As you may well know, it seems like every store that will carry the Transformers: The Movie DVD will have it's own exclusive item(s) to go with the DVD. We have compiled a list of the stores that will have exclusive items, and what those items will be. So choose wisely when you go DVD shopping this coming Tuesday!

Click Read More to see the list. As more information becomes available, we will update the list when necessary.

Simon Furman updates his blog with information about upcoming story lines for the UK Transformers: The Movie Magazine released by Titan. Future issues will lose the Protoform modes and switch to the movie's Earth modes. Since they don't want to contradict any future movies or IDW comics, the Magazine will instead focus around moments of the movie that can be further expanded on. Furman gave the example of the story for #7, "Starscream's Militia" which will take place shortly after Megatron falls, but before Starscream retreats.

You can see the blog entry here, it may be a bit spoiler-ish for some readers of the magazine. 

Cybertron Philippines has managed to get a hold of a sample of the Transformers: The Movie transforming DVD case, and dropped by to share images. In the blink of an eye what appears to be an oddly shaped DVD case turns into the heroic Optimus Prime! A flat Optimus, but Optimus none-the-less. In the US, this will be a Target exclusive, so look for it on store shelves on Tuesday, October 16th!

You can see the images here.

You can also discuss them in firstpredacon's thread here. 

The images of SkyLynx at a Tokyo toy show piqued our interest and made our wallets cower. Now BigBadToyStore has been able to confirm that TakaraTomy will indeed reissue the G1 catbird and that he is destined for Japan's toy shelves February of next year!

You can see the BBTS preorder page for SkyLynx here, and stop by Bolothamogg's thread to join our discussion on this news.

Last week it was revealed that writers Alex Kurtzman, Robert Orci and Ehren Kruger were in negotiations for the sequel to the Transformers: The Movie. The Los Angeles Times now confirms that all three have signed on in a deal that may end up paying $8 million! The article also mentions that Michael Bay has already begun to pull together digital pre-visualizations for Transformer designs not used in the first film.

You can read the full article here.

IDW artist Nick Roche has posted in the IDW forums the line art that he had made for the first issue of the Beast Wars Source Book. Included in the post are a few drawings that didn't make it into the issue!

Click here to see his renditions of Apache, Autocrasher, BB, Big Convoy, Break, and Blackarachnia.

Over the weekend, a 13-page document purported to be a story treatment for Transformers II hit the internet, and naturally, all hell broke loose in the fandom. The ambitious alleged treatment included scenes on Cybertron, more backstory on the Allspark, rifts in the Decepticon ranks, and of course, huge action-packed battles in major U.S. cities. It was dated 10/02/2007, and the author's name was blacked out. Officially, the document was quickly denounced as a fake, via producer Don Murphy. However, speculation and discussion continued.

We will not be linking to the treatment itself, but feel it is important to recap some information that may either stimulate or stifle some of the speculation. On Sunday, Nelson of Michael Bay.com stopped by TFW2005 to offer this cryptic comment:  "What I can say is that treatment wasn't a fan concoction. Take it as you will." Naturally, that only piqued more interest. Next, it was discovered that the last two characters of the alleged author's name were visible on one page of the script, and that the name of the newly added screenwriter Ehren Kruger seemed to fit both those final letters, and the size of the blacked-out area. 

Today, Nelson posted on the Allspark, seeming to put most of the questions to bed: "[The treatment is] fake as in it's a treatment that won't be used? Yes. Real as in it was not a fan who wrote it? Yes." In other words, the treatment was written by someone in the industry (possibly Kruger), and may have at some point been under consideration as the basis for the sequel... but as of today, they're not going to use it.

To discuss the treatment, and see Nelson's post as well as the Photoshop tests on the author's name, check out Master Fwiffo's thread.

According to articles on IGN, CHUD, and ComingSoon.net, Steven Spielberg is pushing the Transformers II writing team to churn out a finalized story at breakneck speed. Spielberg held a "meet-and-greet" on the Universal Studios lot, and while all articles agree that the sequel will be happening quickly, they seem to conflict a bit on the details; ComingSoon says "there's already a story," CHUD says the story "will be turned in next week," and IGN asserts that the story is "going out within the next 30 days."

Either way, all articles acknowledge that Spielberg wants to get moving on the Transformers: The Movie follow-up before a potential Writers Guild strike, and that he confirmed Shia LaBeouf is signed for "multiple" giant-robot flicks.

View the original articles at IGN, CHUD, and ComingSoon.net, and discuss in Matrix Prime's thread.

IDW Publishing's "breakout year" is the subject of a new article in the San Diego Union-Tribune. IDW co-founder Ted Adams and representatives from Wizard, Comic Book Resources, and Diamond are on hand to discuss IDW's past successes, particularly with licensed properties such as Transformers and Transformers: The Movie, as well as the potential windfall from the upcoming 30 Days Of Night feature film. They also touch on the risks involved with comics publishing, including the relatively new threat of internet piracy, and how the comic industry is growing while similar businesses struggle to keep up with the times.

Visit the Union-Tribune's SignOnSanDiego.com for the full article.

Many fans have noticed several errors in the first Beast Wars: Source Book that IDW released last week. These amount anywhere from coloring errors to mistakes alphabetizing the characters names, and even improperly credited artwork. IDW Publishing Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall has posted in the IDW forums trying to ease these concerns.

Hey, everyone--

In the time we've been doing Transformers comics, there have been highs and lows for the fans, I know. As there's going to be on anything -- some projects work better than others, for various reasons. 

So what happened?

That's a good question. But there's really no need for me to make excuses or air any beasty-smelling laundry, so I'll just say that the book is, like everything we publish, ultimately my responsibility. This book was one that sort of slipped through the crack while I was dealing with an editorial shift, and it went out with some errors. Book Two was completed during this same period. But Andrew is here as the TF Editor now, and is extremely competent and he and I will do what we can to ensure the rest of the books are produced as they should be. As many errors are able to be corrected in the collected version will be fixed, too.

You can read the entire post here, and see our thread on the issue here.