There's a new listing at ToysRUs.com.  It's for a Movie Legends 6-pack that includes Optimus, Jazz, Bumblebee, Megatron, Barricade, and Starscream.  It's avilable for preorder for $20. 

There's also an odd web site devoted to the luck draw gold masterpeice Optimus Prime.  This appears to be the first stage of this new tf web page.  Head over to www.goldoptimusprime.com to check it out. 


There's also an interview with Matt Youngberg Supervising Director of Transformers Animaited at IGN.com.  

BLOG:  The more I read about Animated the more hopful I become.  For all of you who at present are dispising Animated, please stop and think rationally about your anger at the "distruction" of your beloved Transformers.  How many of you who presently hate Animated also hated the Movie when all you knew of it was that they ruined the robot modes? 

Admittedly I, like many others, had reservations about the movie.  Mine were different then many other peoples.  I was worried that we would agian experience the pain of G1 type of toys.  Meaning that the toys would only bear basic similarities to what we saw on screen.  If that were the case, they may very well end up also not being posable enough to make collectors happy.  Are the toys perfect? No.  Have any of the toys from any line been perfect? No.  Are the Movie toys a good enough representation to make myself and most other collectors happy? Yes.  In dealing with the real world and cost of production as well as durablity issues, these toys are largly very good.  

Many of you are now equally concerned about the upcomming Animated.  I don't share your level of distress.  I do understand it.  Because, agian I am worried about how Hasbro is going to make toys look like the animation style.  But, the transtion from this animation style to toy should prove easier than movie robot to toy.  

I also understand that many of you are infact worried that Animated will go down as the worst tv series we've ever had bar none.  I just don't think that will happen.  Here's why.  

1:  The production staff.  The Batman, Teen Titans, & TMNT are all projects the production staff have previously worked on.  All in all these are/were pretty good shows.

2:  Interviews.  From reading the various interviews these people are taking Animated very seriously.  They want this show to do well, and they want to make the fans happy.

3:  Kids.  This is where most of fan base's worries infact are.  Some fans seem to belive that if the show is written to the standard of a 7-8yr old viewer that the show will be an instant flop because it is soooooo bad.  If it were wirtten to the adult level many of us would like it would be remarkablly hard to get it on tv. 

Whle R.I.D. was really bad,how many of us still watched it?  How many of us still found it somehow entertaining, possiblly even mildly captivating?  The truth that many of us forget from time to time is that when push comes to shove the fans are kids at heart.  If we weren't we would've out grown our toy collections and stopped watching cartoons alltogether.  This is the true appeal of tfs the kid inside of us.  It's nice that Hasbro makes cool toys to keep us in our childhood loves.  It's remarkable that if you count the Japanese series Transformers has been on the air almost every year since 1984.  But, in all the incarnations, among all the changes, with all the various continuities Hasbro/Takra/Tommy/Marvel/Dreamworks & everyone else involved with the shows have appealled to our inner child.  Why should Cartoon Network not do what seems to have worked for more than 20 years?

Agian, I'm not saying the show will be great or for that matter even good.  But, it seems to me to be to early to say just how good (or bad) Animated will be.  Be patient January is only 5 months away.  And, I promise if it's as bad as many of you expect, I'll post an apology.  To which, you can all mock and ridicule me in your replies.  :)

-Kinghtwing-