Bowl XLIV which pits the Indianapolis Colts against the New Orleans Saints. 
Transformers related stuff has made a few real life appearances this week that are of note. One is a sweet case mod for the XBox 360, Prime helps explain The Tonight Show fiasco, and Prime also shows up as a dish washer.
Michael Bay has made it clear in comments made in the special features for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and in various media interviews that he held much disdain for Terminator Salvation's McG for his use of suspiciously Transformer like robots in his film. As a sign of that, here is an image captured by IloveMcG that illustrates a dig at the film by apparently labeling one of the cannon fodder Decepticons in the desert battle with "T1000", the classic name for the original Terminator model.
