In an unprecedented crossover between Hasbro's "Transformers" and "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic," Pinkie Pie cosplays as Optimus Prime, dancing on the massive hand of the Big Bot himself, as he gives a quizzical tilt of his head. The variant cover will be available at this year's Transformers Botcon in San Diego from June 27 - 30.

TFcon wrote:We are honored to welcome Transformers voice actor Jack Angel to TFcon 2013 for his first ever Canadian convention appearance.

The voice of Astrotrain, Breakdown, Cyclonus, Ramjet, Smokescreen and Ultra Magnus in the Generation 1 cartoon; he is also known to GIJOE fans as the voice of Wet Suit and Superfriends fans as the voices of Flash, Hawkman and Samurai. Mr. Angel will be taking part in Q&A panels and autograph sessions with the attendees of the world’s largest fan-run Transformers convention.

After a three year absence, we are proud to announce that writer Jim Sorenson is making a much-overdue return to Auto Assembly for the 2013 convention taking place over the weekend of 9th – 11th August 2013.

In his own words, Jim is a super-secret spy, has a motorcycle, marooned in space, meets Hercules… or not… He’s been a long-time fan of science-fiction literature in general and Transformers in particular. His guidebooks are well regarded by the fan communities for their exhaustive attention to detail. Reports of his incarceration in another dimension should be dismissed as the unfounded rumors they are.

He has been working for IDW since 2006 and in that time he has been responsible (solely and in collaboration with Bill Forster) for Transformers: The Ark, The Ark Volume II, The AllSpark Almanac, The Complete Ark, The AllSpark Almanac II. He is currently working on Transformers Legacy and the Transformers: 30th Anniversary Collection. In addition to these he also wrote the GI: Joe field Manuals, volumes 1 and 2 and is currently working on a new Robotech RPG supplement. Jim’s blog can be found at http://boltax.blogspot.co.uk/.

At Auto Assembly 2010 Jim presented Oddities And Curiosities, a retrospective look at 25 years of rare Transformers artwork to a crowd of over 500 people in Birmingham, England and he will be taking to the stage at the convention for a Q&A Panel… who knows what he will say this time around!

If you have not already booked for the convention, tickets are still available and they can be purchased from the site at: http://www.autoassembly.org.uk/auto-assembly-2013-ticket-bookings/ but they are selling faster than ever this year so book early to avoid disappointment as we do have a cut-off of 1,000 attendees this year!

As well as Jim, we are being joined at the convention by Dan Gilvezan (G1 Bumblebee), Neil Kaplan (RiD Prime) and Steve Blum (TF: Prime Starscream), as well as comic guests Simon Furman, James Roberts, Andrew Griffith, Nick Roche, and many more.

Auto Assembly 2013 is Europe’s largest Transformers convention and is taking place over the weekend of 9th – 11th August 2013 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel. To book your tickets or find out more including details of all the dealers attending, all of our guests and a full schedule for the weekend, visit the website at http://www.autoassembly.org.uk

We promised that this would be a special week of guest announcements and we thought that we couldn’t let things rest with just Jason Cardy and Kat Nicholson so we thought that it was time to continue… so we’re proud to announce that in August, once again we are being joined by none other than Nick Roche for Auto Assembly 2013!

This will be Nick’s fifth appearance at Europe’s largest Transformers convention and as well as signing autographs and sketching, he will be taking to the stage alongside our other IDW guests James Roberts and Andrew Griffith for a panel currently scheduled for the Sunday. Time to dig out your copies of Last Stand Of The Wreckers again everyone…

But that’s not all… we are also being joined once again by prominent fan artist and our in-house art supremo, Ed Pirrie. Ed has once again provided the convention with a stunning array of artwork for the convention this year including our exclusive t-shirts, all of this year’s postcards (with more being revealed shortly) and is hard at work on this year’s comic strip for The Cybertronian Times. Ed will be sketching all weekend in our guest area.

We still have more guests to announce so stay tuned…

JOSH BURCHAM is a comic book colorist/illustrator with over 100 issues to his credit, including: Dreamwave's War Within: Age of Wrath, Transformers Stormbringer, Beast Wars, All Hail Megatron, Last Stand of the Wreckers, Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye ongoing series, and this year's Botcon exclusive Machine Wars comic!

