Japanese Transformers

e-HOBBY has updated their website with the bio of the upcoming Magnificius release, as well as a colored cover image of the comic that will be included with the release.

Please bear in mind that the translation of the bio is VERY ROUGH:

Name: Magnificus
Status: Exile

Once Military Affairs Advisor for Mebion, Magnificus was betrayed by an unknown comrade and banished to frontier space. Forced to serve as a gun-for-hire, he has spent long years on the run from bounty hunters with his comrade-in-arms, Gamede. But the pair has finally found a means to achieve their revenge: body data stolen from Perceptor using Gamede's ability to shrink to atomic size! Redesigning his body using this data, Magnificus has successfully mastered the art of "Psychometry", which is the ability to see residual images by scanning objects and other lifeforms. Can Magnificus master this ability and use it to determine the identity of his betrayer?

The e-HOBBY exclusive Magnificus will be available both through e-HOBBY and the Transformers Collector's Club.

An image has surfaced which purports to show the silhouettes of the three Japan-only Transformers Go! Samurai. G01, 02 and 03 are new molds with a combination gimmick which allows them to assume three different combined modes. These silhouettes hint at what the individual robots might be - one thing that is very obvious is the emphasis on melee weapons. Check out the alleged silhouette at left.

Hisashi Yuki has also updated his Twitpic account with more new Transformers Go! images. The first group of deluxe class toys - Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Soundwave (in a G1 deco) and Starscream are all on show with their more show-accurate decos. The Predacon Voyager Predaking, known in Japan as Dragotron, is also on show.

Check out all the new images attached to this post.

Thanks to the TFyuki twitter account, we have a trio of images from the upcoming Transformers GO! toyline. Shown here are voyagers Optimus Prime and Shockwave (Or Beast Hunters Optimus and Shockwave respectively).

Check out these new photos by clicking the title bar.

Takara-Tomy has updated their website with some rather cool promo material for the Transformers Go! toyline. On their main website there is an extremely cool flyer for the initial releases in the line, featuring a photoshopped image of Hunter Optimus Prime and Dragotron / Predaking fighting in Earth's orbit. Meanwhile the Transformers Go! Toyline page has updated with another image - this one showing the heads of the three main characters of each faction in Go! (Optimus, Dragotron and Shockwave) along with Bumblebee.

E-Hobby has updated their pre-order page for their Classics Magnificus exclusive with some artwork for the bonus comic that will come with the figure. The comic cover takes a Wild West style, with a wanted poster for Magnificus being torn by an unseen hand. The artstyle seems to be in the vein of the Marvel Transformers comics, at least as much as we can judge from one single uncolored lineart.

Check it out here. The Transformers Collector's Club will be offering Magnificus for order to fans outside of Japan, priced $90 with preorders expected to go live next week.

The fourth and to date final series of Transformers Prime Arms Micron Gashapons has been released in Japan. Arms Micron Gashapon Volume 4 redecos all twelve existing toys from the first three series in translucent blue "Matrix" versions for the Autobots and translucent purple "Terrorcon" versions for the Decepticons. This makes the figures look very sharp and lends a nice coordinated color scheme for the larger combo weapons.

Autobase Aichi on Facebook has posted an in-hand gallery of these toys, be sure to check them out!

New listings have been released by Takara-Tomy for their Transformers Go! line. The new listings give us the names of the next three releases which are given as:

G05 Gekiso-maru (ninja team, Japan exclusive release)
G06 Hunter Smokescreen (no hunter armor)
G07 Bakudora (listing mentions this is a Predacon and sports a new head)

No images are available at present. Hunter Smokescreen and Bakudora are priced at 2,500 yen apiece, suggesting that both of these will be Deluxe class molds - on that basis Bakudora is probably a reuse of either Ripclaw or Skystalker. Gekiso-Maru, the ninja team, is priced at 5,500 yen. Given the pricepoint and the fact it is referred to as a team, odds are this is a multipack of some description - perhaps the Decepticon combiner that was originally mooted a few weeks back?

Online blog The Cave Collection has posted a selection of images of the BAPE Red Convoy. The third Generation 1 Optimus Prime - who is historically known as Convoy in Japan - to be released under the Takara-Tomy and BAPE co-licensing agreement is red. Very very red! Check out the images to see for yourself. As a BAPE store exclusive, this one is a very limited edition piece.

Site sponsor, Robot Kingdom, has updated their preorder listing for the upcoming Arms Micron Nightmare Unicron figure. We now have in package pictures of the figure whose packaging matches the deco of the figure inside. This black, grey and red repaint of Arms Micron Unicron is due for release on March 30th. So make sure you have your preorders ready to go for this "Nemesis" Unicron figure!

Our sponsors Robot Kingdom have posted up some images of the Asia-exclusive purchase bonuses for Transformers Encore 23 Fortress Maximus. That's right - bonuses, Fortress Maximus has two of them! As well as the previously reported headphone jack - allowing you to "head on" your MP3 player or phone - Encore Fortress Maximus in Asia gets the now-traditional collector's coin treatment. It's a very cool piece, coming packaged in a cardboard display envelope modeled after Fortress Maximus' own head and unfolding to look like the main torso of the Autobot dreadnought.

It has also been confirmed that Fortress Maximus eye's will be painted, not factory applied stickers - but for the purists, the original stickers will also be available to add to the toy if you want the full vintage look. Thanks to SydneyY for pointing that one out to us.

Some additional images of the E-Hobby exclusive Generations Magnificus have been released. E-Hobby's Magnificus is a black redeco of Reveal the Shield Perceptor, with a new head. These new images show off Magnificus' box - and his function, Decepticon Outcast - plus there are a couple more pictures of the toy as well. Check them out attached to this news post.

The most recent edition of Dengeki Hobby, the May issue, carried some nice updates about the Transformers GT line - and via Autobase Aichi who posted a summary of the Transformers content, we can share this news with you. First of all, the GT Maximus is confirmed for a release. The release date is to be announced, and he will come with a Race Queen named "Hiiro"

Second, the Legends Prowl redeco named Safety Prime (reported previously here) will also see a release. Safety Prime is to be given away to those who participate in "Super GT Kids Walk" event. The catch, though, is that only children under junior high school age can receive this figure, which will make him hard to get on the secondary market.

A pair of galleries have surfaced over at Higekuma Toy blog showcasing the new Takara Generations Fall of Cybertron Soundwave figure. The galleries show the differences in this Soundwave from his US counterpart as well as offers comparisons to the War For Cybertron Deluxe figure. The biggest difference between the Takara and Hasbro versions is the shade of blue. The Takara version offers a much darker, richer blue with neon pink highlights, making the figure all that much more accurate to his video game appearance.

We've mirrored a selection of the photos for you to check out, click the title bar to see those. If you'd like to see the full galleries, click the links above.

Takara-Tomy have updated their Transformers site with official images of the new Transformers Go! toys being released in April. April's releases covers the majority part of the first two waves of Beast Hunters toys, being released in Japan with altered, show-accurate colors. Check out the links below for the product pages - we've mirrored the images here too for your convenience:

G11 Optimus Prime
G12 Dragotron (Predaking)
G13 Shockwave
G14 Bumblebee
G15 Bulkhead
G16 Wheeljack
G17 Starscream
G18 Soundwave

They have also updated with listings for the Generations Japan Data Disks:

TG-15 Autobot Data Disks
TG-16 Decepticon Data Disks