Posting on his blog Disciples of Boltax, Jim Sorenson has revealed some information about the Transformers Animated Allspark Almanac which appeared among the many new listing on Amazon.com yesterday. He explains that he is once again working with Bill Forster to produce a 208 page volume which will be in full glorious color (as opposed to the black and white Ark volumes), and will have a wider scope. While Animated models will remain a focus, the volume is being produced with the full co-operation of the Transformers Animated production team and will include character biographies and episode summaries. The talented Marcello Matere will be providing the cover illustration. This volume is shaping up to be a "must-own" volume for all fans of Transformers Animated!

S250, one of our friends who has provided us with a great wealth of information about the upcoming third season of Transformers Animated, has posted the animation model sheet for Animated Brawn on his blog. You can check out the image by visiting the blog via the link above, or by viewing our mirror of the image by clicking on the thumbnail to the left.

The Transformers Collectors' Club has posted the full, high-resolution cover image to the next issue of the member magazine on their front page. Check out Animated Season Three's Strika and Rodimus at left!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie concept artist and IDW Cover artist Josh Nizzi has stopped by our 2005 Boards and revealed his cover to Issue #1 of the movie prequel comic, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Defiance. Defiance #1 is due out in January 2009. Check out the cover by clicking on the image to the left!

TF08.net has provided the first in-hand pictures of the upcoming Animated Activators Cliffjumper figure. This figure is a repaint of the Activators Bumblebee mold with a new head mold. Activators Cliffjumper will be introduced along with Activators Dirge as part of the Activators Wave 5 assortment that is due out towards the end of the year.

At a recent toy show in Japan, TakaraTomy showed off the first images of the "Black & White" Disney Label Mickey Mouse Transformer. While the previously revealed colored version will be released on February 26, 2009, the "Black & White" version will be released a month later on March 26, 2009. Check out the new images of the "Black & White" Mickey Mouse Transformer, as well as more images of the colored verison, by clicking on the image to the left or visiting the CYBERGUNDAM BLOG.

An auction on eBay has surfaced for a prototype pop-up card and reference materials for the unreleased Transformers Generation 2 Go-Bot Greasepit, who would have been included with the unreleased Go-Bots Racing Rig. Greasepit would have been a repaint of the Soundwave/Gearhead Go-Bot mold. Along with a prototype of the pop-up card that would have been included with the Racing Rig are reference materials that provide the proposed motto, bio, and tech spec numbers for Greasepit! Check out all of the images from the auction by clicking on the auction link above or by clicking on the image to the left.

The current issue of Hobby Japan magazine has new images of several upcoming Transformers items from TakaraTomy. New images of the MP-08 Masterpiece Grimlock prototype are shown, including the first ever size comparison image with the original Generation One Grimlock figure. Also shown in the scans are control art for Alternity Megatron as well as a size comparison of the Alternity Convoy figure with other Convoy/Optimus Primes figures. Check out all of the new scans by clicking on the image to the left.

2005 Boards Member chuckcjc has posted images of the pack-in manga and toy catalog that accompanies the newly released Transformers Henkei Ironhide and Galvatron toys. The manga is one of the most brutal and action-packed installments of the Henkei pack-ins yet, as befits two of the greatest warriors among the Transformers. Check out the scans by clicking on the thumbnail to the left.

Hasbro has put up a survey aimed at us, the collectors, on their website. The short questionnaire includes 23 questions, takes about ten minutes to complete and looks at topics such as which lines you collect, which non-toy products you collect and which of the "non Transforming" items you collect. We the staff of TFW2005 encourage everyone to take the survey and make your opinions heard!

Click here to take the survey.

Another host of new Transformers titles has been listed on Amazon, this time published by IDW. The new movie, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, leads the pack with trade paperbacks of the Movie Adaptation, Prequel: Alliance, and Prequel: Defiance. These are due in June 2009. Before that though in May 2009, there is Transformers The Movie Omnibus Edition which is thought to contain the adaptation of the first movie, its prequel, Reign of Starscream and possibly the Target comics. Wow! A "Movie Universe" book is also in the works for May 09 along with a selection of the books we reported earlier tonight.

In other Transformers comic news, Transformers Animated will receive an almanac edition in August 2009, along with two more screen capture volumes. IDW's Generation 1 Comics will see a Premiere Edition Voume 2 in May 2009 and Maximum Dinobots Trade Paperback in July. Dreamwave's Energon comics are also getting reprinted in July 09, with two more Marvel reprint volumes hitting in June 09 and August 09. To top it all off, Jim Sorenson's two Transformers Ark Character model volumes are being collected as one big volume in August 2009, and a mysterious Transformers Robot Heroes volume titled "I am Optimus Prime" is due in May 2009.

MeGrimlock of Italian Transformers site Autorobot.it visited our 2005 Boards to share the latest news on the release of Transformers Generation 1 on DVD in Italy. Medianetwork Communication who is handling the release of the DVDs has released the artwork for the third volume with cover art once again provided by the talented Emiliano Santalucia. The cover art stars the one and only Dinobots! Click on this topics title or the thumbnail to the left to view the artwork for the back of the box and to view larger versions of both images.

Jim Sorenson, author of the two Transformers character model compendiums The Ark and The Ark II, has started his own blog, Disciples of Boltax. To kick off the blog, he has posted images of a pair of aliens originally designed as alien prisoners in the third season episode Chaos. The designs were never used in this episode, though they did make it into the show in the episode Starscream's Ghost.

To check out the blog and see the full design, please click on the link above.

A huge list of new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen books has been added to Amazon.com for preorder! This list of new titles includes five novels:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Operation Autobot, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Last Prime, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: When Robots Attack!, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Made You Look! and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Spot the 'Bots.

There is also the inevitable movie adaptation novel, with Alen Dean Foster once again taking up the writing chores. A "junior novel" adaptation is also being published, which contains a condensed version of the story omitting the more violent elements.

Lastly there is a selection of other books, including two children's I Can Read books - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: I Am Optimus Prime and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Rise of the Decepticons. A character guide - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Mix and Match - a reusable sticker album and a coloring & activity book round out the listing.

Japanese retailer AmiAmi has posted new images of the colored version of the Disney Label Mickey Mouse Transformer by TakaraTomy. This item is due out for release in February 2009. Click on the photo to view all of the new images.