ROBBY MUSSO has worked on various IDW Transformers titles, including the Spotlight titles "Ultra Magnus", "Ramjet", and "Cliffjumper". For Fun Publications, Robby has provided art for a good number of the MTMTE profile pieces as well as handling art duties on the 2010 BotCon comic "Transformers Timelines Issue 5: Generation 2 Redux" and the Club comic story "Transformers: Revelations". Robby will be on hand all weekend doing sketches and selling prints.

We are very pleased to announce Paul Eiding, the iconic voice of Generation One Perceptor will be joining us in August!

Paul has an impressive and extensive resume; in addition to Perceptor, he also portrays Colonel Roy Campbell in the Metal Gear series, the narrator in Diablo, Judicator Aldaris in Starcraft, and Grandpa Max Tennyson in every Ben 10 cartoon series, including Ben 10, Alien Force, Ultimate Alien, and Omniverse, in which he also voices Blukic, Eye Guy, Liam, and others. Not only that but he has also voiced various characters in Pixar’s Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Monsters, Inc., Up, Cars, A Bug's Life, and the soon to be released Monsters U.

Paul, an American actor, is equally comfortable on stage or in front of the camera. He appeared as Ambassador Loquel in the Star Trek: TNG episode: Liasons, and has guest starred on CSI:Miami, The Drew Carey Show, ER, The West Wing, My Name is Earl, The Charmings, Picket Fences, The Pretender, Providence, and many other shows.

Please help us welcome Paul to our inaugural show!

Today we kick off our Artist Alley announcements, with the first being that BotCon 2013 will in fact feature its largest Artist Alley ever! With so many amazing artists scheduled to attend BotCon 2013, this is one show you will not want to miss! And with that, we are thrilled to announce two of the artists attending BotCon In San Diego this June: Livio Ramondelli and Casey Coller!

LIVIO RAMONDELLI is the artist of various Transformers projects for IDW Publishing. His credits include Autocracy, Monstrosity, Chaos, Robots in Disguise and various covers for Spotlights and other series. He will also be doing upcoming Star Wars covers for Dark Horse Comics. He previously worked as a concept artist for DC Universe Online at WildStorm Productions.

CASEY COLLER is a professional illustrator best known for his work on various Transformers comic books from IDW Publishing. He's done covers and/or interior art for various titles, including: Transformers: Ironhide, All Hail Megatron, Robots in Disguise, Spotlights Drift, Blurr and Cliffjumper, More Than Meets The Eye, Transformers Ongoing, and Heart of Darkness. He has also done artwork for Hasbro, the Transformers Collector's Club Magazine and BotCon. Casey lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife Grace, daughter Rose, as well as a cat, two guinea pigs and four chickens.

The time has come to join the resistance as we prepare to defend Earth on June 20th when TRANSFORMERS: The Ride – 3D opens at Universal Orlando Resort!

Prepare for the greatest battle you’ll ever ride! The new TRANSFORMERS: The Ride–3D is an ultra-immersive, next generation thrill ride that blurs the line between fiction and reality!

BotCon wrote:Hello all,

We have now moved an allotment of attending BotCon sets to the non-attending Iacon category. If you have been waiting, you can now go and order your Iacon set use the registration link at BotCon!

I hate to say it but it looks like this year's membership figure won't ship until after BotCon as they are coming with the FSS figures. These have now shipped from the manufacturer and are at the packaging vendor.

Those of you in the FSS program should have received an email earlier today. We want everyone to know that the delay for both of these items has been with the manufacturer. Hopefully the process has been fixed on their side so that in future versions, they will make the agreed upon ship dates.

We apologize for for the lack of communication on our part. It has been very difficult for us to get information to pass on about both of these projects.

However, I do want to let you know that there will be carded version of Depth Charge you will be able to order once they arrive. We plan to have some available at BotCon. The bulk of the carded figures will be left in Fort Worth for the membership to order. In addition, since this is a club figure and NOT a BotCon figure, the Golden Ticket additional limits to not count for this item.

See you in San Diego!

Brian

Hello BotCon fans!

We have run through our allotment of Iacon (non-attending sets) and are considering moving some of the Primus attending sets over to Iacon non-attending.

However, we don't want to do this until we are confident that everyone has registered that intends on coming to San Diego. So, we will re-visit the numbers in the next few days and make a decision as how to assist those who can't come but want the figure sets.

If you are coming, make sure to register VERY soon for BotCon 2013 today!

See you in San Diego!

Brian

B.O.T.S. 2013 wrote:On Sunday June 9th the fifth edition of the one and only Transformers convention of the Benelux, B.O.T.S., will be held! Our location will be the Can Dance Studios, in Aalsmeer (close to Amsterdam, Amsterdam Airport).

Like every year, Hasbro Netherlands will be present at the convention. You also have the opportunity to expand your collection through dozens of dealer stands, and take part in various competitions so you can win great prizes!

For tickets and more info, check out our website: http://www.bots-nl.net.
You can also like our Facebook-page: http://www.facebook.com/BOTSNL
and follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BOTSNL

The five-figure boxed set, which includes General Obsidian, General Strika, Commander Megaplex, Clone Warrior Skywarp, and Autobot Hoist, will be presented in an illustrated display box but, for the first time ever for BotCon, will also feature a cut out mimicking the style of the original MACHINE WARS packaging. This set can be displayed alongside all of your previous BotCon sets and/or your classic Machine Wars toys! Also included with the set is a certificate of authenticity, tech specs and figure weapons.

• Brian's Bytes and Bolts reveals that the Subscription figures have been delayed from China. They are estimating that the figures will ship right after BotCon. I'm assuming this means that the figures are being shipped over with all of the BotCon exclusives to save on transport costs. Because of this delay, they are unsure when the 2nd installment payment will be due for those of you who went with the payment option.
• First look at Transformers Generations Deluxe Hoist (available 4th quarter). Hoist is a remold of Trailcutter. He features a new head and trades Trailcutters trailer topper/shield for a tow hook that appears to transform into Hoist's gun. No wings but I think we'll all be happy to have Hoist join our "Classics" ranks. I'm assuming this figure will be packaged with his Spotlight book in the upcoming deluxe/comic packaged series revealed at Toy Fair back in February.
• The next two page spread features updated decos for the BotCon 2013 Machine Wars set. As far as I can tell, the only difference is Obsidian has undergone a major color change. Whereas he was a bright green with orange (transparent?) rotors, he now sports a color scheme that seems much closer to his Beast Machines cartoon counterpart along with (transparent?) red rotors. This should make many fans happy that Strika and Obsidian will be utilizing colors from the cartoon instead of one being from the cartoon and the other being from the toy.
• Transformers Generations Magnificus from eHobby is revealed as a club exclusive! Pre-orders will be available at http://www.TransformersClub.com/shop from April 15th to May 8th. Price is currently listed at $90.
• The comic continues the Beast Wars Shattered Glass theme. It introduces G2 Hero Megatron alongside some of Takara's Beast Wars II characters like the Seacons, Dirge, Thrust, and the Autorollers. Scylla is still female.
• After the comic, we get a one page "The Transformers Menagerie - Part 2: The Dinobots"
• Profile pages for Beast Wars Grimlock (Maximal) and Beast Wars II Dirge (Predacon)
• The back cover features another installment of David Willis' Recordicons as well as two installments of Transformers I.Q.

We are honored to welcome Transformers voice actor Dick Gautier to TFcon 2013 for his first ever Canadian convention appearance.

The voice of Rodimus Prime and Hot Rod in the Generation 1 cartoon; in addition to the characters Apeface, Firebolt and one of the Sweeps; he is also known to GIJOE fans as the voice of Serpentor. Mr. Gautier will be taking part in Q&A panels and autograph sessions with the attendees of the world’s largest fan-run Transformers convention.

We have exciting news! Our exclusive figure for Charticon 2013 is none other than Aftershock! Aftershock is a generations-style update of G1 Quake, complete with brand new head and will come in a custom box with accessories! This figure is limited to 50 units as they are all being hand painted and assembled. We will have a small number available for non-attendees, but they will be sold primarily to pre-registrants of the show. They will go on sale on our website soon!

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